Chapter 40
Bai Qingyan closed her eyes, and it took her a while to calm down. She picked a piece from the chess box.
Chun Tao and Chen Qingsheng bought flour figurines. After chatting briefly downstairs, they hurried upstairs to serve their young lady.
“Big Miss, I bought many flour figurines, and I got one for you too! Look…” Chun Tao bent over with a bright smile, holding a small figurine in front of Bai Qingyan. “Big Miss, look at this general on horseback. Doesn’t he look like you? So majestic!”
Bai Qingyan looked at the small figurine of the general on horseback in Chun Tao’s hand, a mix of feelings swirling in her heart.
Nowadays, her body needed a few more years if she wanted to don armor and go to battle again.
Night fell upon Lincheng. After the Bell Tower lit its lanterns, each shop followed suit, lighting the long street with red lanterns, enveloping Dadu City, covered in white snow, in a warm glow.
Tea houses and restaurants were brightly lit and prosperous, their doors busy with people coming and going, bustling with noise.
Chen Qingsheng saw an elmwood carriage painted with the Bai family’s emblem of the Duke of Zhen. After passing the city gate inspection, it slowly made its way down the long street, rushing towards Manjiang Tower.
Chen Qingsheng rushed upstairs, lifting his hem, and informed Bai Qingyan, who was eating wontons, “Big Miss, the carriage has entered the city!”
“I know; you may go!” She lifted her spirits, pressing her lips with a handkerchief, and ordered, “Chun Tao, open all the partitions.”
Chun Tao responded and pushed open all the carved flower partitions that separated the corridor on the second floor.
This cousin, though she hadn’t faced him in her previous life, she’d heard plenty about his deeds. The reputation the Bai family had accumulated was utterly squandered by him.
Bai Qingyan picked up a teacup, gripping it tightly in her hand, her eyes sharp and cold.
In this lifetime, this cousin had not yet fallen into King Liang’s grasp. She didn’t know his character.
If he had a good nature, then she would guide him onto the right path with all her heart.
If he was inherently malicious, she would seize the opportunity to trample on him to enhance the Bai family’s reputation. That way, he would still have contributed to the Bai family in some way.
“Miss, your cloak!” Chun Yan brought the cloak to drape over Bai Qingyan.
Chun Tao replaced the charcoal in the silver-plated plum blossom hand warmer and handed it to Bai Qingyan.
She held the hand warmer, standing under the hot red lanterns in the corridor. Seeing Chen Qingsheng talking to Lu Ping downstairs, she looked towards the distant carriage of the Duke of Zhen, her eyes clear.
Inside the carriage, a beautiful woman lifted the curtain with her hand, gazing at the brightly lit Dadu City outside the window, her heart pounding in awe of the bustling scene.
“Son, we’ve finally… entered Dadu City!” The woman looked back at her son, who lay on the long seat in the carriage, his head propped on one hand, chewing a straw. “Once we enter the Duke’s Mansion, your name will be under the second wife’s name. You will become a young master of the Duke’s Mansion! They say there are seventeen young masters in the Duke’s Mansion, and you will be the eighteenth!”
Bai Qingxuan pulled the straw from his mouth, propped himself up with one hand, and squinted his eyes. “I don’t want to go to any battlefield or be the eighteenth. I just like beauties. Mom, do you think the maids in the Duke’s Mansion are all very beautiful?”
“Watch your mouth, you little ancestor!” The woman hurriedly lowered the curtain, staring at Bai Qingxuan with a pale face. “Once you’re in the Duke’s Mansion, you must control your bad habits! The Duke’s Mansion is not like the village. If you mess up the life of a tenant’s daughter, we can settle it with silver! But if your grandmother, the Eldest Princess, or the Duke finds out you harmed a maid in the mansion, your leg won’t be spared!”
Hearing this, Bai Qingxuan, biting on the straw, laid back down, crossing his legs. “Then what’s the fun in returning to the Duke’s Mansion? I’d rather stay in the village!”
“Can’t you have some ambition…”
Before the woman finished speaking, the carriage suddenly stopped, causing her to fall and hit her head inside the carriage, crying out in pain.
Bai Qingxuan, in pain from the fall, spit out the straw in his mouth. He didn’t help his mother but pushed open the carved wooden door of the carriage, grabbed the coachman by the hair, and smashed his head against the rail, angrily shouting, “You blind dog, how are you driving? Trying to kill me on purpose?!”
The coachman’s head immediately bled. When he saw Bai Qingxuan’s fierce expression as if he wanted to eat him, he fell off the carriage, knelt, and begged for mercy. “Master, please spare me! Master, please spare me! It wasn’t my fault; a child suddenly rushed out. I was afraid of hurting someone!”
Bai Qingyan, standing upstairs, gripped the hand warmer until her knuckles turned white. She was instantly filled with rage. How could her uncle have such a creature for a son?
Even knowing the evil deeds Bai Qingxuan had done in his previous life, she hadn’t expected him to be so violent and cruel at such a young age.
At that moment, Bai Qingyan felt it was a terrible mistake to bring such a person back to the Duke’s Mansion. She should have ordered Shen Qingzhu to kill him upon her rebirth, leaving no hidden troubles.
Bai Qingyan’s killing intent inadvertently leaked, startling Chun Tao. “Big Miss?”Upd@te by n0vgo .c0
“We’re going downstairs…” Bai Qingyan gave Bai Qingxuan a deep look before turning around.
Kneeling on the carriage, Bai Qingxuan glanced at the child protected in the old woman’s arms, who was crying in fear, then jumped down from the carriage.
The coachman, holding his bleeding head, knelt to make way for Bai Qingxuan, afraid of being affected.
Bai Qingxuan walked towards the old woman and child. Looking down from above, his smile was eerie and sinister.
“Boy… cough cough cough… the boy was picking herbs for me. Cough cough… afraid that the wheels would crush the medicine wrapped in cowhide paper, he offended you. Please forgive him…” The frail old woman was about to leave with her grandson, but as soon as she stood up, Bai Qingxuan kicked her down. The child in her arms fell to the ground and rolled away. The old woman, panicking, called out the child’s name but was unable to get up before Bai Qingxuan mercilessly stomped on her back. She spat out blood and coughed violently.
The dirty-faced child, holding the herbs, cried loudly, “Grandmother! Grandmother!”
Bai Qingxuan used all his strength to stomp on the old woman. Leaning down with a face like a demon, he said, “Because the little master picked herbs for you, I have to get hurt for nothing? Who gave you the gall! I am a young master of the Duke’s Mansion. If I’m injured, your life and that of your entire family wouldn’t be enough to compensate!”
Bai Qingxuan’s eyes were blood-red and violent, scaring the onlookers around them into stepping back.
Bai Qingyan, having descended to the last step, heard Bai Qingxuan’s words, and her anger flared. How could she have thought of guiding such a being onto the right path?
Bai Qingyan, face dark with rage, called out, “Chen Qingsheng!”
Chen Qingsheng, who had some martial skills, immediately understood when he saw Bai Qingyan’s stern expression. In three moves, he had Bai Qingxuan pinned against the carriage.