Chapter 58: Atonement_1

Chun Tao originally listened to Bai Qingyan’s heavy, suppressed sobs coming intermittently from inside the room. She cried like rain but didn’t dare to go in and comfort her. Now, hearing Bai Qingyan’s eerie laughter, she felt as restless as an ant on a hot pan, unsure of what to do.

Chun Xing heard the sound. She hurriedly dressed, buttoning her top while rushing out of the side room, and asked Chun Tao, “What’s wrong with the young lady?! Why are you standing outside the door instead of going in to check on her?!”

Chun Tao wiped away her tears, grabbed Chun Xing’s hand, and said, “You stay here. Don’t let anyone in! I’ll go get the Third Young Lady!”

“Okay!” Chun Xing’s face turned pale with fear as she nodded repeatedly.

Chun Tao ran through the snow, slipping and sliding along the way, heading straight for Bai Jintong’s courtyard. As soon as she entered the yard, she knelt at the main room’s door and cried out, “Third Young Lady! Third Young Lady, please go see our Eldest Young Lady quickly!”

Bai Jintong, who had just finished her morning exercises, heard the cry and lifted the curtain to step out, “What’s wrong with the Eldest Young Lady?!”

Chun Tao’s eyes were swollen from crying, “Please, Third Young Lady, go check on her!”

Bai Jintong’s face turned pale as she hurried towards the courtyard gate without even bothering with her cloak.

The Green Bamboo Pavilion, where Bai Jinxiu resided, was very close to Bai Jintong’s Bitong Garden. Habitually an early riser, Bai Jinxiu was leaning by the window reading when she heard the commotion. She quickly instructed Mrs. Liu to stay in the Green Bamboo Pavilion to look after Qingshu, then went out to see what was happening.

As soon as Qingshu stepped out of the courtyard gate, she saw Chun Tao and one of Bai Jintong’s maids hurrying towards Qinghui Courtyard.

Qingshu quickly returned to report to Bai Jinxiu, “Second Young Lady, I saw Chun Tao following closely behind the Third Young Lady, heading towards the Eldest Young Lady’s place.”

Bai Jinxiu’s grip on her book tightened as she thought of Bai Qingyan’s illness and her recent busy days. A cold shiver ran down her spine. She threw off the blanket, “Qingshu, dress me. I have to go to the Eldest Young Lady!”

“Second Young Lady, it’s still snowing outside. Your head injury…”

“It’s fine, I’m much better now! Just get me a thicker fur hat!” Bai Jinxiu’s anxiety for the Eldest Young Lady made her impatient. Qingshu dared not argue further and quickly prepared a cloak and hat, then helped Bai Jinxiu make her way through the snow towards Qinghui Courtyard.

As Bai Jinxiu reached the gate of Qinghui Courtyard, she heard Bai Jintong calling softly at the door, “Eldest Young Lady, it’s me, Jintong. May I come in?”

Getting no response from Bai Qingyan, Bai Jintong dared not enter without permission. She turned to Chun Tao and asked, “What happened to the Eldest Young Lady?!”

Chun Tao knew it was a serious matter. She bit her lip and shook her head with tears in her eyes.

“Jintong, what happened to the Eldest Young Lady?!” Holding onto Qingshu’s arm, Bai Jinxiu’s hand began to sweat. She walked quickly to the eaves, “Did her illness act up again?!”

“Second Sister, you… why are you here too?!” Bai Jintong quickly took a step forward to support Bai Jinxiu.

Then the room’s sliding door creaked open. Chun Tao hurried to lift the curtain, revealing Bai Qingyan, whose white inner garments were half stained with blood, standing between the two doors.

Bai Jinxiu’s legs went weak, and she almost collapsed, “Eldest Young Lady!”

Bai Qingyan’s pale face was as calm as still water. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her messy hair had been combed neatly. Her aura was like a violent undercurrent, sharp and menacing as if she were a demon from hell.

