Blind Indulgence
Bai Jinxiu's face had gone dark as well. She set her teacup down on the table with a hard clack.
"Shameless wretches, all of them!"
"The estate had barely finished renovations—before Manager Liu had even returned—when Fifth Master's family slithered right in and set up their own household. They claim the ancestral estate in Suyang has been passed down through the Bai clan for generations, and that it must go to the eldest legitimate son and his descendants..."
Nanny Dong twisted her handkerchief in her hands, her eyes rimmed with red as she spoke.
"They actually had the gall to say that since there's no man at the Bai Manor to inherit the ancestral tablets, the estate naturally reverts to the clan. And they said they'd obtained the clan head's permission to live there for years! If the Bai women ever return, they'll graciously—out of pity for us—build a wall straight down the middle and hand over half. And the wall has to be built high, mind you, otherwise the Eldest Young Lady's killing aura might drift over and reach them!"
Bai Jinxiu could bear it no longer. She slammed her palm against the table.
"Are the clan members out of their minds right now? If this was what they intended, they should have made their move long ago! Instead they wait until the renovations are finished and then swagger in without a shred of shame. Just how far do they intend to trample our Bai family?"
"Fifth Master's family says they have nothing to fear, and they've already summoned workers to start raising the wall. Manager Liu assigned men to stop them by any means necessary, then hurried back at once to report to Madam."
Nanny Dong panted heavily as she finished.
Bai Jingyan's face darkened. It felt as though a fire were roaring in her chest. Like bloodsucking leeches, they had latched onto the Bai family and fed off it for years—and now that the men of the Bai clan were all gone, they threw dignity and decency to the wind, determined to wring out whatever more they could!
Old Madam Gu had been right. Give someone rice by the peck and they'll be grateful; give it by the measure and you only breed greed. It had been her grandfather's and her father's forbearance that fattened the clan's appetite.
"Are you going to go there yourself, Eldest Sister?" Bai Jinxiu asked.
"First, I'll change."
Since Nanny Dong had not caught every detail, Bai Jingyan decided to go and question Manager Liu directly.
She would also need to confirm whether the deeds and title documents to the ancestral estate were in the clan's hands, or whether her grandfather had kept them himself.
If both the deeds and the titles were accounted for, the matter would be easy to settle. If not, she would have to find another way.
Though Bai Jinxiu was married, the affairs of the Bai family still weighed on her. The moment Bai Jingyan emerged in fresh attire, they went together to see Lady Dong. Manager Liu had not yet returned home.
Lady Dong's anger had turned her face a livid shade of blue, and the handkerchief she clutched was crushed beyond shape. Curses seemed poised to fly from her lips, but propriety and dignity held her barely in check.
When Bai Jingyan and Bai Jinxiu entered and paid their respects, Manager Liu sprang to his feet, his eyes reddening as he bowed.
"Eldest Young Lady! You've returned safe and sound from the Southern Border!"
Every time news of the southern campaigns reached Suyang, Manager Liu's heart had been in his throat. Then came word that the Eldest Young Lady had slaughtered over a hundred thousand surrendered Liang troops and won a great victory—joy and dread seized him at once. He burned incense before the tablets of the late Duke and prayed with tears in his eyes, begging Bai Weiting and Bai Qishan to keep her safe.
And now, seeing Bai Jingyan appear unharmed before him, his heart swelled all over again.
"Yushu, I've caused you worry."
Bai Jingyan smiled at Manager Liu.
"Yushu, sit. Nanny Dong has told me a little about the matter at the Suyang estate. Tell me everything in detail."
Manager Liu gave Bai Jingyan a full account of what had happened in Suyang. It matched what Nanny Dong had said, but with the finer points added.
Old Manager Niu, who had been charged with keeping watch over the ancestral estate, had been bribed by Fifth Master, and even the renovations had been carried out according to blueprints the clan's Fifth Master had prepared in advance. Their scheme had been to enjoy a comfortable life on the Bai Manor's coin.
When Manager Liu arrived in Suyang, Fifth Master had pulled out blueprints drawn up in his wife's quarters, sketched a few rough lines, and divided the compound in two. More than half would go to them, leaving the Bai family only a sliver. The larger portion, they insisted, was where they had already been staying all along. Since the Bai Manor held nothing but women, they declared that all the halls meant for men were obviously going to waste, so they would use them.
While putting on the airs of bestowing kindness upon the Bai women, they had been treating the estate their Bai ancestors left behind as their own property.
Later, when Sixth Master of the clan learned of it, he demanded his own share from Fifth Master, and the two brothers came to blows.
Once the fight broke out, the whole clan knew. Some thought the whole affair disgraceful; others came sniffing around, hoping to grab a piece of the spoils.
There was even someone who went so far as to tell Lady Dong to have her own sons adopted into the Bai family registry. Fifth Master had gone too far, this person argued, but with all the Bai men dead, this mess was the inevitable result—if Lady Dong would simply choose one man from the clan and register him under the Bai name, he could inherit the estate and everything else. Utter nonsense, from beginning to end.
In short, it was a circus.
Having watched the spectacle, Manager Liu first sent men to halt the construction of the wall, then reasoned that since the clan was too busy fighting among itself to cause further trouble, nothing worse would happen for the time being—and so he had returned to report.
"Mother, are the land deeds and title documents to the ancestral estate all in your keeping?" Bai Jingyan asked.
Lady Dong shook her head, brow furrowed.
"If they'd all been kept in our household, the clan could never have swaggered about so brazenly! We hold the land deeds, but the title documents are with the clan."
