Chun Tao walked with small steps to the clan leader, curtsied, then received the property deed from his hands, properly presenting it to Dong Shi.

The clan leader’s face flushed slightly, probably not expecting Bai Qingyan to directly hand the deed over to Dong Shi.

Seeing this, one of the clan elders hurriedly spoke in a flattering manner: “Fifth Master was only temporarily residing in the ancestral home. When we departed… The Fifth Master had already moved out of the ancestral home and cleaned it thoroughly. Please rest assured, County Princess.”

“Thank you for your trouble, esteemed clan elders.” Bai Qingyan nodded to the elders and asked leisurely, “You elders came in such haste that Grandmother doesn’t know yet. Should we send someone to inform her?”

“We dare not disturb the Grand Princess. It’s just that the clan has a matter to request of the County Princess!” After the clan leader’s gaze briefly met with the other elders, he spoke with a heavy tone: “We hope the County Princess can speak a word to Magistrate Zhou of Shouyang County, asking Magistrate Zhou to show mercy and release all the County Princess’s clan cousins from prison.”

Dong Shi raised her eyebrows. She wondered why the clan had lowered their stance so much this time, completely abandoning their previous air of putting on elder airs… wanting to stand on equal footing with Duke Bai Weiting. It turned out they needed something.

She lowered her eyes to drink tea, roughly guessing this must be her daughter’s handiwork from her return to Shouyang.

Seeing that Bai Qingyan remained silent, her fingers tapping the table intermittently, one clan elder feared Bai Qingyan wouldn’t agree and hurriedly spoke: “Nearly half of our clan’s descendants have been arrested, causing panic throughout the clan. That’s why we rushed to the capital to beg the County Princess to speak to Magistrate Zhou! As long as the County Princess says one word to Magistrate Zhou, he surely wouldn’t dare continue detaining our clan members.”

Before Bai Qingyan could speak, Dong Shi heavily set down her teacup, her gaze sweeping over those clan elders.

“You clan elders are quite interesting. When clan members are arrested, you come here without mentioning what crimes these descendants committed, and immediately ask my daughter to use her dignity as County Princess to pressure Magistrate Zhou into releasing them! One word, and Magistrate Zhou releases them? How lightly you speak! Such rash arrogance—where does this place the Great Jin’s laws? Could it be that my daughter, a mere County Princess, stands above the Great Jin’s laws?”

Bai Qingyan sat beside Dong Shi with a cold, indifferent expression, slowly sipping her tea with no intention of speaking.

The clan leader’s grip on his walking stick tightened as he secretly regretted handing over the deed so early. He should have waited until Bai Qingyan agreed to release the prisoners before giving them the deed.

At this point, the clan leader could only put on a smiling face: “County Princess, no matter what, we are all blood relatives of the same clan and lineage. One brush cannot write two different ‘Bai’ characters! In the future, when the capital’s Bai family returns to Shouyang, they will all be women. Surely there will be places where you’ll need the various clan families, right? Clan, clan… the reason it’s called a clan is that people of the same ancestry watch out for and support each other. You help me, I help you!”

The clan elder sitting below the clan leader quickly chimed in: “Yes, and those children are all the County Princess’s cousins of the same generation. Now that the capital’s Bai family has no male heirs, whether the capital’s Bai family takes in sons-in-law through marriage, marries out, or adopts descendants from the clan, they’ll still need clan brothers for support and backing, right? Moreover… when the County Princess’s cousins achieve success and gain scholarly honors in the future, they’ll naturally remember the County Princess’s kindness.”

Dong Shi sneered coldly, her attitude firm: “You clan elders should stop beating around the bush here, talking about how one brush cannot write two ‘Bai’ characters—two characters fundamentally cannot be written with one brush! If you want my daughter to help, first explain clearly… what crimes have the clan descendants committed! You can’t just move your lips and expect my daughter to take responsibility for them, even if the clan descendants committed murder and robbery.”

Since Bai Qingyan kept silent and Dong Shi was being too forceful, the clan leader had never received such treatment at the capital’s Bai residence. His expression also darkened: “Cousin Weiting and Qishan have just passed away, and you’re already turning against the clan, Dong Shi? Aren’t you afraid that cousin and Qishan’s souls won’t rest in peace?”

The clan leader was fine not mentioning grandfather Bai Weiting and father Bai Qishan, but once he did, Dong Shi’s anger flared like oil poured on fire, flames shooting high. Her fierce, upturned phoenix eyes looked toward the clan leader.

“When our Bai family was in great mourning, with all the men having died for the Kingdom in Nan Jiang, the clan sent Bai Qiyun, saying that Father and Qishan had promised to do this and that for the clan, forcing us orphans and widows to exhaust our family wealth to gather enough silver. When Bai Qiyun offered incense… he tried three times, but Father and Qishan wouldn’t accept Bai Qiyun’s incense offerings! At that time, you all weren’t afraid that Father and Qishan’s souls wouldn’t rest in peace. What do I have to fear?”

Mentioning this matter, all the clan elders looked uncomfortable, their gazes evasive.

Dong Shi was filled with indignant anger, and her words were unforgiving: “Stealing mud from swallows’ mouths, shaving iron from needle points, scraping gold from Buddha’s face in minute searches, seeking peas in quails’ crops, splitting lean meat from herons’ legs, extracting fat oil from mosquitoes’ bellies—this is truly written for the Shouyang Bai clan! Squeezing us dry of silver wasn’t enough—it’s really impressive how you could think of ways to make the most use of our capital, Bai family.”

Hearing her mother’s furious words, Bai Qingyan lowered her eyes to hide the smile in them.

The clan leader’s face burned with shame from Dong Shi’s words. He gritted his teeth and looked at Bai Qingyan with an air of earnest concern: “The Bai clan shares both prosperity and adversity! Having cousins in prison… is also bad for the County Princess’s reputation!”

“So the reputation of County Princess indulging the clan in trampling on human lives in Shouyang… would sound better?” Bai Qingyan set down her teacup, her voice steady. “Forcibly seizing common women, beating good citizens to death, forcibly taking people’s ancestral property, buying shops at rock-bottom prices by force, driving shopkeepers to death, colluding with officials to frame others to steal their ancestral secret medicine formulas—which of these wasn’t done by clan descendants?”

One clan elder panicked and defended against his conscience: “These are all slanderous lies from those troublemaking commoners. None of this happened!”

“Then, when Bai Qingjie was caught by me committing crimes in broad daylight and announced his family name, claiming the County Princess backed him and that the County Princess had private relations with the Crown Prince and was the future Empress—is that also my slanderous lie?” Bai Qingyan’s bone-chilling gaze looked toward the clan leader.

Bai Qingjie was the clan leader’s grandson.

Hearing that the Shouyang Bai family descendants had tarnished her daughter’s reputation, Dong Shi flew into a rage, directly smashing the teacup in her hand and standing up abruptly: “Nanny Qin! Call Lu Ping to bring the guard soldiers and throw these ungrateful wolves out!”

Bullying them as orphans and widows, trying to forcibly occupy their family property—Dong Shi had endured it! But Dong Shi couldn’t tolerate others bullying her daughter, using her daughter’s reputation… to justify their wrongdoing!

All along, she had been patient and reluctant to break with the clan, but today… this face must be torn!

She wanted all of the capital and even the entire realm to know that from today forth, the capital’s Bai family and the Shouyang clan were irreconcilable enemies!

Otherwise, not only would her daughter’s reputation be ruined, but if word reached the Emperor’s ears, he might think the Bai family harbored ambitions for the Empress position.