The Eldest Legitimate Daughter is Both Beautiful and Valiant (ELDBBV) - Chapter 86

“Protect Fourth Madam!” Dong-shi’s eyes widened as she cried out.

Xiao Rongyan’s guards moved swiftly, grabbing Fourth Madam Wang-shi just as her head was an inch away from the coffin.

Bai Qingyan felt the hairs on her body all stand on end, as if her heart had been splashed with boiling oil. Only when she saw Fourth Aunt safely caught by Xiao Rongyan’s guards did she slowly unclench her hands inside her sleeves.

Dong-shi rushed forward and tightly embraced Fourth Madam, choking with sobs, “Fourth Sister-in-law! You mustn’t do anything foolish!”

“That damned Prince Xin! That heartless beast! What right does he have to treat the Bai family like this?! What right does he have to treat my son like this?! Heavens above… Are you blind?! Why didn’t you let that bastard Prince Xin die on the battlefield?! Why not let him die!”

The frail Fourth Madam, who’s husband and son were both dead, now feared nothing. What did it matter if he was imperial bl00d? What did it matter if he was the Emperor’s legitimate son? She had already resolved to die, could she not at least curse him once to her heart’s content?!

“Mother!”

“Mother!”

The Fifth and Sixth Misses threw themselves forward, kneeling to hug Fourth Madam’s legs, weeping.

“Mother, we have already lost Grandfather and Father! We can’t lose you too!” Sixth Miss Bai Jinhua choked through her tears.

Fifth Miss Bai Jinzhao cried out, “Even though my sister and I aren’t your biological daughters, we were raised in your arms since we were young. You are our mother… if you follow Father and Younger Brother now, what will become of me and Younger Sister?!”

Fourth Madam Wang-shi lowered her head to look at the pair of twin concubine-born daughters clinging to her legs. Her heart softened. Her body went limp, and she collapsed, hugging them into her arms and wailing bitterly.

That day, when Prince Xin returned to the capital escorting the coffins, he had used caskets as thin as paper for the Duke and the young masters of the Bai family. The seventeenth son of the Bai family had not even been tall enough to reach the saddle when he left for battle. He died for the kingdom… Yet, that black-hearted Prince Xin had not even had the young master’s severed head stitched back on, deliberately humiliating them by bringing it back like that. He was utterly crooked!

Even a ten-year-old child still fought to the death for the country, dying so miserably, with no food to eat… His stomach was filled only with dirt and tree roots!

Since the Bai family had guarded the Jin dynasty, no enemy dared invade, and the people had lived in peace and prosperity. Whose child had ever gone hungry?! Even for the beggars by the roadside… They had likely never eaten dirt and tree roots.

Yet Prince Xin, an imperial son, a fully grown man the size of a horse, was so vicious, so cowardly! And he pushed all the blame onto the loyal martyrs who gave their lives for the country!

Such a man was not only shameless, vicious, cowardly, and selfish, he was a truly despicable scoundrel without the slightest sense of shame.

Bai Qingyan clenched her teeth tightly. She had already cried, already gone mad with grief. She thought that after hearing the military records, her heart would be numb from pain. However, her chest felt once again as if it had been scalded by a ladle of boiling oil. Hatred flared violently within her.

With tears in her eyes, she took the bamboo slips from her mother, Second Aunt, Bai Jintong, and Bai Jinzhi and cradled them in her arms. She knelt solemnly before the Bai family’s mourning hall and bowed her head to the ground.

When she looked up again, her eyes were like blazing fire, and the murderous aura surrounding her was like the devil returning from a mountain of corpses and sea of bl00d, “My grandfather, father, uncles, and younger brothers were wronged and driven to unjust deaths by treacherous and shameless men. Today, before the loyal souls of the Bai family, I, Bai Qingyan, vow in front of the loyal souls of the Bai family today to fight for justice for the departed souls of the Bai family. If I do not make Liu Huanzhang and Prince Xin pay with their lives, and make the heavens shine clear and just, may I die ten thousand deaths without rest!”

