In the Midst of Busyness
Seeing Bai Jingyan about to climb into her carriage, the Grand Princess could hold back no longer. Leaning on her cane, she took a step forward and called her granddaughter's name in a voice choked with emotion.
"A-Yan..."
If they parted like this, she might never see her granddaughter again. She was old now, and she knew there were not many days left to her.
Hearing the Grand Princess's sorrowful voice and the sobbing she could not suppress, Bai Jingyan halted her steps.
Her grandmother, who had shown only strength her whole life, had always been a woman of perfect composure and decorum. She had presented an immaculate face to outsiders and servants alike, and she was a master of strategy and intrigue. Never once had Bai Jingyan seen her so frail and grief-stricken.
Turning her head, Bai Jingyan watched the white-haired Grand Princess finally crumble into tears, and clenched the front of her robe so tightly her knuckles whitened. Tears welled in her own eyes as she gazed at her grandmother.
Cherished memories of the past flashed before her eyes like a lantern reel.
She remembered her grandmother's gentle, warm smile as she held her small hand and guided it through her calligraphy practice.
She remembered, too, the sight of her kneeling before the Buddha altar while Bai Jingyan lay burning with a terrible fever, praying that she might give up ten years of her own remaining life if only her granddaughter could be spared.
Bai Jingyan gripped the hem of her skirt and stepped down from the carriage. Her eyes were resolute, yet calm.
"A-Yan..."
The Grand Princess called to her in a faint voice, her eyes brimming with tears. As Bai Jingyan descended the steps, she knelt down facing the direction where her grandmother stood.
After bowing three times to her grandmother, Bai Jingyan climbed back into the carriage, supported by Chun Tao.
"A-Yan..."
The Grand Princess's throat closed up entirely. With all her strength, she forced back her sobs.
"Grandmother, don't worry. Everyone will arrive safely in Shanyang."
Bai Jinse stepped forward to steady the Grand Princess.
Someone cried out the order to depart, and the procession of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess began to move forward, slow and stately.
The Grand Princess and her party remained standing at the entrance long after. By the time the sky had fully brightened and the morning sun washed over Dadu, the line of carriages had vanished from sight. Only then did Second Madam Yu speak softly to the Grand Princess.
"Mother, let us go inside now."
The Grand Princess wiped her tears and nodded. As she walked toward the inner quarters of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence, she spoke to Nanny Zhang.
"Have everything made ready. We shall return to Qingyan as well."
Nanny Zhang bowed her head.
"Yes, Madam!"
Outside the gates of Dadu, Lu Yuanfeng waited with Sima Ping and the others. As the grand procession of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's residence approached, Lu Yuanfeng started forward to greet it — but at that moment, a man in the livery of the residence's guard rode swiftly up to him, dismounted, and offered a respectful fist-and-palm salute.
"Young Master Lu, the Commandery Princess sends this message: the procession is far too vast for you to linger outside the city gates. She asks that you return home at once, and wishes you well in the days to come."
Lu Yuanfeng opened his mouth in urgent protest, but Sima Ping pulled him back and, smiling pleasantly at the guard, murmured to him under his breath.
"You'll see Sister Bai again, won't you? Have you forgotten? She promised you a silver spear."
At Sima Ping's words, Lu Yuanfeng nodded, fists clenched tight. After his great-grandmother's birthday celebration, he intended to go to the Southern Border and enlist in the Bai Family Army. And once he had made a name for himself, he would seek out Sister Bai and claim his silver spear, fair and square.
Lu Yuanfeng looked at the Bai guard.
"Tell Sister Bai to take care of herself."
"I will deliver your words exactly, Young Master Lu."
The guard offered Lu Yuanfeng a cupped-hand salute, remounted, and rode swiftly back to Bai Jingyan's carriage, where he leaned down and passed along the message.
Though he had not gotten to see Sister Bai today, Lu Yuanfeng did not head straight home. He stood where he was, watching the grand procession dwindle slowly into the distance, and felt an ache of emptiness he could not quite name.
"Strange. My mood feels off somehow."
