Threads Chapter 388-Making Good 1

“That went as well as could be expected,” Cai Renxiang said.

“Indeed!” Gan Guangli boomed. “Let us hope the private talks with the Bai and the Meng prove just as fruitful.” His smile was forced.

Cai Renxiang rubbed her forehead. “We will be relying on your connection, Ling Qi.”

“It is not just my connection,” Ling Qi corrected. Bai Meizhen was Renxiang’s friend, too.

Hanyi fidgeted at her side. “Like, everybody is friends, right? And we beat the bad guys. I kinda get why the foreign people are upset, but what’s the big deal? Big Sis didn’t even let anybody die!”

There had been casualties among the work crews. Not many, but some.

“It would be easy like that, would it not?” Cai Renxiang almost sounded wistful.

“Even if Bai Meizhen feels that way, she is representing the Bai clan, not herself,” Ling Qi explained. “And any assault on their members will make them upset. They need to be seen demanding apologies and repayment.”

“Bai Suzhen could, perhaps, force the Bai to do otherwise, though I do not think even she is so inclined, but it would merely breed resentment. Similarly, the Cai clan’s reputation is tarnished if we allow harm to come to a guest without reparation,” Cai Renxiang continued.

“So, negotiations.” Ling Qi said. “We must try to find recompense which will satisfy the Bai without further building resentment and rancor among the Meng.”

“Ugh. It’s a good thing Big Sis understands this stuff,” Hanyi huffed.

She tried to imagine Hanyi in charge of negotiations. It was bleakly amusing.

The Meng party were the first to arrive. It was small, with just Meng Deming and Meng Dan.

Meng Deming was resplendent in his fine green robes and with not a hair out of place, groomed like a sagely minister. However, she didn’t miss the new white hairs in his beard and peeking out from under his cap, nor the new wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

Meng Dan looked exhausted, for all he tried to hide it. The skin under his eyes was dark, and his fingers tapped anxiously on his hip. His eyes met hers, and he swiftly looked away after taking her in.

“Lady Cai,” Meng Deming greeted stiffly. “I am honored to be received by you.”

“You remain the ancient and honored Meng clan,” Cai Renxiang reassured. “Please sit.”

He nodded once and gestured to Meng Dan, who followed him to the left side of the table. “Though my mind was ensorcelled, my most sincere apologies remain.”

“I accept them, but these negotiations are not about that issue. In the end, my mother will determine what is owed.”

“… I felt her passage in the wind and the thunder in the mountains, and I saw the streaking star going north,” Meng Deming said thickly. Ling Qi felt a pit in her stomach; it did not feel right to see such an old man close to tears. “Our fate hangs upon the efforts of the loyal.”

“I am confident,” Meng Dan said, although he did not sound so, “that the Duchess’ light will undo all deception and that this conspiracy was of limited scope. Every interrogation has indicated such. This was but a small group of radicals hoping to force the greater clan’s hand.”

“Blasted young fools! Exacerbating their grandfather into such a state, abusing their sacred stewardship of the dying! What were they thinking?!” Meng Deming’s breath blew out his whiskers, and the armrests of his chair exploded into sawdust and powder under his grip, the air wavering like water.

Silence crept back into the room as the old man brought himself under control.

“My apologies for this untoward display.”

“It is understandable. I would like to hear the reports of these interrogations, even though you only owe them to my honored mother.”

“You will have them,” he vowed.

“Let us focus on the Bai for now,” Cai Renxiang said. “Fortunately, the harm was small, and Lady Bai Meizhen is calm minded.”

Meng Deming shook his head despairingly, but did not reply.

The Bai arrived shortly thereafter. Meizhen was at their head, but with her was Xia Anxi, Xiao Fen, and a pressured sensation, a crawling shadow that Ling Qi suspected was the Senior Bai Ambassador’s viper, acting for Meizhen as Shu Yue had done for Ling Qi, and choosing to be unsubtle about it.

Ling Qi felt that attention on her, and she calmly turned her head, gesturing for Hanyi to help her drink from her water.

Bai Meizhen’s gaze flicked over everyone as they rose to greet her. “It pleases me that our allies have extended this invitation to promptly put to rest the concerns of the Bai clan.” Her voice was icy and formal. Ling Qi didn’t blame her. She was not simply their friend now, but the representative of her clan.

“It pleases me that the Bai clan has accepted our Cai clan’s invitation to lay this matter to rest ere it becomes a grudge.”

“For the rebellious fools which harmed your kinsman, I can only offer my deepest apologies and regrets.” Meng Deming bowed low, his wide sleeves nearly sweeping the floor.

It hurt him to bow to a Bai, she could tell. But Meng Deming was not a man unwilling to swallow his pride for the sake of his clan.

Bai Meizhen regarded his back coldly, and she gestured for the others with her to sit. “I hear your words, and I acknowledge that these were the actions of rebels.”

Ling Qi felt some relief at that statement given the famous intractability of the Bai clan. Meizhen must have worked hard to be able to make that acknowledgement.

“But a price must be paid all the same,” Bai Meizhen continued, sitting down, allowing the rest of them to do so as well. “There are living prisoners. Once you have wrung the information from them, the Bai clan would like to receive no less than three to be made examples of in their punishment and execution. We will, of course, give a binding oath to seek no cultivation secrets and to destroy the bodies afterward.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Ling Qi saw a muscle in Meng Dan’s cheek jump, and although Meng Deming was not so open, his qi churned. Death at the hands of the Bai clan, likely after much pain and humiliation, was not an easy idea to accept.

Cai Renxiang, Gan Guangli, and she had spoken over the last two days as well, brainstorming other possibilities that the Meng clan could offer in recompense. They had proposed some to Bai Meizhen in the hopes of blunting the Bai clan’s own proposals.

“There is also the matter of trade tolls we spoke of, Lady Bai,” Ling Qi spoke up. “Were your seniors amenable to the idea?”

“It has merit. A lifting of all tolls on the movement of Bai goods purchased and sold through Meng lands would be a proper show of contrition for this unsightly assault,” Bai Meizhen allowed. “Ambassador Xilai has suggested a term of no less than fifty years with an additional fifty years at half the current rate.”