Shattered
"These dog-hearted wretches know nothing of respect for the dead! Of all places, they choose to raise a ruckus in front of the Duke's estate — do they not fear freezing the hearts of the bereaved families within?"
Some of the onlookers wept aloud, and as though the grief had proven contagious, a tide of fury came boiling up among the crowd. The people who had come to the gates of the Duke's estate wailing for justice now found themselves the targets of stinging glares and harsh rebukes, while the one who had knelt unseen at the back was already quietly making ready to slip away.
The stepmother of Wang Yigu, who had been shrieking louder than anyone, now trembled in nothing but fear.
She looked about desperately for somewhere to hide from the eyes of the crowd, which seemed ready to chew her up, swallow her whole, and flay the skin from her bones — but there was nowhere to hide. So instead, she forced herself to shout with feigned defiance.
"The Duke's estate has rendered great service! But who could hate a man for great merit? Naturally, the greater the merit, the better people like it!"
Bai Jindong, her eyes brimming with tears, stepped forward and spoke through clenched teeth.
"You dare speak of military merit? Just how great a merit does it take that it cannot even be laid out in the main hall, so that more than twenty coffins must be set here in the front courtyard instead? Just how great a merit does it take that our grandmother must bear the agony of losing her husband, and then her sons and grandsons besides? You've come all this way to demand it — so tell me! What sort of military merit was it my grandfather ever wanted?"
Swept up in Bai Jindong's words, the crowd's rage burned hotter and hotter. The able-bodied men began rolling up their sleeves and hurling coarse curses, looking ready to tear the troublemakers limb from limb.
"Damn the lot of them! These men gave their lives for the country and the people, and still you carry on like this! Beat them to death, the wretches!"
It was then that Lu Yuanfeng and Xiao Rongyan came slowly toward the Duke's estate, leading their escort and their horses, dragging behind them two villains bound in rope, caked head to toe in blood.
The two of them had been discussing how they would report this matter to the Bai household when Lu Yuanfeng, from far off, caught sight of the crowd packed dense before the gates.
"Brother Xiao! Let me go on ahead! Bring the men and follow behind — and don't you dare try to steal my credit!"
With that, Lu Yuanfeng swung up into the saddle, clamped his legs tight against his horse's flanks, and shot forward.
A faint smile lingered at the corner of Xiao Rongyan's mouth, though his gaze was keen and unfathomably deep. Catching sight of Bai Jingyan standing in mourning dress before the gates of the estate, he turned his head and gave the order.
"Send two men to drag those two off first."
"Yes, my lord!"
His subordinate answered at once.
As Xiao Rongyan recalled the letter he had received, his eyes grew darker and deeper still.
He could not be certain whether the person who had delivered that letter was the Bai eldest miss, nor whether she knew of his true identity.
Yet the messenger had handed over the letter and made no move at all — no threats, no demands, not even an attempt to pry into his identity. She had said that immovability was the answer to every change, and so it would suffice simply to wait and see.
And still, however he turned it over in his mind, he could not quite believe that letter had nothing to do with the Bai eldest miss, with her matchless schemes and stratagems.
"Miss Bai!"
As Lu Yuanfeng galloped near, he reined in hard at the edge of the crowd and dismounted. Holding his horse's bridle, he pushed swiftly through the sea of people and bounded up the steps, offered Bai Jingyan a respectful bow, then turned to look at the troublemakers kneeling before the Duke's estate.
"Brother Xiao and I picked up some news this morning — that two men had bribed the families of fallen soldiers and sent them to make a scene at the gates of the Duke's estate. And it seems this is them."
At the words Brother Xiao, Bai Jingyan lifted her head.
A short distance away, Xiao Rongyan in his scholar's robes came slowly toward them, leading his horse, attended by a dozen or more guards. He radiated commanding presence — composed, yet effortlessly at ease.
The onlookers turned their heads at the guards' sharp cries.
Guards with swords at their waists, tall and expressionless, were dragging two blood-drenched men toward the Duke's estate. The crowd scrambled hastily to clear a path.
"Miss Bai! When I heard the news of the Bai family's Seventeenth Young Master this morning, I was grief-stricken! On my way here I ran into Brother Xiao, and just then an elder of his household was reporting to him. That elder had been sent out this morning, on Brother Xiao's behalf, to deliver alms to the poor, and on his way back he had seen someone handing silver to the soldiers' families inside a run-down temple in the outskirts. The person had instructed them to make trouble before the Duke's estate, and to cry that the Bai family, drunk on ambition for a name in the annals of history, had stubbornly led the army off to war — that in greed for glory they had treated the soldiers' lives as nothing! And that once the matter was settled, they'd each be given another fifty taels of silver!"
"Have you ever seen such a vicious scheme! They mean to drive the last survivors of the Duke of Zhenguo's house to their graves!"
Bai Jindong clenched her fist at her side.
The families who had been stirring up the uproar before the estate trembled uncontrollably. Lu Yuanfeng had pinpointed their exact location — there was nothing for it now but that they had been exposed.
When one of them tried to run, the crowd and the guards blocked his way. With a heavy thud, the kneeling man prostrated himself and confessed everything as it was.
"Eldest Miss, spare us! Those two men gave each of us twenty taels of silver and told us to cause an uproar at the gates of the Duke's estate!"
