[Blurb]
Yingying, once the most stunning courtesan in the capital, is transformed into Princess Yong'an, the emperor's full sister and the crown prince's younger sister.
But then the realm falls into turmoil. An enemy state invades the capital, and the emperor's escape fails. His head is displayed at the city gate.
With the country fallen and the city captured, the princess, a commoner who had barely enjoyed two days of good fortune, tumbles from the clouds back into the mire. Stripped of all dignity and left sick and abandoned in a mass grave, she is left to die.
As Yingying lies dying in the mass grave, memories from another world appear in her mind.
It turns out she is a supporting character in a novel about a villainess being reborn. The heroine, Chen Nian, is ruthless and vicious, while the supporting character, Lu Yingying, is even more wicked. She stops at nothing to climb the social ladder, and after becoming Princess Yong'an, she grows even more cruel, until she finally suffers the consequences of her own actions.
Yingying refuses to let others control her fate. At death's door, she encounters a young female doctor who steals corpses to test her medicines. This is her last hope of survival.
Four years later, in Song County, Wuzhou, far to the south, a county deputy dies in an accidental fall into the water.
An investigation by the Court of Judicial Review reveals that five officials in Song County have died in accidents in just six months. Suspecting foul play, the Secretariat orders Liang Jinqiu, a junior minister of the Court of Judicial Review, to investigate in Wuzhou.
After several rounds of investigation, he finds no suspicious details in the officials' deaths. Instead, he uncovers a string of corruption and abuse of power! Wuzhou's senior officials collude with merchants to trade in illegal salt, embezzle government funds, buy and sell official posts, and treat human life as worthless. The people of Wuzhou are in dire straits!
In the back courtyard of Prefect Sun, who bullies men and abducts women, Liang discovers a pair of sisters who have been kidnapped.
The older sister is dressed in plain clothes like a married woman. Though she wears a patch over the scar on her left eye, her tearful, delicate appearance stirs people's sympathy.
The girl in her arms is only sixteen or seventeen. Her eyes, like a deer's, stare fearfully at Liang Jinqiu.
Unable to bear leaving them behind, Liang takes the unfortunate sisters with him on the way back to the capital to report on his mission.
Before long, the pleasure houses of the capital are repeatedly raided and shut down.
The Chen family's most lucrative business, which has made them richer than a nation, suddenly faces competition.
In the middle of the night, the formidable General Zhenyuan suddenly goes mad and burns down his family's century-old estate.
A celebrated young scholar, admired throughout the capital for his refined elegance, becomes a cripple who can only get around in a wheelchair overnight.
The empress, who had been the emperor's sole favorite, goes missing, and Prince Li, the emperor's most trusted younger brother, becomes the prime suspect.
Most alarming of all to the people, the already-fallen Great Qi is secretly plotting to restore its kingdom...
Little do they know that every one of these events is inextricably linked to a pair of sisters surnamed Xu.
Content warnings:
1. The female lead has worked in the sex trade, so she is definitely not a virgin. The male lead is a virgin.
2. Perspective shapes one's position. The female lead is not a good person, but she has not lost all humanity.
Blurb dated 2025/10/27
Theme: Always keep your passion for life
