A Thoughtful Gesture
When no reply came even after she had sent a messenger to the Bai Manor with her message, Lady Fang's stomach twisted itself into knots.
Then, early the next morning, she learned that the Bai Manor had sent an invitation to Bai Qihua. Unable to bear it any longer, Lady Fang summoned Nuo Zong, the servant she had dispatched to the manor, and demanded to know whether he had delivered her words properly.
Nuo Zong answered that he had delivered them exactly as instructed. Whether the words had reached Lady Dong's ears, however, he could not say.
Lady Fang held her silence for a long while before ordering a carriage prepared. She would go to the Bai Manor herself.
But at the manor's entrance, Lady Fang was met with word that Lady Dong refused to receive her.
"My mistress is unwell," the servant said. "And with the banquet tomorrow, she must oversee the preparations for the guests — she simply has no time to spare. She asks for your understanding."
"Then what of the Commandery Princess? Might I be granted an audience with her?"
The maidservant at Lady Fang's side asked urgently.
Lady Fang yanked the girl back at once. If even Lady Dong would not see her, would the Commandery Princess? It would be nothing but a public humiliation for nothing.
There was nothing contemptuous in the bearing of the Bai Manor's servant who delivered the message. He was simply calm and composed, with an effortless dignity.
"A few days ago, I sent someone to convey a message to your mistress," Lady Fang said, forcing a smile. "After all, we are one family, and I wondered whether there might be anything I could do to help with tomorrow's banquet. But since no answer came, I thought I would ask whether my message perhaps never reached her."
The servant smiled in return.
"The Bai Manor has its own rules, madam. A mere servant like myself has no way of looking into such matters. To pry would be to overstep, and overstepping earns a beating. So I must beg you to understand my difficult position."
Lady Fang pressed her lips together and summoned another smile. Then she turned her head toward the maidservant standing beside her.
The girl hastily lifted a silver pouch, and the manor's servant stiffened, color draining from his face as he declined.
"Madam, the rules of our Bai Manor are terribly strict. If I were to accept this pouch, the steward would sell me off without a second thought."
All Lady Fang could do was wring her handkerchief in silence. The Bai Manor is an iron fortress, truly.
She returned home with her spirit thoroughly crushed, and once back in her own courtyard, she took out her frustration by smashing her tea set — yet not even that relieved the fury burning in her chest.
Thanks to her father-in-law's position as clan leader, Lady Fang had never once been turned away so coldly anywhere she went. At last her husband had — through good fortune — become clan leader himself, and still Lady Dong would not spare her even the thinnest scrap of face.
She knew full well that the Suyang Bai clan depended on the Dadu Bai family. But having lived so long watching her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law conduct themselves as they pleased, she had believed her own good days had finally come — that the day had arrived for her to hold her head high. And yet nothing, not a single thing, had gone her way.
Her husband had become clan leader, and instead she was expected to live more cautiously than ever?
"Madam, please calm yourself! If the clan leader finds out, he'll be furious!"
Poliu, Lady Fang's personal maid, came inside and began tidying the broken porcelain as she went on.
"Didn't the clan leader tell you just yesterday? That the people of the Dadu Bai family must be handled with the utmost care. If he learns that you went all the way to the Bai Manor today and came home raging, he will most certainly be displeased."
Lady Fang wrung her handkerchief and grumbled.
"I swallowed every ounce of my pride and went to the manor. Why did I do that, you ask? To let everyone see that the Bai family regards our household differently. That way, no one will dare try to snatch the clan leader's seat away!"
The memory of Bai Qiyun — cast out of the clan, yet still presuming to lecture her as her elder brother's equal — made her blood boil all over again. He had sneered that Bai Qihua was only an acting clan leader, that he would never last, and that from now on they would all have to tiptoe around the Dadu Bai family, watching their every mood.
The more he sneered, the more she had wanted to show everyone. She had wanted them to see that only with her support could the Dadu Bai family hold their first banquet in Suyang without a single hitch.
