Drawing the Firewood from Beneath the Cauldron
Bai Jindong had spent days racking her brain over how she was going to make money going forward, and sheer exhaustion had finally claimed her. She slept for the better part of four hours before waking again.
The moment she heard that her eldest and second sisters had already gone to the funeral hall, she sprang up, snatched a couple of snacks on her way, changed into mourning clothes, and hurried out the door.
With quick, light steps Bai Jindong passed along corridors hung with white cloth and headed for the funeral hall. From a distance she caught sight of Nanny Zhang hurrying toward Changshou Garden at her grandmother's side, an old servant trailing behind her—and both of their faces were rigid with strain.
A vague unease settled in her chest, so the moment she reached the funeral hall she told Bai Jingyan what she had seen.
"Surely nothing's happened to Grandmother?" Bai Jinchi said, her eyes going wide with worry.
"I heard it from Mother this morning," Bai Jinxiu said. "Grandmother said that when the coffin departs tomorrow there must be someone to lead the mourning rites, and so she ordered that illegitimate son brought here. I'd wager this is about him."
While the sisters were still talking, another mourner arrived to pay respects, and Bai Jingyan's party bowed together in greeting.
Once word spread that the coffin would depart the following day, the mourners came in ever greater numbers, and the sisters found themselves unable to leave the hall.
Changshou Garden.
The Grand Princess leaned against a pillow embroidered with flowering vines, listening to a maidservant who knelt before her, trembling from head to toe as she reported what had occurred at the estate. As she rolled her prayer beads, the Grand Princess pressed her hand hard against the edge of the black table, her eyes going round with disbelief, and demanded in a voice that filled the room.
"That... that damned wretch—what did he do?"
At the thunder of the Grand Princess's imperious voice, the old servant flinched, bowed hastily, then continued in a shuddering voice.
"The young master... this morning he insisted that Young Lady Qi must serve his breakfast... And then, somehow, the young lady dashed her head against the wall in that very room and took her own life. The young master, his feelings offended, ordered her corpse cut apart and... f-fed to the dogs. But the young lady was of commoner birth, so..."
"Godless animal!"
The Grand Princess slammed her palm down on the table.
Forcing another household's bride to attend him, and the bride killing herself by dashing out her own brains—no one needed to witness it to know exactly what had happened.
The Grand Princess's hands shook with a fury she could not contain. Rage smoldered in her chest.
"How many people know he ordered the girl to serve him?"
The old servant nodded.
"This servant made inquiries. The whole household already knows the young master ordered Lady Qi's bride to attend him. It was the very day Nanny Zhang sent someone to summon the young master back to the estate. He glimpsed Lady Qi's bride from inside his carriage—a woman of such striking beauty that he immediately called for her and ordered her to serve him. When she refused, he flew into a temper. The household servants, terrified the trouble would fall on their own heads, went to the Qi household and pressed the girl to comply. Early this morning an old woman of the estate led several people to call on the women close to Lady Qi's bride, asking them to help persuade her—saying the young master would be leaving soon anyway, and that if she served him just this one breakfast, the young master of that house would find everything go smoothly for him at the Duke of Zhenguo's estate. So the bride went, though it went against her will! And then... and then she died in there!"
Nanny Zhang smoothed a hand down the Grand Princess's back.
"Everyone who knew the bride had died has been restrained. The two old women who went to fetch them have returned and given their report. We await your orders, Grand Princess."
"How can that beast of a boy be so savage!"
The Grand Princess kept breathing hard, the anger refusing to die down. But along with the rage came a chill spreading through her chest. How had her second son's illegitimate child grown up like this?
She had kept him only because he might prove to be the last man left of the ducal line. Were it not for that, there would have been no reason in the world to keep a creature worse than a beast.
Nanny Zhang gestured for the kneeling servant to withdraw. Once the woman had bowed and gone, Nanny Zhang at last frowned and spoke.
"Grand Princess, there is something worse! The dead bride... she is the bride Qi Zhengyu took just before the festival."
