The Foolish Child
The Bai family watched King Xin's carriage recede into the distance with reddened eyes and fists clenched so hard the knuckles whitened, nursing their grief and resentment.
"Grandfather! Oh, Grandfather... Your grandson has only just returned to the Bai family, and you leave without so much as looking at him! Grandfather!"
The wailing came out of nowhere. Still on his knees, Bai Jingxian crawled toward the coffin of the Duke of Zhenguo as he sobbed, crying out at the top of his lungs as though terrified the crowd might fail to recognize that he was the Duke's own grandson.
It was the Bai household servants — the very ones who had fawned over Bai Jingxian — who had carried him here to the southern gate. When the confrontation between the Bai family and King Xin had threatened to erupt moments before, he had silently tucked himself off to one side, not daring to make a sound; only after the prince had departed did he appear before the crowd wearing a face twisted with grief.
"Grandfather Duke! How could you leave us like this! Your grandson Bai Jingxian has only just come home — why have you departed so!"
Bai Jingxian's mother beat her chest and wailed.
Lady Dong's eyes darkened. She had been watching the mother and son, who had appeared without warning to throw their tantrum, with cold eyes; now, thoroughly repulsed, she shouted, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Crown Princess! What kind of words are those? Doing? My son Jingxian is the Duke of Zhenguo's grandson. Now that the Grandfather Duke has passed, his only surviving grandson should naturally be the one to receive him!"
The woman clutched her chest and contorted her face in sorrow. "Crown Princess, you came to the southern gate at dawn to receive the Duke alongside the mourning family — so why did you not summon my son? Could it be that, before the bodies of the Duke and my father-in-law have even grown cold, you mean to hurry us mother and son out of the Duke's estate!"
"Grandfather! If you leave me like this, how is your grandson supposed to live?"
Kneeling before the Grandfather Duke's coffin, Bai Jingxian beat the shroud thin as paper against himself and pressed on. "The moment I returned home, I was beaten half to death! To this day they refuse to enter me into the family register! Grandmother will not so much as look at me! Without Grandfather's protection, I fear it will not be long before I follow you to the grave!"
The onlookers began to murmur.
"Is that man truly a young master of the Duke's estate?"
"I remember now! That day in front of Manganglou — isn't he the baseborn son who got beaten by the eldest young miss!"
"To think a villain like that came from the Duke's estate, where only heroes gather!"
"Villain or not, he's the only man left in the whole estate of Zhenguo! His prospects look bright indeed!"
Bai Jingyan, who only moments ago had barely held back an eruption of fury, found her heart strangely settling at the sight of such a pathetic display. She closed her eyes and broke her standoff with King Xin's guards. She had no wish to look upon this pair's hypocrisy any longer.
Bai Jingyan spoke. "Bai Jingxian, you saw for yourself how King Xin treats our Bai family. No one can say what will become of us. We may yet be saddled with a great crime. Our entire family could fall to ruin. And even knowing that — if you are truly unafraid, then once the Bai family's funeral is over, my mother and I will petition Grandmother to enter your name into the register. Whether the estate of Zhenguo carries on its glory or meets with extermination, no one can say. So do not come to regret it!"
Bai Jingxian, who had been wailing and carrying on, suddenly shuddered. The memory of King Xin's demeanor moments before struck him like a splash of cold water, and his mournful cries caught hard in his throat.
Bai Jingyan gripped Bai Jindong's hand tightly and, without so much as a glance at Bai Jingxian still performing his grief, said, "Let's go. We must escort our honored dead home."
She turned and walked to Chun Tao, taking the white shroud from her hands. Then she approached Lady Wang, the fourth aunt, who cradled Bai Jingdong's body and soothed the child as though out of her mind. Bai Jingyan knelt, bowed low, and wrapped the boy's body in the shroud.
"Fourth Aunt, let's take our Jingdong home."
Fourth Aunt Lady Wang lifted her head. Tears streamed without end from her bloodshot eyes. Her gaze was hollow, as though seeing nothing at all, and her sobbing voice trembled on and on.
