Exquisite Timing
Bai Jingping had held out to the very end, and only when his grandfather's footsteps had faded into the distance did he at last collapse onto the floor.
He had always revered the fighting spirit of the Bai family of the Zhenguo Duke Estate in Dadu. As a son of the Bai clan, he had always been proud of it.
Yet as he grew older, he came to see that the people of the Bai clan seat in Suyang were vastly different from the Bai family of Dadu he had known only by reputation. The direct line of the clan head, in particular, tormented the collateral branches and threw their weight around Suyang under the borrowed prestige of the Dadu Bais. There had been no oversight, no restraint — and the officials of Suyang, cowed by the Dadu Bais, bent over backward to curry favor with their own clansmen. In this vicious cycle, the clan had sunk deeper and deeper into sin.
Bai Jingping was ashamed of it. Set beside the Bai family of Dadu, they hardly seemed like people of the same house at all.
The cousins of his own generation had reached the point of treating human lives like blades of grass. If this were allowed to go on, the Bai family would truly be ruined!
It made no sense to him. A conclusion even he could foresee — why could his grandfather not see it?
Bai Jingping's servant had been peering about outside the courtyard, and once he confirmed no one else was near, he hurried to his young master's side, draped a cloak over him, and whispered.
"Sixth Young Master — the Zhenguo Commandery Princess and the Gaoyi County Princess have arrived."
Bai Jingping lifted his head, his eyes going wide. His heart surged all at once.
From the day Bai Jingyan had marched out with Bai Weiting, she had never once returned to the clan seat. There had been no time — she was needed on battlefields across the realm — and afterward she had been gravely wounded and confined to recuperating in Dadu.
Even in his excitement, shame came flooding over Bai Jingping. His grandfather's own brother was squatting in the estate of their ancestors.
He wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground. The clan had brazenly paraded the Dadu Bais' prestige while committing every manner of wickedness — and at the same time, it was tormenting the women the Dadu Bais had left behind.
First, under the pretext of paying condolences, they had stripped the Dadu estate of every last piece of property. With that money the clan had carried out repairs here and there. And now they had simply moved into the renovated estate and settled in. Bai Jingping, who had read the sages' books, felt his face could not possibly be more disgraced.
The news of Bai Jingyan's return struck the Bai clan of Suyang like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, shaking it to its roots three times over.
The most uneasy man was, naturally, Master Wu, who had seized the Bai family's ancestral estate. He paced back and forth inside his room, restless as a cat on hot coals. Yet he could not even go to the clan head to confirm whether Bai Jingyan had truly come. This was the woman who had put one hundred thousand surrendered soldiers of Xiliang to the sword.
Who was to say her eyes wouldn't go bloodshot one wrong move, and she wouldn't simply draw a weapon?
Bai Jingyan held the exalted rank of Commandery Princess. She had watched the clan head approach, and had done no more than curve a faint smile at the corners of her eyes — she had not risen to greet him. The clan head, seeing that she offered no bow despite his seniority, went straight to the seat of honor, sat himself down, and said with a smile.
"Jingyan, Jinchi. You've returned — why give no word beforehand? Your granduncle was planning a welcome banquet in your honor."
His tone made it plain he meant to press them down with his standing, and Bai Jingyan set her teacup down on the table.
"I have come for the deed to the ancestral estate."
The clan head had not expected her to be so blunt, and he was badly flustered.
"The deed to the ancestral estate has been kept by the clan head, as is customary. What could compel you to come asking for it so urgently?"
He leaned on his cane with both hands and gazed at Bai Jingyan with a kindly face — for all the world like a Maitreya Buddha out of a temple painting.
"You know perfectly well why!"
Bai Jinchi let out a cold laugh.
"The estate has been fully renovated, and clan member Master Wu — your own younger brother — seized it for himself. So what do you think the reason is for asking for the deed? To take the matter to the magistrate, of course!"
The clan head's heart pounded. The smile at the corners of his eyes vanished in an instant.
Her tone held no regard for her elders whatsoever. And Bai Jingyan was not reining her in.
Denying the clan head any opening to rebuke Jinchi, Bai Jingyan lifted her teacup and blew gently across it.
"You approved of Master Wu occupying the ancestral estate as well, did you not? Clan head — did you truly believe that with only women left in Dadu, the clan could do with them as it pleased?"
The benevolent expression the clan head had been maintaining finally crumbled. He rose slowly, straightened his back, and stared straight ahead.
"By generational ranking, I stand in the same generation as your grandfather, the late King of Zhenguo. You ought to be addressing me as Granduncle! I am far your senior in age besides, and I am the clan head—"
"If we are to rank by station, one of us is a Commandery Princess and the other a County Princess. The rites of the state come first, and the rites of the family come after. Does the clan head, who has read the sages' books, not grasp so simple a principle?"
Bai Jingyan pressed lightly down on the tea leaves with the lid of her cup, then spoke with her eyes half-lidded.
"Or is it that, because Jinchi and I are young, you thought to intimidate us?"
She set the cup down hard on the table. The yellowish tea sloshed slightly over the rim.
"I have no time to circle around words with you, clan head. What the Suyang clan has done in Suyang under my grandfather's name — you know every last bit of it. And now that my grandfather is gone, you lean instead on my position as Commandery Princess. But that prestige, I will have you know, is mine to grant. Only what I give may be wielded. If I do not grant it — do you imagine the Bai family could go on rampaging through Suyang as it has?"
The clan head clenched his cane with all his strength and turned his head to look at Bai Jingyan's profile — a face that seemed to smile and not smile at once, with fire banked behind her eyes.
