The Question
Bai Jingyan bowed once more.
"Your Majesty's imperial authority was granted to you by the people of Great Jin. Without the people, where would the Son of Heaven stand? Our Bai family has guarded the frontier and shielded the people of Great Jin without once committing a single atrocity. If that does not constitute devotion to Your Majesty, then I dare to ask Your Majesty directly — what, in the end, is loyalty?"
That a sovereign seated at the very pinnacle of a nation held neither the mountains and rivers nor the people in his heart, and lacked the magnanimity to embrace all under heaven — she could almost accept that. But even now, at this very moment, elite soldiers were spilling blood and staking their lives on the battlefield against the enemies of Great Jin. And here he was, amid the splendor and luxury of the capital, plotting internal strife while his ministers schemed petty, wicked deeds out of fear that a subject's merit might eclipse their own power. How could such a man be called a benevolent emperor?
This court was no longer the upright, incorruptible court of justice her grandfather had once described to her. The generals still fought their wars to the death beyond the walls, but the civil officials within the court no longer carried themselves with any trace of noble spirit.
The honest and self-sacrificing would be condemned to misery, while the wicked and cunning would bask in wealth and glory! Look at these sycophantic traitors groveling in this very hall — look at those fawning and clinging to power! Were they not all living in splendor? The Bai family had possessed loyalty and devotion, magnanimity of spirit, the valor to hold up the very heavens — and yet had they not fallen to the brink of their family's extermination? What could be more ludicrous than that!
In her past life, Great Jin had been destroyed by the invasion of Great Yan, the very nation they had scorned from beginning to end. Looking back now, not a single bit of it was undeserved.
"Your Majesty……"
The Grand Princess hurriedly knelt, afraid the Emperor would lash out at Bai Jingyan.
"I fear I raised this child with too much indulgence. Your Majesty, I beg your forgiveness."
The Emperor found himself struck speechless by Bai Jingyan's question — and, it seemed, equally startled by the fury she made no effort to conceal.
Only after a long while did the Emperor chuckle softly and brush dust from the hem of his robe, though there was none to be found. Then, changing the subject, he spoke in a scattered, offhand manner.
"Yesterday the censor reported that the wife of Marquis Zhongyong beat to death the maidservants who came with the second daughter of the Bai family as dowry. And it seems those maids were of commoner status, were they? Jin Dexiao, what do you know of this matter? Explain yourself in detail."
Marquis Zhongyong scrambled forward in alarm and dropped to his knees. Unable to fathom why the Emperor had suddenly brought up this affair, he broke into a cold sweat and blurted out an answer before his wits could catch up.
"Your Majesty, I questioned Yu Chu at length. According to him, the maidservants his wife Bai Jinxiu brought as dowry had their household registers left at the Zhenguo Duke Estate. I imagine my daughter-in-law, being a naive young woman of the inner quarters, did not realize they were maids sent as dowry, and dealt with them while setting her mind at ease about taking charge as mistress of the household."
Bai Jingyan curled her lips into a cold smile. So the Marquis of Zhongyong's household could look straight at black and call it white.
"Your Majesty, this humble servant has a question she wishes to put to the Marquis of Zhongyong. May I?"
Bai Jingyan asked the Emperor with perfect courtesy.
When the Emperor nodded, she turned her squarely upright back to face the man. Her eyes blazed as she fixed each of the court ministers' gazes in her memory — the drunken ones, the leering ones, the contemptuous ones.
Nearly everyone in this hall wished to see the Bai family become a laughingstock. They wished to watch a house that had produced generals for a hundred years, the resplendent Zhenguo Duke Estate, come crumbling down.
Bai Jingyan fixed a frost-laden stare on Marquis Zhongyong and asked, her voice cold as winter water.
"Marquis — did your wife only discover, after inspecting my second sister's dowry, that the maidservants sent with it had their household registers left at your estate? Or is your foresight so uncanny that one might call you a female Zhuge Liang?"
