The Detestable One
The two daughters-in-law of Old Madame Ji hurried to support her from either side the moment they saw her emerge from the room.
"Mother, we saw the young lady go in just now. Did you speak well with the madam and the young lady of this house? They say she'll return home once she's finished her recovery."
It was the second wife of the Ji family who asked.
Old Madame Ji shook her head slowly.
"She is not coming back...."
"What? Mother...."
The eldest wife of the Ji family turned her head and glanced once toward the upper chamber. When Lady Dong did not come out to see her off, she lowered her voice and spoke.
"Surely Lady Dong isn't refusing to let her go? If it comes to that, shall we go to the Imperial Nunnery and ask the Grand Princess to issue a letter of repudiation?"
Old Madame Ji lifted her head and gazed at the swaying lantern beneath the corridor, then squeezed her eyes shut. Tears spilled from the deep furrows at the corners of her eyes.
"It's the girl herself who refuses to leave! That's it.... If she doesn't wish to go, let her be. From now on, you two look after her a little more attentively."
Old Madame Ji was no fool. She knew that Lady Dong's scolding a moment ago, borne of worry for her daughter, had come from genuine concern.
She had imagined, vaguely, that her daughter would live out her days at the Bai family pitifully and powerless. She had assumed the only reason the girl refused to return to her maiden home was that she did not wish to live under the eyes of her sisters-in-law.
And yet her daughter seemed to be doing quite well at the Bai family.
"Mother, please don't worry yourself. The young lady is my sister-in-law and my husband's sister for all eternity. If she ever says she wishes to come home, the gates of the Ji household will always be thrown wide open for her. And if she chooses to remain with the Bai family, then our Ji family will be her firmest pillar of support. No one will dare torment her!"
The eldest wife of the Ji family clasped Old Madame Ji's hand, the rims of her eyes reddened, and said this.
Deeply moved by the words, Old Madame Ji gripped her daughter-in-law's hand tightly and spoke through her tears.
"Yes. I know full well that you and your husband are kind-hearted."
The second wife of the Ji family stood meekly off to one side. Her husband had been born of a concubine. Even if she expressed her sincerity, Old Madame Ji would likely never believe it, so it was better to say nothing at all.
After lunch, when the sun was at its fiercest, Nanny Ji escorted the lady of the Ji family back out to the courtyard once more.
Lady Dong had tried to keep her from moving about, but since all the belongings and articles the lady of the Ji family used were kept in her own courtyard, the woman insisted on returning, saying it would be too much trouble otherwise. Unable to dissuade her any further, Lady Dong escorted her back to the courtyard herself.
After the lady of the Ji family had been sent off in her sedan chair, Nanny Zhen made her report to Lady Dong. The gatekeeper had come just a short while ago with word that the Fourth Prince of Great Yan had presented his visiting card and requested an audience with the Zhenguo Commandery Princess.
Now that the Bai Manor had become the residence of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess, her daughter Bai Jingyan was the true master of this place. It was perhaps only natural that the Fourth Prince should wish to meet the Commandery Princess.
Still, Lady Dong could not set her mind at ease, so she sent Nanny Zhen to find out what the matter was—why the Fourth Prince of Great Yan wished to meet her daughter.
She feared that if her daughter met with a prince of a foreign nation, the Crown Prince and the Emperor might grow suspicious.
Murong Li had been seated in the main hall of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence with Feng Yao, drinking tea, and when Bai Jingyan entered, he rose and bowed to her with the deepest of courtesies.
Bai Jingyan turned her body slightly to receive his salute graciously, then offered her own greeting in return with a smile.
"To what do we owe the honor of your visit, Your Highness the Fourth Prince?"
Murong Li, exactly as Guanshu had instructed him, offered a gift of local tribute to Bai Jingyan before speaking with careful formality.
"I have heard that there resides in the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence a physician of extraordinary skill, one Physician Hong. That is why I have come, trespassing on your hospitality as I do. In my search for a physician for my father the Emperor, my path has led me here, and I would ask the Commandery Princess to grant me her permission."
The matter had already been settled in any case; this was merely a matter of proper form, a performance for those who wished to see it.
"Your Highness, how is it that you know there is a Physician Hong in our residence?"
Bai Jingyan asked.
"Imperial Physician Huang, head of the Imperial Medical Bureau in the Great Jin palace, has a senior martial brother whose skill far surpasses his own. When I inquired into the matter in detail, I learned that this Physician Hong resides in the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence, and so I have come to make this request of you, Your Highness."
