Disloyal, Unfilial
Bai Jingxian had barely stepped into the mourning hall and lifted his greeting to the Grand Princess when a squad of guards materialized from who knew where, seized him, and forced him to his knees before the coffin.
The atmosphere turned murderous in an instant. Nanny Zhang, startled, shielded the Grand Princess behind her, and the loyal attendants beside each of the ladies stepped up to guard their mistresses.
Outside the gates, the generals led by Dong Qing'e, who had been kneeling in the snow, sprang to their feet in alarm, hands closing on the hilts of their swords, ready to draw at a moment's notice.
The Grand Princess pressed down the arms of Nanny Zhang, who had spread both of hers to protect her, and turned her head. Her gaze fell on Bai Jingyan, whose face was cold and utterly unmoved. Only then did the Grand Princess understand—this was Bai Jingyan's order.
"Who are you people? What do you think you're doing? I am the only grandson of the Bai family! The future King of Zhenguo! And you dare lay hands on me? Are you tired of living? Let go of me! The moment I inherit the title of Zhenguo King, you'll all be dead men!"
At the arrogant shrieking of this illegitimate son, the Grand Princess's lips trembled violently. Then she closed her eyes and slowly released Nanny Zhang's hand.
To behave with such arrogance even before this sea of common folk! That madman deserved to die!
Killing intent poured from Bai Jingyan's eyes. She ground her teeth and stared at Bai Jingyan with icy contempt, as though looking at a rotting slab of flesh steeped in poison. Disgust and fury layered over one another, and the darkness in her gaze deepened by the moment.
"King of Zhenguo? Do you even know what the character for king means? It belongs to a man who reveres heaven, whose virtue and integrity are beyond reproach, who stands upright upon this earth and has earned merit by comforting and protecting the people. Do you truly believe you are worthy of that title?"
Bai Jingxian seethed. He thrashed and struggled again and again to rise, only to be pressed back down to his knees each time. He snarled through clenched teeth, yet could not hide the smug triumph flickering across his face.
"I am the only man left in the Duke's estate now! Whether you like it or not, I will be the Zhenguo King! And once I inherit the title, you—"
'You'll be groveling at my knees, begging for mercy.'
But Bai Jingxian swallowed the rest of the words.
Wasn't it only because he believed himself the sole surviving male of the Bai clan that he dared act so insolently?
Yet yesterday, when the Grand Princess had brought him to the Duke's estate, she had passed a message through Nanny Zhang: he was to treat his eldest sister with the courtesy due a wife being married out of the family. Remembering this, Bai Jingxian resolved to hold his tongue for now. Once this barren woman was wed off to some household—yes, a very, very fine household indeed—he would have all the time in the world to repay today's humiliation.
"What did you call my eldest sister?"
Bai Jinchi strode forward. If that bastard dared utter one more irreverent word, she was fully prepared to kill him where he knelt.
Bai Jingyan's gaze slid past the Grand Princess and came to rest on Bai Jingxian. Then she spoke, her voice like frost.
"A man must sit in a seat worthy of his talent and virtue. A creature with no talent, no virtue, no knowledge of propriety, no sense of shame—a brute more savage than a beast—dares to speak of Zhenguo?"
"Forget the peace of the Bai family. Had you even the decency to be an honest, upright scoundrel, this estate might have accepted you. But instead! With cruel and merciless means! You insulted the wife of Qi Zhengyu—a man who risked his life to guard the bamboo records that would clear the Bais' loyal name of its wrongs, our benefactor! You drove Lady Qi to smash her head against a pillar until she died. As if that were not enough, you ordered her corpse hacked apart and fed to the dogs! Tell me, you beast—how does the likes of you belong to the Bai family at all? And even now you dare call yourself the Zhenguo King?"
There was not a soul outside the gates who did not know Qi Zhengyu. He had come rolling off his horse, one arm severed, bleeding profusely—yet he had brought the bamboo records of the army's campaigns back to the Bai family at the edge of death, and by that act the Duke of Zhenguo had been cleansed of the slander that he had marched his army on sheer stubbornness. It was also because of him that King Xin would face the hammer of the law.
The crowd was astounded. What kind of monster was this bastard? The Bai family had suffered such a calamity, and as the only man left, rather than fulfill his mourning duties before the spirit tablets, he had committed such a vile act as to violate a woman—and driven her to kill herself, then ordered her body carved up for the dogs?
