Careless
"Unnie won a great victory in the Southern Border, but a faction at court—Left Chancellor Li Mu at its head—has submitted memorials dragging up the Ongsan surrender affair and demanding that the Emperor punish you severely. It's been some time since the memorials went up, and the Emperor keeps putting them off. What on earth is he thinking?"
Bai Jinxiu asked with a furrowed brow.
"Prince Liang of Xiliang and the Xiliang Princess have come to Dadu City. In front of outsiders, they'll never dream of putting me on the spot—if they did, it would amount to broadcasting to all of Xiliang that His Majesty bears a grudge against the general who just won him a great victory in the Southern Border."
Bai Jingyan braced an elbow on the table and lifted her teacup, letting it cool slowly between her fingers.
"Suspicious and timid as he is, the Emperor prizes his dignity above all else. Would he willingly show the ministers and envoys of another nation a court at war with itself?"
Bai Jinxiu lifted her own cup as well, turning the movements of the court over in her mind.
"The Emperor's stance is deliberately vague. He hasn't so much as rebuked Li Mu and the others who submitted the memorials, yet neither has he acted on them… I simply can't fathom what he's playing at."
"The Crown Prince hasn't returned yet, so he'll have gone in ignorant of the situation in the Southern Border. More to the point, the Emperor still hasn't confirmed whether the Crown Prince actually brought me to heel. That's why he summoned only the Crown Prince into the palace and left the victorious generals waiting outside. At the latest, by tomorrow's banquet, the rewards will be handed down."
"Then what matters most is what the Emperor chooses to bestow on you and Jinchi."
Bai Jinxiu looked up at Bai Jingyan over the rim of her cup.
"If it's some princess consort title or the like, it means he intends to leave the Bai family out in the cold. But if he confers the rank of general… then the court is announcing its willingness to place a woman in command of troops."
"Which is exactly why…"
Bai Jingyan raised her head and met Bai Jinxiu's eyes, a faint smile touching the corners of her own.
"the Emperor will never confer the rank of general on me. The Emperor of today has none of the daring of Empress Xi of Great Yan! Put a woman in command of an army and the court is bound to erupt—and the Emperor would sooner die than climb into a fire pit for the sake of one Bai Jingyan. Though, truth be told, now is the most opportune moment there has ever been for a woman to hold office."
Her gaze drifted back to the warm cup cradled in her hands.
"But the Crown Prince must be rewarded, whether he likes it or not—and so must Generals Zhang Danyue, Shi Panshan, and Zhen Zeping, who came home victorious, and the generals of the Bai Family Army besides. The less fairly the Emperor treats the Bai family, me, and Jinchi, the more tightly the hearts of our Bai Family Army will bind to us."
Bai Jinxiu nodded slowly. Yes—her elder sister was the Xiao Baixiu of the Bai Family Army, the very architect of this great victory. If the Emperor slighted her, what would the soldiers think, men who looked to the Bai family as their banner? They would seethe with resentment. And that resentment would only draw them closer to the Bai family and to her sister.
"There's one more thing."
Bai Jinxiu set down her cup and lifted her head, her expression turning grave.
"Prince Liang was released from prison half a month ago. Gao Sheng is to be beheaded any day now, and Jeonwigun and Dongji both died under torture without withstanding it. Minister Yu Zhen of the Court of Judicial Review couldn't pry a single thing out of Dongji, and everything Jeonwigun gave up proved useless. Prince Liang insisted to the end that he had done it all to save the King Xin—so the Emperor merely confined him to his residence."
She had expected as much. Dongji had kept silent out of loyalty, and the ever-cautious Prince Liang would never have let Jeonwigun touch anything that could threaten his own life. Every sinister, vicious order Jeonwigun had received would have been delivered through Gao Sheng's mouth.
Gao Sheng, of course, would have tried to shoulder everything alone—insisting that he had orchestrated it all himself to avenge his elder brother, and that Prince Liang had nothing to do with any of it. And so Prince Liang, at worst, was merely a prince who had committed a great crime in his desperation to save his brother.
