Reborn, I Outwork My Green-Tea Half-Sister

Mei Jingjing died while the begonias were in bloom. She watched helplessly as her half-sister, Mei Wanrou, nestled in her husband’s arms and pretended to mourn her.

When she opened her eyes, she had returned to her coming-of-age ceremony. Mei Wanrou approached with a cup of peach wine, the very drink that had humiliated her in her previous life. Mei Jingjing said gently, “My stomach is upset. Why not ask Prince Jing’an, Murong Xiao, to try it?”

Murong Xiao actually took the wine, and Mei Wanrou’s face went pale.

At the banquet, Mei Wanrou pretended to stumble toward Murong Xiao. Mei Jingjing “cried out” and rushed over, appearing to help her up but giving her a gentle nudge that sent her sprawling on the ground. Mei Jingjing herself fell into Murong Xiao’s arms, blushing as she apologized, winning everyone’s sympathy instead.

From then on, Mei Jingjing took her act of the “sweet, innocent schemer” to the extreme. In front of the old madam, she would blame herself with tears in her eyes, making Mei Wanrou seem spoiled by comparison. She would stand in plain clothes beside Mei Wanrou in her finery, looking like a delicate little white flower begging to be pitied.

At a palace banquet, Mei Wanrou knocked over a bowl of soup and scalded her. Mei Jingjing, eyes brimming with tears, pleaded on the other woman’s behalf. Murong Xiao fixed his gaze on her swollen, reddened wrist and took her to have it treated.

Mei Wanrou’s meekness gradually came to be seen as affected, and in the end she was sent away to the family temple.

Mei Jingjing married into Prince Jing’an’s household. On their wedding night, Murong Xiao pinched her chin. “How long have you been putting on an act?”

She smiled slyly. “Taking someone else’s path so they have nowhere left to go is quite satisfying.”

Murong Xiao chuckled and pulled her into his arms. “From now on, I’ll play along with you.”

Outside the window, the begonias were still in bloom. In this life, she had the last laugh.