Unabashed
On the twenty-fourth day of the third month, the great army of Jin marched past the still-rebuilding city of Fengcheng, treading upon a sunset red as spilled blood.
Li Tianfu, the Princess of Xiliang, raised the screen inside her carriage and looked out. Everywhere the wheels rolled, all her eyes could find were the scorched black walls and charred fences lining both sides of the road. Unlike the prosperous Fengcheng she had read about in picture-books, only a handful of shops had managed to open their doors.
Yet the people of Fengcheng, young and old alike, were laboring with all their strength to carry stone and rebuild their ruined home. The able-bodied men of Jin had stripped to the waist though the weather had not yet fully warmed, hoarding great timbers with shouts of "One, two!"
Liu Chentuo, riding escort beside her carriage, urged his horse forward and spoke in a low voice. "Your Highness, look away. Such sights would only sully your eyes."
Bai Jinchi had purchased sacrificial goods and gone outside the city walls to find her elder sister, and after performing the rites for their eldest granduncle, she had been on her way to Luofeng Gorge to pay her respects there as well. Hearing Liu Chentuo's words as she overtook the procession ahead, she drew rein and arched a brow.
"Sully her eyes? Ha, you're right about that! Then take a good, long look at how sorely Xiliang has sinned! If they had one shred of conscience left, they'd spend every remaining day of their lives begging forgiveness!"
With that, Bai Jinchi rode on. Li Tianfu huffed furiously and dropped the screen, sitting in rigid silence inside the carriage.
Now any lowborn rabble that comes along dares to flaunt its insolence before me!
Yet even as she raged, Li Tianfu knew the truth. Before the victors, she had no dignity at all. She was nothing more than a goodwill princess dispatched by Xiliang—a princess only for as long as Jin deigned to grant her the pretense of the title, and nothing at all the moment they withdrew it.
Tears spilled from her eyes before she could stop them. She clenched her jaw and swore to herself that once Xiliang's strength was restored, she would repay every humiliation she had suffered today.
Deep in the night, they at last reached Tianmenguan. The pass had once garrisoned the great army of Xiliang, and perhaps for that reason it had not been ravaged so wretchedly as Fengcheng or Fengxian.
The garrison general newly dispatched from the Jin court to Tianmenguan came out beyond the pass himself, several of his officers in tow, to welcome them. The carriage train rolled slowly to a halt before the post station, and the great army returned with General Shi Panshan to the barracks to rest and reorganize; only a token force remained to escort the Crown Prince and the Prince of Yan and the Princess of Xiliang.
The moment the Crown Prince stepped down from his carriage, he saw Bai Jingyan and Bai Jinchi returning—they had gone to perform the rites for their father. He nodded to Bai Jingyan from a distance, then, smiling, ushered the Prince of Yan and the Princess of Xiliang into the post station.
Bai Jingyan and Bai Jinchi handed their horses over to the station's stablemaster, and just as they were about to enter, Liu Yushi bowed to Zhang Danyue and then strode briskly inside ahead of them. Bai Jingyan pulled Bai Jinchi back by the arm, graciously letting the minister pass first.
But far from offering a word of thanks, Liu Yushi gave a contemptuous sniff, shook out his sleeves with a flourish, and swept inside—his every movement declaring that he would not walk a step alongside Bai Jingyan.
Zhang Danyue started in surprise. He had assumed that when Liu Yushi and Bai Jingyan had worked so seamlessly together inside the council tent at Huatan, the old scholar had finally set aside his prejudice. Evidently, the stubborn mind of a pedant did not change so easily.
Stung by the slight, Bai Jinchi moved to call after him. "Why, you—"
But before she could finish, Bai Jingyan pressed her pointing hand back down and shot her a meaningful glance toward the interior of the station. Upstairs, the wounded Li Zhijie stood leaning at the railing, watching the entrance with a smiling face, his peach-blossom eyes betraying not a flicker of what he felt.
