With bloodshot eyes, Bai Jinzhi gripped the long whip at her waist, burning with rage, wishing she could whip to death all these foolish villains making trouble at Duke’s Mansion.
Seeing the crowd of onlookers who had already surrounded Duke’s Mansion three layers deep, Bai Jinxiu, standing beside Bai Jinzhi, felt her heart pounding frantically.
“Fourth Sister, you cannot!” Bai Jinxiu quickly pressed down on Bai Jinzhi’s hand that was about to crack the whip. “This group surrounding our Duke’s Mansion to cause trouble likely has ulterior motives. You must not act impulsively!”
“Your Bai family indeed produces no waste! Your Bai family is indeed victorious and undefeated on the battlefield, but your Bai family’s invincibility was bought with the lives of us common people’s sons!” a woman cried out, wailing to heaven and earth. “One general’s success built upon ten thousand bones! With one command from the main general, our sons rush forward one after another to throw themselves on the blade edges! It’s not your people who die, so how would you know heartache?! Duke only wanted military achievements! Only wanted to leave his name in history, so he just used our sons’ lives to build your accomplishments!”
“My poor son!” another woman cried out in anguish, shouting with heart-rending fury, “Duke has no shame! Your Bai family men deserved to die in Nan Jiang! It was your Bai family who killed our sons!”
“You spew filth again!” Bai Jinzhi forcefully shook off Bai Jinxiu and raised her whip to strike at that woman, her fury attacking her heart and making her speak wildly, “You’re the one who deserves to die! I’ll whip you to death today!”
“Bai Jinzhi!” Bai Jinxiu desperately held back Bai Jinzhi, her forehead wound splitting open as bright red blood flowed down her temple.
“You’re a cowardly weakling who lets people bully you! I’m not!” Bai Jinzhi’s eyes were bloodshot as she shouted at Bai Jinxiu, then angrily pushed her away.
The long whip cut through the air, and the woman’s scream was piercing.
“Xiao Si! Stop!” Bai Jinxiu was already injured, and being pushed away by Bai Jinzhi, she crashed into the wall, her head throbbing with pain.
Qing Shu was extremely anxious: “Fourth Miss, how could you lay hands on Second Miss! Second Miss… how are you?”
Bai Qingyan quickened her pace, lifting the hem of her plain dress as she stepped up the stairs, seeing Bai Jinzhi with bloodshot eyeballs seemingly determined to whip that woman to death.
“Bai Jinzhi! Stop right now!” Her face was deathly pale as she turned to instruct Lu Ping, “Uncle Ping, restrain Fourth Miss for me!”
Lu Ping received the order and rushed forward in two quick steps, forcibly taking a lash before restraining the furious Bai Jinzhi. Bai Jinzhi roared frantically like a demon possessed, repeatedly breaking free from Lu Ping’s restraint, with the momentum of wanting to perish together with those villains, cursing Duke’s Mansion.
Bai Jintong, who followed behind, seeing Bai Jinzhi’s maddened appearance, picked up the cooled tea from the gatehouse table, quickly walked down the high steps of Duke’s Mansion’s main gate, and splashed a pot of water to wake up Bai Jinzhi.
The cold water extinguished Bai Jinzhi’s blazing fury. She came to her senses as if awakening from a dream, her chest heaving violently, choking as she glanced at the deathly pale Bai Jintong, then shifted her gaze to Bai Qingyan on the high steps whose face was iron-green: “Elder… Elder Sister.”
“Heaven above! Open your eyes and see! Duke killed my son for military achievements! Now the young ladies of Duke’s Mansion also want to kill me! We, common people, truly have no way to live! No way to live!”
“You’re talking nonsense! I’ll tear that mouth of yours!” Bai Jinzhi’s fury was ignited again in her heart as she struggled to move forward.
