Ji Langhua was emotionally agitated, pointing at those outsiders spreading rumors that Bai Qingyan was warlike and bloodthirsty: “Have you ever gone to battle for the people of Jin?! With fifty thousand troops against over one hundred thousand, would you dare leave behind one hundred thousand surrendered soldiers?! If you say you dare, I’ll take you today to catch up with the Crown Prince’s carriage and let you present your brilliant strategy for how fifty thousand can defeat over one hundred thousand while preserving one hundred thousand prisoners! If you say you dare, I, Ji Langhua, will apologize to you with my death! Do you dare or not?!”

The people sent by Ren Shijie to spread rumors about Bai Qingyan’s bloodthirsty nature panicked and tried to retreat, but with Ji Langhua pointing at them and the angry citizens of Feng County blocking their way with glaring eyes, they couldn’t escape even if they wanted to.

“What nonsense about killing one hundred thousand prisoners to avenge the Bai family… that’s bullshit! Those one hundred thousand prisoners were killed by the Young Commander for us frontier people of Jin! The Xi Liang people are naturally warlike—which time over the years wasn’t it Xi Liang repeatedly invading Jin that led to war? Keeping those one hundred thousand Xi Liang prisoners… once the Young Commander withdrew, they would certainly return with a vengeance. At that time, with no Jin forces capable of resisting Xi Liang, wouldn’t it be we poor common people, who died? Wouldn’t it be your wives and daughters who were violated?! What’s wrong with being a killing god?! A killing god is the guardian deity of us Jin frontier people! The Young Commander is the guardian deity of us, the Jin frontier people!”

“I, Ji Langhua, declare today that anyone who calls the Young Commander brutal will receive no diagnosis or medicine from Cao’an Hall from this day forward. I will not waste a single tael of medicine on such heartless, ungrateful people!”

Some were deeply moved by Ji Langhua’s words, their emotions surging with excitement as they shouted: “Exactly! What others say is their business, but we people of Feng County were all saved by General Bai and the Bai family army, risking their lives! We only trust our life-saving benefactor!”

“If the Young Commander hadn’t burned those one hundred thousand prisoners, we probably still couldn’t return to our homes!” A man rolled up his sleeves, grabbed one of the rumor-spreaders, and shouted: “These damned bastards are enemy spies! Everyone, let’s arrest them and take them to the magistrate to have the authorities thoroughly investigate their backgrounds!”

“What are you doing! You frontier savages! We’re just passing merchants who spoke casually! What are you doing?! Let go… let go! Is there no law here!”

Bai Jinzhi stood at the upstairs window watching Ji Langhua and the citizens dragging those troublemakers to see the magistrate, her eyes reddening. She turned to look at her elder sister, whose gaze was calm as water, and choked up: “Elder Sister…”

“Mm!” Bai Qingyan nodded, understanding that Bai Jinzhi was moved.

The frontier people, having suffered under Xi Liang, naturally wouldn’t be easily deceived by those sent to spread rumors.

But people living in prosperous, peaceful times might not think this way. Since people would come to Feng County to spread rumors… presumably on the road back, even more people would know about her killing of prisoners.

The battle in Nan Jiang broke the allied forces of Xi Liang and Nanyan. Whether it was the Crown Prince, the Emperor, or Xi Liang, they all wanted to use the matter of burning prisoners to make all nations and people think she was bloodthirsty by nature, to tarnish the Bai family’s reputation for benevolence.

Killing god… what a grand title indeed.

Not satisfied with proclaiming it among the nations, they also wanted to proclaim it within Jin.

She could roughly guess the Crown Prince’s intentions—while tarnishing the Bai family’s reputation… he probably wanted to speak up for her when her reputation was ruined and everyone despised her, then completely win her over.

She narrowed her eyes. After all, when someone extends a hand to you in despair and shows you the greatest kindness, it would make one infinitely grateful and indebted.

The Crown Prince’s methods of handling her in this life were remarkably similar to Prince Liang’s methods in her previous life.

Ever since the war situation in Nan Jiang was settled and Xi Liang sued for peace, she had been wondering… if even someone as loyal as Grandfather was intolerable to the imperial family, then what kind of subjects did they want?

She thought they wanted capable ministers who could fight on battlefields and protect the territory for them, but these capable ministers also had to be obedient to them… loyal as dogs, unable to disobey, not coveting power, not wanting fame, and certainly not having any aspirations or backbone. From head to toe, they should be filled with their interests, taking pride in being able to sacrifice their lives as stepping stones for them, with their hearts and bones containing only complete loyalty to them.

Loyal to the point that… if they wanted this capable minister to kill his son, this minister would offer up his daughter’s head as well. If they wanted this minister to kill his father, this minister would place his parents’ heads before them, like a tail-wagging, fawning dog, only begging them to glance at him once and acknowledge his loyalty.

Hah…

So the deaths of the Bai family members, in the Emperor’s eyes, were probably the Bai family’s own doing! In Prince Xin’s eyes, it was the Bai family’s failure to know what was good for them!

Because they had their pride and didn’t fawn and flatter like the sycophants in court.

Because what they carried in their hearts was the nation and its people, not the Emperor theirs.

Because their great reputation exceeded the Emperor’s, yet they dared not voluntarily offer their necks for execution.

The Bai family should blame themselves—this was probably how the imperial family thought.

Born in Jin, encountering such an imperial family, she currently had no room or ability to resist, but she also couldn’t abandon her principles, aspirations, and dignity to become a dog.

So she could only manipulate the Crown Prince’s heart, letting him see a loyal minister who was loyal to him to the bone, but was always misunderstood by him due to her dignity!

Only then could the Crown Prince be used by her.

“Let’s go, it’s time to catch up with the troops!” Bai Qingyan turned away from the window.

Bai Jinzhi looked back once more, seeing Ji Langhua had already come down from the steps and was accompanying the citizens to escort those rumor-spreaders to the magistrate. She hurried to catch up with her elder sister.

Coming out of the tavern, the main street was still in an uproar over those few “merchants” spreading rumors, everyone clamoring to go to the prefectural office to report them and investigate whether these people slandering the Young Commander were enemy spies.

Bai Jinzhi saw her elder sister act as if she heard nothing, leaping onto her horse. She also quickly mounted her horse and followed behind her elder sister.

A ten-year-old child who was helping carry wood for the men under the city wall, holding a stack of empty bowls as he walked toward the tea stall providing tea and water, happened to meet eyes with Bai Qingyan as she rode past on her tall horse. The sweating child paused, craning his neck up, his pure black eyes—clean as if washed by rainwater—following Bai Qingyan intently as she rode past.

Suddenly, the child ran back to the tea stall, heavily placed the empty bowls on the table, and hurriedly tugged at the clothes of the old man brewing tea: “Grandfather!”

The old man turned around and saw the child pointing toward the city gate. His cloudy vision looked over.

“Young Commander! Benefactor! Young Commander!” the child shouted excitedly.

The old man looked at that straight, slender figure on horseback, his pupils trembling.

Bai Jinzhi followed Bai Qingyan out of the city, thinking about not being able to meet Jiu Ge this time, inevitably feeling regretful: “With Jiu Ge going to Panluo Mountain this time, I wonder if Gu Yijian will still accept Jiu Ge as a disciple. If Gu Yijian doesn’t accept him, then what will Jiu Ge do? After all…”