Repaying Blood with Blood
When Bai Jingyan showed no intention of stepping down from her carriage, Li Zhijie approached it and offered an apology on his own accord.
"In the Xiliang Princess's stead, allow me to apologize to you, Commandery Princess, for yesterday's affair."
"There's no need, Prince of Yan. Hosting the Xiliang Princess and negotiating peace is tiresome work as it stands. You've labored long enough. How is your injury faring?"
Bai Jingyan asked with a light smile.
Li Zhijie pressed gently at the wound on his shoulder, then touched the thin cotton cloth wrapped around his neck.
"I'm mending. Though I have suffered no end of hardship. Ever since making peace with the Zhenguo Commandery Princess and her party, I've done nothing but collect wounds—I nearly lost my life at one point. It seems this land of Great Jin simply disagrees with my fortunes! If luck sees me return to Jin again, it will only be after the feng shui of Great Jin has shifted considerably."
Bai Jingyan concealed the sharp glint that flashed through her eyes.
"I hear you carry the ambition to turn even the feng shui of Jin's very soil?"
"Where would I find the leisure for such notions? But then, I cannot speak for the people of Jin. Since ancient times, the feng shui of the imperial house has been the feng shui of the nation itself, has it not?"
Li Zhijie continued, making a show of flipping his palm over.
"The exchange of imperial power has ever been the work of a single moment, no? You would agree with me on that, Commandery Princess, surely?"
Bai Jingyan met his gaze and smiled.
"That sounds like nothing more than sowing discord, meant to turn our sovereign and his ministers against one another."
"Whether those words are my scheming or your own heart's truth—no one knows better than you, Commandery Princess."
The corner of Li Zhijie's mouth curled upward.
"Otherwise, why else would you never have informed the Emperor of Great Jin that one more man of the Bai family still lives?"
"And it never occurred to you that this was the result of deliberation between me and the Crown Prince—His Highness, the future sovereign of Jin?"
Bai Jingyan's gaze was calm and resolute. She fixed Li Zhijie with a deep, unwavering stare.
"Let me see now... So you mean to use that affair to threaten me into taking Xiliang's side. What a pity. What you hold in your hands is not my weakness in the slightest."
Bai Jingyan's words were leisurely yet composed, carrying a force one could not help but believe.
Her expression was so serenely indifferent that Li Zhijie could find no crack in it—indeed, it shook even the suspicions he himself had harbored.
"Prince of Yan, rather than concerning yourself overmuch with the affairs of another nation here, would it not be wiser to hurry back to Xiliang and serve its Empress well? After all this, Xiliang will never reclaim its former splendor. Besides, the Xiliang Pillar State General Yun Paxing and I made a pact of three years."
Bai Jingyan's tone was cold.
"If he does not come to me, then I shall go to him myself."
Li Zhijie knew of the three-year pact between Bai Jingyan and Yun Paxing.
"Then I can only hope that three years from now, the Emperor of Jin will have relinquished his military authority to you, and that you will have lost enough soldiers to wage war against Xiliang once more. All for the private grudge of the Bai family. With that, I shall take my leave."
Li Zhijie gave Bai Jingyan a slight nod, then turned away. With his back to her, his expression had darkened.
Chun Tao lowered the carriage curtain. She felt unsettled by why the Xiliang Prince of Yan kept provoking them like this. Just then, the voice of Li Tianfu drifted from the carriage directly beside theirs.
"Bai Jingyan. I will return to Xiliang alive—and one day, you will pay me back in blood."
Bai Jinchi, riding past on horseback at that very moment between the Xiliang guards and the two carriages, caught Li Tianfu's words.
She shot a glare toward Li Tianfu's carriage. But her eldest sister acted as if nothing had happened and urged them onward, so Bai Jinchi simply followed along.
Outside the small forest dwelling of Master Guan Yongchong on Mount Anyu, Bai Jingyan waited quietly.
After a young boy delivered her message to Master Guan Yongchong, he hurried out to usher her inside.
"Master says you may enter, Commandery Princess."
"Thank you."
Bai Jingyan nodded to the boy and went inside, bringing only Bai Jinchi with her. They walked along a path flanked on both sides by bamboo groves, heading toward a small house that seemed to float upon the water.
Master Guan Yongchong and Master Cui Shi'an sat side by side, while a child in white robes knelt to one side, fanning the brazier as tea steeped over the fire.
Though it was not Bai Jinchi's first time seeing the two Grand Confucian Scholars, awe seemed to overtake her, and she moved with extra care.
When Bai Jingyan knelt and bowed, Bai Jinchi hurried to follow, offering three full salutes.
At the sight of Bai Jingyan, Master Guan Yongchong's face softened into a smile, and he nodded.
"Good child! Rise at once!"
Bai Jingyan rose and bowed once more, hands folded.
"I have brought my fourth younger sister, Jinchi, to pay you our respects, Master."
"Yes, be seated."
Master Guan Yongchong looked upon his sole female disciple, his heart warming.
Bai Jingyan answered, then knelt with Bai Jinchi across from Master Guan Yongchong and Master Cui Shi'an.
"Tomorrow is your birthday, yet I am still in mourning and unable to attend tomorrow's banquet, so I have come to pay my respects early. Master, may you live ten thousand years in good health."
Master Guan Yongchong nodded, a kind smile playing on his face. But as he looked down at the woman kneeling before him, wrapped in white mourning clothes with such steadfast eyes, he seemed to glimpse in her the bearing of his old friend, and a wave of wistful sorrow misted his eyes.
