The Phoenix's Rebirth: From Ruined Maiden to Empress

Before the Eastern Palace's concubine selection, I was drugged and lost my virginity to the guard Duan Ming in an alley.

I thought Duan Ming had shown me grace and resigned myself to marrying into the Duan family.

After marriage, with my support, Duan Ming achieved fame and success.

On the day he was appointed Great General, however, beggars showed up at our door, shamelessly declaring:

"We are General's lady's secret lovers before her marriage!"

I told Duan Ming to drive them away, but he laughed viciously:

"That night in the alley, the one who violated you wasn't me at all—it was these three beggars!"

"I merely found your body that morning. Who knew I would gain such wealth and status for free!"

When I learned the truth, rage overwhelmed me. I pulled out a hairpin to kill him, but he pushed me from a high platform.

In excruciating pain, I saw myself surrounded by those beggars while Duan Ming held his childhood sweetheart and watched coldly.

I died filled with hatred, but when I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn to that night of drugging.

I was in the alley, my body burning with heat.

1

The moment I realized I had been reborn, I immediately pulled out a hairpin and stabbed it deep into my thigh!

The drug in my body was called Immortal's Desire.

Once this drug took effect, even immortal beings without desires would become complete slaves to primal urges.

Only intense pain could keep me briefly clear-headed.

Otherwise, I would collapse in the alley like in my previous life, unable to distinguish whether those violating me were human or ghost.

My blurred vision finally cleared.

In the night wind, I keenly caught another sound—that of a man's suppressed breathing.

After I lost my virginity in my previous life, I had collapsed in disgrace in the alley.

It was Shen family's gate guard Duan Ming who found me first.

He carried me, with disheveled clothes and in utter disgrace, parading through crowds back to the Shen residence.

Along that entire road, the entire capital city knew that the imperial merchant Shen's only daughter Shen Qingzhi had had illicit relations with the family guard in an alley.

Before that night, I had been a top candidate for Crown Prince's consort.

After that night, I became a promiscuous woman who had affairs with servants.

During those days, a white silk rope lay on my bedside table.

I constantly thought of killing myself to preserve my family's reputation.

That was the darkest moment of my life.

Until one day, Crown Prince Pei Yuan suddenly visited with the imperial physician.

He pushed open the door, bringing in a long-absent beam of sunlight that stung my nearly blind eyes.

Pei Yuan asked me: "Miss, that night... did you see me?"

At that time, I was utterly ashamed. Behind multiple layers of curtains, I still had to observe the propriety between sovereign and subject, bowing my head respectfully:

"Your Highness the Crown Prince is of noble birth. This subject has never met you and dare not presume."

Through the curtains, I seemed to hear the Crown Prince sigh softly:

"Miss, take care. A woman's virtue lies not beneath her skirt. Do not belittle yourself."

The Crown Prince took away the white silk rope and left the imperial physician to help restore my health.

At that time, I only thought the Crown Prince was a good person.

Only later did I learn that same night, the Crown Prince had also been drugged and had endured the entire night in that alley.

Hearing that the Shen family's daughter had been violated in the same alley, he suspected it might have been him who had lost control and committed this wrongful act.

Therefore, he made a special visit to the Shen residence, seeking an answer.

He had heard of my disgrace from the streets and had specially brought the imperial hospital's foremost gynecological expert.

Only after repeated verification did he learn that it was not him that night.

Now, I stared at the pile of firewood before me.

The humiliation of my previous life was vivid in my mind. I couldn't recall those men's faces, only clearly remembering being pressed against a pile of firewood and violated.

Before those three beggars and Duan Ming found me, I had to leave this place immediately!

Immortal's Desire was extremely vicious. My legs felt weak, my body like ice about to melt.

If any male appeared before me now, I feared I would be unable to control myself.

I stabbed my left thigh again, using intense pain to stimulate my body's potential, and staggered toward the sound of breathing.

I thought it would be difficult to find, but unexpectedly, it was just one wall away.

Under the cold white moonlight, a man in noble, luxurious attire leaned against the wall, his handsome face tinged with a faint flush, his fair neck tilted back in unbearable agitation.

I saw him as my savior.

If I had to lose something tonight, at least I would choose for myself! This was my only chance to change my fate!

I pounced on the man like a hungry tiger!

My last moment of clarity recognized the imperial dragon pattern on his collar.

I was completely at ease.

In the confusion, I felt for and pushed open the door to a woodshed in the alley, to avoid those beggars.

Everything that followed happened naturally.

The man's well-defined hands tightly gripped my body, and I allowed myself to melt into spring water under the drug's influence.

We were like dry wood meeting fire, saving each other, embracing, burning within each other's bodies.

2

When I woke again, a muscular, fair chest covered in bite marks and scratches filled my vision.

I somehow reached out and touched it with endless nostalgia.

Unexpectedly, that muscle suddenly made a terrified sound: "How dare you!!"

I suddenly sobered up, looked up, and saw the Crown Prince's face showing horror and anger after being "bullied."

I reacted quickly, immediately playing the victim first:

"Who are you?! What did you do to me!!"

The Crown Prince frowned:

"You don't recognize me?! Cunning! We clearly met at the palace banquet!"

Of course I recognized the Crown Prince.

Only long after marriage in my previous life did I learn that at the palace banquet before the concubine selection, Pei Yuan had given me a second glance.

I suppose it was those two glances that made Princess Huayin notice me.

My mother had said that Immortal's Desire was a drug gifted from the Western Regions to the emperor for training concubines in bedchamber arts.

Only a princess could obtain such medicine.

The wine the princess bestowed on me must have been problematic.

Duan Ming was merely my family's guard. Without the princess's secret instigation, who would dare violate a noble lady under the imperial city's walls?

My greatest enemy might come from the palace, so in this life, only by attaching myself to the Eastern Palace would I have a chance to survive!

Last night I had already succeeded in the first step. Now I needed to do was eliminate the Crown Prince's suspicions.

At the palace banquet, I sat among the noble ladies, always keeping my eyes downcast, not daring to offend the imperial majesty.

Therefore, even if I now denied recognizing the Crown Prince, it would be reasonable and make him think I was innocent and pure.

"Who are you, you villain! How dare you impersonate the Crown Prince!"

I said, curling up and wiping away tears to cry loudly:

"You bullied me, and you still dare use the Crown Prince's name! My favorite is the Crown Prince, and now you've left me with no chance at all!"

I cried so grievously, nearly shaking the roof off this broken woodshed.

Several tall guards rushed into the woodshed—by their dress, they were from the Eastern Palace: "Your Highness, we finally found you!"

Pei Yuan was overwhelmed by my tears, at a loss what to do:

"Hey! Stop crying! I really am the Crown Prince! They can testify!"

I wailed loudly:

"You're not! The Crown Prince is wise and mighty, how could he gnaw on people like a dog!"

"The Crown Prince is handsome and elegant, how could he look as dissolute as you!"

"The Crown Prince is my peerless hero, how could he be a lecher like you!"

Those guards watched as the originally angry Crown Prince was struck by those words "wise and mighty," "handsome and elegant," and "peerless hero," his lips turning upward.

"This is the Eastern Palace token."

A gleaming gold plaque was enlarged before my tear-filled eyes.

Pei Yuan could barely suppress his smile: "Now do you believe?!"

The Eastern Palace guards also chimed in: "This is the wise, mighty, handsome, and elegant peerless hero that the young lady speaks of—Crown Prince Pei Yuan!"

I immediately stopped crying and reached to touch the gold plaque, but Pei Yuan pulled his hand back, making me grasp empty air.

Then he suddenly gripped my pulse, and after a moment, his brows tightened:

"You've been drugged too?"

The current Crown Prince was brave and skilled in battle, proficient in medicine, and had once saved injured unknown soldiers on the battlefield, earning praise from the people for his benevolence.

I only needed to obediently let him feel my pulse, then appear terrified:

"Does Your Highness wish to kill me?"

