Two Paths Diverge
And yet Lu Yuanfeng found himself quietly worried — worried that Xiao Rongyan might fail to win this woman in the end, and fall too deep into a love that could never be.
How could anyone's heart not stir at the sight of a woman so spirited and unyielding, blessed with such dazzling beauty?
Lu Yuanfeng had grown close to the Bai men who had given their lives for the country. They were all gone now, and he had come to think of Bai Jingyan as his own elder sister. To him, Xiao Rongyan was something of a teacher, something of a friend. If the gap in their stations were the only obstacle, he would have wished for nothing more than for the two of them to find happiness together.
Sima Ping hastily clamped a hand over Lu Yuanfeng's neck and steered the group toward the upper floor of the tavern, calling over his shoulder with a laugh.
"No need to hurry! Not the slightest need! Brother Xiao, escort the Commandery Princess to her residence. We'll wait for you here — and take all the time in the world, you hear? All the time in the world!"
Xiao Rongyan chuckled warmly and nodded, deftly avoiding every attempt Sima Ping made to catch his eye, pretending not to see the man's exaggerated winks.
Sima Ping and Lu Yuanfeng led the retainers upstairs. Lu Yuanfeng heaved a long sigh.
"It's such a shame that Brother Xiao is only a merchant. As his friends, we don't mind at all — but the elder in Bai sister's household is sure to object! She's the Grand Princess of our Jin dynasty, after all. Would such a woman ever send her beloved eldest granddaughter off to marry a merchant?"
Sima Ping settled into the seat beside him, still holding him by the neck, and flicked his forehead with a finger.
"Bai sister is a woman brimming with pride and righteousness. She'd never go back on her word. She swore before the biers of the King and Duke of Zhenguo that she would never marry — do you really think there's a groom waiting for her anywhere?"
"Then Brother Xiao has even less of a chance!"
Lu Yuanfeng could not fathom why Sima Ping looked so pleased about it.
"Yuanfeng. Is it possible that all your brothers inherited our grandfather's wisdom, and you only got his stubbornness?"
Sima Ping let out a sigh, then raised his brows sharply.
"So the sister swore she'd never marry. That doesn't stop Brother Xiao from marrying into her family, does it?"
Lu Yuanfeng blinked at him.
"Now you're just talking nonsense. What about Brother Xiao says 'live-in son-in-law' to you? For all that he's a merchant, his character is nobler than that of any shallow nobleman — beyond comparison. He has read the classics until he could recite them in his sleep, and he's a man of deep learning and wisdom. His family has been in trade for generations, and he's the only son, so he had no choice but to take up the family business — but if not for that, he'd have entered official service long ago. And even without a post, his scholarship alone would have secured his place in the world. Would a man like that ever consent to be taken in as a son-in-law?"
Sima Ping's eyes glittered as he stared at Lu Yuanfeng.
"Well, look at you, Yuanfeng. Since when were you capable of arguing so eloquently?"
Lu Yuanfeng flushed red and lifted his chin.
"I've always been one to speak like flowing water."
In truth, he was only parroting words he had heard from his elder brother, Ye Yuanjing.
"Don't trouble yourself over Bai sister and Brother Xiao. Everyone has their own fate to follow!"
Sima Ping thumped Lu Yuanfeng on the chest, comforting him.
The taverns and teahouses along the street blazed with lamplight, and the red lanterns hung high over the shopfronts were kindling one by one. Children ran shrieking with laughter through the lanes, and the cries of vendors hawking their wares rose from every corner.
Bai Jingyan walked side by side with Xiao Rongyan, while Yue Shi, leading her horse, fell in behind her alongside Nuo Ping.
"Master Xiao, if there's something you wish to say, please speak freely."
Bai Jingyan began.
"There's nothing in particular I must say. Only — it was thanks to you carrying my goods all the way to Mount Kongtong, Commandery Princess, that my merchant caravan was able to enter the State of Yan without incident."
Xiao Rongyan matched her slow, measured pace as he continued in an even voice.
"It was a matter of the utmost importance to me, and I am deeply grateful. I simply didn't know how best to convey that gratitude."
"Master Xiao, think nothing of it."
Both of them knew perfectly well that Bai Jingyan's people had seized Xiao Rongyan's cargo.
Bai Jingyan stopped walking and turned to face him.
"If you only meant to offer thanks, then you should head back now. Your friends are waiting at the tavern, are they not? You needn't see me further."
The moment the words left her lips, Xiao Rongyan abruptly lifted his head and looked upward. At the same instant, he seized Bai Jingyan by the shoulders, yanked her hard into his chest, and sprang backward two swift paces.
"Commandery Princess!"
Nuo Ping's eyes went round as saucers.
A flowerpot whistled down past Bai Jingyan's back and shattered against the cobblestones. Screams erupted all around them.
From above came the flustered voice of the shop boy, stammering his apologies.
"Are you all right?"
Xiao Rongyan's arm locked tight around Bai Jingyan's waist. So slender was it that he seemed afraid to press harder, as though it might snap beneath his grip.
Feeling his heart pounding against her, Bai Jingyan tilted her head back to find him frowning down at her. The soft sunset light and the gaudy glow of the streetlamps caught the sharp, clean lines of his profile, and between those vivid features, his eyes seemed darker and deeper than ever.
Every breath she drew brought the heavy scent of agarwood from the man standing far too close. She pushed at his arms, but Xiao Rongyan only tightened his hold, and the distance between them shrank further still.
His deep, still eyes gazed unblinking into hers. He said nothing at all, yet she could feel it — the intense emotion buried at the very bottom of those dark pupils.
