A Legacy of Loyalty Across Generations
At Bai Jingyan's words, the commoners watching in front of Mangang Tower felt hot tears well up in an instant, their hearts swelling with emotion.
Every child of the Bai clan of the Zhenguo Duke Estate, upon turning ten, had to follow the Duke of Zhenguo to the battlefield and harden themselves through experience.
Half a year ago, when the Duke of Zhenguo had set out on campaign, the seventeenth male of the Bai family—a boy smaller than his own horse—had donned armor and mounted up all on his own. And this eldest legitimate daughter of the Zhenguo Duke Estate had marched out with the great army at ten years old as well; in the war she fought at sixteen, after a bitter struggle she had suffered grave injuries that left her unable to bear a single child in this life.
Her humility—treating the common people as her own flesh and blood, declaring that she lived on their taxes—set the spectators' hearts ablaze with gratitude. Here stood so magnificent a Zhenguo Duke Estate, its sons staking their lives on the front lines for their sake—how could the people not be moved? That someone in so exalted a position refused to regard them as mere weeds left them with nothing but thankfulness.
Bai Jingyan's voice was heavy and distinct, brimming with force.
"This baseborn son who doesn't even appear on the estate's family register—a man who has never shed blood for this nation, never earned a single merit or accomplishment for its people—just what confidence does he have, going around shouting that he's a young master of the Zhenguo Duke Estate? What confidence does he have, flaunting the Duke Estate's name to throw his weight about, striking and trying to kill the people of Great Jin at every turn!"
Her words stripped Bai Jingxian's face bare, ground it underfoot, and trampled it into the dirt.
Not only the shops along the street, but the viewing corridors in front of the tower and across from it were packed shoulder to shoulder with people.
The famous noble scions of the capital, standing along the corridor of this floor of Yanque Tower, all wore expressions of stunned disbelief as they listened to Bai Jingyan.
So this is how the Bai clan raised its children! Even a single woman carried such upright, unyielding integrity, with the nation held in her heart. Though Bai Jingyan had lost her martial cultivation, her iron backbone remained intact. These were people of the Bai clan who would never break, no matter what cruel adversity befell them—and that was why, over a hundred years as the Zhenguo Duke Estate, not a single worthless man had ever been produced within its gates.
Standing beneath the dim lantern light, Xiao Rongyan gazed at Bai Jingyan—at once detached and steadfast, possessed of an unbreakable strength. The jade cicadas clutched tightly in his hand, the deep eyes of this man seemed to hold nothing but that one figure in the distance, a frame at once towering and slight.
"That Bai sister of yours really does seem overflowing with a sense of justice!"
Lu Yuanfeng felt as though his chest were boiling over. It was respect born of pure sincerity. Unlike before, he no longer harbored any frivolous thoughts about Bai Jingyan's beauty.
"Eldest Young Lady."
Chen Gengsheng hurried out of the medicine shop across the way, bowed to Bai Jingyan, and spoke.
"According to Physician Yu of Huichun Hall across the street, the old man was kicked so hard that he vomited up the blood that had pooled in his heart and lungs—it actually did him good! Our estate's groom has already stopped the bleeding, and the child only has scrapes; a few days of ointment and he'll be fine."
Bai Jingxian, whom Bai Jingyan despised down to her very bones, could no longer keep his head bowed. Gritting his teeth, eyes blazing with fury, he shrieked at the Duke Estate guard pinning him down.
"See? They're fine! Let go of me already!"
But the guard, having received no order from Bai Jingyan, could not release his grip, and pressed down all the harder on Bai Jingxian as he thrashed and squirmed to escape.
At the sight of Bai Jingxian's obstinate face—the face of a man who seemed capable of dying without a shred of remorse—Bai Jingyan's heart plummeted to its depths, and she felt no further desire to teach him anything at all.
"My grandfather declared that the military law of the Bai clan is the law of the household itself. Whoever torments the people receives thirty strokes of the military rod; and when the children of the Bai clan violate family law, the punishment is harsher still. Fifty strokes!"
