What Is Truly Honorable
The moment Chun Tao entered the courtyard and heard Yulian's words, she froze in her tracks. She looked up at Bai Jingyan standing beneath the eaves and saw that her face had gone deathly pale. Others might not know how deep the bond ran between the eldest young miss and the Grand Princess, but Chun Tao knew all too well.
The air around Bai Jingyan was dark and fierce, as though a cold frost had settled over it. A murderous intent simmered deep in her eyes.
"Tie Yulian and that young master up and lock them in the courtyard. Remember this — no one takes anyone out of this courtyard without my order! Guard it properly!"
With that, Bai Jingyan drew the long saber from the waist of a guard standing nearby and strode out of the courtyard.
"Seal off this courtyard!"
Nuo Ping gave the order and hurried after her, calling out again from behind Bai Jingyan's back.
"Eldest Young Miss, the funeral procession for the Zhenguo King and Duke must set out tomorrow. The Estate cannot be shaken right now. If nothing has gone wrong with Qi Zhengyu, let this matter wait until tomorrow."
Wrapped in a murderous aura and frigid chill, Bai Jingyan gave no answer. Gripping her saber, she pressed her lips into a hard line and strode swiftly toward the mourning hall.
However vast the Zhenguo Duke Estate might be, it could not conceal the fact that Bai Jingyan had ordered Nuo Ping to lead guards to seize a person, or that a man had been punished within the courtyard's walls. The household staff knew full well that something grave had happened.
The servants and maids scurrying about their errands flinched at the sight of the eldest young miss swathed in killing intent and scrambled out of her path, pressing themselves flat against the walls as they watched her pass.
Bai Jindong, hearing the news, was the first to come running, and on the way she caught sight across the corridor of Bai Jingyan striding toward the mourning hall, saber in hand.
"Big Sister!"
Bai Jindong leapt over the corridor and chased after her.
"Big Sister, are you going to kill that bastard son with your sword? What happened?"
The hand gripping Bai Jingyan's blade was clenched so tight that the bone stood out white, and even her footsteps were terrifyingly swift. Bai Jindong had never once seen her eldest sister lose her composure like this. Even the moment she had read that bamboo slip of evidence, her sister had not unraveled this far.
Bai Jindong seized the hand that held the sword and spoke with utter seriousness.
"Big Sister! I don't know who it is you mean to kill, but give me the blade. I swear I won't make a single mistake!"
Her tone was resolute.
Looking into her bold, unflinching younger sister's eyes, Bai Jingyan felt her own eyes burn hot.
It felt as though something were caught tight in her throat. Bai Jingyan gripped Bai Jindong's hand and answered through clenched teeth.
"Don't worry. I'll handle this myself."
The rumor that Bai Jingyan, in a fury, had taken up a sword spread through the entire Estate. She was doing it deliberately — to let her grandmother, the Grand Princess, know. To let her know that she had already learned the truth! That if her grandmother meant to harm Qi Zhengyu, she would have to kill her grandmother first!
Her grandmother, without much effort at all, had chosen the bastard son over Qi Zhengyu. So today, Bai Jingyan would take that bastard's life with her own hands. She wanted to see whether her grandmother would truly summon the hidden guards and stand against her to protect him.
Two possibilities presented themselves if Bai Jingyan went to the mourning hall.
The first: the bastard son might be there. In that case, the affair might not have been her grandmother's doing after all. It could have been orchestrated by the boy's own mother or by Yulian's father — bribing the servant sent to fetch the Estate's bastard son, all out of fear that Qi Zhengyu might learn his bride was dead. Then the answer was simple: finish that beast on the spot, deal with the boy's mother afterward, and then kill the village head.
The second: the bastard son might be gone. In that case, her grandmother had learned that Bai Jingyan had sent people to investigate who had admitted that young master into the Estate, and had him spirited away in advance. String every piece of this affair together, and the truth laid itself bare: it had been her grandmother who sought to end Qi Zhengyu's life.
A fury that seemed to pierce the heavens filled her chest, and a grief so deep it chilled her to the marrow washed through her. She felt, too, a bitter, agonizing despair toward her grandmother.
But now was not the time to lose her reason and waver. She had been reborn and given a second life — every step from here had to be careful and deliberate. The great task was not yet finished. This was no moment to scatter and crumble.
Bai Jingyan patted Bai Jindong's hand, tightened her grip on the saber, and walked swiftly ahead, entering the mourning hall.
The bastard son was not there.
Instead, beyond anything she had imagined, the Grand Princess and Nanny Zhang — their eyes brimming with tears — were waiting for her inside.
Her heart sank without end. It felt as if she were falling, falling endlessly toward some unseen abyss.
"Eldest Young Miss……"
The moment Nanny Zhang called to her, the tears she had been holding back broke free.
Right up until she saw the Grand Princess — even though the bastard son was absent — Bai Jingyan might still have clung to some faint illusion. That whoever had tried to kill Qi Zhengyu was not her grandmother, that her grandmother had merely been trying to cover up what that mother and son had done!
The hand holding Bai Jingyan's blade trembled violently. A cold frost seeped slowly out from her heart, reddening the rims of her eyes — and she did not even notice it herself.
The reason she had made such a thunderous show of carrying her blade to the mourning hall was to show the Grand Princess her resolve — that she would kill the bastard son if it came to that, that she would defend Qi Zhengyu to the very end.
Was the Grand Princess waiting for her here not thinking the very same thing? Was she not trying to show her something as well? Her own iron resolve to protect that bastard son, no matter what!
"Grandmother!"
"Your Highness the Grand Princess!"
Bai Jindong and Nuo Ping bowed to the Grand Princess.
