bookbashuk Chapter 1311 Barbara's Painful Struggle
Chapter 1311 Barbara's Painful Struggle
As Qin listened to her parents recount the details of their expedition and watched the occasional glances exchanged between them, a longing that had been hidden in her heart for many years suddenly resurfaced.
She longed for a complete family, and she longed to see her parents laughing and playing with her and Barbara like they did when she was a child.
This longing led her to act impulsively, asking the startling question without much thought: "So, Mom and Dad, are you going to remarry?"
"Cough cough..." As soon as Qin finished speaking, Simon and Frederica choked on the food in their mouths at the same time. Both of them turned red and waved their hands while coughing, obviously not expecting their daughter to ask this question.
Seeing her parents coughing and struggling, Qin gently patted Frederica's back.
"Eat slowly, don't rush!"
Frederica coughed for a while before she caught her breath.
She patted her chest, her face full of embarrassment. Looking at Qin's expectant eyes, she opened her mouth, but didn't know how to answer.
At this moment, Simon swallowed hard and picked up the conversation:
“Daughter, you know that your mother and I didn’t separate because of a disagreement. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t want to separate from your mother either, and I wouldn’t want you two to grow up without experiencing the warmth of a complete family.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the three family members at the table before finally settling on Frederica, and said with a complicated expression, "But that's politics."
"Back then, I joined the church and became a cardinal, while your mother was from the Gunnhildr family."
"If we continue to stay together, it will be easy for people with ulterior motives to take advantage of us and say that we want to 'control Mondstadt'. This would not only shake the credibility of the Church and the Knights, but also plunge the people of Mondstadt into panic."
"In order to stabilize the morale of Mondstadt, we have no choice but to separate."
Qin pursed her lips and tentatively suggested:
“However, the situation in Mond is different now... I mean, the Lawrence family and the Leggenfender family have both left.”
"Dad, Mom, if you remarry, maybe it will give everyone hope and uplift their spirits?"
Qin's statement wasn't without basis. Now that the Wind God is dead, the two factions within the Church of the West Wind are practically fighting tooth and nail.
What Mondstadt needs now is cohesion, not decentralization and avoiding conflicts of interest!
Frederica shook her head and offered a completely opposite view.
"That's why your father and I shouldn't be together even more, and we should even keep a more deliberate distance than before!"
"You only see the possibility of 'unity,' but you haven't considered the other layer of risks."
"My remarriage to your father is not seen as a 'symbol of unity' by the people of Mondstadt. Rather, it is an opportunity to bind the power of the Church and the nobility together, taking advantage of Lord Barbatos's fall and Mondstadt's chaos, and to restore the old nobility's control over Mondstadt!"
"In that case, it will not only fail to unite the people, but will also cause greater panic among the public, and may even trigger new conflicts!"
Seeing that she and Frederica were each telling their own version of events and she couldn't tell who was right and who was wrong, Qin could only place her hopes on her father.
"Dad? What do you think?"
Simon looked at Jean's expectant eyes, then at Frederica's profile beside him, and finally answered:
"On this point, I support your mother. The more difficult the times are for Mondstadt, the more clearly the Church and the Nobles must maintain their distance, and not give anyone any grounds for 'collusion of power'."
These words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly extinguishing Qin's expectations.
She had hoped that her father could come up with a compromise, even if it was just a promise to "consider it later," but now that even her father had sided with her mother, the hope of remarriage had become completely slim.
Qin pursed her lips, lowered her head in disappointment, and let out a soft "hmm" sound.
Seeing her daughter Qin's dejected look, Frederica gently patted Qin's head and comforted her, "Qin, don't be so childish and throw a tantrum."
"Hey, let's eat. Once Mondstadt gets through this crisis, things might take a different turn for the better?"
Qin looked up and saw the heartache in her mother's eyes. She forced a smile, picked up a fork, and ate the roasted meat in small bites, but she couldn't taste the same flavor as before.
Just as Simon, Frederica, and Jean began to enjoy their dinner, Barbara, sitting at the table, seemed quite dazed.
Since making the deal with the devil, the side effects have slowly begun to appear.
Her feelings for those around her are gradually fading... but her feelings for her parents are far beyond what Qin can compare to.
She longed for her family to be reunited, but her desire to resurrect the gods twisted her heart.
The clash between these two emotions caused Barbara excruciating headaches.
"Barbara? What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Frederica, who was almost finished with dinner, noticed her daughter's unusual behavior and asked with concern, reaching out to touch her forehead.