Only when he confirmed that the Commandery Princess was unharmed did Nuo Ping finally exhale in relief. He found himself liking Xiao Rongyan more and more.
"Please forgive us. Truly, we beg your forgiveness."
The tavern keeper came scrambling over at a run, bowing and scraping in contrition.
Bai Jingyan slipped hastily out of Xiao Rongyan's arms and turned to look at the stricken keeper. Her hands were clasped behind her back, but the fingers hidden there were clenched white. Struggling to quell the tangled thoughts rising in her, she regarded the man.
"It's that wretched boy's fault!"
The keeper booted the shop boy who was cowering behind him.
"Of all moments, he had to move that flowerpot just as your distinguished selves were passing — he nearly harmed your noble person! We are so terribly sorry!"
Struck by his master, the boy shuffled back behind him, trembling. His eyes had gone red, and he was on the very edge of bursting into tears. Looking at the two figures before him — clad in costly silks, radiating an air of unmistakable nobility — he realized just how catastrophically he had blundered. His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees.
"Forgive me! I swear I never meant to do it! Please, have mercy!"
He sobbed out the plea, then struck his forehead against the ground again and again — hard enough to make the sound ring out — as he begged forgiveness.
Bai Jingyan looked down at the quivering boy and spoke quietly.
"No one was hurt, so there is nothing to forgive. Get up. Take more care in the future, so no one is injured."
"Yes — yes, my lady!"
The boy's face broke into the expression of one who had just escaped a calamity of the first order.
"Thank you, my lady! Thank you, my lady!"
"Our deepest gratitude, your grace!"
The keeper hurried to add his own.
Bai Jingyan studied the boy's face for a long moment. Only when she was satisfied that his panic and his pleading posture bore no trace of a lie did she step forward and walk on.
Xiao Rongyan switched places to walk on her other side, so that she moved along the inner edge of the street away from the crowds, then spoke with careful courtesy.
"Commandery Princess, allow me to see you home."
Bai Jingyan had meant to refuse — but meeting his gaze, so calm and so utterly sincere, she found herself nodding instead.
Xiao Rongyan escorted her to the entrance of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence, paid his respects, and departed. He did not overstep the line by so much as a hair.
Standing at the residence gate, Nuo Ping watched Xiao Rongyan and his servant recede into the distance and felt a flicker of regret. Refined and understated as he was, Xiao Rongyan looked nothing like a merchant no matter how one looked at him. Rather, he seemed like one of those deeply learned scholars, carrying himself always with an elegant air.
If only he weren't a merchant, Nuo Ping thought, he and the Commandery Princess would suit each other in every possible way.
Watching them walk side by side from behind just now, the two of them had made a remarkably fine picture.
Drawing his gaze back, Nuo Ping followed Bai Jingyan inside, then asked in a low voice.
"Commandery Princess — shall we look into that shop boy?"
"No, it was surely a coincidence. No one could have known we would take that street, or that we'd pause for a moment at the entrance of the tavern. It must have been simple chance."
Bai Jingyan answered.
Nuo Ping nodded and offered a cupped-fist salute.
"Then I shall spread word at once that you will return to Suyang the day after tomorrow."
Bai Jingyan gave a slight nod.
The news that Bai Jingyan would leave for Suyang in two days' time reached the residence of Left Prime Minister Li Mu. He summoned two of his strategists to deliberate. One of them argued that this was the moment to cut Bai Jingyan off at the root, once and for all.
But the other strategist would not agree. Bai Jingyan was hardly so foolish as to carry such letters on her person — and the Bai residence in Dadu held the Grand Princess, making it a place no one could enter easily, let alone search.
Li Mu sat beneath a wavering candle flame, watching his strategists argue back and forth, and rapped his knuckles on the table before him.
"We must not move rashly. We still don't know whether Bai Jingyan truly has those letters. First we must sound her out — and do it while she is still here in Dadu."
The older of the two strategists was dressed in blue robes. He spoke up.
"My lord, there is one method I might suggest."
"Speak."
Li Mu turned his eyes upon the man in blue.
"We have learned nothing from Munjingang's widow. The remaining letters are all entrusted to someone we can rely on, and he says they are not in the hands of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess. We cannot even confirm whether the letters truly rest in her grasp. So — why not seek a marriage alliance with her instead? Even should she become our enemy later, we would have bound her hands."
Li Mu frowned and waved a dismissive hand.
"The Zhenguo Commandery Princess swore never to marry. She refused even a prince of the State of Yan on that very pretext. She will certainly not marry into the Li family."
"My lord, I did not speak of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess. I spoke of the Gaoyi County Princess."
The strategist continued slowly.
Li Mu knitted his brows and sank into thought, staring blankly down at the table before him for a long while.
"The Gaoyi County Princess turns fifteen this year — the age when a girl's hair is pinned for betrothal. Your youngest son is three years her senior, and he has no betrothal as yet. If you and the Zhenguo Commandery Princess were bound as in-laws, then even if she did hold those letters, she could never act rashly against us."
"And if the Grand Princess and Bai Jingyan refuse?"
Li Mu lowered his head as he spoke. His youngest son was no notorious wastrel like Lu Yuanfeng, but neither was he a man of particular distinction. Would the Grand Princess and Bai Jingyan truly consent to the match?
"Then you must petition the Emperor, my lord."
The strategist in blue smiled and went on.
"Suppose the Grand Princess and the Commandery Princess refuse — once His Majesty's sacred decree descends, the matter is spilled water. The Bai family cannot defy an imperial edict. And once the two houses are bound as in-laws, we can simply take our time later to learn whether those letters truly lie within their walls."