Plunder
When the young Bai Jinchi standing before him dared invoke the Duke's standing, Bai Qiyun felt his temper boil over.
"You! Lady Dong — how could a child raised within the Duke of Zhenguo's own household behave this way!"
"You hold concubine-born children up to the skies, yet hand a legitimate seat to someone who wasn't raised at the matriarch's side from childhood — and it seems she turns out lacking in refinement? I could overlook it for her own sake, but left as she is, she'll drag her descendants down with her!"
Bai Jindong had been the one to speak.
The Duke of Zhenguo's household kept the strictest of rules regarding concubine-born children. Such children were never permitted to keep company with their birth mothers; wet nurses carried the sons and daughters off to be raised beneath their respective legal mothers' care. Save for the great festivals, a concubine-born child never once met the mother who bore them — and if such a meeting ever took place in secret, the concubine-mother could not escape death.
The old Duke had laid down this house rule with cold foresight: if a concubine-born child never grew close to his legal mother, then should the legitimate heirs of the next generation all fall in battle, as had happened in the generation above, the legal mother would be left to a wretched old age with no one to lean on.
In the Bai family, a concubine was no more than a servant of somewhat higher rank. Someone waited on her, perhaps, but a servant remained a servant — whatever upheaval came, she was still nothing but a servant.
The Bai children, by contrast, were masters of the house even when born of a concubine.
Masters and servants could not be weighed in the same breath.
Bai Jindong herself was concubine-born. She had grown up at this Lady Li's side, and though she could not match the legitimate children in food or finery, she had wanted for nothing. Her legal mother, moreover, had never once slighted her. And so she had no complaints of her own, either.
"Lady Dong! You mean to stand there and watch while this young concubine-born chit of the Duke's household insults the head of the clan?"
Loath to bandy words with the two girls and elevate them by doing so, Bai Qiyun shouted only at Lady Dong, over and over.
"Did you just address my mother as *'Lady Dong'*?"
Bai Jinchi's hand flew unconsciously to her waist — and only then did she realize her whip was not hanging there.
"Eldest Uncle, if you insist on continuing this discussion of clan affairs, then apologize to my mother properly and correct your bearing first. Whatever the matter may be, it is best discussed *after* an apology has been made."
Bai Jingyan took the seat directly beneath Lady Dong's.
The two elders from Suyang lifted their teacups and feigned a slow sip, saying nothing at all. Only Bai Qiyun shot Bai Jingyan one cold, glancing look.
"Adults are speaking here. Where does a whelp get the gall to cut in?"
"What did you just say—!"
Bai Jinchi could not tolerate an insult to her eldest sister.
"I am the legitimate eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's house. I carry the *Jing* generational character of the Bai men. I have taken the field in war, and I have taken the head of an enemy grand general. I had my part in bringing down the kingdom of Shu as well! With Grandfather, Father, my uncles, and all my brothers fallen at the Southern Border, the honor of this house now rests on my shoulders."
Bai Jingyan lifted her head and regarded Bai Qiyun with calm, unfathomable eyes. Then she spoke, and something murderous rippled beneath the words.
"So when it comes to the affairs of this house, there is nothing I am barred from discussing."
A savage aura — forged in places where corpses lay heaped and blood ran down the riverbeds like water — filled the room to its corners. Even standing motionless, one felt an inexplicable chill crawl up the spine.
"Nanny Dong. Take Bai Jindong and Bai Jinchi to make apology before Grandfather's memorial tablet and Father's. If he had been entered under our great-grandmother's name back then, he would be a legitimate son himself — dragging that matter up again is a breach of propriety. If he commits the same mistake a second time, he may request ten lashes of the whip with his own mouth."
"Eldest Sister."
Bai Jinchi thrust her chin up stiffly.
"I won't accept this!"
Bai Jindong frowned, seized Bai Jinchi, and hauled her toward the door.
"Come on! Don't make Eldest Sister angry!"
Nanny Dong stepped up beside her and coaxed gently.
"Fourth Young Miss, if you do not leave now, the Eldest Young Miss will call for Nuo Ping. And then you will have no choice but to take the whip."
