He Li — Divorce by Mutual Consent
Bai Jingyan knew full well that Jin Lang's stepmother was no easy opponent. The woman had deliberately sent Jin Lang out of the house, hoping the Duke of Zhenguo would take a disliking to him for it. Forcing down her fury, Bai Jingyan spoke.
"Jindong, send someone from the Zhenguo Duke Estate to Fansheng Tower and bring the Crown Prince here."
"That would hardly be proper! Attending an official gathering is a man's great duty, and yet we're to summon His Highness over something as trivial as this!"
Having crossed into what she considered her own domain, Nanny Wu raged with even greater arrogance than she had ever shown inside the Zhenguo Duke Estate.
Bai Jingyan fixed her gaze on the detestable servant, her eyes cold and piercing enough to reach the bone, and demanded in a voice thick with anger, "Is that your idea, or your mistress's?"
Caught in her trick, Nanny Wu shrank back in fear under Bai Jingyan's stare and pressed her lips tightly shut. The eldest daughter of the Bai family had once followed the old Duke onto the battlefield — and beheaded an enemy general, no less. The moment the memory surfaced, terror seized Nanny Wu. Every time the eldest Bai daughter so much as glanced her way, her heart threatened to leap out of her chest.
"I'll go at once!"
Bai Jindong shot Nanny Wu one deep, unreadable look, then lifted her skirts and hurried out the door.
Bai Jingyan settled onto the luohan bed, turning the hand warmer over in her palms as she studied Nanny Wu. "And where, pray tell, are all the maids assigned to attend Jinxiu? I don't see a single one of them."
Nanny Wu flinched and fidgeted anxiously.
Second Madam Yu, who until now had been beside herself with worry for her daughter, only then noticed the absence of Bai Jinxiu's attendants. Her fury surged to the very roots of her hair, and she pointed a trembling finger at Nanny Wu as she shouted.
"The maids who were sent along with my daughter! Answer me!"
"Second Madam, Eldest Young Lady — the Second Young Madam fell into the water because those maids failed to serve her properly. Our Marquis household's rules are not as lenient and generous as the Duke of Zhenguo's. They are strict, very strict indeed. When something befalls the master they serve, the servants are held accountable for failing in their duties. So my lady, in her anger, sold them off — every last one!"
Nanny Wu kept her eyes lowered as she spoke, the words uneasy on her tongue.
Bai Jingyan, furious beyond measure, found herself laughing in sheer incredulity. Her heart pounded violently, her hands clenched so hard that the hand warmer threatened to crack apart. Strict rules? The audacity of it!
"Lady Zhongyong must be quite a remarkable woman indeed! She's had the nerve to lay hands on her own daughter-in-law's dowry! The maids sent to attend my daughter are part of her dowry — her personal property. And yet this woman dares to sell them off while my daughter lies fighting for her life!"
Second Madam Yu's chest ached with rage. It felt as though she had married her daughter straight into a den of demons.
Touching a daughter-in-law's dowry — if that word ever spread, nothing good could come of it for the Zhongyong Marquis Estate. Panic seized Nanny Wu, and she hurried to explain herself.
"It was done with the Second Young Madam's own consent!"
Second Madam Yu felt as though her chest would burst from the suffocating fury. "My daughter is unconscious, and you stand there trying to feed me that lie!"
Before the words had fully left Second Madam Yu's lips, a maid came scrambling in, her hair in disarray and whip welts across her face.
"Disaster! It's a disaster! The third young lady of the Bai family has gone mad — she's trying to beat our Second Young Lady and my lady to death!"
Nanny Wu's eyes flew wide open. She grabbed her skirts, rushed to the entrance, then turned back to bow deeply to Second Madam Yu before speaking.
"Second Madam, Nanny Zhang, please say something, the two of you! Has some demon possessed the Bai family's daughters? Striking people inside our own Zhongyong Marquis Estate!"
Nanny Zhang had been standing with her hands folded neatly before her. At Nanny Wu's words, she turned to Bai Jingyan with perfect calm.
