In her previous life, she was Princess Consort Jing. She helped him seize the throne and become emperor, only to have her heart cut out and her blood taken, while her entire family was sentenced to death. As she was poisoned, she remembered the man who had climbed over her wall one night and asked, "Is marrying him what you truly want?" He was the Crown Prince. She never knew why he had asked, and there was no time left to find out.
Reborn, she returns to the age of fifteen. Her stepmother dotes on her to ruin her, her half-sister schemes against her, and her father treats her marriage as a bargaining chip. She faces them all, ruthless and decisive. But the Crown Prince who questioned her in her previous life keeps appearing at her side in this one. He visits her and praises her as "beautiful inside and out," secretly helps her bring wicked servants to heel, and sends her a personal female guard. When she asks why, he only says, "There's no reason."
She doesn't trust men, and she trusts kindness without cause even less.
Only when Prince Jing is on the verge of defeat does she go to see him one last time. He smiles and tells her, "Do you know why he climbed over your wall? Because he liked you. Before leaving on a mission, he planned to ask the emperor to arrange your marriage. When he returned, you'd already been promised to me. Do you know whose name was in the late emperor's edict? His. Do you know why he never became emperor? Because I told him, 'If you contend for the throne, I'll kill her.'"
"He gave it up for you. Then he left the capital and barely survived. By the time he returned, you were already dead. He killed everyone, then followed you in death. He was reborn before you and watched over you for two lifetimes."
She turns and sees the man who never says a word standing at the prison cell door.
"I've waited for two lifetimes," he says. "One life ended in heartbreak, the next will bring us happiness."
At last, she understands: there really is someone in this world who loves her more than life itself.
Hmph hmph hmph.