A Crack Is Where the Wind Gets In
The strategist in the white robe shook his head slowly.
"If the Zhenguo Commandery Princess and the Grand Princess refuse to accept this match, it may only enrage the two of them. And if in their fury they present that letter to His Majesty or the Crown Prince — what then will you do?"
At the white-robed strategist's words, the advisor in the blue robe's eyes flashed as he looked toward Li Mu.
"Left Chancellor, how would it be to have Your Ladyship enter the palace and ask Consort Yu, the Crown Prince's birth mother, to serve as matchmaker? First let the two young people become betrothed, and let the wedding be held only after the Gaoyi County Princess has completed her mourning period! Even if the Zhenguo Commandery Princess and the Grand Princess will not consent to the marriage, there would still be room to turn it back. And it would spare you from appearing to take any rash measures."
The blue-robed advisor's eyes grew brighter still.
"The Zhenguo Commandery Princess will surely try to threaten you, by any means necessary, into dissolving this match. That is when you tell her that the letter must be verified before the match can be broken — that you will only refrain from smearing the Gaoyi County Princess's name if the letter is shown to you. At that point, we would know whether the letter truly rests in the Commandery Princess's hands.
"And if the letter really is in her possession, and the Commandery Princess truly wants nothing more than her family's safety and peace, then there is no reason to move against the Bai clan for the Liang King's sake. She would have no cause to bring ruin upon herself."
The strategist in the white robe nodded along, looking thoroughly approving.
"Even if the letter is not in her hands, there is no loss to you if the Left Chancellor's son can secure the Gaoyi County Princess as his betrothed."
Li Mu narrowed his eyes, staring at the glass chimney of the lamp on the table as he deliberated, then nodded.
"That is one way to do it, I suppose."
"Then it comes down to how we bring this matter before His Majesty — and how we persuade him to grant his approval."
While his two advisors racked their brains, another idea came to Li Mu.
"In truth, there is no need to seek out His Majesty at all. It would be enough simply to spread word that I intend to go before the throne and beg his blessing for a match between my youngest son and the Gaoyi County Princess. If the Grand Princess and the Commandery Princess have no wish for such a marriage, they will certainly come to find me."
The blue-robed strategist did not approve.
"And if, by some chance, the Grand Princess hears that rumor and hurriedly sends the Gaoyi County Princess off to wed some other man — what then?"
At that, the corners of Li Mu's mouth curled upward. He gazed at the flame flickering inside the glass chimney and continued, unhurried.
"Then it would mean the letter is not in the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's hands."
The blue-robed advisor's face brightened with sudden understanding.
Of course. If the letter truly were in her possession, then hearing such a rumor would have driven her to come straight to the Left Chancellor with threats. There would have been no reason to rush a betrothal onto the Gaoyi County Princess.
If the Grand Princess and the Commandery Princess hastened to arrange the County Princess's marriage to someone else, it would mean the Bai family did not have the letter. The Commandery Princess might merely have caught wind of its existence from somewhere and decided to frighten the Left Chancellor with it.
But Li Mu did not believe that was so. Bai Jingyan was not the sort to waste her time brandishing empty threats for no reason. If she held no letter yet threatened him with one anyway, there had to be a larger purpose behind it — and that, if anything, was what truly frightened Li Mu.
For she might make him believe the letter was in her hands, and then use that belief to bend him to her will.
Yet if Bai Jingyan truly did hold that letter, Li Mu intended to believe that she wanted nothing more than her family's safety and peace. If that was her price, then there was no reason left to touch the Bai clan for the Liang King's sake — and no loss to himself in it either.
The blue-robed advisor straightened his back and bowed to the Left Chancellor.
"Left Chancellor, you are wise beyond measure. To have devised such stratagems — it commands my deepest respect."
Li Mu tapped the table with a curled finger and spoke.
"The Zhenguo Commandery Princess returns to Suyang on the twenty-second. So the news must be let slip tonight. Make certain it reaches the Commandery Princess's residence before dawn tomorrow. Only when it is confirmed will my heart be at ease."
The white-robed strategist answered with a cupped-fist salute.