Lu Yuanfeng said to Sima Ping.
Sima Ping stood with his hands clasped behind his back and said nothing for a long while.
"Perhaps it's because a dynasty in its full glory has begun to show the first signs of decay."
"Huh?"
Lu Yuanfeng could make no sense of it.
"Let's go!"
Sima Ping said with a laugh, swinging himself onto his horse.
The Bai clan's vast procession moved quietly along the official road, heading slowly toward Shanyang.
Inside her gently swaying carriage, Bai Jinchi propped her chin on one hand. Finding the journey dull, she had been staring blankly at the beast-shaped incense burner on the table before turning to her mother, Lady Li.
"This is unbearable — they won't even let me ride a horse. Fine then, I'm going to Eldest Sister's carriage."
"Stay exactly where you are. Your sister needs her rest. Why can you never sit still for even a moment? You must learn some composure. It hasn't even been that long since you came back from the Southern Border, and your color still hasn't returned. Two trips to Shanyang and you've tanned so dark you're darker than the guards in our own household!"
Lady Li lifted the lid of the incense burner, poked at the ash with a silver pick, and added fresh incense.
Weary of her mother's nagging, Bai Jinchi slowly rolled up the carriage curtain and gazed outside.
The official road was smooth and level, with lush green vegetation growing thickly on either side. She had ridden on horseback every time she followed Bai Jingyan to Shanyang, so the road was familiar to her.
Right now, she wanted nothing more than to be on horseback.
"Mother!"
"Sit still and read a book. Your sister is sitting quietly in her carriage too, isn't she? Learn from her example."
Lady Li had resolved to use this journey to do something about her daughter's headlong, impetuous temperament.
Bai Jinchi puffed out both cheeks and sat sulking for a moment, then leaned back against an embroidered cushion and began to read a book, just like her eldest sister.
Lady Li covered her mouth with her handkerchief and laughed, then praised her with an air of triumph.
"There now, isn't that a much better sight?"
Even Nanny Hu, who attended Lady Li, could not hold back and burst out laughing.
Cooped up inside the carriage for three whole days, Bai Jinchi was finally set free on the third day of the fifth month.
The Prefect, accompanied by the district magistrates, came out beyond the gates of Shanyang City to welcome the Zhenguo Commandery Princess and her party. The Bai clansmen as well, following Bai Qihua, who had temporarily taken up the position of clan leader, came out beyond the city gates to meet the procession.
When the magnificent, unbroken line of carriages appeared in the distance, they were struck with astonishment at the sheer number of servants alone.
Bai Qihua's wife, Lady Fang, broke into a cold sweat. She had sent her own household servants to serve at the Bai ancestral estate, hoping to grow close to Bai Jingyan — only for Bai Jingyan to bring every last servant from Dadu with her. She would have to think of another way.
Bai Jingping, watching his mother anxiously wringing her handkerchief, spoke in a low voice.
"Mother, the Bai family of Dadu and our Bai clan of Shanyang are not the same. The Dadu Bai family is the true line of legitimate descent — the genuine meritorious house. Even the things they use every day are all of impeccably documented provenance. Naturally, the servants they keep at their side would all be born retainers, household servants through and through. The people you sent likely wouldn't even make it past the front gate."
At her son's words, which struck the truth dead center, Lady Fang's heart pounded and she glanced nervously around her. Then she turned back to look at him.
"I had no such intention!"
"Whether you did or didn't, I cannot approve of it. I beg you, do not send people to the Dadu Bai household. You must not forget what happened with Grandfather. Father inherited the position of clan leader by nothing more than chance — and whether he can even hold onto it remains uncertain. It all rests on a single word from the Zhenguo Commandery Princess."
Bai Jingping said, in a voice barely above a whisper.
Bai Jingping could read his mother Lady Fang's thoughts as clearly as an open book — and precisely because he knew them so well, he had felt compelled to wake her to the danger.
