Shameless
Qinghui Courtyard.
After finishing her morning training, Bai Jingyan learned from Chunyan that Jin Lang had come to her grandmother's garden early that morning, and that he was now heading out to the palace with her.
"Even thinking about it now gives me chills, my lady. Thank goodness it wasn't you who married into the Zhongyong Marquis Estate. That place truly is a pit of fire and a den of demons, just as Madam Dong said!"
Chunyan supported the sweating Bai Jingyan as they walked into the inner chamber.
Annoyance rising at Chunyan's words, Bai Jingyan furrowed her brow. Before she could even begin to scold the girl, Chun Tao spoke first.
"Chunyan, don't say such things anymore!"
Chun Tao lifted the screen for Bai Jingyan, and as her mistress went inside, she continued to Chunyan.
"You are our eldest lady's maid. Our second lady is still abed—what will people say about our eldest lady if someone else overhears you?"
"I only say such things in front of the lady. What's the harm?"
Chunyan smirked and entered the inner room a step ahead of Chun Tao.
Once inside, Chunyan lowered her voice and spoke to Bai Jingyan in a tone thick with flattery.
"My lady, this morning Prince Liang's attendant Jidong came by. He said the prince had a message for you. His Highness is perfectly fine, so he asks that you not worry."
Bai Jingyan gripped her towel tightly.
So he didn't die? His grip on life is stubborn indeed. If I'd known, I would have hired men to lie in ambush and drive a blade through Prince Liang's heart a few more times. He absolutely cannot be allowed to survive.
Bai Jingyan closed her eyes and pressed down the fury churning in her chest, then flung the handkerchief into the copper basin.
Chun Tao, alarmed, jabbed Chunyan on the forehead.
"Why do you keep running to Prince Liang's people? We are the eldest lady's maids! If anyone sees you……"
"Sister Chun Tao, I can read a situation well enough!"
Chunyan cut her off, clearly displeased. Then she sidled up to Bai Jingyan again and spoke.
"I only say this because I feared you might be worried about His Highness Prince Liang."
Merely hearing the words Prince Liang made Bai Jingyan's stomach turn. Suppressing her discomfort, she ordered Chun Tao to bring in the morning meal.
"Chunyan, you're sixteen this year, aren't you?"
Bai Jingyan asked.
Chunyan's ears went red as she bowed and answered in a bright, chirping voice.
"Yes, my lady. I turn sixteen next month."
Bai Jingyan regarded her with a smile that was not quite a smile.
"Our Chunyan has grown up and started having thoughts of her own, it seems. They do say a grown girl should not be kept at one's side. When Nanny Dong returns, I'll ask her to look for a good family for you. And since you served under me, I'll see to your dowry myself."
Chunyan's face drained of color in an instant, and she hurriedly dropped to her knees.
"My lady, I have never once thought such a thing! I will follow you my whole life. Wherever you go is where I belong. Even if you marry, I will serve at your side and attend you always!"
Bai Jingyan gave Chunyan a single look. This girl clearly believed there was no path for her except to marry into the King Yang Estate—no doubt she intended to enter it as Bai Jingyan's maid. Otherwise, she would never be straining so desperately to help Prince Liang.
Bai Jingyan found the whole thing absurd. Too weary even to lecture the girl, she picked up her chopsticks and ate.
It was not yet time to deal with Chunyan. If she drove out the maid who leaked word to Prince Liang, he would simply buy off someone else in the Duke's household. And if that happened, he would be lurking in the shadows while she stood exposed in the open—a far worse position for her.
Chunyan spent the entire day singing Prince Liang's praises until her mouth went dry, a constant irritant—but fortunately she was not a deep one; every emotion showed plainly on her face.
After days of training morning and night, Bai Jingyan's muscles ached so badly that even lifting her chopsticks took effort.
Chun Tao ladled millet porridge for her and spoke with concern.
"My lady, at this rate your body truly won't hold up."
"Sweating freely morning and evening—I actually feel lighter, if anything."
At Bai Jingyan's words, Chun Tao could not bring herself to argue further. Instead, she bowed her head, glanced once at Chunyan—kneeling and fidgeting as she wiped away tears—then shook her head.
* * *
After breakfast, Bai Jingyan changed her clothes and prepared to go see Bai Jinxiu. Only then did she tell Chunyan to rise and attend to her attire.
Chunyan, cheeks still wet with tears, handed Bai Jingyan a hand warmer and retreated meekly to one side, weeping quietly. Since she had begun attending the eldest lady, she had never been so shamefully punished before. Every maid passing through the inner chamber had seen her kneeling there.
As Bai Jingyan, cloaked in her wind mantle, left Qinghui Courtyard, Chen Gengsheng—who had been chatting with the old servant sweeping near the gate—hurried forward and bowed.
"My lady."
"Walk with me. We'll talk on the way."
Bai Jingyan said.
"Yes."
Chen Gengsheng bent his waist slightly and stood respectfully at her side, lowering his voice.
"I have learned that the six trusted maids our second lady took with her upon her marriage were not sold. The people of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate most likely searched through her dowry, failed to find the deed, and so could not sell it. My lady—watch your footing."
Having warned Bai Jingyan of the ice beneath her feet, Chen Gengsheng continued.