Pei Yuan released my wrist. With his medical skills, he could certainly tell what drug I had taken.

And that medicine most likely came from the palace.

He guessed I was just another pitiful person being manipulated by some palace noble.

At this point, I took another step back:

"Rest assured, Your Highness. Though I admire you, I dare not presume upon the Eastern Palace."

I gathered my robe and stubbornly stood up:

"Last night's events, I will tell no one. Your Highness need not trouble yourself."

With that, I walked unsteadily out the door.

The Crown Prince really didn't stop me—dog of a man!

I deliberately tore my sleeve, dropping a jade pendant before his eyes.

That jade pendant was engraved with the Shen family crest.

And also engraved—my personal nickname.

3

I walked away without looking back.

I couldn't let the Crown Prince see the slightest hint of my attachment to him, otherwise, I would become just another cliché prey in his eyes.

I stumbled out of the alley, my dress stained with blood, the wound on my leg throbbing with pain.

At the alley's end stood Duan Ming.

When he found me, he was clearly overjoyed and immediately ran toward me.

Due to blood loss and last night's exhaustion, I couldn't resist and fainted in his arms.

When I woke again, I was lying in my own room's bed.

My father's face was iron-gray, my mother's eyes red from crying.

Duan Ming was slapping his own face, saying:

"Last night I saw the young lady was hit with an aphrodisiac. If she couldn't achieve yin-yang balance, she would surely die. This subordinate lost control!"

"I truly like the young lady and want to protect her. If you don't mind, this subordinate wishes to marry you as my proper wife!"

He thought I had lost all memory under the drug's influence, so he lied with perfect confidence.

I weakly asked back: "What did you say?"

Duan Ming gripped my hand and said with certainty:

"Young lady, have you forgotten? Last night you were hit with an aphrodisiac. When you saw me, you threw yourself into my arms. This subordinate had no choice but to help you achieve yin-yang balance!"

His eyes clung to me, as if reminding, or more like warning:

"Young lady, don't you have a red mole on your right shoulder?"

"During our intimacy last night, I saw it very clearly. I will never forget your beauty."

4

Duan Ming knelt before my bed, while slapping himself and crying tears streaming down his face, he spoke of his helplessness and impropriety from last night, his regret and admiration.

He was so self-blaming that it made it difficult for my parents to handle him.

The family physician in the room also helped testify: "The young lady was indeed hit with a strange aphrodisiac last night. If not relieved in time, she would surely have died from blood flowing backward."

So it was in my previous life too, with the physician's testimony and my complete lack of memory of that night.

My parents gritted their teeth helplessly: "So Duan Ming truly did save your life."

Merchants held low status. Even though the Shen family was the wealthiest imperial merchant, they were always considered inferior in social circles.

My age was similar to the Crown Prince's. My parents had carefully cultivated me precisely for the day I might enter the Eastern Palace and have a good future.

Everything was destroyed last night, destroyed by a mere gate guard.

My father's hair turned white overnight. The next day, he went to the Eastern Palace to apologize.

I was already on the concubine selection list. If this wasn't handled well, it could be seen as provoking the Eastern Palace and showing contempt for imperial power.

The Eastern Palace didn't punish us severely. The Crown Prince also personally visited, telling me not to seek death and to live well.

For several days, Duan Ming knelt in our courtyard, seemingly admitting fault but actually forcing marriage.

A woman who lost her virginity also lost control over her own life.

Finally, burdened by Duan Ming's life-saving grace, I resigned myself to marrying into the Duan family.

It seemed like marrying down, but actually Duan Ming married into my family. He brought his crude old mother to live in the Shen family's grand residence.

A servant overnight became the son-in-law, enjoying the wealth accumulated over three generations of the Shen family's imperial merchant business.

As the Shen family's only daughter, having lost the prospect of the Eastern Palace, my parents could only resign themselves, using all the Shen family's connections to advance Duan Ming's career.

With mountains of gold and silver clearing the way, three years later, Duan Ming finally relied on his merits in eradicating bandits to be appointed as fourth-rank Mingwei General.

He didn't have the talent for scholarship or heroism—this was already the limit of what the Shen family could support.

Parents love their children and plan deeply for their future. My parents only hoped he would treat me well.

But on the day Duan Ming achieved fame and success, he brought those three beggars to our door.

The three beggars shouted when they saw me: "We are General's lady's secret lovers before her marriage!"

They opened their foul-smelling mouths, showing blackened teeth, and wantonly mocked me in public.

I initially thought they were crazy troublemakers and told Duan Ming to drive them away.

But Duan Ming suddenly changed his expression, laughing viciously:

"Why drive them away? What they said is correct. These three beggars are not only the young lady's lovers but also our matchmakers!"

"What did you say?!"

"That medicine is worthy of being from the Western Regions. Three years later, and the young lady is still kept in the dark."

Duan Ming said openly before my parents:

"That night, the one who violated you wasn't me at all—it was these three beggars!"

He reminisced: "You were quite fragrant that night, young lady. If I hadn't found you dirty after the beggars touched you, you would have barely been acceptable that night. After all, who would have known in that alley?"

"Father-in-law, mother-in-law, you actually treated me as a life-saver."

Duan Ming shook the general's armor on his body, full of prestige:

"In truth, I merely picked up the young lady's corpse that morning!"

"Yet you let such a noble lady as the young lady marry me as wife, and I gained such wealth, status, and a bright future for free!"

When my father learned the truth of that year, he immediately became overwhelmed with rage, vomited blood, and died on the spot.

My mother wanted to die together with Duan Ming but was pushed by him into a table corner, her head split open and bleeding.

I felt cold all over and pulled out a hairpin to die together with Duan Ming, but he kicked me off the high platform. I fell covered in blood.

At the moment of death, I saw those three beggars surrounding me.

The memories of that night flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern.

Under the cover of night, they bit my skin, in the mist they wet my entire body.

I nearly collapsed, screaming in grief. Duan Ming held his childhood sweetheart whom he had long kept outside and watched coldly.

That day, Duan Ming told outsiders that he had returned from eradicating bandits to find his wife having an affair with beggars. When the scandal was exposed, the wife went mad and killed her own parents. Duan Ming then accidentally killed her.

At that time, the court was in decline, with internal troubles and external threats. The government offices had fallen, and such absurd lies were never thoroughly investigated.

Thus Duan Ming both received his official position and legitimately obtained the wealth accumulated over three generations of the Shen family.

He held his childhood sweetheart, brought his old mother, stepped on my corpse, changed the Shen family's signboard to "Duan Residence," and became the Shen family's "new master."

Everything from my previous life was vivid, and it all played out again after my rebirth.

Now, hearing the physician's words, my mother, as in the previous life, said with tearful resignation:

"Qingzhi, things have come to this. You can't blame Duan Ming. Resign yourself to fate."

"This matter is already spreading in the streets."

My father's expression was grave: "Marrying Duan Ming, we can say you had an engagement long ago. At least it would be proper. Father will go to the Eastern Palace to apologize again. The Crown Prince is benevolent and probably won't punish severely."

"If not, it would mean that before the concubine selection, you had illicit relations with..."

My father gritted his teeth: "Illicit relations with a guard! It violates propriety, even more provokes the Eastern Palace, shows contempt for the Crown Prince, is the crime of deceiving the sovereign, punishable by execution of nine generations!"

My parents didn't know that the one I "had illicit relations with" last night was the Eastern Palace's Crown Prince himself.

Duan Ming thought he had already won. His eyes shone as he greedily grabbed my hand:

"Young lady, considering nine generations, you can only endure this grievance and marry me!"

5

Everything my parents said was reasonable.

Duan Ming, or rather the person behind all this, was certain that the Shen family would swallow their anger for the sake of the bigger picture.

Duan Ming was also confident but still pretended:

"Young lady, this subordinate truly acted without thinking. If you're angry, give me a knife. I won't resist!"