And even with all of it exposed, he still brazenly clamored to inherit the seat of the Zhenguo King. Did he have no fear of karmic retribution? Did he not fear that Lady Qi's ghost might rise and claim his life?
Every man of the Bai family had been overflowing with loyalty and righteousness. Where such a beast—devoid of benevolence, of loyalty, of filial devotion—had crawled out from, no one could fathom.
Bai Jingxian, consumed by rage, glanced at the crowd glaring at him from beyond the gates—and terror seized him. He turned desperately to the Grand Princess, seeking her aid.
He was the only man left in the Bai family. Yet Bai Jingyan had laid bare everything he had done before all these people. What of his dignity? What of the Bai family's face? How could his grandmother merely stand by and watch?
Bai Jindong stepped forward, placing herself between Bai Jingxian's pleading gaze and the Grand Princess, then fixed the bastard with a frigid stare.
Unease welled up in Bai Jingxian, but he could not restrain his savagery. He lifted his chin and shouted.
"I see… You all look down on me because I'm born of a concubine! But I am the only remaining bloodline of Bai Weiting, the Zhenguo King! His only grandson! How dare you treat me this way! Do you not fear my grandfather cannot close his eyes in his grave? Are you not afraid the Bai lineage will be cut off!"
Bai Jindong spoke with glacial calm.
"If you inherit the title of king, that would be the very reason Grandfather could never close his eyes! Every descendant of our Bai family marched to the battlefield to defend the nation, and earned the reverence of the people—all the multitudes under heaven. Do you think Grandfather led the men of the Bai family onto the battlefield so that the road could be paved for a creature like you, more savage than a beast? Do you think it was so you could idle away your days in this gilded capital, leeching off your ancestors' merits and basking in their blessings!"
Grief crashed over the Grand Princess. Clutching her walnut-colored mourning staff tight, she looked upon the bastard's madness, and an ocean of regret flooded in.
'Ayan was right. A beast like this will surely bring ruin upon the Bai family.'
Bai Jinxiu, her face shadowed with sorrow, reached out and traced the gilded characters on the black-lacquered spirit tablet.
"My brothers alone were the true men of the Bai family. Born of the Zhenguo Duke's estate, they understood from their earliest years the duty a son of this house was bound to bear. However great their ancestors' merits, never once did they dream of sheltering beneath their shadow and living at ease in this splendorous capital. They threw their lives onto battlefields where survival hung by a thread, all to protect the people. They alone—hot-blooded and iron-hearted—were the true men of the Bai family!"
When she finished, Bai Jinxiu knelt toward the Grand Princess and bowed deeply.
"Grandmother! Even if the Bai family must relinquish its title of its own accord, we cannot—absolutely cannot—allow a beast like that, a cowardly, shameless wretch, to sully the two characters 'Zhenguo'! When the funeral rites of the Bai men are done, please enter the palace and surrender the title yourself. We must never let that accursed creature defile our family any further!"
The Grand Princess slowly nodded.
Bai Jingxian's eyes flew wide open in disbelief.
"You can't do this! Has everyone gone mad? Surrender the title willingly? You would throw away a hundred years of the Bai family's glory just like that?"
"The Bai family's hundred years of glory were purchased with the lives of generation upon generation, given for the sake of the people! You have no right to inherit it!"
Bai Jingyan's voice rang out, firm as iron.
"Nuo Ping! Bind that bastard! The Bai family will deal with him after we have laid our loyal dead to rest!"
At the words—purchased with lives, generation upon generation—the crowd outside wept aloud, louder than before.
Just then, the Grand Princess's voice rose.
"When your grandfather's coffin is carried out, we cannot do without someone to break the mourning bowl. Let this beast… perform the bowl-breaking. Then hand him over to Ayan. Would that be acceptable?"
"Does a disloyal, unfilial, degenerate son of a bitch have the right to break the mourning bowl for his own grandfather? Are all the descendants of the Bai family dead, that we must turn to him?"
Unable to contain herself, Bai Jinchi kicked Bai Jingxian square in the chest, knocking him flat against the ground.
"He defiled the wife of our family's benefactor and drove her to a wrongful death—and now he wants to break the mourning bowl? My grandfather and uncles will never close their eyes even in death."