"They tore Jingdong's whole body apart... I can't hold his head. I can't hold his head..."
That single phrase — she could not hold his head — shattered Bai Jingyan's heart. A terrible despair and sorrow surged up from the very depths of her chest, and she nearly broke down and wept aloud. Tears fell without end.
Gritting her teeth, Bai Jingyan answered. "I can hold him. Fourth Aunt — we sisters will carry Jingdong. We can carry him well."
Bai Jingyan gripped the shroud tight, the veins standing out on the backs of her hands. She clenched her jaw until it felt her teeth would crack and cried out, "Bai Jinxiu! Bai Jindong!"
Bai Jinxiu and Bai Jindong, faces smeared with tears, hurried over at those words and knelt at Bai Jingyan's side. Bai Jinchi pulled free of the maid supporting her and hobbled over to where Bai Jingdong lay.
"Today the three of us will carry Jingdong's body in our arms and bring him home, head held fast. Let us take home our Jingdong, who gave his body for the country."
The body of the ten-year-old child in his little armor had already gone stiff and cold. Bai Jingyan supported Jingdong's back where it rested in Lady Wang's arms; Bai Jindong cradled his head and neck; Bai Jinxiu held his legs.
"I'm coming too."
Bai Jinchi clenched her jaw and placed both hands beneath Jingdong's waist. Then, eyes brimming with hot tears, she cried out, "Jingdong! Your sister is carrying you home!"
"Support Fourth Aunt!"
Lady Dong, fighting back her tears, called out in a loud voice, "Let us go home!"
Paper money scattered into the sky. Lady Dong, mistress of the Duke of Zhenguo's household, walked at the very head of the procession, casting paper money as she went to guide the souls home.
Dong Qing'e lifted the coffin and shouted, "Raise the coffins!"
The three remaining coffins — all but the smallest, which had already been shattered — rose into the air once more, and, escorted by the Bai family guards, passed through the southern gate of Dadu.
Bai Jingxian, who had been wailing only moments before, hastily shuffled aside on his knees. A cold current of unease washed over him.
The conscripted laborers and gatekeeping soldiers of the southern gate, seeing the weeping commoners all kneel as one, bowed their heads in kind, striking their chests with a single hand before offering a soldier's salute to the procession of returning souls as it slowly entered the city.
Bai Jingyan clutched her youngest brother tight in her arms, while Bai Jindong held his head and neck joined together. They followed behind the three coffins toward the estate of the Duke of Zhenguo.
Bai Jinchi looked at the commoners kneeling along the roadside, weeping. She wanted, this very instant, to run to the frontier and slaughter every last one of the men who had destroyed the Bai family's men — the enemies who had butchered her youngest brother so cruelly.
"How King Xin treats the Bai family is how the imperial house treats the Bai family. Jinchi — you saw plainly today how they treated Jingdong, didn't you? How they treated Grandfather, our uncles, and our brothers. How they treated those flimsy coffins, and us. Do you understand now? The Bai family is no longer the Bai family you imagined. The Bai family stands in peril, and no one will wait for you to grow up slowly. Jinchi — it is time to come to your senses."
Gazing straight ahead, her eyes aching and raw, Bai Jingyan spoke to Bai Jinchi, who was supporting Jingdong's waist. Bai Jinchi could hold back her tears no longer; she nodded through her sobs.
"Yes, eldest sister!"
Xiao Rongyan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gripping the Jade Cicada worn smooth from long handling. He watched Bai Jingyan's ashen face. The blade she had hidden deep within her eyes seemed ready to leap free at any moment.
Lu Yuanfeng, eyes wet with tears, walked with the crowd toward the Duke's estate — but before he reached its entrance, the guards of Chancellor Yu's residence came and forcibly escorted him away.
The commoners followed, weeping, all the way to the gates. The Grand Princess had long since brought the Bai family's young children to wait before the gates; word of what King Xin had done at the southern gate had already reached her. Seeing her granddaughters return bearing the body of her youngest grandson, the Grand Princess's eyes flew wide; she reached out a hand toward the boy's body but could not bring herself to touch it, and wailed aloud — as though the resentment buried deep in her bones had burst forth all at once.
