The Xuan Emperor watched the crowd of censors jumping about with a perfectly calm expression.

Then his gaze shifted and came to rest on Ning Ziming… and he snorted inwardly. A fine father. His son is being attacked from every side and he hasn’t made a sound.

The Right Chancellor glanced behind him, and then at the Left Chancellor.

Every one of these men leaping out to attack Ning Chen was the Left Chancellor’s. It had been the same last time.

He had sent people to look into it, but had never turned up any deep grievance between the Left Chancellor and Ning Chen.

Then something seemed to occur to the Right Chancellor.

If there is no deep grievance between them, and the Left Chancellor is still determined to have Ning Chen dead, then it isn’t for himself. It’s for somebody else.

Who in the capital most wants Ning Chen dead just now?

The answer is obvious… the Empress and the Third Prince.

Because Ning Chen killed the Empress’s brother.

I should have thought of it long ago.

Only this time, the Left Chancellor has played a bad move.

The Left Chancellor felt something and turned his head, and found the Right Chancellor giving him a smile heavy with meaning.

The Left Chancellor blinked.

But he didn’t dwell on it. He was thinking about something else.

The Empress had sent someone to press him again last night.

Whatever method he used, he was to kill Ning Chen.

The censors were still leaping about, impeaching Ning Chen.

At last the Xuan Emperor could not help frowning, and he said slowly, “Beloved ministers seem very interested in this emperor’s Inspectorate.”

That one sentence dropped the whole court into silence. There was not a sound in it.

The censors who had been leaping about a moment before went white one after another, cold sweat standing out on their foreheads.

They had all forgotten one thing. The Inspectorate was the Xuan Emperor’s. No one else laid a finger on it. It was one of the places a man must never touch.

The Left Chancellor gave a small shudder as well.

He finally understood what that meaningful smile from the Right Chancellor had been about.

This is bad. All I thought about was getting the Empress’s task done, and I’ve played a bad move.

The Xuan Emperor fixed his eyes on the censors and asked flatly:

“When this happened, everyone present was a man of the Inspectorate. This emperor received word only last night, and it is a few short hours from then to this morning’s court. Where did the beloved ministers get their news?”

“Your information runs faster than this emperor’s. Is this emperor’s Inspectorate this emperor’s, or is it the beloved ministers’?”

The censors who had just impeached Ning Chen were shaking from head to foot.

“Beloved Minister Liu. You tell this emperor. Where did you get your news?”

The first censor to leap out and impeach Ning Chen went weak at the knees and dropped to the floor with a thud.

“Have mercy, Your Majesty, have mercy—”

The Xuan Emperor watched him coldly. “Beloved Minister Liu. You haven’t answered this emperor.”

“Mercy, Your Majesty, spare me—”

The Xuan Emperor’s face darkened all at once. “Very good. You dare not answer this emperor truthfully. Your nerve is considerable.”

“Since you are all so interested in this emperor’s Inspectorate, this emperor will let you go and live there a few days.”

“Nie Liang, receive the order.”

Nie Liang knelt. “Your subject is here!”

The Xuan Emperor said coldly, “Send these men to the Inspectorate and have them questioned properly. This emperor wants to know how they came by their news.”

“Your subject obeys the order!”

“Spare us, Your Majesty, have mercy—”

The whole crowd of censors was frightened out of their wits, and they went down on the floor, knocking their heads on the ground and begging.

Once a man went into the Inspectorate’s cells, nobody came out alive… Ning Chen excepted.

Nie Liang waved a hand, and a body of guards of the imperial presence came in and dragged out the censors who had just impeached Ning Chen.

The Left Chancellor’s face went white… It was his own moment of stupidity, and he had sent these men to hell with his own hands.

The Xuan Emperor ran a hard glance across the assembled officials.

Not a man among the civil and military officials dared breathe.

“They impeached Ning Chen just now. They said Ning Chen put a blade into a colleague, that he disregards the law of the land, that he presumes on favor… What do the beloved ministers think?”

Not one of the officials dared make a sound… every one of them wearing the face of a man who knows nothing whatsoever about the matter.

Anyone who leaped out now would be suspected of collusion with the Inspectorate, and the men who had just been dragged away were the cart already in the ditch.

The Xuan Emperor said flatly, “It seems not every beloved minister has such quick information.”

Would we dare have quick information? Everyone with quick information has gone into the Inspectorate’s cells, the officials grumbled to themselves.

