Reborn as the Marchioness

For eight years, Wen Liu was married to Marquis Xie Zhi of Dingping, living like the quietest shadow in a sprawling mansion.

Her mother-in-law bullied her, her concubine held sway, and her own son was raised on another woman’s knee, calling someone else “Mother.” Year after year, she made nightclothes and boots for her husband and sewed clothes embroidered with tigers for her son. Stitch by stitch, she wore herself down, yet never won so much as a kind word. In the vast marquis’s residence, no one remembered what she liked to eat, noticed the calluses on her wrists from sewing, or cared how long she had hidden bloodstained handkerchiefs in her sleeves.

That autumn, at twenty-four, Wen Liu spent all her savings to send away her personal maid. She left her son a letter and the key to her dowry chest, then slit her wrists in the dead of night. She died with a smile on her lips, as if she had finally found relief.

Six years later, the Fan Tower rose from the ground on East Street in the capital, a three-story building of carved beams and painted rafters that made a fortune every day. Its owner was named Wen Yao, the legitimate daughter of the Wen family. With a pair of foxlike eyes, she was lazy and sharp-witted by nature, and her smile could make people forget they had come to gamble.

She had been reborn.

She remembered everything from her previous life, but in this one Wen Yao wanted only one thing: to live however she pleased.

Qin Xiao, the General Who Guards the North, had known her since their days beyond the frontier. He called her “girl” and kept other admirers at bay. They were more than friends, but not quite lovers.

Liu Ce, Prince of Yongding, was a widower, shrewd and refined, with more schemes than stars. He played chess and discussed tea and business with Wen Yao, a worthy match for her.

And when Xie Zhi, Marquis of Dingping, saw her face in the main hall of the Fan Tower, he froze. From then on, he could never bring himself to leave.

Three men vie for one woman, while her ex-husband kneels at the crematorium.