"On the fifteenth of this month, Prince Liang declared that being a man under a cloud of guilt, he would not attend the palace banquet, and that paying his respects at court to celebrate His Majesty's birthday would be even less proper—instead he sent his gift to the palace well in advance. A painting, they say, done by his own hand. And then, strangely, the very day after that painting arrived, His Majesty elevated a woman to the rank of Consort Qiu, and she has been lavished with favor ever since. I heard it from Princess Fuling: this Consort Qiu is the very person who carried the painting to the palace in Prince Liang's stead. Being a matter of the inner palace, I couldn't ask too closely, but I've already sent someone to look into her. We should know who she truly is soon enough."
Bai Jingyan arched an eyebrow.
"So Prince Liang wasn't sending a painting—he was sending a person. Once the Crown Prince finds out, he'll be even more anxious than I am. After all, who isn't afraid of a rival whispering in the Emperor's ear at pillow-side?"
Bai Jingyan turned her head toward Bai Jinxiu and asked with a smile, "You didn't mention it in your last letter—have Jin Lang's examination results come through?"
At the mention of Jin Lang, a smile brightened Bai Jinxiu's eyes.
"His results this year were quite good. This was the fifteenth palace examination, and with the great victory in the Southern Border falling together with His Majesty's birthday, the Directorate of Astronomy calculated an auspicious date and memorialized the Emperor to postpone the palace examination to the first day of the fourth month. From what Princess Fuling tells me, someone remarked to His Majesty along these lines: I am a first-rank Lady by imperial warrant, while Jin Lang remains a commoner. So if Jin Lang can simply place well in the palace examination, I expect he'll secure an official post—perhaps not a title, but no mean position either."
Bai Jingyan nodded, then asked again, "And the Jin estate… those two young ladies, and Jin Lang's younger brother? They haven't been tormenting you, have they?"
Bai Jinxiu shook her head.
"The two Jin daughters' reputations have fallen straight into the gutter. Those three are too busy dodging the temples to cause any trouble—which means they can't stir up mischief for me either."
With no domineering mother-in-law looming over her, Bai Jinxiu lived more comfortably than most new brides in Dadu City, and many a bride envied her for it.
Still, it wasn't as though she had no worries at all where the Jin estate was concerned—only that there was no need to bring such things up and trouble her sister over them. So Bai Jinxiu steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Unnie, there's a nanny from the Jin household—an old companion maid of Jin Lang's birth mother—who has a gift for restorative cooking. When Jin Lang's mother passed, she moved away to the countryside, but I brought her back with me today. I want her to stay at your side and look after your health. You mustn't refuse me this."
Bai Jingyan's health was the thing the entire Bai family worried over most.
"All right. I'll accept her."
The Crown Prince sat fishing beside the Royal Lake with the Emperor, holding himself in an attitude of the most meticulous deference. The look of reverence with which he had gazed upon his father only moments before had shifted to a shade of gray tinged with faint regret.
Today, for the first time in his life, the Crown Prince had been lavishly praised by his father. The Emperor had declared that his son possessed a true eye for judging men, that he outshone even the Emperor in his own youth, and had spared no superlative in his praise. The Crown Prince's mind had gone white for an instant, and he had answered everything the Emperor asked—straight down to how he had come to meet Sinrok.
He had meant to conceal the fact that Bai Jingyan had prepared Sinrok. Only by concealing it would he truly become the man chosen by Heaven…
The Crown Prince sighed inwardly. In a moment of impulse today, he had turned all of Bai Jingyan's painstaking preparations to so much foam on the water.
"It would seem Bai Jingyan really has submitted to my son."
The Emperor toyed with his fishing rod, then turned his head with a smile.
"Bai Jingyan concealed things from you only because she feared you would spill everything to me—and now that you've poured it all out, her efforts have come to nothing. Had you not told me the truth, you would have been the man chosen by Heaven. But now that it's been revealed as something manufactured by human hands… it looks rather sloppy, doesn't it?"
The Crown Prince dropped to his knees in haste and bowed low to the Emperor.
"Father, You alone are the Heaven I bow to! A thousand deaths could never make me dare to deceive You! More than that—it was by Your grace alone that I became Crown Prince at all, and by Your grace that I sit in the Crown Prince's seat. If You were to take everything back from me, I would never harbor a word of complaint as Your son. How could I ever be so presumptuous as to deceive You with falsehoods!"
The Emperor looked down at his son kneeling on the ground, satisfaction glowing in his eyes, and nodded with a smile.
"Rise! I know well enough that you are a good son."
The Crown Prince's eyes grew hot as he lifted his head to look up at the Emperor, and he called out in a choked voice, "Father."
