When the crisp sound of the gold thread breaking pierced the eardrum, Shen Hua's fingertips felt a sharp pain.
She opened her eyes suddenly, and saw that the unfinished "Hundred Birds Paying Attention to the Phoenix" on the embroidery was being dyed like a red plum by a drop of blood. There was the sound of midnight banging outside the window, and the candlelight cast her shadow on the screen window, as lonely as the mist that would dissipate at any time.
"Girl!" Yi Cui held her hand in panic, "How many times has this happened? The imperial doctor said that you cannot stay up late..."
Shen Hua stared at the bronze mirror blankly. The person in the mirror has red lips and a pink face, but her eyes are now tinged with gray, and her wrist bones are so slender that they look like they could break if they were broken - this is what she looked like when she was seventeen years old. Just three hours ago, she was clearly still lying in the nanmu coffin in the Cui family ancestral hall, listening to the lingering sound of her death knell.
"What year is it today?"
"It's the seventeenth year of Yonghe." Yi Cui wrapped her finger with a handkerchief soaked in concoction, "Is the girl suffering from a nightmare?"
The cinnabar print on the almanac next to the embroidery frame hurts the eyes. Shen Hua suddenly laughed lowly, until tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. The timing of her rebirth was perfect. It was the night before the Shen Family Embroidery Workshop was annexed, and it was also three days before she met Cui Yun.
