Bai Qingyan’s words made the common people gathered in front of Manjiang Tower suddenly tear up with emotion, their hearts filled with passionate fervor. They remembered that indeed, all descendants of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion who reached the age of ten would accompany Duke Zhenguo to the battlefield for training. They recalled that when Duke Zhenguo set out on campaign half a year ago, among the Bai family sons was the seventeenth son who wasn’t even as tall as a horse, yet he too wore full armor… riding alone on horseback. Including this legitimate eldest daughter of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion before them, who had also followed the army at age ten, and later at sixteen suffered severe injuries in that fierce battle, losing all hope of bearing children in this lifetime.

Hearing again Bai Qingyan’s words that regarded the people as blood relatives, hearing Bai Qingyan speak of how the Bai family sons feared they could not repay the people’s tax support with such humility! With such a Duke Zhenguo’s mansion existing, with such sons of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion sacrificing their lives for them at the front lines, how could the people not feel grateful and stirred? How could they not be grateful to Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, which, despite its high position, had never regarded them as worthless as grass?

Bai Qingyan’s voice was steady and clear, her words resounding: “A bastard son of the Duke’s mansion not recorded in the family genealogy, who has never fought bloody battles on the frontier to protect home and Kingdom! Who has never achieved merit or pleaded for the people? Where does he get the audacity to call himself a son of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion? Where does he get the audacity to rely on the Duke’s authority… to casually beat and kill the citizens of our Great Jin!”

These words undoubtedly ground Bai Qingxuan’s dignity into the mud under her feet.

The entire long street was packed with common people, and the scenic corridors of various restaurants facing the street were also filled with onlookers.

The most famous dandies of the capital all stood on the second-floor corridor of Yanque Tower. Hearing Bai Qingyan’s words, they were all stunned. So… this was how the Bai family raised their children! Even a woman possessed such iron bones with a heart for family and Kingdom, losing all martial arts yet not losing her backbone, fully displaying the Bai family’s proud demeanor that defied snow and frost. No wonder the century-old military family, Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, never produced worthless offspring.

Xiao Rongyan gazed at Bai Qingyan standing in the dim lamplight, proud-boned and profoundly resolute, gripping the jade cicada in his hand tightly. The depth in his eyes seemed to contain only that tall, slender figure.

“This… Sister Bai truly possesses a righteous spirit!” Lu Yuanpeng’s throat rolled as genuine respect arose from his heart, no longer harboring any frivolous thoughts due to Bai Qingyan’s beauty.

“Eldest Miss…” Chen Qingsheng hurried out from the medical hall across the street, bowing deeply to Bai Qingyan before speaking. “Physician Liu from Huichun Hall across the street says that when the old man was kicked earlier, the blood stagnated in his heart and lungs was expelled, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise! Our mansion’s coachman’s bleeding has stopped. The child only has external injuries that will heal with a few days of medicine.”

Bai Qingxuan already harbored bone-deep hatred for Bai Qingyan and could no longer maintain a submissive appearance. He glared with gnashing teeth at the Duke’s guards pressing him down and roared: “Everyone’s fine now, why won’t you release me!”

The guards, not having received orders from Bai Qingyan, dared not loosen their grip and pressed the struggling Bai Qingxuan down even harder.

Seeing Bai Qingxuan’s unrepentant and defiant appearance, her heart sank to the bottom, losing all intention of teaching him.

“Grandfather established family rules—the Bai army’s military regulations are our family law! Those who bully the people… receive thirty military cudgel strikes. If Bai family descendants commit such crimes, the punishment is increased by one degree! Fifty strikes!” Bai Qingyan’s gaze blazed like a clear mirror under the blue sky as she gritted her teeth. “Uncle Ping, borrow a cudgel from Manjiang Tower’s manager. Right here on this long street, beat him!”

Bai Qingxuan’s eyes widened as he stared at Bai Qingyan.

“No!” The woman crawled and knelt to Bai Qingyan’s feet, kowtowing and crying desperately. “Xuan’er is still young, Eldest Miss! These fifty military cudgel strikes will take Xuan’er’s life! He cannot be beaten! Cannot be beaten!”

