“Ah Jue and Ah Yun… must be very tired. Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu should stay behind to accompany the fourth aunt and play with the children.” Just as Bai Qingyan finished speaking, she saw that Bai Jinzhi was also dozing off, and said with a laugh: “It seems I can only trouble Ah Qi and Ah Yu to accompany me.”

“Just now, Wei Zhong came to say that the Sima family has already gone to request Sima Ruodan to return to the Sima family.” Bai Qingyan changed the subject, turning to look at Bai Qingqi. “If you want to go see, then you needn’t follow me to the military camp.”

“What does Sima Ruodan’s returning to the Sima family have to do with me? Elder sister’s words are strange…” Bai Qingqi picked up the teacup beside him, lowering his gaze without betraying any emotion.

Bai Qingyan smiled and nodded, deliberately saying: “What a pity, this time we let Xue Renyi leave early. We should have let Xue Renyi meet Sima Ruodan. The two originally had a marriage contract, and perhaps we could have held a wedding for them. A princess and a top scholar… would also be a fine tale.”

Bai Qingqi maintained that same calm and collected demeanor, not responding to Bai Qingyan’s words, only drinking all the water in his teacup.

“A while ago, mother and the aunts held a flower-viewing banquet to select wives for you all. It seems the aunts already have favored candidates in mind, and they’ll probably discuss it with you all soon.” Bai Qingyan turned her head to signal Chun Tao to refill Bai Qingqi’s tea. “If you have no interest in Sima Ruodan, you might as well choose carefully.”

“Elder sister, I don’t want to discuss this matter now…” Bai Qingqi’s voice was heavy. “Someone needs to guard Nan Jiang. I want to return to accompany mother for a while, then go back to Nan Jiang.”

His grandfather, father, and uncles were all buried there. He wanted to go there for them, for the people… to guard that place for elder sister.

Furthermore, while he was in Nan Jiang defending against the covetous Tianfeng Kingdom, he didn’t know when his life might end. Why burden a good family’s daughter? Why make some young lady experience the pain of losing her husband like his mother had?

As the ancient saying goes, the wise… do not enter the river of love.

Bai Qingqi still preferred to remain single, not burdening others, solitary in this world.

Bai Qingyan didn’t immediately reject Bai Qingqi’s decision, only smiling as she pushed the teacup in front of him: “This matter isn’t urgent, we’ll arrange it slowly later…”

Military Camp

“What did you say?” Wei Zhaonian’s eyes widened as he looked at the young general before him, who had come to report, disheveled with grass all over his head and looking completely bedraggled. He stood up with both hands braced on the desk.

“General Cheng and General Shen Liangyu, General Liu Pinggao, as well as General Lu, General Sima, General Du Sanbao, General Wang Jin, and other large and small twelve generals from the army returned to the capital, saying they wanted to petition His Majesty to fight Yan to the death, requesting His Majesty to rescind the order giving Prince Hancheng command of the naval forces!”

Wei Zhaonian felt his right eye under the eyepatch twitching constantly. Early on their way back to the capital, when Cheng Yuanzhi, Shen Liangyu, and Liu Pinggao learned that Bai Qingyan wanted to gamble the nation with Yan, they were completely opposed. To prevent these people from embarrassing Bai Qingyan in front of the civil and military officials and common people when the main army arrived at the capital today, Wei Zhaonian had personally restrained Cheng Yuanzhi, Shen Liangyu, and Liu Pinggao from the Anping army, not allowing them to show their faces.

He hadn’t expected that after returning to the main camp, these people would still impulsively go to cause trouble.

“How long have they been gone?” Wei Zhaonian asked.

“Reporting to the general, they’ve been gone for nearly half an hour. They tied this subordinate up and threw him in the horse trough. If General Sima Ping hadn’t held back, this subordinate probably wouldn’t have awakened by now and couldn’t have come to report to the general!” The young general said while brushing away the straw that had fallen in front of his eyes, maintaining his saluting posture. “General Sima said he would delay General Cheng and the others on the road.”

