Saving Face
Jin Lang had gone a fair distance before Bai Jinxiu finally turned her head to look at Bai Jingyan.
"Eldest Sister, did the Marquis Zhongyong really give you that ledger?"
Bai Jingyan watched the direction in which Jin Lang had vanished, then opened her mouth slowly.
"It's a good thing the Marquis and Jin Lang were never close. The son doesn't know his father, and the father knows nothing of his son. Had they truly known each other, a few words like these could never have deceived Jin Lang."
Though Jin Lang's father had doted on his youngest son, in Jin Lang's heart his father had always remained a towering, magnificent figure. So Bai Jingyan had painted into his mind the image of Jin Desuo straying from the right path and repenting of it — she had persuaded him with the claim that his father meant to sacrifice his own life to preserve the peace of the entire family. She had urged Jin Lang to give up his father for the greater good, so that the whole clan would not be dragged down into the abyss with him.
And Jin Lang believed Jin Desuo would naturally have chosen exactly that. Had he stood in his father's place, he would have made the same decision himself. How, then, could he refuse to believe Bai Jingyan's words?
When she understood that Jin Lang had been deceived precisely as predicted, Bai Jinxiu let out a long sigh. It was not because she knew the Marquis so well, but because she knew her eldest sister far too well. When the military grain scandal broke and every man of the Bai family perished, there was no chance Bai Jingyan would ever have left Jin Desuo a path of survival. And judging by how she had spoken of seating Jin Lang in the Marquis's place, every detail must already have been planned to the letter.
"Doesn't it strike you that what you've done is no different from what Jin Desuo and his lot did? You even counted your own brother-in-law in the tally."
At Bai Jingyan's question, Bai Jinxiu shook her head firmly.
"Everyone in this world keeps a ledger of debts. That is why even someone as loyal and upright as you, Sister, must do the same."
Bai Jingyan turned her head and looked at her sister. An utterly serene smile lingered in her eyes.
"Grandmother says the funeral will be kept simple. Now I shall have to think carefully over how to write the eulogy. Once everything is settled, all will be well."
From the moment she had left the estate for the Court of Judicial Review prison that day, Gao Sheng had trailed at her heels. By now the news would have reached the Liang King's ears, and the Liang King was certain to make his move. Given his timid, over-cautious temperament, Jin Desuo would likely not live to see tonight's moon.
Now that the matriarch of the Duke of Zhenguo's household, Lady Dong, had collapsed and the whole estate would inevitably slacken, the Liang King would judge that his chance had come at last. If in this life, too, he laid the same scheme as in her past life — the ploy to smear her grandfather as a traitor who had colluded with an enemy state — the Liang King would most certainly act.
The one thing she could not fathom was where Yu Huanzhang might be — whether he was already in the Liang King's grasp, or hiding away in some corner of the Southern Border. When the moment ripened, he would return to Dadu and move against her grandfather.
"Xiao Ruogang."
Bai Jingyan called his name.
"Eldest Young Lady — your command!"
Though she addressed him by the elevated title, Xiao Ruogang showed no carelessness, maintaining his respectful bearing as ever.
"Your skills at reconnaissance are outstanding, so go to the Court of Judicial Review in my stead. Tell Minister Yu that Jin Lang has offered to resolve the Southern Border grain affair on the minister's behalf. Jin Lang is innocent, and seeing as he is a son-in-law of the Bai family, beg the minister to put in a few good words for him before the Emperor. Say that the Bai family will never fail to repay such a kindness."
When her grandfather had overturned a verdict for the Censor-in-Chief Gan Zhongwen, the present Minister Yu Zhen had been nothing more than a seventh-rank Assistant of the Court of Judicial Review. That very case had brought Yu Zhen into prominence, and he had risen in a straight line to the third-rank post of Minister he now held. Out of respect for her grandfather's memory, and for the memory of the Bai men who had all perished, Yu Zhen would surely preserve the Bai family's honor.
Seated before the brazier, the Liang King listened with his eyes closed to Gao Sheng's report that Bai Jingyan had met with Jin Desuo.
Warming himself at the fire, he clenched his fists and knit his brows, then broke into violent coughing. When he opened his eyes once more, they brimmed with murderous intent.
"So Jin Desuo confessed everything to Bai Jingyan?"
"Outside the prison of the Court of Judicial Review, Her Highness dropped a food box; we saw that it held brush and ink, paper, and an inkstone. We also overheard the names written upon the paper being recited."
The moment Gao Sheng's words fell, Steward Nong knocked at the door. "Your Highness, a man from Master Gao's retinue is outside, saying he must see Master Gao at once on urgent business."
"Your Highness?" Gao Sheng asked whether he might first go out to meet his subordinate.
The Liang King drew his black robes close and nodded. "Go and see."
"Yes."
Gao Sheng went out, and returned before long. After offering his respects, he continued his report.
"Your Highness, the man we sent to the Duke of Zhenguo's estate has returned. Not even an hour after I left, Jin Lang walked out of the estate's side gate and returned to the Marquis Zhongyong's residence! I have already sent someone to the man we planted in that household, to find out what Jin Lang did upon his return. The matriarch of the estate, Lady Dong, has collapsed from exhaustion in front of the funeral hall. The entire household is gripped by anxiety and fear."
The Liang King suddenly lifted his head and stared at Gao Sheng.
"The Grand Princess has collapsed, and Lady Dong as well...?"
