A Good Thing
The Pavilion of Splendor in the Bai Manor was the most fitting spot in the entire estate for enjoying the scenery, and it was spacious indeed.
Bai Jinchi, who had risen from a deep sleep, felt as though her strength had surged a hundredfold. She and Lady Li were the first to arrive at the pavilion, and Jinchi was eagerly recounting everything she had seen and heard in the Southern Border — including a detailed account of how her eldest sister Bai Jingyan had defeated Yun Paxing.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh young ladies opened their eyes wide and, as though they had been standing on the battlefield themselves, kept turning tense faces toward Bai Jinxiu for confirmation.
"Second Sister, is it really true? Is the battlefield truly such a dangerous place?"
"You'll know once you see the wounds Jinchi came home with."
Bai Jinxiu answered with a smile. Then Bai Jinchi told them how, when the army had marched out for the Southern Border, the common people had fallen to their knees and begged Xiao Baixiu to bring them back their homeland, and how the people of Fengxian had tried to shield Bai Jingyan with their own bodies. At those words, the women of the Bai family in the Pavilion of Splendor all wiped away their tears.
Lady Dong, recalling the scene, thought of how heavy her daughter's heart must have been when she left for the Southern Border.
Fifth Madame Lady Ji, her belly swollen round as a mountain, dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
"The people still remembered our Bai family."
When the maids standing outside called out Eldest Miss, Bai Jinxiu and her sisters set down their teacups and fruit and rose to go out and greet her.
After paying her respects, Bai Jingyan noticed that Fourth Aunt Lady Wang was nowhere to be seen and asked after her.
"Mother says the hour for her prayers has come and she won't be joining us," Fifth Miss Bai Jinshao answered, looking a little sheepish. "But she did call for a physician today, and she's begun taking her medicine."
Ever since Bai Jingyan had departed, Fourth Madam Wang had grown more and more silent, rarely emerging from the prayer hall day after day.
Bai Jinchi clenched her fists. Before they came home, her eldest sister had said that the fewer people who knew about their seventh and ninth uncles, the better — that only Fourth Aunt was to be told their seventh uncle still lived. That was why Bai Jinchi had said nothing even to her own mother, Lady Li.
Bai Jingyan gave a small nod. Fourth Aunt was doing her utmost to appear unchanged, so that no one would grow suspicious. She had refused all medicine until today, when she finally summoned a physician. She must have reasoned that if people noticed how greatly her spirits had lifted upon Bai Jingyan's return, it would rouse their doubts — and that if word somehow reached the Emperor, Bai Qingjue's life would be in danger.
Mothers everywhere in this world were the same, forever trembling in fear that some small slip of their own might cost a child's life or darken the road ahead of them.
In truth, however suspicious the Emperor might be, he would hardly send men to watch the manor's wives and Madams one by one.
It didn't matter. If Fourth Aunt could find her strength again for A'Jue's sake, such trifles were of no consequence.
"Eldest Sister! Fourth Sister told us all about it — how you rode out with the Sun-Shooting Bow and brought Yun Paxing down with a single shot! Eldest Sister, can you really draw the Sun-Shooting Bow again?"
Bai Jinhua lifted her head and asked, gazing up at Bai Jingyan.
Bai Jingyan settled into her chair and lifted her teacup, looking into her sister's shining eyes before asking in a gentle voice, "Do you wish to learn?"
Bai Jinhua nodded. "May I?"
"When we return to Suyang, learn horsemanship from Fourth Sister first. Then I'll teach you the bow myself."
Bai Jingyan answered with a smile.
"Yes, Eldest Sister!"
Delighted, Bai Jinhua turned to look at Bai Jinchi.
"Madam Jin, go and see to it. If the food is ready, we'll begin."
Lady Dong turned her head and gave the instruction to Madam Jin.
Madam Jin bowed her assent, cast one glance toward the folding screen of blue silk embroidered thick with birds, and replied to Lady Dong that everything was already prepared.
Bai Jingyan helped Lady Dong to her seat. Lady Dong smiled and spoke.
"Though our two children have returned to us safely, we are still in mourning and cannot hold a banquet to celebrate. So let us mark the occasion instead with this simple meal among family."
With no men of the Bai family left, Lady Dong had meant to invite her own nephews so that Jin Lang might dine in comfort, but after seeing Bai Jinxiu home, Jin Lang had pleaded business and departed early — promising only to return in the evening to fetch his wife.
The Bai family had not yet lifted their chopsticks when a servant reported at the entrance: the merchant Xiao Rongyan, who had aided the Bai family, had come to pay his respects.
Though a mere merchant, Xiao Rongyan had come to the family's aid when they were beset by the imperial clansmen, and he had saved Fourth Madam Wang when she had been about to beat her head against her coffin and take her own life. Now that he had come, he had to be received properly.
Bai Jingyan guessed that the Crown Prince would have questioned Xiao Rongyan about the affairs of Nanyan — and that he had also come to bring news of Bai Qingjue.
The steward Xue guided Xiao Rongyan to the main hall, ordered tea served, and asked him to wait a moment.
Xiao Rongyan maintained an air of gentle refinement throughout, smiling his thanks before lifting his cup and sipping slowly.
Before long, Bai Jingyan entered, supporting Lady Dong on her arm. Xiao Rongyan hastily set down his teacup and saluted them.
"Madam. Eldest Miss."
"Master Xiao, there's no need for such formality. Please, sit."
Lady Dong treated him with gracious courtesy. She took her seat and said with a smile, "I heard it from A'Yan — that our Fourth made free with your help when she marched to war. Thank you for looking after Jinchi."
