With tears in her eyes, every word she spoke was flesh and blood, her five fingers pointing toward Left Chancellor Li Mao as she raised her voice: “If Left Chancellor has the backbone to protect home and Kingdom, willing to sacrifice generations to guard our Great Jin people and protect our Great Jin territory! This military merit… my Bai family gives it to the Left Chancellor! The Bai family army… can also change course and humbly obey the Left Chancellor’s commands! Military merit?! If Left Chancellor wants it, take it! What my Bai family seeks day and night is nothing more than our Bai family men returning home whole and complete, that’s all!”

Following Dong Shi, who held rank, sitting below the high platform were Bai Jintong, Bai Jinzhi, Bai Jinzhao, and Bai Jinhua, all with reddened eyes, looking up at Bai Qingyan standing tall as a pine on the high platform, clenching their fists.

Even the Grand Princess had tears in her eyes, choked with emotion.

Thinking of the fate of the Bai family men wrapped in horse leather in her previous life, she trembled with pain throughout her body.

After a long while, she swallowed her tears, turned to face the Emperor, and formally kowtowed: “With New Year approaching, my family has not yet received news from the southern frontier. I’m overly worried and have lost composure before the throne. I beg Your Majesty’s forgiveness.”

The Emperor squinted, his fingers stroking his wine cup. After a long moment, he smiled unhurriedly: “The Bai family truly has loyalty in every bone! But Miss Bai, in your words… your Bai family is loyal to the people of Great Jin. Does the Bai family have me, the Emperor, in their hearts?!”

The hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Sitting below the high platform, Bai Jintong suddenly gripped her dress tightly. She remembered that day in Qinghui Courtyard when Bai Qingyan told her… the current Emperor already viewed the Bai family as a fierce tiger beside his bed and wanted to eliminate them. Hearing the Emperor’s words today, she felt cold throughout her body.

Bai Qingyan closed her eyes, feeling utterly cold-hearted. This was the Emperor her grandfather and father had sworn to serve with unwavering loyalty!

With Xiliang and the southern frontier watching like tigers, Great Liang and the Rong and Di harboring ulterior motives, Great Jin had pitifully few capable military generals. After Great Jin’s military generals were ennobled with marquis titles, they all refused to let their descendants suffer hardships at the frontier, having them abandon military for scholarly pursuits.

Her grandfather and father, to cultivate successors for the Great Jin capable of deterring all nations, held nothing back and brought all the Bai family men to the frontlines. Such loyal dedication was ignored by the Great Jin Emperor! Instead, he harbored dark thoughts, suspected his subjects, calculated and schemed like flies and dogs…

She bowed again: “Your Majesty’s imperial power comes from the people of Great Jin! Without the common people, how could there be a Son of Heaven? My Bai family guards the frontier and protects Great Jin’s people, never overstepping boundaries. If this still doesn’t count as loyalty to Your Majesty, dare I ask Your Majesty… what constitutes loyalty?”

A ruler who reaches the highest position without having the people and state in his heart, lacking the ambition to embrace the world, would be one thing. But when the nation’s elite warriors fight desperately on battlefields against enemies coveting Great Jin, their sovereign calculates fraternal strife in this flourishing capital, worried about subjects whose achievements overshadow the master, engaging in treacherous schemes—does he still deserve to be a ruler?!

This court was no longer the one her grandfather had described to her… where justice was clear and the universe was bright. Military generals died fighting outside, while inside, there was no longer the righteous atmosphere of civil officials dying to remonstrate.

Straight as a bowstring, die by the roadside; curved as a hook, become a marquis instead! Looking at this court full of sycophantic traitors, this assembly full of those who curry favor with power, these fame-stealing hypocrites who became marquis and chancellors, enjoying ultimate glory! His Bai family’s loyalty and uprightness, the whole family’s integrity and noble spirit, yet they met the fate of complete extermination! How ironic!

