When the moment to leave truly arrived, everyone looked back in silence at the mansion that had once been bustling with visitors, their eyes full of reluctance.
Bai Li glanced over her family. Her father, Bai Zongren, stood in the center. On his left, in order, were her grandmother Li Shi, her mother Li Mingyue, her second aunt Lady Mu with her eight-year-old daughter Bai Yu beside her, and her third aunt Lady Yang, with her six-year-old son Bai Liulang nestled at her side.
Next came their cousin’s wife Mu Shi and her daughter Bai Yue.
On Bai Zongren’s right, in order, stood his second brother Bai Zongrui and third brother Bai Zongze.
Beyond them were Bai Zongren’s eldest son, eighteen-year-old Bai Dalang; Bai Zongrui’s sons Bai Sanlang and Bai Silang; and Bai Zongze’s son Bai Wulang.
Behind them stood their cousin Bai Zongshen and his son Bai Hu.
Behind all these masters followed the old steward Bai Fu and his family of four.
In this moment, the Bai family members’ eyes brimmed with tears. They had been masters of a great household just the day before, and now they had fallen to being prisoners whose very lives hung in the balance. Overcome with grief, they wept uncontrollably.
Bai Yue and her mother wailed aloud, refusing to move despite the officers’ repeated urging, and only behaved after receiving a lash of the whip.
Bai Li and Li Mingyue supported Grandmother Li Shi between them, one on each side, measuring the ground beneath their feet step by step.
The escorting officers had a cart—a flatbed with no enclosure—loaded with the grain they would eat on the journey of exile, along with pots, bowls, and pans, and the clothing and bedding for the ten officers.
One drove the cart, four officers sat on it, and five brought up the rear.
Bai Zongren walked behind the cart with his head held high and his chest out. His tall, upright figure still gave off a sense of security, entirely unaffected by his prisoner’s garb.
Many commoners lined the streets to watch, but they did not throw rotten eggs or spoiled vegetables.
On the contrary, many of them carried baskets filled with fresh eggs, vegetables, and fruit, as well as cornbread, steamed buns, baked flatbreads, and other food.
They had come to give food, fearing that the general they revered would suffer from hunger and cold on the road.
They neither understood nor cared about the court’s affairs. They only believed that General Bai would never commit treason by colluding with the enemy.
One old man begged the officer leading the escort on the cart, and only after receiving permission did he dare push forward to press food into the hands of the Bai household.
Bai Yue was handed a greasy baked flatbread—the finest food in the eyes of the poor, rich with oil and made of fine flour.
But she, fastidious about cleanliness, threw it aside at once. Looking at the grease on her hand, she turned and glared furiously at the old woman who had given it to her.
The old woman was stunned by this reaction. She had only taken pity on the girl because she looked about the same age as her own granddaughter, with such delicate fair skin. A few flatbreads might just save her life.
She had never imagined that her kindness would provoke someone’s anger.
The old woman stood there helpless, like a child who had done something wrong, her eyes full of heartache as she looked at the flatbread now covered in dust on the ground. Bai Li’s temper flared.
She went over to comfort the old woman, then said sharply to Bai Yue, “The old woman’s kindness, and this is how you treat it! When you have nothing to eat, you’ll learn just how precious food is!”
“Why are you yelling at me? Look, my hand is all dirty!”
Bai Yue looked at her cousin with an aggrieved expression. She truly hadn’t meant to make trouble—she simply couldn’t stand it!
Bai Li couldn’t communicate with someone so clueless. She patted the old woman’s hand soothingly and, in doing so, slipped a corner of silver into her palm.
By the time the old woman came to her senses, mouth agape to shout, Bai Li had already walked on ahead.
Old Madam Li Shi and Li Mingyue were being loaded down with gifts pressed into their arms by the crowd, paying no attention to what was happening behind them.
