Prince Liang sat before the roaring hearth wrapped in a heavy cloak, the blazing red fire reflecting off his pallid, paper-white face, his phoenix eyes dark and brooding as he contemplated unknown thoughts.

Prince Liang’s advisor Du Zhiwei had planned everything for Prince Liang before his death…

First, he would act under the banner of serving Prince Xin, inciting Prince Xin to go to the front lines to compete with the Duke for military merit. The current emperor had long been dissatisfied with the Duke’s mansion’s illustrious war achievements, and indeed immediately approved his most beloved son to go to the front as military supervisor, even giving Prince Xin the golden tablet and command arrow.

Later, he secretly had Liu Huanzhang communicate with the Nanyan ruler, planning to wipe out the entire Bai family while the Duke had all the Bai family men by his side.

When that time came, Great Jin’s most capable generals of the Bai family would all be destroyed! Then, by pinning the crime of treason on the Duke’s mansion, the Bai family could be uprooted entirely!

When warfare resumed in Nan Jiang, his father emperor would have no generals to use and could only employ Liu Huanzhang, allowing his people to control military power—this was the first part.

The reason for courting Bai Qingyan so persistently was because Du Zhiwei said Prince Liang’s strengths did not lie in military campaigns, so he instructed Prince Liang to keep the “general star” Bai Qingyan—whom even the Duke had praised—by his side to plan military achievements and pave the way for ascending to the throne in the future—this was the second part.

After the rival princes Qi and Xin fought each other to mutual destruction, when he returned as a prince with illustrious military achievements, he could reap the benefits without effort.

Originally, everything had proceeded steadily according to Du Zhiwei’s plan, but somehow, starting from the marriage of the Bai family’s second miss Bai Jinxiu and Du Zhiwei’s death, things no longer went as smoothly as when Du Zhiwei was alive.

Bai Qingyan’s maternal family in Dengzhou planned to have their legitimate second grandson marry Bai Qingyan. He sent a jade pendant offering the position of primary consort, but Bai Qingyan wouldn’t accept it. When he went to see her personally, she wouldn’t meet him either—what could be done?

Prince Liang instinctively wanted to ask Du Zhiwei how to handle this. Just as he was about to call someone to summon Du Zhiwei, he opened his mouth and remembered that Du Zhiwei had already died protecting him during the street attack that day…

He coughed violently several times. Hearing this, Tong Ji, who was preparing medicine, immediately ran in and poured him a cup of water: “Your Highness, please drink some water!”

“Cough, cough, cough… You may go.” Prince Liang pulled his cloak tighter.

His birth mother was of lowly status and died early. He had been raised since childhood by Consort Tong, who treated him like her own, along with the deceased Second Prince. Yet they had been killed by those so-called pillars of the state from the Duke’s mansion, meeting such miserable ends.

Therefore, he had to fight for that position! Only by sitting on that throne could he seek redress and clear the names of Consort Tong and the Second Prince, regardless of what despicable and base methods he had to use.

After staring at the fire basin in deep thought for a long time, Prince Liang suddenly called out hoarsely: “Gao Sheng!”

Hearing this, Gao Sheng entered and bowed with cupped fists: “Master!”

“Go call Hong Qiao over… I have something to instruct her.”

Soon, Hong Qiao arrived through the snow. After hearing Prince Liang’s instructions, she was first stunned, then knelt and kowtowed with the appearance of one resolved to die: “This servant once received kindness from the Second Prince. When the Second Prince was gone, this servant should have followed him in death, but Your Highness let this servant see hope of revenge, so this servant lived on! This servant understands Your Highness’s meaning. Not to mention sacrificing this humble reputation… even giving up this life would be worthwhile. This servant will accomplish the task perfectly!”

Prince Liang coughed gently twice, then shook his head: “You must live. As you said, you must watch the great revenge be completed for the imperial brother. Only when the great revenge is accomplished can you face the imperial brother when you go down below! Follow the plan and don’t act rashly.”

Hong Qiao’s eyes reddened as she kowtowed heavily to Prince Liang.

“Go!” Prince Liang pulled his cloak tighter, lowering his dark eyes to watch the flickering bright and dim charcoal in the brazier.

·

On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth month, each household had begun preparing New Year goods, slaughtering pigs, and cutting year-end meat.

The procurement departments of noble families were also busy. Though the Duke’s mansion’s men were all in Nan Jiang this year and couldn’t return, it was more lively than ever, with butchers and vegetable farmers just sending their best goods to the Duke’s mansion! Because the Duke’s mansion’s heir’s wife had given orders earlier, as soon as they delivered goods, the Duke’s mansion would send people with silver payment.

Common people who couldn’t express their gratitude to Marquis Zhongyong’s mansion any other way would secretly load goods and pile them at the rear corner gate in the middle of the night, then slip away quietly!

Procurement Steward Liu was overwhelmed and hurriedly went to report to Steward Hao.

This time, Steward Hao decided to accept everything, saying that later on the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month, they would send couplets and prepare some gifts for the merchants, butchers, and vegetable farmers who usually dealt with the Duke’s mansion, making them more generous. He also had Steward Liu prepare more small pieces of silver wrapped in red paper, and if they saw families with children, they would give them early New Year’s money.

Steward Hao’s family had served the Bai family for generations. He knew the Bai family masters were all generous—if you treated them well by one measure, they would treat you well by ten measures. His arrangements were not excessive.

Old Madam Dong, currently staying at the Dong family mansion of the Honglu Si Minister, would return to Dengzhou after the New Year. She had originally wanted to invite Bai Qingyan to stay for a few days over New Year, but since the Bai family men were all away, Old Madam Dong couldn’t bear to take people away from the Duke’s mansion and leave the Bai mansion desolate during New Year, so she could only invite Bai Qingyan to the Dong mansion every other day.

Dong Shi felt it inappropriate for her mother, Old Madam Dong, to call only Bai Qingyan over alone, so she had Bai Qingyan bring several sisters along.

On this day, except for the second miss Bai Jinxiu, who was recovering from injury, and the seventh miss Bai Jinse, who had caught a slight cold, all the Bai family sisters gathered at the Dong family.

Though Bai Qingyan’s female cousins at the Dong family were not as spirited as the daughters of the Bai mansion, they were not difficult people and got along very well with the Bai family girls.

When leaving, the fifth and sixth misses, being young, had their arms full of small trinkets given by elders and elder cousins. They treasured these items so much that they wouldn’t let their maids touch them, and started playing with them as soon as they got in the carriage.

“How skillful Cousin Dong is! These birds look so lifelike!” Bai Jinzhi held a pair of paper sparrows and sighed in admiration. “Being young is wonderful! I wanted these paper sparrows too, but I’m too old to be embarrassed about it…”

Upon hearing this, Bai Jinzhao immediately snatched the paper sparrows from Bai Jinzhi’s hands and hugged them: “Fourth sister is an adult now and shouldn’t compete with younger sisters. Second sister is recovering from injury… Seventh sister caught a cold, so they couldn’t play with the cousins today. These are all for me to take back to Second sister and Seventh sister!”

Bai Jintong and Bai Qingyan were amused and laughed.

Suddenly the sound of reining in horses came from ahead, and the Duke’s mansion’s carriage slowly stopped.

“Eldest Miss!”

Hearing the call, Bai Qingyan lifted the carriage curtain to look outside, only to hear the Duke’s mansion servant say: “Eldest Miss, a young lady has come to our Duke’s mansion gates, claiming to be a maid from Prince Liang’s mansion. She’s kneeling at the gate begging to see Eldest Miss. Steward Hao sent me to inform Eldest Miss.”