I stared at Duan Ming's hypocritical face and suddenly smiled gently:

"Guard Duan, the physician said you saved my life. How could I bear to kill my life-saver?"

I raised my hand, stroking Duan Ming's face, and called him tenderly:

"But Duan Lang, you hurt me last night. I want to punish you with a few strokes of the cane. Will you accept it?"

My appearance was first-class in the capital. Duan Ming was infatuated with these few soft words of mine and immediately nodded like a chicken pecking rice:

"I'm willing to be punished, as long as the young lady can vent her anger!"

He thought this was a woman's small temper. Since he had gained such an advantage, he was willing to endure some harmless suffering to please the beauty.

My parents didn't interfere.

Duan Ming was taken to the courtyard. He lay on his back, his limbs bound by other guards.

He found it strange:

"I thought it was caning. Why am I lying like this?"

Supporting my sore waist and legs, I walked to his side and tapped Duan Ming's cheek with the flat of a dagger, my voice still gentle:

"Because I want to personally teach Duan Lang a lesson!"

Duan Ming thought I was flirting with him and actually smiled foolishly.

Soon, he couldn't smile anymore.

My knife slid from his face to his Adam's apple, chest, and abdomen.

Finally landing on that small bulge between his legs.

Duan Ming panicked:

"Young lady, what are you doing?!"

"You just said you'd accept a knife. Weren't you willing?"

I curled my lips into a cold smile and suddenly struck down between his legs!

Blood splattered! A sharp scream of agony pierced the Shen residence sky!

Moments later, a man and a horrifying mass of flesh and blood were thrown from the Shen residence entrance.

The man gushed blood from his crotch, writhing in pain on the ground.

A sharp-eyed passerby said: "Oh, a fresh eunuch!"

I walked outside and said to the watching crowd:

"This watchdog who dared to slander his master's honor—this is his fate!"

Duan Ming, pale with pain, glared at me with hatred: "You... you dirty woman!"

I held the knife that had castrated him and threw it on the ground in disgust:

"You're the dirty one!"

I castrated Duan Ming's roots of descendants.

Of course, with this one knife, I could have directly taken his life.

But if he died, how could I lure out the mastermind?

In the watching crowd, someone looked abnormal and hurried away—probably to report.

Sure enough, within an hour, a maid came to report:

"Duan Ming was dragged away. Only a pool of blood was left on the ground."

6

In the following days, capital city gossip was rampant.

Some said the Shen family's daughter had been drugged and violated by the gate guard and, in shame and anger, had publicly castrated him.

Others said the Shen family's daughter, after having an affair, had killed the guard to silence him.

Among the various rumors, the conclusion was always: "Regardless, the Shen family's daughter has lost her virtue. She should hang herself with white silk to preserve dignity!"

They would also praise: "That guard surnamed Duan is truly a model among men! A mere gatekeeper who got to taste the imperial merchant's only daughter! Even though he was castrated, he still came out ahead!"

My parents had explicitly forbidden servants from gossiping in my presence, but these rumors still reached my ears.

The eldest elder of the Shen clan even had someone specially deliver a length of white silk to me—the meaning needed no explanation.

I looked at that three-foot length of white silk. In my previous life, I had truly considered death.

But my parents only had me as their child. They loved and protected me, planned deeply for my future. I couldn't bear to leave them to live out their days alone, so I could only swallow my anger and marry, which ultimately harmed the entire family.

In this life, I personally stored that white silk in a box—those who should be hanged are others!

Everyone thought I couldn't go on living, but I actively cooperated with the physician to restore my health.

Compared to my broken body from the previous life, this time only the wound on my leg that I stabbed myself was more serious.

The physician examined my pulse and tactfully reminded me not to indulge in sensual pleasures.

The viciousness of Immortal's Desire lay in that after one attack, the drugged person might expend ten times their vital energy and blood, leaving their body weak for months.

But the medicine the physician prescribed restored my qi and blood within three days.

One day, I curiously lifted a corner of the bed curtain and recognized that the one treating me wasn't an ordinary physician but Li Changyu, the imperial hospital's foremost female gynecological expert.

Li Changyu was the foremost female physician, only taking pulses for palace nobles.

That Li the physician could be summoned—both past and present—only Crown Prince Pei Yuan could accomplish this.

"Was it the Crown Prince who sent you?"

Physician Li didn't deny it: "His Highness asked the young lady to take care of her health."

Since we were acquainted, I simply lifted the curtain.

Seeing my radiant appearance, Physician Li smiled with relief: "The Crown Prince sent me because he was afraid you might seek death. Seeing your rosy, full complexion now, I know you can overcome this hurdle."

I said calmly: "Virtue is merely a shackle imposed by the world. What I want to do is break free from this shackle, not add another white silk to it."

Female Physician Li said: "The young lady thinks well. Pity that Miss Lin, after being abducted by mountain bandits for one night, returned and hanged herself. When I arrived, people were still cursing."

I frowned: "Cursing what?"

"Cursing that Miss Lin died too late, that she should have hanged herself immediately after being violated, rather than returning to the Lin residence to die."

"A seventeen-year-old girl, unfortunate in life, yet after death, her own clan curses her: 'dying at home, stained the Lin family's dignity.'"

Li Changyu sighed heavily, her eyes filled with pity, regret, and self-blame for not being able to rescue her in time.

In my previous life, my broken body was also treated by Li Changyu.

She had even tactfully reminded me that those injuries didn't seem to be caused by one person.

At that time, I was deceived by Duan Ming and didn't think deeply, nor dared to.

Li Changyu was probably afraid I would be like Miss Lin and seek death, so she didn't dare to reveal everything.

After changing the medicine, I grabbed Li Changyu and asked: "Did the Crown Prince say anything?"

"Besides telling you to rest well, he said nothing else."

I curled my lips—dog of a man.

My rebirth timing was too微妙, as if heaven intended to play me one more time.

"Framing" the Crown Prince that night was my only choice.

The situation was too passive. Half my bet was placed on the Crown Prince.

Li Changyu asked me in return: "Does the young lady have any message for me to bring to the Crown Prince?"

"Since that's the case, then I have nothing to say."

The tactic of playing hard to get—I know it too.

Li Changyu smiled: "I'll deliver these words to the Crown Prince."

After the physician left, my mother came to see me again. She couldn't help but ask:

"Zhier, tell Mother, who was it that night?"

"Mother, I was indeed violated, but it definitely wasn't Duan Ming."

"Then who was it? You won't say who drugged you, who violated you. Zhier, things have come to this. You must tell Father and Mother so we can find a way out for you!"

Just as Mother finished speaking, a maid stumbled in to report:

"Madam, Miss! Disaster! Princess Huayin has arrived in her phoenix carriage, and Duan Ming has returned too!"

I gripped my mother's wrist:

"Mother, you will soon know all the answers."

"That man will certainly come forward to claim me today!"

7

That this matter reached the palace didn't surprise me at all.

Losing virtue before the concubine selection could be seen as provoking the imperial family and showing contempt for the Crown Prince.

Therefore, Princess Huayin coming to the Shen residence under this banner was entirely reasonable.

The princess sat in her phoenix carriage as the Shen family knelt in welcome.

"Rise."

When these two words fell, I dared to rise and look up at the princess.

This was the second time I had met Princess Huayin.

Ten days ago at the palace banquet, the princess bestowed a cup of fine wine on me. When I thanked her, I caught a hasty glimpse of the princess for the first time.

Now I examined the princess carefully.

She was thirty years old.

Princesses of Daqi either married officials or married far for political alliances. Most were engaged before the age of twenty.

Only Princess Huayin remained unmarried at this age, and Emperor Yuande seemed in no hurry, repeatedly ignoring memorials urging the princess to marry.

The princess's appearance was gorgeous and unparalleled. She was surrounded by silk brocade and splendid robes, wearing gold and jade, leaning lazily on her sedan chair like a decadent, world-weary peony.

