Filial Piety
Bai Jingyan's eyes brimmed over with elation, the grave expression she had worn all this while replaced entirely by joy. Jin Lang, his throat burning hot, craned his neck to peer toward the inner compound of the Zhenguo Duke Estate as well.
"Eldest Sister!"
Bai Jinchi glanced once toward the inner compound, then seized Bai Jingyan's arm, her face glowing. "Second Sister's awake! Come on, let's hurry and go!"
A maid came hurrying up with a lantern and, from behind Bai Jingyan, offered a deep curtsey of greeting.
"Eldest Young Miss, Third Young Miss, Fourth Young Miss—Second Young Miss has awakened!"
Bai Jingyan gave a nod, then turned her gaze back to Jin Lang.
"If you cannot ease your mother's worries, the world calls you unfilial. If you cannot shield your wife, it calls you without honor. Lord Heir, you must be willing to break before you can build! Do you truly mean to become a man who commits both sins for the sake of this hollow, worthless title? The rest is for you to weigh yourself, Lord Heir."
With a light curtsey, Bai Jingyan found her deep gaze resting, unbidden, on Xiao Rongyan for a single breath. Then she hurried off toward the rear garden, Bai Jindong and Bai Jinchi at her heels.
Nanny Zhang made a courteous gesture inviting them inward. "The two young masters will please sit in the hall for a time. Lord Heir, follow me this way."
"Nanny Zhang." Lu Yuanfeng called out to her and started to follow her into the inner compound—but Xiao Rongyan held him back.
"This is a private matter between the Zhenguo Duke Estate and the Zhongyong Marquis Estate. It is not our place to intrude."
By the time the three sisters reached Qingzhu Pavilion, Bai Jinxiu was sitting propped against the head of the bed, soothing Second Madam Yu—who could do nothing but weep—in her soft, gentle voice.
The moment they entered the room, Bai Jindong and Bai Jinchi rushed to the bedside, asking anxiously after her condition. Bai Jingyan stood beside the folding screen, her heart a knot of feeling. She had known all along that Bai Jinxiu would come through, yet until her sister opened her eyes it had felt as though a blade hung suspended over her heart—and now, at last, that blade had fallen, and she could breathe again.
Nanny Zhang lifted the entry curtain, stepped inside, and after paying her respects to the Grand Princess spoke. "Your Highness, the young heir is waiting at the Chuihua Gate as we speak."
The Grand Princess looked at Bai Jinxiu, turning her prayer beads slowly between her fingers. "Er Jie'er, if you do not wish to see him, you need not."
Having lived through this ordeal, Bai Jinxiu had settled something within her heart. Her eyes were clear and unclouded, and then her bloodless lips curved into a smile. "Grandmother, this was not the heir's fault. I cannot lay it at his door. I would like a word with him alone."
As husband and wife, Jin Lang and Bai Jinxiu might keep to a room by themselves without trespass on propriety. The Grand Princess turned to Lady Dong. "Take your sisters-in-law and go on out. Everyone has been worn to the bone today—let the girls head home and rest as well. Nanny Zhang will stay behind; once the heir decides whether he is going or staying, have word sent to the Zhongyong Marquis Estate."
"Yes, Your Highness," Nanny Zhang answered.
Bai Jinxiu turned a wide, bright smile toward Bai Jingyan, who stood by the folding screen—a smile meant to console her eldest sister's heart. Bai Jingyan did not cross the room to her. She answered that smile with one of her own, though the rims of her eyes had already gone red.
As long as Bai Jinxiu was safe, nothing else mattered. Nothing at all.
Though she had woken only now, Bai Jinxiu knew everything that had happened outside the Zhongyong Marquis Estate. Had Bai Jingyan not blown the affair wide open today, she would have spent the remainder of her life worn down by her mother-in-law's torments within those walls.
The family soothed Bai Jinxiu, then filed out of Qingzhu Pavilion one by one—and only then did Nanny Zhang show Jin Lang in.
