On a rainy night, she opened her eyes in the corpse of a discarded concubine from the Marquis's manor.
Memories of her past life surged back. Her gift for remembering everything became a death sentence:
A secret imperial edict ordering her poisoning lay hidden in the Jing'an Marquis's study.
The medicinal soup Concubine Lin brought her was laced with a deadly toxin.
Even the maid at her bedside had a secret order from remnants of the previous dynasty sewn into her sleeve, marked with a crow.
“This body won't last three days.”
Her bloodstained fingertips brushed the bronze Vermilion Bird lamp.
The chemistry formulas she had never solved in her past life became her lifeline in this one.
Smiling, she tore open the ledger. “Concubine, you secretly sold two hundred jars of tiger-bone wine for three thousand taels of silver.”
At the banquet, she pointed her sword at the sky. “The seventh turn of The Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe Dance should ring with swords, not pipa strings!”
In court, she splashed ink like a blade. “Minister Wang, is the Liaodong ginseng in your private storehouse still soaking in the Ministry of War's blood?”
Everyone said the Jing'an Marquis was cold-hearted,
never knowing that each night he would grip her throat and laugh softly:
“Su Wanqing, are you my blade, or my doom?”
Until the night the seven stars aligned, when the Vermilion Bird lamp revealed blood vows from three lifetimes:
A general in battle armor protecting her at the edge of a cliff,
Their hands clasped around a data terminal in a laboratory,
Their wedding garments entwined beneath red candles in this life.
“Does Your Lordship know that my specialty is fighting poison with poison?”
She kissed the old wound over his heart.
Behind her lay the Raven Cult leader, blood splattered three feet high.
Before her stretched a vast land consumed by flames of war.
[Cold-faced Marquis x Queen of Poisons | Three-lifetime love curse x Deadly power struggle]
“If you want the realm, I'll burn the rotten court to ashes for you.”
“What if I want you to cut out your heart?”
“I gave it to you... on the night we first met.”
