The Moon Comes Into View
"Who goes there?"
Xiao Rongyan's sharp gaze cut through the darkness.
Bai Jinchi held her breath and hid herself behind a tree.
He can't be talking about me… right?
Before she could think any further, a cold gleam came hurtling toward her face, and Xiao Rongyan's guard and Xiao Ruohai's blade were trained on her in the same instant.
"Aiyo! Aiyo! It's me! It's me!"
Bai Jinchi nimbly dodged the guard's longsword and blurted out to Xiao Ruohai in a panic.
Xiao Ruohai hastily drew back his sword qi.
"Sagong?"
Bai Jinchi shot the guard a glare, then bolted straight toward where Bai Jingyan stood.
"Big Sister!"
She ran up in front of Bai Jingyan and, with practiced ease, draped the outer robe Bai Jingyan was carrying over her shoulders.
"Big Sister, Teacher Xiao is right! If the wind's this cold, you'll catch a chill! Put it on! Thank you, Teacher Xiao!"
Xiao Rongyan inclined his head with a smile toward Bai Jingyan and Bai Jinchi before speaking.
"Take care of your health, eldest miss."
Watching Xiao Rongyan and his guard recede into the distance, Bai Jinchi turned to Bai Jingyan with a grin like an idiot's.
"Big Sister, did you promise to meet with Teacher Xiao?"
Bai Jingyan turned her head, pulled the robe back off, and tucked it into Bai Jinchi's arms.
"Watch your tongue when we're outside from now on. Listening ears can be anywhere. And return this to Teacher Xiao."
Bai Jinchi's mouth fell wide open. The moment she remembered how she'd been giggling from so far away and had been caught by Xiao Rongyan himself, a chill ran down her spine.
Clutching the robe to her chest, she hurried after Bai Jingyan as she made her way back to the encampment.
"Did Teacher Xiao hear everything I said to you today?"
"That's why you guard your mouth. If Teacher Xiao had truly been a spy for the Court of Wei, or someone bent on throwing the Southern Border battlefield into chaos on purpose, you'd already be dead. Not only is he formidable himself, but every single guard at his side is a master in his own right. As they say, for every runner there's a flyer. Especially out here, you must be careful and careful again with every step you take and every word you speak."
Bai Jinchi hugged the robe tightly and nodded. She had already suspected as much, ever since she'd first asked Xiao Rongyan for his help.
"Understood!"
she answered solemnly.
On the eighth day, the great army reached Chongluan Ridge and made camp within it.
Bai Jingyan had Xiao Ruohai prepare paper money and a jug of wine. Then, after informing the Crown Prince, she left the military camp with Bai Jinchi to hold rites for Fang Yan, commander of the Tiger Hawk Battalion, who had given his life escorting the bamboo slips bearing the battle records back to the Bai estate.
The deep, quiet valley lay in darkness, the wind howling through it, as though everything around had sunk into utter silence.
A tiny flame kindled on the flat ground at the valley's mouth, casting its light over the two sisters kneeling with their faces turned south.
Bai Jinchi spread out the paper money and fed it to the fire, sheet by sheet. The rims of her eyes were red.
Bai Jingyan poured a cup of wine and raised it high above her head.
This first cup… with gratitude to General Fang Yan, who gave his life for the people.
She scattered the wine around the fire. For a breath it seemed the liquor would snuff out the flames burning the paper money — then they blazed up hotter than before.
This second cup… with gratitude to General Fang Yan, who gave his life for the Bai family. This third cup… General Fang Yan, Yu Huan is already dead. Rest in peace now.
Pale moonlight broke slowly through the clouds. The cold, glittering light spilled white across the ground, illuminating the silent valley.
Bai Jingyan lifted her head and gazed up at the moon hanging high above. Her throat closed up tight, and no words would come. Her eyes burned dry and hot.
The mist scattered, and at last the bright moon showed itself.
"Big Sister. When we go home from the Southern Border, let's build a shrine for General Fang Yan."
Bai Jinchi said in a choked voice.
"Yes. Let's."
