Chapter 664 - No Different to the Tangs (2)
Their parents didn't need to tell her to stay in the mansion, not leaving her room. She hadn't gone down to join her family for dinner and had chosen to have her meals delivered to her room. She made several phone calls, which included informing Tang Moyu that she had returned to Beijing and would be withdrawing her participation from the competition.
"I understand, Meili. You have nothing to apologize for. It's not your fault." She heard Tang Moyu say over the phone. "But if you went there to marry some damn sc.u.mbag your parents arranged for you, I wouldn't mind asking Tianyi a favor to bring hell to your family's doorstep." The empress reminded her.
Li Meili let out a weak smile and looked at her reflection in the mirror of her vanity. Her eye bags were darkening and her skin looked pale and unhealthy. Even her hair looked unkempt and disheveled, but she didn't care.
"I'm sorry, Moyu but it's really hard to convince my parents and change their minds. Do you think I should have agreed to join the family business? If I did back then, maybe they wouldn't constantly try to set me up on these stupid blind dates just to marry me off." She twirled a loose lock of her hair using her forefinger as she lazily slumped on her bed. She was only dressed in short black shorts, revealing her smooth legs and a flimsy sleeveless top that was comfortable enough to be worn by her.
Unlike Tang Moyu, she wasn't betrothed at all. All of her past flings and relationsh.i.p.s were with commoners who had no idea what kind of family she was from. They weren't even aware that she was 'The Black Nightingale'.
If they knew that there was a huge amount of money attached to her name, there was no doubt that they would try to pin her down in marriage or blame her for lying in their faces. Of all the men she'd been with, only Tang Beixuan knew the real her. She didn't need to pretend that she was someone else and hide what she does for a living because he wholeheartedly supported every decision she made.
Alas, now that he was gone, aside from Tang Moyu, who would remind her to work hard to reach her dreams? Was this the peak of her career? Was she really satisfied that the brand she had been working for several years would only be recognized as an independent brand of an amateur designer like her?
It was just too bad that she had to withdraw from the competition midway. She was looking forward to kicking Liu Ruoyan's a.s.s, but Tang Beixuan's sudden passing had completely turned her life upside down.
"Still… try to dissuade them from trying to marry you off. I'm serious, Meili. I don't care if I'm currently stuck in this wheelchair. I'll drag your a.s.s back here no matter what kind of methods I need to use to retrieve you." Tang Moyu insisted. The news of Li Meili's departure to Beijing came too late. She was only notified by her husband when the Li family's private jet took off from the airport.
Li Meili had been on her side for as long as she could remember. She had helped her when no one bothered to spare her a glance in the lowest point of her life. So how would Tang Moyu ever allow her best friend to ruin her own life by marrying some guy she didn't love when her brother had just died?
Were all daughters born in wealthy families like the Tang and Li families fated to only become a tool for their family? Were they only as good as being someone's wife and expected to give birth to a son that can continue the lineage of their husband's families?
Tang Moyu despised this idea. This was exactly why even though she was expected to become Feng Tianhua's wife in the past, she made sure that her worth wouldn't be defined by her status as her husband's wife.
Wasn't this also why Elaine Wu resisted the idea of handing her family's business to whichever man her family had chosen for her because she believed that she can handle the management on her own in the future?
The Black Nightingale sure was popular, but Li Meili hadn't won any prestigious awards that could cement her status or make her standing in the fashion industry permanent. This was also one of the reasons why Tang Moyu persuaded her to join this year's competition, but if Li Meili couldn't focus on her entry because she was still grieving, then who was she to force her best friend?
"Ah, drama. Please don't send your devil husband to harass the men my parents have chosen to leave me alone." Li Meili chuckled. Although she tried to crack a joke, it was obvious that it was tasteless.
"Are you giving me an idea, Meili? I don't think Tianyi would mind playing the villain in your love story. We can plan and see how we can dissuade your parents to let you off the hook from this marriage arrangement nonsense." She heard Tang Moyu snort unladylike on the other end of the line. "Please, Meili. Come back. It's not because I need you. You understand, right?" Her tone obviously softened as she talked to Li Meili.
"I cannot promise you anything, Moyu but I'll see what I can do. I'll try to persuade those men not to marry me and check on Miss Elaine before I return to Shenzhen." She told Tang Moyu.
The two exchanged a few more words before Tang Moyu hung up, after being reminded by her twins to take her medicines. Li Meili looked at the wallpaper on her phone, which was a photo of her and Beixuan, her eyes rimmed with tears as she looked at his smiling face.
"How can I love and marry another man? That's just impossible, right?" She muttered in a low voice.
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