Chapter 50: 49. The Two Surnamed Whites (Please Follow for Updates!)

49. The Two Surnamed Whites (Please Follow for Updates!)

"Father..."

Bai Xiue looked at the man whose face was weathered, who was clearly only in his thirties yet already hunched and thin as an old man, and two lines of tears immediately streamed from her eyes.

If this home did not truly have someone she still cherished, no matter who tried to persuade her, how could she possibly have turned back?

Her father was the only person she still cared about in Bai Family Grave.

Bai Xiue's father did not bear the surname Bai; he was a refugee who had come here and married into the family.

For all these years, it was her father who managed everything inside and out, raising Bai Xiue to adulthood.

"Go, go, go!"

The old father deliberately lowered his voice, pushing Bai Xiue toward the outside while fearfully turning his head to look back at their own courtyard—he worried about something, and that very thing happened.

As the man pushed Bai Xiue, they had not taken a few steps outward when they heard a clatter of a door behind them.

Immediately following, a tall, broad man walked out from the main hall.

That person, wearing a white undergarment, stood on the steps at the hall's doorway, unbuttoning his trousers to urinate right onto the steps below.

At that moment, he spotted the Bai father pushing Bai Xiue outside, immediately pulled up his trousers, and shouted at the Bai father: "Old man, what are you doing?!

Who is that woman?!"

While speaking, the young man, who looked about Bai Xiue's age, slipped on his cloth shoes, jumped down the steps, kicked open the courtyard gate woven from branches, and in a few strides caught up to the Bai father and daughter—

He leaned in for a closer look, saw Bai Xiue's face, and his expression instantly turned pale with horror; he stumbled backward in fright, nearly collapsing onto his bottom!

"Y-you—you—g-g-ghost!"

"Oh heavens!"

"Mother! Mother! A ghost has appeared!"

"Bai Xiue has returned as a ghost to claim a life!"

The young man scrambled back into the main hall; as he let out a scream like a slaughtered pig, another woman, who appeared quite charming, emerged from the hall, her clothes half-draped and her long hair swept back from her forehead.

The young man cowered behind the woman, stealing glances at Bai Xiue again and again.

"She and Mother... they actually live in the same room?" Bai Xiue looked at the man and woman who had just emerged from the hall, one after the other, her eyes filled with disbelief as she looked at her father beside her.

The old father's expression grew dim, and he sighed, saying, "Over at the ancestral hall, they say your mother is his wet nurse; the debt of raising him is equal to that of a birth mother. If a mother and son live together, people might speak idle words..."

"The Jingcheng Whites... they have bullied us too much..." Bai Xiue murmured to herself as she watched the approaching man and woman.

In Bai Family Grave, aside from the men brought in from outside, everyone bore the surname Bai.

But this 'Bai' surname had two different lineages.

The women on Bai Xiue's side descended from the local Bai clan that had long resided around Qingyi Town; in Bai Family Grave, people like them were called 'Border Whites,' meaning the Whites of the Border Town.

There was another group of 'Jingcheng Whites' who originated from Yanjing.

These Jingcheng Whites originally bore the prestigious Manchu surname Yehe Nala; over a hundred years ago, this group suddenly moved from Jingcheng to Bai Family Grave, settling next to the Border Whites.

And since their arrival, the Border Whites had seen their population dwindle, with almost every family bearing only female infants and very few male births.

Even when male infants were born, most died young.

Lacking strong laborers, the Border Whites became increasingly dependent on the Jingcheng Whites; to this day, the two surnamed Whites appear merged on the surface, but in reality, the rift between them has never been eliminated.

On the genealogy kept in the Bai Family Grave ancestral hall, the Jingcheng Whites never recorded the names of the Border Whites.

The ancestral halls the Border Whites had struggled to build several times were all destroyed by various natural disasters and human calamities; to this day, the Border Whites no longer have their own ancestral hall or genealogy.

Every woman of the Border Whites, from birth to death, was a commodity resource that the Jingcheng Whites could sell at will.

And the men of the Border Whites fared even more miserably than the slaves and servants of wealthy families.

"Mother, she is a ghost!

