The Grand Design
Bai Jingyan gave a slight nod and ushered Xiao Rongyan inside.
"Master Xiao, do come in and have a cup of tea."
The thought of an unmarried man and woman holding a private conversation — and the possibility of unwanted rumors spreading because of it — made Bai Jingyan order tea to be prepared in the pavilion at the center of the lake.
The octagonal pavilion rose from the middle of the water, its pillars painted vermilion, open on all four sides. Along the eaves that swept upward in graceful curves hung four bright lanterns, casting their glow wide across the lake.
A light drizzle fell onto the water without making a sound, leaving only a faint, thin mist hanging thick over the surface.
The rain had dampened the pavilion's red balustrade. The curtains and bamboo blinds hanging from the pillars were fastened with bronze rings shaped like auspicious beasts. A lantern in the form of a crane dangled from the ceiling, and its flame flickered gently behind the glass — perhaps a wind had risen over the rainy lake.
Shen Qingzhu and Yue Shi each held an umbrella and waited on the wooden bridge leading to the pavilion. Their two masters looked for all the world like figures in a painting; they had been told to stand with their backs to the pavilion and receive orders, never once turning around.
As the wind gradually picked up, the spread of paper on the stone table lifted slightly at its edges. Bai Jingyan, lantern in hand, hurried forward and pressed down the corner of the sheet, then bent at the waist to study the map Xiao Rongyan had unrolled by the light.
Xiao Rongyan turned his head, ink-black eyes resting on her. The lamplight fell softly along the pale line of her jaw; something in his gaze deepened almost imperceptibly before he turned sharply away, forcing himself not to look.
The map showed several mountains shaded in red — all of them near Mount Niujiao, close to Suyang. She looked at him as if asking his intent.
"The mountains lying between Gongdong Peak and Mount Niujiao. I've had my people laboring for years to buy them, and just yesterday, we secured every last one."
Xiao Rongyan studied her intently.
Only then did Bai Jingyan understand the situation.
Qi Zhengyu was stationed near Mount Niujiao. That was why Xiao Rongyan had come to find her.
She traced the map with her eyes, then tapped a finger against the stone table.
"So the business you mentioned, Master Xiao, has something to do with these mountains?"
Xiao Rongyan rose and answered as he looked down at her.
"I'll speak plainly. These mountains hold ore."
Setting his private feelings entirely aside, Xiao Rongyan thought it through carefully. Bai Jingyan's people were already hiding in this vicinity. If he began mining ore from these mountains, there would be no concealing it from her.
His agents were hard-pressed enough as it was, drifting from country to country. Better, he judged, to play a battle of wits against no one — to tell her the truth and share the profits, making an ally of a woman as cunning as Bai Jingyan. That would serve them both.
Moreover, so long as Bai Jingyan guarded these mountains, the mines would never come to the attention of the Jin court.
Bai Jingyan regarded him with an expression that might have been a smile.
"Master Xiao, I'd say 'business' is rather the wrong word for this. Enticing me with profit would be more apt. What, exactly, do you have to offer me?"
Lit by the lantern's glow, Xiao Rongyan's eyes were calm as still water, and soft. He looked at her with a depth and darkness like a bottomless well, wearing that faint, unreadable smile — the look of a man who already held everything in the palm of his hand.
He remembered the night he had parted from Bai Jingyan in Wanping City. The moonlight that night, too, had traced her cold, sculpted features and her beautifully curved silhouette. Her eyes had been grave, yet her ears burned crimson with embarrassment — the image had never left his mind.
After gazing at her for a long while, he could no longer hold himself back and took a single step toward her. Lowering his voice to its quietest register, he answered slowly.
"I mean to plan great things with you, Lady Bai. I know why you've hidden people in the mountains, why you've even raised a company of bandits. You've stowed away soldiers of the future up there — so surely you'll need armaments soon. Great Yan, which means to raise strong soldiers and restore its glory, needs armaments as well."
Xiao Rongyan drew still closer. It had crossed beyond the bounds of courtesy, yet it was by no means a light or careless advance. He watched her in silence, and the warm lamplight, made all the softer for it, only stoked the smoldering heat in his black eyes.
Bai Jingyan's hand tightened. The rich scent of aloeswood drifting from him had briefly unsettled her breath. She turned her gaze aside and bowed her head — whereupon her eyes fell, quite naturally, upon his ornate sash and gold talisman. She turned her body away from him once more and bent over the map, studying it closely.
"So what is the bargain you want, Master Xiao?" she asked evenly.
"I have no ties of consequence in Jin, and too few hands to plan a great undertaking. But the Bai family is another matter. The Bai clan has roots sunk deep into Jin soil. Rather than bringing loyal, capable men into Jin myself, I thought it would serve me better to join forces with you. I will buy the mountains; you will mine the ore. Three-tenths of the yield will go to you."
So Xiao Rongyan answered.
Truthfully, for merely lending manpower, keeping three-tenths of a mine's income was hardly a poor bargain.
And Xiao Rongyan's proposal could lift one of Bai Jingyan's heaviest worries as well.
Feeding soldiers required grain. Armament required weapons.
For now, with only the few people Qi Zhengyu had gathered, buying food openly inside Shanyang City was no cause for alarm. But what if the ranks swelled larger?
And she could not forget A-Jie in the Southern Border, either. However much the Bai Family Army generals might help, there were limits. Too many soldiers gathering would rouse the court's suspicion as well.