Duan Ming, recently castrated, hunched his back and said in a sharp voice:

"Princess! Shen Qingzhi had illicit relations with me in an alley before the concubine selection. After the scandal was exposed, she viciously attacked me! She wants to climb to the Eastern Palace, deceiving the Crown Prince and deceiving His Majesty! Quickly execute her nine generations! Seek justice for me!!"

A man without that thing will inevitably have a twisted mentality. He no longer bothered to pretend to be infatuated, only wanting to kill me immediately.

The princess looked up: "Shen Qingzhi, do you know your crime?"

I asked in return: "I was also a victim, framed and drugged. May I ask the princess, what crime have I committed?"

The princess showed no guilt. In her eyes, I was like an ant. Even if she drove me to death, she would only find it interesting, amusing.

"This palace doesn't care about the complexities. Before the concubine selection, you had illicit relations with a man—that is an established fact. On this point alone, this princess can sentence you to death!"

She raised her hand, and two palace maids came forward. One held a length of red wedding silk, the other a length of white mourning silk.

"You have only two paths. Either resign yourself to marrying Duan Ming, and this princess will personally preside over your wedding."

"Or hang yourself by the neck to preserve your chastity and dignity!"

My parents knelt begging for mercy: "Princess, show mercy! Duan Ming is now a eunuch, how can he marry!"

"So what if he's a eunuch?"

The princess laughed innocently yet cruelly: "Eunuchs can still have food and wine relations! It's merely lacking the pleasures of the bedchamber. It will be hard for Miss Shen to endure."

With the princess's support, Duan Ming grew bold:

"I became a eunuch because of you! Shen Qingzhi, you cut off my roots of descendants. For the rest of your life, it's your turn to serve me!!"

"I won't marry!"

I resisted forcefully: "Duan Ming's contract of sale is still in the Shen family's hands. Daqi law stipulates that when servants commit faults, the master's family may punish them themselves!"

"For serious offenses, there's no need to go through government offices. They may be executed within the household!"

"As long as Duan Ming dares enter the Shen family's gates, even with your princess residence's guarantee, I can make him die without a burial place!"

8

"Shen Qingzhi, you dare defy this princess's orders!!"

"This subject dares not, I merely remind the princess that Daqi law was established by our ancestors. The princess should not go against their will, otherwise I fear it will give people grounds for criticism!"

Huayin straightened her upper body, and finally, a few traces of anger appeared on her gorgeous face. Then she laughed:

"What a clever tongue. Since you refuse to marry, then choose the second path."

That white silk was held before my eyes.

"You yourself admit you lost your virtue that night."

"According to Daqi law, a candidate losing her virtue before the concubine selection is seen as showing contempt for the imperial family!"

"His Majesty personally said that women who lose their virtue should hang themselves with white silk to show their chastity and integrity!"

This was originally just a private punishment.

But when Emperor Yuande ascended the throne, he established this private punishment as iron law—a woman losing her virtue was, in the eyes of these superiors, as wicked as murder or arson.

I used the law to refute the princess, and she similarly used the law to pressure me:

"Besides, you had illicit relations with your lover. The crime is even greater!"

"Multiple crimes together. This princess grants you a length of white silk, leaving you with a whole corpse!"

"Duan Ming, send your young lady on her way!"

Duan Ming finally caught his chance for revenge. He pulled the white silk taut and stepped toward me step by step.

My parents knelt on the ground, begging the princess to spare my life, but were held down by guards.

I tried to dodge, but my hands were twisted behind my back by two strong matrons. One grabbed my hair bun, forcing my head up to wait for that white silk.

"The young lady is so noble, yet you've fallen into my hands!"

Duan Ming gripped the white silk, his gaze vicious: "If I don't break your neck, I'm not named Duan!"

At the critical moment, I shouted:

"You can't kill me! I'm pregnant!!"

Princess Huayin seemed as if this sentence had struck some nerve, and she suddenly laughed loudly, but even greater viciousness flowed from her eyes:

"So what if you're pregnant! Do you think this princess would pity a mother and child dying together?! With a bastard child, you should die even more!!"

"The child in my womb is not a bastard—it's imperial blood!"

"What did you say?!"

"Princess, don't you want to know who was with me that night?"

Under the princess's gaze, I said loudly:

"The one who spent that night with me—was the Crown Prince! It is the current Crown Prince Pei Yuan!!"

9

Everyone was stunned in place. My parents especially had their mouths wide open.

Duan Ming grew frantic: "This woman is crazy! How dare she imagine the Crown Prince! That night was clearly me, clearly me!!"

I watched the princess's shocked face and confronted her:

"What a coincidence. That night the Crown Prince was also drugged and ended up in the alley. The princess should know best, right?"

The princess's face paled slightly—she had administered the drug, so of course she knew best!

I angrily rebuked those two matrons:

"I carry imperial blood in my womb. Who among you dares touch me?!"

The two matrons were frightened and loosened their grip. I immediately seized the chance to break free from their grasp.

I appeared confident, but inside I was uneasy.

Of course I wasn't pregnant—this was just a delaying tactic born of desperation.

This lie was so fragile that a little thought would reveal its fatal flaw.

What I didn't expect was that the one who saw through this deception wasn't those experienced matrons, but the unmarried Princess Huayin.

"...Shen Qingzhi, this happened only ten days ago. How could you be pregnant so quickly?!"

"Someone, come check her pulse to see if it's true or false!"

The imperial physician following the princess approached me: "Miss Shen, please give me your hand to examine."

I clenched my fist tightly under my sleeve.

The physician urged: "Whether there is a pregnancy, I will know from feeling the pulse. Miss Shen, please extend your hand."

"Why won't you extend your hand? You have a guilty conscience!"

Duan Ming pressed forward: "I told you, Shen Qingzhi is crazy to become Crown Prince's consort! She even imagines herself pregnant with the Crown Prince's child! Ridiculous, this madwoman! Quickly strangle her!!"

The physician urged again: "Miss Shen, please extend your hand!!"

As soon as the physician touched my pulse, this lie would be exposed.

My cards were all played. I looked toward the door, never seeing that figure appear.

"Please young lady roll up your own sleeve."

With no choice, I lowered my head and rolled up my right sleeve. The blood vessels beneath my skin were exposed in the slightly cold air.

Suddenly a pair of warm hands found my pulse.

My whole body trembled, thinking the lie was about to be exposed, but I heard a warm voice laughing:

"Truly pregnant."

I looked up sharply, thinking I had met a quack, but when I raised my eyes, I met Pei Yuan's handsome face.

His large hand was tightly wrapped around my wrist.

The imperial physician had been thrown behind him by the Crown Prince. The Shen residence, originally surrounded by the princess's people, was now filled with Eastern Palace guards.

Pei Yuan felt my pulse, smiling wantonly and unrestrainedly:

"Quite capable, Shen Zhizhi."

Zhizhi—my personal nickname.

Cold sweat poured down my back. I suddenly relaxed and cursed through gritted teeth—you came at just the right time, dog Crown Prince!!

10

Of course Pei Yuan could tell I wasn't pregnant.

His hand moved from my pulse to my wrist, then to my palm. His long fingers forcefully invaded the gaps between my fingers, intertwining with mine, then raised our joined hands high before Princess Huayin:

"The one who had a drunken rendezvous with Shen Qingzhi that night was me. Shen Qingzhi truly does carry my child in her womb."

Pei Yuan said unrestrainedly:

"If Royal Sister has objections, write a memorial stamped with the princess's seal and send it to the Eastern Palace. When I have time, I will naturally review it."

Pei Yuan was the Queen's direct heir, the Crown Prince. Not only was his birth legitimate and noble, but at fifteen, he led troops to pacify the northern Di threat on the border, recovering thirteen cities for Daqi. At seventeen, he presided over the cabinet, purging corruption throughout court and government. Now he had been regent for three years, with real power in his hands.