I'll go get people to burn her!" The young man, cowering behind the woman with his head tucked in, spoke to her in a hushed voice.

That woman was Bai Xiue's mother.

She gently patted the young man's hand to comfort him; when her gaze turned to Bai Xiue, it too held some surprise and uncertainty, but seeing that even the good-for-nothing stood beside Bai Xiue, her fear in her heart dissipated considerably.

Bai Mu approached Bai Xiue, examined her face carefully, and called out softly, "Xiue..."

Seeing her mother's kind and gentle expression, Bai Xiue's dislike for her suddenly vanished greatly.

Mother was also a tragic soul bound by circumstances beyond her control.

She sighed softly in her heart and called out to the woman in a low voice, "Mother."

"Yes."

Bai Mu's heart stirred, and her eyes reddened; she took Bai Xiue's slightly cool small hand: "Xiue, it is Mother's fault; Mother has made you suffer..."

The Bai father beside them opened his mouth, then suddenly collapsed his shoulders as if all strength had left him.

"This is a ghost, Mother! Get people to burn her to death—" The young man had been making noise, but when Bai Mu suddenly turned and glanced at him, he instantly fell silent like a rooster whose neck had been grabbed.

"How could Xiue be a ghost?

Didn't you see she is alive and well?" Bai Mu wiped away her tears with a smile and pulled Bai Xiue toward the house, saying, "This younger brother of yours actually has no bad intentions; Xiue, do not blame him.

Even I was a bit frightened when I first saw you just now.

Once you two grow accustomed to each other, you will know his heart is actually very good..."

Hearing Bai Mu's words, Bai Xiue pressed her lips together and said nothing.

This so-called younger brother of hers shared no blood relation with her.

He was of Jingcheng White origin; Bai Mu and he shared only the title of 'wet nurse.'

Did this Jingcheng White person's 'very good heart' refer to his skill at climbing into his wet nurse's bed?

Bai Xiue felt anger in her heart, yet she dared not utter a single word.

Bai Mu led her into the west wing; Bai Mu bustled about, cleaning the room and making up the bed for her, as if truly intending to welcome her back, the daughter married out, to live there again.

She did not mention a single word about her past experiences.

The room had been cleaned; Bai Xiue sat on a stool while her father stood at the doorway.

"Xiue..." the old father looked at his daughter in the room with deep worry, "You can still leave now..."

Before he could finish speaking, the sound of Bai Mu calling him rose from behind him.

Her father hesitated at the doorway, refusing to move his steps in response to his wife's call.

At that moment, Bai Mu simply walked over and said to Bai Xiue, "Xiue, your father and I need to discuss something."

After speaking, she led her father away.

As they left, she also closed the door for Bai Xiue.

Bai Xiue sat dazed in this side room, which had never been so tidy and clean, listening to the sound of a chain being locked from outside the door; suddenly, she let out a soft sigh.

"What do you plan to do?" Bai Ma asked her.

"I do not want to marry Master Wen."

"Hmm?"

"They must think I am a ghost... burning me to death with a single fire would actually suit my wishes... but perhaps, deep in my mother's heart, she still feels a little pity for me?"

"Still dreaming?"

Hearing Bai Ma's mocking words, Bai Xiue lowered her eyelids, her eyes timid: "If it fails, I want to use myself... to exchange for my father's ability to leave the Bai family graveyard."

Upon hearing this, Bai Ma pressed her lips together and fell silent.

A rustling sound rose from outside the door.

Inside the room, Bai Xiue opened the small bundle she carried with her; the beast skins and insect skins she had sewn together with lotus silk were neatly stacked inside the bundle.

She lowered her head, her fingertips guiding the lotus silk, and began to stitch the pieces of beast skin together.

Bai Ma watched Bai Xiue's movements silently; after a while, she suddenly said, "He tricked you away, yet you are still helping him sew the Hundred-Beast Robe?"

"He is a good man; he has his reasons." Bai Xiue answered softly. "Master Zhou said the Hundred-Beast Robe can suppress evil spirits; if I sew faster, I should be able to finish this garment today during the day.

When the time comes, please help me deliver it to him."