Bai Jinchi planted herself at the entrance of the inner room, glaring red-eyed as Jin Lang entered. Her fingers clenched hard around the whip at her back, but Nanny Zhang shook her head at her, and she ground her teeth and forced her grip to loosen. Even so, as she passed beneath the eaves on her way out, her temper broke its last leash: she rammed her shoulder into Jin Lang's with all her strength.
Jin Lang stepped into the room. At the sight of Bai Jinxiu propped against the head of the bed, her face drained of every trace of color and her breathing frail, self-reproach came flooding over him. He wanted to ask whether she was all right, but the recollection that he had not even gone to see her after she was hurt—all for the sake of his filial duty to Lady Zhang—made his own dull-wittedness so contemptible in his own eyes that he had no face to say another word.
At the faint crackle of the fine silver-frost charcoal in the brazier, Jin Lang finally snapped back to his senses and hastily bowed low, hands clasped, until his head nearly touched the floor. Yet he was still choked with sobs, and not a single word escaped him.
"Nanny Zhang, the heir's clothes are thin. Bring him a cloak."
Bai Jinxiu's soft, light voice floated gently through the room.
Nanny Zhang at once called for someone to take down the bundle of brambles Jin Lang had borne on his back, then draped the cloak over his shoulders. She set out hot tea and pushed the brazier toward him, and when everything was seen to, she withdrew with the maids to keep watch at the door.
A while later, Jin Lang, having finished his talk with Bai Jinxiu, walked out of the inner room like a man whose soul had drifted away and offered Nanny Zhang something like half a bow. "I will return home for now. Another day, I will come to pay my respects to Her Highness the Grand Princess and to my mother-in-law."
With that, he hurried out of Qingzhu Pavilion without even waiting for a maid to lift a lantern for him.
The moment Jin Lang was gone, Second Madam Yu came straight back. Her heart would not settle where Bai Jinxiu was concerned, and with her husband away from home besides, she had resolved to keep the night in Qingzhu Pavilion watching over her daughter.
Nanny Zhang gave the maids careful instructions for Bai Jinxiu's care that night, and only after every last matter was settled did she leave Qingzhu Pavilion again. Walking through the snow back to Changshou Courtyard, she reported the day's events to the Grand Princess in minute detail.
"The moment Second Young Miss was brought into Qingzhu Pavilion, Eldest Young Miss gave orders for a strict watch over every servant in the residence. Not a word of Second Young Miss's injury was to be spread abroad—and any servant who let their tongue slip to someone beyond these walls would be given fifty strokes of the rod and sold off! The servants have obeyed to the letter. According to Nanny Hai, servants from a number of great households came by today, pressing silver into their hands to fish for news, but not one of ours let a single thing slip." As she spoke, Nanny Zhang gently kneaded the Grand Princess's shoulders.
She went on to tell the Grand Princess everything that had taken place after Jin Lang entered the rear garden—repeating faithfully, as well, what Bai Jingyan had said to him about emulating the virtue of Yao and Shun, who had yielded their thrones to worthier men.
Eyes closed, prayer beads moving beneath her fingers, the Grand Princess spoke at last. "Ah-Yan sees the matter as it is. The doctrine of "filial piety" lies heavy upon Jin Lang. If he has not the courage to give up the title, then even when he becomes Marquis of Zhongyong in time, he will spend his days dancing in Lady Zhang's palm. And Jinxiu is Jin Lang's wife—and husband and wife are said to be one flesh—so the life ahead of her will be a weary one."
Nanny Zhang nodded as though in sympathy, then sighed once more. "Does Your Highness believe Eldest Young Miss spoke so with Second Young Miss's future at heart? Yet it seems to this humble servant that if the young heir of the Jin family casts off his position and sets out to win merit and honor by his own hand, Second Young Miss will taste hardship alongside him for years."
