Just this one phrase, “can’t hold steady,” actually shattered her heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. The pungent, sour, bitter, and desperately sorrowful emotions surged up to her heart. She almost couldn’t restrain herself from crying out, tears flowing like a torrent.

She gritted her teeth and said: “We can hold steady!”

“Fourth Aunt, we sisters will support Little Seventeenth together, we can hold steady!” She desperately gripped the fox fur, the veins on the back of her hands bulging, biting her teeth tightly as she shouted: “Bai Jinxiu! Bai Jintong!”

Bai Jinxiu and Bai Jintong, who had already broken down in tears, heard the call and quickly came forward, kneeling beside Bai Qingyan. Bai Jinzhi even pushed away the personal maid supporting her and limped toward Little Seventeenth.

“Today! We three sisters… will hold Little Seventeenth’s body and support Little Seventeenth’s head! We welcome our Bai family hero, our nation’s martyr, Little Seventeenth… home!”

The ten-year-old child’s body in armor had already stiffened. Bai Qingyan supported Little Seventeenth’s back from Fourth Madam Wang Shi’s arms, Bai Jintong held Little Seventeenth’s head steady, and Bai Jinxiu lifted Little Seventeenth’s legs…

“And me!” Bai Jinzhi bit her teeth tightly, supporting Little Seventeenth’s waist with both hands, shouting through hot tears: “Little Seventeenth! Sister is taking you home!”

“Help Fourth Madam up!” Dong Shi suppressed her choking emotions, forcing herself to shout: “Go home!”

Paper money was scattered everywhere. Dong Shi, the mistress of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, walked at the very front, personally scattering paper money to guide the loyal souls.

Dong Qingyue shouldered the coffin-carrying pole, roaring: “Raise the coffins!”

Except for the small coffin that had already shattered, the three wooden coffins were lifted in sequence and entered the southern gate of the capital under the protection of the Bai family guards.

Bai Qingxuan, who had just been wailing, quickly knelt and moved to one side, his heart filled with unease.

The southern gate captain and the gate soldiers, seeing the grieving and weeping common people all kneel down, also bowed their heads and nodded, making fists with one hand to strike their chests, performing military salutes to the loyal bones slowly entering the city.

Bai Qingyan tightly held her youngest, seventeenth brother in her arms, while Bai Jintong steadily supported Little Seventeenth’s head where it connected to his neck. Following behind the three coffins, they walked steadily step by step toward Duke Zhenguo’s mansion.

Bai Jinzhi, looking at the common people kneeling and weeping along the way, wished she could immediately take up a long whip and rush to the frontier to kill all the bandits who had harmed the Bai family men… who had harmed Little Seventeenth.

“Prince Xin’s attitude toward our Bai family is the imperial family’s attitude toward our Bai family. Little Four… today you saw with your own eyes how they treated Little Seventeenth, how they treated our grandfather, uncles, and brothers… what kind of coffins they gave them, and how they treated our Bai family! Do you understand… the Bai family is no longer the Bai family you thought it was. The current Bai family is as precarious as a pile of eggs, and there’s no time left to let you grow up slowly! Little Four… you must grow up!”

Bai Qingyan looked straight ahead, her eye sockets aching, speaking word by word to Bai Jinzhi, who was supporting Little Seventeenth’s waist beside her.

Bai Jinzhi’s tears became even more uncontrollable, choking as she nodded: “Little Four understands!”

Xiao Rongyan stood with his hands behind his back, tightly gripping the jade cicada that had been worn to perfect transparency. His gaze looked toward the pale-faced Bai Qingyan, feeling that the sharp edge in her eyes was about to burst forth and could no longer be hidden.

Lu Yuanpeng tearfully followed the common people on foot all the way to the Duke’s mansion, but before reaching the Duke’s mansion gates, he was forcibly “invited” back by the guards of Chancellor Lu’s mansion.

The common people followed, crying at the Duke’s mansion gates. Grand Princess had already been waiting in front of the Duke’s mansion with the young women of the Bai family. She had also heard about what Prince Xin had done at the southern city gate. Especially seeing her four granddaughters carrying Little Seventeenth’s remains home, Grand Princess opened her eyes wide, looking at her grandson’s corpse… reaching out but not daring to touch, she cried out loudly, her hatred like vinegar!