Everyone said Pei Yuan was Daqi's future, the people's savior.

But Princess Huayin's mother was merely a dancer Emperor Yuande dallied with during an inspection tour. Huayin was only brought back to the palace at age five. She had no maternal clan to rely on, even though the emperor clearly doted on this daughter.

With such a disparity in status, if Princess Huayin had something to say, she indeed needed to first submit a memorial to the Eastern Palace and see the Crown Prince's mood.

She could use underhanded means in secret, but in direct confrontation, the princess naturally fell to a disadvantage.

Huayin's expression was extremely colorful: "Royal brother, such recklessness—do you know it violates propriety!"

The Crown Prince declared decisively: "Shen Qingzhi was originally one of the Crown Prince's consort candidates. My rendezvous with her is naturally proper!"

"If Royal Sister wishes to report to Father Emperor, then I must also have someone thoroughly investigate what exactly went wrong with the wine at the palace banquet, that it would cause both Miss Shen and me to lose control!"

This was almost explicitly tearing apart the facade to point out the princess's private schemes.

These days, the Crown Prince must have investigated many things.

The princess felt guilty and immediately extinguished her anger.

But Duan Ming was unwilling and even complained to the Crown Prince:

"Crown Prince! You must not be deceived by Shen Qingzhi! That night, even if it wasn't me who touched her, it should have been three beg—"

Before Duan Ming could finish his words, a long sword suddenly pierced his throat!

That sword struck viciously and sharply, bringing with it an intimidating sword energy!

Duan Ming stared with eyes wide with terror, watching his neck almost severed by that sword.

Blood splattered everywhere. The crowd screamed in terror.

Even the princess fell from her sedan chair in fright!

The Crown Prince drew his sword, stepped on Duan Ming's body, and with a cold face wiped the blood from his sword, warning the princess:

"This crown's consort selection, Royal Sister had better not interfere again."

"Otherwise, beware that swords and arrows show no mercy!"

11

However grandly Princess Huayin had entered the Shen residence, that much more wretched was her departure.

The sedan chair carriers were terrified, nearly tripping on the threshold.

The princess fled in disgrace.

Duan Ming's corpse lay at my feet. My legs felt leaden and unmoving.

Pei Yuan kicked the filth aside for me and naturally reassured my parents:

"Don't be afraid. He's completely dead."

My parents: "..."

We're not afraid of the dead—it's you, Crown Prince, who frighten us!

Pei Yuan looked at me: "Stop pretending. Didn't I just hear you cursing me, calling me a dog Crown Prince?"

"Your Highness must have misheard, haha."

I tried to bluff my way through, but he grabbed my collar and pulled me back.

"Pregnant and running around?"

"I made that up."

"Ah, you falsely claimed to be pregnant with the Crown Prince's child. That's deceiving the sovereign—punishable by execution of nine generations."

I said angrily: "You came too late. I had no other choice!"

"This king did it intentionally."

The Crown Prince suddenly took out that jade pendant engraved with my personal name:

"Playing hard to get before this king—did you think I couldn't see through it?"

My heart faltered.

"That night in the alley, I could have maintained control, but you pounced like a hungry tiger, making me lose my breath and control."

"Afterward, you dared to play the victim first, saying you didn't dare presume upon the Eastern Palace, yet you dropped this jade pendant, afraid I couldn't find you."

"Too clumsy, too deliberate. Shen Zhizhi, have you never seduced a man before?"

All my tactics were seen through by him.

No wonder he ignored me these past few days—he wanted to see how far I could go on my own.

"Does Your Highness wish to kill me?"

"Killing you would be boring. The consort selection is in three days. You must come."

I was stunned for a moment. I had set bait to catch fish, and the fish had seen through my intentions, yet still took the bait.

"Why?"

I had schemed against him, yet he truly didn't mind at all.

"If it hadn't been you that night, it probably would have been the princess's people who pounced."

"Rather than someone else, it might as well be you, Shen Zhizhi."

"Besides."

The Crown Prince laughed softly, leaned close to my ear, and reminded me softly:

"Miss Shen, do you remember that night you tightly gripped my arm, kept shouting 'savior, savior'?"

When he leaned close, I first smelled a cold, sandalwood fragrance.

My earlobes burned, my cheeks flushed slightly. Calming down, I admitted honestly:

"If it hadn't been for Your Highness that night, I would already be worse than dead now."

I said sincerely: "Your Highness is truly my savior."

"Miss Shen, I often have the same dream."

Pei Yuan said: "In the dream, you are my savior."

He handed me an Eastern Palace token and turned away casually:

"Remember to come to the consort selection. We need to go through the formalities to give you a proper name."

12

I looked down at this pure gold token. Besides the Eastern Palace cloud pattern, it bore the words "Zhaolin."

That was Pei Yuan's courtesy name—the world called him Crown Prince Zhaolin, meaning the sun's light shining upon Daqi.

He was the savior king that everyone in Daqi placed their hopes in.

But such a person, in my previous life, was forced to suicide by Princess Huayin.

I still remembered that cold, rainy night from my previous life.

Duan Ming had gone out to eradicate bandits, and I went to the temple to pray for him.

When I left that morning, everything was calm, but by the time I returned to the city, a palace coup had begun.

That palace coup was initiated by Princess Huayin.

When I returned to the city, the coup was nearly over.

The defeated rebels had taken me hostage. Crown Prince Zhaolin had called off the pursuing Imperial Guard.

Huayin laughed loudly:

"For an unrelated official's wife, you can still be so benevolent. No wonder everyone says that when you ascend the throne, Daqi will usher in a hundred years of prosperity. What a pity, Zhaolin brother, you won't live much longer!"

Under the moonlight, I glimpsed Crown Prince Zhaolin.

It had been three years since I had seen the Crown Prince behind that curtain.

In three years, the once high-spirited Crown Prince actually appeared aged, with white hair mixed in.

Three years ago, the Crown Prince had also been drugged in the alley. One day after the consort selection, a candidate was chosen—it was Miss Lin, the marquis's adopted daughter.

Rumor on the streets had it that the Crown Prince was poisoned in the alley that night, and Miss Lin had relieved him of the aphrodisiac.

Out of gratitude, and considering Miss Lin's reputation, the position of Crown Princess naturally fell to Miss Lin.

After marriage, Miss Lin bore the Crown Prince a son and a daughter, but both children died painfully at age one.

The imperial physicians said it was congenital deficiency.

I heard the Crown Prince loved those two children very much. The death of a one-year-old cuts deeper and hurts more than a child lost in the womb.

After that, the Crown Prince's health wasn't good.

The imperial physicians couldn't determine the cause, thinking it was excessive grief.

His body grew daily weaker. A year ago, he could still support his sick body to travel to the northern border, driving back the invading Bei Dan people.

After that triumphant return, the Crown Prince grew much white hair.

When the Crown Prince was exhausted, Princess Huayin rapidly expanded her power in court, finally choosing this rainy night when the emperor was gravely ill to launch her coup.

She still failed.

In the night, Crown Prince Zhaolin shot an arrow through the rebel's eyebrow who was holding me hostage.

He saved me, but before I could thank him.

Crown Princess Lin arrived. She knelt and begged the Crown Prince to spare the princess.

The princess seemingly surrendered and said something to the Crown Prince in the rain.

That night was too chaotic. I clearly heard that sentence but could never recall it.

Probably a provocation, a threat.

The Crown Prince's face suddenly turned deathly pale. He vomited a mouthful of black blood and swayed unsteadily.

The princess and Miss Lin were both taken away.

I stepped forward to support the Crown Prince, but he only looked at me, his eyes sad and pitiful, murmuring:

"That spring banquet, we met."

My heartstrings trembled. I wanted to approach again, but he waved me away. He handed me an umbrella, telling me to return to the residence and not look back.

The rain suddenly grew heavier. A sword energy cut my temple hair.