"Eldest Miss! Eldest Miss, I don't want the silver — you take it! Take all of it! I was wrong, I'll never do it again, I beg you, spare my life!"
"Miss Bai, so what happened then?"
Lu Yuanfeng flicked back the hem of his robe and pointed with the hand that held the bridle at the blood-soaked men.
"These two were simply waiting for those fools to return to the old temple. The plan was to kill every last one of them — greedy, faithless wretches that they are — and then pin the murders on the Duke of Zhenguo's household! It was a scheme to frame the estate from start to finish!"
At those words, the soldiers' families who had fomented the disturbance went white with horror. Gripped by terror, they dragged themselves forward on their knees, kowtowing again and again without cease.
"Eldest Miss Bai! We were blinded by money and brought this calamity on ourselves! Our family has only that one son! If something should happen to him, how are we old ones to live out our days without so much as a coin!"
"It's true! We had no choice! If our sons truly were dead, how were we elders to survive!"
Bai Jingyan stood straight-backed on the steps. She watched the people who had accused her grandfather of murdering their sons — the very ones who, moments ago, had been cursing him with every breath — now sprawled weeping on the ground, begging for their lives, and not the faintest ripple crossed her face. Her gaze shifted instead to the two villains the guards were pinning down.
"Who gave the order?"
Pressed down by the guards, the men could not so much as struggle. One of them opened his mouth.
"Those of us in the jianghu who take coin to settle grudges live by the jianghu's own code. This was a life owed to death all the same — I lacked the skill to escape capture alive, so I'll accept my fate! Whether the eldest miss kills me or spares me, do as you please!"
"Wretches who helped beasts to insult and slander the loyal souls who gave their lives for this nation, who could not spare a flicker of compassion even for the bereaved families of the Duke's estate — and you believe yourself qualified to speak of a 'code'?"
Bai Jingyan's voice was hoarse. She was exhausted past endurance, her heart grown so cold it rivaled the depth of midwinter. She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them slowly once more.
"Before the bodies of the Bai family's martyrs have even grown cold, cold arrows are driving our house toward death! Enough. It is enough that Heaven knows the Bai family's loyalty, and all the world with it! My grandfather has already passed, every man of the Bai family has met his fate, and our house need feel no shame before the two characters that spell Zhenguo!"
Bai Jingyan felt neither joy nor sorrow. Her chilled heart held nothing but a boundless helplessness. She was utterly transformed from the figure she had presented moments before, when she had stood reasoning with the crowd that had ringed the Duke's estate in fury.
She felt an unspeakable desolation swell within her without limit, as though her heart were dying and her soul going cold.
Bai Jingyan bowed to Lu Yuanfeng.
"The Bai household is in disarray over the funerals — every steward and servant has their hands full. It is a trouble, I know, but might the young master Lu entrust these two men to the Office of the Capital Magistrate? I trust that the Capital Magistrate will seek justice for the Bai family."
Lu Yuanfeng stood dumbstruck for a moment before he managed to answer.
"Of course!"
Bai Jingyan turned a placid gaze toward Xiao Rongyan, who stood behind the crowd, a dozen or more sword-bearing guards arrayed at his back.
He wore a scholar's robe embroidered with clouds of black and white in azure, and a belt of jade green trimmed in gold — and he wore it all with remarkable elegance. His features were already deep-cut and sharply defined, and he carried besides the refined air of a great scholar. A faint smile rested at the corner of his mouth, yet his eyes were calm and steadfast. It was a gentle, weighty grace that even the celebrated scholars of the age could seldom match.
Bai Jingyan was no fool — quite the opposite; her eyes were bright and her mind clear. These two men had been sent to the Duke's estate by Xiao Rongyan, borrowing Lu Yuanfeng's hand.
She inclined her head slightly toward him in gratitude. This debt, she would repay without fail.
"The fourth miss, Bai Jinchi, raised her whip against the people. Nuo Ping — confiscate her whip and send her to the residence, to be punished according to the family rules."
With those words, Bai Jingyan turned to help up Bai Jinxiu, tear-streaked and bloodied, and gave her sister a soundless smile.
"Eldest sister……"
Bai Jinxiu's voice broke, and the tears came down like rain.
"Don't cry. Come."
Bai Jingyan's voice was like the release of a long, deep sigh. Then she gathered her sister into her arms and led her inside the estate.
Bai Jindong offered Lu Yuanfeng a bow, then took hold of Bai Jinchi — whose fury had not yet subsided — and drew her toward the residence.
Lu Yuanfeng watched Bai Jingyan's retreating back, gripping his bridle hard. He had intended to present these two men to her and claim the credit for himself — and instead he had utterly crushed the spirit of that proud, unbending woman!
Before the gates of the estate hung white cloth inscribed with the character for mourning. As though he had merged with that cloth, a heartrending sorrow and indignation came flooding over him.
Before the Mangang Tavern, that small, frail woman had radiated an iron strength as she spoke her words of loyalty and honor — words brimming with love for the common people, every syllable driving itself into the ear! How commanding she had been when she dealt with that treacherous letter!
In the great hall, her slender frame had stood straight as a pine, her righteous spirit brimming with loyalty and courage — as though no shock in the world could break that bold, unyielding bearing. And yet today, before the very people for whom the Bai family had staked their lives generation after generation, she had broken at last!