[Prologue]
"Ah Si, the road to the underworld is cold. Go on ahead."
Those were the last words she heard in her previous life.
Blood dripped from the sharp tip of her golden hairpin, sliding from the cinnabar mark between her brows to the corner of her lips, its metallic sweetness mingling with a cool fragrance.
She remembered lying beneath the jade steps of Zhaoyang Hall, her phoenix robe charred black by the flames. Her husband, Prince Duan, the man she had once protected with her life, held her half-sister in his arms and personally threw a torch at the hem of her skirt.
Snow fell from the heavens as the fire consumed her.
When she died, the seven-month-old child in her womb had not yet cried. Mother and child perished together in that wrongful case of "treason."
The meticulous hand of the official history recorded only this:
"The Princess Consort of Prince Duan, Lady Shen, was jealous and plotted treason. She was sentenced to death and granted no posthumous title."
[This Life]
When she opened her eyes again, it was late spring in the thirteenth year of Chengming.
Slanting rain tapped on the plantain leaves beneath the western window, each patter urging her back into a dream.
She lay on an embroidered couch, her fingertips still carrying the scent of cardamom. In the bronze mirror, she saw the face of a sixteen-year-old girl.
She was no longer the Princess Consort of Prince Duan, but the least favored seventh daughter born to a concubine in the Marquis of Dingbei's household: Shen Zhaosi.
She stared at her reflection, then let out a soft laugh. The sound was like shattered jade, or a cold blade.
This was her perfect chance to take revenge. Starting today, she would reclaim everything, one debt at a time.
So beautiful 🥰