Barbara snapped back to reality, instinctively shrinking back to avoid her mother's hand, and said in a flustered tone, "N-nothing, Mom, I'm just feeling a bit stuffy and want to go out for some fresh air."
As she spoke, she suddenly stood up, the chair scraping loudly on the floor.
Jean put down her fork and said worriedly, "Barbara, it's already dark outside. Why don't I go with you?"
"No need, sister!" Barbara quickly waved her hand, her voice tinged with urgency. "I'll just take a walk around the manor or Mondstadt and be back soon. You don't need to worry about me."
After she finished speaking, without waiting for her family to say anything more, she turned around and walked quickly toward the door.
Watching Barbara's hurried departure, the atmosphere in the restaurant fell silent once again.
Frederica frowned and said worriedly, "Barbara is acting strangely. Is something on her mind?"
Simon guessed, "It's probably because of the church's affairs lately. After all, Cardinal Calvin even fell ill because of them..."
Qin looked towards the doorway, a sense of unease rising in her heart.
Barbara's gaze just now was so unfamiliar that it made her uneasy.
She always felt that her younger sister was hiding something, but she didn't know how to ask her.
……
Mondstadt in the dead of night.
In the past, the Angel's Gift Tavern would always be filled with the aroma of dandelion wine, and the lively atmosphere would continue until late at night, accompanied by the laughter and chatter of the drunkards.
But now, the tavern's doors and windows are tightly shut, the winery was destroyed by the snowstorm, and Diluc has gone far away. Where can we find wine in Mondstadt? It's all greenhouse wine, and you think it's too expensive, and I think it's too expensive too.
Now, Diona is happy because Mond Winery is finished...
But Diona wasn't happy either, because... Mondstadt Winery was going to go under, and Mondstadt itself was going to go under...
Barbara, who was taking a walk alone, came to the construction site of the West Wind Cathedral.
Just then, a sharp pang of heart palpitation suddenly struck. Barbara clutched her chest, her brows furrowed, and her face turned deathly pale.
She bent over, panting heavily, "My heart is in turmoil... What should I do... I feel so awful..."
……
After an unknown amount of time, the palpitations gradually subsided, but Barbara did not leave. Instead, as if drawn by something, she staggered around to the back of the West Wind Cathedral.
It was a cemetery. When Shao Yun blew up the cathedral, this cemetery luckily escaped destruction, and the tombstones are still neatly arranged.
Barbara walked into the cemetery, aimlessly, until a familiar tombstone came into view, at which point she stopped.
This is Mr. Albert's grave.
The fan who once passionately followed her and ultimately died at Shao Yun's hands while trying to protect her.
Barbara knelt down, her fingertips gently tracing the name on the tombstone, her eyes instantly reddening.
"What should I do?" Barbara stared at the tombstone in front of her, not knowing what to do or how to resurrect the god.
Now that her parents have returned, shouldn't she encourage them to remarry and live happily as a family? It's such a dilemma...
Just as Barbara was feeling lost, a sudden, bone-chilling cold blew against her neck.
That wasn't the temperature the night breeze should have, and it instantly made the hairs on her body stand on end.
She swallowed instinctively, feeling a heavy gaze on her back. Something was standing behind her, silently watching her.
Barbara's heart leaped into her throat, and she began to breathe cautiously.
The devil, the "top-hat man" who manipulates fate, sensed Barbara's confusion and came to "give her guidance."
However, instead of getting straight to the point, it began to comment on Barbara's behavior of coming to the cemetery late at night.
"Do you understand? People who come to the cemetery to remember the past should come during the day, because you'll scare other people at night."
Barbara turned around and looked at the man with a mustache, dressed in a suit and wearing a top hat.
She mustered her courage and greeted him, "You? It's been a long time..."
The man in the top hat did not answer her greeting. Instead, he looked at a tombstone in the distance with the name "Lesger" engraved on it. It was a tombstone that was several years old.
"Do you know? This young man named Lesger was both lucky and unlucky. His soul returned to this land, but..."
“The dead shepherd can no longer protect him.”
"The lambs that had once been favored by the shepherd panicked and dug up the bones of the deceased shepherd, using them as scarecrows to place at the entrance of the pasture, thinking that this would drive away the jackals and bring them safety."
"But little did they know that this scarecrow could not even be driven away by crows. The lambs thought they had grasped hope, but they were just deceiving themselves."
The devil was indirectly mocking Barbara's foolishness...
Barbara was completely confused and didn't understand the devil's words. All she wanted to know was what she should do.
"I don't understand what you're saying, but what should I do next?"