The Xuan Emperor was surprised into a smile. "The word of a sovereign is not a joke. This emperor said he would make you a prince, so a prince you will certainly be made."

Ning Chen bowed low. "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The Xuan Emperor looked at him and asked suddenly, "Ning Chen, the whole capital is in your hands. Have you never had any other thought?"

"Your Majesty means seizing power and usurping the throne?"

Eunuch Quan and Lin Wen were about to come apart.

The two of them wanted to run. This was absolutely not anything they should be hearing.

Seizing power and usurping the throne, a crime punishable to the ninth degree of kin... and an emperor and a subject were saying it to each other like two men gossiping over a fence. Was there nobody and nothing either of them cared about?

The Xuan Emperor smiled and nodded.

Ning Chen shook his head. "I never have... Until Your Majesty came to grief, and your subject rode under stars and moon, traveling day and night to get back, half out of his mind with hurry. What time did I have for that kind of nonsense?"

The Xuan Emperor laughed. "Every man alive has his eye on that throne... It is there for your taking now, and you tell me you never thought of it?"

Ning Chen shook his head like a rattle-drum. "Your Majesty is wrong there. Not every man. I don't want it."

The Xuan Emperor asked curiously, "Why?"

Ning Chen said, in complete earnest, "First, that chair is Your Majesty's. Your subject will only guard it for Your Majesty, and will never lay a hand on it."

"Second, being emperor is exhausting. Memorials that never end, affairs of state that never get settled... and at night three thousand beauties in the inner palace to see to. Not every man has a kidney like Your Majesty's, that nothing on earth can wear out."

The corner of the Xuan Emperor's mouth twitched, and his forehead filled with black lines.

Eunuch Quan and Lin Wen listened with the…