Kindred Spirit
Wine cups circulated busily amid the sumptuous banquet, and the pleasant strains of stringed instruments filled the air as guests exchanged toasts. The great hall was the very picture of peace and prosperity — a feast without equal under all of heaven.
Seated below, Bai Jingyan's maternal uncle Dong Qingping was being teased for fearing his wife, and the corners of his eyes crinkled with laughter. The guests ribbed him mercilessly: if he let his wife run wild like this, she would follow in the footsteps of Consort Ji and rule the Dong household with an iron fist, and Dong Qingping would be driven to stray outside the marriage bonds.
The hand pouring wine for Xiao Rongyan faltered for just a moment before resuming as if nothing had happened. Then he lifted his cup and gazed down toward the base of the stairs.
The instant Xiao Rongyan's gaze fell upon Dong Qingping, a chill ran through Bai Jingyan's whole body. Xiao Rongyan was the youngest son of Consort Ji of Great Yan — the son his mother had cherished above all others.
In her past life, the world had changed fifteen years hence. Great Yan, having toppled Great Jin, had entered the ranks of the great powers. When Great Yan and Xiliang had pressed Great Jin from north and south, Bai Jingyan, waging war against Xiliang under Prince Yang's command, had been unable to hold the line against Great Yan's assault. Great Jin had sued for peace. Xiao Rongyan had said he would withdraw his troops — that there was no need for land, no need for reparations. All he wanted were the people of Great Jin who had dared, with their own mouths, to slander Consort Ji. What became of those people needed no telling.
Dong Qingping was ordinarily eloquent and composed, but drink made him somewhat reckless and unrestrained. As the wine took hold, his tongue ran on and on.
"According to the Veritable Records of Yan, the Ji clan woman possessed a bewitching beauty such that even Daji's seductive charm and Lady Li Ji's famed loveliness could not compare. She ensnared King Su with her beauty, rose to the seat of Noble Consort, and ruled over the inner palace; she drifted among the great ministers, ascended the venerable empress's seat, and became the mother of all under heaven. That seat no one dared challenge, and her political cunning was so exceptional she was called the 'Empress of Power.' Now, my wife of the Song clan may be somewhat hot-tempered, but she is an inflexible, old-fashioned creature — how could she ever compare to such a shameless, vicious she-devil?"
Having finished, Dong Qingping let out a belch and turned to look at Bai Jingyan's mother, Lady Dong.
"Isn't that right, little sister?"
Bai Jingyan's heart nearly stopped at his words. Her palms damp with sweat, she glanced, almost without thinking, at Xiao Rongyan. He was tipping back his cup with a smile on his lips — but there was no laughter in his eyes.
Before Lady Dong could speak, Bai Jingyan spoke first.
"She was indeed the object of everyone's condemnation. Yet whether she harbored a she-devil's heart or beguiled her sovereign with her beauty, Consort Ji in her day was nothing more than a consort among consorts. Without power in the palace and without faction at court, she guided a foolish emperor through survival amid a treacherous, ever-shifting imperial house — and dragged Great Yan all the way to its seat of hegemony. One can only imagine how steely her will must have been."
Xiao Rongyan lifted his head and looked at her with deep, unfathomable eyes. Bai Jingyan deliberately pretended not to notice, keeping her gaze fixed on Dong Qingping alone. But her hands were slick with cold sweat.
"The reason she drew the censure of ten thousand mouths is nothing more than the old truth that the victor becomes a king and the loser becomes a bandit. Didn't you teach me that tiresome principle yourself, Uncle? I suspect you've had a bit too much wine today and are saying things that make no sense at all."
The Emperor, reclining against a plush cushion, looked at Bai Jingyan.
"It was because Consort Ji usurped the morning crow — a hen announcing the dawn — that the nation fell into decline! Even that one-time hegemon who dominated the world crouches now in a corner, does it not? It handed over its very capital of Dadu to our Great Jin and now clings to our skirts to survive! Am I wrong?"
Someone, riding the surge of the moment, called out laughing.
As a woman herself, Bai Jingyan utterly despised the phrase 'a hen announcing the dawn.' She had first spoken in Consort Ji's defense out of fear that Xiao Rongyan might nurse a grudge against her uncle — but now genuine feeling bled into her words.
