Resolved
"Bai Jingping, you insolent wretch!"
O Noya slammed his hand down on the table with all his strength.
"Have you lost your mind? What nonsense is this, spouted in front of your elders! Is this how your teachers raised you—in courtesy and filial piety?"
Bai Jingping did not so much as glance at his clan uncle. He fixed his gaze on the clan head and raised his voice.
"My grandfather told me. Back then, our granduncle the Duke of Zhenguo wanted to take every boy in the clan who had turned fifteen to the battlefield, and all of you dredged up every excuse imaginable—even pulling strings behind the scenes—to keep the clan's children from going!
"And the clan insisted the children needed to focus on their studies, and the Duke of Zhenguo graciously built a school for us and even hired learned teachers to run it. Yet in all this great Bai clan, not a single tribute scholar has emerged. Is that because the Bai children are not clever?"
Bai Jingping shook his head.
"No, it is not! It is because the Bai sons leaned on the Dadu Bai household and lived too comfortably. They lost their ambition, and with it their will! Idle greed and pleasure-drunk laxity like this is contagious!
"Even the children of this family who once devoted themselves to learning watched those ignorant, unlettered uncles live in comfort without ever opening a book. And they watched the Duke of Zhenguo's household in Dadu City bleed and throw away their lives, enduring every hardship the battlefield had to offer, only to fall to the last man—and then watched the clan strip the flesh from their bones. After that, who in their right mind would want to be the second Duke of Zhenguo, when his whole family is being bled dry by the very clan he came from?"
Bai Jingping roared until the veins stood out on his neck. These were words he had swallowed for far too long.
Ordinarily, his father forbade him from saying such things. The moment they left his mouth, he would be branded an unfilial wretch who respected no elder—it was a foregone conclusion.
But if he went on keeping silent the way his father did, letting everything slide, the clan would walk itself straight down the road to ruin.
"Grandfather. Granduncle. And you, Aunts. Leave. Go to the Bai household in Dadu City and demand your compensation openly."
Bai Jingping's voice had gone quiet now, drained of force.
"Keep turning a blind eye while the sons of the Bai clan run wild and commit every wickedness under the sun. Let them bring the Bai family crashing down once and for all."
With that, Bai Jingping took a servant's arm and dragged his aching, strengthless legs—he had knelt all day—back toward his quarters.
"Eldest Brother! What is the meaning of this! What on earth did that boy Jingping ever learn?"
O Noya turned to the clan head, whose face was black with fury.
"No respect for his elders at all! He doesn't even hold you in his eyes!"
The clan head said nothing. In silence, he turned his grandson's words over and over in his mind.
It was true. No matter how exalted a man's power, he had never once seen one abandon his own clan.
But for the son of a household to cast off the clan was not, strictly speaking, against the law. There was no precedent—yet there was no guarantee Bai Jingyan would not create one.
More than that—Bai Jingyan was the one who had burned and slaughtered more than a hundred thousand surrendered soldiers of Xiliang. That alone told him exactly how ruthless and unflinching she could be.
When the clan head tried to imagine the consequences of Bai Jingyan casting the clan out, his grip tightened white-knuckled around his cane.
He clenched his teeth and spoke.
"Your family moves out of this estate today! Return to your own house!"
O Noya flinched.
"Eldest Brother! You—you are my own brother..."
"Out means out! Do you defy the clan head's word now?"
The clan head glared at O Noya, eyes blazing.
O Noya hunched his shoulders and managed a sheepish smile.
"Brother, I... lost the old house to gambling, remember..."
"You cursed wretch!"
Fury boiling over, the clan head struck the floor again and again with his cane.
"When you begged me to win the house back, what did you say! You swore you would never gamble again!"
O Noya mumbled and fidgeted.
"I didn't think the Bai Weiting household would ever come back. The ancestral estate was sitting empty anyway—we're Bai descendants too, aren't we? What's wrong with moving in!"
The clan head's anger rose so high he could scarcely draw breath. Clutching his chest, he forced the words out.
"If you want your grandson freed, get out of this estate—now! You will take the deed to the ancestral house and go to Dadu City. Even if it means throwing this old man's dignity in the dirt, you will beg Bai Jingyan to release the children."
"Then where is our family supposed to live?"
O Noya asked.