Before Sima Ping knocked this young general unconscious, he had quietly instructed him to quickly report to Marquis Zhongyong Wei Zhaonian upon awakening, saying he would delay this group of hotheads.

Half an hour – if they had taken fast horses as usual, they would probably have reached the capital by now.

Wei Zhaonian knew he had to immediately rush to the capital and hurriedly said: “Go! Prepare horses!”

It must be that hothead Cheng Yuanzhi, with his well-developed limbs but simple mind, is reckless! Too reckless! Even if there was something to discuss, couldn’t he wait to see young General Bai privately? Why did he have to bring a whole group of people? To put it nicely, this was petitioning; to put it harshly, this was gathering a crowd to cause trouble!

Cheng Yuanzhi was a veteran of the Bai family army. Even if he was going to petition their young General Bai, it should have been done behind closed doors among their people. How could he bring a group of military generals to the palace like this?

If someone with ulterior motives used this to make an issue of it, they could even claim it was forcing the palace.

Wei Zhaonian was putting on his cloak and about to leave when someone else came to report: “Marquis Zhongyong, His Majesty, Prince Zhenguo, Prince Huguo, and Prince Gaoyi have arrived. They didn’t disturb others, wearing civilian clothes and only bringing Bai mansion guards, coming quietly, and they told this subordinate not to make it known!”

Wei Zhaonian, who was fastening his cloak, froze. Although Bai Qingyan’s coming to the main camp at this time was unexpected, it was also reasonable. Without saying another word, he hurriedly jogged outside.

The young general who had come to report quickly followed behind Wei Zhaonian, jogging to keep up.

Wei Zhaonian was a veteran of the Bai family army and knew that this was around the time when the army would be having their evening meal. If Bai Qingyan came to the military camp at this time, she would first go to the mess hall to take a look, then go to the training grounds – this was the custom of all the Bai family generals.

Sure enough, when Wei Zhaonian reached the mess hall, he saw Bai Qingyan ladling a bowl of meat soup to taste, smiling as she praised the cook in charge.

“You…” Wei Zhaonian cupped his hands. “Young General Bai” was about to come out when he quickly changed his address: “Your Majesty!”

Bai Qingyan held the steaming clay bowl in her hands, smiling as she glanced behind Wei Zhaonian and asked with a smile: “Why don’t I see General Cheng and the others?”

Wei Zhaonian stepped forward and said in a low voice to Bai Qingyan: “Cheng Yuanzhi took Shen Liangyu and Liu Pinggao with him… twelve people total, and went to the capital, saying they wanted to petition Your Majesty to fight Yan to the death, and again request Your Majesty to rescind the military authority granted to Prince Hancheng.”

Seeing that Bai Qingyan’s expression hadn’t changed, Wei Zhaonian didn’t hide anything: “They left about half an hour ago. Sima Ping said he would try to delay them, but I don’t know if they’ve reached the capital yet. This subordinate was originally going to pursue them when Your Majesty arrived.”

“Elder sister…” Bai Qingyu set down the clay bowl in his hands and said, “I’ll go back to chase after General Cheng and the others.”

“No need.” Bai Qingyan swirled the fragrant meat soup in the clay bowl, and after drinking it, set the bowl down and said: “Let’s go see the training grounds.”

Wei Zhaonian looked at Bai Qingyan’s completely unconcerned manner and secretly glanced at Bai Qingyu and Bai Qingqi. Seeing that Prince Zhenguo and Prince Huguo had also finished the meat soup in their clay bowls without any sign of urgency, he thought that perhaps Bai Qingyan had everything under control, so he stopped worrying that Cheng Yuanzhi’s recklessness would bring any trouble to Bai Qingyan.

“Perfect timing – they’re practicing archery at the training grounds right now. Your Majesty could give some guidance.” Wei Zhaonian said with a smile, having put his mind at ease.