Jin Dexiao, having already tasted just how formidable the eldest daughter of the Bai family could be, had coordinated his story with his wife Lady Zhang in advance, and so delivered the reply he had prepared in his heart.
"Your Majesty, it was a maidservant named Mingyu — one of the girls brought as my daughter-in-law Bai Jinxiu's dowry — who told my wife where the registers were. That is the only reason my wife spared the girl's life."
He had made such a show of the Mingyu affair that only by saying this could he explain why the maids from Bai Jinxiu's dowry had ended up in Lady Zhang's dowry residence.
The fourth daughter of the Bai family, Bai Jinchi, ground her teeth and rose to her feet, ready to shower the Marquis with curses — but in that instant, the third daughter, Bai Jindong, pressed her firmly back down.
"Elder Sister, he's spouting nonsense!"
Bai Jinchi glared daggers at Jin Dexiao.
"Hold your tongue. This is the imperial court."
Bai Jindong warned in a lowered voice.
"A household register is a vital document. Marquis — surely you don't take my second sister for a fool? Telling a mere maidservant where the family registers are kept — does that even make sense? Marquis, are you using Mingyu's supposed madness as a pretext to shove the blame onto her?"
Bai Jingyan's voice dripped with mockery.
Jin Dexiao faltered for a heartbeat, then steadied himself at once and spoke with grave solemnity.
"Eldest Miss Bai, why do you presume upon this humble man's thoughts with such a petty heart? The servant Mingyu said she unwittingly learned that her young mistress had not brought their registers with her. Terrified that she might one day be blackmailed with them, she went to my wife and told her everything!"
"Marquis, you understand well enough what crime it is to deceive the sovereign, I trust? Very well, then — since we stand before the throne, let us speak plainly. That maidservant cannot even read my name. She was purchased when my second sister was still a small child, a girl who has never once laid eyes on what a Bai family register even looks like. And yet you would have me believe that Mingyu simply stumbled upon it and reported it of her own accord? Do you take us for fools who will swallow any lie you feed them? Or has your meager bag of tricks finally run dry, leaving you with nothing better than to cover your eyes and pretend the sun is not shining?"
Jin Dexiao was so furious his innards twisted into knots. He racked his brain for a response, but his lips merely trembled faintly, and not a single word would come out.
The Emperor asked Bai Jingyan as though it were a matter of no consequence.
"I hear you play Go exceptionally well."
Bai Jingyan kept her head bowed and said nothing, her fists clenched tight. The Emperor's manner of shielding the Marquis of Zhongyong was far too naked. The court ministers would trim their sails to the wind, and the moment word of the Bai family's defeat spread, the treacherous officials who delighted in reading the Emperor's hidden heart would seize the chance to trample the Bai name into the mud.
Of course. It had been no different in her past life. There was no one who did not know of the Bai family's loyalty and devotion, yet within the court, no one had ever dared to see justice done on their behalf.
As the old saying goes — those above set the example, and those below follow it. When the Emperor himself harbored such resentment toward the Bai family, what minister would dare speak the truth for their sake?
Bai Jingyan bowed low.
"I know only a very little."
"Your aunt played the game beautifully, too."
The Emperor turned his gaze upon Bai Jingyan. A flicker of some emotion, impossible to name, crossed his face. He studied her as though searching for another person's shadow in her features, and then slowly went on.
"When you have time, come visit the palace with your grandmother. Keep the Empress company as well — she is very fond of Go herself. You may rise!"
The Empress nodded with a smile. But the white nails she had hidden within her sleeve looked ready to punch straight through her palms.
It had been many years since the Empress had shared a household with the Emperor as his wife. There was no possibility she did not know Bai Suoqiu — the only daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, Bai Weiting. To the Emperor, Bai Suoqiu had been a woman like a stone lodged in his heart.
