Yongzhou, the Su Family Old Mansion.
Days of heavy snow had covered the entire courtyard.
In the dead of night, a set of hurried footsteps sounded outside the old mansion’s gates.
Soon, several stern-faced old women entered the Su family’s rear residence without a sound.
Then, with a thud, a thick stack of letters was thrown in front of Xue Ning.
“All the family letters the Madam sent to the main house in Dongjing are here. His Lordship is currently overwhelmed with official duties and cannot spare a single moment to read your nonsensical letters. Furthermore, the capital is busy with preparations for the new bride’s wedding. His Lordship has specifically sent us old servants to return these letters and, on his behalf, give you an explanation.”
The room was dim, the half-burnt candle flickering precariously in the snowy night.
The old women sent from the main residence in Dongjing were all unsmiling, their faces cold and their gazes as sharp as knives, brimming with killing intent.
The candlelight cast their silhouettes onto the mottled walls, making them look like demons and ghouls.
Xue Ning, her body wracked with illness, lay weakly on the old, lacquered bed. She lifted her hollow eyes, a tearing pain in her chest.
“Why… why didn’t he come himself?”
“His Lordship sent you a Letter of Separation long ago. How long are you going to be so shameless, Madam?”
“I don’t want a separation. I want to see him…”
“You should know in your heart, Madam, that you were never the one His Lordship wanted to marry. He will not come to see you in person.”
Xue Ning’s heart clenched, and her throat tightened, rendering her speechless.
A new bride was about to enter the family in the capital, so the abandoned wife in the old mansion was no longer of any use.
Her tear-filled eyes remained glazed over for a long time as she recalled the past in a daze.
She was an orphan who had lost both her parents. Taken in by the Xuanyi Marquis Mansion, she was raised by the matriarch, Madam Jiang.
In the year she came of age, a cup of drugged Spring Wine had allowed her to marry the Heir of Xuan Yi Hou, Su Zhan.
Ten years had passed since that day.
The Su Zhan of later years became the feared Grand Secretary of the Inner Cabinet, a man of immense power and authority second only to the emperor.
Everyone said that for an orphan like her to marry into such a family was a blessing earned from lifetimes of good deeds.
But only she knew that Su Zhan had a white moonlight in his heart. He did not love her at all; he even loathed her for forcing herself upon him and stealing the position of his legitimate wife.
His gaze, whenever it fell on her, was always laced with coldness and disgust.
After their marriage, they rarely shared the intimacy of a husband and wife.
She was left to languish in the rear residence, spending her days and nights alone in an empty room, turning into a bitter woman unloved by her husband.
Until five years ago, when she accidentally caused his beloved, Princess Xiuning, to miscarry at a spring banquet.
Su Zhan flew into a rage. He first subjected her to the family’s disciplinary punishment, then sent her out of Dongjing City overnight.
All told, she had been cast away in this old mansion in Yongzhou for four or five years now.
Her pitiful maid, Bao Chan, had accompanied her into this exile. The old mansion was dilapidated, and the Su family refused to repair it. The servants treated her, the Grand Secretary’s wife, with utter neglect. The clan elders, seeing she had no one to rely on, bullied her, subjecting her to all sorts of torment and humiliation in this remote countryside.
Bao Chan had been brutally beaten to death by the mansion guards simply for wanting to cook her a bowl of Yangchun Noodles for the New Year.
She could tolerate the daily shortages of food and clothing, and the lack of charcoal for warmth, but she never imagined that when she fell ill, the old mansion would refuse to summon a doctor or provide medicine.
What had started as a minor cold had been left untreated for so long that it had become a terminal illness, causing her to cough up blood.
A terminal illness… In truth, Xue Ning knew better.
It was simply that Su Zhan could no longer tolerate her existence and had ordered someone to give her a potent poison, wanting her to die a quiet death.
But her worthless life had clung on, refusing to end, becoming an eyesore to him.
And so, he could wait no longer. He had sent people to kill her.
Sorrow welled up in Xue Ning. She coughed until blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. She wanted to cry, but no tears would come. “Cough, cough… He… why… why would he do this to me…”
Seeing Xue Ning’s obstinance, one of the old women sighed softly.
“Madam, the sea of bitterness has no shore; turn back and you will find salvation.”
“His Lordship is now the Grand Secretary of the Inner Cabinet. He cannot allow an orphan like you to tarnish his reputation.”
Xue Ning came back to her senses. A bitter smile touched her lips, and the light in her eyes began to fade.
The leading old woman shook her head. Seeing that she still refused to sign the Letter of Separation, she gave a look to the women on either side of her.
Two stout old women stepped forward and bound her tightly with ropes.
But she didn’t even have the will to struggle.
Seeing that things were more or less handled, the leader gave a grim order, “Since the Madam refuses to see reason, then don’t blame His Lordship for being ruthless.”
The figures quickly departed.
A towering fire soon began to rage in the dilapidated little courtyard.
Xue Ning’s heart was like dead ashes. She slowly closed her eyes.
The bright red tongues of fire licked across the stacks of family letters before her.
The white pages filled with black ink all turned to ash.
When the wind blew, it was as if the heavens were raining black tears, mourning the misplaced devotion of her life.
…
“Miss, wake up, quickly.”
Xue Ning took a sharp breath and opened her eyes.
Before her were waterside pavilions and terraces, clusters of vibrant flowers, and a sky full of falling snow, like a scene from a fairytale.
But hadn’t she died in a sea of fire?
The Su family had sent a letter long ago, stating that Su Zhan wanted to separate from her and marry another, but she had stubbornly refused.
In the end, Su Zhan couldn’t tolerate an abandoned wife like her living to see the New Year, so he set a fire to burn her to death in the old mansion and be done with it.
She had lost the will to live and hadn’t struggled.
But as the flames licked at her, her flesh sizzling, the pain was still excruciating.
As the fire burned her back and agony consumed her entire body, she had cried and crawled, her heart filled with hatred.
Hatred for Su Zhan, for fate, and even more for herself.
Fortunately, she had soon lost consciousness and died just like that.
“Miss, were you having a nightmare?”
A round, chubby face leaned in close.
Xue Ning’s heart pounded like a drum. She was stunned, unable to react for a long moment.
A very much alive Bao Chan tilted her head, lowered her voice, and reminded her, “Today is Madam Jiang’s birthday. Why did you come here to nap by yourself, Miss? The distinguished guests are still being received out front. The Young Heir… he just returned as well. He’s over by the opera stage.”
Xue Ning froze. She looked at the ten-years-younger Bao Chan and couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch her fleshy cheek.
“Ouch!” Bao Chan yelped in pain.
That single sound brought Xue Ning back to her senses.
“Madam Jiang’s birthday?”
“Yes.”
“The Young Heir has returned to the mansion?”
“Isn’t that right?” Bao Chan grinned knowingly, as if seeking praise. “I’ve prepared everything.”
Xue Ning’s expression changed. She shot up from the chaise lounge. “This is bad!”
She had been reborn. Reborn ten years in the past, at the very moment she had painstakingly plotted to drug Su Zhan.
She had spent a great sum of money to buy that drug from a brothel.
It was said that once a man consumed it, not even ten bulls could hold him back; he had to be with a woman to neutralize the poison.
Once that cup of drugged wine went down, not even the Heavenly King himself could change the outcome!
In this life, Xue Ning was unwilling to repeat her mistakes, and she certainly did not want to marry Su Zhan again.
Hearing Bao Chan’s words, she panicked, lifted her skirts, and broke into a run towards Zhaohua Pavilion.