"Bai Jingyan! Your grandfather has hardly been dead, and already you have no sense of decorum! You don't even know how to respect your elders — your grandfather and father would hang their heads in shame. If I spread word of this, what will become of your reputation? Is that how you mean to carry on?"
"Shame? The Bai clan of Suyang repays kindness with enmity and knows no shame at all — why on earth would my grandfather and father be ashamed on their account?"
Bai Jingyan's voice grew louder with every word.
Decorum? Respect?
Those were things that existed only if Bai Jingyan chose to grant them.
If she did not extend such treatment, they had no right to receive it.
Reputation? Certainly, one ought to have a reputation. But before whom — that was the question.
A reputation among the common people she wanted, of course.
But a reputation before cowardly, despicable men of no account? She would sooner go without.
The world held no shortage of people who had handed their conscience over to the dogs and repaid kindness with enmity — and the Bai clan was precisely that breed. Her grandfather had endured, out of feeling for his own flesh and blood. But to Bai Jingyan, apart from the Dadu Bais of the main line, the Suyang Bai clan that committed injustice after injustice was worth less than an ordinary commoner.
"The deed to the ancestral estate that belonged to our Bai family's main line — will you hand it over, or will you not?"
Her voice was calm, almost indifferent — and to anyone listening, unbearably arrogant.
The clan head's fingers clamped white around his cane.
"There are no men left in the Dadu Bai family. Which makes this ancestral estate the shared heritage of the entire Bai clan — and so it must naturally revert to the clan—"
Bai Jingyan had no desire to sit there and endure a long-winded lecture of threats dressed up as persuasion.
She rose, brushed dust from her robes that wasn't even there, and walked out.
The clan head's eyes went round, and he surged to his feet.
"Bai Jingyan! An elder is speaking to you!"
"An elder? Ha!"
Bai Jinchi sneered.
"You've made a mess of everything, bullied a Bai family left with no men, and borrowed my sister's commandery prestige to commit every manner of misdeed — and now you plant your feet and bark about being an elder? Do you truly take my sister for one of those ordinary women? You think that kind of intimidation will work on her?"
Bai Jinchi cast a single glance at the teacups on the rosewood table — then crushed every one of them.
"Conserve your strength!"
"You—!"
The clan head jabbed a finger at her.
"Clan head, hold on tight to that precious face of yours. And don't come running to my sister later, begging!"
With that, Bai Jinchi left with her hands clasped behind her back. At the threshold, she turned her head to add one more thing.
"Do go spread the word. That today my sister and I committed insolence against the clan head. Then everyone will know, won't they? That relations between the Commandery Princess and the clan have soured. And once that happens — why, the Bai family's standing in Suyang will become very interesting indeed."
Having said her piece, Bai Jinchi strode out with her head held high.
"This! This! What on earth is wrong with the upbringing of the Dadu Bai family! No manners, no shame — not one of them!"
In his fury, the clan head snatched up a teacup and hurled it to the floor.
And yet, furious as he was, he could not bring himself to dispute a word Jinchi had said. However hot his temper burned, he would have to swallow it — for sooner or later, when the Dadu Bais returned to Suyang, the women among them would have nowhere to turn but the clan.
His grip tightened on his cane. Then it occurred to him again that Bai Jingyan was now a Commandery Princess — a woman of titled rank.
When his younger brother had first declared he would live in the ancestral estate, the truth was that he himself had hesitated. But his brother had argued that although Bai Jingyan had been enfeoffed as a Commandery Princess, the Southern Border campaign had left her with an unsavory reputation — and if her notoriety deepened within the clan, she would be finished for the rest of her life.
Besides, Bai Jingyan had sworn never to marry. She would spend her old age in the clan seat, living here until the day she died. She would have no choice but to curry favor with the clan, to lean upon it.
Above all, the Suyang clan and the Dadu Bais sprang from the same root — they rose and fell together. And as for the Dadu Bai family now, it was Lady Dong who held the reins in all but name. Onoya had persuaded him: once her only daughter had forfeited every shred of reputation, Lady Dong would have no choice but to swallow her grievances, if not for anything else then for the sake of her own old age.
So long as Lady Dong endured in silence, the clan head could squeeze the Dadu Bai survivors in the palm of his hand.
But judging by Bai Jingyan's bearing just now...
Would the Bai family of Dadu truly rise and fall together with the clan, as they had before?
Bai Jinchi spurred her horse alongside Bai Jingyan and said with a laugh.
"Sister, I smashed the cups. That magistrate is sure to hear of it, so by the end of the day the whole story will have spread."
"Yu Su. Is everything in readiness?"
Bai Jingyan asked Steward Yu.
"Have no worry, Eldest Young Miss. Everything is prepared."
Steward Yu answered with a smile, then went on.
"The moment the clansmen catch the scent of silver, face and dignity go straight out the window. When word spread that the clan head's grandson tried to swallow the Heavenly Fragrance Tavern without paying so much as a coin, they all came stampeding — every one of them determined to grab a share of the spoils."
"Then lunch today is at the Heavenly Fragrance Tavern!"
Bai Jinchi said, her eyes bright.
"A fine proposal from the Fourth Young Miss."
Steward Yu replied.
He had been quietly seething ever since he first came to Suyang to oversee the repairs of the ancestral estate. But now that the Eldest and Fourth Young Misses had come together, he could at last hold his head high and walk these streets with his back straight.
The late King of Zhenguo had been far too indulgent with the clan. That was why the Bai clan of Suyang, fearless of heaven itself, had groomed themselves into kings of Suyang.
The Eldest and Fourth Young Misses had to crush these people down. It was long past time they learned whose grace and whose bounty they had been eating and living off all these years.