A Spy of an Enemy Nation
As memories of her past life surged up in her, a tangle of emotions overwhelmed Bai Jingyan all at once.
Outside the Jieyu Pavilion, white snow drifted through the air, and the bare willows rustled dryly in the bitter wind of the deep cold. A brazier had been lit inside the pavilion, but with all four sides open to the air, no warmth would ever take hold.
Bai Jingyan gave a slight nod.
"It was no great trouble, so please think nothing of it. To me, and to the Bai family, the true kindness is that you have come to our aid twice."
It was not as though she did not know Xiao Rongyan's abilities, and he already seemed to know the truth—denial would be useless. Better to admit it generously than to let him dig up evidence and begin to suspect her intentions.
Looking at the woman before him, so dignified and utterly composed, the amusement in Xiao Rongyan's eyes deepened.
"Eldest Lady Bai, since you already sent word to me, I take it you already know who I am?"
Bai Jingyan did not answer directly. Instead, she replied in an extraordinarily calm tone, without a trace of alarm or fear.
"Whatever identity you may hold, you helped the Bai family with a righteous heart. So I need only think of you as a righteous ally."
It was an attitude entirely indifferent to his true identity.
Xiao Rongyan could not tell whether Eldest Lady Bai was trying to forge a good connection with him, or whether she simply valued the connection itself.
He knew her capabilities and methods all too well. The image of Bai Jingyan riding her horse straight into the palace of Shu had left a deep impression on him, and at the Jin court banquet he had even come to regard her as his mother's kindred spirit. And yet he could not afford not to be wary of her.
What rested on his shoulders was not merely his family's legacy. If it were only a matter of his clan's achievements, then even if everything collapsed, a few more years of effort would restore it.
But the responsibility he carried was the revival of Great Yan. Amid the tangled struggles of power and the contests for hegemony among the rival states, a single defeat could mean the fall of the nation itself.
Such a defeat, he could never bear.
"A person of righteous heart, you say. So when you woke me that day, you helped me purely out of righteousness?"
Xiao Rongyan, his well-defined fingers resting on his teacup, kept his head lowered, not meeting Bai Jingyan's eyes. His gaze grew darker and deeper by the moment.
"A righteous heart in a spy of an enemy nation, hm… Eldest Lady Bai, are you saying this because you must? Or merely making excuses?"
On the words spy of an enemy nation, Xiao Rongyan deliberately pressed his weight.
Now that they sat face to face and the matter was laid open, he could not allow Bai Jingyan—who knew his identity—to paper over it so glibly.
Looking at Xiao Rongyan's sharp features, Bai Jingyan suppressed her impatience and resolved to explain herself more thoroughly.
"One who holds a small righteousness aids the weak. One who holds a great righteousness saves all the people under heaven."
At Bai Jingyan's clear, composed words, Xiao Rongyan tightened his grip on his teacup and raised his head.
Bai Jingyan looked at the shrewd, strikingly handsome man before her, not a flicker of wavering in her eyes. Her clear pupils held no turbulence whatsoever, only deep, unwavering courtesy.
Watching the smile slowly drain from Xiao Rongyan's face, Bai Jingyan continued.
"That is why righteousness is precious—and those who hold great righteousness are precious above all. Such worth knows no distinction of clan or family, and it does not distinguish between Jin and Wei. In this age of chaos, whoever it may be—so long as they have the power to settle the turmoil, to govern a nation and command its soldiers—in the eyes of our Bai family, that person is a great and righteous ally."
Whoever it may be—that is, the very man sitting before her, including Xiao Rongyan, the Prince Regent of Great Yan. She considered even him an ally of righteousness.
It was an audacious thing to say.
In the present age, uprisings had flared up everywhere, and the nations waged war over their own interests, each of them desperate for the seat of the supreme overlord. So her meaning was this: whichever nation's sovereign might emerge, so long as he could stabilize the realm, quell the chaos, and bring peace to all under heaven, then Bai Jingyan—and the Bai family—would honor anyone who carried such an ambition, and moreover would wish to see that purpose achieved. And she was spelling out this very thought to Xiao Rongyan, plainly, right now.
