The Devil of Scarlet Rain

Chapter 31 - True Identity (Part 3)

*Flashback*

"My Lie Yun is... the future Emperor of this country."

The Empress spoke with such fervour that Meng Yu could only gasp in pain as she struggled against her tears.

"No. This is crazy! It's impossible." Meng Yu shook her head, as she put both hands on her throbbing head. Her brother had just died, and now her mother empress was thinking of getting her to impersonate as her brother? To live a lie for the rest of her life? Impossible!

"We will be able to pull this off." The Empress assured her. "I have already made all the arrangement."

"Why don't you just kill me, Mother!" Meng Yu growled in pain. "I am hurting too because I lose Lie Yun! He is my brother, my twin... my life! But how can you, how can you ask me to do this? How can you be so cruel!?"

"How can I?" As if a fuse had been lit, the Empress lost her calmness and grabbed Meng Yu who was still half sitting on the floor by her shoulder. "How can I, huh?"

The Empress looked almost deranged as she started shaking Meng Yu violently by the shoulder.

"This is all your fault! The descendant of our clan must be the one who sit on the throne! This is what I have been working so hard for my whole life!"

"I gave up my entire life... locked up in this lonely place. Fighting. Scheming."

"Do you even know? The things that I have to give up for all of these? The things that I have lost?" With a hard push, she shoved Meng Yu away, sending her sprawling on the floor. "And the things that I have done..."

There was a flash of fear and uncertainty in the Empress face as she looked at her own trembling hands, seemingly lost in thought. Meng Yu pushed herself up, unable to retaliate. She was in too much shock and pain to speak. Warm tears continued to stream down her face.

"But it does not matter... does it?" The Empress suddenly looked up, the insanity in her eyes replaced by a chilly determination "After so many years, my Lie Yun is finally appointed as the crown price! We are almost there! I will not let anyone stop me! I will not!"

The Empress rose slowly and looked down apathetically at Meng Yu. There was a moment of silence as they look at each other.

"As for you - you will do as I say." The Empress finally said, and there was a note of finality in her voice.

Anger welled up in Meng Yu's chest, and she lashed out, "You are out of your mind! They have only just found Lie Yun's body and all you care about is the throne?"

"Does Lie Yun mean nothing to you?" She cried, but the Empress only looked at her detachedly. It was as if her grief meant nothing to her. As if Lie Yun's death was nothing to her. Meng Yu got to her feet unsteadily and staggered to the Empress. Each step sent a sharp stabbing pain straight into her heart. She stopped a foot away and clutched at her own throbbing chest.

"What about me? Do I mean nothing to you at all?!"

Her outburst was met with total silence. She scanned the face of the woman standing in front of her desperately. Hoping that she would at least show some emotion. Regret. Sadness. Or even love. Anything!

However, the other person only returned her question with a blank expression.

"Nothing at all?!"

The Empress looked away and her heart dropped into an endless abyss.

Something in her died that day.

She could no longer stay in denial. Meng Yu realized that the beautiful woman in front of her would always be the Empress of Mo Empire. She would never be the mother she had yearned for many years of her life. She would never be and never wanted to be.