"In your last secret letter you asked me to grant Bai Jingyan the rank of princess. There's no reason that can't be done. But have you considered no way to keep Bai Jingyan—already submitted to you—at court, so that she might stand at your side and support you?"
The Emperor asked as he stared out across the still surface of the water.
"Great Jin's court has never had a woman hold official post. I, too, deeply admire Bai Jingyan's talent, but if she were given a military office, the ministers would rise up in revolt—and then Father Yourself would find it impossible to manage. So I set the idea aside."
The Emperor nodded. He was pleased to learn that his son had not been scheming to build his own faction at the expense of his father.
"Tomorrow, the Emperor of Great Yan will arrive at Dadu City with his prince. And the prince is to remain in Great Jin as hostage. You will personally escort the Emperor of Great Yan into the palace tomorrow. I leave the whole affair in your hands."
When he finished speaking, the Emperor seemed to remember something and looked at the Crown Prince again.
"You've only just returned from the Southern Border—you must be terribly tired?"
The Crown Prince bowed low once more, doing his utmost to display his devotion.
"To devote my strength to the realm is my duty! Of course I will do my very best."
"Your Majesty!"
Just then, a girl's voice—clear and bright as an oriole—rang out from behind the Crown Prince. He lifted his head and met the Emperor's eyes. A light flashed in the Emperor's gaze, and he hurriedly set down his fishing rod and rose to his feet, his face positively lit up with excitement.
The Crown Prince hastily stepped back from the Emperor's side, and following the Emperor's gaze, he carefully turned his eyes toward the source of the voice. A young girl dressed in white riding garb was approaching, her long hair gathered high with a white ribbon that swayed and fluttered with every step. In her hand she carried a black-gold riding whip.
The Crown Prince's pupils contracted in an instant. The dress was achingly familiar—he had seen this somewhere before.
Before he could think further, the girl came sweeping in on a fragrant breeze and tucked herself straight into the Emperor's arms. The Crown Prince, along with the eunuchs and palace maids standing nearby, all bowed their heads, retreated several steps, and dared not look.
"Gao Gonggong was just telling me—this riding outfit was made for me at Your Majesty's own command! So I changed into it at once, just so Your Majesty could see me wearing it! If Your Majesty had the outfit made for me and even gifted me a whip besides, then surely you mean to take me out riding, don't you?"
There was a thread of self-satisfaction woven into the girl's bubbly voice.
"I've been learning to ride since I was little, too. Would Your Majesty care to race me?"
The Emperor's eyes were tender, brimming over with affection.
"Gao Demu, send someone to make the arrangements. I shall go riding with Consort Qiu."
Gao Demu, who had come puffing along in Consort Qiu's wake, nodded lightly with a smile.
"This humble servant will send someone to prepare at once, Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty, you're simply the best. I like you best of all!"
An innocent smile bloomed across Consort Qiu's face.
"But I will absolutely never yield to Your Majesty."
The Emperor reached up and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, saying with a laugh, "Bear with it a little longer. For now we ride within the palace—but once the great matters at court are settled, I will take you to the imperial ranch myself."
"I'm not so naive as all that! It's more than enough for me that Your Majesty deigns to ride with me here in the palace!"
Only after she finished speaking did Consort Qiu seem to notice the eyes of those around her, and she slipped out of the Emperor's arms, her voice full of sweetness.
"Your Majesty, why didn't you tell me there were people here?"
"It is the Crown Prince."
The Emperor's voice no longer carried the delight of a moment before.
"Your Highness."
Consort Qiu offered a greeting.
However dull the Crown Prince might be, there was no way he could fail to recognize that this girl was the most favored consort in the palace. He hastily bowed with the utmost respect.
"Crown Prince, you have only just returned from the Southern Border and must be weary. Go home at once and rest."
With that, the Emperor took Consort Qiu by the hand and walked away, laughing.
On the road back to the Crown Prince's residence, the Crown Prince sat in his carriage turning the figure of Consort Qiu over and over in his mind. That riding outfit… he had certainly seen it somewhere before.
Then, all at once, the Crown Prince remembered the painting his father had so often taken out to look at when he was a child—and his eyes flew wide open.
"Bai Xiaoqiu!"
The girl in white riding garb looked exactly like the Bai Xiaoqiu in the painting.