The Outer Chamber
Nanny Zhang, on her way to Qinghui Courtyard to fetch Bai Jingyan, caught sight of her on the path and hurried forward with quick steps.
"Eldest Miss!"
Nanny Zhang offered a deep bow.
"The Grand Princess asks that you be brought to her."
Bai Jingyan pressed her lips together for a moment before speaking.
"Has Grandmother come up with a plan?"
Nanny Zhang nodded, the rims of her eyes reddening.
Only then did Bai Jingyan move her feet, following Nanny Zhang toward the Grand Princess's Changshou Courtyard. Along the way, she asked in painstaking detail how her grandmother had fared after she had left the day before.
"Do not worry yourself, Eldest Miss. Her Highness the Grand Princess is a trueborn daughter of the imperial house. She will endure this."
Nanny Zhang spread an umbrella over Bai Jingyan's head, her eyes growing wet with sympathy.
"It is you, Eldest Miss, who is still so young..."
Their conversation carried them the rest of the way, and they arrived at Changshou Courtyard.
A maidservant raised the screening curtain for Bai Jingyan, and once she had stepped inside, Nanny Zhang sent every maid in attendance out of the room. Then she followed her into the chamber, gathered up the cloak Bai Jingyan had removed, and said,
"This servant will wait outside. Speak freely with Her Highness, Eldest Miss."
Bai Jingyan looked through the hanging curtain at her grandmother, seated on the heated brick bed. The moment she saw the old woman with her eyes closed, fingers moving slowly over a string of prayer beads, she could no longer hold back her tears.
"Grandmother."
Bai Jingyan called out softly.
At the sound of her voice, the Grand Princess opened her eyes. Seeing Bai Jingyan lift the curtain and step inside, she extended her hand.
"Aiyan, come here."
Bai Jingyan drew near. Her grandmother's lips trembled; only after steadying her breath several times did she ask, the corners of her eyes grown red.
"Tell your grandmother plainly. Who was it that brought you that news before the court could?"
"Before Grandfather departed, I sent the two shadow guards he once gave me to protect him. One of them used the last of his strength to make his way back and bring me word. It was Deputy General Yu Huan, Grandfather's own second-in-command, who conspired with men of the court to slander the Bai family and harm its people. There is no proof yet, so I could not spread the matter about carelessly — and the guard gave his life telling me, so I saw to it that he was laid to rest in secret, with every honor he was owed."
She had rehearsed these words before ever setting out for Changshou Courtyard the day before. The Duke of Zhenguo had indeed once given Bai Jingyan two exceptional shadow guards, and when he marched out to war, she had attached both men to his retinue to watch over him. In her past life, they too had breathed their last in the Southern Border, alongside the men of the Bai family, in a futile attempt to save him.
The Grand Princess suppressed her grief, her lips quivering, her eyes shut fast for a long while — and then she brought her palm down upon the table with all her strength.
"The men of the Bai family may lose their lives on the battlefield, but they will never die at the hands of treacherous curs!"
"Grandmother, now that things have come this far, we must prepare ourselves in advance."
Bai Jingyan gripped the Grand Princess's hand tightly. She already looked like a woman who had reached some decision.
"If the men of the Bai family were truly framed and slaughtered, then someone is scheming to steal the Bai Family Army!"
The Grand Princess pressed down hard on the edge of the table.
"The Bai Family Army answers to the Bai family alone. Grandfather and Father were almost certainly set upon by treachery. And whoever has harmed our family may well have arranged for someone to strike again after them. Grandmother — you are the only pillar the Bai family has left to lean upon, which makes you the one in the greatest danger right now!"
Bai Jingyan laid out her thinking before her grandmother.
"Let them dream on!"
The Grand Princess clenched her teeth.
"Before the late Emperor passed, he entrusted to me the shadow guard corps that only an Emperor may command. I have trained them at the estate I brought with me as my dowry, and not once in all these years have I ever used them. But from the look of things — the time to move them has come at last."
Bai Jingyan flinched. Never once had she heard that her grandmother commanded a shadow guard corps. If such a force existed, then there was no need to fear for her grandmother's safety at all.
"Grandmother, even if Grandfather, Father, my uncles, and my brothers are all gone, you must not forget that you still have a granddaughter."
Bai Jingyan took the Grand Princess's hand in both of hers and spoke with grave earnestness.
"Grandmother, please take care of yourself. Stay well and stay healthy. Only with you here can I draw strength. I will do everything in my power to protect the Bai family — and I will never allow its men to pass into the next world carrying injustice in their hearts."
At these words, hot tears spilled down the Grand Princess's cheeks. She pulled Bai Jingyan into her arms and wept, her sobs so heavy she could not string two words together.
It took a long while for the two of them to gather their composure. Dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, the Grand Princess said,
"Aiyan — do you have a plan?"
"They say misfortune is born within a household. We must investigate the servants of this estate thoroughly. Only it must be done quietly, in secret. I will discuss the matter with Mother and see it through properly, so please don't trouble yourself over it, Grandmother. Simply keep your seat and rest."
The Grand Princess nodded.
Bai Jingyan lifted her head and looked at her grandmother, remembering the man whom the Liang King would one day bring forth — the one who claimed to be the son born of her second uncle's outer-chamber concubine.
"There is something I must confirm with you, Grandmother. Did Second Uncle, by any chance, keep an outer-chamber woman?"
The second uncle she spoke of was the Grand Princess's second legitimate son — the full younger brother of Bai Jingyan's father.
The Grand Princess pressed her lips inward and bit down on them.
At the sight of her expression, Bai Jingyan's heart plummeted. In her past life, the man who had clawed his way up with the Liang King's backing truly had been the son of her second uncle's concubine.
