The Poison Queen's Rebirth Plan

[Inside the Cold Palace]

“Big Sister, do you know how disgusting the emperor finds your pretty, arrogant face?” Jin Rong laughed so hard she swayed like a branch in the wind. “Every time you spend the night with him, you bathe and change your clothes. Do you think the emperor is filthy, or that he isn’t worthy of touching you?”

“You’re overthinking it.”

Jin Rong basked in her hard-won victory. “Even your half-sister is better than you. Look how good she is at pleasing the emperor. She’s one of the Four Consorts now, and I hear Mother has taken your mother’s place as the Left Chancellor’s principal wife. Look at you, such a failure, brought low by the very people you looked down on most. How does it feel?”

“What’s it to you?”

In her previous life, she was blind and failed to realize he would become emperor. She mocked him, mistaking a pearl for rubbish, and ultimately failed to gain his protection, losing in the palace intrigues. She had it coming!

Reborn, she gets to start over. If she could defeat you before, how could she fall behind now? She’ll just have to be more discreet about it.

Consort Jin, look: anyone can play innocent.

The men’s version of the struggle:

Jiu Yanluo:

He was born humble, yet grew up in the deep palace, clawing his way to power over a road of blood and crushed dignity. Romance and affection are all trash to him!

Hmm, what? His Yue-jie likes a lively place, with songs and dancing? Fine, bring them all over to entertain his Yue-jie!

You can’t sing? You can’t dance? You can’t even tell a joke? Then what are you doing in the palace? Drown!

Xuan Tianji:

He hides within the imperial court, secretly controls life and death, commands the winds and rain, and topples the powerful. He can’t understand why she keeps ruining so many of his secret plans!

“Do we have a grudge?”

“A deep-seated one.”

“But when we were kids, you used up a lot of my ink, and I never blamed you.”

“…”

“And besides, you should know that your father has already asked my father for your hand!”

Qi Yue’s eyes flew open. She stared at him as if she’d seen a ghost! Our relationship only goes as far as this: in your past life, all you did was deliver the decree that deposed me!

Rui Fengye:

The heir of Prince Zhong’s mansion, a man of extraordinary elegance, sinister and inscrutable. Out of consideration for his fiancée, he treated Jiu Yanluo rather well, and understood that he was the one who had taught him everything. He never expected the one to stab him in the back to be the enemy he had least taken seriously.

His one and only wish is for every man except Jiu Yanluo to die!

(This is our longest introduction ever. We present it for you, our esteemed reader, to savor, and invite you to praise it!)