"That day, your grandfather brought you to the hut in this bamboo grove. From the moment he asked whether I could teach you, I knew how great were the hopes he placed in you."
Master Guan Yongchong spoke slowly, as though entrusting her with something precious.
"Your grandfather gave his life protecting the people of Great Jin. So the great cause of the Bai clan must now pass to you. With your abilities, you could serve an enlightened sovereign, lead the nation to strength, and see it unified—saving the people of all the lands under heaven."
Bai Jingyan pressed her lips inward and bowed deeply toward her master.
"Your disciple has something she cannot understand. I beg your instruction, Master."
"My brother Cui and I are both here today. Ask anything you wish."
Master Guan Yongchong opened the way.
"In a dream, disciple, I met my grandfather. He asked me: what should a person strive for over the course of a single life? But disciple—I could not answer. I have thought long and hard about what I must live for, yet I never found the answer. I beg you, Master, to resolve this doubt for me."
For the first time, Master Guan Yongchong read a look of bewilderment in the eyes of his most cherished disciple.
What should one live for?
Master Guan Yongchong glanced at Cui Shi'an. Cui Shi'an was gazing at the perplexed Bai Jingyan with eyes that burned bright as fire.
"A person is born into this world bearing countless desires. He nurtures his body with the desire to dress warmly and eat his fill, and propagates his line through the desire of the flesh. In time, he lives for power, for influence, for beauty. All of these are what the common man of the mundane world pursues his whole life through."
Master Cui Shi'an's words came clear and measured.
"But the sons of the old aristocratic houses spend their lives striving to rise above such ordinary, worldly things. They hand down honor and virtue, and live so as never to lose the purpose of their family line. For dignity. For faith. For principle. For their promises. For family whom they cannot cast aside even in death. To those of the old houses, such things are dearer than life itself. For a great house to stand unbroken across hundreds of years, generation after generation must carry the same purpose in their hearts—and be willing to lay down their very lives for it."
Having been born into one of the old houses himself, Master Cui Shi'an possessed a deeper insight than Master Guan Yongchong into the inheritance and continuity of aristocratic lineage.
Bai Jingyan's hands, resting on her knees, curled loosely into fists. Head bowed, she hid her reddening eyes.
For their promises...
Then even in her dream, had her grandfather commanded her to protect the mountains and rivers of Great Jin in order to keep a promise?
Was that it? The Emperor was a man without honor or righteousness—yet her grandfather, who prized promises above all, could not bring himself to betray the oath he had sworn?
Because of family whom he could not cast aside even in death...
And so her grandfather could not harden his heart, could not abandon the main branch of the Suyang Bai clan?
Bai Jingyan closed her eyes tightly, forcing down a feeling as though her chest were burning to ash.
But she was not her grandfather.
She had never sworn a pact with the imperial house. Her family was the Bai family of Dadu, and no one else.
Master Cui was teaching her through his words.
No doubt he had heard the rumor that the main branch of the Suyang Bai clan had come all the way to Dadu to stir up trouble.
Master Cui was a Grand Confucian Scholar. He taught all alike, without distinction. He was teaching her that she must not abandon the Suyang main branch—and by teaching her so, he hoped she would step onto the righteous path.
But Bai Jingyan had neither the time nor the strength to spare on those without conscience. She lived buried in the mundane world. She was not a man of Master Cui's boundless heart.
Bai Jingyan rose and bowed with utmost formality to both Grand Confucian Scholars.
"Your words have suddenly opened my mind, Masters."
"Enough, enough! Rise quickly!"
Master Cui Shi'an was ever austere, but Guan Yongchong ached for his disciple. Not wishing to prolong so heavy a topic, he changed the subject.
"Have you set a date for your return to Suyang?"
The young boy served the tea, and Bai Jingyan turned to thank him before answering with respect.
"The first day of next month. If the chance ever brings me back to Dadu, I will be sure to call on you again."
"You will come."
Master Cui Shi'an's expression was grave.
Bai Jingyan bowed her head to him.
After leaving Master Guan's bamboo grove, Bai Jinchi watched the young boy who had escorted them to the gate turn back, and her heart grew heavy once more. Descending the steps after Bai Jingyan, she asked:
"Sister, Master Cui laid special emphasis on family—does he perhaps know about the Suyang main branch?"
Bai Jingyan nodded.
"Let's go."
"And Master Cui doesn't even know what the main branch has done. Honestly, is it really all right to speak so carelessly about matters that aren't his own?"
Bai Jinchi muttered under her breath.
"He can't hold a candle to Master Guan!"
Bai Jingyan turned to look at Bai Jinchi, who was sticking out her lips in a pout, and spoke softly.
"Master Cui is a Grand Confucian Scholar, Jinchi. He carries within him a vessel far greater than that of ordinary people like us. He has his own code of honor and his own faith—repaying enemies with virtue, teaching all without distinction. That is the spirit of a Grand Confucian."
Bai Jinchi realized she had spoken out of turn and forced the corners of her mouth upward, offering Bai Jingyan a martial fist-and-palm salute.
"Jinchi spoke carelessly. My apologies."
Bai Jingyan reached out and ruffled her sister's hair.
"A man called a great scholar would surely be one of vast learning. Those hailed as Grand Confucians of their age possess not only high repute and deep knowledge, but a noble character that teaches people by example. That Master Cui could become the pillar of the literary world, revered today by scholars across the land—that he could earn such renown—all of it was earned, and for good reason."