"That wretch King Xin — how does he dare! How does he dare do such a thing to the men of our Bai family! I will enter the palace and see the Emperor! The Emperor...!"
Straining with all her strength to cry out, the Grand Princess collapsed where she stood.
"Your Highness! Your Highness the Grand Princess!"
Nanny Zhang turned deathly pale with fright.
The front of the Bai estate erupted into chaos. Lady Dong, standing before the main gate like a pillar holding up heaven and earth, ordered the Grand Princess carried to Zhangshou Courtyard. Then the bodies of the Grandfather Duke, the estate's Fifth Master, the sixth grandson, and the youngest grandson were carefully cleansed and laid into their coffins. For the other Bai men who would never return, only garments were placed within coffins.
With matters fallen to such a pass, the front lines must already have become hell itself.
Through the gates of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate, thrown wide open, tents could be seen pitched in the courtyard, with more than twenty coffins lined up in a row, deepening the sorrow of the scene. The grieving commoners wept for the Bai family, and they wept for the coming battle. The allied armies of Xiliang and Southern Yan had invaded Jin. With every man of the Duke's household dead, who now would defend the mountains and rivers of Great Jin? Who would protect its people?
Coming out of Zhangshou Courtyard, Bai Jingyan looked up at the overcast sky. Tears fell without end from her tightly closed eyes.
"Eldest sister..."
At Bai Jinse's choked voice, Bai Jingyan hastily turned her head to wipe away her tears in secret, then turned back to look at her half-sister, who clutched her hem with a small hand.
Bai Jingyan suppressed her emotions and took Bai Jinse's chilled hand. Bending down to meet the girl's eyes, she asked in a low voice, "Why are you out here? Where is your nurse?"
Bai Jinse's eyes were rimmed red as she clenched her teeth and asked, "Eldest sister, who hurt Grandfather, and Father, and our uncles and older brothers?"
Before Bai Jingyan could answer, Bai Jinse pressed on. "Eldest sister, I am no longer a foolish child who knows nothing. I am nine years old now! I have read the art of war at your side, and the sages' classics with my tutor! I am no fool. If no one had secretly harmed us, how could every single man of our Bai family have died — without one survivor? All the way down to our seventeenth older brother. Someone is trying to pull the Bai family up by the roots and kill us all. I am certain of it!"
Seeing that every trace of innocence had vanished from those once-clear eyes, replaced by something grown-up and hard, Bai Jingyan bit her lip. Bitterness welled up in her; all she could do was stroke Bai Jinse's hair in silence, unable to say a word.
A child who should have had nothing in the world to fear — and losing Grandfather, Father, and her brothers all at once has made an adult of her overnight.
She could not decide whether to call it a mercy or to grieve for it.
"Jinse..."
Bai Jingyan bent down, wiped the girl's tears with her knuckle, and said in a low voice, "Mother and Grandmother, our aunts and sisters — all of them will find justice for our Bai family. And we will care for you well, so you can grow up safe and sound. We will be together for a long, long time. The future of our Bai family rests in the hands of us sisters. You know the saying — 'Never scorn a youth in poverty'? When you are grown, I will show you just how high the Bai family stands in the Great Jin."
Bai Jinse looked up at her with a face that half understood and gave a solemn nod. "Yes, eldest sister."
Seeing Nanny Jin, who stood beside Lady Dong, entering Zhangshou Courtyard, Bai Jingyan rose to her feet and looked toward her.
"Nanny..."
Nanny Jin bowed to Bai Jingyan before speaking. "Eldest Young Miss, Seventh Young Miss — people have come from the main house at Suyang! The Crown Princess bade me tell Her Highness the Grand Princess that if she is unwell, she may send her regrets and pay her respects at a later time, and that in the meantime lodging for them should be prepared at the Crane Guesthouse."