Bai Jingyan's eyes were as clear and bright as a polished mirror. Gritting her teeth, she continued.
"Nuo Ping! Borrow a rod from the shopkeeper of Mangang Tower and carry out the punishment here on this street!"
Bai Jingxian stared at her, eyes gone wide as saucers.
"No! You can't!"
Dragging her knees across the ground, the woman crawled trembling to Bai Jingyan's feet, prostrated herself, and wept as she begged.
"Eldest Young Lady, Xian'er is still young! Fifty strokes of the rod—he could die! You absolutely must not beat him! Absolutely not!"
"Bai Qingyu, legitimate son of the Bai clan, was sentenced to sixty strokes at the age of twelve for trampling a barley field on horseback while pursuing a traitor. Bai Jinxiu, the second daughter of the Bai clan, received fifty lashes at the age of ten—injuring a woodcutter during a march on campaign. They were all younger than your son when they took their punishments!"
Her hatred for the woman's conduct reaching its peak, Bai Jingyan's voice grew louder and louder.
"Eldest Young Lady, I've brought the rod!"
Nuo Ping returned carrying the rod.
At the sight of the heavy, ponderous rod, the woman turned pale with fright and, weeping aloud, scrambled on all fours toward Bai Jingxian, whose face had drained of all color. She wrapped her arms tightly around her son.
"Xian'er is flesh and blood of the Zhenguo Duke Estate! He's a precious body, I tell you! I'll take the fifty strokes in his place. Eldest Young Lady, I beg you like this—please, beat me instead!"
"Since age is no excuse, now you presume to speak to me of rank?"
Bai Jingyan curled her lip in contempt. Then, without the slightest haste, she laid out her argument with cold logic.
"Three years ago, during the war at Pyeongseong, when the Xiliang army besieged the city, our great army went three days without provisions. My father—the crown prince of the Zhenguo Duke Estate—had to hold the line at Pyeongseong for fear that the Xiliang army would cross into our territory and massacre the people of Great Jin. And so he seized the livestock of the citizens within the walls to feed his starving soldiers, and waited until reinforcements arrived. Pyeongseong won a great victory, and my father bowed to the people and confessed his fault. Then, bare-chested in the snow, he took two hundred strokes of the rod! Before the law of the nation and military discipline, he declared, there is no high or low, no noble or base! And now you speak to me of nobility? Then was my father not noble? A mere baseborn son—what reason could he possibly have to be exempt?"
Clutching her hand warmer so hard her fingers trembled, Bai Jingyan gave her command.
"Drag him out and strike him hard! Not a single stroke is to be spared!"
Amid the woman's wailing and weeping, the guards pressed Bai Jingxian face-down to the ground. Nuo Ping swung the rod himself, and the heavy thud of wood striking flesh mingled with Bai Jingxian's agonized screams, ringing out across the street.
By the thirtieth stroke, blood had begun to seep from Bai Jingxian's buttocks. He still shrieked pitifully, but the strength had drained out of his cries.
The noble young men watching flinched as if the rod were falling on their own bodies, gooseflesh prickling across their skin. Yet the face of Bai Jingyan standing in the street remained as cold as ever, unchanged in the slightest.
After the full fifty strokes, Bai Jingxian lay unconscious. The woman tore free of the guards' hands, threw herself over her son, and wailed until her heart seemed to tear in two.
Though the hatred searing through Bai Jingyan like a blade aimed at the heavens had not cooled in the least, she could hardly kill a man in the middle of the street. Her voice was flat and plain.
"Carry him back. Call a physician and have him treated!"
"Yes, my lady!"
Nuo Ping answered, then sent men to fetch a physician and had Bai Jingxian carried up into a carriage.
"Chen Gengsheng, stay behind. Escort the injured old man and child home, and convey our apology and comfort to them."
Bai Jingyan continued.
"Let's go. I'm tired."
As the carriage of the Bai eldest daughter drew near, the commoners who had come out to watch parted to either side, clearing the way for it to pass.