Bai Suoqiu no longer existed in this world, yet in the Emperor's heart she remained someone no one could ever replace. And that being so — what was the Emperor's true intent in telling Bai Jingyan to visit the palace? Was he planning to take the girl as a concubine?
A thousand thoughts churned in the Empress's breast, leaving her heavy and suffocated. The Emperor's attitude toward the Bai family had always been ambiguous — on the surface he seemed to have tired of them, yet something like old affection lingered beneath, and she could not fathom his heart at all.
Just then there came a loud clatter, and a palace maid dropped to her knees in a flustered apology.
"Forgive me! This servant did not do it on purpose!"
"It's quite all right."
Xiao Rongyan calmly brushed the spilled wine from his robes. A hint of a smile played at the corners of his gentle, guileless eyes, and his voice — soft yet substantial — was like a spring breeze.
The Emperor emerged from his reverie and looked over the man who stood behind the Crown Prince. Handsome, with the scholarly air of one as learned as any sage of the age, he carried himself with a calm expression that held something both steadfast and gentle — and the Emperor found himself rather taken with him.
"So you are Xiao Rongyan, the merchant of Wei whom the Crown Prince mentions so often."
Xiao Rongyan rose composedly and offered a formal bow to the Emperor.
"By His Highness's gracious favor, an ordinary commoner like myself has been granted the rare honor of entering the palace. I am deeply grateful for the chance to witness His Majesty's majesty with my own eyes."
Flattery, plainly, by anyone's judgment — yet delivered with such elegance that it somehow lifted the spirits rather than curdled them. The Emperor felt the gloom within him disperse, and laughed out loud, heartily and at ease.
"I am told, Master Xiao, that you are a righteous merchant of the Great Wei nation with a reputation that echoes far and wide. That poem you composed at the Wenxian Tower not a month past — Night Snow over the Ping River — how charming it was! It has left even me longing for the beautiful scenery of Pingchuan!"
With the Emperor openly showing his favor and addressing the man as "Master Xiao," the assembled officials below the steps each fell to their own private calculations.
"A trifling work dashed off after a cup of wine, nothing more. Your Majesty flatters me far too generously."
Xiao Rongyan neither shrank back nor put on airs. The man carried the deep dignity of a true scholar, so that even with wine staining his robes he looked not the least bit disheveled. His bearing was open and natural — like some lofty soul untouched by the dust of the vulgar world.
"Great Wei has no shortage of brilliant literary men whose names are known across the realm, and among them you are the most distinguished. Your fame reaches every nation under heaven — why so modest!"
The Emperor, ever partial to men of learning, asked Xiao Rongyan a few more questions.
"Do you plan to return to your homeland soon, Master Xiao? Or will you spend the festival here in the capital?"
"I have heard that the lantern festival on the fifteenth of the twelfth month is the grandest celebration the Great Jin has ever known — a magnificent affair where scholars and men of letters vie to display their talents. And so I intend to spend the festival in Dadu. Once I have seen the lantern festival on the fifteenth, I will make my way home."
The Emperor was nodding along when he noticed the stains on Xiao Rongyan's robes and spoke up.
"Master Xiao, change your clothes first, then come back and tell me more about the beautiful sights of Pingchuan."
Xiao Rongyan bowed and agreed with a pleasant smile.
Bai Jingyan saw that the Crown Prince's attendant was nowhere to be found, and thought to herself that this was fortunate. Then, without quite meaning to, her gaze turned toward Xiao Rongyan.
Her eyes met his — those calm, keen eyes.
Bai Jingyan's fist clenched tight, then slowly uncurled. In that deep, razor-sharp gaze of Xiao Rongyan's, she seemed to read the knowledge that a trap lay ahead. Whether he could slip past it cleanly, however, remained an open question.
Xiao Rongyan's expression betrayed nothing. The instant their eyes met, both of them turned their gazes away. Then Xiao Rongyan followed the palace maid out to change his clothes.
Only after he returned, dressed now in a fresh official's robe, did Bai Jingyan finally set her uneasy heart at rest.