Know Your Place
When Lady Dong lifted her teacup in a gesture of clear dismissal, Bai Giwoon felt his chest seize up as though a fist had closed around it. If no one was sent to escort and guide him, how was he supposed to enter the rear courtyard where the Grand Princess resided?
Lady Dong's plan was unmistakable. The remaining survivors of the Bai family were to return to the main house in Suyang once the funeral rites were complete. All the more reason, then, that the Suyang Bai clan must not be allowed to climb over their heads now — otherwise, when the widows eventually returned to Suyang, the clan would only sink its teeth into them and squeeze them dry.
If she yielded here and gave them everything they asked, the Bai clan elders would feel no gratitude at all; they would simply grow greedier and climb higher, that much was certain. It was because the Duke's estate had been too generous in the past that now, the moment anything went against their wishes, they resented it. What was unfolding before her very eyes was exactly that.
Before Bai Giwoon set out on his journey, his father — the clan head — had pressed a suggestion into his hands. Every man of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate had fallen in battle at the Southern Border, leaving only women behind. No one could yet say whether the child the Fifth Madam carried was a boy or a girl, and the dukedom could only pass its title down through a male heir, whoever he might be. So the clan head had urged him: why not register Bai Giwoon's legitimate second son into the Duke of Zhenguo's estate? Go and raise the matter with the Grand Princess and the mistress of the house, Lady Dong.
The thought that his own son might one day become the Duke of Zhenguo sent Bai Giwoon into raptures. He floated through his days on that giddy delight, his head filled with nothing but visions of his son seated as Duke.
And the ducal title was not merely an honor. Above all, the fortune accumulated over a lifetime of campaigning would be nothing short of colossal — and now that fortune was poised to fall into their hands. Where in the world could one find luck like this?
The mere fantasy of it robbed Bai Giwoon of proper sleep.
Then, scarcely after departing Suyang, word reached his ears: the Second Master of the Duke's estate, it was said, had a son born outside the household — and no sooner had that concubine-born boy been brought into the dukedom than he treated freeborn citizens like common slaves, until the legitimate eldest daughter, Bai Jingyan, gave him a savage thrashing at the funeral. The people clucked their tongues in pity, lamenting that the ducal title would pass to a concubine's line.
The rumor made Bai Giwoon so ill with vexation that he fell gravely sick on the road. The knot in his chest would not loosen no matter what he did. Why had the servant the estate sent to announce the death in Suyang never breathed a word that the Second Master had a son living outside its walls?
Bai Giwoon had wanted to turn around and go straight back, but Steward Wu held him fast. Since he had already set out on the road, the steward argued, he ought at least to go and offer incense before the Duke's spirit tablet. Going to the estate would not guarantee an opportunity — but not going at all guaranteed that none would ever come.
Bai Giwoon was reluctant, yet he consented. Steward Wu then sent a man ahead to the estate to dig up everything he could about that concubine-born son.
By the time Bai Giwoon and Steward Wu reached Dadu, the Grand Princess had already led her granddaughters to Wude Gate, where they stood in open defiance, vowing to kill the Xin King.
At that news, Bai Giwoon shook from head to toe. If the Bai family drove the reigning Emperor to fury, the fallout would surely reach them as well — so he hurried word to his two younger cousins, who had set out for the estate ahead of him, ordering them to return to Suyang at once.
But the moment the servant left to deliver that message, the subordinate Steward Wu had dispatched to Dadu came back with his report: the Second Master's concubine-born son had already packed his belongings and was preparing to flee.
Steward Wu turned the situation over in his head and offered Bai Giwoon yet another piece of counsel.
They had pressured the Emperor to execute his own legitimate heir, so calamity was certain to fall upon the Bai family. For now they would remain safe under the protection of public outrage — but while the Second Master's son was sensing danger and scrambling to run, trying to force one's own son into the dukedom's register would be nothing short of a fool hurling himself into a fire pit.
Worse, once that son fled, the estate would be left without a single male descendant. And if the main house refused to send a son of its own into the dukedom, the surviving family there would inevitably come down to Suyang and throw themselves on the clan's mercy.