Eyes rimmed red, Bai Jinchi let herself be dragged out all the same. Even past the threshold she could not resist crying out that she would accept no such thing.
"Why should I! I haven't done anything wrong! Those clansmen have come to *plunder* us now that nothing's left of this family but women!"
The two Suyang elders' faces went white, then livid, then white again. Heads bowed, they said nothing.
"Eldest Uncle, have you anything further to say? If not, my mother and I must be going — the vigil at the mourning hall awaits."
Bai Jingyan spoke slowly, unhurriedly.
It was pressure — plain pressure to make him apologize to Lady Dong.
Lady Dong smoothed the front of her robes.
"Jingyan. Let us go."
Face frozen stiff, Bai Qiyun turned his head toward Lady Dong and made a stiff bow.
"Crown Prince's Consort — forgive me!"
Only then did Bai Jingyan turn to face her mother.
"Mother, the clan's affairs are a grave matter in their own right. If Eldest Uncle is in no great hurry to offer incense to Grandfather and Father and my uncles, then let us discuss it here. And once the discussion is finished... I trust Eldest Uncle will see fit to offer proper incense to my grandfather, my father, and my uncles."
At those words, the two Suyang elders hastened to reply.
"Of course! Of course!"
"Mother — the three elders did not come to pay condolence to our house. They came to receive silver to repair the shrine, the graves, and the school. Ah — and they said they would purchase farmland besides, was it! And from what Eldest Uncle said just now, the chamber that houses the ancestral tablets must not be built with inferior materials.... Which would mean they intend to repair the ancestors' tombs as well, yes? Is that the substance of it?"
Lady Dong looked at her daughter. Unable to fathom what Jingyan intended, she only listened quietly and said nothing.
"Of course!"
Bai Qiyun's expression seemed to soften, if only a shade.
Bai Jingyan gave a single nod and turned to Lady Dong once more.
"A few days ago, Grandmother told me that once the funeral rites conclude, we are to return to Suyang. She was meaning to speak to you about repairing the residence our legitimate line left standing empty, I believe. When I asked the school steward separately, he said Grandfather had intended as much for a long while. And Steward Nuo, whom the clan sent to look over the residence half a year ago, has already sent back the repair plans. A house handed down through the generations is enormous — see to this and that, and the repairs alone would want perhaps a hundred and eighty to a hundred and ninety thousand taels of silver. Furniture and furnishings not included. The sum is so great that even the estate found it difficult to produce at once, so the matter was set aside, I'm told."
Bai Qiyun's heart plummeted. He had assumed Bai Jingyan meant to use the residence repairs as a pretext to withhold the silver.
His face hardened to stone.
It was *he* who had said the estate's women would return to the Suyang seat. Return they must, and so naturally the repair of the long-vacant residence would be the most pressing need of all. Bai Qiyun felt as though he had dropped a boulder squarely on his own foot.
Stung, he curled his lip in a sneer.
"Is the Duke's household not a family of generals these hundred years? And it cannot produce a hundred and eighty or ninety thousand taels to mend a residence? Are you mocking me to my face? Skim a little off the army rations or the soldiers' pay and you'd have more than this!"
Bai Jingyan's face went dark.
"Mind your tongue, Eldest Uncle! Can a man nearing his fortieth year let his mouth run so carelessly? To embezzle army grain and soldiers' wages is a capital crime that exterminates the whole clan. How could our Duke of Zhenguo's house ever dare such a thing!"
Bai Qiyun clamped his mouth shut. The words had leapt out of him in a moment of reckless impulse.
Bai Jingyan gave him one long look from beneath those deep, dark eyes, then continued speaking to her mother.
"Since Grandfather already promised the clansmen he would buy them land and see to the repair of the ancestral tombs, the shrine, the school, and the rest, then even though he is gone, it falls to us to carry it out. The clansmen require four hundred and fifty thousand taels, and the repairs of the residence another two hundred thousand — altogether, a full six hundred and fifty thousand."
Bai Qiyun's brow twitched. It was no trifling sum.