The Grand Princess looked at the ice-blue blade in Bai Jingyan's hand with a calm, composed bearing. Her face was as gentle and kindly as it had always been.
"Everyone, leave the mourning hall. Go far from here. I have words for Ayan."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Bai Jindong, Nanny Zhang, and Nuo Ping withdrew together. The Grand Princess took out three sticks of incense, but her hands trembled so ceaselessly that she could not get them lit.
After a moment of steadying herself, the Grand Princess raised her head again. Her tears blurred her vision, but in the end she kindled the incense.
"Ayan, this old woman has disappointed you."
"Disappointed me? Grandmother, I think that word is far too gentle."
Bai Jingyan gripped the saber tight in her hand and quietly studied her grandmother. Strangely enough, when a person was disappointed to the uttermost, they became terribly calm. Only her whole body felt as if it had been submerged in ice water — a chill spreading from head to toe.
"If Qi Zhengyu had not risked his life to protect that bamboo slip, Grandfather would have closed his eyes forever unable to shake the infamy of having led an army out of stubbornness. He never could have comforted the wandering souls of the Bai family's loyal dead. That man is a benefactor of our house, a man overflowing with loyalty and righteousness! And yet, Grandmother — you sought to cut off Qi Zhengyu's life to protect that bastard son, who is worth less than that beast who killed Qi Zhengyu's bride and swung his blade to defile her corpse — an act that would rouse the very gods to fury! Where in this world is there anyone who repays a debt of grace with enmity like this? Where on earth is there a person so bereft of conscience, so blind to right and wrong?"
The Grand Princess stiffened for a moment, then slowly placed the incense into the burner.
"This old woman has lived her whole life owing apologies to everyone. For the sake of the imperial house, I had to live carrying apologies to your grandfather, to my son, to my grandsons. To keep the Bai line alive, I did wrong by Qi Zhengyu, a benefactor of our house……"
The Grand Princess's throat closed up.
"Tearing down the eastern wall in a desperate scramble to patch the western — that was my whole life. Can you imagine how wretched I have been?"
The Grand Princess turned. Her white hair stood out starkly in the light of the candles. Weariness showed plainly on her face as she spoke in a low, closed-off voice.
"Ayan, I never wanted to show you my darkest self. I never wanted you to see these two hands of mine soaked in blood. But for this old woman…… the flesh and blood of the Bai family is more precious than any single loyal retainer. That is why I had no choice but to abandon the loyal retainer and choose this bastard son."
Precious?
At those words, the fury Bai Jingyan had barely held down seemed to press in against her temples.
Her eyes as she fixed them on the Grand Princess were grave, cold, and brimming with killing intent.
"Not once, ever, has the honor of the Bai family been born of bloodline! That honor lives in the integrity of this house, handed down through the generations — in the heart that devotes itself, body and soul, to the common people! That honor is carved into our very bones in the loyalty to protect the people!
And what claim does that bastard son have to be called one of the Bai family? Qi Zhengyu gave up his very life for the honor and justice of our house! It is he who is truly honorable! What has that bastard son ever done for our Bai family? That his body happens to carry Bai blood? That he happens to bear the surname Bai? And so his life is worth more than any other person's?"
"Then what is it that you want?"
The Grand Princess slowly straightened her back. A majesty so dense it seemed to press down silently upon Bai Jingyan filled the hall.
"Qi Zhengyu's bride is already dead. Would you kill the last remaining thread of the Bai bloodline for the sake of one ordinary commoner?"
Without a trace of fear, Bai Jingyan clenched her fist and stepped forward. The flickering candlelight shone bright in her eyes.
"The last of the Bai bloodline? Is the child in Fifth Aunt's belly not Bai bloodline? Am I not Bai bloodline? Bai Jinxiu, Bai Jindong, Bai Jinchi, Bai Jinshao, Bai Jinhua, Bai Jinse — are these children not the Bai bloodline?"
The Grand Princess raised her voice.
"You are all women! You will one day marry into other households — how could you carry on the family line? How could you continue your grandfather's line for his sake?"
"If you fear the Bai bloodline will die out, then take in sons-in-law!"
Bai Jingyan's voice cut like a blade.
"Your granddaughters — is the Bai blood in their veins worth less than that bastard son's?"
The Grand Princess had taught Bai Jingyan this principle countless times. That this world was uniquely harsh to women. That a woman was fated to a life of hardship from the moment she was born. And yet the Zhenguo Duke Estate, she had always said, had never once judged its heroes by whether they were born man or woman.
But it had not been true. In the Grand Princess's heart, grandsons and granddaughters had evidently never been the same.
Struck speechless, the Grand Princess stared blankly at Bai Jingyan. She could not hide her fury.
"Ayan, what exactly are you trying to do?"
Bai Jingyan flung the saber from her hand. Her voice rang out, loud and clear.
"I want justice! I will win justice for the Bai family's loyal retainer Qi Zhengyu! And I will win justice for Lady Qi as well!"
A long silence settled over the mourning hall. The Grand Princess let out a slow, deep sigh.
"Ayan, there is no such thing as justice in this world! You are all the grandsons and granddaughters of the Grand Princess of the Great Jin. You are the flesh and blood of the Zhenguo Duke Estate. That single fact alone sets you apart from ordinary commoners, whether you will it or not! While you children ate fine food and wore fine clothes from the time you were small, the people went hungry. Look at the things in your chambers. Pick up any single item at random, and it is worth what an ordinary family of six would need to live on for over a decade. Justice…… Is this justice? People are born noble or base, and each must stand in the place assigned to them. That bastard son is a savage, violent creature — but he is your second uncle's son. And so he becomes a being more precious than any other!"