Whether the Duke's household returned to the main branch, or the clan sent one of its sons to be entered in the estate's register — either way, the estate would end up owing the clan. So this was the moment to make the Duke's household buy the clan's farmland. Then, under the pretext of overseeing repairs to the ancestral hall, the graveyard, and the clan school — and of hiring scholars to tutor the children — they would help themselves to a generous cut. That was the scheme.
Lady Dong, mistress of the Duke's estate, was a shrewd woman; she would realize before long that she would need the clan's protection, and would have no choice but to hand over the silver. So they reasoned.
Before they arrived at the estate, Steward Wu had told Bai Giwoon to carry himself with all the arrogance he could muster. The estate's remaining family might well need to lean on the clan going forward, so while the survivors were still in Dadu, they had to show their teeth now — only then could they make demand after demand of Lady Dong once everyone was back in Suyang.
Bai Giwoon's stomach had already been twisted into knots, and with Steward Wu's words ringing true in his ears, his tongue had grown coarse.
Standing beneath the eaves, Bai Jingyan lowered her head and deliberated for a moment before turning to give Chun Tao her instructions in a low voice.
"Bring the Third Young Miss and the Fourth. Do not tell the Second."
As Chun Tao nodded and turned to go, Bai Jingyan caught her arm again and whispered.
"Have your cousin Gengsheng make a trip to the Shaofu — the imperial treasury. Tell him to meet Xiao Rongyan in person and say that I wish to strike a deal under the pretext of Xiao Rongyan's title as the Foremost Merchant — that he stands to lose nothing by it, and that I would be grateful for his help."
"Yes, Miss!"
Having answered, Chun Tao hurried off toward the funeral hall. The reason Bai Jingyan sent for Chen Gengsheng rather than anyone else was that it had been Gengsheng who delivered her letter to Xiao Rongyan in the first place. For the debt of that warning — the letter that had put him on his guard — she hoped Xiao Rongyan would lend her a pretext and lend her his aid.
Nanny Dong was quick to read the currents as well. Bai Jingyan had said to leave the Second Young Miss out of it. Whatever her eldest might be scheming, it was surely something that could stain a young lady's name — and at that thought, Nanny Dong's brow creased with worry.
"Eldest Miss, if there is anything that needs doing, give the order to me instead. This old servant will go and see it done! You, the Third Miss, and the Fourth Miss are all unmarried daughters still — it would be best to keep your distance from anything unseemly."
"I stood before the palace gates swearing to kill the Xin King himself. Do you really think I have the luxury of fretting over my reputation?"
Bai Jingyan smiled and said it quietly, for Nanny Dong's ears alone.
"Don't worry, Nanny. I know my own measure."
Inside the main hall, Bai Giwoon was hammering his palm against the table and shouting.
"The Grand Princess herself is in the rear courtyard of this very estate! If you won't even order a servant to guide me, how am I meant to pay my respects to Her Highness?"
Lady Dong set her teacup down on the table with a heavy clunk. Then, fixing Bai Giwoon with eyes gone cold as frost, she curled her lip into a sneer.
"So you do know this is the Duke of Zhenguo's estate! And you know I am its mistress! Then let us have things straight. If you came today to offer condolences, the estate welcomes you — that is only proper. But if you came to demand silver, then you will wait until our family has finished laying our dead to rest. We will discuss it after the funeral. If you cannot bring yourself to wait, then turn around and go back to Suyang this instant! Or go ask the people gathered outside our gates who is in the right! Our family has suffered a terrible bereavement, and all this country's people have seen is the Suyang main branch, without a shred of decency or compassion, drooling over our belongings like starving wolves. Shouldn't they be told as much?"
"Wh—what!"
Bai Giwoon flushed scarlet with rage. He shot to his feet and jabbed a finger directly at Lady Dong.
A taut, dangerous silence hung over the room.
Nanny Jin, standing at Lady Dong's side, tilted her head up just slightly and spoke in a soft, smiling voice.
