The palace servant said so earnestly, as if she wanted to wake Mu Mingtang up, but the Empress herself added a sentence in her heart.
It won’t happen.
The Eldest Prince would not be born from either her nor Wanyan Duo’s belly. She was only a substitute created by the Jiang family, a tool to consolidate their favour, while Wanyan Duo was a foreign woman presented during the peace talks in the 4th year of Suihe.
None of them would have the chance to get pregnant. In fact, they could no longer get pregnant.
The servant tried to persuade the Empress for a long time to the point where her mouth was dry. Seeing that Mu Mingtang was still unhurried, she was disappointed and said, “Your Royal Highness, you look like you don’t care about anything at this point, so what do you want?”
After saying that, the servant realised that she had made a wrong statement. After bidding her farewell while bowing, she lifted the curtains and left.
After everyone was gone, Mu Mingtang finally got a rare bit of personal time. Only then did she release a sigh of relief.
She had been playing the role of another person for too long, and so she no longer knew what her true nature was like.
Mu Mingtang stared at the thin wisps of smoke rising from the incense burner as the servant’s questions just now kept echoing in her ears.
What does she want? Mu Mingtang didn’t know the answer herself, but she always felt that her husband shouldn’t act like this.
Xie Xuanji shouldn’t be like this. After being besieged by Beirong, he didn’t hesitate in abandoning the rich capital and its people, taking along only the powerful and nobles away. He shouldn’t have fled to the south in a panic and set up his new capital in a peaceful land. He shouldn’t have enjoyed the warmth of Jiangnan and the women in the harem, no longer plagued with thoughts about the northern lands he once owned.
Mu Mingtang felt absent-minded when she thought of this while a very vague shadow floated in front of her eyes. Because it had been too long since, she couldn’t remember it clearly.
She remembered that she had met a boy when she was 12 years old. The boy rode a white horse and saved her from the hands of the chaotic soldiers. He told her to move forward as long as she could take another step— dying was easy, living was a lot harder.
Time seemed to continue like a dream after that. From then on, all the heroes in the opera showings she watched bore the same face. However, she didn’t know his name, who he was and where he was now.
She only knew that the people in Xiangyang City called him the Marquis of Wu’an.
After Mu Mingtang and Xie Xuanji parted unhappily again, it was obvious that he was even colder to her. When the concubines in the harem came to pay their respects, many of them looked elated upon knowing of her recent treatment.
Mu Mingtang saw it, but she pretended not to know. So what? She was the Empress. If anything, she was happy to remain silent when Xie Xuanji didn’t come to her.
Mu Mingtang only remembered that she had a nap and the fact that she lit a perilla incense before going to bed. Unexpectedly, when she woke up, everything had changed.
Her hands and feet had shrunk a lot and the furnishings in front of her were no longer the magnificent but deserted Funing Palace. Instead, she found herself in the residence of the Mu family in Xiangyang.
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