Bai Li’s aunts and cousins-by-marriage all had relatives from their natal families coming to see them off with gifts. Li Mingyue’s family was at the border, and Old Madam Li’s family lived far away in the county town, so only this mother- and daughter-in-law pair had no family to send them off.
Amid the bustling crowd, the yamen runners, fearing trouble, hurriedly drove everyone back.
Suddenly, a sharp voice drew everyone’s attention.
“Your family are prisoners now. If you know what’s good for you, you won’t drag my daughter down with you. Hand over the betrothal card at once and void the marriage between our children. From now on, your sons marry, our daughters marry—each family goes its own way!”
Li Mingyue’s lips trembled as she stared at her once-dear friend, Lady Ma, wife of an official in the Ministry of Rites. The fawning face she’d worn back when she’d chased after her eldest son’s favor—compared to now, it was heaven and earth apart.
“It’s not that I’m unwilling to give it—it’s that you’re bullying us too far!
Why didn’t you come to our house and settle this beforehand? Blocking us on the road like this—you clearly want to destroy my eldest son’s reputation!”
“That’s right, this is utterly vicious!”
Two of the aunts spoke up in their defense, and Li Mingyue shot her sisters-in-law a grateful look.
Bai Li’s cold gaze fixed on the young girl hiding behind Lady Hu. Sixteen years old, pretty features, blushing cheeks—this was Hu Die, her eldest brother Bai Dalang’s fiancée.
She usually seemed gentle and sweet, but now she kept prodding her mother in front of her with her hand, impatience lurking in her eyes.
Hah. So this was her cheap eldest brother’s “moonlight.” Let’s see how he handles it!
Bai Dalang, weighed down in cangue and chains, gripped the restraints binding his hands so hard his knuckles turned white.
He looked at his fiancée Hu Die—the girl who was supposed to marry him at year’s end—with shame and heartbreak, and said in a trembling voice, “Die’er, could we speak in private?”
Hu Die frowned and looked away, silently backing up two steps, regarding him with the disgust one might show a pile of dog dung.
Pressing a handkerchief to her nose, she said, “Whatever you have to say, say it here. Once you’re done, we’ll part on good terms!”
“Hah! Part on good terms, indeed!”
Bai Dalang spat out a mouthful of blood, his body swaying.
“Dalang!”
“Big Brother!”
The Bai family rushed forward anxiously to steady him, but every one of them was weighed down in chains.
Bai Li hurried to his side, propping him up with her arm so he wouldn’t collapse.
“For a sniveling opportunist, is this worth it?”
“You… who are you calling a sniveling opportunist? If it were you, you wouldn’t marry an exiled convict either, would you?!”
The people around them pointed and whispered. Unable to bear the humiliation, Hu Die demanded sharply of Bai Li.
If it were her, she would make the same choice. What right did Bai Li have to judge her!
“If I promise someone a lifetime together, I will never leave or forsake them!”
The words spilled from Bai Li’s lips, unbidden—a truth from her heart.
Heaven knew she’d died in the Apocalypse without ever even having been in love. What she said now was simply the conviction she held inside.
“Well said—never leave or forsake! Worthy of a daughter of the Bai family. Mingyue, give her the betrothal card. Someone like this doesn’t deserve to enter the Bai family’s door!”
With the man of the house having spoken, Li Mingyue could hardly insist otherwise.
Through tear-filled eyes, she looked at her upright, honorable eldest son, who returned her gaze with a steady one.
“Mother, give her the betrothal card. From now on, bridges are bridges and roads are roads—each goes their own way!”
A flash of resolve crossed Bai Dalang’s eyes as he spoke in a cold voice.
Li Mingyue wiped away her tears, pulled Hu Die’s birth-date card out of her bundle, and handed it to Lady Ma.
Lady Ma snatched it quickly, and as she returned Bai Dalang’s birth-date card, her hand loosened and the card dropped to the ground!
Wearing an anxious expression, she hurried forward to pick it up—and stepped on it with her foot!