242. Interceding
Bai Jingyan thought of the State of Wei, which bordered Great Yan. The ruler of Wei was the sort of man who would be driven mad with heartache if he failed to snatch up any profit that came within reach.
And Xiliang was already in dire straits, barely keeping its own head above water. If the main force of Great Yan's army crossed over into Rong territory, and word reached Wei that Jin and Yan had drawn up against each other in confrontation — wouldn't even Wei begin to stir with thoughts of invading Yan?
Bai Jingyan lifted her head and looked at Xiao Rongyan.
"Master Xiao, it has been a long while since you were able to return to your homeland, hasn't it? If Yan and Jin truly do go to war, what move do you suppose Wei will make? Wei's territory borders both Xiliang and Great Yan. And their ruler hardly seems the type to sit back and grow complacent in the current situation."
Xiao Rongyan nodded.
"That is so. He may not harbor the grand ambition of unifying the realm, but he does covet the position of foremost among the states. He will make some move, without a doubt."
Xiao Rongyan had already sent agents into Wei with orders to report immediately at the first sign of anything suspicious.
Once Bai Jingyan returned to Suyang, Xiao Rongyan was to leave Dadu as well.
Xiao Rongyan found himself recalling what Bai Jingyan had once said. She was struggling to hold her ground in Jin, and Great Yan was likewise tottering among the rival states. They were, in effect, walking across a thin sheet of ice. Which was precisely why embracing a betrothal now was clearly not suited to their present circumstances.
But that did not mean they would never be able to.
"Eldest Miss, Fourth Miss."
As soon as Steward Xue stepped through the door, he offered his greetings, then inclined his head toward Xiao Rongyan.
"Nanny Zhang has escorted the clan head and the elders of the clan kin to the Longevity Garden."
Perhaps because Xiao Rongyan was present, Steward Xue delivered the message rather vaguely.
In truth, that very morning the clan head of the Suyang kin had marched in with the elders and thrown yet another tantrum. And it was then that the Grand Princess learned of the matter as well.
Bai Jingyan and Bai Jinchi had barely finished escorting Xiao Rongyan to the parlor when the clan kin arrived. The Grand Princess heard the news, and Nanny Zhang came out at once to relay that Her Highness wished the clan head and the elders brought to the Longevity Garden.
Bai Jingyan looked up at Steward Xue.
Is Grandmother intending to step into this matter herself?
Xiao Rongyan rose and bowed to Bai Jingyan and Bai Jinchi.
"It seems you are both busy, so I shall take my leave."
"Steward Xue, see Master Xiao out."
"Yes, miss!"
Steward Xue smiled at Xiao Rongyan.
"This way, Master Xiao."
Bai Jinchi saw Xiao Rongyan to the entrance of the main hall, then hurried back and frowned at Bai Jingyan.
"Eldest sister, should we go and see for ourselves?"
Bai Jingyan's mother, Lady Dong, wished to sever ties with the Suyang clan kin entirely, and had conveyed as much to the Grand Princess. There was no way of knowing whether the reason Grandmother had summoned the clan kin was to cut them off — or to persuade them deftly enough to preserve the current arrangement.
Bai Jingyan kept her head lowered, her fingers lightly brushing the edge of the table. Only after a long moment did she rise and speak.
"Let's go."
The Longevity Garden.
According to the rank and dignity of each man, the clan head and the elders were all seated beyond the folding screen. On the upper side of the Grand Princess's chamber in the Longevity Garden, precious goods were displayed in lavish abundance — a bedcurtain strung with white jade and crimson agate, celadon vases of exquisite, limpid color — everything the eye fell upon was a rare treasure.
The clan head's chest burned with covetousness. Bai Weiting had passed from the world, yet the wealth of the Bai family in Dadu City remained as abundant as ever.
One of the clan elders, remembering the silver ingots seized from the clan head's son Bai Qiyun, ground his teeth in fury. It occurred to him that Bai Qiyun might well have been cheated by the Dadu Bais. Last time they had claimed to have sold off the entire family business, but apparently the Bai family had suffered no real blow at all.