The Bai clan had no strength left to spare for a misstep. The men of the Dadu Bai family were all gone from this world, and the Shanyang Bai clan, which had carried on its line for several hundred years, now trembled on the edge of ruin. Unless they clung to the Zhenguo Commandery Princess and joined their strength with hers, their generation would see the Shanyang Bais driven out by the Dadu Bai family and forced to establish their own separate household register. If that happened, the Shanyang Bais would end up like the Xie clan of Qingzhou in days past — a gentry family with no standing left to claim within the clan at all.
Bai Jingyan, the Zhenguo Commandery Princess, had inherited the unyielding spirit of Bai Weiting, the Zhenguo King, and Bai Qishan, the Zhenguo Duke. So long as the Bai clan did nothing unworthy of them, she would never cast aside her own kinsmen.
Chun Tao lifted the carriage curtain, peered out once, and spoke to Bai Jingyan.
"Commandery Princess, it looks as though the entire Shanyang Bai clan has come out to welcome you! The Shanyang officials have come as well. They seem to be dressed in full court regalia."
Bai Jingyan set down the bamboo slips she was holding, considered for a moment, then spoke to Nanny Dong.
"Nanny, in a little while, you will go down and deliver a message to the Bai clansmen and the officials. Tell them that my health is poor and I am going straight to the Bai Manor. Thank them for coming out to greet me, and tell them that a banquet will be held at the manor soon, to which they will all be invited — so they should return home for today.
Also send someone to inform my mother and my aunts. Tell them there is no need to get down from their carriages. They must be worn out from the long journey, and once we return to the manor there will be mountains of work waiting. So tell them not to trouble themselves."
The moment Bai Jingyan finished speaking, Chun Tao gave the instruction to a servant to carry the message.
Bai Jingyan turned her attention back to the bamboo slips. It occurred to her that Shanyang's Prefect might well be worth using when it came to the matter of raising troops.
Tracing the edge of a bamboo slip with her fingers, she spoke again.
"Send Zeng Xianyu to pass a secret message to Bai Jingping. Tell him to come to the Bai ancestral estate two shichen from now."
When the Bai servant delivered the message, the Prefect, the district magistrates, and the Bai clansmen carefully exchanged a few words with him, then hurriedly ordered the city gates opened so that the Commandery Princess's party could enter without delay.
Opinions among the people of Shanyang were divided, and feelings ran high as they talked. The Zhenguo Commandery Princess had declared that the silver hoarded by the former clan leader of the Bai clan would be used to crush the bandits.
Banditry was running rampant. It was said the bandits had even dared to plunder the procession of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess herself. A chilling thought took root among the people: one day, those bandits might kill and burn in the villages nearby without the slightest hesitation. They might even force their way inside the walls of Shanyang City itself.
With the authorities offering no countermeasures whatsoever, it was only natural that the people lived in fear.
And so most of them were elated that the Zhenguo Commandery Princess had returned to Shanyang. This was the woman who had defeated the allied armies of Xiliang and Nanyan in the Southern Border and seized victory itself. With someone like her in Shanyang, they could finally sleep soundly.
Long before the Bai party returned to the Bai Manor, Old Gao had already made every preparation. He had placed whatever each master and mistress might need in their respective courtyards. If the arrangements, the ornaments, or the color of the drapes did not please, they could simply be changed tomorrow.
On her last visit to Shanyang, Bai Jingyan had spent a single evening in Bayun Courtyard, and there was nothing about it she had found wanting.
Chun Tao set the celadon porcelain and the lotus-carved tea service that Bai Jingyan used daily on the round table. Glancing over, she saw the Commandery Princess reclining against a saffron-yellow cushion, reading a book. Chun Tao stepped outside and quietly instructed the servants cleaning the courtyard to work softly.
Nanny Dong entered Bayun Courtyard, hurriedly lifted the curtain, and came into the outer chamber, where she paid her respects to Bai Jingyan.
"Commandery Princess, he has arrived."
Bai Jingping had come.
Bai Jingyan set down her book.
"Let's go see him."
"Let me change your clothes first."
Nanny Dong moved to fetch fresh garments.
"No need. I'll go just as I am."