The position of clan head had originally been reserved for the eldest legitimate son of each generation, and so the Bai family's title documents had been kept in the clan hall. But by the time of Bai Jingyan's great-great-grandfather, every legitimate heir had fallen in battle, and a son of a concubine had been adopted into the line of Bai Jingyan's great-great-grandmother and given the clan headship.
By that same logic, when the generations came down to her grandfather Bai Weiting, his full younger brother should have inherited the clan headship—except, by ill luck, her grandfather had none.
After lengthy discussion, the concubine's son adopted into their great-great-grandmother's line was allowed to remain clan head, and he later passed the position down to his own son.
Neither her great-grandfather nor her grandfather had ever once thought to claim the title documents for themselves, so they had remained with the clan all this time.
With the land deeds but without the title documents, the matter grew far more cumbersome.
"In the past, the Zhenguo Duke Estate shielded the Bai clan of Suyang, and now that the Eldest Young Lady has been conferred as Commandery Princess, the Suyang clan members swagger about like lords of all they survey. They've basked in the blessings of the Zhenguo Duke Estate in the old days and of the Eldest Young Lady now—and this is how shamelessly they repay it!
"They say the Suyang clan has done every wicked thing imaginable these past years. 'It's the Zhenguo Duke Estate that lets the Suyang clan throw its weight around,' everyone said. And now that the estate has finally fallen, another woman of the Bai family appears and becomes a Commandery Princess—so the Suyang Bai clan will only grow more unruly. I heard them muttering among themselves about how heaven is unjust."
Every time Manager Liu heard such words, rage boiled up inside him.
He had not told Lady Dong or Bai Jingyan that someone had recently been spreading word through Suyang about the Eldest Young Lady killing the surrendered troops. The Suyang clan's outrages were so notorious that the people there had already assumed Bai Jingyan must be a cruel, cold-blooded creature herself.
Her reputation had been in ruins before she ever set foot in Suyang—which was precisely why the clan dared to seize the estate so openly.
"Yushu, if there's anything more to say, say it freely."
Bai Jingyan watched Manager Liu hesitate and prompted him.
Manager Liu glanced once at Lady Dong, wavered, then frowned.
"Since word of your conferment as Commandery Princess reached Suyang, someone has been spreading the tale of you killing the Liang surrendered troops, inflating it further with every telling. And with the clan running wild in Suyang, the common folk who've suffered at their hands are starting to say that the reason our Bai men died in the war was..."
Manager Liu couldn't finish. It was a long while before he spoke again.
"And... the moment news of your conferment arrived, the Suyang authorities, it seems, invited the clan members to their offices and feted them lavishly. In any case, for all these reasons, the rumors about you among the people of Suyang are... not good."
Bai Jingyan didn't so much as twitch at the words—but Lady Dong shot to her feet.
"While your father lived, the clan ran roughshod over every law and custom, trusting in him alone to shield them—and the authorities covered it all up out of respect for his name. So the people's resentment was anything but small! That is why the people of Suyang came to loathe the Duke's estate! And now they torment our Bai family's bereaved, and use my daughter to line their pockets besides! Just how much do they think they can trample on us?"
"Mother."
Bai Jingyan rose and steadied her, gently smoothing her back.
"Mother, don't be so angry. I'll deal with the clan myself. You'll be satisfied—I promise you."
"I couldn't say it before for fear of distressing Madam further. If the Eldest Young Lady says she can resolve this, then it will surely be resolved well. Please, Madam, don't be so angered."
Manager Liu soothed her.
Supported by Bai Jingyan, Lady Dong sank back into her chair, grinding her teeth.
"This cannot be left alone. The clan's greed knows no bounds—no bottom and no end. Your grandmother is still living, and you hold the rank of Commandery Princess, yet they harass us like this just because there's no man in the house. If we return to Suyang as we are, who knows what they'll do to us! We must find a way."
"I'll devise the way, Mother. You need only think about how to arrange the family for our return."
Bai Jingyan took her mother's hand.
"Trust me, Mother."
"And do you have some clever scheme up your sleeve?"
Lady Dong lifted her head and looked at her daughter.
"In truth, the clan is counting on this: that once we return to Suyang, we'll have no choice but to swallow our grievances and lean on them."
Bai Jingyan sat down beside Bai Jinxiu.
"All these years, the clan bullied the people of Suyang and committed outrage after outrage by leaning on Grandfather's power. And now they're selling me—draped in the empty title of Commandery Princess.
"To fix the problem of men like the Suyang clan at its root, you simply stop giving them any authority to lean on."
Bai Jingyan turned to Manager Liu.
"The Suyang Bai clan has no shortage of descendants. Plenty of them are all glitter on the outside and hollow within, aren't they? More than a few have blood on their hands, I'd wager. And plenty more are drifting through life as idle rabble?"
Manager Liu nodded.
"Then that's enough. I'll go to Suyang myself and ask the clan head for the title documents—and I'll ask about Fifth Master's affairs while I'm at it. If the clan head hands over the documents and orders Fifth Master out of the estate, then, being kin, I'll let the matter rest. But if he refuses..."
Bai Jingyan's eyes turned icy.
"Yushu, you spent months in Suyang, so you know exactly what manner of temper the clan's sons and grandsons carry. Do it the way you do best. Lay the board, and draw every last one of the clan's rabble out into the open. Then they'll hand over the title documents with their own hands."
Manager Liu nodded. When someone laid out the method, at the very least the main path became clear.
"As the Eldest Young Lady commands!"
She would go to the clan head wearing the authority of a Commandery Princess and demand the return of the title documents. And if the clan head refused to yield them—then she would grind the clan into the dust if she must, for there was no other way to scrub the Bai family's ill name from the hearts of the people of Suyang.