Bai Jingyan let out a sigh.
"It is true that Physician Hong's skill is remarkable, but he is not the possessor of some miraculous art, as the rumors would have it. Still, since Your Highness has come all this way in person, I shall send Physician Hong to you."
Murong Li broke into a wide smile, his joy plain to see.
"Thank you, Commandery Princess."
"Your Highness, however, there is something I must say to you beforehand. Should Physician Hong too find himself helpless, I ask that you do not hold it against him."
Bai Jingyan said this with a faint smile.
Murong Li rose and bowed once more.
"I know all too well how my father the Emperor's condition stands. If Physician Hong can cure him, then Physician Hong becomes a benefactor of Great Yan. And even if he cannot, he will surely have done his utmost, and that too is a kindness I am grateful for. I understand completely."
Bai Jingyan nodded, then turned and gave her instruction to Chun Tao.
"Chun Tao, go and bring Physician Hong here."
"Yes, my lady!"
Once Chun Tao had withdrawn, Murong Li sat back down in his chair with impeccable posture and began, with evident fascination, to discuss matters of military strategy and warfare with Bai Jingyan.
"I found these words recorded in the Art of War. 'Terrain is an auxiliary condition to a soldier's operations. To judge the enemy's situation accurately and to learn beforehand the ruggedness of the land and the distances involved is the wisdom a wise general ought to possess. He who commands soldiers knowing this will surely win; he who leads them without it will surely be defeated.'"
Murong Li earnestly sought her instruction.
"At the Battle of Ongsan, the Commandery Princess must surely have defeated many with few. Did you, by any chance, survey the terrain in advance?"
"Beyond learning the terrain, one must also study the methods the opposing general employs in battle, as well as his character and habits."
Bai Jingyan looked at Murong Li, who asked his questions in earnest, and the corners of her mouth lifted.
"It is written in the Art of War as well. 'Know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.'"
Murong Li rose and bowed to Bai Jingyan once again.
"I have learned a great deal."
Before long, Physician Hong entered, a medicine case strapped to his back, following behind Chun Tao.
"Physician Hong, this is the Fourth Prince of Great Yan."
Physician Hong offered a clasped-hand salute to the Fourth Prince.
"On the way here, Miss Chun Tao told me everything. Since the Commandery Princess has given her permission, I shall travel with Your Highness. Even if I prove of no help, I ask that you not blame me, Your Highness."
Murong Li expressed his gratitude to Bai Jingyan with grave sincerity, then offered his courteous thanks to Physician Hong as well. After that, he departed together with the physician.
Bai Jingyan watched Murong Li and Physician Hong recede into the distance, then stood beneath the eaves gazing at the bluestone paving of the courtyard. At last she turned her head and gave her orders to Chun Tao.
"Tell Nuoping to go into the city and bring Qi Zhengyu here. Tell him there is a matter I need him to handle."
"Yes, my lady!"
When Lady Dong heard from Bai Jingyan the reason the Fourth Prince had come to visit, she thought him a clever child, brimming with filial devotion.
"But Great Yan is a foreign country. Once Physician Hong takes his pulse, he'll know the true state of the Emperor's body. Physician Hong—will he truly be all right?"
Lady Dong remained uneasy.
It had all been arranged beforehand. Yesterday, after her fifth aunt-by-marriage gave birth, Bai Jingyan had spoken of this matter to Physician Hong. Whether or not he could cure the Emperor of Yan, the physician would tell outsiders only that the Emperor of Yan had been born with an inherently frail constitution and needed to recuperate slowly over a long period.
The prescriptions Physician Hong wrote for the Emperor of Yan would likewise have to be made in two versions—one for show to outsiders, and one known to no one else—so as to avoid prying eyes.
"Mother, don't worry. I won't put Physician Hong in danger."
Lady Dong patted Bai Jingyan's hand.
"Yes. Whatever you do, your mother trusts you."
The Bai household had grown lively with the birth of little Wanjing. Her older sisters hovered about her from morning till night.
Lady Dong sat perched on the edge of the fifth aunt's bed, watching little Gounang and Yukounang amuse the baby in the cradle with toys clutched in their hands, then turned her head toward the fifth aunt.
"There is something we must discuss. We have decided to return to Suyang on the first day of the fifth month, but you've only just given birth—you mustn't be exposed to the wind. What if you were to stay here at the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence to finish your recovery, and then return to Suyang with Wanjing when the time comes?"
