Chen Lezhang’s eyes were bloodshot and ready to split, and he was like a beast picking out which man to eat.
He got a foot under a round stool and kicked it at Pan Yucheng.
The stool went like a shot out of a cannon.
Pan Yucheng’s foot came up and blew the stool apart in the air.
At the same moment he kicked the stool, Chen Lezhang sprang like a tiger, driving a foot at Pan Yucheng’s chest.
Pan Yucheng moved his feet, turned an idle half circle, and Chen Lezhang’s attack went past him.
Chen Lezhang came back with a great swinging haymaker at Pan Yucheng’s head.
Pan Yucheng brushed it lightly aside again, turning the attack away, and backhanded him twice.
Chen Lezhang took two more slaps square in the face… and that old face packed with meat swelled up like a pig’s head.
Chen Lezhang was simply stunned by it.
They were both gold coats, and he could not get the smallest advantage out of Pan Yucheng.
Pan Yucheng walked up to him and, while he had the chance, raised his hand and slapped him twice more.
Chen Lezhang went staggering backward under it.
“Pan Yucheng, I’ll kill you!”
Chen Lezhang howled in fury like a mad dog.
He spun and ran for the weapon rack.
Chen Lezhang got a hand on the hilt, but the blade was only half drawn when Pan Yucheng was on him. A kick to the hilt drove it back into the sheath.
Then he raised his hand and slapped him twice more.
It set Chen Lezhang’s head roaring and his body swaying.
Pan Yucheng said flatly, “You’re no match for me with a blade either. What’s the point?”
With that, Pan Yucheng’s leg went straight like a bent spring letting go, and drove into Chen Lezhang’s belly.
Bang!
Chen Lezhang went straight through the window and landed in the courtyard outside.
The silver coats crowded around the door watched Chen Lezhang come through the window with blank faces.
Chen Lezhang struggled a few times, shuddered, turned his head and threw up a mouthful of blood.
Then Pan Yucheng came out of the room without any expression at all.
Chen Lezhang, still like a mad dog, bellowed, “Kill him for me.”
Pan Yucheng ran his eyes over the silver coats and laughed coldly. “Do you… dare?”
Of course they didn’t dare. Pan Yucheng was a gold coat.
And besides, their own chief, Chen Lezhang, was no match for Pan Yucheng. Going up there would only be looking for death.
Pan Yucheng looked at Chen Lezhang. “The men of the first department are not yours to touch… This time is a warning. I don’t want a next time.”
“Truthfully — we are both gold coats, and your skill… shames me.”
That said, he ran his eyes over the silver coats and remarked coolly, “Take Chen the Gold Coat to the sixth department. I’ll pay for the medicine.”
“Pan Yucheng—”
Chen Lezhang roared it, the veins standing out on him, and then his eyes rolled back and he passed out cold from sheer rage.
Pan Yucheng, for his part, put his hands behind his back and walked off like a man taking a turn around a garden.
Ning Chen was taken to the sixth department.
They examined him and found nothing much wrong.
All he needed was a decoction to move the blood and clear the bruising.
“Ning Chen, that’s some body you’ve got. You took a whipping kick from Chen the Gold Coat and there’s nothing wrong with you at all?”
Ning Chen looked at his own thin arms. He’d been eating properly for a while now, and with the training on top of it this body really was a good deal stronger than it had been.
But not enough. He was still too thin… Strength was his greatest weakness right now.
He was expert in hand-to-hand and in grappling and the rest of it… but the body was thin and weak, the strength wasn’t there, and he couldn’t get any of it out.
Still, he was only fifteen. There was room to grow yet.
Chen Chong carried a few packets of medicine for Ning Chen, put his other arm around Ning Chen’s shoulders and said with a leer:
“Ning Chen, since you’re all right — the courtesans’ quarter it is. Miss Yudie can brew your medicine for you while you’re there.”
“And I’m telling you now, Old Feng is a man who often doesn’t keep his word… He said he’s buying tonight. If we don’t go, it won’t count tomorrow.”