I turned sharply, my pupils contracting—Crown Prince Zhaolin swung his sword in suicide, blood and rain striking Daqi's land together.

That night, Daqi's people lost their hope.

Afterward, Crown Princess Lin also took poison and died. Princess Huayin laughed as she fell from the city tower.

Emperor Yuande also died of rage and soon passed away. The one who succeeded was King Cheng, of mediocre virtue and talent.

King Cheng found it difficult even to maintain what he had.

Daqi thus moved toward decline.

Half a year later, my family met with disaster, and there were no officials to handle matters.

Not long after I died, Daqi, having lost Crown Prince Zhaolin, was broken through by the combined forces of the Northern Di and Bei Dan people.

Thus, a dynasty moved toward decline and destruction.

13

Now, I caressed the Eastern Palace token engraved with "Zhaolin," watching Pei Zhaolin's vibrant, upright figure in the sunlight.

In my previous life, I knew the Crown Prince was a good person, so after rebirth, I vilely "framed" him and "used" him.

I thought he didn't know, even feeling smug.

It seems now he was merely benevolent.

Guessing I was scheming against him, he still stepped forward to help me when it mattered.

Guessing I had no way out, he paved a path for me to live.

Guessing the world was harsh toward women, he preserved my dignity, wanting to give me legitimacy.

In this life, my fate may have been reversed, but what about Pei Zhaolin?

What did Princess Huayin say to him that would make such a person despair enough to commit suicide?

Why did he fall ill, why did he grow white hair, why did he swing his sword in suicide?

In this life, my fate is tied to the Crown Prince's. I absolutely cannot let him repeat his previous fate.

I caught up with the Crown Prince: "If Your Highness trusts me, send someone to investigate Princess Huayin's dealings with the marquis's residence over these years."

The Shen family's connections can't reach the princess's residence or the marquis's residence, but the Eastern Palace can.

I only need to point him in a clear direction.

The Crown Prince seemed to want to ask why, so I told him directly: "The Crown Princess is the future empress. The Crown Princess's children are the future monarch. The princess interferes with Your Highness's consort selection for that dragon throne, and the marquis's residence is the only force behind the princess."

Back then, Princess Huayin was brought back to the palace through the marquis's residence's efforts.

In my previous life, the princess launched that coup by allying with the marquis's residence.

But the Crown Prince caught my meaning: "You were certain today that I would come?"

I told him frankly: "Your Highness is a smart man. You could certainly discover that the princess orchestrated that night in the alley. I believed you would descend like a divine soldier to rescue me."

I made my position clear: "Because we have common enemies and common interests."

Pei Yuan reached up and pinched my earlobe, laughing softly as he scolded me:

"Little fox."

14

Duan Ming was dead, killed personally by the Crown Prince.

Public opinion suddenly shifted, and everyone began spreading the beautiful story of the Crown Prince and me.

Duan Ming became a traitorous dog cursed by everyone.

My reputation was restored. The entire Daqi now acknowledged that I was the confirmed choice for Crown Prince's consort, lacking only the formalities.

On the day of the consort selection, my mother carefully dressed me up.

She swept away her worried expression, smiling so broadly she couldn't close her mouth, praising my good fortune, able to turn disaster into blessing.

"The Crown Prince is someone trustworthy. Mother is happy for you. Your father these days, the corners of his mouth haven't come down!"

I looked at myself in the mirror, but felt an unexplained unease in my heart.

This unease was finally confirmed on my way to the Eastern Palace.

People on the street ran toward the city tower direction, saying the marquis's daughter was about to jump from the city tower.

I got out of the sedan chair and hurried over, seeing my previous life's Crown Princess, now the marquis's daughter Lin Nanxue, wearing wedding clothes, standing on the city tower loudly denouncing:

"That night was clearly me! It was I who relieved the Crown Prince of the aphrodisiac! The Shen family's daughter is an impostor!"

In my previous life, it was this Lin family daughter who married into the Eastern Palace by using the alley incident.

On that rainy night, the princess's rebellion failed, but Lin Nanxue knelt and begged for mercy for the princess—enough to show they were originally allies.

Everything was now clear.

At the palace banquet that day, because the Crown Prince had given me a second glance, the princess decided to eliminate me completely.

She bestowed drugged wine on me, had beggars violate me, then had the guard falsely claim it was him, destroying my reputation and forcing me to marry.

More importantly, it could cut off the Crown Prince's thoughts of me, paving the way for Lin Nanxue to become Crown Princess.

The princess's plan was seamless, but in this life, I had disrupted the situation.

This scene before me now was a desperate move.

Lin Nanxue in wedding clothes stood on the most conspicuous city tower, posing as a persecuted victim:

"The Shen family's daughter is an impostor! The Crown Princess should be me! Since I've lost my purity, I can only die to prove my integrity!"

Princess Huayin won't let me go, and certainly won't let Pei Yuan go.

Lin's seemingly open blade against me was actually a hidden arrow aimed at the Eastern Palace.

15

The moment I appeared, I became the focus of the crowd.

Lin Nanxue stood on the city tower looking down at me.

She seemed about to kill herself, but the hand under her sleeve tightly gripped the city tower corner.

Seeking death was false—making a big scene to force the Eastern Palace to comply was true.

"Since you say I'm an impostor, Miss Lin, let me ask you, did you clearly see the arrow wound on the Crown Prince's right chest that night?"

Lin Nanxue said: "Of course I saw it clearly! That wound was quite deep! Heart-wrenching!"

The arriving Eastern Palace guards loudly refuted: "His Highness has no arrow wound on his right chest, but on the left side of his chest at his heart!"

Lin Nanxue didn't think and immediately changed her story: "Right, there's a wound at the heart. It was too dark, I remembered wrong!"

I sneered: "How can someone live with an arrow through the heart? Do you take the Crown Prince for an iron man? Miss Lin, you're the marquis's daughter at least. Why disregard your reputation and lie so openly?"

Laughter erupted from below. Lin Nanxue's face flushed red with embarrassment as she scolded me: "Shen Qingzhi, you are indeed a merchant's daughter—crude and vulgar! How dare you joke about the Crown Prince's private matters!"

"Miss Lin had better first consider what crime it is to slander the Crown Prince!"

While Lin Nanxue was flustered, the Eastern Palace guards rushed forward and rescued her from the city tower.

Eunuchs with Imperial Guard came, conveying Emperor Yuande's verbal order, telling Lin Nanxue to come before the emperor to explain this matter.

Lin Nanxue and I went to the Eastern Palace together.

Emperor Yuande sat in the main seat. Princess Huayin was also present.

The participating candidate ladies stood on both sides.

When Pei Yuan saw me arrive, the corners of his mouth slightly lifted.

After paying respects, Princess Huayin asked with a friendly expression: "Miss Lin, why are you wearing wedding clothes and seeking death on the day of the Crown Prince's consort selection? Could there be some injustice? Speak out and let His Majesty seek justice for you!"

Lin Nanxue said with tears: "Your Majesty, please investigate clearly! That night at the palace banquet, it was clearly I who was with the Crown Prince..."

She acted as if suffering great injustice and said loudly: "Shen Qingzhi is an impostor. She has deceived everyone!"

"I report to Your Majesty," I stepped forward, "The last one to slander me was the Shen family's guard. That person has been personally executed by the Crown Prince."

Princess Huayin sneered:

"Of course it wasn't a guard, but someone even more contemptible than a guard! Bring forward the Lin family's witness!"

Guards escorted three beggars before the emperor.

The moment those three beggars appeared, a foul odor assaulted my nostrils, instantly pulling me back to that filthy, disgusting night of my previous life.

My chest churned, my hands trembled uncontrollably. I struggled like a drowning person until I pierced my palm, barely calming my heart to directly face these dirty, evil men.

I desperately suppressed my discomfort, repeatedly reminding myself that was the pain of my previous life, I had avoided it, I should be free now.