Looking at his maddening younger brother, the clan head felt something beyond helplessness—something close to despair.
"Do you take me for a fool who doesn't know how much silver you have hidden in your hands? Four days ago you seized an estate with its own hot springs from the Wang family. Several hundred mu of fertile farmland besides! Move house, buy a new estate, do as you please—but you will be out of the ancestral house before the first day of the fifth month!"
Having spoken his final word, the clan head ordered the servants to pack. He would leave for Dadu City himself, first thing tomorrow morning.
"Sister, are we truly leaving like this? Without paying our respects to Teacher Xiao?"
Bai Jinchi asked.
"I sent someone to the Guike Inn. Just to pass along a word."
Bai Jingyan turned to look at Bai Jinchi.
"You seem to think very well of Teacher Xiao?"
"Don't you like him, Sister?"
Bai Jinchi asked, half testing her.
Bai Jingyan only smiled at her young sister and gave no answer.
Where, after all, would she find the leisure to long for anyone?
The moment Bai Jingyan's party rode out of Shanyang City, the prefect and his retinue were waiting outside the walls.
Seeing them coming at a gallop, the prefect hurried forward and blocked Bai Jingyan's horse.
"My respects to Your Highness."
Bai Jingyan stayed in the saddle, regarding the prefect with an expression that was neither smile nor frown.
"You seem remarkably well informed about my movements, Prefect."
"Hardly so, Your Highness. Word merely reached us that you had left Shanyang and were returning to Dadu City. Of late, bandits have been appearing in the outskirts of Shanyang, killing travelers and plundering their goods—hardly a day passes without an incident. Anxious for Your Highness's safety, I have taken the liberty of dispatching a hundred elite soldiers to escort you all the way to the capital."
The prefect answered with a smile.
"I'll accept the sentiment. Mere bandits hold no terror for me."
Bai Jingyan replied as though it were a matter of no consequence.
The prefect lifted his head, smile still in place, and gazed up at her where she sat holding the reins.
"Your Highness, you must not make light of these bandits. Not long ago, even the famed Zhentian Escort Agency was stripped bare by them. Caution would be the wiser course."
"Noted."
Bai Jingyan gave her answer and rode on.
The bandit troubles were only beginning. When Bai Jingyan returned to Shanyang, Qi Zhengyu would turn those 'bandit troubles' into a full-blown 'Bandit Rebellion'.
Liang troops were massed at Mount Hongjue. Their intent was unknowable, and so General Zhang Danyue had led his soldiers to Mount Chunmu to hold the frontier. For that reason, the Jin court had no strength to spare for bandits at present.
And that—precisely that—would be the moment for Bai Jingyan to step forward for her country.
Her party sped along a mountain path rarely traveled by man. At a fork in the route, she sent the others on ahead, and taking only Bai Jinchi and two personal guards, turned toward the place where she had arranged to meet Qi Zhengyu.
Qi Zhengyu was a bold man. He had asked Bai Jingyan to come to where his men were encamped. The mountain trails were treacherous and the slopes steep; it was nearly nightfall by the time she arrived.
Bai Jingyan and Qi Zhengyu stood atop the mountain and surveyed the surrounding terrain.
"In all the Weiling range, Mount Niujiao has the finest ground. It sits at the very heart of the range, with a flat, broad summit and perilous approaches on every side. A river runs beneath the steep slopes, and if we clear terraced fields to till and sow, we can be self-sufficient! Even when our numbers swell, we'll never once worry about running short of provisions!"
Qi Zhengyu spoke with barely contained vigor.
Dusk had not yet fully closed in. Bai Jingyan looked over the terrain, recalling how she herself had labored up here only a short while ago, and nodded.
"For the soldiers you will lead, quality matters more than quantity. You will build them with the same heart I had when I formed the Haoying Battalion. But differently from the Haoying Battalion."
Qi Zhengyu started. He had believed his sole duty was to manufacture 'bandit troubles'.
Bai Jingyan turned her head. Concealing the keen edge in her eyes, she looked at him.
"Shen Liangyu will train his men in the Southern Border by my fifth uncle's methods. Shen Liangyu can readily draw useful men straight from the army—you cannot. So do not shackle yourself to convention. Train your soldiers in your own way, and train them until their fighting strength rivals the Haoying Battalion's."
