Chun Tao had originally been listening to the heavy, suppressed crying that came intermittently from inside the room. Tears streamed down her face, but she dared not enter to comfort her. Now, hearing Bai Qingyan’s bone-chilling laughter, she was instantly like an ant on a hot pot, not knowing what to do.

Chun Xing heard the commotion and hurriedly put on her clothes, fastening the buttons while rushing out from the side room, asking Chun Tao: “What’s wrong with Miss?! Why are you standing guard outside the door instead of going in to check!”

Chun Tao wiped away the tears covering her face and gripped Chun Xing’s hand: “You stay here and guard. Don’t let anyone enter! I’m going to fetch Third Miss!”

“Alright!” Chun Xing’s face went pale with fright, nodding repeatedly.

Chun Tao stepped through the snow, slipping and running all the way straight to Bai Jintong’s courtyard. As soon as she entered the courtyard, Chun Tao knelt at the door of the main room, crying: “Third Miss! Third Miss, please go see our Miss!”

Bai Jintong, who had just finished her morning practice, heard the voice and lifted the curtain to come out: “What’s wrong with eldest sister?!”

Chun Tao’s eyes were severely red and swollen, having cried herself into a tearful mess: “Please, Third Miss, go take a look!”

Bai Jintong’s face turned deathly pale. Not bothering with her cloak, she hurried toward the courtyard gate.

Bai Jinxiu’s Qingzhu Pavilion was very close to Bai Jintong’s Bitong Garden. Accustomed to rising early and leaning by the window to read, Bai Jinxiu also heard the commotion. She quickly instructed Second Madam Liu Shi to stay in Qingzhu Pavilion to care for her, and told Qing Shu to go out and see what had happened.

As soon as Qing Shu left the courtyard gate, she saw Chun Tao and Bai Jinxiu’s maid hurrying behind Bai Jintong, rushing toward Qinghui Courtyard.

Qing Shu quickly returned to report to Bai Jinxiu: “Second Miss, I saw Chun Tao from Miss’s side following behind Third Miss, rushing toward Miss’s place.”

Bai Jinxiu’s hand gripping the book tightened. Thinking of Bai Qingyan’s cold illness and her recent bustling about, Bai Jinxiu suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. She threw off the brocade quilt: “Qing Shu, help me dress. I need to go to eldest sister’s place!”

“Second Miss, it’s still snowing outside, and your head injury…”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m much better already! Just get me a thicker fur hat!” Bai Jinxiu was anxious about her eldest sister, her heart burning with worry. Qing Shu dared not persuade further and quickly had clothes prepared, supporting Bai Jinxiu as they walked through the snow toward Qinghui Courtyard.

Just as Bai Jinxiu arrived at the gate of Qinghui Courtyard, she heard Bai Jintong standing at the door calling softly: “Eldest sister, it’s Jintong. May I come in…”

Getting no response from Bai Qingyan, Bai Jintong stood outside, not daring to enter uninvited, only turning to ask Chun Tao: “What’s wrong with eldest sister?!”

Chun Tao knew the matter was of great importance and could only bite her lip and shake her head tearfully.

“Jintong, what’s wrong with eldest sister?!” Bai Jinxiu’s hand gripping Qing Shu’s arm broke out in a fine sweat as she hurried under the eaves. “Is her cold illness acting up?!”

“Second sister, why… why did you come too?!” Bai Jintong quickly took two steps forward to support Bai Jinxiu.

They heard the doors to the main room creak open. Chun Tao quickly lifted the curtain, revealing Bai Qingyan standing between the two doors, wearing white undergarments stained halfway through with blood.

Bai Jinxiu’s legs went weak, and she nearly fell: “Eldest sister!”

Bai Qingyan’s pale complexion was calm as still water, her eyes blood-red, her disheveled hair now tidied. Her entire presence surged with dark undercurrents, sharp as a demon from hell.

“Bai Jinxiu and Bai Jintong, come in. Everyone else… guard outside the courtyard gate of Qinghui Courtyard. No one is allowed to approach!”

“Eldest sister, the blood on your body…”

She walked first toward the inner room: “It’s not my blood. Come in!”

