Xiao Rongyan’s guard looked at Bai Qingyan with increasingly solemn respect, actually dismounting again to bow properly to Bai Qingyan before saying: “Thank you, Miss Bai. I will certainly deliver your words with utmost haste!”
Bai Qingyan nodded. The people around Xiao Rongyan were all perceptive individuals.
However, in her previous life, Xiao Rongyan’s methods were iron-blooded—he never used such gentle and peaceful approaches.
She had clashed with Xiao Rongyan several times and knew that no matter how refined and gentle he appeared on the surface, deep in his bones, he had always believed that those who submitted to him would prosper while those who opposed him would perish. Whether through intimidation, bribery, or threats, he would even uproot entire clans of nine generations without leaving a single soul alive if they obstructed him. His schemes ran deep, his actions were ruthless, and he was bold yet meticulous.
Such intelligent, wise, yet arrogant people were the most unrestrained. He looked down upon worldly conventions, feared neither spirits nor gods, neither heavenly justice nor earthly morality, neither ritual propriety nor public opinion. Aside from the goals he hoped to achieve, he cared about nothing else.
Throughout his campaigns of conquest and slaughter, he used conspiracies and schemes to exterminate enemy noble families and loyal ministers. Though it was for the sake of unifying the realm and bringing peace to the people, his later methods became too unscrupulous. All things in the world seemed worthless in his eyes—how many civilians would die in siege warfare, how many people would suffer calamity, seizing every grain of food from the people’s mouths for military provisions.
Now, thinking back on those past events, Bai Qingyan felt a chill run down her spine.
Therefore, Bai Qingyan feared Xiao Rongyan in her heart. Even though the current Xiao Rongyan had not yet grown into the Xiao Rongyan of her previous life, the shadow he had left her with from that past life remained.
As the saying goes, the barefoot fear not those who wear shoes. With the Bai family’s widows behind her, Bai Qingyan was the one wearing shoes! With Great Yan’s territory shattered, Xiao Rongyan was the barefoot one.
Her reminder to Xiao Rongyan today was perhaps born from hope, while there was still a trace of kindness and mercy in Xiao Rongyan’s heart, while Great Yan’s military strength was lacking, she hoped he would use this method to reduce Great Yan’s losses and understand the precious value of popular support!
She hoped that in future endeavors, he would remember how the people’s unanimous support had aided him in taking Nanyan and show leniency toward the common folk.
“Go!” she said to Xiao Rongyan’s guard.
Xiao Rongyan’s guard leaped onto his horse, cupping his hands toward Bai Qingyan’s direction. With his heart pounding wildly in his chest, he spurred his horse and departed at full gallop. He needed to travel day and night without rest to quickly return to his master’s side and deliver Miss Bai’s words.
Only after seeing Xiao Rongyan’s guard’s mounted figure disappear into the darkness did Bai Qingyan say: “Foster brother, lead the horse and let’s return!”
Xiao Ruojiang reached out to grasp the white horse’s reins, but the white horse turned its head and shook them off. If not for Xiao Ruojiang’s martial arts skills, he might have tumbled into the river.
“Truly a spirited horse!” Not only was Xiao Ruojiang not angry, but he looked delighted. “I remember when the Young Master first brought Jifeng home, Jifeng was just like this!”
Xiao Ruojiang couldn’t help but smile.
Jifeng was indeed a spirited horse. Back then, her father had expended great effort to bring Jifeng back to the capital. She was young at the time—her father had originally intended to have horse trainers tame the horse properly before sending it to her. Who would have thought that six experienced horse trainers in succession would all fail, with two of them injured by Jifeng and nearly losing their lives?
Upon hearing this, Bai Qingyan secretly went to the horse grounds without telling her father, spending an entire day taming Jifeng. When she returned, not only was she covered in mud like a little monkey, but her body was covered in blue and purple bruises, which she didn’t mind at all. Waving the riding whip in her hand excitedly, she told Bai Qishan that she had tamed the spirited horse that six horse trainers couldn’t subdue, and had even named the horse Jifeng.
“Let me do it!” Bai Qingyan dismounted and walked before the white horse.
With the reins gripped in Xiao Ruojiang’s hands, the white horse couldn’t break free and its hooves made the riverside pebbles clatter as it stomped, heavy white mist puffing from its nostrils.
She raised her hand to stroke the white horse’s mane. The white horse resisted with whinnying sounds, raising its front hooves but unable to break free from the reins, no matter how hard it struggled.
“Good fellow! Truly spirited!” Xiao Ruojiang gripped the reins tightly.
Bai Qingyan’s interest was piqued. Supporting herself on the saddle, she leaped onto the horse’s back. The white horse resisted even more fiercely, struggling violently and nearly throwing Bai Qingyan off.
“Foster brother! The reins!”
Seeing that Bai Qingyan hadn’t been in such high spirits for a long time, Xiao Ruojiang thought it wouldn’t matter with him standing guard nearby, so he tossed the reins to Bai Qingyan and stood to one side holding the torch high.
Perhaps having experience from taming Jifeng, she gripped the reins tightly with both hands, her body swaying back and forth with the white horse’s jumping, as if effortlessly adhering to the horse’s back, making it impossible for the horse to throw her off, no matter how hard it tried.
That white horse bucked and jumped for nearly half an hour, finally exhausted and unable to jump anymore. Taking advantage of this moment, Bai Qingyan coiled the reins in her hand and yanked forcefully. The white horse cried out in pain with a long whinny and began jumping again.
After an hour, this fierce-tempered white horse finally submitted under Bai Qingyan’s control. When she gently flicked the reins, the white horse dejectedly walked forward a few steps.
Xiao Ruojiang watched in amazement, marveling at Bai Qingyan’s excellent horsemanship—anyone else would likely have been thrown from the horse long ago.
When Bai Qingyan leaped down from the horse’s back, she was already covered in a thin layer of sweat. The horse dejectedly walked a few steps toward Bai Qingyan, turning its head away with obvious reluctance to submit.
She smiled and stroked the white horse’s mane, saying: “From now on… this horse shall be called Ping’an. I’ll send it to Xiao Si—she’ll surely love it!”
Nothing in this world was better than peace and safety.
The light that had just brightened in Xiao Ruojiang’s eyes due to Bai Qingyan’s spirited enthusiasm dimmed slightly again. He remembered when he and his brother went to the Duke’s mansion to see the newborn Bai Qingyan—she was so tiny yet so beautiful. Their mother had instructed him and his brother to protect the eldest miss well for their entire lives, as she was not only their foster sister but also the precious pearl of their benefactor.
Both Xiao Ruojiang and Xiao Ruohai had thought that, being born into the most illustrious Duke Zhenguo’s mansion in the capital, such a young lady would surely be heaven’s favored daughter, meant to be cherished and doted upon like a precious jewel.
But Bai Qingyan was not. As the Bai family’s eldest legitimate daughter, she could endure more hardships than any other Bai family miss or young master. After being injured on the battlefield, she became melancholy, losing the spirited confidence of her youth.
Then, after the Bai family suddenly met with great disaster, she shouldered the entire Bai family burden alone, planning and calculating for her several younger sisters…
Coming to Nan Jiang was so perilous, yet the eldest miss had given the skilled shadow guards and death warriors to the third miss and the second miss in the capital, leaving none for herself!
This time, having obtained such a fine horse, the eldest miss wanted to give it to the fourth miss.
This was perhaps the responsibility and burden of being the eldest legitimate child—she always had to constantly think of her younger sisters, just as when the Young Master Bai Qishan was still alive, he always thought of the several younger brothers in the Duke’s mansion.