Shaking the Fate of the Nation
At the Grand Princess's words, the Emperor's heart plummeted. Clutching the bamboo slip tightly in his hand, he tapped it lightly against the table several times before flinging it aside and leaning back against the golden dragon-embroidered cushion, closing his eyes and sinking into deep deliberation.
He weighed the task of pacifying the people's hearts and cementing imperial authority against his love for his own flesh and blood. For a moment, his chest tightened with a suffocating heaviness.
Still with his eyes closed, he asked again.
"Among the things you have said, Aunt—can you truly swear that there is not the slightest intention of killing King Xin to exact vengeance on behalf of your descendants?"
The Emperor had sat at the very summit of power for decades, and the peculiar aura of a sovereign who wielded that power flowed from him naturally. The pressure of it was enough to steal a person's breath.
The Grand Princess calmed her heart before speaking slowly.
"I am, without question, the Duchess of the Zhenguo Duke Estate. But before that, I am the Grand Princess of the imperial house."
The Emperor opened his eyes and fixed the Grand Princess with a sinister gaze, his eyes brimming with suspicion.
Meeting the Emperor's eyes squarely, she spoke in a heavy voice.
"Now that matters have escalated this far, Liu Huanzhang must of course be executed along with his entire household. The people have gathered at Wude Gate—should Your Majesty not at least put on a show of justice? Send the Imperial Guards to the Liu residence and confiscate their assets first. King Xin, being the legitimate son, must receive an even harsher punishment. Even if you do not kill him, at the very least he will have no further connection to the throne in this lifetime. As for the Bai family... only women remain in the household now, so they will be incapable of stirring up any trouble."
In his lifetime, the late Emperor had once said of her—his legitimate imperial niece, the Grand Princess—that she was not only exceptionally capable but profoundly dutiful. Though she had spent her years in prayer and devotion, cultivating a gentle, Buddha-like serenity, the moment true calamity struck, the fierce spirit buried deep in her bones came roaring back to life.
"That eldest granddaughter of yours is truly remarkable, Aunt!"
The Emperor narrowed his eyes. At the mention of Bai Jingyan, killing intent unconsciously leaked from him, and his voice turned as cold as ice.
The hand holding the agarwood prayer beads trembled slightly. Then the Grand Princess fingered the beads lightly, and her voice grew stronger.
"Everything that comes after has already been arranged. The Bai family will hold the funeral simply and swiftly, doing everything in our power to let the storm subside. They will then enter the palace and voluntarily relinquish the title of Duke of Zhenguo, and I will enter a temple to pray for the nation, remaining there for a long time. Your Majesty—if only for the sake of the Bai family's generations of unreserved loyalty, grant that the survivors be allowed to return to their ancestral home of Suyang."
When the Emperor said nothing, the Grand Princess slowly closed her eyes. The corners of her eyes grew moist, and she continued in a choked voice.
"Since I married into the Bai family, there has not been a single day when I could give my heart to them wholly. Not to my husband, nor to my sons. I was forever testing their hearts, forever unable to lower my guard. Your Majesty—do you know how great a guilt I have carried all my life? Let the Bai family now distance itself from the capital. Let at least the Bai bloodline survive. The blood of our imperial house flows in those children's veins as well! Only the daughters remain now. For my sake, your aunt—can you not at least allow the bloodline to continue?"
With tears welling in both eyes, the Grand Princess bowed low and pleaded with the Emperor. She hoped he might feel even a sliver of pity, that he might recognize the Bai family's sincere desire to withdraw from the world. She wished above all to avert the tragedy of every last Bai survivor being put to death.
The Emperor rubbed his fingers together, and only after a long while did he speak.
"Aunt, I have no intention of exterminating the Bai family. But the Bai eldest young miss..."
Replaying every incident that had occurred and reconsidering the Bai eldest young miss's every move, her designs lay bare before him. She had raised the Bai family's renown to its very zenith. How could the Emperor fail to see through such intentions?
The Bai eldest young miss was the person who most resembled Bai Xiaoqiu.
At the thought of Bai Xiaoqiu, the Emperor's eyes grew moist.
Bai Xiaoqiu—a woman he had loved in his youth but never won. In middle age, he thought of her more and more often, regret and longing surging upon him time and again.
His fear of the Bai family had begun long ago. It had not sprung up overnight. Having lost tens of thousands of soldiers to reach this point, he had come to believe that anyone of true ability within the Bai family—woman though she might be—had to be cleanly eliminated. The Emperor was both unwilling to spare Bai Jingyan's life and unable to set his mind at ease so long as she lived.
Reading the Emperor's intent to kill Bai Jingyan, the Grand Princess's hands shook violently.
She cast a single glance at the Emperor and spoke through her tears.
"If Your Majesty wishes to kill my granddaughter for the sake of the imperial house's stability, I will not utter a single word of protest! But Your Majesty—do you know why I cherish this eldest granddaughter above all others?"
The Emperor looked at the Grand Princess.
"This child is the one who most resembles Xiaoqiu!"
At the mention of her daughter, tears streamed down the Grand Princess's face.
"A child of unbending will, who will never bow her head no matter what! She is Xiaoqiu reborn, and it would be no exaggeration to say so! The year Xiaoqiu left this world, I nearly followed her. I lived on by finding my longing for her in that granddaughter, by seeking comfort in her. Your Majesty—for Xiaoqiu's sake, I beg you, spare this child's life!"
The Grand Princess's words struck at the most tender place in the Emperor's heart.
Ever since he had settled onto the cold, frozen throne, the Emperor's heart had hardened little by little. But there was one small corner of it where Bai Xiaoqiu had made her home, and that corner alone remained fragile and warm.
