The Phoenix Returns to Ashes

Shen Qingyi died on her wedding night. A cup of poisoned wine, a blazing fire. Her beloved younger sister, Shen Qingyi, stood smiling outside the hall and watched her struggle in the flames. Her husband, Crown Prince Xiao Chengji, personally brought the poison to her lips. “Qingyi, you were standing in A Yuan’s way.” Three years later, in Runzhou, Jiangnan, the widowed daughter of a family of perfumers quietly rose to prominence. A box of her “Drunken Red Dust” sold for a thousand gold pieces, and the sachets from Forget Worries Pavilion were in constant demand. No one knew that behind this seemingly gentle merchant’s daughter’s sleeves lay a ledger she had brought back from hell. It recorded the name of every person who had betrayed her, including the man who had since ascended the throne as emperor. On the day Xiao Chengji made his tour of the south, the city was filled with the sweet scent of osmanthus. He rode past the entrance to Forget Worries Pavilion and suddenly reined in his horse. That fragrance... It was Shen Qingyi’s favorite, the one he had personally burned to ashes. “Your Majesty,” the shopkeeper said with a smile, offering him a box of incense. “Our proprietor prepared this especially for you: ‘An Old Friend Returns.’” He lifted the lid, his fingertips trembling. There was only one line on the incense paper: “In this life, we do not cross paths. In the next, we do not meet.”