In her previous life, when the Great Jin was destroyed by the Great Yan, whom they had always despised, it truly wasn’t unjust at all.

“Your Majesty…” The Grand Princess, fearing the Emperor would blame Bai Qingyan, quickly knelt. “This child has been spoiled by me. Please forgive her, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor was speechless at Bai Qingyan’s question and surprised by the undisguised anger on her face. After a moment, he laughed lowly and brushed nonexistent dust from his sleeves, suddenly changing the topic casually: “Yesterday, a censor reported that Marquis Zhongyong’s wife beat to death Second Miss Bai’s dowry maids, but these maids were commoners. Qin Dezhao… how much do you know about this matter? Speak in detail.”

Marquis Zhongyong hurried forward and knelt, sweating profusely, unable to guess the Emperor’s intention in suddenly having him speak about this matter. He said: “Your Majesty, I have already questioned my wife carefully. She said because daughter-in-law Bai Jinxiu’s dowry maids’ contracts were at the Duke’s mansion, she, as an inner palace woman, didn’t know whether they were sending dowry maids to the marquis mansion or something else, which made her uneasy as the marquis mansion’s mistress.”

Bai Qingyan sneered coldly. Marquis Zhongyong truly excelled at reversing black and white.

“Your Majesty, may I ask Marquis Zhongyong a question?” she respectfully inquired of the Emperor.

Seeing the Emperor nod, she turned around, straight as a pine, her torch-like gaze taking in the drunken, mocking, or contemptuous expressions of the court officials.

How many of those present were probably waiting to see the Bai family’s joke, wanting to see this century-old military family’s Duke’s mansion with its bells and cauldrons collapse.

She looked coldly at Marquis Zhongyong and asked icily: “Dare I ask, Marquis, did your wife discover that several dowry maids’ contracts were still at our mansion after ransacking my second sister’s dowry, or is your wife a female Zhuge Liang with supernatural calculation abilities?”

Having already experienced the eldest Miss Bai’s formidable nature, Marquis Zhongyong Qin Dezhao had already coordinated his story with his wife Jiang Shi and was prepared: “Your Majesty, regarding the contracts, it was daughter-in-law Bai Jinxiu’s dowry maid Mingyu who told my wife, which is why my wife spared that maid’s life!”

Qin Dezhao had thought this through. With Mingyu’s matter causing such a stir, only this explanation could account for why Bai Jinxiu’s dowry maid would be at Jiang Shi’s dowry estate.

Fourth Miss Bai Jinzhi bit her teeth hard, about to rise and angrily curse Marquis Zhongyong, but was firmly held down by Third Miss Bai Jintong.

“Third Sister! He’s talking nonsense!” Bai Jinzhi glared fiercely at Qin Dezhao.

“Don’t be impulsive, this is in the great hall!” Bai Jintong warned Bai Jinzhi in a low voice.

“Contracts are of great importance. Does the Marquis think my second sister is a fool who would tell a maid about contract matters? The Marquis probably knows Mingyu has gone mad… and wants to use Mingyu as an excuse, right?” Bai Qingyan’s tone carried obvious mockery.

Qin Dezhao panicked for a moment, then immediately steadied himself and said seriously: “Why must Miss Bai judge this marquis with such suspicion? Maid Mingyu clearly stated she accidentally discovered that the daughter-in-law hadn’t brought their contracts over, feared being threatened with the contracts, so she informed my wife!”

“Does the Marquis know the crime of deceiving the sovereign? Before His Majesty’s presence, why don’t you tell me, Marquis… how could a maid who doesn’t even recognize her name, bought by my second sister from childhood and has never even seen what her contract looks like, suddenly discover and report this? Saying such words… does the Marquis think we’re mentally deficient and easily fooled, or has the Marquis run out of tricks and plans to deceive himself?”

Qin Dezhao was so angry his intestines knotted, rapidly calculating how to respond, his lips moving but unable to open his mouth.