"Everyone says Great Yan's Consort Ji wielded power as she pleased with the heart of a she-devil — but it was precisely that woman with a devil's ruthlessness who raised Great Yan from a poverty-stricken state into a power that could stand against our Great Jin and Xiliang. In those days, Great Yan's court was clean and its state affairs transparent. Civil officials strove with all their might to right what was wrong; military officers laid their lives on the battlefield.
Then Great Yan's foolish emperor came to his senses, seized back power, and put Consort Ji to death — and Great Yan's people all cheered at the gratifying justice of it. Yet from that day forward Great Yan withered at breathtaking speed, until it had no choice but to cling to Great Jin for survival. What a bitter reality that was."
Xiao Rongyan's hand closed tight around the jade cicada he held. His gaze as he watched Bai Jingyan grew deeper and deeper. The woman who once rode to war in armor now knelt beneath the lamplight, her eyes limpid and bright, defending his mother inside the imperial palace of Dadu that his mother had built.
Without power in the palace and without faction at court, she guided a foolish emperor through survival amid a treacherous, ever-shifting imperial house. Bai Jingyan's words had captured, in their entirety, the unspeakable pain and the unavoidable circumstances his mother had endured.
Xiao Rongyan bowed his head, filled the cup to the brim, and drained it in his mother's stead — carrying with it his gratitude to Bai Jingyan, the one who truly understood.
The Emperor suddenly laughed and spoke up.
"Aunt — your eldest granddaughter seems to be quite the remarkable creature! I heard that the other day, outside the Zhongyong Marquis Estate, she talked Marquis Zhongyong into stunned silence with her wit alone. And today I have confirmed it with my own eyes!"
Bai Jingyan rose, inclined her head with perfect courtesy, then lowered her gaze and returned to her seat.
The Emperor gave Bai Jingyan a brief once-over, narrowed his eyes, and — as if searching his memory — turned to the Grand Chamberlain standing at his side.
"What was it the Bai eldest miss said? What was it she'd studied again...?"
The Grand Chamberlain hurriedly bent at the waist and answered respectfully.
"Your Majesty, the Bai eldest miss said: 'I studied the way of defending the nation — the craft of shedding blood alongside countless soldiers to repel the enemy. We learned an unyielding loyalty that vows the people and armies of Jin shall never, so long as we can become broken bones and scattered flesh upon the field, suffer humiliation before any foe!'"
The Grand Princess answered with a smiling face.
"My granddaughter followed her grandfather's side from the time she was small, and it seems she absorbed nothing but a man's spirit in the doing."
"I am told the Bai eldest miss of the Zhenguo Duke Estate entered the army young as well and went to the battlefield at her grandfather's side. Another family's daughter I couldn't speak to, but a daughter of the Zhenguo Duke Estate has every right to say such words!"
Li Mu raised his cup, rose to his feet with a smiling face, and spoke as if in jest.
"The sons and daughters of the Bai clan, that century-old military house of the Zhenguo Duke Estate, are all masters of war besides — and they've racked up staggering merits without a single stain of defeat. They've swept away the military glory of our Great Jin entire. Without leaving us so much as a scrap!"
Li Mu had, ever and always, sought to drag the Bai family down before the Emperor's very eyes, at every opportunity.
And he had dared to scheme against the Zhenguo Duke Estate, against the Bai clan, right in front of her. Bai Jingyan felt as if a blade had been driven into her heart. She could not contain her fury — her grief and indignation seethed like boiling water, and how was she to hold it back?
Bai Jingyan turned her head. Her spine was ramrod straight. Looking down from the stairs at Left Chancellor Li Mu, cup raised and face beaming, her own face was as calm as still water. Then a cold voice rang out through the hall.
"It seems military merit is all that exists in the Left Chancellor's eyes. Our Bai clan is indeed a century-old military house — yet in all the generations of our ancestors, not one of us ever cast aside his life for the sake of merit or rank. Left Chancellor, go to our clan shrine and look upon those hundreds of ancestral tablets yourself. See if you can find even a single soul among them who died in some flourishing capital chasing power and profit.