"It was nothing at all."
Xiao Rongyan smiled softly and gazed at Bai Jingyan with distant, lingering eyes.
"Please accept this small token of regard. I brought gifts in celebration of the Eldest Miss's and the Fourth Miss's great victory in the Southern Border. I won't impose on your time — I'll take my leave shortly."
"Mother, allow me to see Master Xiao out."
Bai Jingyan raised her clasped hands in a salute to Lady Dong.
Lady Dong looked faintly surprised, then nodded. "Very well. Go, and hurry back."
Bai Jingyan gestured courteously for Xiao Rongyan to walk ahead of her.
"Thank you."
The two of them strolled slowly out along the corridor, Chun Tao and the servants following at a respectful distance behind. The servants trod carefully, wary of intruding on the pair.
"I met with the Crown Prince today, and there was something in his words I couldn't make sense of, so I came to ask the Eldest Miss about it — lest I make a mistake should the Crown Prince question me again."
Bai Jingyan stopped abruptly in her tracks. At once, Chun Tao and the rest of the servants halted as well.
Bai Jingyan raised her hands in salute to Xiao Rongyan. "Forgive me for putting you to such trouble."
"Think nothing of it."
With that faint smile upon it, Xiao Rongyan's face was strikingly handsome indeed.
"The Crown Prince discovered that my operative, Xiao Ruogang, had gone to Nanyan. I instructed my man to answer him thus — that he had seen you sending me messages and letters, took it that you were toying with me, and so sought you out to deliver a warning."
Bai Jingyan's ears went red, as though her conscience had pricked her. She lowered her head and bowed lightly once more.
"It all happened so suddenly. I ask for your understanding."
The noon sunlight slanted down, falling just then across her eyes and her neck, pale and translucent as jade. A faint warmth draped itself over her flawless features, lending her beauty an even finer glow.
Xiao Rongyan looked down at the woman whose earlobes had flushed crimson even as she bowed her head, and squeezed his hands tightly where they were clasped behind his back. The smile at the corners of his eyes deepened, though his voice remained as low and steady as ever.
"It's nothing worth mentioning. Though the Crown Prince does seem to take quite an interest. He appeared bent on tying you and me together."
Bai Jingyan lifted her head and looked at the remarkably handsome man wearing that smile. Her hands tightened at her sides.
Xiao Rongyan started walking first, speaking as he gazed ahead.
"I managed to talk my way past it today, but I doubt the Crown Prince will give up so easily. In any case, Eldest Miss, you have only just entered his service — and should you and I form a good marriage tie, it would mean a fresh purse of coin in his hand."
With a temptation like that dangled before him, the Crown Prince would surely move heaven and earth to match her with Xiao Rongyan.
"Since Miss Bai told the Crown Prince as much, then I shall play the part of a man yearning for the Eldest Miss to the fullest. So set your mind at ease."
Xiao Rongyan turned his head to look at Bai Jingyan walking beside him, and pressed on before she could even open her mouth.
"And there is the matter of that boy from Jin I once told you I saved. He insisted on repaying the debt, and so remained in Nanyan doing three things on my behalf. I received a letter some days ago — his family, it seems, has arrived safely in Nanyan."
It was news of Bai Qingjue. That he did not name Bai Qingjue outright suggested he had no expectation of reward for having saved him.
Bai Jingyan looked at Xiao Rongyan and nodded, and in the end, she said it: "Thank you."
Soon they reached the main gate, where Xiao Rongyan stopped and saluted her.
"Eldest Miss, this is far enough."
"Master Xiao, take care on your way."
By the late afternoon hour, the streets of Dadu glowed with the brilliant blaze of lamplight. Crowds gathered in twos and threes amid the bustle and splendor, debating the great victory of the Southern Border campaign.
Even where the pleasure houses stood in rows, patrons had clustered together, making the war in the Southern Border their talk of the day.
Lu Yuanfeng, in high spirits, had summoned his closest friends and paid a fortune to hear Yingluan — the celebrated courtesan whose name graced the signboard of Fanjuelou — play for their amusement. Then he roared at the top of his lungs that one day he, too, would take horse and sword and drive back the foreign invaders. Just like the Bai sisters.
Sima Ping, thoroughly drunk, threw an arm around Lu Yuanfeng's neck and turned to look at Yingluan.
"Courtesan Yingluan! Can you play the Bai Family Army song?"
Yingluan showed an embarrassed smile. "Forgive me, Young Master. Such a humble one as I has never learned the Bai Family Army song."
"Then I'll play it myself!"
Sima Ping staggered over to her side and sat down.
Yingluan's maid hurriedly drew her mistress behind her, helping her to her feet, and handed the instrument over to Sima Ping.
Testing the strings with his fingers to find the pitch, Sima Ping began to play. The sons of the great families all knew their music.
Lu Yuanfeng's spirits rose as well, and he stepped up to the chime bells and struck them with a wooden mallet.
"Donning armor and helmet, with my brothers I strike down the foe..."
The dull peal of the chime bells and the plaintive seven-stringed qin swelled together with the men's rough, thunderous voices, drowning out the lewd laughter and clamor rising from the floor below.
The courtesans nestled in the patrons' arms, and the patrons themselves, startled by the sudden song and music, lifted their heads and looked up toward the upper story.
The resonant ring of the instruments and the grand thunder of the chime bells filled every heart with solemn awe.
"Gripping fast the long blade that strikes down the foe, sharing life and death with my brothers..."
"Guarding the mountains and rivers, guarding the people — a true man who knows no fear."
"A fine son of the realm who casts off his armor not until he falls in battle..."