The Emperor clenched his jaw, lowered his head, and stared at the bloodstained bamboo slip. Then, after a long moment, as though arriving at a decision, he spoke.
"Summon the Grand Princess to the side hall. Tell Xie Yuchang to lead the Imperial Guards himself, seize the entire Liu Huanzhang household, and cast them into prison. And bring me that unfilial wretch, King Xin—bound!"
After a moment's thought, the Emperor added one more command.
"Drag him in through Wude Gate!"
Outside the great hall, the Empress—who had been trembling at the very edge of her nerves—heard the Emperor's roar and froze in terror.
Outside Wude Gate.
Xie Yuchang, Commander of the Imperial Guards, rode swiftly out with his forces, leading them straight for Liu Huanzhang's residence with overwhelming momentum.
Shortly after, his guards dragged King Xin—the man the Emperor had kicked just the day before—trussed with rope, through the gates of Wude Gate.
King Xin swept his gaze over the people of the Bai family and the crowds gathered at the mouth of Wude Gate, then began glaring at Bai Jingyan like a serpent steeped in venom.
It was the Bai eldest young miss who had begged the Emperor to have him killed.
Having witnessed the Emperor's every measure with their own eyes, the people began murmuring among themselves once more. It felt as though hot blood were boiling within them. The Emperor, they said, had made a wise decision.
From within Wude Gate, a single eunuch emerged at a quick pace. Holding a scroll in his hands, he stood before the Bai young ladies and spoke in a thin, reedy voice.
"His Majesty summons the Bai eldest young miss."
Bai Jinchi seized Bai Jingyan's hand. Her heart felt as though it would burst from her chest.
"Eldest sister..."
Bai Jingyan looked at Bai Jinchi's reddened eyes and gave her hand a light pat. Her gaze was resolute and clear.
"Grandmother is here, and you and the people are all waiting for me. Nothing will happen."
Only then did Bai Jinchi seem to breathe a little easier, slowly releasing Bai Jingyan's hand.
Bai Jingyan rose slowly. Her legs were stiff from kneeling. Composing herself calmly, she straightened her mourning garments, then turned and bowed deeply to the common folk who had followed the Bai family all the way to Wude Gate. Then she turned again and addressed the eunuch who had come to deliver the imperial summons.
"Gonggong, please lead the way."
Following the eunuch, Bai Jingyan walked into the inner reaches of the palace, its vermilion walls and glazed azure tiles stretching in every direction. Her eyes were too deep to read, and her back alone stood unnaturally straight. She looked nothing like a person who had just been flogged.
With her head bowed, Bai Jingyan sank into thought. In her past life, she had come to understand the Emperor to a considerable degree through the Liang King and Du Zhimei.
The Emperor was not a man of the ability or breadth to rule the realm. He was suspicious and consumed by jealousy. Because he had never been favored by the late Emperor from childhood, he had lived a pitifully meager existence—and so, once he ascended the throne, he indulged in extravagance and excessive luxury, and clung with particular obsession to becoming a wise sovereign whose renown would surpass even the late Emperor's.
A man like that would fear the historian's brush more than anything else in the world.
Why had the Imperial Guards passed through Wude Gate on their way out? Why had he ordered King Xin dragged in through Wude Gate without the slightest concern for the prince's dignity?
And since he had summoned her here, before Wude Gate itself, the Emperor would never kill her. At worst, he would try to threaten her, or lure her in.
Before she could think further, Bai Jingyan had already arrived before the great hall.
Stepping inside, she saw King Xin, his face drained white, kneeling in a corner and trembling. Bai Jingyan bowed respectfully to the Emperor, then fixed her gaze on the immaculate bluestone floor, so clean it reflected a person's form completely.
The Emperor, watching Bai Jingyan kneel and prostrate herself without a word, struck the table again and again with the bamboo slip bearing the campaign records. Then he spoke in a tone that sent chills down the spine.
"Bai eldest young miss—what is your intent in gathering the people before Wude Gate?"
Bai Jingyan straightened, remained kneeling in the hall, lifted her head, and looked up at the Emperor seated on his high throne as she returned the question.
"That is the very thing this subject wished to ask of Your Majesty. Your Majesty—what was your intent in ordering that fool King Xin to oversee the army?"
The Bai family had protected the people for a full hundred years. The Bai family had looked only to wherever the hearts of the people turned. That fact alone gave her strength. Bai Jingyan did not fear imperial authority or the Emperor's majesty in the slightest.
This Emperor of the Great Jin was, more than anyone, a man skilled at judging the times and the currents of power.
And Bai Jingyan now stood where the tide of the age was flowing. There was no way the Emperor did not know it.
The Emperor was straining with every fiber of his being to display patience, the tendons on his forehead bulging. The Bai eldest young miss was not merely reckless—her schemes were brilliant and razor-sharp besides.
This girl knows full well that I cannot kill her. That is why she acts so insolently before me.
Rage seething within him, the Emperor laughed coldly.
"Stirring up the people's hearts to pressure me into killing King Xin. Is the Bai eldest young miss now shaking the very fate of the nation to force my hand? What—is the Bai family threatening treason if I refuse to execute King Xin?"
"The bloodstained bamboo slip of the campaign records lies upon Your Majesty's table. Your Majesty—have you yet read it?"
Bai Jingyan glanced over the bamboo slip, then lifted her head once more to look at the Emperor and his dark, shadowed eyes. Her heart ached at the plight of the Bai family.
"This subject has neither power nor faction. I knelt before Wude Gate wearing mourning garments instead of armor, clinging to life with not a single weapon in hand. I wish only to recover the honor of my grandfather, my father, my uncles, and my brothers—so why does Your Majesty speak of treason?"