After Taking Over My Yandere Rival's Body

Shen Shutang doesn't like Pei Qingyi.

The woman hailed by the royal family as the foremost lady of refinement, so perfectly proper that every movement seems measured by a set of rules,

only Shen Shutang knows how vile her character really is.

The first time Shen Shutang returned to the capital for the Jinming Pool spring banquet, Pei Qingyi stole her earring and bit her for no reason.

Afterward, Shen Shutang had nowhere to turn. Everyone who heard her story assumed she was jealous of Pei Qingyi and slandering her.

She, Shen Shutang, is the beloved daughter of the Northern Garrison General. She can ride into battle with a spear in hand, and the only thing she can write is her own name: Shen Shutang. With talents both martial and literary, what could she possibly envy about Pei Qingyi!

Yet Pei Qingyi seemed to resent her for some unknown reason, and even tried to kill her.

With her last breath, Shen Shutang left behind clues, vowing to clear her name.

When the Prefect of the Capital arrived at the Pei residence with a female constable from the Zongjing Bureau and an official warrant, amid the commotion someone shouted, "The eldest young lady has hanged herself!"

The constable broke into the room and rescued her. After coming to, Pei Qingyi confessed to everything, and a handwritten confession was found in the room as well.

Pei Qingyi was taken into custody, awaiting a joint trial by the Zongjing Bureau.

Shen Shutang glared through gritted teeth at Pei Qingyi, who sat gracefully on her prison bed. "Just you wait. I'll make sure everyone knows what a black-hearted murderer you are!"

She'd stabbed Shen Shutang three times. Shen Shutang would get her revenge.

Pei Qingyi lowered her eyes and looked at her seriously. "Under the law, intentional murder is punishable by death. There are three forms of execution in this dynasty: lingchi, dismemberment by chariot, and slicing in half at the waist. You're the one who'll suffer."

Just thinking about it made Shen Shutang hurt all over, but she had no choice. Somehow, after dying, she had ended up in Pei Qingyi's body.

To get justice for herself, she had to endure it. At worst, she'd throw herself against a wall after the Zongjing Bureau reached its verdict.

Shen Shutang: "Even if I die in agony, I won't let you, murderer, get away with it!"

Pei Qingyi: "I'll say it again: I did not kill you."

Shen Shutang: "Then why did you try to kill yourself?!"

Pei Qingyi: "And I'll say it again: I didn't try to kill myself. I was murdered."

By the time Shen Shutang confirmed that Pei Qingyi wasn't the one who had killed her, she had already been sentenced to lingchi, to be carried out in half a month.

It was over. Three thousand cuts. She was really going to die of the pain.

And the real culprit was still at large, while innocent Pei Qingyi was about to die because of her.

She looked at Pei Qingyi, now a ghost, sleeping with perfect propriety even in death, and softened her voice a little. "How about saving yourself?"

Pei Qingyi lay with her hands folded over her chest, eyes closed as if asleep, and gave no reply.

Shen Shutang sighed. Pei Qingyi probably wanted her to suffer through the execution and die in agony.

She gazed up at the sliver of waning moon outside the tiny prison window, unwilling to accept it. "I just want to know who killed me, so I can die knowing the truth."

She'd never done anything shameful, except press a cat's paw onto Pei Qingyi's painting, put the shed skin of a green snake in her book, and swap the sour plums she used for soup with black dates...

"Tell me everything that happened that day from the beginning. Don't leave out a single detail."

Shen Shutang hadn't even finished confessing what she'd done to Pei Qingyi when Pei Qingyi, who'd been lying stiffly on the bed, suddenly floated straight toward her.

Shen Shutang: ...

From Pei Qingyi's perspective:

There is someone in my heart, but I know we can never be together.

The secret I'd tried so hard to hide was laid bare when she used the identity of "Pei Qingyi" to investigate the truth.

I was relieved and uneasy, delighted and lost.

I would give her everything: my body, my identity, my life.

But she didn't want them.

She said she didn't want to be "Pei Qingyi." Being Pei Qingyi was too painful.

If that's the case, then I can only continue being Pei Qingyi.

Before then, I want to make a thousand soul-guiding lanterns for her and hang them all over the prayer tree.

Every stroke of scripture, every whispered prayer,

I pray that Shen Shutang will have a smooth life, good health, and a long life in the next one.

Theme: Obey the law