"It never went so far as an outer chamber. It was never anything so serious as that. But it is true that your second uncle wronged your second aunt. When he was away traveling the realm, a young lady once saved his life, and the two of them... developed feelings for one another..."
The Grand Princess broke off mid-sentence. Bai Jingyan was still an unmarried maiden, and there were certain things that simply could not be said openly before her.
"Then your second uncle returned home. Before he came back, he gave that young lady the dragon-patterned jade token I had bestowed on him, as a parting gift. Once home, he spoke with your second aunt and meant to bring the girl in as a concubine — but your second aunt was with child at the time, and he could not bring himself to say it."
Not long after, urgent word arrived from a fortress on the border, and her grandfather marched out to war with both her father and her second uncle. They returned with victory in hand — but by then three full years had passed. Her second uncle managed to persuade his wife, and the two of them went in search of the girl, only to learn that her hometown had been struck by floodwaters years before. Everyone assumed she had perished.
Then, some years later, the woman appeared at the side gate of the Zhenguo Duke Estate, a boy in tow. The bond between her second son and his daughter-in-law seemed warm and untroubled, and the Grand Princess had no wish to see the whole estate thrown into uproar over the matter. And so she had deceived everyone, sending the woman to an estate of her own and quietly keeping her there ever since.
At this account, Bai Jingyan felt her temples throbbing violently.
In her past life, the title of Duke of Zhenguo had eventually degenerated into an empty, hollowed-out office — and it had been inherited by that son of her second uncle's concubine. He squeezed the common people dry, violated innocent women, and butchered tenant farmers without cause, committing every manner of atrocity until the reputation that generations of Bai ancestors had built up stone by stone collapsed in the space of a moment.
Worse still, that damnable wretch had taken Shen Qingzhu — who was as good as a sister to Bai Jingyan — and turned her into a Beauty Urn, a vessel shaped like a wine jar into which a person was placed, painted and costumed, to be displayed for the amusement of gawking crowds.
The hot blood in Bai Jingyan's chest began to boil over. It was as though a great mountain had been set upon her heart; she could not draw breath. She wanted, this very instant, to hack that son of a dog to ribbons.
Reluctantly, she pressed on with her questioning.
"Is the child certainly Second Uncle's?"
Seeing Bai Jingyan's face drained white, the Grand Princess sank back wearily against her pillow and let out a long sigh.
"That boy looks exactly as your second uncle did when he was young."
The hand Bai Jingyan had hidden in her sleeve clenched with all its strength, her nails digging into her palm. If the boy had not been her second uncle's child, she would have ordered Nuo Ping to remove the future threat on the spot.
But if he was her second uncle's blood...
It felt as though her chest were being torn open. Only after a long silence did she fix her grandmother with a look of cold resolve.
"Then bring him here."
He was still young. Perhaps, if he were properly taught, he could yet be turned around. And if he proved irredeemable — better to keep him in the palm of her own hand than to leave him clutched in the Liang King's.
"Yes. We will bring him here, and this grandmother will raise him herself."
The Grand Princess squeezed Bai Jingyan's hand tight.
"I will go and speak to your second aunt as well — once Jinsu returns from her parents' home."
Bai Jingyan nodded. Her fingers had gone cold as ice. Nausea rose in her throat, and she had to fight for a long while to crush down the revulsion churning through her. Only when she had barely steadied herself did she turn back to the Grand Princess and raise the matter of Bai Jindong.
"Grandmother, I have thought long and hard on this, and I believe the Bai family must carve out a path of retreat for itself. Even the craftiest rabbit digs three burrows — how much more so the Bai family?"
"Then speak. Let me hear it."
"Grandmother, do you still remember how Third Sister Jindong once helped Mother's family with their trade, and in half a year raised the profits of the shops by thirty percent? Mother joked at the time that if Jindong ever became a merchant, she would grow into the richest person under heaven — a merchant whose name would be on every tongue."
The Grand Princess nodded. That single offhand joke had planted in Bai Jindong a genuine longing to become a merchant — but the Duke of Zhenguo had flown into a rage, roaring that no child of the Bai family would ever stoop so low as to become some common tradesman.
"Grandmother, if Third Sister wishes it, assign to her a steward — one with a loyal heart and years of experience. Then have her dress in men's clothing, spread her talents abroad, and amass a fortune in secret."
"Amass a fortune in secret? Jingyan, what manner of plan is this? You..."
The Grand Princess stared at her in astonishment. The hand that held Bai Jingyan's was trembling faintly.
"Do you harbor thoughts of rebellion?"
The Grand Princess's grip had grown so tight that Bai Jingyan's fingers ached. A shiver ran through her body, and she stood there, dazed.
A taut silence stretched between grandmother and granddaughter. It was the tension of a bow drawn to its very limit — one wrong move, and the arrow would snap loose and fly.
How could she have forgotten? Before she was her grandmother, this woman was a daughter of the imperial house — the Grand Princess of Great Jin. The realm of Great Jin was, in the end, the realm of the Im family. In her grandmother's heart, the Im family would always stand above the Bai family. Bai Jingyan would gladly commit outright treason if it meant saving the Bai family — but her grandmother sought to protect the Bai family and the rivers and mountains of Great Jin both. That was the greatest difference between them.
Her grandmother did not know that the Emperor had harbored resentment toward the Bai family for a very long time. She did not know what the Emperor had done to them.
Zhen Xiangzhi had been right. The miserable deaths that befell the entire Bai family in her past life had been, from beginning to end, the will of this Emperor of Jin alone. And if that same Emperor drove the Bai family down a dead-end road in this life as he had in the last — then there would be no reason left not to commit treason.