There could be no words more candid than these, so Xiao Rongyan saw no need to conceal what puzzled him.
"The Bai family has protected Jin for generations, and their loyalty and righteousness are known to all. The men of the Bai family all met their fate on the Southern Border—is what you say spoken out of rage?"
"The loyalty the Bai family has upheld for generations is no falsehood. But the Bai loyalty and righteousness have always been for the people of Great Jin, the very people whose taxes fed and clothed us. Guarding the borders and securing peace for the people—that is the faith of the Bai descendants."
Bai Jingyan's voice was calm and unadorned.
"As for rage…"
Bai Jingyan lowered her head, hiding the sharpness that flashed in her eyes. She thrust her grief deep down into the recesses of her heart.
"The merit each of us accumulates differs in size, and so does the length of each life. All of it is set by fate—what is there to be enraged about?"
She left the rest unsaid. The rise and fall of a nation, too, must be destiny already written.
In her past life, the Bai family, having defended the realm of Great Jin, had become a thorn in the emperor's eye and fallen prey to the slander of treacherous ministers. After the Bai family collapsed and its people were scattered to the winds, within ten short years Xiao Rongyan, Prince Regent of Great Yan, led his cavalry through the great gates of the Jin imperial palace. Just as Great Jin had once trampled the palace of Shu, he brought Great Jin crashing down.
And so, the Bai family had no reason to sacrifice every last member for the sake of the Li imperial throne—a throne that was doomed to end soon enough.
Her grandmother had been right. Survival came before all else. For the future of the Bai family, Bai Jingyan was prepared to use any means whatsoever.
She had not forgotten how Xiao Rongyan swallowed Wei in her past life. The chancellor Gongsun's entire clan, which had served Wei with unflagging loyalty, was uprooted root and branch and exterminated in a single day.
If one were to speak of scheming and ruthlessness, Xiao Rongyan was a master among masters. Bai Jingyan was now sitting across from a man of surpassing cunning and boundless composure. Had the Bai family been at the height of its power, it might have been worth crossing blades with him once—but not now.
She lacked the strength to fight him now, and she had no confidence the Bai family would emerge unscathed from such a contest.
Now was the time to draw in one's claws, to take the time to prepare for the day of rising again. Now was not the time to trade wills with anyone.
So there was no need, in this season, to make an enemy of him.
Those who remained of her family were women, every one of them—and even so, she had no intention of showing Xiao Rongyan, Prince Regent of Great Yan, such foolish devotion as to spend her life defending Jin and upholding the Li imperial throne. Not while the calamity that had befallen the Bai family was still far from mended.
Only then would Xiao Rongyan—whose heart, for now, was not ill-disposed—refrain from driving the Bai family utterly into a corner.
Xiao Rongyan, sharp-witted to the point of brilliance, understood her meaning perfectly.
Smiling, he poured out Bai Jingyan's cold tea, then lifted the kettle simmering over the brazier and filled her cup with fresh, steaming tea.
"If I take your meaning, Eldest Lady Bai, then whichever hands this realm finally passes into, the Bai family does not care."
Since Bai Jingyan already knew his identity and had laid her intentions bare, he had no reason to speak in circles either.
Bai Jingyan gazed at the rising steam of her teacup and answered with quiet resolve on her calm face.
"I was fortunate to be born into the Zhenguo Duke Estate—a family that never weighed a daughter more lightly than a son. From childhood I followed Master Guan Yongchong and read the classics of the sages without number, and I followed my grandfather onto the battlefield. I may not be the cleverest person alive, but… the principle that only one who settles the realm can bring peace to its people for ten thousand generations—that much, I understand well."
Bai Jingyan knew perfectly well that Xiao Rongyan was a man who carried such grand ambitions and such vast vision. And he had the ability to see them through.
The Bai family was but a brief sojourn in the endless flow of the ages—a presence that would linger a while and then vanish. There was no reason to do anything so reckless as a egg hurled against stone.
Xiao Rongyan could not contain his astonishment. His eyes were like a deep well whose bottom could not be seen. That so young a woman could speak of settling the realm with such a calm, unruffled face—that she could discourse on peace for the people and for ten thousand generations.
