The Future Looks Promising
Just then, a servant from the Zhongyong Marquis Estate rode up, shouldered his way through the crowd, and pressed close to whisper in the Zhongyi Prince's steward's ear.
"Steward, I'm afraid our lord's procession will have to change its route. Half an incense stick's time ago, there was an assassination attempt on Prince Yang at Chang'an Street, and the Jingzhao Magistracy has sealed off the street and declared it will conduct a thorough investigation. Our procession will most likely have to take a detour to return home!"
The Zhongyi Prince's steward's heart lurched. He could only be grateful that the eldest legitimate daughter of the Zhenguo Duke Estate had blocked the gate with her archery. They had arrived half a shichen early — by his reckoning, had they left on time, they would have walked straight into the failed assassination of Prince Yang on the road home.
The Zhenguo Duke Estate, of course, received word of the incident as well. The Yang family's steward conferred with the household, and Bai Jingyan's mother, Lady Dong, sent the maid Yinzhu to tell Bai Jingyan not to miss the auspicious hour and to hurry the Zhongyi Prince's procession out the gate.
"Eldest Miss, Madam sends word for you. According to the Zhongyong Marquis Estate's steward, the Prince's procession must go around by another road, so if we delay, we may miss the auspicious hour!"
Hearing that they would take a detour, Bai Jingyan finally let her heart settle.
She nodded and told Bai Jinchi to pass along a message.
"Go tell Fourth Miss that the Zhenguo Duke Estate has read the sincerity in the Zhongyong Marquis heir's wish to take our Second Miss as his bride. Tell him we hope he will love and cherish her, and never once wound her heart. And tell him the archery contest may resume — after the young lord has paid his respects to the bride's family, as he came to do today."
Bai Jinchi's eyes reddened as she looked up at her eldest sister.
The firecrackers thundered, and Jin Lang entered the Zhenguo Duke Estate surrounded by the young nobles of the capital.
Bai Jingyan stood beneath the eaves, draped in a ceremonial cloak. She watched as Jin Lang came in carrying the wild goose, made his formal bows, completed the wedding rites, offered tea, and then — his face brimming over with joy — took his bride's hand and led her out of the main hall, walking toward the gates of the Zhenguo Duke Estate.
The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. Then she spoke to Chun Tao, who stood just behind her.
"Let's go."
The Zhenguo Duke Estate was abuzz with joy. Jin Lang smiled brightly, clutching the red silk in his hand and returning the congratulations of the guests. Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught a slight figure vanishing in an instant into a secluded corner of the covered walkway — and his step faltered, leaving him dazed.
He had once been betrothed to Bai Jingyan. When she had marched out to war with the Duke of Zhenguo, he had been the one to see her off.
Bai Jingyan's features, still ripening into womanhood, had been as gorgeous and exquisite as a painted portrait, and the sight of her in full battle dress and armor, a sword at her waist, had been breathtaking beyond words. The memory remained vivid still.
Back then, he had thought himself the most blessed of men, to take such a young lady as his wife.
Unable to contain the pounding of his boyish heart, he had stood before the marching army and presented Bai Jingyan with the jade tablet passed down through generations of his family, bowing low as he made his wish.
"May you return safe and sound, Jingyan, and may you not forget the one who waits for you here. When you return, I shall perform the goose-bearing rite and make you my bride."
He had performed the rite in the end — but the bride he took was not her.
In the end, he had failed to protect her.
"Congratulations, Your Highness the Crown Prince."
The voice of well-wishing beside him brought Jin Lang back to himself, and he received the greeting with a smile. Then he led his bride across the threshold of the Zhenguo Duke Estate.
As the firecrackers cracked and thundered over Bai Jinxiu's bridal palanquin, Bai Jingyan halted mid-stride and looked toward the main gate of the estate.
"Eldest Miss!"
A maid sweeping Qinghui Courtyard hurried up to her and bowed low.
"Nuo Ping has come to Qinghui Courtyard. He says he has something to report to you, Eldest Miss."
Bai Jingyan nodded and took the hand warmer from Chun Tao's hands.
"Let's go."
