Chapter 5: Deciding to Enter the Palace
The air in the hall seemed to freeze. The flickering candlelight reflected the bleak and helpless expressions of the Su family members.
All of Su Luoxue's hesitation and fantasies vanished. Escape might offer a sliver of hope, but the price would be the annihilation of the entire Su family. That emperor, whom she had only met once, had bestowed such extraordinary favor upon her; how could ordinary people fathom his character and methods? The Su family simply could not afford the consequences of disobeying him.
Run? Where can you run to?
After a long while, Su Luoxue slowly raised her head, her face still wet with tears, her eyes brimming with tears. She gently pushed away her mother's hand, straightened her somewhat disheveled clothes, and then, under the puzzled and astonished gazes of her parents and brothers, slowly bent her knees and knelt heavily before Su Wenyuan and Madam Liu.
"Xue'er...!" Liu exclaimed, trying to help her up.
Su Luoxue avoided her mother's hand and kowtowed deeply, her forehead touching the cold ground with a soft sound.
“Father, Mother,” her voice was thick with nasal tone, yet unusually clear, “Please forgive your daughter… for being unfilial.”
Su Wenyuan and Liu Shi were stunned, looking at their daughter kneeling on the ground. This was the daughter they had loved for more than ten years, but now... she was going to that cannibalistic place. Would they ever see her again in this life? At this moment, they only regretted their powerlessness and were heartbroken.
Su Luoxue raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears, and looked at her parents: "On the day of my wedding, I should kneel to bid farewell to you, but I am entering the Yuwen family... But tomorrow... once I put on that phoenix coronet and wedding robes, I will be His Majesty's Imperial Noble Consort. There is a distinction between ruler and subject; at that time, I will no longer be able to bow to you, Father and Mother, but rather you... will have to bow to me." Her words were filled with endless bitterness and absurdity. Tears flowed uncontrollably.
She kowtowed again, her voice choked with emotion: "This bow is my way of thanking my parents for the kindness of giving me life. Now that I am leaving, the palace gates are as deep as the sea, and I don't know if I will ever see my parents again in this life. I am an unfilial daughter!" After saying this, she kowtowed heavily once more.
Liu was already sobbing uncontrollably. She rushed over to hug her daughter, but Su Wenyuan held her back tightly. Su Wenyuan looked at his daughter, tears streaming down his face. He knew that his daughter was using this method to say a final goodbye to their ordinary life and to them, or perhaps to fulfill her final filial duty.
Su Luoxue didn't get up, but turned to Su Jingxing, whose eyes were also red. Looking at her brother, the one who had protected and loved her since childhood, her eyes were filled with guilt and reluctance. She bowed again, performing a very solemn salute.
“Brother…” she called out, her voice trembling, “I understand your intentions, brother. You are doing this for my own good, afraid that I will suffer or be wronged.”
She raised her head, looked directly into Su Jing's red eyes, and said, word by word, "But I can't run away."
"Xue'er!" Su Jingxing said urgently, trying to interrupt her.
Su Luoxue shook her head, her tone resolute: "Brother, everyone says that His Majesty is... capricious and unpredictable. He can give me this immense wealth, but he can also destroy me and the Su family in an instant. If I really run away, not to mention whether I can succeed, once it's discovered, it will be disobeying the imperial decree, a crime of deceiving the emperor! At that time, His Majesty will be furious, and who in our Su family can withstand the wrath of the emperor? I can't... I can't be so selfish as to gamble the lives of my entire family on a vague and uncertain freedom."
She looked at her brother, tears streaming down her face: "Brother, from now on... I'll have to trouble you to take care of Father and Mother on my behalf. Luoxue... bids farewell to her brother!" She kowtowed deeply again, as if she wanted to pour all her affection and entrustment into this bow.
Seeing his sister's resolute stance and listening to her clear yet heart-wrenching analysis, Su Jingxing knew that she had made her choice. A profound sense of powerlessness and heartache overwhelmed him. He was ultimately powerless to protect his only sister.
After performing the rites, Su Luoxue, supported by Fuling, slowly stood up. She wiped away her tears, forced a smile that looked more like a grimace, and said to Madam Liu, "Mother, don't cry. Help me... try on that wedding dress. It has to fit."
She then looked at Su Jingxing and Su Wenyuan: "Father, brother, you should go and rest too. Tomorrow... we still have to deal with the palace procession."
Her calmness only intensified Su Wenyuan and Madam Liu's heartache. Their daughter seemed to have grown up overnight, yet she was about to be sent to that cannibalistic place.
With a sob in her voice, Madam Liu instructed a maid to fetch the phoenix coronet and wedding gown. She carefully unfolded the bright red wedding dress.
Su Luoxue stood before the mirror, letting her mother and Fuling help her put on the heavy and gorgeous wedding dress, layer by layer. The girl in the mirror had exquisite features and skin as white as snow. Against the backdrop of the red dress and golden phoenix, her beauty was tinged with a poignant sense of impending decay. She looked at herself in the mirror with empty eyes, as if she were looking at a stranger.
“Miss…” Fuling called softly, her voice full of heartache.
Su Luoxue snapped out of her reverie and gently took Fuling's hand: "Fuling, would you like to come to the palace with me tomorrow?" In this unfamiliar and deep palace, she needed someone she could completely trust, and someone to talk to.
Fuling knelt down heavily: "This servant swears to follow Miss to the death!"
That night, no one in the Su family slept. Su Luoxue, dressed in her wedding gown—a symbol of both ultimate favor and endless shackles—sat quietly by the window, gazing at the waning moon. It seemed she would never again see such a vast expanse of sky and earth. She sat there until dawn. She resigned herself to her fate; for the sake of her family, she could only compromise with the irresistible imperial power. But the path to the deep palace was destined to be paved with her entire life's freedom and happiness.
Meanwhile, deep within the distant imperial palace, in the Guanju Palace, Yuwen Che gazed at the newly decorated, red-painted palace, a complex anticipation flickering in his eyes. He was unaware of the torment and resolute resolve he was experiencing within this "gift" he had so desperately sought.
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