Their eyes met, but the gaze looking back at her was clear and limpid. Nanny Zhang understood at once — Bai Jingyan was deliberately blowing the matter up. She gave her a small, subtle nod.
Second Madam Yu let out a cold laugh. "My daughter is lying there hovering between life and death, and you expect me to concern myself with the lives of your young ladies and your lady?"
Nanny Wu faltered at the response. The Bai family was refusing to yield an inch. She turned to Nanny Zhang again, pleading this time. "Nanny Zhang? Nanny Zhang, surely you'll say something."
Looking at Bai Jinxiu's pale face on the sickbed, Nanny Zhang's heart ached. "I will follow the Second Madam's wishes."
Before coming here, the Grand Princess had told Nanny Zhang that nothing — nothing at all — was more precious than her granddaughter's life.
In her past life, the wife of the Vice Minister of the Board of Rites had swallowed every injustice and smothered every flare of anger for fear of complicating her daughter's position — and in the end, that very forbearance had brought about the catastrophe. Bai Jingyan knew it well.
In this life, there was nothing more important to her than Bai Jinxiu's survival. Only by blowing this affair up into something enormous could the Zhongyong Marquis Estate be made to tremble.
Bai Jingyan felt she understood now how this matter ought to be resolved.
Without breaking the old, nothing new can be built. She could only hope Jin Lang would not disappoint her. She hoped that this time, given the chance, he would finally stand up on his own.
And if Jin Lang proved too weak to seize the chance she offered him, too spineless to rise — then even if the capital had never seen a titled great family grant a divorce by mutual consent, she would have to force one out of him before word arrived from the southern border… while the power of the Zhenguo Duke Estate still held sway.
A divorce by mutual consent was a hundred times better than watching Bai Jinxiu waste away in torment for the rest of her days, as the second daughter of the Vice Minister had in her past life.
Having finished his examination of Bai Jinxiu, Physician Hong stroked his beard and cast a glance at Bai Jingyan. When she gave him a slight nod, he bowed his head and continued.
"The Second Young Lady struck her head before falling into the water. Cold water has entered her lungs, and her fever will not break. I fear…"
Second Madam Yu's legs gave out beneath her. Had Qingse not been there to catch her, she would have crumpled straight to the floor.
Bai Jingyan approached Second Madam Yu with a grave expression and bowed in greeting. "Jinxiu's condition is critical. It must be your decision, Second Aunt — whether you stay here to tend her until she recovers, or take her back to the Duke's estate for treatment."
Nanny Wu's eyes went round as saucers. A married woman could never, under any circumstances, leave her husband's house without his permission. If the Second Madam of the Bai family carried Bai Jinxiu off, it would amount to severing the ties between the two households entirely.
"Second Madam, absolutely not! The Second Young Madam has barely been in the Zhongyong Marquis Estate a few days — if you carry her off like this, what will people say of us? Anyone who doesn't know better will think our two families have broken off relations completely! The Grand Princess would never allow it either. Isn't that so, Nanny Zhang?"
"My daughter has been in this house barely days, and her life is already hanging by a thread! Let others say whatever they please about the Zhongyong Marquis Estate — it is no concern of mine!"
Gripping her collar, Second Madam Yu turned to Nanny Zhang. "Nanny Zhang! Carry a message to my mother for me. Tell her the people of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate struck my Jinxiu over the head and threw her into the lake, and then sold off every maid she had! There is not a soul left at her side to care for her, so no matter what anyone says, I am taking her home to look after her. And if Mother will not consent, then I will bring her back to her own family!"
Nanny Zhang bowed her head respectfully to Second Madam Yu before answering. "I will speak to the Grand Princess at once. Do not worry, Second Madam. There is no one the Grand Princess cherishes more than the Second Young Lady. She is not a woman who would weigh her granddaughter's life against relations with another household!"