All this while, Xiao Rongyan had roamed far and wide for the sake of Great Yan. He had met the sovereigns of three great powers—Xiliang, Wei, and Jin. They wore peace under heaven on their lips at every turn, yet not one of them had grasped its true meaning.
Xiao Rongyan himself had wandered the nations for long years before he finally awakened to it.
This woman before him he simply could not fathom—so gentle in appearance, yet so resolute and unyielding in heart.
Had she lost her devotion to Jin because of the calamity that struck the Bai family? Or had her vessel simply been extraordinary from the start?
That fearless spirit when she told Jin Lang, of his own accord, to step down from the seat of crown prince. That ruthless severity when she dealt with the illegitimate son before the Mankang Restaurant. That unbending bearing in the palace, her love for the people of this land, and that air of overflowing justice besides.
Xiao Rongyan believed it was the latter.
Eldest Lady Bai's understanding and wisdom transcended her age and her sex. What he felt from the woman seated across from him was no mere sentiment stirred by youthful passion, but a reverence welling up from the very depths of his heart.
One so young, possessing such breadth of spirit and wisdom beyond approach—what kind of person would she become in time?
Without meaning to, Xiao Rongyan thought of his mother, and his grip tightened on the jade cicada.
Never once in his life had he looked down on a woman for the simple fact that she was a woman. He had already known Eldest Lady Bai's depth of character and her boldness of action—but in the span of a single shared cup of tea, his understanding of her had risen beyond anything that could be called merely remarkable.
Xiao Rongyan's chest grew hot, and swelled with feeling. If a person like this were to join hands with me in planning Great Yan's revival, our conquest of the realm would become a measure easier.
Xiao Rongyan straightened his back and raised his hands in a gesture of respect, his manner far more courteous than before.
"Eldest Lady Bai, within words fit to be heard on the battlefield itself, I sensed the compassionate heart of a great scholar who grieves for this world. This Xiao is utterly, deeply impressed."
Bai Jingyan returned his greeting with perfect courtesy.
Everything exchanged in this room today amounted to Bai Jingyan revealing every card in her hand to Xiao Rongyan. Her position was unambiguous: the Bai family would protect the people of Great Jin, not the imperial throne of the Li.
Inside the Jieyu Pavilion north of the city, Xiao Rongyan stood as though lost in thought, watching Bai Jingyan's carriage depart.
The vessel Eldest Lady Bai carried within her was several times larger than the men of this age—no, larger still than that.
Over tea in the Jieyu Pavilion, Xiao Rongyan had nearly failed to suppress an impulse, and had almost begged Bai Jingyan to pledge herself to Great Yan.
But Great Yan's internal strife was not yet quelled, and foreign threats still pressed on its borders. It had lost half of its once-prosperous territory, and only after surrendering even its former imperial capital of Dadu to Jin had it barely managed to keep the nation alive.
A woman who harbored the ambition to govern the world and was capable of waging war besides would never lower her own worth to pledge herself to a nation in such a pitiful state.
"My lord, so Eldest Lady Bai truly knew your identity after all. Perhaps…"
Xiao Rongyan smoothed his outer robe and smiled.
"That is not possible. You need not worry yourself over that."
A woman who had aided him without hesitation would never strike at him from behind. And the very reason she had arranged this meeting was surely nothing more than wanting to know what intent lay behind his assistance to her.
That said—she claimed to want nothing, and somehow that left him a little disappointed.
She ought to want something from me. Only with wants does exchange arise, and only through exchange can goodwill be built.
"The wind is picking up. Let's go in."
Xiao Rongyan spoke.
"My lord, with the Duke of Zhenguo Estate's funeral this year, it seems Dadu will have little to see even at the Lantern Festival. Would it not be better to depart on the road ahead of the crowds?"
Xiao Rongyan's subordinate asked.
"Yes. Return and see to the packing."
Xiao Rongyan answered slowly.
"Once the Bai family's funeral at the Zhenguo Duke Estate is finished, then we take to the road."