A Natural Death in One's Own Bed
Bai Jingyan clenched her fists and was about to call for a carriage to be prepared when a flash of inspiration struck, and her mind began racing through an entirely different plan.
"Send word to Eldest Aunt. Spread the news that the Liang King Estate has been buying saltpeter to make ice, and that the Liang King intends to curry favor with the Emperor through ice sculptures! Move quickly — make sure people sing his praises as the most filial of all the princes!"
The hidden guard took her orders and vanished from Qinghui Courtyard.
The two old servants keeping watch outside were lounging on stone chairs, cracking peanuts to slack off, when they suddenly heard the courtyard gate and hastily stuffed the peanuts into their sleeves. Then they bowed their heads and offered a greeting.
"Eldest Miss, is something the matter?"
"Have two carriages prepared and waiting at the western side gate!"
Bai Jingyan turned to the other servant.
"And tell Fourth Miss to hurry to the western side gate at once!"
"Yes, Eldest Miss!"
Both servants sprang into motion.
Bai Jingyan headed for the side gate without even pausing to change her clothes, and as Bai Jinchi came sprinting up, she lowered her voice.
"Go to the Crown Prince's estate. The Liang King has been making ice sculptures himself to win the Emperor's favor, and everyone is praising him as a model for all the princes. What's more, word is that he just entered the palace and asked the Emperor to grant a betrothal decree so he can take the daughter of Dong Qingping, Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, as his wife.
The Liang King is trying to please the Emperor — he means to use this marriage to pull the military authority of the Dengzhou Inspector into his grasp, and that makes his intent to seize the throne unmistakably clear. Tell the Crown Prince he must block this!"
"What?"
Bai Jinchi's eyes went round as saucers.
"Isn't Zhengzhen's marriage negotiation going on with Zhen Cuilu, the grandson of Grand Preceptor Zhen? Why is the Liang King suddenly showing up?"
There was no time to explain everything.
"Don't ask questions — just go! The carriage is already waiting!"
"Yes, Sister!"
Bai Jinchi ran off, then turned back.
"Sister, should I go with the Crown Prince into the palace to talk him out of it?"
"Do exactly as I told you. If we act too openly, it'll only raise suspicions about us. Once you mention it to the Crown Prince, someone will advise him to go to the palace himself."
Bai Jingyan added one more instruction.
"When the moment is right, drop it to the Crown Prince casually — as if it were nothing. Say that during the banquet, Consort Chu, whom the Liang King sent to the Emperor, has repeatedly helped the Han King and Liu Yafu, and that it looks like the Liang King may be drawing the Han King over to his side."
"I understand, Sister."
Bai Jinchi darted out the door.
By the time Bai Jingyan arrived at the Dong Estate, Dong Qingping was sitting beneath an osmanthus tree in the rear garden, playing go with Dong Zhangyuan.
Hearing that Bai Jingyan had gone straight to Dong Zhengzhen the moment she entered the estate, Dong Qingping found it unexpected — yet he was pleased all the same.
"I heard you two only just met? Wonderful. Have the mistress prepare a meal. Aiyan has been conferred the title of Commandery Princess for her martial achievements, and with her own mother gone, it falls to us to celebrate her! Zhangsheng and Zhangjing have only just left with the younger children, so they won't have reached Yanque Tower yet."
Dong Qingping turned his head and gave instructions to the steward.
"Go to Yanque Tower and bring back the young masters and young ladies attending the poetry gathering. The Commandery Princess has come — tell them to hurry home!"
A poetry gathering was being held at Yanque Tower that day, drawing every young master and promising scholar in Dadu. As was customary, when the sisters of a household were included, a charming private room was reserved in advance so the young ladies could enjoy the festivities too — and, of course, if one of them happened to take a fancy to a gentleman there, she could quietly mark him for the future.
Dong Zhangsheng had meant to wait for his younger sisters and go together, but Dong Zhengzhen had said she would stay home that day.
With the marriage negotiation involving Zhen Cuilu underway, an awkward encounter might have arisen if she crossed paths with him at the gathering. So he had let it be, and had not pressed her to come along.
Dong Zhangyuan, gazing at the go board, found himself thinking that being made a princess was hardly cause for celebration. Their aunt would rather her cousin never sit on a princess's cushion again than ever have to march onto a battlefield and stake her life on it one more time.
Meanwhile, Dong Zhengzhen sat before her vanity, clutching the jade bracelet the Liang King had given her, smiling like a fool.
"Young Miss! The Commandery Princess is here!"
Dong Zhengzhen's maid, Haitang, hurried in, offered a curtsy, and continued,
"She's already on her way inside."
"Sister is?"
Dong Zhengzhen hastily tucked the bracelet into a red sandalwood box, rose, and hurried out to greet her. She saw Bai Jingyan striding briskly through the courtyard.
"Sister?"
Dong Zhengzhen's face was bright and radiant, like someone anticipating good fortune. Then, smiling as warmly and gently as a spring breeze, she took Bai Jingyan's arm.
"We only just saw each other — what brings you here?"
"Send all the servants out first. I have something to discuss with you alone."
Bai Jingyan said gently, watching her.
At the grave look on Bai Jingyan's face, Dong Zhengzhen nodded, told Haitang to take the servants outside, shut the window tight, and settled onto the daybed beside her.
"Sister, what is it?"
Dong Zhengzhen asked.
"Is the man you hold in your heart... the Liang King?"
Dong Zhengzhen's hands, which had been resting on the table, drew back in front of her — like someone whose carefully guarded secret had just been discovered.
"Sister... since you already know, I won't hide it any longer. The Liang King and I love each other. He mistook you for me from our childhood, and that was why he said he would take you as his wife. I've thought about it too — whether accepting him would put you in a difficult position. But I..."