Beyond a coral-and-redwood folding screen inlaid with jadeite, the Grand Princess could be faintly glimpsed seated in the inner chamber, turning a string of prayer beads wrapped around her arm. Upon a table of agarwood rested a golden censer cast in the shape of an auspicious three-legged beast, and from it a thin wisp of white smoke rose, filling the room with a heavy, lingering fragrance.
"Are we not all Bais, sharing the same blood? The Commandery Princess may hold an exalted rank, but she cannot deny that she is a descendant of the Bai clan. Yet instead of wishing for our clan's prosperity, how can she order Lady Dong to expel her own cousins from the family? I'll grant that those unruly boys were thoughtless and earned her displeasure — but they are still family! Should Her Highness not overlook it with magnanimity? I simply cannot fathom how things have been driven to this pass."
The clan head was still grumbling out his grievances before the Grand Princess, yet she sat in silence, like an old monk settled deep into meditation.
"And Lady Dong is no better. She is a daughter-in-law of the Bais, yet the moment she opens her mouth it is to confess sins against the ancestors and declare she will withdraw from the Bai clan kin. Does she think leaving the clan is as easy as she makes it sound? Above all, only the women remain of the Bai family in Dadu now! Even if Lady Dong declares she will leave the clan, how could we possibly cast out a Dadu household of nothing but women? If we truly let them go, how savagely would the people of the realm point fingers at the Bai clan kin?"
The Grand Princess stopped turning her prayer beads and lifted her teacup with a light hand, taking a sip of tea.
The clan head, who had talked himself dry and was about to drink as well, only then realized that the Grand Princess had not offered him so much as a single cup.
She set down her gold-inlaid celadon teacup and spoke in a composed voice.
"Has the Bai family of Dadu City ever owed the clan kin a debt?"
For a moment the clan head was thrown into confusion.
"I am the Grand Princess of Great Jin, and I sit here alive and well before you. And despite that, they dared to torment my daughter-in-law and my granddaughters? Then when this old body dies, do they intend to swallow my children whole?"
The Grand Princess's complexion did not change in the slightest. Perhaps from her long periods of fasting and devotion in prayer, even her voice was as calm as the surface of a still lake.
The click of the prayer beads and the Grand Princess's voice reached their ears together, and at her words the clan head started violently, hastily sinking to his knees with his staff clutched in his hand.
"Your Highness, the Grand Princess, we beg you to render a wise judgment. The clan kin have never once harbored such a thought!"
The elders hurriedly knelt after him, begging forgiveness of the Grand Princess.
"The clan kin know better than anyone how much they have enjoyed, leaning on the prestige of the Bai family of Dadu City all these years. And they know, too, that without the Dadu Bais, the road ahead for the Suyang clan would be full of hardship. So do not stand before this old woman spouting pretty words and spinning your petty schemes to deceive me. I may be old, but I have not turned into a fool."
"Your Highness, that is absolutely not what we meant!"
The Grand Princess continued speaking with an untroubled face, her eyes closed.
"I let you all carry on with your ruckus outside the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence, and had my personal nanny escort you politely inside. Do you know why?"
The clan head gazed toward the inner chamber beyond the folding screen. In the Grand Princess — her white hair smoothly combed up, seated with a dignity both composed and grave — the majesty of the imperial house flowed naturally outward.
The clan head bowed and spoke.
"Your Highness's bosom is as broad as the sea. Naturally, you would wish to see the clan kin living together in warmth and harmony."
The Grand Princess shook her head.
"This old servant is nothing but a woman, and a narrow-minded one at that. When the clan kin raised their ruckus outside the Commandery Princess's residence — was it not because you wished all the people of the realm to know of it? Did you not wish to brand the Zhenguo Commandery Princess as a petty creature without measure or conscience, one who would not even aid her own Bai clan kin?
But what a thing this is. The Commandery Princess may be of the Bai family, yet I am not a Bai. I hold the rank of Grand Princess, and I am the Emperor's own paternal aunt. If one so exalted as I were to take ill from anger at the clan kin's rampage, then the Commandery Princess could, in the name of filial piety, confess sins against the ancestors and cut the clan kin away entirely. And who would point a finger at her for it? They would say instead: if she would not even hold the Grand Princess in her eyes, how must she have looked down on her own kin."
There was neither warmth nor coldness in the Grand Princess's voice, neither sorrow nor joy to be read in it.
