[Not an extra-long novel; expected to be under 200,000 characters, complete]
Because of the Imperial Preceptor's prophecy.
Just one step away from being crowned empress, Lu Xingling was silenced with poisoned wine by the new emperor and pierced through the heart with an arrow.
When she opened her eyes again, twenty years had passed. She was now a concubine-born daughter of the Jiang family, soon to be married off by her stepmother to a servant.
Having had enough of a life controlled by others, she set fire to the estate, reducing it and nineteen lives to ashes.
She looked at the map, at the capital far beyond the horizon, and knew that a meal had to be eaten one bite at a time, and the road to revenge had to be walked one step at a time.
Right before her eyes stood her smiling, treacherous stepmother and her sisters, sweet-tongued but venomous-hearted.
When this lowly daughter stirred up the waters of the capital,
the fates of everyone from the heir to Prince Yan to the chancellor, the crown prince, and even the Son of Heaven himself veered off course.
When the ruler of the land was left with nowhere to turn, he once again asked the Imperial Preceptor to divine the future.
But he received only four words of truth:
"Fend for yourself."