“Bai Jinxiu, Bai Jintong, come in. Everyone else… wait outside the gate of Qinghui Courtyard. No one is to approach!”@@novelbin@@

“Eldest Young Lady, your clothes…”

She walked towards the inner room first, “It’s not my blood. Come in.”

Bai Jinxiu and Bai Jintong had the servants leave the courtyard and stand guard outside the door. Holding each other’s hands, they entered the main room and saw Bai Qingyan standing with her back to them in front of the stove. Bai Jinxiu called softly, “Eldest Young Lady…”

Bai Qingyan closed her sore eyes. She had returned to life to protect her family and her sisters. So, she couldn’t collapse, couldn’t go mad, couldn’t fall. No matter how much hatred she felt, she couldn’t let it disrupt her plans and seek reckless revenge.

Having lived through the events of a previous life, she was a daughter of the Bai Clan of the Duke of Zhen’s mansion. She had to hold on, to see those traitors and villains damned to hell, paying for their sins against her entire clan.

After a long pause, she said hoarsely, “Jintong, close the door. I have something to say.”

Bai Jintong closed the door and walked with Bai Jinxiu to stand behind Bai Qingyan, “Eldest Young Lady.”

She raised her eyes to look at five blood-stained bamboo slips on the desk. Her breath was hot and erratic. She closed her eyes and said, “I didn’t tell you before because I hadn’t confirmed the news…”

Bai Qingyan turned around, looking at the tense and bewildered faces of Bai Jinxiu and Bai Jintong. Choking with sobs, she said, “Grandfather, my father, second uncle, third uncle, fourth uncle, fifth uncle… along with seventeen sons of our Bai family, all… perished in battle in the southern border.”

Bai Jinxiu’s eyes widened, and she nearly fainted, feeling as if the sky had collapsed. The wound on her forehead throbbed, the blood pulsing as if it would break through the scab.

“How could… all of them… all of them…” Bai Jintong’s tears flowed uncontrollably, choked by her sobs, “Eldest Young Lady, the news must be wrong!”

In their previous life, the news also came, and the Bai family couldn’t believe it.

She walked to the desk, placing her hand on the five bamboo slips. The veins on the back of her hand bulged, her unhappy emotions almost bursting out, yet she stubbornly swallowed them back. Having lived two lifetimes, how could she be so easily defeated?

“This is the record of the march and battles by the historian who accompanied the Bai family army.” She picked up two bamboo slips. “Fang Yan, the commander of the Bai family army’s Tiger Camp, Shen Qingzhu, and our guard Wu Zhe risked their lives to save these five bamboo slips. Shen Qingzhu’s whereabouts are now unknown… Fang Yan and Wu Zhe have died. The blood on these slips is Wu Zhe’s, Fang Yan’s, and also that of our hundreds of thousands of Bai family soldiers.”

Bai Qingyan placed one bamboo slip in Bai Jinxiu’s hand and another in Bai Jintong’s hand.

Looking at her two weeping sisters, she said, “Let it be known that our Bai family men did not die by the blades of foreign enemies, but from the Jin Emperor’s suspicion, and at the hands of our own Jin Kingdom!”

Bai Jinxiu’s tears fell like broken strings. Trembling, she opened the bamboo slip in her hand.

Bai Jintong also quickly opened her bamboo slip, scanning it with tear-filled eyes.

After reading one, Bai Jintong burst into tears. She staggered back to the desk, opened another slip, her entire body trembling, crying pitifully.

Bai Qingyan stood stiffly by the fire basin. Even though she had cried herself to madness, her eyes still ached with tears welling up. She felt cold to the bone, shivering uncontrollably, even standing so close to the fire couldn’t warm her.

Standing at the desk, Bai Jinxiu picked up the bamboo slip, desperately gasping for breath in her sorrow, clinging to the slip as she collapsed to the ground, “Little Seventeen… he’s only ten! He’s only ten years old!”

Holding back her tears, Bai Jintong turned her grief into rage. Her eyes burned with fire, fists clenching so hard they cracked, as she turned and stormed out.