Meeting the eldest young lady's gaze—deep as the open sea—Qi Zhengyu felt his heart begin, for no reason he could name, to pound.
Scarcely had Bai Jingyan and Bai Jinchi reached Dadu City when Lady Dong told them that on the tenth day of the fourth month—tomorrow, in fact—Princess Li Tianfu of Xiliang would enter the Crown Prince's residence.
Bai Jingyan had already sensed that Li Tianfu and Liu Chentuo harbored feelings for one another.
Whether his loyalty to the Crown Prince was true or feigned, this matter had to be made known to him plainly—Li Tianfu might well borrow the Crown Prince's power to work mischief.
"The invitation from the Crown Prince's residence arrived the very day you set out."
Lady Dong sat at the tea table by the window and lifted her cup. When Bai Jingyan emerged from changing her clothes, she set the cup down and went on.
"Your mentor, old Teacher Guan, stood at the Wude Gate that day and argued your case before the students. And the Crown Prince took your side as well. The Guozijian students went home at a loss for words. I doubt anyone will dare make trouble over the Xiliang surrendered soldiers again.
The Crown Prince said this: that the battlefield situation was so desperate that had they not killed the enemy, it was they who would have died. That had the Xiliang surrendered soldiers been spared, the great army of Jin would have perished. And that had Jin's forces numbered over two hundred thousand—even over one hundred thousand—you would never have laid a hand on surrendered soldiers at all."
Lady Dong said this with a smile.
"The Crown Prince commanded the campaign in person this time. His word will carry the most weight of anyone's."
Bai Jingyan had already heard the story by the time she returned to the estate. Chun Tao, chattering at her elbow, had recounted the whole day's events down to the last detail.
For her mentor to step forward and speak in her defense was loyalty and affection both.
But as if Bai Jingyan wouldn't know why the Crown Prince had taken her side. He wanted her in his debt—that was all.
"Chun Tao already told me everything."
Bai Jingyan settled onto the tea table by the window, accepting the cup Chun Tao handed her, and asked,
"Has the Lu Yuanfeng affair been resolved?"
Chun Tao held out a black-lacquered tray, shook her head, and answered slowly.
"The verdict has not yet been handed down, but the coroner Yu Sanjin established that Ren Xin'an died of suffocation. There was a finding that it bore no relation to the injuries Young Master Lu inflicted. But that alone, it seems, was not enough to prove Young Master Lu did not kill her. The Minister of the Court of Judicial Review is still investigating. A result should come soon."
"And you and Jinchi? Did the clan give you any trouble?"
Lady Dong worried that her daughters might have been mistreated.
"Nothing of the sort. Please don't worry."
Bai Jingyan said with a smile.
"And I expect someone from the clan will come calling soon enough, deed to the house in hand."
Lady Dong knew how capable her daughter was, and nodded. So long as she had not been made to suffer for nothing, that was enough for her.
"Mother, there is no need to indulge the clansmen any further. Grandfather let them run unchecked all these years, and now they've forgotten to fear heaven itself. They are greedy to the bone—give them an inch and they demand a mile. With nothing but women left of us now, if we let them run wild any longer, they will take our forbearance for fear and grow only more unruly."
Lady Dong had endured all she could bear already, and she nodded.
"I know as much."
How could Lady Dong fail to grasp such reasoning? And yet her father-in-law, Bai Weiting, had stressed all his life how vital it was for the clan to live in harmony—a family meant to stand a hundred years.
Only when a family was at peace, Bai Weiting had said, could the men waging war in the Southern Border fight the enemy with their whole strength, unburdened by worries at home.
Old Taijun Dong too, from Lady Dong's girlhood, had taught her how crucial the harmony of the clan was if a household was to secure its place in this world.
But a clan like the Shanyang Bais was nothing more than dead weight, dragging the whole family down into an abyss.
That afternoon, the Lu Yuanfeng affair was resolved. Ren Xin'an had died at another's hand, and her mother, frightened into submission by threats, confessed that she had framed Lu Yuanfeng.
According to Ren Xin'an's mother, Ren Xin'an had somehow come into five hundred taels of silver from a source she could not name. The benefactor, she said, was a person of great power—and Ren Xin'an had once been given instructions, at Fanjuelou no less, to spread the tale of how Bai Jingyan had slaughtered surrendered soldiers, so as to shatter her reputation.