And yet Lady Dong hadn't even granted her an audience. And she was the clan leader's wife, no less!
"I know perfectly well that you did it all for the clan leader, madam," Poliu said. "And that you wanted to help the Bai Manor hold its banquet without trouble, to show all those who sneer at the clan leader that the Bai family stands behind him and you."
Poliu picked up a shard of broken porcelain, lifted her head, and looked at her mistress, who was still fuming.
"But madam, the Dadu Bai family is among the very foremost of the capital's meritorious houses. A house like that has its own strict family rules — simply showing up at their gate does not entitle anyone to an audience."
Poliu had not accompanied her mistress to the Bai Manor today, having been occupied with other duties. But after hearing from the maidservant who had gone along, she understood exactly what had set Lady Fang off.
"You won't want to hear this, madam, but there is no one else who can say it to you but this humble maid."
Poliu bowed, then continued.
"Was it not the Zhenguo Commandery Princess's single word that put the clan leader in his seat in the first place? You must not think of yourself as an equal to the Dadu Bai family, as the previous clan leaders were. You must hold them high and honor them."
Poliu's words struck Lady Fang squarely where it hurt most.
In the old days, even the Duke of Zhenguo, Bai Weiting himself, had stood on equal footing with her father-in-law. So why, the moment her husband became clan leader, could they no longer stand shoulder to shoulder with the Dadu Bai family? Bai Jingyan wasn't even her superior by generation — she was a junior of the family.
"Let me speak plainly one more time. If the Dadu Bai family chooses to honor the clan leader's standing, you will be treated as an equal. If they do not, then even a clan leader has no power! This very affair proves it. The granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo — the Zhenguo Commandery Princess — arrived, and the very first thing she did was replace the clan leader, did she not?"
Poliu drew closer to Lady Fang and lowered her voice.
"And the Prefect and Magistrate Zhu move only as the Commandery Princess's eye allows! Before such power, the clan leader of the Bai clan is truly nothing at all."
As she listened, Lady Fang's face twisted — but because Poliu was her closest and most trusted attendant, she listened carefully all the same. The girl had come to her from her own family's house. Lady Fang knew that everything Poliu said was said purely for her sake.
Perhaps from the injustice of it all, the rims of Lady Fang's eyes reddened.
"Everyone else who takes the clan leader's seat walks around with their chin in the air. Why is it our household alone that has to bow and scrape?"
Poliu found it exasperating that her mistress still failed to grasp the situation, but this was the young mistress who had shown her kindness and affection since childhood, who had raised her as her own — so she bent at the waist and patiently coaxed her.
"There's no need to grovel. Treat Lady Dong with sincerity, and simply follow her instructions. Whatever you do, don't cross the line — just show her a smiling face. There's no need to draw every eye to yourself in every matter. Yield to Lady Dong, and that is enough. Then you won't feel wronged, and you won't be groveling either. That is what it means to be someone who can see far ahead."
Tears spilled down Lady Fang's cheeks, and she hurriedly dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief.
"Poliu, I know everything you've said. But the injustice of it sits in my chest and will not ease. Especially my brother-in-law — cast out of the clan, and still he meddles in everything. He sneered that Qihua is nothing but an acting clan leader. That's why I wanted to show them all……"
"I understand your heart completely, madam! How could I not?"
Poliu began to comfort her.
"But there's no need to be so impatient. Tomorrow, at the banquet, simply show Lady Dong your respect."
Wiping her tears, Lady Fang nodded.
"All right."
On the sixth day of the fifth month, the Bai Manor held its evening banquet.
The setting sun stained the west crimson, and just as the glow of dusk spread across the sky, the Prefect and Magistrate Zhu arrived with their families.
The lanterns at the entrance of the Bai Manor burned bright, and within, the whole compound glowed with brilliant light.