The sisters bowed toward the fire as it died down, then followed Xiao Ruohai out of the valley on horseback and returned to the camp.
Beyond Chongluan Ridge the road stretched out flat and even, and judging by their marching pace, they would arrive sooner than expected.
Bai Jingyan ordered Xiao Ruohai to increase the weight of her sandbags a little every day. She had begun rebuilding her strength. From the tenth day, when the army arrived at Mount Yuqing, she practiced archery with the added weight.
On the fifteenth day, when the great army reached Zhangcheng, Bai Jingyan took up the Sun-Shooting Bow and brought the target down with a single shot.
Xiao Ruohai had watched every ounce of effort Bai Jingyan poured into taking up the Sun-Shooting Bow again, and the rims of his eyes had gone red.
"Young master…"
Wiping the sweat from her face with her shoulder, Bai Jingyan picked up another arrow and spoke to Xiao Ruohai with grave, focused eyes.
"Move the target farther back."
Xiao Ruohai nodded. He sprinted over, picked up the target, carried it a good five zhang back, and weighted down its base.
Face slick with sweat, Bai Jingyan raised the bow, her keen eyes locked on the red dot at the target's center.
Twang!
As the bow released, the beads of sweat clinging to her long lashes dropped one by one.
Compared to fifteen days ago, the arrow that tore through the air carried added force — a killing edge. The fletching at its tail stood out starkly against the still, dark night. With a heavy thud, the weighted target shook violently and only barely steadied itself. The arrow had struck dead center once more.
Not enough. Still not enough.
Bai Jingyan drew another arrow and nocked it.
Standing behind her, Bai Jinchi looked around at the generals and soldiers ringed about the training ground.
Word had spread that the eldest miss practiced archery at the hour of the tiger every morning — between the third and fifth watches — and Generals Shi Panshan, Zhen Zeping, and Zhang Danyue, who were marching with the army, had come out to watch.
A sudden unease welled up in Bai Jinchi. If the Crown Prince learned of her sister's abilities, might he take her life once this great victory was won?
Zhen Zeping watched Bai Jingyan's magnificent bearing with calm eyes. In that firm, unyielding woman, he seemed to glimpse the figure of Bai Qishan, the late heir of the Duke of Zhenguo.
In all his life, Zhen Zeping had never seen anyone draw a bow with more elegance than Bai Qishan — nor anyone aim so unerringly true. And Bai Jingyan lost nothing in comparison to her own father.
"They say a tiger's cub is never tame — and truer words were never spoken!"
Shi Panshan could not hold back his admiration.
"But didn't they say the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo Estate was wounded in the war and her martial arts ruined for good? I heard she was as good as an invalid."
someone asked.
"She saw off her grandfather, her father, her uncles, and her brothers — all of them! Is it any wonder she'd want that strength back?"
Zhang Danyue said, gripping the hilt of his sword. The war came back to him — the one when the old Duke had marched out and destroyed the kingdom of Shu.
The woman called the Little White Marshal had wielded her silver spear to a level beyond mortal skill, and no one alive could match her command of the Sun-Shooting Bow either. Every time she rode to war, she led her own guard of women, charging the front lines time and again, smashing fearlessly through enemy formations, driving forward like a storm.
Compared to those days, Bai Jingyan now lacked something of that girl's fearless, unbridled ferocity. But she had stilled her heart and repeated those tedious, grueling motions day after day, and was advancing at an astonishing pace — merely to think of it raised gooseflesh. To call it progress by leaps and bounds would be no exaggeration at all.
They say there's not a single talentless soul in the Bai family of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate…
Indeed.
Gravely wounded, her martial arts stripped from her entirely — and yet, after bearing the grief of losing her family, she had risen again like this, a woman no less. Had she not stilled her heart, given her utmost, and set out to become a worthy heir to carry on the honor of the Zhenguo Duke's house?
Zhang Danyue, who had gone to war alongside the Bai Family Army, knew well the Bai family's indomitable will and iron temperament.
Just before the army departed, watching Bai Jingyan march on foot for more than ten days straight, his respect had deepened into sheer awe.
