In the winter of the sixth year of Cheng'an, Shen Qingci, wife of the heir to the Duke of Dingguo, died in her bed. Only in her final moments did she realize that her husband of ten years, Shen Huaixu, had never loved her. His heart belonged solely to his childhood sweetheart, his cousin Lin Ruoyun. And the person she'd cherished as a younger sister for ten years was the mastermind behind her fall into the water, the theft of her husband, and the ruin of her life.
Shen Qingci died with her eyes open. When she opened them again, she was sixteen, back at the moment she'd been rescued from the water, before any of it had begun.
Given a second chance at life, she was no longer the foolish girl others could manipulate. She turned Shen Huaixu's “debt for saving her life” to her advantage, pushing her cousin, who was bent on marrying into a powerful family, into a trap. And in the face of her cousin's false affection, she played her cards carefully until the white lotus revealed her true colors.
But her transformation drew the attention of someone unexpected: Prince Jin, Xiao Yi.
The “rebel” who had launched an uprising in her previous life and burned himself alive after his defeat now watched her with an amused smile. “Shen Qingci, what secret are you hiding?”
More surprising still, Xiao Yi came to propose on behalf of his nephew, Prince Kang Xiao Yan, a sickly young man rumored not to live past twenty-five.
With the Second Prince coveting her, the Empress plotting against her, and the Crown Prince trying to win her over, Shen Qingci had to tread carefully through the treacherous capital. Yet the prince who seemed so frail saw through every disguise with his clear eyes. “Your eyes are just like mine. Lonely.”
From courteous companionship to mutual love, from standing together through life and death to a promise to grow old side by side, Shen Qingci finally understood: the best kind of love isn't about silently giving everything up. It's about standing shoulder to shoulder.