Standing on the high steps, Bai Qingyan’s expression was cold and stern, dressed in mourning clothes of plain white, her spine straight and proud, as she asked: “May I ask this madam, the military records documented by the frontline army scribes have not yet been sent back by Prince Xin, and when the battle report came, even our Bai family only knows our army suffered devastating defeat… my grandfather, father, uncles, and brothers all perished, but casualty statistics have not yet been reported! Why do you insist with certainty that your son died in battle?”
The woman whose face had been whipped was flustered and panicked, stubbornly stretching her neck: “Duke himself died in battle, how could my son still be alive?!”
“Then you are speculating that your son is dead! I have followed armies on campaigns since childhood and have gone with my uncles to personally distribute compensation to fallen soldiers’ families, but I’ve never known of any soldier’s mother… who didn’t hope for her son’s survival, but instead, without any real evidence, insisted with certainty that her son was dead and came to curse at our Duke’s Mansion gate.”
The woman cowered there, and under everyone’s gaze, could only make unreasonable trouble: “I… I was just anxious! My poor son! If you’re dead, what should your mother do? You said you wanted to join the army to earn a title… but you didn’t earn the title, and the generals of Duke’s Mansion, to compete for achievements, to leave their names in history… used your bones as stepping stones!”
“You’re not anxious at all, you’re deliberately causing trouble at our Duke’s Mansion gate!” Bai Jinzhi shouted hoarsely, “When news returned that all our Bai family men perished, even though yesterday the eunuch bringing news said Prince Xin would soon escort the coffins back to the capital, our Bai family still hoped there might be errors in the news! But you… You came knocking at our door without even confirmation, stubbornly claiming my grandfather killed your son. Are you even a proper mother?! If you continue making unreasonable trouble at our Duke’s Mansion gate, I’ll whip you to death!”
The woman, whose momentum had already weakened, seized upon Bai Jinzhi’s last sentence, her wailing cries becoming many times louder: “Heaven, open your eyes and see! Duke killed my son, and now the young ladies of Duke’s Mansion want to whip me to death! We, common people, truly have no way to live! No way to live!”
“You… you shrew!” Bai Jinzhi’s eyes were bloodshot as she struggled violently, nearly breaking free even from Lu Ping’s restraint.
“My grandfather killed your son?!” Bai Qingyan’s voice was cold as a blade, raging fire burning in her chest, reddening her bright black eyes. “Your son was he perhaps forced into military service at knifepoint by my grandfather?! Achieving merit and earning titles through battlefield combat—who hot-blooded young man doesn’t want to protect their home and Kingdom, bringing glory to their ancestors? But are titles freely given?! Whatever glory and wealth one enjoys, one must endure equivalent hardships and dangers! Wanting titles without facing dangers—where is there such a good deal in this world?!”
“Setting aside other matters, let’s speak of my Bai family! Everyone says Duke’s Mansion… has a century of glory! But this glory was exchanged by my Bai family men fighting with their lives on battlefields! The hundreds of memorial tablets standing in rows in my Bai family ancestral hall—which one didn’t die with blood staining yellow earth, wrapped in horse hide?! Those who lived to natural death can be counted on one hand!”
“You say my Bai family covets achievements?! If my Bai family coveted achievements… in the third year of Xuanjia, why would my grandfather submit the memorial ‘On Merit and Titles’ requesting His Majesty’s grace to allow common soldiers who achieved merit on battlefields to also earn titles and bring glory to their families? My Bai family’s military achievements are already in people’s hearts—why need redundant words? Why would Grandfather need to adopt villainous behavior, coveting achievements, and advancing recklessly?”
Seeing the woman’s eyeballs rolling around, she spoke coldly again: “I once asked Grandfather why children of other marquis families could take official positions in this prosperous capital, enjoying peaceful prosperity! Why must Bai family children follow armies on campaigns from age ten, enduring hardships and killing enemies? Grandfather said: Because the frontlines are dangerous and someone must go! Because tens of thousands of people there have no one to protect them! Because we cannot bear the name of Duke in vain, holding positions without merit and doing nothing! The two characters ‘Duke’—they mean… never exterminating the bandits who violate our Jin people, vowing to never return until death!”