The Performance
Bai Jingyan stood at the edge of the Jinghe River, gazing at the rushing current that refused to freeze even in the depths of winter. Her heart was filled with nothing but thoughts of her seventh and ninth brothers, who might still be alive.
Before long, Xiao Ruogang came galloping toward the Jinghe on horseback.
He leapt down before the horse had even come to a full stop and delivered a fist-and-palm salute.
"Commandery Princess! Guard Shen... she sent someone with word just now. General Liu had men lying in ambush, and the Seventh Young Master and Ninth Young Master were captured before they could reach the Xiliang capital. Both young masters were wounded, but they later escaped under the cover of the Bai family army. Their whereabouts are unknown at present, so Guard Shen is searching for them now."
A few days earlier, Xiao Ruogang had learned that the Bai family army the Seventh and Ninth Young Masters had led to attack Xiliang had been annihilated. He had bitten his tongue and said nothing to the Commandery Princess.
It had been the right call to stay silent when she asked that day. Today's news was nothing short of a godsend.
At those words, Bai Jingyan whipped her head around. Her heart began to pound fiercely.
They escaped? Which means... there's a good chance Seventh Brother and Ninth Brother are still alive!
Not only Bai Jingyan—Bai Jinchi, hearing the news, sprang to her feet, her eyes blazing as she pressed for confirmation.
"Seventh Brother and Ninth Brother escaped! Then they're still alive? Is it true?"
Xiao Ruogang clenched his fists inside his sleeves. Struggling to contain his own joy, he nodded hard.
"It's true!"
Fighting down a feeling of light-headed elation, Bai Jingyan questioned him.
"Where were the two of them captured? Where is Shen Qingzhu now? Who brought the message? Did they say they need help?"
"Commandery Princess, the person Guard Shen sent said nothing about that, and he's already gone!"
Xiao Ruogang could not suppress his excitement; even his voice trembled.
"My brother already left the camp, chasing after him! There was no time to report to you, so he told me to pass it on—and he said he'd help Guard Shen find the Seventh and Ninth Young Masters as quickly as possible!"
At the news that her two younger brothers had escaped alive, Bai Jingyan's face brightened for the first time in what felt like an age. She clenched her fists and nodded.
"Understood. If your operative learns anything, bring the messenger to me in secret!"
"Yes, Commandery Princess."
Xiao Ruogang nodded.
It had all happened so suddenly that when he first heard the news, he'd been too stunned to detain the man. His elder brother, Xiao Ruohai, had been the one to react swiftly. Under the pretext of scouting the deployment of the Xiliang army's camps, he had quietly taken the Dong family scouts who had been trailing Bai Jingyan and gone after the messenger.
Bai Jingyan turned her head back toward Bai Jinchi.
"You alone may know of this. You must not breathe a word to anyone. If it reaches the Crown Prince's ears, and from there makes its way back to Dadu, it will be disaster. Our grandmother resides at the Imperial Nunnery—calamity could come crashing down on the Bai family!"
Bai Jinchi understood perfectly well how serious this was. The Emperor harbored hostility toward the Bai family. He had made that abundantly clear at the palace banquet.
"Don't worry, Eldest Sister. I won't say a thing until it's certain. Even if those words rot in my belly, I'll never let them past my lips."
Bai Jinchi could hardly contain her excitement. And now, at last, she thought she understood why her eldest sister had been so determined to come to the Southern Border. Beyond consolidating the Bai family's military influence, they had been searching for their brothers.
Though she had vowed to hold it in, her eyes reddened as she looked at Bai Jingyan.
"Eldest Sister... it's not a dream, is it? Seventh Brother and Ninth Brother are really alive?"
Bai Jinchi was still young; tears welled up and swirled in her eyes. Bai Jingyan thought her remarkably admirable just for managing to hold them back.
Bai Jingyan nodded and took her little sister's small hand in her own, speaking slowly and gently.
"There's no one else here by the Jinghe. If you want to cry, then cry. If anyone asks, tell them you were missing Grandfather and Father."
The words had barely left Bai Jingyan's lips before Bai Jinchi's tears came streaming down.
Thank heaven... they're still alive. If Fourth Aunt ever learns that Seventh Brother lives, she won't have to go on living like a walking corpse. She'll live well again—for his sake!
After crying her fill by the Jinghe, Bai Jinchi returned to camp with Bai Jingyan—and received word that the Crown Prince would arrive in half a shichen.
Bai Jingyan had not expected the Crown Prince to come so soon. Zhen Xiangzhi's letter had arrived barely any time ago.
To show her gratitude to the Crown Prince, Bai Jingyan took out one of the peerless swords she had obtained at Tianmenguan. She intended to present it to him as a tribute, a token of her loyalty.
Seated in the commander's tent, Bai Jingyan gazed at the coldly gleaming blade. One look at a sword sharp enough to sever a single strand of hair, and she thought of her little brother Ayu.
Ayu had been a child gifted with the sword. In all of Dadu, no one could match his skill.
She remembered the day she first marched off to war. Ayu, barely tall enough to reach her chest, had gripped her horse's reins, tilted his head up, and looked at her with a beaming face. He'd grinned wide, showing the pink gums where his baby tooth had fallen out, and said:
"Sister, when you win a precious sword from defeating the enemy, you have to give it to me!"
She had promised him that sword. But she had never managed to find a blade worthy of him. And now, at long last, she had found it—and Ayu was no longer in this world.
She had failed to keep her promise to Ayu; and Ayu, in turn, had failed to keep his promise to bring her the most beautiful bloodstones from the Southern Border.