In the final days of the fifteenth year of the former dynasty's Xiangua era, on the very day of her wedding, the Bai family's Second Miss had died defending Prince Yang from an assassin's blade. On the night of New Year's Eve, the dispatch arrived: every man of the century-old Bai family — the entire Zhenguo Duke Estate — had fallen on the battlefield.
Bai Jingyan's grandmother, the present Grand Princess, collapsed upon hearing the news, and not long after, followed her family into the grave.
In the second month of the sixteenth year of Xiangua, Bai Jingyan's mother, Lady Dong, learned in advance that Left Chancellor Li Mu had joined forces with Prince Yang. They intended to drag out the charges that Duke Bai Weiting of Zhenguo had colluded with Nanyan to bring Jin to defeat and had cost tens of thousands of soldiers their lives in the Southern Border — and the evidence would be delivered to Dadu within two months.
Lady Dong made her decision at once. She ordered her trusted steward Yu to take Bai Jingyan and Bai Jindong away and verify the truth of the rumor — and she gave Yu a second, private charge: if disaster befell Dadu, he was to raise Bai Jingyan and Bai Jindong as his own daughters. Survival was the most urgent matter of all, so she begged him to hide the girls' names and care for them in secret.
Then she divided the Bai family's hidden guards into two companies and commanded one to escort the children not yet of age — including Fifth Madam Qi, heavy with child, and the Bai family's Fifth Miss — out of the city to safety.
In the third month of Xiangua's sixteenth year, General Liu Huanzhang, once a subordinate of the late Duke Bai Weiting, entered Dadu and came forward as a witness, declaring that Duke Bai Weiting had sold out his country.
Liu Huanzhang claimed to have fought with all his strength to strangle the traitorous Bai household, and to have been gravely wounded in the struggle — only to be rescued by a farmer, fully recover, and return to expose the duke's treachery.
That day, the Imperial Guard surrounded the Zhenguo Duke Estate. From the study they recovered the correspondence between the duke and the war-king of Nanyan — evidence complete.
With not a single man left in the Bai household, the Xiangua Emperor, in a show of mercy, merely confiscated the family's property and sent the women into exile, arresting the remnants of their faction before closing the case.
On the night the Bai women were thrown into prison, Bai Jingyan's mother, Lady Dong, led the other ladies in hanging themselves. She had committed to paper — a Letter to the Emperor — every achievement of the Bai family through the generations, declaring that Heaven itself would bear witness to their loyalty. She excoriated the emperor for allowing treacherous ministers to slander loyal men, and condemned with bitter scorn a court so utterly absurd that every man who climbed to high office had done so by flattery and court favor.
And she hurled a furious question at the reigning emperor: where in the present court was the integrity of the former reign — when civil officials staked their lives for justice and military men threw their bodies into battle for victory? Every character blazed with force; every line rang in the ears of all who heard it.
The letter shook both court and commoner alike, and like a single spark sweeping across a wide grassland, it spread through Dadu.
Fifth Madam Qi, who had borne a daughter, could not contain her grief at the news. Protected by loyal retainers and common folk alike, she carried the ancestral tablets of the Bai family, gathered up the crude coffins, and, dressed in mourning white, took her own life before the palace gates in the pouring rain. She begged the emperor with her life to restore justice to the Bai family — and her blood spattered three feet across the ground.
Bai Jingyan gazed at the white snow drifting down from a distant sky, then pulled her fox-fur cloak tight and walked toward the inner courtyard. Her pace was slow, but every step was iron-firm.
In her past life, her grandmother had entrusted the Bai family — and the women the Bai family had left behind — to her mother and to her on her deathbed. But she and her mother had failed to protect them, and they had lacked the power to reverse the Bai family's ruin. Even as grief burned through her very organs and viscera, even as vicious poison seethed in her bones and marrow, it could touch not one of those who had brought the Bai family down. In the end, all will drained out of her, and she had wished for nothing but to die quickly.
Bai Jingyan wiped away the shattered tears at the corner of her eye and curled her lips upward. Her gaze turned sharper and colder than ever.
This life, she had saved Bai Jinxiu — and the days ahead promised more. Not one soul of the Bai family would be left to die an unjust death, and the honor of the Bai name would not be allowed to crumble. Conspiracy, open scheming, malice, or baseness — she would spare no means against any of it!