"Elder Sir, I would lower that finger if I were you. Our mistress is a first-rank lady of the court — show her disrespect, and you will find yourself clapped in irons before the day is out. And the Duke's estate has been a house of soldiers for generations; even the servants have tempers to match. If any one of them should see a guest pointing his finger at our mistress like this, in the heat of the moment he may not be able to promise that finger comes back to you intact."
Startled by the threat, Bai Giwoon slowly curled his pointing finger back in. Then he swept his hand behind his back, looked down his nose at Lady Dong, and spat out his words with all the haughtiness he possessed.
"Lady Dong, you had best think carefully. That concubine-born son of the Second Master has already packed his things and fled! With no one left to inherit the ducal title, the surviving women of this house will have no choice but to return to the Suyang main branch and beg the clan's protection. Keep putting off the clan's business like this, and all you are doing is cutting off your own path of retreat!"
Bai Jindong and Bai Jinchi had slipped quietly out of the funeral hall after hearing Chun Tao's report. They had not yet managed a word with Bai Jingyan when Bai Giwoon's arrogant tirade reached their ears.
Fire flashed through Bai Jinchi in an instant, and she nearly stormed straight inside before just barely hauling herself to a halt. She ground her teeth, wrestling her temper back down, and turned around again.
Then she caught her eldest sister and her third sister watching her, realized how close she had come moments ago to flying off the handle yet again — and went red to the tips of her ears.
"Eldest Sister, what do you want me and Third Sister to do?"
Bai Jingyan beckoned them closer with a flick of her hand, and the three sisters huddled together.
"We have a performance to put on."
Nanny Dong stood with her hands folded respectfully before her, watching the three of them confer over something, and her brow knitted with unease.
By the time Bai Jingyan finished laying out the plan in detail, Bai Jinchi's eyes were blazing.
"Sister, I can do this. My reputation — any of it — doesn't scare me one bit. And we're the ones in the right here anyway! Eldest Sister, don't you worry. I won't ruin a single thing. I can hold my tongue, I promise."
With that, Bai Jinchi strode briskly inside, gave Lady Dong the sketchiest of bows, then bugged her eyes out and shrilled at the top of her lungs.
"The Bai family is in deep mourning right now! Can you not see the twenty-odd coffins laid out in this courtyard? The surviving family of the Bais is in dire straits, and instead of helping us as clan kin should, you come marching in to plunder our silver! Have you no shame at all?"
"Jinchi! Stand down."
Bai Jingyan and Bai Jindong entered hand in hand and bowed to Lady Dong.
At the sight of Bai Jingyan, the two elder kinsmen from Suyang felt their hearts twist into knots. Could this be anyone but the notoriously fierce legitimate eldest daughter of the Duke's own line? A woman who had pressured the Emperor himself, demanding the death of his own legitimate heir — how could anyone not fear her?
"Why should I stand down? Who are these people, daring to point their fingers at our eldest aunt! If we're speaking of rank, then our eldest aunt is a lady of the first rank! A man his age, still nothing more than a mere provincial postholder, and he dares put on airs before our eldest aunt! And if we're speaking of clan standing — well, well."
Bai Jinchi curled her lip in a sneer.
"Back then, my great-great-grandfather fathered four legitimate sons. But aside from my great-grandfather, the eldest, every one of them died on the battlefield without leaving a single heir! My great-grandfather, as the Duke of Zhenguo, had all of Jin to protect — so he couldn't also shoulder the clan headship for the sake of the wider kin. That's why he took one concubine-born son and had him entered under my great-great-grandmother's own name, so the boy could inherit the clan headship as a legitimate son. And that concubine-born son was none other than the grandfather of your own line! So if we're truly dragging roots into the open, aren't you descended from a concubine's bed yourself? Then by what right do you stand there shrieking at the legitimate eldest daughter-in-law of the Bai main line?"
Nothing humiliated Bai Giwoon more than having his grandfather's concubine-born origins thrown in his face. When he was a child, every time some great crisis struck the clan, his grandfather's brothers had used that very status to grind his grandfather beneath their heels.