An Illustrious House
Bai Jingyan intended to pin the charge of collusion with the enemy squarely on King Xin. The bamboo slips contained no such accusation—but that hardly mattered.
Was King Xin the only one who knew how to turn the people's mouths into a blade? She knew how to wield that same weapon just as well.
Whether the words were true or false made no difference. The citizens of Dadu crowding the roadside would have no choice but to believe that this information was what the dying Qi Zhengyu had staked his life to protect.
Even if the court later claimed to "investigate the truth," the people would simply conclude that the court was covering up shame and lies to shield King Xin.
He had dared lay hands on the Bai family. She meant to sever any path he might have to the throne—and she meant to take his life while she was at it!
Qi Zhengyu, catching on to what Bai Jingyan intended, nodded with all his remaining strength.
"Eldest Young Lady, don't worry. I understand exactly what you mean!"
As Bai Jingyan rose to her feet radiating a murderous air, Qi Zhengyu pressed on.
"Eldest Young Lady, General Aokiji asked me to pass along one more message. The Seventh and Ninth Young Masters led soldiers in a raid on the Xiliang capital and have not yet returned. There is still a chance the Bai bloodline can be carried on. Miss Shen and Wei Gu have already gone in search of the Young Masters! So, Eldest Young Lady…… you must be careful, and careful again! Do not, under any circumstances, employ a strategy that would doom us all."
"Big Sister!"
Bai Jindong's eyes brimmed with tears of joy in an instant.
"You were right, Sister! Not seeing their bodies is a good sign! That means they might still be alive!"
The words she had spoken yesterday to comfort her younger sibling had come back today as reality.
Her seventh and ninth younger brothers……
It was as though a current of warmth had surged from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head, as though bright light were driving out the chill in her chest, and tears spilled down her cheeks. The fury that had been boiling in her heart seemed, with those words, to settle at last.
One grief, one joy—Bai Jingyan's head throbbed, and a dozen emotions crashed over her all at once.
Is this the changed ending? Shen Qingzhu must save the two of them…… surely that is no idle fancy. At the very least, I have snatched them back from King Yama's grasp! No—I cannot let myself conclude anything so quickly, not until I see my brothers with my own eyes. Please, Heaven, take pity on the Bai family and let Shen Qingzhu save them!
Bai Jingyan collected herself. Her heart burned with urgency, but her orders came out calm and measured all the same.
"Nuo Ping! Pick out the finest warriors among the Bai family's death soldiers and send them to Xiliang this instant. Whatever the cost, I don't care. The Seventh and Ninth Young Masters must be brought back safe and sound!"
Nuo Ping bowed his head.
"Yes, my lady!"
Bai Jingyan's heart pounded like a war drum. She had to go to the Southern Border herself. She had to bring the Seventh and Ninth Young Masters home safely, and she had to lead the soldiers who remained. One way or another, she had to make the journey—there was no more time to wait.
Bai Jindong helped Bai Jingyan out of the room, which was thick with the stench of scorched flesh. In the dazzling light, their eyes, unused to brightness, watered and refused to open.
It was the warm sunlight of midwinter, but the wind still tore fiercely past, and withered leaves rattled dryly in its grip.
"Big Sister."
Bai Jindong seized Bai Jingyan's hand and bit down hard on her lip.
"When Qi Zhengyu brings the six bamboo slips to the mourning hall, I'll be the one to read them. I'll let the people of Dadu know exactly what horrors our Bai family suffered at the front! That shameless King Xin must be shown for what he truly is! Once six sets of campaign records reach the imperial court, the Emperor won't be able to shield him!"
"Reading them is not enough."
Bai Jingyan opened her eyes. Sorrow had seeped all the way down into their depths.
The sight of white mourning cloth fluttering everywhere across the courtyard sent a chill of killing intent so thick it seemed to choke the breath from her lungs.