There are no weaklings in the Bai family. Even their women possess extraordinary endurance.
So that is why my father feared the Duke's estate.
The Crown Prince gazed at Bai Jingyan, let out a long sigh, and climbed into his carriage. Zhan Yu had been right. He was the precious, exalted scion of the imperial house — not a general who waded through slaughter on the battlefield. There was no need to measure himself against generals of iron will to see who could endure more hardship.
What he had to learn was how to govern a nation.
Bai Jingyan turned her face south. By tonight they would reach Wanping. They were close — closer and closer to Yun Paxing.
The allied army of Xiliang and Nanyan had breached Tianmenguan. Since peace negotiations were to be held, the troops would halt here and advance no farther.
Once the army of fifty thousand reached Wanping, only a single walled fortress — the Wengcheng — would stand between them and Tianmeng Pass.
Bai Jingyan clenched her fist, forcing down the boiling murderous intent within her.
Bai Jinchi, who had been trailing at her side, gently took hold of her sister's hand — clenched so tight it had gone white — and murmured,
"Big Sister. We're almost there."
The whole way from Zhangcheng to Wanping, the road was thick with people bearing burdens on their backs — refugees drifting from Wanping toward Zhangcheng, in the opposite direction of the army's march.
Families that looked a little better off hauled carts along with them.
There was a man pulling a one-wheeled cart, his wife and children in tow; an old man leaning his whole weight on a staff, staggering along and hurrying desperately after the column for fear of falling behind; and children wailing and fussing that they were hungry.
Some wore rags too threadbare to cover them properly; others walked with their hair hanging loose. Every one of them looked worn and haggard, their complexions sallow and grim.
In an age of war where blades fell like rain, the powerless had no choice but to abandon their homes and wander from place to place simply to survive.
Bai Jingyan's hands tightened into fists. In the span of a single month, the prosperous, peaceful land of Great Jin had been torn apart, its people trembling in fear.
Every one of these people who had survived was someone her father, her uncles, her brothers, and the Bai Family Army had protected with their lives!
At the sight of the army marching in full military splendor, the refugees hastily parted to both sides of the road and stopped in their tracks. Then, staring hard at the troops, they began to murmur among themselves.
"Is that the army sent by the court?"
"Is one of the Bai family generals coming to save us?"
"Are they marching to take back our Fengcheng? Does that mean we can go home soon?"
"Aiyo, what good will any of it do? Every general of the Zhenguo Duke's house died in the Southern Border. There are no generals left in the Bai family! That Yun Paxing is too strong — no one can beat him!"
an old man said with a sigh.
"Which family's general is it?"
asked a bold-spirited man.
Zhan Yu, seated outside the carriage, could bear it no longer and shouted on the Crown Prince's behalf.
"His Highness the Crown Prince himself leads the troops to war! He will cut off Yun Paxing's head!"
But the people's reaction was nothing like what Zhan Yu had expected. Not one of them cheered for the Crown Prince's valor; only a silence, startling in its depth, settled over the road.
"Let's go! Without a Bai family general, we can't win! Hurry, move on — stay alive if you can!"
The old man holding a ten-year-old child's hand sighed, shook his head, and shuffled forward on his staff.
Bai Jingyan, walking steadily forward with sweat running down her face, looked at the old man with deep, dark eyes. Their gazes met, and the old man faltered mid-step. He stared at the woman passing by his side — and then, as if something had surfaced in his memory, he hurried after the direction of the marching army.
A gaunt frame, a tall figure. He had seen her before!
Four years ago, when Nanyan invaded, the general defending Fengcheng had been hard-pressed by the enemy. Just before the Nanyan army smashed through the city gates, Bai family cavalry came thundering in with the Black Silk White Python standard raised high. The general and the common folk's blood boiled over, and the counterattack began — men armed with hoes, men with shovels, every last one of them staking his life on driving out the Nanyan army.
When the Bai Family Army's vanguard poured into the city, the Bai general known as the Little White Marshal swept her silver spear and saved his only grandson from beneath an enemy soldier's blade.