Grief crashed over her all at once, and the rims of Bai Jingyan's eyes reddened as she held the sword.
Xiao Ruogang reported that the Crown Prince's carriage would soon reach the camp's entrance. Bai Jingyan sheathed the sword, closed her eyes, and steadied her heart.
Before long, she would have to put on a proper performance for the Crown Prince.
If I'm truly grateful to him, then at the very least I should go out to greet him.
Having placed the sword in the most conspicuous spot in the commander's tent, Bai Jingyan led her people out on horseback and rode toward the Crown Prince's carriage.
Zhan Yu, seated outside the carriage, watched the radiant Bai Jingyan emerge at the head of a column of armored soldiers. He turned his head and spoke to the Crown Prince inside.
"Your Highness, General Bai has brought her people out to welcome you. Surely this is her way of showing you respect!"
Zhan Yu had attended the Crown Prince since before he was even named heir. Yet the sons and daughters of noble houses had always treated eunuchs with contempt. Those who drew near hoping to curry favor with the sovereign might feign deference, but behind his back they sneered at him as a castrated nobody. Zhan Yu knew this all too well.
But Bai Jingyan, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate, had looked at him differently from all the others who regarded him as they would a piece of furniture. She had treated him as a true human being, and in her eyes there was respect, not flattery. Zhan Yu had been deeply moved. In her gaze alone, he had felt as though he were a whole person again.
More than that, she had driven off the combined armies of Xiliang and Nanyan for the sake of the realm. By now Zhan Yu respected her—revered her, even. When he recalled how the Bai family of the Zhenguo Duke's estate had been loyal and righteous for generation upon generation, his humble blood, lowly as his station was, boiled hot within him. And so, for the first time, without receiving so much as a single coin of silver, he praised Bai Jingyan before the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince, leaning against the cushions inside the carriage, had still been regretting having relinquished his claim to military glory. But at Zhan Yu's words, he felt his spirits lift a little.
The sound of hoofbeats drew closer. When he heard the horses being reined to a halt, the Crown Prince knew Bai Jingyan had dismounted.
"Not knowing Your Highness would grace us, I have made a belated welcome."
Bai Jingyan was the picture of courtesy. Her words were pleasing to the ear, yet she stood tall and dignified, without a trace of fawning servility.
"General Bai!"
Zhan Yu greeted her with a warm smile.
"We have yet to congratulate you on your great victory!"
"My thanks."
Bai Jingyan gave a slight nod. There was not a flicker of disdain in her eyes toward the eunuch.
Zhan Yu's mood soared, and the smile in his eyes deepened all the more.
The Crown Prince raised the carriage curtain, looked out at the radiant Bai Jingyan, and said with a smile:
"I merely came to have a look around. Nothing of consequence has happened—how could I order the Commandery Princess out to greet me? But since you've come this far, perhaps you'll walk with me a while along the Jinghe."
To bring someone wholly under his sway, it was not enough to bestow favors—he had to win their true heart. And he had to let them know that their position was precarious, that only by leaning on him could they survive!
Smiling, the Crown Prince took Zhan Yu's hand and stepped down from the carriage. He glanced once at the mounted soldiers Bai Jingyan had brought, and at Bai Jinchi who received her sister's reins, then turned his gaze back to the dignified Bai Jingyan.
Perhaps it was because she wore armor, but for no discernible reason the Crown Prince found himself thinking of Bai Weiting, the King of Zhenguo, and Bai Qishan, the Duke of Zhenguo. It was a somewhat absurd thing—yet as a young prince, he had been utterly terrified of the commanding presence these two men carried.
Was that why? Facing Bai Jingyan now, the boldness he had arrived with seemed to have dwindled somewhat.
Bai Jingyan walked along the riverbank beside the Crown Prince, keeping half a step behind him.
The Crown Prince strolled with his hands clasped behind his back, deep in thought for a long while, before slowly bringing his steps to a halt.
Bai Jingyan, who had been following behind, stopped as well. The Crown Prince glanced back at the guards trailing at a distance, then spoke.
"Before I came to the Southern Border, my father the Emperor issued me a secret decree. He said that once the war here is over, the Commandery Princess has no need to return to the capital with me. Do you understand what he meant by that?"
"That you intend to take my life?"
Bai Jingyan's words were so unflinchingly candid that the Crown Prince flinched instead. The hands clasped behind his back tightened. He found himself doubting whether the schemes his strategists had devised would actually work.
"And yet I wish to protect you."
The Crown Prince said.
The rushing rapids of the Jinghe roared so loudly they seemed to swallow his words whole.
But Bai Jingyan performed a fist-and-palm salute and replied:
"Your Highness has shown me grace, and so I cannot put you in an impossible position. If the Emperor commands me to die, then I cannot escape death. Only—take my life after the war has been fully settled. If I fall on the battlefield, then at the very least I will not stain the Bai family's name."
At the word grace, the Crown Prince's ears perked. Thinking of this realm and its people, to whom the Bai family had shown unwavering loyalty for generations, he shook his head.
"I am no man of extraordinary talent, but even I know there is no finer general in Jin today than the Commandery Princess. A woman like you must not die. I will stake my own life, if I must, to keep you safe."
Three parts of the Crown Prince's words were true; seven parts were false. He was governing his emotions with exquisite skill. Anyone else would have believed him without a shred of doubt.
Her grandfather, too, had once been taken in by honeyed words from an emperor's lips just like these—had served the present sovereign with all his heart and loyalty. And what had come back to him in the end? The sight of his descendants falling in battle on the Southern Border. Merely thinking of it made her chest freeze over with cold.
The Crown Prince standing before her now was painfully like that Emperor of years past.