Rounding the bend that followed the Winding Corridor, Bai Jingyan nearly collided with a man walking toward her from the opposite direction. He wore a slate-gray scholar's robe trimmed with gray-squirrel fur. Her hand warmer went tumbling out beyond the corridor — but fortunately, the man's hands were quick, and he caught her at once, steadying her.
As she lifted her head, Bai Jingyan found herself meeting eyes as quiet and deep as still water. They were gentle and mild, yet so profoundly piercing it seemed they might see straight through to the heart of a person — so unfathomable that no guess could plumb them.
Meeting an old friend of her past life again, Bai Jingyan's heart pounded beyond her power to control.
This man was the Ninth Prince of Great Yan, born of the same mother as the Yan Emperor — the man who would one day become Great Yan's Prince Regent.
He had changed his name to Xiao Rongyan and roamed the nations under the reputation of the richest man under heaven. His trading houses were spread across every country — and every one of them was a stronghold gathering intelligence for Great Yan.
Everyone said the great merchant Xiao Rongyan was a man of polished charm, upright bearing, and gentle temperament. But the Xiao Rongyan she knew was a man who lived behind high walls built around his heart — and a man with ruthless methods besides. He took men's hearts in his grip and played them as he pleased; he not only moved with ease among the kin and confidants of every nation's emperor, but had cultivated deep friendships with the many princes of Great Qin as well. Countless young nobles of Dadu followed Xiao Rongyan's every word.
In her past life, before Prince Yang's treason and usurpation — before Great Yan's cavalry trampled Dadu — Xiao Rongyan, deeply moved by the women of the Bai family, had pressed into her hands the jade cicada he carried on his person and told her to flee.
The north wind whipped the snowflakes and drove them into the corridor. Feeling the chill creep over the back of her hand, Bai Jingyan hastily stepped back and offered a deep bow.
"Thank you."
Xiao Rongyan had a straight nose, thin lips, and fine, striking features — a face without a single flaw. The sharp, proud air about him melted away in an instant, replaced by a soft warmth.
He withdrew the large hand that had steadied her and, without thinking, fingered the white-jade cicada he held. A faint smile touched the space between his brows, making him look gentle and magnanimous, and his low, mature voice was both soothing and unhurried.
"Think nothing of it."
The servant at Xiao Rongyan's side picked up the hand warmer Bai Jingyan had dropped and, with every courtesy, returned it to Chun Tao, who bowed hastily in thanks.
Bai Jingyan's heart was still hammering. She lowered her head, passed by the tall, lean figure of Xiao Rongyan, and hurried toward the inner courtyard with Chun Tao at her side.
Xiao Rongyan took two steps forward, then turned his head to look back at the retreating figure of Bai Jingyan as she hurried out of sight.
Several years ago, he had seen her once before — in the palace of the Kingdom of Shu.
Shu had just lost the war, and he had been confined within the Shu palace. The savage sounds of battle shook the heavens.
The Duke of Zhenguo, to end the pointless slaughter, had ordered Bai Jingyan to carry the head of the Shu Grand General Pang Pingguo into the palace. Clad in armor, Bai Jingyan had ridden her horse alone through thelayer by layer gates, gate upon gate, straight into the palace.
Her crimson cloak streaming in the wind, she had ridden her horse straight up the steps of Shu's main audience hall. He could still see it before his eyes — the sight of her holding Pang Pingguo's head high and bellowing, "Pang Pingguo is dead! Any who lay down their arms will be spared!"
"Brother Xiao! Brother Xiao! Why are you still standing about here?"
Lu Yuanfeng hurried up to Xiao Rongyan. He craned his neck and turned his gaze in the direction Xiao Rongyan had been staring — but there was nothing there.
"What are you looking at?"
An exceedingly placid smile settled between Xiao Rongyan's brows. He looked elegant, weighty, and nobly composed.
"Nothing at all."
Lu Yuanfeng asked no more. He seized Xiao Rongyan by the wrist and dragged him outside.
"How can you linger at the latrine this long? Jin Lang has already led his bride out of the estate! Come, we must be off to the Zhongyong Marquis Estate at once!"