The stories of princesses sent to marry foreign rulers in traditional folk tales are always tales of passionate and beautiful romances across borders. In these tales, the princesses sent for diplomatic marriages are always portrayed as gentle, kind, strong, and brave, while barbarian kings are always depicted as young, handsome, and intelligent. A clash of cultures, an attraction of beautiful souls. The princess endure countless hardships and grievances, but eventually, the barbarian king sees her true heart and makes her feel understood.
However, reality is different.
Mu Wanyao wasn't strong enough and when wronged, she could only weep helplessly. The Wuman King wasn't young and handsome either. He was a middle-aged man who, it was said, had abandoned his previous queen to welcome her to Wuman. Because of this, he disliked Mu Wanyao from the start. (He) blamed Mu Wanyao for being weak, for not being strong enough, for not being like the Wuman women unbound by social conventions.
The women of Wuman were considered shared commodities, but Mu Wanyao refused this. Wuman women were only used to please men, but Mu Wanyao was condescending and disdainful of the Wuman men.
The old Wuman King was not wise. Perhaps his wisest decision was to make peace with the Great Wei through a marriage alliance. His decision stemmed solely from his covetousness of the Great Wei's jewels, glassware, and fine silks. He was crude and barbaric, born of nature, and utterly ignorant of manners.
Mu Wanyao suffered greatly as a result.
Chunhua said softly, “It was the current Wuman King, Meng Zaishi, who saved Her Highness from that fate. Meng Zaishi rescued Her Highness many times, taking her away when she was on the verge of meltdown. Her Highness seems to have truly become the kind of woman she wanted to be. But I don't know, when sitting on the grasslands of Wuman, around the campfire, when everyone was singing and laughing, when Your Highness looked at Meng Zaishi, in her smiling, tender gaze, was there truly love?"
"But I don't know, when Her Highness became stronger, when Her Highness plotted to kill the old Wuman King, and she sat by his bedside listening to his confession, when Her Highness sighed softly, did she truly sympathize with the old Wuman King's impending death?"
Chunhua's voice trembled: "When she was juggling different men, when those around her died one by one, what was she thinking? When she told me she was pregnant, but couldn't keep the child and had to abort, what was she thinking? Erlang, do you know, Her Highness was cutting off her own path to survival… She couldn't abort the child, so she tried everything… When she was on her deathbed, she bled so much. It was the Wuman King who went to the snowy mountains to seek a divine herb to save Her Highness's life… But when the Wuman King knelt before Her Highness's bedside, looking at that bloody stillborn fetus, what was the princess thinking?"
“That night, Meng Zaishi held the princess and cried. But the princess didn't shed a single tear. She didn't glance at the stillborn child once; it was us that buried it secretly… I don't know what Her Highness has been thinking all these years. She doesn't confide in us, yet she smiles alluringly at men. She became willful and capricious, easily angered, often scolding us for our clumsiness… But what does it matter?"
Chunhua lowered her head, tears welling in her eyes. […] She murmured to herself, almost in a daze: "It's just a temper tantrum, just being unhappy. What does it matter? I've seen her grievances, seen how she endured it… I wish she'd throw more tantrums every day. Let it all out, and forget it all." [...]
Yan Shang left the Prince of Jin's residence and mounted his horse. As he rode, those old memories surrounded and entangled him. He was inherently empathetic, all the more so when it was Mu Wanyao this time. And so, the young man gripped the reins, and with each step his horse took, he seemed to hear her cries. [...]
In his hallucination, he saw her lying on the bed, blood flowing freely, her life slipping away; he saw her chasing after the old man, begging him not to take her maid away; he saw her and Meng Zaishi riding horses through the stone walls, laughing carefree and radiant… But when she turned to look at him, the smile in her eyes became empty and hypocritical.
Yan Shang's eyes welled with tears, which clung to his eyelashes. He hunched over, clutching his heart, the pain excruciating, his whole body trembling. An overwhelming sorrow enveloped him, making him want to weep uncontrollably. His heart ached so much that tears streamed down his face, yet he could not speak of his grief.
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