“When legitimate son Bai Qingyu was twelve years old, his horse trampled wheat fields while chasing bandits, and he willingly received sixty military cudgel strikes! When second daughter Bai Jinxiu was ten and followed the army on campaign, her mount accidentally injured a woodcutter during the march, and she received fifty lashes! Which of them wasn’t younger than your son when they were punished?” Bai Qingyan deeply detested this woman’s behavior, her voice rising with each word.

“Eldest Miss, the cudgel has been borrowed!” Lu Ping returned with the cudgel.

Seeing such a thick wooden stick, the woman panicked and cried out, quickly crawling back to the pale-faced Bai Qingxuan and hugging him tightly: “Xuan’er is the blood of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion with noble status. These fifty strikes… let me receive them in Xuan’er’s place! I beg Eldest Miss to grant this!”

“When you couldn’t get away with the excuse of young age, now you want to talk to me about nobility?!” Bai Qingyan gave a cold laugh, neither hurried nor angry, only speaking methodically. “In the third year of Xuanjia, during the Battle of Pingcheng, the Western Liang army besieged the city, and our troops ran out of provisions for three days. To hold the Pingcheng line and prevent the Western Liang army from entering our borders to slaughter Great Jin citizens, my father, the heir of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, took livestock from the citizens to feed the soldiers until reinforcements arrived. After the great victory at Pingcheng, my father kowtowed to the people in apology and received two hundred military cudgel strikes bare-bodied in the snow! He once said that before national law and military regulations, there was no distinction between noble and base! Speaking of nobility, isn’t my father noble?! What makes your bastard son untouchable and unbeatable?”

Bai Qingyan gripped the hand warmer tightly, biting until her gums bled: “Pull them apart and beat him severely! Not one strike less!”

Amid the woman’s wailing, Bai Qingxuan was pressed to the ground by the guards. Lu Ping personally wielded the rod, and the solid sound of wood striking flesh accompanied Bai Qingxuan’s screams, echoing throughout the entire long street.

At thirty strikes, Bai Qingxuan’s buttocks were already seeping blood, and his screams had grown weak and breathless.

The dandies upstairs watched with shock, as if the rod were falling on their bodies, their teeth aching in sympathy. Yet Bai Qingyan stood there with a cold expression that showed no change whatsoever.

After fifty strikes, Bai Qingxuan had lost consciousness. The woman broke free from the guards and rushed over to hold Bai Qingxuan, crying heart-rendingly.

The hatred in Bai Qingyan’s heart had not fully dissipated, but she couldn’t truly kill someone on the long street. She spoke with cold indifference: “Have someone carry him back to the mansion and summon a physician to treat him properly!”

“Yes!” Lu Ping responded, instructing someone to fetch a physician and having Bai Qingxuan carried to the carriage.

“Chen Qingsheng, you stay behind. Escort the injured elderly lady and child home, and make proper apologies and arrangements!” Bai Qingyan said. “Return to the mansion. I’m tired!”

Seeing the Bai mansion’s Eldest Miss’s carriage approaching, the watching crowd spontaneously parted to make way.

Once in the carriage, Bai Qingyan rested one hand on the spring pillow, closing her eyes wearily. Her throat rolled, and tears seemed to glisten at the corners of her eyes as desolate emotions filled her chest.

Today, speaking here of her siblings and father’s past, her mind couldn’t help but conjure images of grandfather, father, and various uncles sitting around campfires before their tents, heartily discussing battle strategies.

The scenes of Bai family brothers before their campaigns—vigorous and high-spirited—flashed before Bai Qingyan’s eyes one by one, and she couldn’t control her entire body from trembling.

Today had gone far more smoothly than Bai Qingyan had anticipated and would surely push the Bai family’s reputation to even greater heights. Yet speaking of the Bai family’s ancestral teachings, remembering the Bai family’s loyalty to the sovereign and service to the people… what they had done for Great Jin and its citizens, only to meet the end of a suspicious ruler executing loyal ministers, filled her with bitter hatred.

It was the Great Jin imperial family that had failed the Bai family’s generations of loyal bones.