Wen Zhiyi had no idea how much time had passed outside.
She only knew that she had already fainted three times.
The Wen family had been convicted of colluding with the enemy and committing treason, sentenced to extermination. Her elder sister, the Empress, had been stripped of her title, deprived of her imperial seals, and confined to the Cold Palace.
Everyone believed that the once-glorious Imperial Noble Consort Wen Zhiyi had committed suicide in prison out of guilt.
What no one knew was that Li Jinghuai had secretly imprisoned her in this lightless underground dungeon, hanging her from chains while subjecting her to relentless torture, day after day, night after night.
The thin white undergarment covering her body had long since been soaked over and over again until it had turned a dark crimson.
There wasn’t a single inch of unbroken skin left on her body.
With tremendous effort, she forced open her eyes, their lashes glued together by dried blood. Looking at the gloomy-faced man standing before her, she gathered the last of her strength and let out a cold, mocking laugh.
“Li Jinghuai… you’re truly disgusting.”
Li Jinghuai narrowed his eyes, his gaze filled with undisguised contempt.
“You’re a deposed consort and the family of a convicted traitor, yet you still have the strength to insult me. The Wen family truly is beyond redemption, stubborn to the very end.”
“My Wen family has served the realm with unwavering loyalty for generations! Everyone knows my father, Chancellor Wen, was an honest and upright official. You’re the incompetent dog emperor who butchered loyal ministers and framed my father with false charges of treason!”
“Even at death’s door, you still refuse to admit your crimes? The evidence of the Wen family’s collusion is irrefutable. How dare you argue? Everything you’ve suffered today is entirely your own doing. You deserve every bit of it.”
“Deserve it?”
Wen Zhiyi laughed, fury burning in her eyes.
“Li Jinghuai, do you really think I don’t know the truth? You locked me away here in secret for one reason only, to vent your personal hatred. You’re nothing but a coward. You couldn’t protect the woman you treasured most, so all you can do is take your anger out on me.”
“Silence!”
Li Jinghuai roared in rage, swinging the whip in his hand.
The barbed lash struck her squarely across the face, ripping away a large piece of flesh in an instant.
Wen Zhiyi let out a heart-wrenching scream, nearly blacking out again.
“Wen Zhiyi, you vicious woman! If you hadn’t insisted that Rou’er stay for dinner, how could she have accidentally consumed the infertility drug and miscarried? Do you know she spends every day drowning in tears? She’ll never be able to have children again!”
“Li… Jing… huai…”
Enduring the agony, Wen Zhiyi forced each word through her bloodied throat.
“And… you… still… have… the nerve… to blame… me?”
“If… you hadn’t… secretly mixed… that infertility drug… into my meals… every single day… how could Lu Ningrou… have eaten it by mistake?”
Li Jinghuai’s eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
His lips trembled violently, yet not a single word came out.
“Heh…”
Her voice had become so weak it was almost inaudible, but every word pierced his heart like a blade.
“Li Jinghuai… you’ve brought this upon yourself. It was your own hands… that killed… the only child… the two of you… would ever have.”
“Shut up! I said shut up!”
Wen Zhiyi said nothing more.
She simply raised her mangled face and looked at him with utter disdain, her eyes openly mocking his weakness.
That look shattered the last thread of Li Jinghuai’s restraint.
With a furious roar, he snatched a long blade from the torture rack and drove it straight into her heart.
As the last of her blood drained away and death approached, Wen Zhiyi suddenly lifted her head.
She fixed Li Jinghuai with an unwavering stare.
Despite her face being little more than a mass of blood and torn flesh, a savage smile slowly spread across it, like a vengeful ghost crawling up from the eighteenth level of hell.
“Li Jinghuai!”
“You’d better reduce me to ashes today.”
“Otherwise… one day… even if I have to crawl out of hell itself…”
“I’ll come back…”
“…and take your life!”
Li Jinghuai’s enraged face gradually blurred before her eyes.
Wen Zhiyi felt her consciousness sinking deeper and deeper, as though some invisible force were dragging her into the abyss.
Then, within the endless darkness, a brilliant white light suddenly appeared.
Instinctively, she followed it.
Her mind drifted hazily until, all at once, her feet touched solid ground.
A familiar voice sounded beside her.
“Your Highness, it looks like Lady Zhaorong Lu is admiring the cherry blossoms ahead. Shall we go over and greet her?”
Lady Zhaorong Lu?
Cherry blossoms?
Wasn’t this… the very day she had encountered Lu Ningrou in the Imperial Garden?
But…
Shouldn’t she already be dead?
Wen Zhiyi stood frozen.
The lingering ache throughout her body reminded her that everything she had endured in the dungeon had not simply been a nightmare.
Her trembling hand slowly rose to touch her cheek.
Instead of shredded flesh and sticky blood, her fingertips met smooth, warm skin.
“Your Highness?”
“Your Highness?”
Seeing her lost in thought, her personal maid Hongyi called to her again.