But Lin Nanxue's reaction was even greater than mine—she actually turned her head and vomited, her face even more unpleasant than mine.

Those three beggars were coming for me.

"Miss Shen, have you truly forgotten how intoxicating that night in the alley was?"

"Weren't you satisfied with the three of us serving you?"

"Unexpectedly, you still had strength to run find the Crown Prince. Do you look down on us beggars?"

Their words were filled with humiliation and false accusations against me.

When three men unanimously slander a woman's chastity, even the most absurd lies will be taken as proven fact by the world.

Pei Yuan was furious: "How dare you act so outrageously in the Eastern Palace!!"

I restrained the angry Crown Prince and stared at one of the beggars with sores on his limbs, asking Pei Yuan: "Your Highness is skilled in medicine. Do you know what kind of rash is on that beggar's hand?"

Pei Yuan was shocked by my composure at this moment. Under my inquiring gaze, he reluctantly gave the answer: "It's syphilitic spots. They're contagious."

"Meaning that with intimate contact, the same spots will grow."

I generously rolled up my sleeve, revealing flawless, fair skin.

Such iron evidence surpassed a thousand words of sophistry!

The crowd no longer doubted me, but instead cursed me for being crude: "A merchant's daughter truly lacks refinement!"

"If I still cared about these minor details, I'm afraid I would have been wronged to death!"

I then approached Lin Nanxue:

"Miss Lin, you claim you were also in the alley that night. Your lie has already been proven on the city tower. Now your slander against me has also been exposed. Full of lies, could it be that the one truly trying to frame the Eastern Palace is you?"

Lin Nanxue guiltily took a step back. She was wearing extremely thick wedding clothes, her sleeves covering to her palms, and the collar on her neck stood very high.

The more this was the case, the more problems there were.

I suddenly grabbed Lin Nanxue's arm: "Do you dare, like me, to roll up your sleeve and prove your innocence?"

I was slightly taller than her. From this angle, I could already see scattered red spots beneath the collar-hidden neck.

16

The emperor lost patience and sent two palace maids to hold Lin Nanxue down, directly rolling up her layered sleeves. Above them was indeed a horrifying patch of red spots, identical to those on the beggars.

The one violated by the beggars in this life had become Lin Nanxue.

That night I had taken Pei Yuan and hidden in the woodshed.

Those beggars hadn't found me but encountered Lin Nanxue, who had come according to plan to find the Crown Prince.

Once such desperate men were overcome with lust, bringing out the princess or marquis meant nothing.

When I saw Lin Nanxue dry heaving at the sight of the beggars, I guessed as much.

Later seeing her cover her collar and sleeves completely, I was even more certain.

Because in my previous life, I had also been infected with these spots, and Duan Ming had even humiliated me after marriage, saying I had contracted a filthy disease.

The truth was now clear.

Lin Nanxue panic-stricken covered her sleeves. Under everyone's subtle gazes, she awkwardly and miserably pleaded before Princess Huayin:

"Princess, you arranged all this. You must stand up for me!"

But the princess kicked her away in disgust: "You've slandered the Crown Prince, and now you dare slander this princess!"

"Princess Huayin is so heartless to her own daughter!"

At these words, even Emperor Yuande's expression suddenly changed.

Lin Nanxue looked sharply at me: "What did you say?"

"Miss Lin, haven't you noticed that your brows and eyes resemble the princess's by eighty percent?"

"Fifteen years ago, the marquis's residence brought back a baby girl from their suburban villa. During that time, Princess Huayin was recuperating at that villa."

This was the only piece of intelligence the Eastern Palace had uncovered.

In truth, everything was just my speculation.

Lin Nanxue is eighteen this year, and Princess Huayin is only thirty. The two couldn't possibly be mother and daughter.

I just wanted to make the situation more chaotic.

But at this moment, Emperor Yuande on the throne suddenly became enraged:

"Huayin, how dare you scheme and interfere in the Eastern Palace's consort selection! Such audacity! Someone, take the princess and Lin Nanxue away and imprison them!"

"Father Emperor, what are you so nervous about?"

As if a seal had been broken, the princess actually said loudly before everyone: "Yes, Lin Nanxue is my biological daughter!"

"Guess who her father is?"

She seemed to have been suppressed for too long. Someone only slightly touched upon it, and she couldn't bear to reveal everything, with a fish-dies-net-breaks kind of madness.

The princess stared at the emperor on the throne: "Eighteen years have passed. Father Emperor, have you completely forgotten?!"

The princess's words suddenly enlightened me—Lin Nanxue not only resembled the princess, but her entire face, upon closer inspection, bore a striking resemblance to Emperor Yuande!

Emperor Yuande rose in fury: "The princess is mad! Silence her! Take the princess away! Confine her for life!"

The princess was still speaking madly. The eunuch beside the emperor ordered to slap the princess's mouth with a bamboo plank, striking until blood flowed. Only then did the princess give up struggling like a dead fish.

The emperor was clearly furious. Under the absolute crush of imperial power, I also fell into a passive position. Carelessly exposing such ugly matters, I might die too.

But who could have imagined things would be so absurd!

The sound of bamboo slaps on the mouth continued. I trembled with fear.

At this moment, a pair of large hands pulled me to his side. I looked up startled, and it was Pei Yuan who pulled me into his embrace—a protective posture.

Whatever else, at this moment, his embrace gave me complete security.

When the punishment ended, as the princess was dragged past me, she suddenly asked with bloodied lips:

"How did the taste of Immortal's Desire feel?"

"When Father Emperor used this medicine on me..."

Princess Huayin's eyes reddened, her gaze both sorrowful and hateful:

"That year, I was only ten."

17

I finally remembered what Princess Huayin had said to the Crown Prince in my previous life.

She said: "Your Crown Princess Lin is the bastard child of me and your father Emperor's illicit affair!"

Under the thunder and rain, the Crown Prince suddenly understood the root of all tragedy.

He had married his own sister, given birth to two children destined to die young, and his wife, instigated by the princess, poisoned his food and drink daily.

The father he admired had violated his imperial sister, and he, unknowingly, had committed incest with his half-sister.

Disgraceful blood relations, close relatives plotting, his wife poisoning him, twice the pain of losing children, a weakened body, and his last bit of energy exhausted by warfare.

He had done nothing wrong, but everything was pushing him toward death.

The moment Crown Prince Zhaolin swung his sword in suicide, Princess Huayin laughed madly in the rain, saying to the approaching Emperor Yuande:

"Father Emperor, your most outstanding son died at the hands of my bastard child with you!"

In this life, everything that would have driven Pei Yuan to death was preemptively eliminated.

But someone still suffered.

Emperor Yuande wished he could cut out Huayin's tongue to preserve his precarious reputation.

Lin Nanxue, who had learned all the truth, collapsed to the ground, crying hysterically.

The young ladies present who witnessed this imperial scandal were terrified, each lowering their heads, not daring to speak more.

Pei Yuan's face was slightly pale. Clearly, he too could not accept all this.

If it hadn't been me that night, it would have been Lin Nanxue. Then today these filthy truths would, on some future day, strike the Crown Prince's brow and force him to his death.

Fortunately, the great wrong had not yet been committed, and I had turned everything around.

Pei Yuan suddenly embraced me.

"I always have the same dream. In the dream, I commit suicide on a rainy night. It is you who rushes forward and grabs that sword."

"The dream wasn't wrong. Shen Qingzhi, you are my savior."

18

Like in my previous life, this consort selection ended hastily.

I became the Crown Prince's firm choice for Crown Princess.

But the emperor's gaze when he examined me that day was filled with killing intent.

I had said things I shouldn't have, threatening the emperor's reputation.

No wonder Princess Huayin never married—perhaps on the eve before the consort selection, she was still Emperor Yuande's exclusive plaything.

She had lived like this for nearly twenty years.

That day the princess was so easily defeated, but upon reflection, I realize my words were the last straw that broke her and drove her mad.

Emperor Yuande wants to kill me.