"I am going to take these bamboo slips to the palace gates. I will strike the Dengwen Drum. The contents of these records must be proclaimed to all the world, so that this wretch King Xin has nowhere left to run. With the people's loyalty, the people's fury, the people's outcry—I will force the Emperor's hand and win back the honor of the Bai family!"
It was a woman's clear voice, yet it carried the resonance of a hammer striking the earth.
Fury and grief boiled up together in Bai Jindong's chest. Her answer was resolute.
"Then I'll strike the Dengwen Drum right alongside you, Big Sister!"
Bai Jingyan lowered her head, gazing at the clean flagstones of the corridor—so polished they mirrored her face—and spoke.
"Go to Longevity Garden and escort Grandmother here. Tell her that Master Cui Shi'an and old Master Guan Yongchong have come. Grandmother should know as well. She should know what beastly acts the imperial house she so wished to protect has committed."
Know how this beast slaughtered her husband, her sons, her grandsons!
Watching Bai Jingyan stride with unshakable steps toward the garden, Bai Jindong clenched her fists and swallowed down her tears and her ache. Then she turned and set off for Longevity Garden herself.
Big Sister had not told her to speak of the Seventh Uncle and Ninth Younger Brother when she delivered her message to Grandmother. And so Bai Jindong would say nothing of it.
Between Grandmother and Big Sister there seemed to yawn some subtle gulf, some unspoken vigilance. Sharp-eyed Bai Jindong could hardly have failed to notice it.
She simply told herself that Grandmother, as the Princess Royal of the founding dynasty, must have reasons she could not speak aloud—and she could understand that much. But after seeing the vile deeds King Xin had written into those campaign records……
Bai Jindong clenched her fists tighter still. She revered Grandmother and looked up to her. If it came to dying for her, she could have offered up her life without a flicker of hesitation. But if Grandmother insisted on shielding someone of the imperial house no matter what—then she would have no choice but to be disappointed in her too.
The mourning hall in the garden.
Bai Jinxiu returned, her face drained of color, and found Bai Jingyan kneeling at her side. She asked in a low voice, "Big Sister, if you're unwell, don't force yourself to endure it."
Bai Jingyan shook her head. The moment she lifted it, an exquisitely crafted carriage bearing the emblem of a sovereign swayed to a stop before the gates of the Duke's Estate. Bai Jingyan's fist clenched inside her sleeve. Her hand trembled, ever so slightly.
In her past life, when the Bai family had held its funeral rites, Bai Jingyan had been bedridden with grave illness. Even so, of one thing she was certain: the Sovereign had never once come to pay his respects.
Xiao Rongyan, is it? All the better. I was worried the affair would not grow large enough—that there would not be enough eyes to witness it.
A eunuch of striking, chiseled features helped the Sovereign down from the carriage. The Sovereign crossed the felt-draped threshold of the Duke's Estate and, before the mourning hall set up at the entrance, bowed with solemn courtesy.
Then, all at once, a single horse came galloping up the steps of the estate. Qi Zhengyu, slicked head to toe in blood, tumbled from its back.
"Protect His Highness!"
The Sovereign's guards drew their blades as one, shielding their white-faced lord behind them as they fell back.
The horse reared in fright, hooves pawing the air, but Nuo Ping darted forward and seized its reins in one motion, halting the blood-slicked animal in its tracks.
The citizens standing at the entrance cried out in alarm and shrank back in a panicked wave. Then all eyes turned to the man lying prone on the ground, having rolled from the horse drenched in blood—he seemed to struggle for every breath.
"It's Qi Zhengyu! Crown Prince's Consort, Eldest Young Lady! It's Qi Zhengyu of our estate!"
Nuo Ping, still gripping the reins in a white-knuckled fist, lifted his head and shouted.
Bai Jindong, supporting the Grand Princess as she walked from the far end of the main hall, felt her throat seize at Nuo Ping's cry—but she forced the words out all the same.
"Grandmother, let me go and see!"