In our Bai clan, even a child of ten stakes his life on the battlefield. Do you truly believe a whole family hurling itself into forests of blades and seas of fire does so for merit? What our Bai clan desires is to hold the borders and guard the peace of the people. We wish only for a nation at peace, a people secure — only for the flourishing tranquility of Great Jin!"
As the memories of the past life surged up, Bai Jingyan's chest ached as if being torn apart. Her voice rose higher and higher, pearls of speech pouring out one after another, every syllable charged with strength, lingering long in the ears of all who heard.
The great hall fell as silent as the grave.
Li Mu's complexion turned ugly. Caught between embarrassment and rage, he simply stood there.
The noble young scions, mid-drink, were moved beyond words the moment they heard Bai Jingyan. The Bai clan of the Zhenguo Duke Estate stood at the very summit of Great Jin's great houses. Yet the Bai men had never once rested on their ancestors' virtue — from the age of ten they had followed the Zhenguo Duke onto battlefields to earn their experience. And these young lords? They did nothing in Dadu but squander themselves on wine and pleasure, having achieved nothing at all.
Bai Jingyan's words, uttered with tears swallowed back, carried the raw anguish of flesh and blood churned together. She pressed her five fingers together, opened her palm, and pointed at Left Chancellor Li Mu, her voice rising.
"If the Left Chancellor possesses the mettle to defend this nation, the resolve to give his life generation after generation to protect Great Jin's people and its rivers and mountains, then our Bai clan will gladly hand over this military merit to you. The Bai Family Army, moreover, shall be reforged and retrained to follow your every command. Military merit, is it? If you want it, Left Chancellor, take as much as you please! What our Bai clan prays for, day and night, is only this: that our men return home safe. Only that — nothing more!"
Bai Jindong, Bai Jinchi, Bai Jinshao, and Bai Jinhua — seated below the stairs because they had accompanied Lady Dong, who held official rank — felt their eyes grow hot. They lifted their heads to look up at Bai Jingyan, standing tall as a pine at the top of the stairs, and clenched their fists tight.
Even the Grand Princess had tears welling in both eyes, her throat so constricted she could not force out a word.
When Bai Jingyan recalled the fate of her past life — every son of the Bai clan dying on the battlefield — her whole body trembled with pain.
After a long moment, she swallowed her tears, turned, and bowed in solemn courtesy toward the Emperor.
"The year's end draws near, yet this humble subject's family has still heard no word from the Southern Border. My worry drove me to lose all sense of propriety here before Your Majesty's throne. I beg Your Majesty to forgive me generously."
The Emperor narrowed his eyes and toyed with his wine cup; only after a long while did he let out an unhurried laugh.
"The Bai clan is truly a house of unyielding loyal bones! But hearing the eldest miss speak, it seems the Bai clan offers its loyalty only to Great Jin's people. Does the emperor himself — does I — hold any place in your hearts at all? Do you give your loyalty to this Emperor, I ask?"
The great hall grew so quiet it sent chills down the spine.
Seated below the stairs, Bai Jindong clutched her sleeves tight. Bai Jingyan's words in Qinghui Courtyard came back to her — that the Emperor, wary of the Bai clan, intended to destroy them to forestall any future threat. Hearing that, and then hearing the Emperor's words today, a shiver of dread shot down her spine.
Bai Jingyan shut her eyes slowly. Bitterness flooded through her. Was this the man for whom her grandfather and father had sworn to give their lives, if it came to it, in loyal service?
Xiliang and Southern Yan watched for any crack to exploit; Great Liang and the Rong and Di tribesmen schemed in ways no one could fathom — yet Great Jin's capable generals could be counted on one hand. Once Great Jin's generals were enfeoffed as princes and granted their titles, they had no wish for their descendants to suffer on the remote frontiers, and so urged their sons to abandon the military path and serve as civil officials instead.
The people her grandfather and father had raised — those meant to succeed them — were talents who could have made rival nations tremble. And yet, leaving no opening, no escape route of any kind, her grandfather and father had marched every son of the Bai clan to the front lines. Such loyalty, and Great Jin's Emperor looked upon it and pretended not to see. Concealing his true heart in secret, envying and doubting his own ministers, shameless as a beast, clinging as tenaciously as a fly...