The fifth aunt, her head still bound with a confinement band, lowered her head and hesitated for a moment.
"Listen to me. You know how important proper recovery is."
As she spoke, Lady Dong found herself thinking of Bai Wanjing's Full-Moon Banquet—the feast held when a child turned one month old.
"The counting is still underway, but a new member of the family has arrived all the same, and that is a great joy. Grandmother sent someone with word that the Full-Moon Banquet is to be held on a grand scale. Tomorrow is Wanjing's Third-Day Washing Ceremony, so the wet nurse for the ceremony has also returned, and it's been decided she will stay here until the Full-Moon rites are done. When the time comes, I'll send an invitation card to Old Madame Ji as well—speak with her properly then. What lasting bitterness could there be between mother and daughter?"
"Yes, sister."
The fifth aunt answered with a smile.
Suddenly Bai Wanjing began to wail nonstop in her cradle, and the nanny lifted the baby and came around the folding screen into the inner room. After offering her greeting, she spoke.
"It seems the Eighth Young Miss is hungry!"
This was the fifth aunt's first time breastfeeding, and she had suffered greatly for it. She had not known that babies could break the skin while nursing, and every time she fed the child, the pain made her scalp prickle from root to tip.
But then she would look at her daughter's dear little white face, and all that suffering seemed like nothing at all.
That night, Nuoping and Qi Zhengyu returned to the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence.
Bai Jingyan met Qi Zhengyu at the Guanghua Pavilion in the courtyard. Nuoping and Chun Tao kept watch beneath the rockery, letting no one draw near.
"The eastern side of Suyang is entirely mountainous. Hide there, and you will never be discovered. I'll select a few men and attach them to you—set up a camp there and hold your position. I will soon send word through Nuoping. Until then, wait there in the guise of mountain bandits. You must stir up trouble before the Bai family returns to Suyang. That way, once we are back, we will have the perfect justification of suppressing the bandits to raise soldiers openly and without suspicion."
Bai Jingyan said.
Qi Zhengyu blinked.
"Are you saying... that you intend to raise a private army, my lady?"
Bai Jingyan nodded.
"These are troubled times. The situation shifts without cease, and the standing of strong nations and weak ones changes too quickly for anyone to predict. It may look like peace reigns over all under heaven now, but who knows when chaos will come again. That is why we must prepare in advance!"
When Bai Jingyan spoke so frankly, Qi Zhengyu hesitated no longer.
"Do not worry, my lady. I shall not fail to meet your expectations."
"Remember this. Stir up trouble, but never cost a single life, and never harm innocent common folk."
At Bai Jingyan's words, Qi Zhengyu broke into a broad smile. The eldest Bai daughter truly had not changed one bit. She was an upright woman who had always carried the people in her heart.
"Have no fear, my lady. I will see it handled well."
"Nuoping!"
Bai Jingyan called.
Nuoping answered and came out from behind the rockery.
"Speak, my lady."
"Attach twenty trustworthy loyal men to Qi Zhengyu. For funds, give him one thousand taels in silver notes to start. Then prepare another five hundred taels separately, converted into notes of small denominations, and set aside fifty taels in silver ingots as well. Qi Zhengyu must leave early tomorrow morning, so everything must be ready before then."
Nuoping glanced once at Qi Zhengyu, who had only one arm, and nodded.
"Yes."
"If anything else is needed later, send word to Nuoping. He will grant every request. Tell him the orders come from me."
"Yes."
When Qi Zhengyu looked into Bai Jingyan's eyes, sharp glints hidden within them, his heart surged. He believed she was deploying her pieces in advance—concealing the news that the Seventh Son Bai Qingjue lived, so that Bai Qingjue might raise soldiers in the region around Mount Donggao.
And now she was sending him ahead to Suyang to pose as bandits, so that soldiers could legitimately be raised to crush them.
The eldest Bai daughter intends to seize military power!
With an army in one's grasp in an age of chaos, one could overturn the entire situation and survive any crisis.
Qi Zhengyu clenched his fist, forcefully suppressing the surge of emotion. Is the eldest Bai daughter intending to overturn the imperial house's rivers and mountains?
If that was truly her aim, then Qi Zhengyu was prepared to throw this one body of his into the cause without hesitation.
He had read every campaign record. He knew how the treacherous ministers of the court raged and schemed. He had seen, all too clearly, how utterly different the Grand Princess's imperial bearing was from that of the Bai family people. Every last bit of it, Qi Zhengyu had come to hate down to the marrow of his bones.