Whatever their quarrels, no one inside Jin could be permitted to become laughingstock entertainment for an outsider of Xiliang. Bai Jinchi understood the principle well enough.
"General Bai!" Zhang Danyue saluted her with a warm smile. "Minister Liu has been notorious for his sour temper since his days in the capital. General Bai, I beg you to be magnanimous."
"What's so impressive about a musty old scholar, anyway! If you and the generals hadn't won the victory, would he even have a stage to strut about on? He doesn't know his own place!" Glaring at Liu Yushi's retreating back, Bai Jinchi grumbled in a low voice to Zhang Danyue.
"Civil scholars are all like that, miss. Fourth Young Miss, don't let it sour your mood." Zhang Danyue cut himself off with a smile. "General Bai, Fourth Young Miss—please, go in."
Bai Jinchi's temper still smoldered, but at the thought of seeing her ninth brother in Fengxian the next day, she pressed the fury back down.
Before retiring, Bai Jingyan told the Crown Prince that she would hold memorial rites for Bai Jingming at Fengxian early the next day. The Crown Prince gave his consent, and instructed her to return swiftly once the rites were done.
"With you at my side, I can rest easy."
When Bai Jingyan emerged from the Crown Prince's chamber, Zhen Xiangzhi was standing a short distance away, hands clasped behind his back, watching her.
When she had demanded that Li Zhijie hand over the bodies of the East House advisors, neither the Crown Prince nor Advisor Fang had thought anything of it—but a man like Zhen Xiangzhi had likely sensed something amiss. Bai Jingyan had known as much. He had once sent her a letter, yet whatever his goodwill, he remained the Crown Prince's strategist. He would not put her interests above his master's.
The two of them stood on the hill behind the post station. Zhen Xiangzhi turned his head and looked at her.
"I sent men in secret to examine the fires along the Jinghe River. There were no burned bodies. So then, eldest daughter of the Bai family—those advisors Prince Li Zhijie of Xiliang brought with him were your people from the very beginning. Were they not?"
Zhen Xiangzhi had known Bai Jingyan only a short while, but he knew at least this much: she was not only brilliant in strategy, but a woman who prized human feeling deeply.
When she said nothing, he pressed on.
"You are my savior—you saved my life—so I meant to protect yours however I could. But before that... I am the Crown Prince's strategist. I cannot simply stand by and watch you toy with His Highness in the palm of your hand."
Having said his piece, Zhen Xiangzhi bowed in farewell and turned as if to leave—evidently to report the matter to the Crown Prince.
"Master Zhen."
Bai Jingyan called to him, unhurried, composed. "Those advisors are mine. That much is true."
Zhen Xiangzhi turned back to look at her, anger gathering in his eyes. "Why? You would toss away the lives of advisors and soldiers of the Haoying Battalion to kill the Prince of Yan of Xiliang? To wreck the peace between Xiliang and Great Jin? To keep the war alive so you could fatten your own army? I believed you a woman who held the whole realm in her heart. I believed you devoted and loyal as the late King of Zhenguo was. Don't tell me you meant all along to drive the people of the world into the flames of war and reap power and profit from their suffering?"
"My ninth brother is at Chuishanguan."
Bai Jingyan's voice drifted out, soft and unhurried. The torrent of Zhen Xiangzhi's indignation died as if crushed beneath a sheet of ice. He stood frozen for a moment, his anger sinking away to nothing.
"Your ninth brother? You mean a son of the Bai clan still lives?"
Starlight glinted overhead, and the night wind stirred the red ribbon in Bai Jingyan's hair. She lowered her voice.
"My ninth brother was the assassin who killed the Emperor of Xiliang. Li Zhijie captured him and brought him in secret all the way to Chuishanguan. During the talks at Huatan, I did nothing but wait for the moment Li Zhijie would offer my brother up as a condition. But Li Zhijie said he would cede territory and pay indemnities, and though Jin raised every manner of outrageous demand, he never once set my ninth brother upon the negotiating table. Master Zhen—tell me, was I simply supposed to stand and watch while my brother suffered torment and died at the hands of Xiliang?"