At those words, Nanny Wu felt as if the sky had collapsed on her head. Her legs buckled and she nearly fell to her knees. She had never imagined Second Madam Yu would care so little for the dignity of either family that she would disregard the Zhongyong Marquis Estate entirely — that she seemed to care not one whit for how Bai Jinxiu would fare under its roof hereafter.
"Qingse, escort Nanny Zhang back with you!"
With that, Second Madam Yu went to the bedside, took her daughter's hand, and wept.
Qingse's eyes had been brimming with tears from the moment she saw Bai Jinxiu's face. At the Second Madam's command, she answered immediately, and supporting Nanny Zhang by the arm, walked swiftly out.
"Nanny Zhang! Nanny Zhang, you can't!"
Nanny Zhang paid her no heed whatsoever.
Unable to stop Nanny Zhang, Nanny Wu sank to her knees before Second Madam Yu in her desperation. "Second Madam! You must not set the Grand Princess herself in motion!"
Second Madam Yu clutched her daughter's hand and called Jinxiu's name over and over — but no answer ever came, and she wept until she was nearly beside herself.
Just then, Chunyan hurried in and, covering her mouth, whispered into Bai Jingyan's ear.
"The guards of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate have gone to the back garden! Eldest Young Lady, what are we to do if something happens to the Second and Third Young Ladies?"
"Jinsuo, Jinhua, stay here and watch over Second Aunt."
An icy killing intent radiating from her entire body, Bai Jingyan left Chun Tao standing quietly at her post, fanning her — and rose.
Watching Madam Yu, who could not stop weeping at Bai Jinxiu's bedside, she spoke with perfect composure.
"I'll go myself. Jinchi's temper is too quick — she might do Lady Zhongyong an injury."
Having failed to stop Nanny Zhang, Nanny Wu knew she had to warn Lady Zhongyong at once. Her eyes darted, and she scrambled up from the floor.
"Allow this servant to guide you, Eldest Young Lady! I'll show you the way!"
Supporting herself on Chun Tao's arm, Bai Jingyan left the bridal chamber and made swiftly for Lady Zhongyong's courtyard. The whole way there, Nanny Wu kept trying to sidle close to her, but Chunyan waved her handkerchief and beat her back at every turn.
Nanny Wu knew perfectly well that Bai Jingyan was a child the Grand Princess had raised with her own hands — and that her word carried real weight before the old lady.
"Eldest Young Lady, truly, none of this is our two young ladies' doing. Our Crown Prince was betrothed to you from the start, was he not? Yet it was the Second Young Madam who came through those gates instead — so our two young ladies quarreled with her over the matter. That's all it was."
Bai Jingyan stopped mid-stride and turned her head slightly to look at Nanny Wu, her expression somewhere between a smile and something far colder.
In her past life, after the second daughter of the Vice Minister had died of a broken heart, her mother had dealt with Lady Zhang, wife of the Zhongyong Marquis, by the cruelest of means. Now Bai Jingyan thought she understood why. When even the personal attendant of the marquis's wife could do nothing right and ruin everything she touched, the fall of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate had been written in the stars.
"Listen to this mad old hag talk! I ought to tear that mouth of yours apart! You're pinning the deeds of this household's two young ladies on our Eldest Young Lady?"
Chunyan's rage boiled over.
"Chun Tao, tie this woman up and send her to the Second Madam. And report to the Second Madam exactly what Nanny Wu just said — that the two young ladies of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate quarreled with our Second Young Lady, and then shoved her and caused her injury."
Bai Jingyan glanced at Nanny Wu out of the corner of her eye, then continued walking.
"The marquis's own attendant said it with her own lips. If this ever comes before the magistrate, Nanny Wu will be the witness they call."
At the word magistrate, the bound Nanny Wu's face turned a sickly green. Her legs gave way beneath her and she dropped to her knees where she stood.
"Eldest Young Lady! I am a trusted attendant of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate — you cannot tie me up! I never once said our young ladies caused anyone harm! Do not defile my young ladies' honor! Even if I gave my life for it, that honor could never be reclaimed!"
Bai Jingyan did not so much as glance back.