Feng Qizheng planted a foot on Chen Chong’s backside and swore at him. “Get lost… When have I ever not kept my word? Don’t ruin my name in front of Ning Chen.”
Ning Chen thought about it and shook his head. “You go. I’ll go home and rest up.”
He had barely finished when a crowd of men came rushing into the courtyard carrying Chen Lezhang.
“Is that… Chen the Gold Coat?”
“Looks like it? How did he turn into a pig’s head?”
“Somebody’s given him a beating?”
“Who’d have the nerve to beat a gold coat?”
Ning Chen laughed with no restraint at all, until he was squealing like a pig.
“To celebrate Chen the Gold Coat being beaten into a pig’s head, we absolutely have to go to the courtesans’ quarter and celebrate.”
Ning Chen’s words earned him a wall of glares from the fourth department’s silver coats.
Chen Lezhang had only just come round, and hearing Ning Chen he passed out again from rage.
Ning Chen laughed out loud. “Come on, call Old Pan, we’ll all go together.”
Ning Chen went back to the first department in high spirits.
The moment he came into the courtyard he saw several palace guards standing outside the door of Pan Yucheng’s room.
“Looks like Old Pan’s got business and can’t come. We’ll go ourselves.”
Ning Chen had only just said it when Pan Yucheng’s voice came out of the room. “Ning Chen. Come in.”
Ning Chen blinked, and walked into the room.
Besides Pan Yucheng there was somebody in the room who made Ning Chen’s teeth itch with hatred… Eunuch Quan.
“Well, well… if it isn’t Eunuch Quan. Not in the palace waiting on His Majesty? Out walking your bird?”
Eunuch Quan blinked. He hadn’t entirely followed it… but from the look on Ning Chen’s face he could tell that walking one’s bird was nothing good.
“Young Master Ning, this eunuch has had a fine time finding you.”
Ning Chen looked taken aback. “You came looking for me? Does His Majesty have some instruction?”
He had assumed Eunuch Quan was here for Pan Yucheng.
Eunuch Quan let that pass, and asked instead, “Pan the Gold Coat tells this eunuch you were injured. Is it serious?”
Ning Chen gave an odd laugh. “If I say it isn’t serious, will you be very disappointed?”
“Is Young Master Ning still holding this eunuch’s rashness against him?”
Ning Chen snorted. Rashness, was it? He damn near broke my neck.
Eunuch Quan smiled slightly and pointed at the table beside them. “Young Master Ning, I wonder whether these things might set aside your prejudice against this eunuch?”
Ning Chen had seen it on the way in — the table was piled with things, all of it covered over with yellow cloth, and no telling what was underneath.
“You’re saying this is for me?”
Eunuch Quan nodded, smiling. “Young Master Ning, open it and look.”
Ning Chen snorted. “I’ll tell you right now, I hold a grudge like nobody’s business… Don’t imagine giving me a few things settles it. I—”
Talking as he went, Ning Chen lifted the cloth, and his eyes locked in place.
Holy shit!!!
Ingot stacked on ingot of gold, and the sight of it nearly blinded his worthless eyes.
Ning Chen looked back at Eunuch Quan and asked, unable to believe it, “This really is for me?”
Eunuch Quan nodded. “Is Young Master Ning satisfied? Can you forgive this eunuch his rashness?”
“Satisfied. Extremely satisfied!”
To hesitate for even one second would be an insult to that gold.
“Eunuch Quan, I forgive you! In fact I’m the easiest man in the world to win over. Make me angry, and a bit of gold does it.”
As he said it, Ning Chen threw back the rest of the yellow cloth.
His breath caught. Besides the gold there was a small mountain of fine silks.
“Is there this much money in being a eunuch? I’d like to come work for you.”
The corner of Eunuch Quan’s mouth twitched hard. He would rather have hit Ning Chen.
“Eunuch Quan, you haven’t gone and robbed His Majesty’s private treasury, have you?”
Eunuch Quan’s face changed. “Young Master Ning, mind your tongue! One does not speak lightly of His Majesty… These are all gifts from His Majesty to you.”
(End of Chapter 93)