For an instant the Grand Princess could not breathe. She seized Nanny Zhang's wrist, strangling her own voice to a whisper.
"Qi Zhengyu? The Qi Zhengyu who risked his life days ago to bring the campaign records to the Duke of Zhenguo's estate?"
"Yes, the very same! It is all this servant's fault... of all places to send that illegitimate son! What will we do if the Eldest Miss finds out!"
Nanny Zhang clasped the Grand Princess's hand. Seeing every trace of color drained from her face, the hand that rolled her prayer beads trembling without pause, she hurriedly patted it.
"Grand Princess, steady yourself first."
Truthfully, the death of one commoner was no great catastrophe. Even the death of a bride mattered little. But of all people, it had to be Qi Zhengyu's wife! His wife's family humiliated to the point of suicide—what man alive could swallow that and walk away?
Qi Zhengyu had staked his very life for the Bai family. He would never bow his head quietly.
If the eldest granddaughter, A-Yan, learned of it, she would overturn everything without question. And then where could that boy even hope to live?
The Grand Princess slowly released Nanny Zhang's hand. The back that had always been ramrod straight bent, little by little. She closed her eyes and leaned against the dais, yet her fingers were cold as ice.
She had pinned her greatest hopes on the child in her fifth daughter-in-law's womb. But when she had asked Imperial Physician Huang, head of the Imperial Medical Academy, only a short while ago, he had answered conservatively—while letting slip that the child was more likely to be a girl.
Which meant this illegitimate son was the last of Bai Weiting's blood.
All her life she had carried guilt toward the Bai family. She had felt that guilt toward Bai Weiting every day of her life. The Grand Princess had genuinely wished to protect the last of his bloodline for him. If she did not, then after Bai Jingyan's generation, Bai Weiting's line would be severed for good.
The matter had happened only recently. Before it could grow, if she meant to bury it at all, she had to decide as quickly as possible.
Everyone in the household knew the beast had summoned Lady Qi's bride to serve him. Even if she disposed of every person who knew the bride had died, the moment this beast was brought back and Lady Qi's bride abruptly vanished, there would be no shortage of tongues whispering to Qi Zhengyu.
And if Qi Zhengyu then came to the Duke of Zhenguo's estate demanding the person be handed over, Bai Jingyan too would learn the truth. With A-Yan's abilities, this could never be hidden.
Nor could she put hundreds of lives to the sword in a land ruled by an emperor. Even if she somehow disposed of them all, Qi Zhengyu would certainly grow suspicious.
Thinking of Qi Zhengyu, the Grand Princess clenched her prayer beads tight.
Better to kill one man and draw the firewood from beneath the cauldron—to pluck the problem out at its very root—than to kill a hundred to bury it. If Qi Zhengyu died, there would be no one left to come demanding the person be handed over, and for those remaining in the estate, she need only let slip word that Lady Qi's bride had entered the Duke of Zhenguo's estate to tend to Qi Zhengyu's care.
If only she could deceive Bai Jingyan, everyone else she could crush by force.
Qi Zhengyu had suffered such grievous wounds. There was nothing the least bit strange about his failing to survive them.
Murder. Raised within the imperial palace from her earliest years, the Grand Princess had, of course, killed before. But to kill the Bai family's benefactor—throwing her conscience to the dogs, repaying kindness with enmity—how could her conscience not sear her?
The corners of the Grand Princess's eyes grew damp. But that wretched boy was her grandson. Enough grandsons had already died. Never again... must she let a single one of them perish.
Somehow, some way, Bai Weiting's blood had to be preserved. Even if King Yama meted out his punishment after death, even if she had to repay in full the sin of killing a man as loyal and valiant as Qi Zhengyu—she would accept it all.
Between grandson and benefactor, the Grand Princess chose the grandson—and resolved to sin against her benefactor.
She made her decision. Her voice seemed to ring out from a well so deep its bottom could not be seen.
