"My Lady Dowager, I don't care whether her reputation will be damaged or not. It is within the range that our family can bear. If she can't get married because of this, it doesn't matter... I can support her for the rest of her life."
Madam Shangguan stared at Concubine Wu, and the moment their eyes met, a sneer of contempt appeared on Concubine Wu's lips.
"Really? How much have you prepared to provide your daughter with food and clothing for the rest of her life?"
Madam Shangguan smiled softly, straightened her back, and said with a gentle smile: "When I got married, my family prepared a ten-mile red dowry for me. Naturally, they also contributed some to the family expenses over the years, but the rest... is enough for Ning'er to have no worries about food and clothing."
The ten miles of red wedding that Mrs. Shangguan mentioned really meant the true “ten miles of red wedding”.
Back then, she was the eldest daughter of the Yiyong Marquis's family, and the Zheng family was at its peak. Her parents gave her a generous dowry so that she could be proud of her life.
Concubine Wu looked at Madam Shangguan's confident look, lowered her eyelids and snorted coldly.
"Isn't it a little too early for you to say this? Aren't you afraid that if something happens to the Shangguan family, everything you have will be burned to ashes?"
"With the Queen Dowager here, I believe that such a thing will not happen."
Mrs. Shangguan was a little excited and her fingers were trembling slightly.
She didn't want others to see her inner thoughts and timidity, so she withdrew her hands and hid them in her sleeves.
"My Lady, Ning'er is my husband's only child. Even if he is... hypocritical towards me, the bond between us will never be completely severed. If you really hurt Ning'er, aren't you afraid that he will hate you?"
Concubine Wu paused, and the look she gave Madam Shangguan suddenly became sharp.
"It seems...I underestimated you."
Concubine Wu put down the cup in her hand and snorted heavily, with a hint of viciousness on her bright face. "When did you find out?"
"I knew it the first time I saw the Dowager Lady."
Mrs. Shangguan's eyes were red and covered with a layer of tears.
Over the years, countless people envied her for having a devoted and loyal husband. She was in a high position, and there was only one concubine in the family besides her.
And this concubine was forced to marry into the family under the pressure of his mother.
However, only Mrs. Shangguan herself knew that deep in her husband's heart, there was always someone living there whom she could not replace.
In the long years past, Mrs. Shangguan had seen a treasured portrait in Shangguan Yue's study.
The woman in the portrait has bright eyes, white teeth and a naive look.
It was a painting drawn by Shangguan Yue himself, with a sentimental poem next to it.
Mrs. Shangguan did not expose the truth, but put the painting away. She always played the role of a good wife and enjoyed the affection her husband pretended to have.
She thought that such a life would be good enough to last a lifetime. She even thought that the woman in the painting might no longer be alive.
It was not until she followed Shangguan Yue and others to flee to another place that she met the graceful and elegant Concubine Wu.
Everything suddenly became clear.
At this point, Mrs. Shangguan didn't say anything.
However, her daughter is her last bottom line.
"Since you already knew, why... didn't you question it? Why didn't you expose it?"
"What's the use of questioning? What's the use of exposing? Nothing can be changed." Mrs. Shangguan even had a vague fantasy.
She fantasized that her husband had forgotten Concubine Wu and that the family would not be disturbed.
"My Lady Dowager, please let Ning'er go. As long as you get in touch with her engagement with the prince, I will take Ning'er away from the capital and never come back in this life. I... will make you and him happy."
Concubine Wu's eyes gradually dimmed.
In fact, deep down in her heart, she was very jealous of the woman in front of her.
Because she replaced his own happiness, and he spent half his life like this.
"I don't need you to help him and me." Concubine Wu said coldly, "Go back. I can't make the decision on what you said."
After saying that, he stood up and was about to leave.
"My Lady," Madam Shangguan immediately stepped forward and knelt at the feet of Concubine Wu, "My Lady, please, please let us go... I beg you..."
Mrs. Shangguan burst into tears.
Now that she no longer has her natal family as a support, she never imagined that protecting her daughter would be so difficult.
"You don't have to say it anymore. Shangguan Wan Ning must marry Ming'er. This is also the agreement I made with him. When Ming'er succeeds to the throne, your daughter will be the queen who rules the country. Isn't that good?"
Not good! Not good at all!
Mrs. Shangguan knew too well how sad it was to spend a lifetime with a man who was physically compatible with her but spiritually estranged from her.
She knew her daughter and she would never tolerate such an injustice.
"Mrs. Dowager..."
Concubine Wu did not give Madam Shangguan any chance to speak and walked away in anger.
Mrs. Shangguan fell to the ground, crying.
She compromised and begged her rival to let her daughter go, but in the end... nothing could be changed.
Madam Shangguan felt like she had fallen into an ice cellar and was shivering all over.
She returned to the Prime Minister's residence with a deathly pale face and fell ill that night.
She didn't let anyone tell Shangguan Wanning, for fear that her daughter would worry about her.
At night, Shangguan Yue returned to the room and saw her leaning on the bed alone, as if she had aged by a dozen years in an instant.
Shangguan Yue's heart ached. After all, the two had lived together for so many years.
He picked up her medicine on the table, walked to the bed and sat down, and after a slight hesitation, he held her hand. "Why are you doing this?"
Madam Shangguan slowly turned her head and looked at him, her lips trembling, unable to utter a word.
"I know what you are worried about. You can rest assured that after Ning'er marries King Ming, he will love her well. Relationships can be cultivated, and I will not harm my daughter."
Shangguan Yue fed the medicine to Mrs. Shangguan's mouth.
Mrs. Shangguan snatched the bowl and poured the entire bowl of medicine on her husband's face.
She could no longer control her suppressed emotions, raised her hand and slapped him hard again, and yelled hysterically: "Get out! Get out! Shangguan Yue, you pushed your own daughter into the fire pit, I will not let you go even if I become a ghost."
This was the first time Shangguan Yue saw his wife lose her temper in all these years of marriage.
He knew he was in the wrong, so he didn't say anything else. He stood up and walked out the door. He heard his wife's voice behind him.
"Shangguan Yue... From now on, the relationship between you and me as husband and wife is severed. We don't need to be buried together after death. On the road to the underworld, by the Naihe Bridge, we will never see each other again in this life or the next."
Shangguan Yue was stunned.
He turned around and looked at his wife, with a determination he had never seen before in his eyes.
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