A son of the Bai clan still lives. Zhen Xiangzhi asked in a hushed voice, "Then... the Ninth Young Master is still alive?"
Bai Jingyan inclined her head slightly. Zhen Xiangzhi's fists clenched.
"This must never reach the Emperor's ears. The only reason His Majesty spared the Bai family at all is that even so extraordinary a woman as you remains a woman. If the Emperor were to learn that a male heir of the Bai clan survived—that he might one day inherit the Bai title—then most likely..."
"If you know it, Master Zhen, then surely you understand I have known all along."
Bai Jingyan looked at him. "So for the sake of the debt you owe the Bai family, I ask you—please, keep this secret."
"I am the Crown Prince's... strategist."
The last few words of Zhen Xiangzhi's protest rang hollow, drained of force.
"And even if I held my tongue, Master Zhen, Advisor Fang and Lin Shijie are no easy men to fool. They may not notice now, but sooner or later the truth will come out. Besides—Lin Shijie said he set out ahead to prepare a gift for the Emperor, yet he lingered for a time along the banks of the Jinghe River on the way."
"All I ask is that you conceal the fact that my ninth brother lives. You are the Crown Prince's strategist, so of course you must work for his interests—I understand that perfectly. If you wish, go to His Highness right now and tell him the truth: that those advisors are mine. Tell him I did not bury and burn the advisors by the Jinghe River."
Bai Jingyan bowed to him in formal salute.
"I thank you for the kindness of your letter, and for the grace that helped my ninth brother survive."
It was not that she had never considered proposing to join hands with Zhen Xiangzhi. But she had not yet climbed high enough. How could she so presumptuously make such a request of him now?
Something flashed through Zhen Xiangzhi's mind, and he stared at her. "Why, then, do you tell me to inform His Highness?"
She was telling him, at this very moment, to report the truth to the Crown Prince. If it was Bai Jingyan, she must surely have her reasons—and perhaps she was even plotting something.
"To win the Crown Prince's trust."
Bai Jingyan answered without a trace of shame.
"If it's his trust you're after, why not tell him directly?"
The words had barely left his mouth before Zhen Xiangzhi regretted them. If he told the Crown Prince that the Bai family's ninth son lived at Chuishanguan, then the Emperor himself would come to know it as well.
He had shadowed the Crown Prince long enough to grasp one thing: this Crown Prince stood in mortal terror of the reigning Emperor. The mark of a dutiful son, no doubt. But then—who else was there for him to serve, if not the Crown Prince?
"Among the Emperor's sons, the Liang King is sinister and vicious, and the Xin King cruel and violent. The Crown Prince alone, whatever his talents may lack, is the gentlest of them. But he takes after the reigning Emperor in one respect most of all—he is deeply suspicious. So to serve him, one must first buy his trust. As Advisor Fang has done. The Crown Prince trusts Fang, and so whatever that man says, he believes it and follows it to the letter. He does not yet trust you fully, Master Zhen. That is why every time you offer him a plan, he thinks it over all over again."
Bai Jingyan's words struck Zhen Xiangzhi squarely where it hurt. It was the very thing that had gnawed at him for so long.
"The Crown Prince knows full well that I am indispensable to him, and still he keeps his guard up. To win his trust, one must unravel each misunderstanding, one by one, as they arise. There is no other way to earn it."
Seeing Zhen Xiangzhi's brow furrow, Bai Jingyan gave a faint smile.
"You are a gentleman, Master Zhen—such methods would sit ill with you. But I am a woman. And the Bai family stands in peril even now. To shield it, and to fulfill my grandfather's dying wish, I have no choice but to act this way. I ask for your understanding."
Zhen Xiangzhi knew the Bai family's situation well—of course he did. It was thanks to Bai Jingyan that they had come safely through to this day. And in that moment, he felt a genuine, unfeigned awe of her.