"Mother — your dowry and my aunts' dowries are absolutely not to be touched. Whether it be the ancestral graves or the school, whatever else it may be, laying hands on a daughter-in-law's dowry is beyond all consideration. So I intend to sell off every shop and every residence the estate holds. We will sell the farms and fields outside the capital as well and convert the whole of it to silver. Since the bereaved family must return to Suyang and live depending on the clan's goodwill regardless, let us settle everything cleanly. There is nothing worth keeping in the capital, after all..."
Bai Qiyun and the two Suyang elders flinched as one. Bai Jingyan had held forth at length on this and that — and the upshot was not that she meant to smooth the matter over, but to push it through.
Lady Dong looked at her daughter in bewilderment. But when the girl smiled and gave her a light, easy nod, she smoothed the frown from her brow, raised her teacup, and said:
"Still — family properties are not sold off just because one says sell, this very day."
Bai Qiyun's mind spun. The estate's lands and holdings were assets that drew a handsome income in the capital. If the household sold off its shops to raise silver, he could always send Steward Wu later to quietly buy one or two of them back. Life would be a good deal more comfortable for it.
"Since Eldest Uncle is in such a hurry, we must have everything ready by tomorrow."
Bai Jingyan turned her head with a cold smile and spoke to Lady Dong.
"Mother — the First Vice-Chancellor, Xiao Rongyan, is staying in the capital at present. As it happens, our own manager Chen Gengsheng is well acquainted with the steward of the Xiao residence. Let us send Steward Xue and Chen Gengsheng to make inquiries. The only man in this city who could produce such a sum at a stroke is Xiao Rongyan."
"In truth...."
Bai Qiyun opened his mouth, swallowed the words back down, and brought out something else entirely.
"In truth, what Jingyan says is right."
What he had wanted to say was that there was no such urgency. He had even meant to advise Lady Dong and Bai Jingyan to sell slowly, and at good prices — for only then could he skim his profit off the middle of the transaction.
But that would have clashed directly with the demand that the money be delivered by tomorrow, so he had no choice but to swallow the words that had risen to his lips.
"Then, the matter being settled, Eldest Uncle and my uncles will offer proper incense to Grandfather and Father, and tell them that our house has agreed to see to the clan's affairs as promised. The clan must pledge in turn that it accepts the goodwill of the Duke's household and will look after the bereaved family well from this day forward — only then will Grandfather and Father be able to rest easy."
There was not a single flaw in Bai Jingyan's reasoning. To walk away with silver scraped together from a family's entire fortune, and then refuse even so small a pledge — that would be shamelessness past all bearing.
Seeing that Bai Qiyun said nothing, the two Suyang elders plucked lightly at his sleeve. Then, in voices pitched for their ears alone, they murmured.
"Elder brother, the girl is right. All that the Duke's household has done for the clan over the years — where would one even begin to count? You were too hasty just now. You arrived and spoke so to the Crown Prince's Consort without so much as offering incense. With all these people watching, offering the incense is the only way to make amends."
"Quite right! The household hands over the silver, and the clan comes away with real gain in the bargain. This mother and daughter ask for nothing more than the outward show of propriety — and what is that but a stick of incense? Declare before the mourners that you have made this pact with the Bai bereaved, and you lose nothing by it! Besides — having said it before this whole hall of mourners, the household can hardly take its words back and withhold the silver afterward."
Bai Qiyun had indeed been hasty. In truth he had only wished to raise the matter before his two younger brothers departed; refusing the incense had never been his intent.
His aim was accomplished — there was no longer any need to hold his nose in the air. One way or another, the Duke's household had a funeral to conduct.
"It was not that I refused the incense. I was merely anxious to settle things."
Bai Qiyun paused, then steadied his voice.
"The matter being resolved, I will offer the incense and speak to the old Duke and to the Crown Prince. They ought to know of it as well. Crown Prince's Consort — if I gave offense, I beg your pardon!"
Lady Dong turned her head toward Nanny Jin.
"Nanny Jin. Escort the three gentlemen to pay their respects."
"Yes, Madam!"
Hands folded respectfully before her, Nanny Jin bowed once more and gestured, in perfect courtesy, to see the elders of the Suyang Bai clan out the door.