With that said, Bai Qingyan stood up decisively, straightened her back, and stepped out through the main gates of the Zhenguo Duke’s residence.

Xiao Rongyan’s deep and dark gaze followed Bai Qingyan’s resolute figure, his eyes narrowing slightly… The Eldest Miss of the Bai family was still that bl00d-soaked woman who once rode a fierce horse and cut down the enemy. To speak of demanding Prince Xin’s life, aside from her, there was likely no second person in the entire capital who dared say so.

“Eldest Miss Bai, where are you taking the military records?” Prince Qi asked anxiously.

Standing beneath the plaque of the Zhenguo Duke’s residence, dressed in mourning robes that fluttered in the wind, Bai Qingyan turned her head, gritting her teeth and said,
“To the palace gates, to strike the drum! To cry out for the injustice done to the Bai family! To seek justice for my wronged grandfather, father, uncles, and brothers!”

Prince Qi’s eyes widened as he realised that Eldest Miss Bai… was going to confront his Father the Emperor!

“Eldest Sister! I’ll go with you!” Bai Jintong, tear-streaked and gripping her mourning robes, stepped over the threshold, her expression resolute.

Bai Jinxiu, her eyes bloodshot, stood up with gritted teeth, “I’ll go too!”

“I’m going too!”

Bai Jinzhi had barely finished speaking when the voice of the Princess Dowager thundered from behind…

“Ah Bao, stop right there!”

At these words, she clutched the bamboo slips tighter. Her fingers instantly went cold, and her body froze.

People could become indestructible because of bl00d ties and could also become unbearably weak because of them. Even an iron will and iron bones could be shattered by familial affection.

But now, in front of more than 20 coffins of the Bai family, she would not retreat for her grandmother.

Even if her grandmother wanted to stop her, she no longer had the strength to turn back the tide!

In broad daylight, before the countless eyes of the people of the capital, could her grandmother, the Princess Dowager of the imperial Lin family, still confine her to the inner courtyard?!

She was disappointed and heartbroken that her grandmother the Princess Dowager, after hearing the bamboo slips and knowing how her husband, sons, and grandsons had died so tragically, knowing that her little Seventeenth grandson had been beheaded and disembowelled, still wanted to protect the Lin family’s imperial power…

She turned her head, her eyes stained red as if soaked in bl00d, deep and unfathomable, and looked toward the Princess Dowager. Her voice became very soft, “Grandmother, are you going to stop me?!”

Seeing the disappointment and guardedness in the eyes of the granddaughter she raised herself, and seeing the third granddaughter’s body taut with restrained fury, the Princess Dowager was momentarily speechless.

But she was, after all, the Princess Dowager. Though she was old and her body was failing, the dignified and solemn aura that came naturally without anger had only grown more profound with age. Even with a haggard face, her silver hair was combed meticulously and her back remained perfectly straight.

The Princess Dowager’s eyes were red from weeping. Clutching her tiger-head cane and supported by Aunty Jiang, she finally walked toward Bai Qingyan and met her gaze. Her usually gentle voice now carried a hoarse undertone, “How can you, a young girl from the inner chambers, be the first to charge ahead alone to fight for the Bai family’s great injustice?! I am the wife of the Zhenguo Duke! I am not yet dead! My own husband! My own sons and grandsons! Even if I must sacrifice this flesh and bl00d, I will still seek justice for them!”

It was beyond Bai Qingyan’s expectation, but it was completely reasonable.

Bai Qingyan’s eyes turned even redder, her heart slowly softening. Compared to them losing fathers and brothers, the one who was truly pitiful… was her grandmother, the Princess Dowager. In a single night, her husband, sons, and grandsons were all buried in Nanjiang, and the perpetrators were from her own maternal clan.

It was said that in life there were three great sorrows: to lose one’s father in youth, one’s husband in middle age, and one’s son in old age.

In the end, they were all pitiful people.

She took two steps forward, supporting the Princess Dowager. Choking with emotion, she said, “Grandmother… We’ll go with you!”