Bai Zheng flashed a bright smile. "If Second Sister is really so heartless as to disregard our sisterly bond, then I won't have any scruples either. I'll surely do my best to assist the princess in order to protect my marquis."
"Good." Princess Yunxi seemed quite satisfied with Bai Zheng's straightforward answer. She immediately replied, "Three days. I'll hand over the evidence to you within three days."
Bai Zheng continued with a beaming smile. "Since the princess said that Second Sister has harmed me many times, I assume you can produce evidence of more than just this one incident, right?"
"Of course. I'll give you as much evidence as I can find."
Bai Zheng nodded. Just as she was about to respond, a sudden loud wail echoed through the yard.
"Miss..."
"Yan'er..."
Bai Zheng and Princess Yunxi exchanged a glance and wordlessly walked back into the crowd.
It was time. Zheng Yan's coffin was to be carried to the mausoleum of the county princess, which had been urgently built in the past few days.
Not long after Zheng Yan's death, Feng Linche had ordered to posthumously confer on her the title of Princess Yanhe.
Therefore, Zheng Yan's funeral was conducted according to the grandeur befitting a county princess. After a series of memorial ceremonies, this was the official burial.
Bai Zheng stood in the crowd, following Bai Yinan's lead and bowing her head in mourning. Everywhere she glanced was a sea of white. The wails of the maids and servants grew louder and louder. Along with the long tolling of the bells and the blaring of the horns, the entire Marquis Gaochang's Mansion was immersed in grief.
Among the wails, Princess Pingyang's was the most heart - rending. Even many of the guests in the yard couldn't help but wipe away their tears upon hearing it.
Handfuls of white paper money were tossed into the sky. White paper streamers fluttered in the wind. The wails spread from the mourning hall to the yard and tugged at the hearts of every mourning guest.
Looking at the sea of white before her, Bai Zheng suddenly recalled the first time she met Zheng Yan. That young girl in a light yellow dress, with a crisp voice and a straightforward personality, had pointed at her and laughed, "Hey, she's here!"
At that time, Zheng Yan hadn't been used by Bai Di and Feng Jingyang yet, and she had no hostility towards Bai Zheng. She simply sized up Bai Zheng with a curious look in her eyes, which were full of innocence and confusion.
It was a pity that such innocence could never be seen again in the subsequent encounters with Zheng Yan.
While Bai Zheng was lost in these random musings, before she knew it, the servants of the marquis's mansion had placed straw cushions in front of her. Looking up, she saw that all the mourning guests in the yard had them too.
"Kneel!"
A loud cry rang out.
Hearing this, the maids and servants of the Marquis Gaochang's Mansion knelt down respectfully. And the guests in the yard, regardless of age or gender, also knelt down one by one.
In an instant, a large number of people had knelt down in the yard in front of the mourning hall.
Bai Zheng knelt on the ground and slightly raised her eyes to look at the mourning hall.
The white cloth that separated the land of the living from the dead had been lifted at some point. Beside the huge golden silk nanmu coffin stood eight strong men.
A group of Taoist priests were chanting scriptures beside it. A man in white mourning clothes held a white cloth strip and waved it forcefully. His voice was long and drawn - out.
"Start the funeral procession!"
As his voice fell, the sound of crisp tiles shattering rang out. Immediately, the wails in the entire Marquis Gaochang's Mansion became even more deafening.
Amid the intensifying cries, the eight strong men hoisted the wooden poles of the coffin onto their shoulders. With a forceful step, the coffin swayed and slowly rose, and then the strong men carried it out of the mourning hall.
"Yan'er!" Seeing the coffin being lifted, the Marquis Gaochang, who had been holding himself together to handle all the trivial matters and deal with the etiquette, finally couldn't hold back his emotions and let out a heart - rending cry.
Princess Pingyang was teary - eyed and sobbing uncontrollably.
Looking at the scene before her, Bai Zheng couldn't help but sigh inwardly. There was nothing more painful in this world than for the elderly to see off their children.
The coffin swayed as it was slowly carried past Bai Zheng.
As the coffin was lifted, the mourning guests also got up in order and spontaneously joined the funeral procession to see Zheng Yan off.
Bai Zheng turned around and saw that the Marquis Gaochang and Princess Pingyang were staring intently at the coffin in front. Supported by the maids, they followed it step by step.
The maids seemed to be trying to persuade them, but they didn't listen to anything. They just tightly followed the funeral procession, and their eyes on the coffin didn't move an inch.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, a loud noise came from the front, followed by a strong tremor under their feet.
Bai Zheng quickly turned around. Before she could see what had happened in front, Bai Yinan, out of concern for his daughter, had tightly hugged her in his arms and shouted, "Zheng'er, don't be afraid. Father is here."
Bai Zheng felt a warm feeling in her heart and replied sweetly, "Father, Zheng'er is not afraid."
At this time, the crowd in the front of the funeral procession scattered in a panic after the loud noise.
This allowed Bai Zheng to clearly see, without any obstruction, that because the wooden board carrying the coffin had broken, Zheng Yan's huge golden silk nanmu coffin had toppled to the ground, crushing a coffin - carrying strong man to death.
The coffin was so heavy that the strong man was crushed, blood splashed everywhere, and he died on the spot.
The maids beside them were so frightened that they let out a scream after a long while. "Ah—"
Amid the screams, someone suddenly shouted, "This is, this is Miss Zheng's vengeful spirit! She's here to seek revenge!"
As the voice fell, a strong wind blew up.
It was clearly spring, a time of warm sunshine, but for some reason, this strong wind made Bai Zheng feel a chill down her back.
"It's Miss Zheng! Miss Zheng is here to seek revenge!"
The funeral procession was in chaos. The guests fled in all directions, trying to stay as far away from the coffin as possible. Even the timid maids and servants in the Marquis Gaochang's Mansion were scared out of their wits and ran around aimlessly.
In the scattered crowd, the Marquis Gaochang stumbled and staggered towards the coffin. He murmured, "Yan'er, Yan'er, it's Father who is sorry for you. Father failed to severely punish the real culprit and avenge you, letting them go scot - free. Yan'er, are you blaming Father..."
However, before the Marquis Gaochang could get close to the coffin, a man suddenly emerged from the chanting Taoist priests. He leaped forward and pasted a yellow talisman with red characters written on it on Zheng Yan's coffin.
The Marquis Gaochang stared at the Taoist priest pasting the talisman with wide - open eyes in disbelief. "What are you doing?"
The Taoist priest ignored him and simply closed his eyes, clasped his hands in front of Zheng Yan's coffin and said, "Since the county princess has passed away, there's no need for her to linger in the world. Go to where you should go!"
"What do you mean?" The Marquis Gaochang immediately understood. Looking at the coffin of his daughter in front of him, he felt as if he had been slapped hard. His face flushed red. Pointing at the Taoist priest, he roared in anger.