Pei Zhaolin entered the palace and confronted Emperor Yuande in the imperial study for an entire day, finally obtaining the imperial edict naming me Crown Princess.

He told me: "Father Emperor is old. Some matters, he must listen to me."

"Otherwise, who will protect his reputation after his death?"

He used that imperial scandal to force Emperor Yuande to bow his head and save me and the child in my womb.

After all, Daqi's future lay in Pei Zhaolin's hands, no longer controlled by that old beast Emperor Yuande.

On the day I was named Crown Princess, the Crown Prince personally detected my true pregnancy pulse.

The princess had been certain that pregnancy couldn't be detected in ten days because she had been a mother before—at age twelve.

So she knew better than the palace matrons that I was lying that day.

Now more than a month later, the lie had become truth.

Pei Yuan was very happy, holding me and spinning me three times like a top—the Crown Prince really likes children.

So in my previous life, after losing two children, he was so grieved that it harmed his health.

His Highness is my savior.

This child and I will also be His Highness's saviors.

19

After the dust settled, I went to the marquis's residence to see Lin Nanxue.

After entering the residence, I discovered that her quarters there were actually converted from a woodshed.

Princess Huayin hated Emperor Yuande, so naturally also hated the daughter carrying his blood.

She had sent Lin Nanxue to the marquis's residence, tacitly allowing them to mistreat this "bastard," as if this could revenge herself against that beast father at the most powerless age.

When Lin Nanxue came of age, Princess Huayin appeared in her life in the guise of a benefactor, backing her in the marquis's residence, sending her beautiful clothes and palace pastries.

Those accustomed to suffering, when given a little sweetness, will feel infinite gratitude toward that person.

When the Crown Prince's consort selection arrived, Lin Nanxue naturally followed the princess's arrangement. She prepared to marry into the Eastern Palace, use poison to destroy the Crown Prince's body, use those two children to torment the Crown Prince's spirit. Even if this would also harm her own body, she didn't care.

She believed that as long as she excellently completed all this, the princess would like her even more.

But in my previous life, she only met the fate of taking poison and killing herself.

In this life, what lay before her was that same length of white silk that once lay before me.

"I knew from age four that I was just an outsider living under someone else's roof. The marquis's true daughter daily flirted on the stepmother's knee. I envied them so much. I also longed to have a mother by my side."

Lin Nanxue held that white silk, tilting her head as she looked at the sunlight outside the window:

"But my mother only saw me as a tool for revenge."

"It was she who told me to go to that alley that night, it was she who called those three beggars..."

She smiled bitterly and extended her hand, revealing those spotted rashes.

She was about to throw the white silk toward the ceiling beam, but I snatched it away.

"The princess is also a pitiable person. If you must hate, you shouldn't only hate her."

"You should hate the emperor on that dragon throne, hate that beast who violated young girls."

"Even if our hatred cannot shake imperial power, you must live on, only then can you hope to see the villains' downfall."

I took away the white silk, dragging Lin Nanxue out the door, into the sunlight, to the imperial city's vegetable market entrance.

There, a public execution by hanging was taking place.

Those sent to the gallows—were those three beggars.

"Those who should be hanged are not you, but them!"

20

The Eastern Palace had informed the judiciary department. When those three beggars were hanged, they suffered far more than other criminals.

After witnessing this, Lin Nanxue suddenly said to me:

"People who are hanged die so ugly, with their tongues all sticking out."

I gave her a prescription for curing syphilitic spots:

"Take the medicine on time, and you will recover within a year."

"Physicians all say this condition is very difficult to cure."

Indeed, it was very difficult to cure. In my previous life, I sought famous doctors everywhere, enduring acupuncture and medicine baths for over two years before finding such a miraculous prescription.

"I have a distant cousin who also contracted this disease and was cured by this prescription. Use it with confidence."

Lin Nanxue showed some instinctive concern: "Your cousin?"

"She had a similar experience to yours, but she lives very well now, so you cannot give up either. You've seen it—being hanged is very, very ugly."

Lin Nanxue looked at me puzzled: "Why help me?"

I asked back: "We are both women. Why not help?"

Under the sunlight, she was stunned, then we exchanged a smile.

On the day Lin Nanxue left the capital, someone from the princess's residence gave her a small wooden box containing Princess Huayin's private assets from over the years.

The confined princess, at some moment, also felt guilty toward her daughter, so before she completely lost her mind, with her last bit of reason, she transferred all her private assets to Lin Nanxue.

Letting her go to Jiangnan to find her own world.

21

Three years later, Emperor Yuande fell gravely ill.

On his sickbed, Pei Yuan steadily inherited imperial power and the nation.

The moment he received the imperial seal, Pei Yuan coldly ordered Emperor Yuande, who still had a breath of life:

"Proclaim to all the world—the Emperor has passed away."

Emperor Yuande looked shocked at Pei Yuan, this great filial son.

Everyone knew Crown Prince Zhaolin was unparalleled in loyalty and filial piety. Who would have thought he could do such a thing?

He dismissed everyone from the Jinde Hall.

By now I had become the new mistress of the rear palace, and everything behind me followed my command.

Therefore, when Princess Huayin disguised herself as a palace maid and walked into Jinde Hall in full view of everyone, no one noticed.

Emperor Yuande still hung onto life, refusing to die. Suddenly, a length of white silk wrapped around his neck, followed by the suffocating sensation of a snapped neck bone.

He struggled with his hands, eyes rolling back in terror, seeing Huayin's pale yet gorgeous face.

The princess had long ago been secretly hanged by Emperor Yuande's order at a suburban villa.

But the emperor didn't know that his most promising Crown Prince was表面上 obedient, secretly defiant, letting the princess fake her death and escape.

I had hidden the princess in the capital's suburbs for three years.

Just for this moment.

The white silk became Huayin's weapon. She strangled the king, wickedly coaxing him: "Husband, it hurts a bit. Bear with it. Before, in bed, you always coaxed Huayin like this."

She suddenly changed, like an innocent yet cruel child: "Father Emperor, you don't observe chastity and propriety, committing incest and violating morals. Your daughter has personally come to send you off, to show filial piety!"

In name, the emperor had already passed away, so no one disturbed this execution.

At dawn, Emperor Yuande was placed in his coffin. Around his neck was wrapped that white silk, beneath which was a neck already broken to the bone.

He established laws that those who lost their virtue and violated morals should be hanged.

But such laws shouldn't only kill women.

He himself should die under such laws.

The mad Princess Huayin walked out of Jinde Hall, her hands stained with the late emperor's blood, her face wearing a long-absent peace.

She smiled relievedly at me and Pei Yuan.

At dawn, Huayin passed away peacefully in the capital's suburbs.

She seemed to live only for this night.

To me, the princess was not a good person. She herself had been harmed by Immortal's Desire drug, yet used the same means to frame innocent me.

But I knew even more clearly that I could not stand by and watch an innocent, pure person be driven to become a vicious madman, while the perpetrator still stood righteously judging her.

Coincidentally, Pei Yuan and I thought alike.

Therefore, I gave her a peaceful end, letting her complete her revenge, allowing her to depart peacefully and calmly.

22

Pei Zhaolin ascended the throne as emperor, and on the same day, I was enshrined as empress.

Daqi's century of Zhaolin prosperity was about to begin.

Pei Yuan knew what I wanted to do. The phoenix seal he gave me carried real power.

Ascending to the empress's position, I issued my first empress's decree.

Proclaimed to all the people of Daqi—those who force women who have lost their virtue to their deaths, the lover shall be executed on the spot, and the coercer shall be treated as an accomplice and exiled three thousand miles.

Those who violate young girls, the criminals shall be handed over to the judiciary, castrated then hanged.

Since ancient times, those who should be hanged by white silk should never be the victims, but the perpetrators.

As mother of the nation, what I must break are those countless invisible white silks of chastity that only hang around women's necks!

(End of story)