In an era consumed by endless warfare, secrets and tangled affairs lurked deep within the palace. Empress Mo Qiyou was a gifted woman with the whole realm in her heart, but she gradually grew tired of the hypocrisy and power struggles of court.
“Your Majesty, I am tired. I don’t want to keep playing this farce of Your Majesty’s wisdom and the Empress’s virtue!” Her words brimmed with exhaustion and resolve.
Thinking of the hundreds of thousands of Youyun troops, their hearts burning with patriotic fervor yet denied any chance to serve their country, their loyal bones buried because of the rumors that spread everywhere, Mo Qiyou felt as if her heart were being scorched and gnawed at day and night. She knew she had failed her father’s expectations, betrayed her sworn brother’s trust, and wronged the soldiers who had given their lives for their country.
Yet now the emperor was relentlessly pressing her, determined to pin a crime on her, no matter what it took. She cried out in despair, “Now Your Majesty means to wipe us all out. I only beg Your Majesty to bury me in my homeland, among the trees of my native village. I will take my leave of Beiliang forever!”
With that, Mo Qiyou resolutely walked into Youyun Mountain, where flames already engulfed the slopes. Dressed in red, she was like a burning flame, vowing to share the Youyun army’s fate and die with them, proving her loyalty and resolve.
When the emperor heard her words, anguish and conflict filled his face. He tried to hold her back and tell her he was wrong, that he should not have driven her to this. But all he could do now was roar; he could not manage to say a single complete sentence. He watched helplessly as her red robes vanished into the mountain fire. A sickly sweetness surged in his throat, and he kept spitting blood.
Mo Qiyou died in the very year the emperor loved her most. In the end, he did not grant her wish. She was posthumously bestowed the title “Virtuous,” and buried in the imperial mausoleum. Even so, he still cherished the hope that they would share a coffin in death!