"My man believes it is no ordinary collapse. Anyone, however great the hardship, endures until everything is finished — it is only when the end is in sight that the strength finally gives out. The Bai matriarch appears to have briefly fallen ill from overwork, having labored to settle matters great and small."
Gao Sheng held Lady Dong in the highest esteem, and could not conceal his reverence. Disaster had struck the Bai family without warning, and the survivors were women and women alone — it was only to be expected. Though Bai Jingyan was a woman of iron resolve, the true mistress of the estate was Lady Dong. When the news arrived on New Year's Eve, she must have been drowning in grief, unable to rest her heart for even a single moment — managing the affairs of the estate, settling matters for the Bai clan — until, worn down body and soul, she fell. It was little wonder.
But when the matriarch falls, the servants of a great house lose their order and descend into chaos — it was the way of things. The Liang King's mind blazed alight.
"Did your man say the household is in disarray?"
Gao Sheng nodded.
The Liang King stared into the brazier like a man entranced, fists clenched tight. Before the festival, that very matriarch had reorganized every servant of the estate, transforming the household into an iron wall — no news escaped it, and no word could be carried in. Yet now the matriarch had collapsed and the whole of the estate was reeling. Amid this confusion, they must reach Chunyan.
Heat surged through his chest, and a gleam lit his eyes.
"How far has Yu Huanzhang come?"
"Yu Huanzhang is already in the hidden cave beyond the city walls."
The Liang King thought a while longer, then spoke in a low, deliberate voice.
"Send someone to the estate at once and make contact with Chunyan. Tell her that I hold Bai Eldest Daughter deep within my heart, and that I cherish tender feelings for Chunyan as well. But tell her that Bai Eldest Daughter recoils from me because of that woman Hongqiao — and that she is to place several love letters I have written to Bai Eldest Daughter inside the Duke's study. Tell her that later, I will contrive for those letters to be discovered, and blow the matter wide open.
"Later, I will tell Lady Dong, the Crown Prince's wife, this: that my longing for Bai Eldest Daughter was discovered by the Duke; that the Duke seized the letters meant for her; that the Duke declared that upon his return from the Southern Border he would negotiate our marriage, and that for the sake of Bai Eldest Daughter's reputation we were on no account to exchange private letters until then. But the Duke perished without warning in the Southern Border, and now these letters have come to light. Under such circumstances, I will honor my responsibility and take Bai Eldest Daughter as my proper wife — and once she enters my household, tell her, I will take Chunyan as a concubine."
Gao Sheng looked upon his master and thought that no man alive could match him at playing human hearts like a game of go. He had laid out, with flawless precision, exactly why the letters had to be placed in the study. If Chunyan yearned for her mistress's favor, she would obey to the letter.
The Liang King rose, approached the study, and handed Gao Sheng the sealed letters, each copied out faithfully down to the very style of the handwriting.
"Tell Chunyan that under no circumstances is she to open them. The Duke of Zhenguo was never the sort of man to pry open the correspondence of his elders. It must all be handled without a single flaw, or every ounce of our effort is wasted — and warn her properly that if she is discovered, Bai Eldest Daughter will loathe me all the more!"
"Yes!"
Gao Sheng received the letters with both hands. Just then he heard Steward Nong knocking at the door, and hastily tucked the letters into his breast.
"What is it now?"
The Liang King frowned and coughed.
"Your Highness, Tian Weijun, the second-in-command of Master Gao's guards, has returned. He says he must see Master Gao on urgent business."
Gao Sheng offered the Liang King a cupped-fist salute. "Tian Weijun went to meet the man we planted in the Marquis Zhongyong's household."
"Let him in."
The Liang King drew his robes close and settled himself before the brazier. Soon a man wrapped against the bitter cold came in at a quick pace, dropped to one knee, and offered his salute.
"Your Highness, Master Gao — I bribed one of the guards of the Court of Judicial Review, and under the pretext of checking whether my aunt serving inside the residence was safe, I made my way in and met our planted man. He says that upon returning to the residence, Jin Lang summoned several of the Marquis's staff officers and stewards to his study for a secret conversation, allowing no one whatsoever to come near."
"So it seems Jin Desuo, having witnessed King Xin's banishment, judged that everything had come apart — and means to confess it all."
The Liang King gazed into the brazier with the eyes of a hawk.
"That man Jin Desuo can no longer be left alive."
"Your Highness, do not trouble yourself. I will go and deal with it personally."
Gao Sheng claimed the task for himself. Just then, Dongji entered bearing steaming, bitter-smelling medicine.
"Your Highness. You must take your medicine."
"Go."
The Liang King dismissed Gao Sheng with a word, then, still seated, drank the medicine down.
In the prison of the Court of Judicial Review, Jin Desuo sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, utterly motionless, not even deigning to glance at the water and food set before his cell door.
Cautious to his bones by nature, he feared the Liang King might have poisoned the water or the rice to steal away his life.
Then hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor — and stopped before his cell. Jin Desuo clenched his fists. Opening his eyes and looking toward the entrance, he saw a figure in a rain cloak standing behind the jailer.
His heart pounded like a war drum, yet he feigned perfect composure, rising to his feet and flicking the dry grass from his rumpled official robe.
"Who goes there?"
"My lord, let us speak — slowly, if you please."
The jailer bowed respectfully to the figure and withdrew from the cell.