Once inside the carriage, Bai Jingyan leaned against a pillow with one hand and closed her eyes, exhaustion written across her face. Her throat felt tight and full, and clear tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. A desolate, aching sorrow filled her chest to the brim.
The moment she had mentioned her siblings and her father's past, the image flickered before her eyes—sitting before a bonfire outside the barracks with her grandfather, her father, and her uncles, plotting strategy through the night.
Before the campaign began, the vigorous, high-spirited sons of the Bai clan passed one by one before Bai Jingyan's eyes. Unable to control her emotions, she trembled from head to toe.
Today's affairs had been resolved far more smoothly than she had anticipated. Because of it, the Bai clan's renown would climb higher still.
Yet when she remembered that even though the Bai clan had, in accordance with its family creed, poured out boundless loyalty to emperor and people alike, sacrificing itself without hesitation for Great Jin and its people—and had still been destroyed by the emperor's suspicion—Bai Jingyan could not contain her fury.
The imperial house of Great Jin had sinned against generations of the Bai clan's unwavering loyalty.
Nanny Zhang had been waiting at the entrance of the Duke Estate since early on. With the Grand Princess's permission, Bai Jingyan had put Bai Jingxian's character to the test. If the men of the Zhenguo Duke Estate had truly all perished in the Southern Border, this one son would be all that remained of the household. As long as the Grand Princess lived, the odds were very high indeed that this wretch would one day inherit the title of Duke of Zhenguo.
Was there not a saying—that one may fathom ten fathoms of water, but never a single fathom of the human heart? The Grand Princess, too, had felt uneasy; without testing the character of a child who had not grown up within the Zhenguo Duke Estate, she could not rest.
Seated upon the heated platform, the Grand Princess had heard of Bai Jingxian's deeds, and the hand counting her prayer beads had trembled violently. Had it not been for Bai Jingyan, the hundred-year reputation of the Bai clan would have crashed to the ground in a single instant. Worse still, the boy had openly boasted that the Duke of Zhenguo was someone even the Emperor dared not touch, and had spoken of exterminating entire clans. If such words ever reached the Emperor's ears, he would surely come to doubt the Bai family.
The Grand Princess closed her eyes tightly.
"Ayan did exactly right! That boy has a savage, cruel nature. Teaching him will take a great deal of effort. Send someone at once to keep a close watch on him, and confine him to his residence so he can never cause trouble again."
Her grandmother was clearly growing old, Bai Jingyan thought—she knew full well that Bai Jingxian was rotten to the core, yet she still could not bring herself to cast him out of the estate entirely.
Bai Jingyan's heart was full of displeasure, but she merely nodded and replied that it would be done. She did not seem to wish to speak of it further.
Leaving Longevity Courtyard, Bai Jingyan saw two snowmen piled beneath the lantern hanging on the garden gate. They stood about half the height of a person, and on each snowman's face, a peanut had been set to form a smiling mouth.
Recalling the peanuts that had struck the backs of Bai Jingxian's knees before Mangang Tower that day, forcing him to his knees, Bai Jingyan felt an unexpected unease. She gripped her hand warmer tightly and lowered her head.
So Xiao Rongyan's martial skill is extraordinary to that degree. But then—why would he have helped me?
In her past life, when she had set out on campaign in pursuit of the Liang King, the armies of Great Jin and Great Yan had clashed. Bai Jingyan had laid a trap hoping to capture Xiao Rongyan alive, but Yue Quanyong, the vanguard general at Xiao Rongyan's side, had fallen into it instead.
Yue Quanyong had once said this: had Xiao Rongyan not suffered such grievous wounds to his heart and lungs, their forces would never have been caught in Bai Jingyan's trap at all. Seeing him now, it seemed those words had been no empty boast.
Seeing Bai Jingyan standing as if her soul had left her, staring blankly at the snowmen, Nanny Zhang smiled warmly and spoke.
"The Fifth and Sixth Young Ladies made them for the Grand Princess today."
Bai Jingyan nodded.
"Nanny, go back and look after Grandmother. You needn't see me off."