“Since the beloved ministers are unclear on what happened, this emperor will explain it to you.”

“Yesterday, this emperor ordered the Inspectorate to seize Xu Xinjue’s property. This emperor’s edict was that the men of the household be exiled and the women sent into the courtesans’ quarter.”

“But during the seizure, one silver coat violated a woman of Xu Xinjue’s household. The woman he violated was thirteen years old, and afterward murdered her, and did it cruelly… Ning Chen drew in anger and wounded that silver coat. You tell this emperor — does that amount to disregarding the law of the land and presuming on favor?”

The Right Chancellor was on the point of stepping out when, to his surprise, Li Hanru, Director of the Hanlin Academy, got there first, and said:

“Reporting to Your Majesty, your subject thinks not… Your Majesty’s edict was that the women of Xu Xinjue’s household be sent into the courtesans’ quarter. Your Majesty issued no edict putting them to death. That silver coat raped first and killed after — which is open defiance of Your Majesty’s will, and the crime deserves death.”

“Ning the Silver Coat was in the wrong to draw and wound a man, but his intent was to uphold Your Majesty’s authority… Your subject thinks the merit and the fault may cancel each other out.”

When Li Hanru had finished, the Right Chancellor glared at him. The old villain has said everything I was going to say.

The Right Chancellor stepped sideways out of the ranks at once and bowed. “Reporting to Your Majesty, your subject thinks Ning the Silver Coat is not merely without fault but has done a service… It is that silver coat who openly defied Your Majesty’s command, which is truly hateful, and the crime deserves beheading.”

“And the gold coat leading the party, who let his subordinate rape and kill, ought to be severely punished along with him.”

The Xuan Emperor nodded, satisfied.

“The two beloved ministers speak reasonably.”

“Quan Sheng. Draft an edict!”

Eunuch Quan said quickly, “Yes!”

He had thought Ning Chen had presumed too far on favor, that His Majesty had taken a dislike to him and he was about to fall out of favor.

It never occurred to me that His Majesty was saying nothing because he was saving up something enormous.

This is one stone and three birds.

First, it is a warning to these censors. There is no one more irritating, and His Majesty has probably wanted to deal with them for a long while and simply never found the right opening.

Second, it puts the fear into the whole court, naturally.

Third, it is open, undisguised favoritism toward Ning Chen — telling every civil and military officer by action that Ning Chen is His Majesty’s man, that whether he is killed or flayed is His Majesty’s to say, and that this is what comes of impeaching and attacking him.

The Xuan Emperor said slowly, “Wu Dayuan: rape and evildoing, and defiance of the imperial will. Beheading, to be carried out at once.”

“Chen Lezhang: allowing his subordinate to rape and kill, and failing to keep his men in hand. Thirty strokes of the rod, with Ning Chen to oversee the punishment. And a year’s salary forfeit.”

“Geng Jing failed to keep his men in hand and is answerable for the oversight. One month’s salary forfeit… Further, he is ordered to investigate his own house and see who in the Inspectorate is in league with those dogs and passing information to them. Once it is established, he may execute first and report afterward.”

“Ning Chen is upright and unbending and utterly impartial, and has done a service in upholding this emperor’s authority. This emperor is much comforted. A thousand taels of gold to him!”

When the Xuan Emperor had finished, the officials were stunned.

His Majesty is favoring Ning Chen in broad daylight.

Ning Chen has to be His Majesty’s illegitimate son. Ning Ziming is a stand-in father.

The officials who hadn’t managed to get a word in were kicking themselves… His Majesty had given them no opening at all, or they’d have put in a few kind words for Ning Chen themselves and picked up an easy favor.

These last few days they had prepared handsome gifts and sent people to the Ning estate, hoping to ask Ning Chen for a poem.

And every time they came back empty-handed, because every time they went, Ning Chen wasn’t at the Ning estate… And they didn’t dare go to the Inspectorate, for fear of being charged with colluding with it.

Ning Ziming and the Chang woman and her sons had spent those days in a thoroughly foul temper.

Watching high officials of the court arrive at the gate with handsome gifts, fail to see Ning Chen, and leave immediately without troubling to say more than a word to them — the whole family’s teeth itched with hatred.

Ning Ziming was nearly mad with rage. That unfilial wretch… If he hadn’t stood up in front of the whole court and said he wasn’t close to me, why would these people want nothing to do with me?

(End of Chapter 96)