Past the six doors standing wide open, skirting walls adorned with exquisite paintings, a bronze crane-and-immortal lantern stood at every ten paces. The atmosphere was magnificent and solemn.
As he crossed the main gate, Magistrate Zhu clicked his tongue at the intricately carved pillar ornaments. He had vaguely assumed the Bai family to be a house of deep roots, but he had never imagined it to be steeped to this degree. Even a cursory glance was enough to see that the pieces displayed within the Bai ancestors' residence reached all the way back to the Former Zhao dynasty — relics of an antiquity beyond reckoning.
If this was not the true scale of an illustrious house, what was?
Aside from the clan leader's immediate family and the Luo household — already cast out of the clan — almost no one had ever set foot inside the ancestral residence of the Bai clan.
The guests arrived earlier than the appointed hour, and the moment darkness drew its curtain across the sky, the banquet began in earnest.
Neither Lady Dong nor any of Bai Jingyan's aunts attended; Bai Jingyan sat alone at the seat of honor. Lady Fang, who had been so eager to please Lady Dong, felt a flicker of disappointment.
"The Bai family is still observing the mourning period, and so a banquet of revelry would be improper. There will be no wine, music, or dancing tonight — think of this as nothing more than a simple meal."
Bai Jingyan raised her teacup.
"The hospitality is meager. Tea shall stand in for wine — I ask the Prefect and Magistrate Zhu to forgive the deficiency with generous hearts."
Her words carried the unmistakable meaning that she regarded the clansmen not as outsiders, and the Bai clansmen breathed quiet sighs of relief.
When Bai Jingyan finished speaking, the servants filed in in orderly rows, swiftly moving with plates, bowls, and ewers in hand. They laid the tables with practiced grace, setting out exquisitely fragrant dishes before the guests — their movements light and immaculate.
Magistrate Zhu could not contain his astonishment at the seasonal delicacies, so precisely and abundantly arranged. Every dish bearing the tea and sweets was an heirloom from dynasties past.
What astonished him even more was that the Bai family possessed so many such plates. It was the table of a great house whose lineage had endured through the ages.
Though the elders had permitted the eating of meat within their own homes, there was no need to display that fact to the outside world. Out of respect for the mourning period, every dish served tonight was vegetarian.
The banquet was nothing like the lively affair Lady Fang had imagined.
No elegant music, no dancing — the evening was already stiff and quiet, and Bai Jingyan, seated at the head, ate her meal in silence and composure. She sat with such measured poise, eating so serenely, that the others scarcely dared to breathe.
And only then did Lady Fang understand. Bai Jingyan had not prepared a banquet at all — she had prepared a reckoning.
After the meal, Bai Jingyan rinsed her mouth. Then she ordered the empty dishes cleared away, and tea and fresh fruit brought out. It was, quite literally, a 'simple meal.'
And yet to the people of Suyang, the Bai family's banquet seemed immensely formal and weighty.
"How far has the clan leader progressed with the recruitment of soldiers?"
Bai Jingyan set down her teacup and asked with courteous formality.
Bai Qihua rose at once and offered a deep bow.
"Not only the young men of the Bai clan — even the tenant farmers of the clan lands are vying to send men. A considerable number of common folk have applied as well, on hearing that a monthly stipend is provided. The training grounds for the soldiers are still under discussion."
"The government parade ground should serve well enough."
Magistrate Zhu was the first to speak. He too looked toward Bai Jingyan as he bowed.
"Before Your Highness arrived, the Prefect ordered Xia Guan to expand and rebuild the parade ground. In three days' time it will be ready for use."
The Prefect startled, jerking upright — Magistrate Zhu had never expected him to tout him so shamelessly before Bai Jingyan. He himself had given no such order.
But he could hardly refuse a compliment handed to him on a platter. He rose hurriedly and spoke.
"Xia Guan merely remarked in passing to Magistrate Zhu that the parade ground seemed rather cramped. I gave no special instruction of the kind — it was Magistrate Zhu who took such care in the matter."