"Left Chancellor, have no fear. Before dawn breaks tomorrow, the news will most certainly find its way to the Commandery Princess's residence."
Li Mu nodded and lifted his teacup.
"Go. Prepare it."
By this evening, word would spread that Li Mu wished to take the Gaoyi County Princess as a daughter-in-law for his youngest son; by tomorrow morning, his wife would request an audience so she might enter the palace.
And if the news had gone out that his wife would enter the palace to beg a betrothal for the youngest son, and still Bai Jingyan did not come — then the claim that she held the letters exchanged with the Second Prince was no truth at all, but merely a scare.
At the mere thought of those letters, a headache closed in on Li Mu.
The root of it all was that, to win the Second Prince's trust, he had exchanged personally sealed correspondence with him at the prince's strategist's insistence. At the time it had seemed prudent — with each side holding leverage over the other, neither need fear betrayal.
After egging the Second Prince on toward treason, Li Mu had believed he would rise to the highest ranks in a single bound. Instead, against all expectation, the Second Prince had met defeat.
Once disaster struck, Li Mu had turned the Second Prince's residence upside down in search of those letters — and found nothing. And now the very letters he could not find had come back as a blade pointed at his own throat.
He had to act. He had to find those letters and burn them, and only then would the danger be ended for good.
Bai Jingyan, drilling with the Red-Tasseled Spear, was drenched head to toe in sweat.
Chun Tao helped her inside, assisted her through her bath, and combed out her hair. Even after that, Bai Jingyan did not retire, but sat reading beneath the lamp. Chun Tao quietly withdrew to prepare tea for her.
The moment Chun Tao left, someone lithe and swift leapt down from the roof. Catching sight of Bai Jingyan's silhouette reflected in the window, the man darted to its edge, pressed his back flat against the wall, and spoke in a lowered voice.
"On the Second Young Lady's orders, I have come to report the movements of the Left Chancellor's residence to you, my lord."
He was one of the shadow guards the Grand Princess had placed under Bai Jingyan's command, and he had been guarding Bai Jinxiu at Bai Jingyan's behest. Yet though he was assigned to Bai Jinxiu's protection, to a shadow guard the true master was whoever held the shadow guard's command token.
For that reason, he called Bai Jingyan his lord.
Bai Jingyan lifted her head, tightening her grip on the book in her hand. Then she eased the window open a crack and studied the shadow guard with calm eyes.
Pale yellow light spilled from the gap in the window onto the flagstones beneath his feet. Through that narrow opening, her face came into view, lit by the lamp. In her unwavering, tranquil eyes there lurked a sharp, cold gleam.
Seeing her face, the shadow guard dropped to one knee at once and bowed, his words coming quick and light.
"I have been watching the Left Chancellor's residence on the Second Young Lady's orders, as you commanded — she instructed me to report to you the instant there was any movement. Tonight, some thirty-odd men left the Left Chancellor's residence in several parties. They scattered into the capital's busiest streets and into the various pleasure houses, spreading word that the Left Chancellor intends to take the Gaoyi County Princess as a bride for his youngest son. And they made no attempt whatsoever to hide their identities."
Bai Jingyan listened in silence. Not a flicker crossed her face; only the look in her eyes grew graver by degrees.
So Li Mu has begun testing me.
Li Mu's youngest son, Li Mingtang, was a man of notorious reputation. Not all sons of noble houses were cut from the same cloth.
Lv Yuanfeng and his circle raised hell and blundered into one scrape after another, but they knew their limits and never once crossed the line.
Li Mingtang was another breed entirely. He lived drunk on beautiful faces and had done things that violated the very bonds of humanity — a beast of a man who had once laid hands even on Li Mu's own concubine.
Li Mu doted on his youngest son, and so after that affair came to light, he had the concubine put to death and buried the whole incident in silence.
From then on, Li Mingtang sank deep into the pleasure quarters, and threw such a tantrum that he demanded to take a third-tier courtesan of Nanchun House as his lawful wife.