"Zhengzhen, I didn't come here because marrying the Liang King would leave me in an awkward position. And I'm not here to talk you out of it. But I do want to tell you exactly how things stand. You're wise enough to judge for yourself how to settle things between the two of you — I trust your judgment. And whatever you decide, I will never interfere."
Bai Jingyan said calmly.
Of all her sisters, Dong Zhengzhen had the gentlest temperament and the quickest mind — and she was also the one Bai Jingyan worried over most.
Though they were sisters, Bai Jingyan and Dong Zhengzhen had not grown up together, and Bai Jingyan could not bring herself to force them apart the way she might handle the younger siblings at home.
When Bai Jingyan showed no trace of coercion and seemed merely to want to lay out the facts, Dong Zhengzhen clutched her handkerchief and nodded.
"Sister, please, just tell me plainly."
"The way you see it, the Liang King is probably nothing more than a pitiful prince who does nothing but bear everyone's abuse. With your kind heart, at first you must have simply pitied him. And then he told you that you — the one person who showed him a little kindness — were his everything. Your heart, which had known only sympathy, began to waver at that. And so you wanted to shield him, so that poor Liang King would never suffer at anyone's hands again. Am I right?"
Bai Jingyan asked.
"Sister, the Liang King really has suffered so much. He..."
Remembering the life the Liang King had endured, Dong Zhengzhen's eyes reddened.
Bai Jingyan nodded.
"I know. Anyone with a kind heart would feel pity hearing how he's lived. But what I have to tell you is about what happened after the Liang King deceived my maid Chunyan and planted the letter in my grandfather's study."
Dong Zhengzhen said nothing, biting her lip and gripping her handkerchief tight.
"The Liang King claims he was deceived. Claims he was tricked into trying to pin on my grandfather the great crime of colluding with the enemy and selling out the country. But did he truly know nothing? Can a man capable of forging another person's handwriting really be some ignorant, useless fool?
Gao Sheng, the guard who served at the Liang King's side, had been holding You Huanzhang in Dadu — and my hidden guards caught him. Afraid that You Huanzhang would confess everything, Gao Sheng killed him on the spot. My guards carried back You Huanzhang's body, dragged Gao Sheng away, and struck the Dengwen Drum. You know of that yourself.
Gao Sheng is a man of extraordinary martial skill. When my guards and the Bai Estate's finest escorts went to capture him, it cost them heavy sacrifices before they finally managed it. A man of that caliber gave the Liang King his full loyalty. Think about it — is the Liang King really a fool?"
Dong Zhengzhen said nothing. Sweat gathered in her palms.
"In the palace, my guards presented the Liang King's own letters. The words he used in them were all bold and ruthless. If You Huanzhang did not obey him, or revealed the whole truth and tried to blackmail him over their collaboration, the Liang King vowed to send You Huanzhang and his entire family down the road to the Yellow Springs together.
What's more — a servant of the Liang King Estate returned to report to him, and from the moment the Liang King wrote his reply to the moment that letter left the estate gates, barely half a day passed. When the confrontation came in the palace, the Grand Princess pressed him hard with her questions. But to the very end, the Liang King never properly explained whether those letters were transcribed from another's words or written by his own hand.
While the Grand Army was pinned down, he conspired with Jin Deshao to tamper with the grain shipments bound for the Southern Border. The soldiers were left to starve without provisions. That matter was never spelled out in his letters, and there is no ironclad proof — but the tone of those letters made it clear the Liang King was involved."
Bai Jingyan looked at Dong Zhengzhen's pale face and spoke softly, urging her.
"Nothing in this world is more precious than information. A woman's sincere heart must never become a sacrifice for schemers! And the Dong family — above all, the Dong family must never be sacrificed so that the Liang King can climb onto the throne.
A marriage may seem like a private affair between two people, but in truth it belongs to the whole family. Worse, you could find yourself entangled in a plot where a son of a concubine seizes the place of the rightful heir. If it succeeds, the man himself might become king in the end — but the people who followed him will never meet a good end. And if he loses the struggle for the throne, there is nothing more to say. All of them will be condemned as criminals despite having done no wrong, and hardly a one will die in his own bed, living out his full span of years in peace."
Dong Zhengzhen lowered her head. She wanted to ask why, then, Bai Jingyan chose to follow the Crown Prince — but she barely swallowed the words.
"I understand your concerns perfectly well, Sister. But the Liang King has no thought at all of seizing the throne!"
Dong Zhengzhen lifted her head and looked at Bai Jingyan.
"More than anything... Sister, my heart already belongs to him. It's too late to turn back now! I've even given him the peace charm I always carried, and the reason he entered the palace just now is to ask His Majesty for the betrothal decree."
As she spoke, tears rolled down Dong Zhengzhen's cheeks.
Bai Jingyan clenched her fists. How could she be so thoughtless? To hand something she carried on her body so easily to a man outside the family!
Bai Jingyan closed her eyes briefly, calmed the tangle of feelings in her chest, and spoke again.
"If your heart changes, I'll take care of everything else."
Dong Zhengzhen shook her head.
"Sister, I know this is for my sake. You're wise, after all. I know you're not saying this because the Liang King ever loved you — you're truly worried I'll fall into the hands of a bad man. But... this is my choice. In this world, I've come to see that a woman is rarely given the right to choose anything. Let me believe that I chose my own husband with my own two hands. That alone makes me so happy."
Bai Jingyan pressed her lips together.
"Sister, the truth is — I've envied you since we were children."
Dong Zhengzhen's eyes brimmed with admiration.
"You were born into the Bai family, taught by the late Duke of Zhenguo and the Grand Princess, and you grew up doing everything you wished. You trained in the martial arts, rode horses, dueled men in single combat, raised your own personal guard..."