Chapter 137

  The Empress Dowager's birthday was also postponed to today, changed from the solar calendar to the lunar calendar, just because Murong Feng returned, so the time was specially delayed until this day in the lunar calendar.

  In the Si Gu Yuan, the ground was muddy and unbearable. It had been raining continuously for a whole night, and it still hadn't stopped until now. Rong Mei followed behind the eunuch, carefully making her way in.

  "Mother." A sorrowful cry, looking at her mother standing alone by the window with a despondent face, her figure thinner and her appearance much older, seemingly with a hunched back.

  Liu looked back at her daughter, without a hint of joy in her eyes, just a faint sigh, and said softly: "What are you doing here? It's better not to see you."

  "Mother." Yōng Měi burst into tears.

  Madam Liu shed tears, looking at her daughter and sorrowfully said: "You came here, must be because you encountered something unpleasant, otherwise, your father the king wouldn't have allowed you to appear. As a mother, I truly didn't want to see you, if I hadn't seen you, it would mean everything is still fine with you, but since I've seen you, it must be that something has happened."

  "Mother," Yōng Měi lowered her head and softly said, "The Wū Méng Kingdom has come to propose a marriage. Father wants me to marry the prince of Wū Méng Kingdom, and I will be getting married in just a few more days. I especially asked Father to let me come see you, but I don't know when we can meet again after this, or if we even can."

  Liu paused for a moment, then sat down on the wooden chair in front of the window with a thud. She sighed and said: "I'm really regretful now. Why did I have to provoke Murong Xue back then? If I hadn't been so stubborn at that time, things wouldn't be like this today! It's not just Qiang Er who suffered, but also you. If you go to Wumeng Country, it's likely that you won't come back. They're probably just using you as a hostage to prevent the Great Xing Dynasty from causing more trouble. My relationship with Empress Li is also bad, and since you married her brother, I'm afraid you can't expect good treatment from your husband either. This must be Murong Xue's idea!"

  Rong Mei hung her head low and didn't utter a word.

  "It doesn't matter who it was anymore." Sima Qiang's voice sounded from behind, with a hint of desolation. Hong Yu stood quietly behind him, her face showing a subtle look of fatigue. This place couldn't compare to the Wei Manor, but they had no choice but to endure. "Now that things have come to this, we can only hope that our sister will be able to live a slightly better life there."

  "Can Prime Minister help out?" Hongyu asked softly.

  "Hmph," Sima Qiang hummed softly, "In our current state, who would be willing to help us? Don't even mention that Prime Minister, I now truly regret listening to your suggestion and forming an alliance with him. I thought I was clever, thinking no one knew about the pact between him and me, but unexpectedly, it didn't escape Sima Rui's notice. That seemingly ordinary and unruly Sima Rui is actually not an ordinary person."

  "Simarui?" Hongyu was stunned for a moment, "He knows?"

  He looked at her, a hint of sadness flashing in his eyes. The woman sleeping beside him, who had always thought was only his, had brought him the message of a stranger over the past two nights. Perhaps it was just his own paranoia, but there seemed to be traces of another man on her body. Her reactions and physique had suddenly become strange, with a hint of domineering and coquettishness. "This Sima Rui is not a simple person, perhaps he knows more than we can imagine. In the past, I really underestimated him. Now that I think about it carefully, some things may have been going on under his nose all along, and I thought I was smart, but in fact, I'm just a joke to him."

  Hong Yu's heart skipped a beat. Did Sima Rui also know about her and Sima Zhe? Now that she had entered the Si Gu Yuan, was it also related to him?

  "Sister," Sima Qiang walked closer to his sister and said softly, "Brother has never spoken much to you, in brother's eyes, you have always been a child who hasn't grown up. Now that Father King has chosen you, this is also fate, you can only accept it. Just wherever you go, don't be willful again, be a good person and don't do evil things, lest you suffer retribution. Mother and I are living examples."

  Rong Mei nodded, but tears streamed down her face and she couldn't speak a word.

  "Brother knows that you have always been a spoiled person, in the imperial palace, originally with mother's help, no one dared to do anything to you. Now that mother and I have lost power, some things can only be relied on oneself. No matter who came up with the idea of marrying you off to Wumeng country, if you think carefully, it's not a bad thing. Being far away from the imperial palace's right and wrong, maybe you can live another kind of carefree life." Sima Qiang patted his sister's shoulder and said softly.

  Liu looked at her son, feeling a pang of sadness in her heart. In fact, she knew that with her son's abilities, it would be easy for him to leave this place if he wanted to. However, because of her own reasons, he had stayed in this desolate place. Although the Emperor was angry with her, after all, Sima Qian was his son, and his anger would only last a short while, not forever.

  His own recklessness is harming both others and himself.

  "It's getting late, Lady Yung. It's time to go back. Today is the Empress Dowager's birthday, you still need to go back and congratulate her." The eunuch reminded her in a low voice.

  "Got it." Rong Mei replied softly, with a sense of sadness and resentment in her heart. Coming here, seeing her mother, there was no solution, only adding to the anger.

  "Let's go, don't make a mistake." Sima Qiang smiled faintly, knowing that his sister had originally hoped that their mother and he could help her come up with an idea to avoid this matter, but how could they be of any help in their current situation?

  Rong Mei could only lower her head and walk out, the gate of Si Gu Yuan creaked shut again, hearing it made her heart feel a pang of sorrow. Afraid that once she left, she would never be able to return again.

  Murong Feng quietly sat in front of the desk, casually doodling on the paper, with a relaxed expression. There was still some time before the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet, and she didn't feel like moving, so she just sat alone at the desk thinking about her thoughts, with strange patterns drawn on the white paper in front of her.

  "Maple, what are you doing?" Sima Rui came in from outside and said with a smile. He had just informed Mrs. Meng to pick up Meng Wenyu and go to the Empress Dowager's place to show her face. He hurried back and saw Murong Feng sitting alone at the table, reading aloud to himself with a look of satisfaction on his face. Curious, he walked over and looked down, seeing that the paper seemed to be some kind of building design.

  "I'm thinking of our own home." Murong Feng smiled lightly and said, "Although this Mei Yi Garden is beautiful, it was built by the emperor's uncle after all. It has some melancholy and subtlety to it. When I design our own home, we can be far away from the rights and wrongs of the imperial palace and live a quiet life."

  Simarui slightly raised an eyebrow, smiled and said: "Good, I don't like the atmosphere in this palace either. I've been thinking of moving out for a long time, and finding a quiet place with mountains and water. Now that you mention it, it's just what I had in mind. How do you plan to design it?"