“Bai Qingyan, I consider you one of my own, so I won’t beat around the bush with you! Although Prince Liang’s case of forging letters about Duke Zhenguo and the Nanyan Prince’s treasonous correspondence has been investigated and clarified, shouldn’t you avoid suspicion and stay away from Nanyan? Why did you send your milk brother to Nanyan? Or perhaps… your milk brother went to Nanyan privately without your knowledge?”
Bai Qingyan suddenly understood.
“Your Highness suspects me?” Bai Qingyan asked calmly, neither urgent nor annoyed.
The Crown Prince looked as if he was frustrated with her lack of understanding, raising his voice: “If I suspected you, would you still be standing here talking to me? When Father Emperor asks about this later, will you answer him the same way? Are you still going to hide things from me?!”
A young eunuch entered the tent with small steps, bowed, and said: “Your Highness, General Bai’s milk brother has arrived…”
“Have him come in!”
When Xiao Ruojiang heard that the Crown Prince had summoned both Bai Qingyan and him, he knew there must be questions to ask. Bai Qingyan had gone ahead to avoid suspicion, but he needed to hurry over to prevent any inconsistencies in their answers if the Crown Prince questioned them. He had practically run over while getting dressed.
Xiao Ruojiang was breathing heavily as he entered with lowered brows and submissive eyes, quickly kneeling and kowtowing with a trembling demeanor, speaking in a thin, timid voice: “This commoner… pays respects to His Highness the Crown Prince!”
Seeing Xiao Ruojiang kneeling and kowtowing, apparently intimidated by his princely authority and trembling so much he could barely speak, the Crown Prince felt somewhat reassured. He feared encountering someone stubborn—then he really wouldn’t be able to get anything out of them.
The Crown Prince displayed his full authority, looking down at Xiao Ruojiang, who was curled up on the ground: “I ask you, what did you go to Nanjiang for a few days ago? On whose orders?”
Xiao Ruojiang was startled by the Crown Prince’s raised voice at the end and looked toward Bai Qingyan.
“I’m asking you questions—why are you looking at General Bai?!” the Crown Prince said angrily.
Xiao Ruojiang immediately pressed his head to the ground, not daring to raise his gaze even slightly: “This commoner… this commoner…”
Bai Qingyan sighed: “Your Highness, my milk brother is timid, and this is his first time meeting Your Highness. Please forgive any impropriety. Since Your Highness wants to know…”
She paused in her speech and bowed to the Crown Prince: “This concerns Yan’s reputation. Please, Your Highness, dismiss your attendants.”
Xiao Ruojiang, with his head pressed to the ground, staring at his knees, understood Bai Qingyan’s meaning. Concerning reputation, she was going to use the Eldest Miss’s reputation as the story.
Hearing this, the Crown Prince raised his eyebrows and gestured for Old Fang, Quan Yu, and the others to leave.
Soon, only Bai Qingyan, the Crown Prince, and Xiao Ruojiang remained in the tent.
“Milk brother, don’t be afraid… His Highness the Crown Prince protects me. Otherwise, you and I wouldn’t be here explaining ourselves—we’d probably be escorted back to the capital!” Bai Qingyan softly comforted Xiao Ruojiang.
Hearing Bai Qingyan’s words, the Crown Prince felt inexplicably pleased and added: “You may speak truthfully!”
“Your Highness, this humble one did go to Nanyan on our Eldest Miss’s orders. I went to find the wealthy merchant Xiao Rongyan!” Xiao Ruojiang’s voice carried fear as he hurriedly looked up to explain, “But Your Highness, our Eldest Miss has no improper relationship with that Xiao Rongyan! Please, Your Highness, see clearly! It’s all that Xiao Rongyan pestering our Eldest Miss!”
Xiao Ruojiang finished speaking hurriedly, then quickly lowered his head and kowtowed, appearing very frightened.
The Crown Prince’s eyebrows twitched. Xiao Rongyan?!
Since parting with Xiao Rongyan in Wanping City and going to Pingyang City, he had heard no news of him. Xiao Rongyan had gone to Nanyan! Xiao Rongyan… was smitten with Bai Qingyan? Pestering Bai Qingyan?
The Crown Prince looked toward Bai Qingyan, standing under the lamplight, his brow relaxing…
No wonder—Bai Qingyan’s appearance was indeed strikingly beautiful. Since ancient times, heroes love beauties, but… wasn’t the beauty Brother Xiao liked a bit too fierce!
A beauty who would burn and kill hundreds of thousands of Xiliang people at will—who could handle that?
“That Xiao Rongyan is simply a shameless libertine! First, he sent our Eldest Miss a horse… that’s the one called Ping’an. Because Fourth Miss liked it, our Eldest Miss kept the horse and gave it to Fourth Miss. He also sent our Eldest Miss letters, writing… writing all sorts of lewd and flowery words!” Xiao Ruojiang seemed extremely indignant at this point, his voice rising considerably. “Our Eldest Miss burned the letters right in front of the messenger! But Xiao Rongyan’s subordinates kept sending them! Our Eldest Miss couldn’t bear Xiao Rongyan’s harassment, so she ordered me to go to Nanyan to find Xiao Rongyan and make it clear that our Eldest Miss has vowed never to marry! And even if she were to marry… she would never marry such a libertine! And with the lowly status of a mere merchant!”
So it was a romantic affair!
“Your Highness, Yan… originally thought that since Master Xiao was on good terms with Your Highness, I didn’t want to make things too ugly, so I sent my milk brother to make the trip! I didn’t expect such a misunderstanding to arise! I won’t hide from Your Highness… this milk brother of mine is extremely cautious because of his timid nature. If he had gone to Nanyan for treasonous activities, absolutely no one would have been able to discover his whereabouts!”
Bai Qingyan looked at Xiao Ruojiang and added: “Just like this campaign to Nanjiang—it was this milk brother of mine who departed first to Nanjiang, single-handedly figuring out where the Xiliang granaries were, yet the Xiliang people couldn’t discover him.”
The Crown Prince’s eyes lit up as he looked at Xiao Ruojiang kneeling on the ground with lowered brows and submissive eyes. Bai Qingyan was right—the more timid a person is, the more cautious they are!
When Bai Qingyan campaigned to Nanjiang with him, she only brought along her milk brother. He had thought Bai Qingyan had no death warriors around her… it was because when the seventeen sons of the Bai family went to battle, the Bai family death warriors all went to protect the seventeen sons!
It turned out Bai Qingyan’s milk brother had such capabilities.
“Yan has another milk brother whom Your Highness should have seen during the campaign. It was he who scouted the Xiliang army camp defenses before the Jinghe battle. He should now be at Tonggu Mountain, preventing Xiliang from planting spies there before our Jin garrison forces complete the handover.”
Rather than being questioned about this later, she might as well give the Crown Prince an explanation now.
“The Bai family truly has many talented people!” the Crown Prince couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Now the Bai family only has these two milk brothers of use. Your Highness knows how to employ talent and has dragons and tigers around you…” Bai Qingyan lowered her eyes to hide the smile beneath them. “Whether it’s Old Fang, Master Qin, or Master Ren, which one isn’t a dragon among men with unparalleled wisdom and strategy?”
If these words came from someone else, they might seem like flattery, but coming from the proud and upright Bai Qingyan, the Crown Prince found them very satisfying.
Only Bai Qingyan was a bit insensible! He had praised her people… shouldn’t she take the opportunity to offer these two milk brothers for his use?
Never mind, never mind. The Bai family had strong bones and indeed weren’t the type to curry favor. And even if Bai Qingyan dared to offer these two to him, he probably wouldn’t dare assign them any important tasks.