"The gatekeeper at the Zhongyong Marquis Estate says his wife told him this last night: only the maid called Mingyu was taken away by Madam Wu and stationed somewhere outside the residence, while the remaining five maids were all drowned."
Bai Jingyan stopped abruptly and turned to look at Chen Gengsheng. Was he saying that Mingyu had betrayed her mistress?
The maids who had followed Bai Jinxiu were all chosen by her mother and second aunt together. Bai Jingyan had examined them carefully herself on the wedding day—every one a dutiful, clever girl who knew her place.
To drown those young things so callously—and five of them at once. So Lady Zhang of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate was venomous to this degree!
Chen Gengsheng went on.
"Fearing the maids' clothing and ornaments would betray that the deed was the work of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate, Madam Wu at the lady's side ordered men to strip all five of their clothes and, on a night of heavy snow, wrap the bodies in straw matting and dump them in the mass burial ground. The two servants sent to dispose of the corpses knew nothing of the circumstances; with the ground frozen solid and digging difficult, and since they assumed the lady herself had drowned her own maids anyway, they evidently couldn't be bothered to dig graves. They simply tossed the bodies carelessly into the snow, figured the night's falling snow would bury them, and went off to drink. The tavern keeper says that when the two left, one kept fretting while the other tried to console him, saying that when the snow melted, the bodies would be picked apart by wild beasts prowling for food in the winter."
Fury surged to the crown of Bai Jingyan's head, but she shut her eyes tightly and forced it down.
"Go on."
"I also stopped by a private brothel and learned from its madam that yesterday, the brother and sister of Mingyu—our second lady's maid—bought two courtesans outright, saying they had come into sudden fortune. So I inquired a little further, and everything was confirmed. Mingyu is said to be living without a care in the mansion Lady Zhang of the Zhongyong Marquis Estate provided as part of the wedding dowry."
"Brother—why would you speak of such filthy things in front of our lady?"
Chun Tao murmured, her face flushed, her voice barely audible.
"My lady, forgive me. I was careless!"
Chen Gengsheng dropped to his knees at once in apology.
"It's fine. Rise."
Chen Gengsheng was undeniably clever and capable. Bai Jingyan had ordered him to track down the whereabouts of the maids sent with Bai Jinxiu's dowry, but she hadn't expected him to find them so quickly, nor to return with information this detailed.
"Wait for me at Shuihua Gate. I'll have more need of your services shortly."
After a moment's thought, Bai Jingyan continued.
"Send men to the burial ground to find the bodies of the maids sent with our second lady's dowry. Guard the site and report it to the authorities at once. They must not be left for wild beasts to paw at. They came from our Bai family—maids though they were, they must not have died so unjustly only to have their corpses abandoned in the wilderness."
"Yes, I will carry out your orders."
As Chun Tao supported Bai Jingyan toward Qingzhu Pavilion, she sighed inwardly. Mingyu had been sold to a brothel by her wretched parents, and the second lady, pitying her, had kept her at her side—had even granted her the rank of senior maid. And this was how Mingyu repaid her.
Then Chun Tao suddenly thought of Chunyan, and her heart pounded. Lifting her head, she looked at Bai Jingyan and asked, as if she had guessed.
"My lady… is it that you can't trust Chunyan?"
Bai Jingyan, who knew both Chun Tao's quickness and her loyalty, answered truthfully.
"Chunyan has grown up and lost her sense. She throws herself so fervently into Prince Liang's affairs—can you really believe she's seen nothing?"
The reason Bai Jingyan still kept Chunyan at her side was to observe just how far Prince Liang would go through her. Watching the maid keep such close, frequent contact with the people of the King Yang Estate, she had even begun to wonder whether the letter left in her late grandfather's study had been Chunyan's doing as well.
Chun Tao bit the inside of her lip. So that was why the lady had been keeping Chunyan at arm's length lately—and keeping her distance from Prince Liang.
Still, Chun Tao thought, if this was the reason her lady might let a good match slip away, it was hardly worth it.
* * *
By the time Bai Jingyan reached Qingzhu Pavilion, the Bai sisters were gathered around the bed, chatting merrily with Bai Jinxiu.
She stood in the courtyard and watched her younger sisters laughing and chattering inside the room. It was a feeling beyond words.
Bai Jingyan had died once already. In this life, she could bear any hardship willingly, and she could let go of anything. Even if it meant shattering herself bone by bone, so long as she could protect the elders' safety and the carefree, bright laughter of her sisters, it would be enough.
"The eldest lady is here."
At the sound of the maids outside greeting her, Bai Jinxiu lifted her head and looked toward the entrance. Bai Jindong came out to support Bai Jingyan.
"Eldest sister has come."
"What were you all talking about, that your laughter carries all the way out here?"
Bai Jingyan's heart warmed without end. She handed her hand warmer to Chun Tao and removed her wind mantle.
Chun Tao hurried forward to receive it, then bowed her head and stood quietly behind Bai Jingyan.
Bai Jinchi set down the sunflower seeds in her hand, rose, and greeted her—then said, her face glowing.
"We were just talking about what happened at the Zhongyong Marquis Estate yesterday. Eldest sister, that crafty Lady Zhang of the marquis's household was so angry at what you said she practically hopped up and down!"