When Li Mu's wife refused, Li Mingtang gave up even sitting for the examinations and thereafter came and went from Nanchun House as if it were his own home, practically living there. On festive nights he would share his bed with several of its courtesans at once.
Li Mingtang had never once revealed his identity outside those walls, but the third-tier courtesan of Nanchun House, swollen with pride, could not stop boasting that he meant to take her as his wife. She preened everywhere she went, declaring that the Left Chancellor's own son intended to make her his proper bride.
Then one day, Nanchun House simply vanished overnight. It was Li Mu's doing. Every woman in that house disappeared from the world without a sound — without leaving so much as a trace behind.
There was no proof that it was Li Mu's work, but most of the capital's noble families believed it all the same. To anyone with eyes, the whole affair was a standing joke.
No one knew better than Li Mu what manner of creature his own son was. And all this maneuvering now was for one purpose only — to strike at Bai Jingyan.
Bai Jingyan spoke slowly.
"Understood. Find out which pleasure house the Left Chancellor's youngest son, Li Mingtang, is in tonight."
"Yes, my lord!"
In the space of a breath, the shadow guard vanished beneath the eaves — as though he had never been there at all.
Bai Jingyan lowered the hand that held the window open and turned her gaze back to the book of military strategy, thinking it through.
They spread the rumor deliberately, and without bothering to conceal who they were. They wanted to see how the Bai family would react.
Most likely they were anxious to verify the truth before she left for Suyang. They wanted to know whether the letter was truly in her hands — and that was why they were so urgently leaking word in the dead of night.
She had expected them at least to wait until she returned from Suyang.
So impatient, are we? Then I'll deal with Li Mu first.
He had dared to lay hands on her golden chess piece — and she fully intended to make him pay the full price for it.
Only then would he understand that her demand for his family's "safety and peace" was the greatest mercy he would ever receive from her.
When morning came, sunlight broke through the thin mist hanging over Dadu and poured down upon the rooftops.
The gates of Qinghui Courtyard stood wide open. Having finished her morning drills, Bai Jingyan stood beside the stone table in the garden, wiping the sweat from her brow with the handkerchief Chun Tao handed her as she received Nuo Ping's report. He was telling her of the rumor that had swept through the capital like a fierce wind the evening before.
That Left Chancellor Li Mu intended to take the Gaoyi County Princess as a bride for his youngest son.
"The moment the sun rose this morning, the Left Chancellor's wife submitted a request for an audience with the Empress at the inner palace — saying she had a favor to ask. She will likely enter the palace by midday. If this business is true, then the Left Chancellor's wife will surely seek out Her Ladyship the Empress to plead for the marriage between her youngest son and the Second Young Lady."
Nuo Ping's tone was anxious.
"Li Mingtang is the Left Chancellor's son by his rightful wife, but his reputation is foul beyond words. There is no proof, I know — but they say where there's a crack, the wind gets in."
Bai Jingyan set down her handkerchief, took the teacup Chun Tao offered her, drank a slow sip, and answered.
"Li Mingtang is at Huamanlou. Nuo Ping — take men and go bring him to me yourself."
She fixed Nuo Ping with a cold gaze.
"Break both his legs, and wait for me on the Left Chancellor's road home after court adjourns. I will come straight there."
Nuo Ping started violently.
Break his legs?
"My lady — he is the Left Chancellor's own son."
Nuo Ping could not conceal his shock.
"I know. Just do as I say, Nuo Ping. All of it is part of the plan."
Bai Jingyan's dark eyes gleamed, deep and heavy as still water.
"And see it done thoroughly. Whether he lives or dies is of no consequence. The bigger this becomes, the better."
Set against the lives of his entire family, Li Mu — who chased nothing but profit — would judge precisely which mattered more: his youngest son's life, or the survival of his whole house.
Her ladyship had always handled matters with cold reason. She had ordered Li Mingtang's legs broken; she had said it mattered not if he breathed his last. All that remained was to trust her, and obey.
"Yes, my lady!"
Nuo Ping took his orders and went out.
It was early still — the courtesans of Huamanlou had not yet risen, and its guests, who had caroused through the night, were likewise still sunk in deep sleep.