"I can lend what help I am able. That is a far better bargain than half a lifetime spent dancing in Lady Zhang's palm. Jingyan has made the matter plain enough; the question is whether Jin Lang can swallow so sharp a sting," the Grand Princess said, and let out a long sigh.
The next morning, the snow had stopped.
Dawn had barely broken when Jin Lang appeared alone before the gates of the Zhenguo Duke Estate—not a single attendant at his side—and asked to see the Grand Princess.
The Grand Princess had only just risen and had not yet taken her morning meal. When Nanny Zhang announced Jin Lang's arrival, she thought it a little unexpected. She had half guessed already that Jin Lang had resolved to give up his position as heir; and seeing that he had come to her rather than to his own father, the Zhongyong Marquis, she privately rated such resolve all the higher.
"Show Jin Lang in," the Grand Princess instructed Nanny Zhang. "And have the carriage made ready. It seems we must go to the palace today."
The moment Jin Lang stepped into the main hall of Changshou Courtyard, he knelt with formal courtesy before the Grand Princess.
"This grandson-in-law failed to protect his wife, and Jinxiu came within a hair's breadth of losing her life. The guilt I owe you, Grandmother, and my mother-in-law, is such that I had no face to come before you. Yesterday, when I returned home, I reflected long and hard. I occupy the position of heir to the Zhongyong Marquisate, yet I have failed to discharge the responsibility that "loyalty and valor" demand. I possess a sound body, yet I have rendered no loyal service to our sovereign; as a son, I have not eased my mother's worries; as the husband of one woman, I could not keep my wife safe. I have betrayed my parents' hopes and incurred a debt of the heart against my wife. In penitence, I intend to lay down the position of heir. Rather than receive the title my forebears passed down, I wish to struggle and strive until, by my own strength, I have made myself a man of true use to Great Jin."
Jin Lang had not slept a wink the night before. Like the men of the Bai family, he yearned to go out to the battlefield and win glory in war—but he knew full well he lacked the ability for it. With martial skill barely enough to preserve his own life, driving back an enemy was out of the question.
Since ancient times, it was said, the soldier holds the reins of power in times of war and the scholar traverses the realm in an age of peace; yet, weigh it however he might, only one road lay open to him—that of merit and honor won by himself.
"Rise." The Grand Princess's face brimmed with satisfaction. "After the morning meal, you will enter the palace with me."
Jin Lang bowed deeply once more. "Thank you, Grandmother."
Jin Lang had grasped the situation with perfect clarity. Lady Zhang longed, waking and sleeping, for him to step down from the heir's position—but never by a path like this one, and least of all at the very moment disaster had befallen Bai Jinxiu. It was precisely this that he had aimed for; and so, bypassing both the Zhongyong Marquis and Lady Zhang, he had come straight to the Grand Princess.
For a long while now, Jin Lang's own anger and grievances had been piling up with no outlet. Bai Jinxiu's accident had happened only yesterday, and today he had come directly to the Zhenguo Duke Estate, told the Grand Princess he would relinquish his claim as heir, and begged her to take him to the palace. His intent was to shove Lady Zhang into a pit of fire.
He wished the world to understand: bound as he was by "filial piety," he could not, for his wife's sake, go to his stepmother and demand justice—but out of the guilt he owed that wife, he would step down from the heir's position of his own accord. This was what he wanted everyone to see.
After what had happened at the gates of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate the day before, there was not a soul in Dadu who had not heard the rumor that the Marquis's wife, Lady Zhang, had laid hands on her daughter-in-law's wedding provisions.
If Jin Lang went so far as to lay down the heir's position in so resolute a decision, it would amount to nothing less than dragging Lady Zhang's name through the mud.
The Grand Princess found herself liking Jin Lang more and more. For all that he seemed irresolute on the surface, once his mind was made up he pushed a matter through without delay. With one bold choice and one bold renunciation—without a single stroke of scheming—he had cost Lady Zhang not merely her footing but her good name as well. It was a remarkable stroke indeed.