Only then did Wen Zhiyi come back to herself.
Shock quickly gave way to realization.
She had been reborn.
Following Hongyi’s gaze, she looked toward the distance.
Beneath a crimson weeping cherry tree stood a beautiful young woman with delicate features and a gentle, graceful demeanor.
It was Lu Ningrou.
Alive.
Completely and undeniably alive.
Her slender figure was elegant as ever, and although she was already two months pregnant, her flat stomach gave no sign of it.
Just as in her previous life, Lu Ningrou noticed Wen Zhiyi’s arrival and warmly stepped forward to greet her.
“This concubine greets Your Highness, the Imperial Noble Consort. Have you come to admire the cherry blossoms as well?”
Lu Ningrou’s senior maid, Chunyan, smiled brightly.
“Our Lady Zhaorong has always loved cherry blossoms. She heard long ago that Luanming Palace has a magnificent weeping cherry tree, its branches cascading like willow silk, its blossoms blooming in layers of light and dark pink. When it’s in full bloom, it looks like a waterfall of flowers or a shower of cherry blossoms. It’s breathtakingly beautiful. My lady has long wished to see it, but she never dared trouble Your Highness.”
“Chunyan!”
Lu Ningrou shot her maid an embarrassed glare.
“Must you say so much?”
“So Lady Zhaorong likes that weeping cherry tree.”
Wen Zhiyi lowered her eyes calmly.
“In that case, tomorrow I’ll have it transplanted to Yuexian Palace.”
“I still have matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave.”
Her distant response caused the smile on Lu Ningrou’s face to stiffen.
Chunyan couldn’t help muttering under her breath.
“Our lady simply admires the flowers. She never intended to take the tree. The Imperial Noble Consort makes it sound like she’s handing out charity…”
“Enough!”
Lu Ningrou immediately scolded her before turning apologetically toward Wen Zhiyi.
“My maid has spoken out of turn. I beg Your Highness to forgive her and not lower yourself to argue with a servant.”
One of Wen Zhiyi’s brows lifted slightly.
She gave Lu Ningrou and Chunyan a long, meaningful look.
Lu Ningrou was the only daughter of Grand Tutor Lu.
She and Li Jinghuai had grown up together as childhood sweethearts.
Although she had entered the palace with only the rank of Zhaorong, everyone in the imperial harem knew she was the woman Li Jinghuai cherished above all others.
Because of that, Wen Zhiyi had always avoided provoking her.
In her previous life, when she learned Lu Ningrou wished to admire the cherry blossoms in Luanming Palace, she had lowered her guard completely.
She had even kindly invited her to stay for lunch.
Who would have imagined that an infertility drug had been mixed into the meal served at Luanming Palace?
That very night, after returning to Yuexian Palace, Lu Ningrou miscarried and suffered severe hemorrhaging.
Only then did the entire palace learn that Lady Zhaorong Lu had already been two months pregnant.
Almost overnight, everyone concluded that the Imperial Noble Consort had been consumed by jealousy.
Not only had she murdered the imperial heir growing inside Lu Ningrou’s womb, she had also destroyed Lu Ningrou’s ability to ever bear children again.
In this life, Wen Zhiyi had intended to keep her distance from Lu Ningrou.
Yet she unexpectedly discovered something.
Lu Ningrou herself was gentle, soft-hearted, and timid.
Her chief maid, however, was astonishingly bold.
The more she thought about it, the stranger Lu Ningrou’s miscarriage seemed.
Her pregnancy had already reached two months, yet not a single rumor had escaped Yuexian Palace.
That alone showed how deeply Li Jinghuai treasured her. Everyone assigned to Yuexian Palace had undoubtedly been carefully selected for their loyalty and discretion.
So why had Chunyan, the chief maid of Yuexian Palace, spoken so carelessly before the Imperial Noble Consort?
More than that…
Her words had almost sounded deliberately provocative.
After a moment’s thought, Wen Zhiyi smiled faintly.
“It’s nothing. I won’t stoop to arguing with a servant.”
“Since Lady Zhaorong wishes so dearly to see the weeping cherry tree, why don’t you accompany me back to Luanming Palace for a visit?”
Her tone wasn’t exactly warm.
Even so, Lu Ningrou paid it no mind.
Just as in her previous life, she returned to Luanming Palace alongside Wen Zhiyi and stayed for lunch.
By evening, news spread from Yuexian Palace.
Lady Zhaorong Lu had been struck by severe abdominal pain.
Li Jinghuai immediately summoned the Imperial Physicians to the palace.
At the same time, he ordered that Imperial Noble Consort Wen be brought to Yuexian Palace without delay.
The moment Wen Zhiyi stepped through the doors of Lu Ningrou’s bedchamber, Li Jinghuai slapped her violently across the face.
She crashed to the floor.
Half her face swelled almost instantly.
“I never imagined the Imperial Noble Consort could be so vicious!”
“What exactly did you make Rou’er eat?”