Chapter 1553: Chapter 1560: Marriage Alliance (4)
Nangong Yu understood. Her Imperial Mother must have discovered that she had written a letter to Helan Qi, which was why she was so furious.
She held her swollen face, knelt down, and tearfully said, "Imperial Mother, just consider it your daughter’s folly. Things have come to this point; there is no turning back now. If you truly care for your daughter, please allow me to marry him."
"No! Absolutely not!"
Empress Dowager Mo slammed the table fiercely, causing the tea cups on the table to jump. "I do not agree. If you want to marry far away into Xianbei, it will only happen over my dead body!"
"Imperial Mother!"
Nangong Yu cried out with tears streaming down, saying, "Your daughter knows you care for me. Please, care for me just this once more. Allow me to marry him. Your daughter can no longer stay in the Great Jin Nation. If I could go to Xianbei, I could forget all these painful memories and start anew. Why must you insist on keeping your daughter here in Jin, to suffer torment and anguish?"
"What torment? What anguish? Who’s tormenting you? Who’s making you suffer?" Empress Dowager Mo exclaimed emotionally. "You are my own flesh and blood, the Emperor’s legitimate younger sister. In the entire Great Jin Nation, who dares torment you, make you suffer? It’s clear that you’re overthinking things. Just because Mo Ziqi rejected you, you’ve fallen into despair, imagining that everyone dislikes you, despises you. Now you even want to abandon your mother and brother, choosing to leave alone for a foreign land. Yu’er, isn’t this too selfish of you? Have you thought about how I, as your mother, feel? Have you thought about your brother’s thoughts?"
After speaking, she collapsed onto the babu bed, clutching her mouth and sobbing bitterly.
Nangong Yu saw her mother in such distress. She quickly crawled on her knees over to Empress Dowager Mo’s side and cried, "Imperial Mother, Yu’er knows I have wronged you. Just assume Yu’er is being selfish, but I truly cannot stay in Jin any longer. Brother Zi Qi doesn’t want me; he won’t even spare a glance at me. The gold-bedecked ladies of the court all secretly laugh at me and disdain me. Whenever they see me, they look at me with mocking expressions. Imperial Mother, I truly cannot bear it anymore. If I remain here, I will surely collapse. Please, I beg of you—let me leave this place..."
As she spoke, she kowtowed repeatedly. With each cry of anguish, her forehead hit the ground hard—’thud, thud, thud’—turning it red from the impact.
"Enough!"
Empress Dowager Mo shouted sharply. Nangong Yu stopped, lifted her head, and looked at her through tear-soaked eyes.
"If Zi Qi agreed to marry you, would you still refuse to go to Xianbei?"
Nangong Yu froze. "What?"
Empress Dowager Mo repeated, "I am asking, if Mo Ziqi were willing to marry you, would you no longer want to go to Xianbei?"
"Brother Zi Qi... marry me?"
She echoed the words, then broke into a bitter laugh. "Imperial Mother, don’t say such things. Brother Zi Qi would never marry me. Even if you force me into his household, I would only be met with disdain. Rather than endure that, I would rather not marry him at all—it’s better to preserve my final shred of dignity."
"What if he did so willingly?" Empress Dowager Mo continued pressing.
Nangong Yu replied, "Imperial Mother, don’t speak of impossible things. It would only spark my hopes prematurely, leaving me with nothing in the end, and I would only feel more heartbroken."
Empress Dowager Mo said, "I have a way to make him willingly marry you, to let you stand alongside Mu Caifei, equal as his official wife. Are you willing?"
Upon hearing this, Nangong Yu’s heart tightened. A vision of his graceful yet unrestrained handsome face surfaced in her mind. To marry him—it was a dream she had yearned for. How could she not be willing? As long as she could marry him, even if it meant sharing her husband with another, even if it meant staying in Jin and enduring mockery and ridicule, she would willingly accept it.
But what could her Imperial Mother possibly do to make him turn back to her?