"Leave none of the household who knew the bride died. Bring that wretched boy here. Outside... spread word that Lady Qi's bride followed him into the Duke of Zhenguo's estate to care for Qi Zhengyu. Find a woman close to Lady Qi's bride in age and bring her to the residence—dress her up to look as much like her as possible.
"Qi Zhengyu is gravely wounded, so say he has lain unconscious since before dawn today; and after the Grand Duke is laid to rest tomorrow, announce that the loyal and valiant Qi Zhengyu could not endure his injuries and followed the Grand Duke in death. Say that Lady Qi's bride, unable to bear her grief, followed Qi Zhengyu as well. Let the matter end thus."
With a few words, the Grand Princess decided Qi Zhengyu's life or death.
Nanny Zhang understood. The reason for handling this at such speed was to finish everything while the Eldest Miss was still consumed by the Bai family's funeral.
Nanny Zhang had served the Grand Princess since her own girlhood. She knew that once the Grand Princess decided a thing, no one alive could stop her. And yet she could not, in the end, hold her tongue.
"Madam, if the Eldest Miss learns of this later, she will... her heart will turn wholly away from you!"
"That is exactly why A-Yan must never know!"
The Grand Princess flung her reddened eyes wide open, the hand that rolled her prayer beads shaking.
If her granddaughter learned of it, how could she ever bear to look the girl in the face again?
She was a woman raised in the imperial palace—she could not claim her hands had never been stained by the blood of the innocent—but the cruel, shadowed thing that lay buried in the deepest part of her heart, that she did not wish to show to the granddaughter she treasured above all others.
She knew her granddaughter was yielding to her without end. She knew the girl had spared the boy's life out of regard for their bond of blood. She knew that for the sake of this land the Bai family had guarded for generations—for her sake—her granddaughter would harbor no thought of rebellion. She knew that if she killed Qi Zhengyu... her granddaughter would, in the end, rise up against her.
Knowing A-Yan's temperament, once she learned that Bai Jingxian had driven Qi Zhengyu's wife to her death, she would never—never—spare the wretch.
And knowing all of it, the Grand Princess still had no other choice.
Because greed had sprouted. Nothing more than wishful thinking—the vain hope of keeping the boy alive and preserving her bond with A-Yan all at once.
Grief overcame her at last, and the Grand Princess wept.
When darkness had settled over Dadu like a curtain, Bai Jingxian returned to the Duke of Zhenguo's estate. He came alone—the Grand Princess had left his birth mother behind at her own residence.
She did not grant him an audience; she had Nanny Zhang relay her instructions instead. Go keep vigil at the funeral hall, she said, and when you meet your eldest sister Bai Jingyan, be respectful and follow her words in all things. If you dare defy her, then once the Bai family's funeral rites are done, you will be punished—severely.
Bai Jingxian feigned meek obedience and followed Nanny Zhang to the funeral hall.
Upon seeing Bai Jingyan, he performed a mourning bow, then ducked his head low to hide the scratches a woman's nails had left on his face.
"Eldest Sister, greetings. Second Sister, greetings."
The moment Bai Jinchi laid eyes on the boy standing behind Nanny Zhang, fury surged up in her—only to give way to a cold sneer.
"Didn't you run off? Oh, I see—now that His Majesty has issued the edict posthumously honoring Grandfather, you've come slinking back with that thick face of yours?"
Bai Jingxian's brows knotted tight. He kept his head lowered, hiding the vicious glare in his eyes, then knelt down beside the bier and said nothing at all.
"Eldest Miss, Second Miss, Third Miss, Fourth Miss—the Grand Princess has commanded Young Master Xian to keep vigil at the funeral hall tonight. Please, go inside and rest!"
"Convenient."
Bai Jingyan did not decline. Taking Chun Tao's hand, she rose, her gaze sweeping once over the traces of blood on Bai Jingxian's face before she spoke to her sisters.
"Let's go in. The coffin departs tomorrow—there is much to be done."