With only the final procession remaining, the Bai family was plunged once more into sudden turmoil.
"For the honored souls of the Bai family, I will break the mourning bowl! The reason the bowl-breaking was left to a woman is because she must marry into another house, is it not? Then today, before the spirit tablets of my grandfather and father, I make this vow: in life I will be a descendant of the Bai family, and in death I will be a wandering soul of the Bai family. In this life, I will never marry! Grandmother—surely now… surely I too am worthy of breaking the mourning bowl?"
Bai Jingyan looked up at the Grand Princess, her eyes burning.
"I will stand with my eldest sister. I, Bai Jindong, will be the woman who raises the Bai family back to greatness. In this life, I will never marry into another house."
Bai Jindong declared in a ringing voice.
The Grand Princess looked from Bai Jingyan to Bai Jindong, and when she saw Bai Jinchi move to step forward as well, she nodded and gave her answer.
"Then let the sisters break the bowl together!"
Bai Jinxiu, already married out, remained where she stood and did not step forward. Bai Jingyan, Bai Jindong, and Bai Jinchi lifted the mourning ware together.
The generals in full battle dress who had come with Dong Qing'e entered through the side gate, taking the place of the Bai family guards to stand beside the coffins.
The remaining officers stood in two ranks before the gates of the Duke's estate. On this day of thick, billowing snow, they stood in silence, waiting to break the mourning bowls and lift the coffins high.
"The more pieces the bowl shatters into, the better the departed's road will be. Sisters, let us join our strength. Let us see Grandfather, Father, and our uncles and brothers well off on their final journey!"
Bai Jingyan spoke to her younger sisters.
They counted aloud—one, two, three—and together the three sisters dashed the mourning bowls to the ground.
Dong Qing'e ground his teeth and roared at the top of his lungs.
"Lift the coffins!"
"Lift the coffins…"
"Lift the coffins…"
The generals' thunderous voices rolled out like a great bell struck again and again. Coffin after coffin rose in time with those voices like peals of thunder, and one by one they were carried out beyond the gates of the Duke's estate in solemn order.
The Grand Princess gripped her mourning staff and stood before the main gate, watching as the generals in full armor lifted the coffins bearing the honored souls of the Bai family.
She watched armored warriors, longswords in their hands, carry of their own accord the coffins holding her husband Bai Weiting and the men of the Bai family.
Along the procession route, common folk stood holding white lanterns in endless rows, and as the coffins passed they dropped to their knees in waves, crying out, "Farewell, King of Zhenguo! Farewell, Duke of Zhenguo, and you young generals!" Their voices, brimming with sincerity, could not contain their grief and heartbreak.
Lady Yu had wept until her strength gave out and she could no longer stand; supported by Nanny Na and Bai Jinxiu, she stood behind the Grand Princess.
Lady Yi clutched Bai Jinchi and wept as though despair itself had swallowed her, tears streaming down her face like rain.
The Grand Princess had lived a long life, but never once had she witnessed a funeral such as this.
The driving white snow and the swirling paper money clouded her vision—but the sound of mourning guided the coffins along their way.
Deep in the recesses of the palace, had the Emperor heard the weeping of Dadu's people? And if he had… what thoughts filled him now? Would he not, by this hour, regret that his own suspicion had sent every loyal soul of the Bai family to their graves?
"Your Royal Highness…"
The official of the Ministry of Rites stepped forward and called to her softly.
The Grand Princess's gaze turned to the Bai family guards, standing at attention and awaiting her command. She drew a deep breath, and the bitter air of deepest winter cut through her nostrils and into her lungs.
"Let us go."
Bai Jingyan turned her head and murmured to Nanny Dong.
"I leave the estate in Nanny Jin's hands and yours."
Nanny Jin and Nanny Dong answered through reddened eyes.
As she stood beside Lady Dong and descended the steps of the Zhenguo Duke's estate, Bai Jingyan's gaze drifted, almost without her willing it, toward Murong Yan. Her eyes met his—those eyes whose depths no one had ever seen to the bottom.
Through the goose-down snow drifting between them, Bai Jingyan gave Murong Yan a slight nod. It was her thanks—for coming to see the honored souls of the Bai family off on their final road.
Murong Yan inclined his head toward her in return.