"If the Bai family mines ore, it must never, ever be discovered by the court. That would demand meticulous management — and if we were found out, even once... the Bai family would suffer a fatal blow."
Bai Jingyan tapped her finger on the map.
"You speak of it too easily, Master Xiao. To do this properly, the Bai family must carry enormous risk."
"I am a merchant. Every merchant knows that wealth and rank are sought in the very midst of danger — it is simply the way of things."
Xiao Rongyan bowed his head slightly, gazing at her finely wrought profile. Following the clean line that descended from her ear, he found himself, without meaning to, drifting near enough to whisper at it.
"I know perfectly well that you and I are the same kind of person, Lady Bai. Once you've made up your mind, you don't linger over it."
Bai Jingyan clenched her fist. Her earlobe tingled. They had drifted so close that her shoulder nearly touched his chest. With every word he spoke, she could feel his breath close against her.
The rain hardened, washing the roof tiles until they gleamed. Raindrops struck the lake, and the water-mist rose in thickening wreaths.
Having reached her decision, Bai Jingyan set down the lantern. Then she turned and looked at Xiao Rongyan, who stood barely half a pace away, and spoke slowly, her eyes clear.
"Once the Bai family mines the ore, we'll smelt it into weapons and deliver them to you. I won't demand anything excessive. Fifty percent — give me fifty, and we're agreed."
With a smile lurking in his eyes, Xiao Rongyan ran a finger along the edge of the stone table and drew closer still.
"You know perfectly well, my lady, that even thirty percent is anything but a losing term for you."
But Bai Jingyan showed not the slightest sign of backing down.
"Great Yan is a vast nation — how could it possibly be without mines? And since Yan recovered Southern Yan, its national strength has only grown. The reason you'd want ore mined in Jin is to supply the soldiers garrisoned at the border fortresses, isn't it? Rather than hauling iron ore to the fortresses, then hunting down trustworthy men to smelt it on enemy soil — leaving it all to the Bai family is a far better method, no? Whether you're sending ore or finished weapons to the border, the danger is exactly the same.
But if the Bai family takes on the work, you can put your remaining manpower to other uses — and lay a solid foundation for the great enterprise to come."
The great enterprise to come...
Xiao Rongyan's breathing turned somewhat uneven. Bai Jingyan knew him far too well.
To plot great things, one had to widen one's vessel — never be fettered by the profits right in front of one's eyes.
He had to think for Great Yan. And when Yan had one day amassed its strength, this affair might well become the seed of still greater undertakings planned together with Bai Jingyan.
Xiao Rongyan had never once forgotten what she had said. That the Bai family's allegiance lay with the people of Jin — not with the imperial authority of the Li clan on Jin's throne.
"Very well."
Xiao Rongyan accepted cleanly, without hesitation. Yet he did not yield the ground he'd taken, and quietly held her gaze.
Bai Jingyan clenched her fist once more. The aura that emanated from him — she couldn't say why — had a way of intoxicating a person.
"Master Xiao, if there's nothing else, I'd ask you to go. Once I've put things in order, I'll send an official residence."
It was true that she had no room in her heart to cherish anyone. But it was equally impossible to deny that Xiao Rongyan himself was a profoundly attractive man.
He did not possess the striking, dazzling looks of his elder brother, the Emperor of Great Yan — but his deep, rich features, softened by his gentle bearing, together with the poise honed by every hardship he had weathered, gave off an ineffable charm: steadfast, composed, unhurried.
Xiao Rongyan was famed as the one who had risen in Wei. Though of humble birth, his deep learning and abundant spirit had made him conspicuous even among the young lords of distinguished houses — the object of admiration for the daughters of countless great families.
A damp, chill night wind swept across the lake, and the lanterns hung high overhead swayed with a faint creak. The sheepskin map spread across the stone table rippled in the wind, and Bai Jingyan and Xiao Rongyan both reached out at the same moment to pin it down.
Their heads collided — and Bai Jingyan's forehead landed squarely against Xiao Rongyan's burning lips.
There was nothing in her ears but the rain pouring into the lake, and the lanternlight wavered ceaselessly. Now and then a crucian carp leapt above the water, only to plunge back down with a heavy splash.
At the soft touch against her forehead, her mind went blank in an instant, her heart thrashing wildly, pounding and pounding.
His large, well-boned hand pressed down over the back of hers and did not let go. Whether he was pinning the map — or pinning her hand — she could no longer tell.
Xiao Rongyan's lips lifted from her forehead. His other hand had already settled naturally around her frail shoulders, and he bowed his head, watching her in silence.
Bai Jingyan startled and looked up — and the moment her eyes met the tenderness brimming in his, she hurriedly tried to pull her pinned hand free. But Xiao Rongyan only grew bolder, lacing his five fingers through hers over the map, while the great hand at her shoulder slid all the way down to her waist, granting her no chance to retreat.
His own breathing began to roughen. And then, as though he had abandoned all reason, he bent his head and slowly drew closer to her face, the heat in his eyes burning fierce as open flame.
Bai Jingyan might have been frozen solid — she could not move; only her lashes trembled.
Their faces drew nearer and nearer, until the sharp bridge of Xiao Rongyan's nose brushed lightly against the tip of hers.
Rigid where she stood, Bai Jingyan gripped his well-boned hand with all her strength.