“How dare Prince Xin! How dare he treat the sons of my Bai family like this! I must enter the palace to see His Majesty! I must…” Grand Princess, struggling to support herself, cried out once and fainted.

“Grand Princess! Grand Princess!” Nanny Jiang was frightened pale.

Chaos erupted in front of the Bai mansion. Dong Shi stood like a stabilizing pillar at the main gate of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, ordering people to send Grand Princess back to Changshou Courtyard and arranging for the Duke, the mansion’s Fifth Master, Sixth Master, and Seventeenth Master to have their remains cleaned again and placed in new coffins. For the other Bai family men who couldn’t return, they would use clothing and caps in coffins.

With the Bai family in such a tragedy, one could imagine that the battle situation ahead must be as horrible as hell.

Inside the several open gates of Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, in the courtyard with erected canopies, more than twenty coffins arranged in rows – how tragic and heroic!

The weeping common people cried for Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, but also for the Great Jin. With the allied forces of Xiliang and Nanyan invading the Jin Kingdom and all the Duke’s mansion men dead, who could still protect these Great Jin mountains and rivers, protect these Great Jin people?

Bai Qingyan came out of Grand Princess’s Changshou Courtyard, looking at the gloomy sky. Her eyes were so sore she couldn’t bear it. Closing her eyes, tears were already streaming down her face.

“Elder Sister…”

Hearing the choked voice of her seventh younger sister, Bai Jinse, beside her ear, she quickly turned her head and wiped away her tears without showing emotion, turned around, and looked at her half-sister Bai Jinse, whose small hands were clutching at her clothes.

She controlled her emotions, grasped Bai Jinse’s cold little hands, bent down to meet her eyes at the same level, and asked in a hoarse voice: “Why is Little Seven here? Where is your wet nurse?”

Bai Jinse’s eyes were red, and she bit her teeth tightly, asking: “Elder Sister, grandfather, uncle, father, and brothers… were they harmed by someone?”

Before she could speak, Bai Jinse continued: “Elder Sister, Little Seven is no longer an unenlightened naive young child. I’m already nine years old! I’ve also read military strategy with Elder Sister and studied the books of sages with my teacher! I’m not stupid! If someone hadn’t secretly harmed them, how could all the Bai family men have died without exception? Even sparing Little Seventeenth Brother, isn’t this cutting grass and eliminating roots to kill them all?!”

Looking at the clear brightness that once existed in Bai Jinse’s eyes, now replaced by a composure unlike that of a young child, she pressed her lips tightly, her heart unbearably sour. She raised her hand to touch Bai Jinse’s head, but in the end couldn’t say anything…

A child who should have been the most carefree and tender young one had seemingly grown up overnight due to the sudden loss of grandfather, father, and brothers. She didn’t know whether to feel joy or sorrow.

“Little Seven…” Bai Qingyan bent down and curved her index finger to wipe away Bai Jinse’s tears, saying softly: “Mother, grandmother, aunts, and many sisters… we will seek justice for the Bai family and will all protect Little Seven to grow up safely! The road ahead is long, and the future of our Bai family rests in the hands of us sisters. There’s a saying: ‘Don’t look down on a poor youth!’ When you grow up… Elder Sister will let you see who calls the shots in this Great Jin Kingdom!”

Bai Jinse looked at Bai Qingyan with half-understanding and nodded heavily: “Little Seven understands!”

Seeing Nanny Qin from beside Dong Shi entering Changshou Courtyard from the corner of her eye, Bai Qingyan straightened up and looked toward Nanny Qin: “Nanny…”

After Nanny Qin bowed to Bai Qingyan, she said: “First Miss, Seventh Miss, people from our old home in Shouyang have arrived! The Crown Prince’s wife asked me to come and inform the Grand Princess. If Grand Princess is unwell, the Crown Prince’s wife will find an excuse to have them pay their respects another day, and first have Steward Hao take them down to settle in.”