"Have you never considered that this might be the perfect moment for me — the present Grand Princess — and the Commandery Princess, the rightful legitimate eldest daughter of the Bai line, to perform the ancestral rites and cut you, the clan head and elders, out of the clan? To sever the clan kin's descendants from the family altogether? It would be no great feat at all."
The Grand Princess went on in a dismissive, offhand manner, as though every matter hung upon a single word from her lips. With one word she could exalt the Suyang Bai clan kin to the very heavens; with one word she could cast them into hell.
To her, they were nothing of any worth — creatures no better than wretched trash.
"The conduct of officials ever follows the heart of the throne. Would the officials of Suyang dare to cast out the descendants of the Bai clan kin? How could they possibly dare to stand in opposition to me, the Grand Princess, or come up against the Zhenguo Commandery Princess?"
The Grand Princess's hand, which had been turning the prayer beads, stopped. She opened her eyes and asked:
"There are two roads before you. Which do you think is the better one?"
"Your Highness!"
The clan head jerked his head up.
"Zhenguo King Bai Weiting's dearest wish was for our Bai clan to flourish as one!"
The Grand Princess nodded.
"And is that not why I have been turning a blind eye to your outrages all this while? If you had any sense, you would have kept to your place. But you knew no bounds — you dared to sully even my granddaughter's name. Even had Bai Weiting lived, he would never have let this stand."
With a cold light in her eyes, Nanny Zhang watched the clan head across the folding screen, his face frozen in shock.
Having spoken this far, the Grand Princess called for Nanny Zhang.
"Nanny Zhang."
Nanny Zhang, standing at the Grand Princess's side, answered.
"This servant obeys!"
"Tell Wei Zhong to summon the imperial physician at once. Say that the Grand Princess, unable to withstand the pressure of these insolent clan kin, has coughed up blood and collapsed — and that the physician must come quickly to save her life."
The Grand Princess continued on in a leisurely tone.
"Your Highness! Your Highness, please withdraw your command! Grant the clan kin a path to live!"
"Your Highness, we have done wrong. We beg you, withdraw your command! Are we not family? Please, withdraw it!"
The clan kin hastily dropped to their knees, weeping and pleading; then, catching sight of Nanny Zhang circling out from behind the folding screen, they fell to their knees before her as well, blocking her path.
The Grand Princess went on drinking her tea while the clan head bowed again and again, begging forgiveness.
"Your Highness, please forgive us! With Zhenguo King's support, the clan's fortunes have only grown better all these years! Your Highness, for the sake of all the King's devotion, you cannot do this to the clan kin!"
Unwilling to listen to another word from them, the Grand Princess spoke to the maid standing at her side.
"Tell Nuoping to bring his men and throw those people out of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence. And tell him there is to be no leniency whatsoever."
"Your Highness, please withdraw your command! Please!"
A woman of such exalted rank as the Grand Princess had little desire to waste words on people no better than brute beasts. But Nanny Zhang had things that had to be said.
Folding her hands respectfully before her, Nanny Zhang spoke in a fierce voice.
"All this while, the clan kin have leaned on the prestige of the Bai family of Dadu City to run rampant in Suyang, tormenting the common people and committing countless crimes. The clan head's own brother went so far as to seize the ancestral estate by force, and dragged the honor of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess and the Crown Prince through the mud!
The Bai family has indulged the Suyang clan kin far too generously for far too long. That is why they have lost all fear of heaven itself and tried to play their games over the Bai family's head."
The clan head's eyes flew wide open, and crawling forward on his knees, he bowed low.
"Your Highness, we have done wrong! When I return to Suyang, I will discipline my brother properly, I swear it! Please, spare us! Are we not family, sharing the same blood? Give the clan kin a chance to repent and set foot on the proper path!"
Until now, Bai Jingyan had never been able to disregard the clan head's dignity entirely. Lady Dong, too, had always treated him as an elder of the family — and had shown her resolve only after his son went so far as to defile her own child's honor.
But the Grand Princess was an imperial princess of the highest standing before she was ever a daughter-in-law of the Bais — and she was not even a Bai by blood. She had endured the clan kin all this time only out of regard for the devotion Bai Weiting had poured upon them.