The Grand Princess nodded.
"Go, quickly!"
Bai Jindong released the Grand Princess's hand and ran for the garden.
Bai Jingyan, kneeling before the mourning hall, rose at once, shoved aside the Sovereign's guards who barred her path, and hurried to Qi Zhengyu's side—her eyes going wide with shock.
Moments ago, Qi Zhengyu had not been wounded nearly this badly.
Physician Hong had already staunched the wound on his arm—so why had it……
Bai Jingyan understood, and the realization came too late. To win back the Bai family's honor, Qi Zhengyu had staked his very life on it!
What manner of court was this, that a great and illustrious house had to go to such lengths merely to reclaim its good name? Must a loyal servant who gave his all be driven to wager his life just to recover his family's honor?
"Qi Zhengyu?"
Bai Jingyan knelt and helped him up. When she saw that his already-broken arm had been made shorter still, her mind blurred with anguish, and her eyes burned hot and raw.
He had cut into his own arm a little further, it seemed, to make his condition look all the more gruesome.
He had also taken quite a battering falling from the horse. Qi Zhengyu loosened the blood-soaked bundle from his person and passed it to Bai Jingyan, then gripped her hand tightly—a silent signal telling her to be at ease.
The tendons stood out on Qi Zhengyu's forehead.
"Eldest Young Lady…… I carried out your command, escorting winter garments to His Grace the Duke and his party in the Southern Border on your behalf. At Chonglan Ridge, I came upon Fang Yan, commander of the Tiger Hawk Battalion, being hunted down by assassins! At the risk of my life I did everything in my power to save him, but……
"General Fang Yan says that Liu Huanzhang turned traitor and allied himself with Nanyan—and with King Xin. King Xin, greedy to steal their military glory, pressured His Grace the Duke into taking the field, and drove hundreds of thousands of soldiers to their deaths. At the front, General Bai Jingyou—Swift Wind, they call him—had already met defeat, yet he gave his life to hold the enemy back so the people behind the lines could flee. And King Xin? He abandoned those people and fled, dragging a great host of troops with him!
"General Fang Yan ordered us to return with these six bamboo slips bearing the campaign records! Hiding here and there as we ran for our lives, it was only through the sacrifice of my comrades that I managed to bring these slips back at all. I beg…… I beg that Heaven will aid us, and win back His Grace's honor, and the honor of the Bai family!"
Having listened this far, the Sovereign's face was written over with astonishment. By all custom, campaign records were dispatched straight to the throne of Dadu—so why would anyone seek to cut the bearer down along the way?
Xiao Rongyan kept his head bowed over his tea, betraying nothing. It was rather the members of the Xie household, who had gone inside to take tea, who rose in a body and streamed toward the main gates. Curiosity had gotten the better of them; they wanted to know how the men of the Bai family had died.
Bai Jindong, staring at the ground soaked with Qi Zhengyu's blood, accepted the bundle with trembling hands.
She knew as well as anyone that only if Qi Zhengyu looked as wretched as possible would the weight of all this truly sink into people's hearts. But seeing the ruthless resolve he had nursed for the Bai family's sake, Bai Jindong felt as if her chest were being torn apart.
Heaven and the imperial house would not return the Bai family's honor—so must they resort even to self-mutilation to win it back?
Bai Jindong undid the bundle before the assembled crowd. With shaking hands she drew out one of the bamboo slips and unrolled it.
Lady Dong, the Crown Prince's consort, and Second Madam Yu—neither of whom had been permitted to see their husbands' and sons' bodies—shouldered their way through the guards and pressed forward. Then, holding the slips aloft, they began to read them line by line, hunting desperately through the campaign records for even the faintest hint that their husbands and sons might still be alive.
Bai Jingyan cinched tight the cord binding Qi Zhengyu's severed arm and shouted at the top of her voice.
"Nuo Ping! Take Qi Zhengyu to Physician Hong this instant and have him treated—go!"