Bai Jinxiu and Bai Jintong had all the servants leave Qinghui Courtyard to guard at the gate, then the two sisters entered the main room hand in hand. Seeing Bai Qingyan standing with her back to them before the brazier, Bai Jinxiu called softly: “Eldest sister…”

Bai Qingyan closed her aching eyes. She had been reborn to protect her relatives, her elders, her sisters! So… she could not collapse! She must not go mad! She could not fall! No matter how much hatred she felt, she could not lose her composure and act on reckless courage to kill for revenge.

She was someone who had already experienced this once in her previous life. She was the daughter of the Duke’s Mansion Bai family. She had to hold on, had to personally watch those treacherous demons go to hell to atone for all the men of her Bai clan!

After a long while, she finally spoke hoarsely: “Jintong, close the door. I have something to say.”

Bai Jintong closed the door and walked with Bai Jinxiu behind Bai Qingyan: “Eldest sister.”

She raised her eyes to look at the five blood-stained bamboo scrolls on the writing desk, her warm breath disordered. Closing her eyes, she said: “I didn’t tell you before because I hadn’t received definite news…”

Bai Qingyan turned around to face Bai Jinxiu and Bai Jintong, whose faces were tense and at a loss, and choked out: “Grandfather, my father, second uncle, third uncle, fourth uncle, fifth uncle… along with all seventeen sons of our Bai family, all… died in battle in Nan Jiang.”

Bai Jinxiu’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t catch her breath, nearly fainting. She felt as if the sky had collapsed, her head wound throbbing, her blood so agitated it seemed about to burst through the scab.

“How could… all of them… all of them…” Bai Jintong’s tears fell like broken strings, choking and unable to speak clearly. “Eldest sister, the news must be wrong!”

In her previous life, when the news came, the Bai family had also been unable to believe it.

She walked to the writing desk, pressing her hand on those five bamboo scrolls, the veins on the back of her hand pulsing. Her grief and indignation almost burst forth, yet she forced it back down. She had lived two lives—how could she be so easily defeated?

“These are records of… troop movements and battle situations kept by the historian accompanying the Bai family army.” She picked up two bamboo scrolls. “Fang Yan, battalion commander of the Bai family army’s Tiger Battalion, along with Shen Qingzhu and our Bai family guard Wu Zhe, fought desperately to save these five bamboo scrolls. Now Shen Qingzhu’s whereabouts are unknown… Fang Yan and Wu Zhe are dead. The blood on these bamboo scrolls is Wu Zhe’s… is Fang Yan’s, and also belongs to our hundreds of thousands of Bai family soldiers!”

Bai Qingyan placed one bamboo scroll in Bai Jinxiu’s hands and one in Bai Jintong’s hands.

Looking at her two sisters with tears in their eyes and heavy expressions, she said: “Let you also know that our Bai family men did not die under the weapons of foreign enemies, but died from the Great Jin Emperor’s suspicion, died at… the hands of Great Jin’s people!”

Bai Jinxiu’s tears fell like broken strings as she tremblingly unfolded the bamboo scroll in her hands.

Bai Jintong also dared not delay and unfolded the bamboo scroll, reading through it tearfully with ten lines at a glance…

After reading one scroll, Bai Jintong’s tears burst forth like a dam breaking. She staggered to the writing desk and unfolded another scroll, her entire body trembling uncontrollably, her crying wretched.

Bai Qingyan stood stiffly and tensely before the brazier. Even though she had already gone mad with grief and cried to vent her emotions, tears still welled up in her aching eyes. She felt cold to the bone throughout her body, trembling despite standing so close to the fire, her entire body numb with cold.

Standing at the writing desk, Bai Jinxiu tremblingly picked up the bamboo scrolls. In grief and despair, she could barely breathe, collapsing to the ground while clutching the scrolls: “Little Seventeen… he was only ten! He was only ten years old!”

Bai Jintong, suppressing her sobs, transformed all her grief into anger. Her eyes blazed with fire, her fists clenched so tightly they cracked audibly, and she turned to head outside.