Volume 1, Chapter 1: Rebirth
March, the season of misty blossoms, where spring breezes brushed through the willows.
In the Wu’an Marquis Manor of Yongjing, willow catkins drifted throughout the estate, dancing through the air and falling like snowflakes.
Yan Qing stood under the eaves of the study corridor, dressed in bright red wedding robes. Inside her wide sleeves, embroidered with the image of mandarin ducks with intertwined necks, her slender fingers tightly gripped her bridal veil, which was adorned with tassels and jewels. Her knuckles were white from the strain.
The swirling white catkins looked like a heavy snowfall as they fell before her dark pupils.
“Mi… Miss…”
The maid, Lu Zhi, was filled with panic and confusion.
She had been accompanying her mistress in the bridal chamber, waiting for the Heir to lift the veil. Unexpectedly, for reasons unknown, the mistress had lifted the veil herself and hurried to the study despite all protests.
And then, she heard the Heir actually…
“Heir, I am Tan’er, we cannot do this…”
The coquettish voice of the eldest young miss drifted out from the study. Lu Zhi’s face flushed with shame and anger. How could the eldest young miss do such a thing on the mistress’s wedding day!
It was simply… scandalous!
Yan Qing, however, stood under the corridor like a wooden stake.
Amidst the willow catkins flying throughout the garden, she listened numbly to the sounds behind her, until a woman’s affected cry rang out: “Brother Qiao, it hurts…”
“I’ll be gentler…”
A man’s hoarse voice replied.
Yan Qing’s long, dark eyelashes flickered slightly. Then, her red lips curled into a silent, mocking arc.
Today was the day of her grand wedding to Lu Qiao Nan, the Heir of Wu’an Marquis Manor. Yet, her new husband had abandoned a house full of guests to dally with her concubine-born sister in the study!
Before her were rows of guests offering loud congratulations; behind her were the moans and gasps of a man and woman…
Yan Qing looked up at the sky.
The white willow catkins almost blotted out the sun. The elders often said that when white catkins enter a room, it signifies the breaking of a heart upon parting. How fitting…
She stretched her hand out past the eaves, and a light catkin landed in her palm.
The willow catkin was ethereal and soft to the touch.
It was just like the Shu Kingdom Yun Brocade that Lu Qiao Nan had specially sent to the Yan Manor upon his victorious return—affectionate and tender.
Yan Qing stared blankly at the catkin in her palm…
She waited until the sounds of shifting furniture inside the room gradually subsided into silence.
She moved her aching shoulders and suddenly spoke: “Qing Luan.”
The maid Qing Luan stepped forward: “Miss, everything is ready.”
Yan Qing slowly placed the catkin from her hand into a basket. Looking at the fluffy materials prepared inside, she smiled softly. “For my husband and sister’s wedding night, it is only right that I, as the younger sister, present a grand gift.”
“Miss is right. This servant will present it on your behalf.”
With a look of indignation, Qing Luan poured the basket of willow catkins at the entrance of the study and brought over a burning torch.
Yan Qing took the torch with her fair hand.
She lifted her wrist and tossed it into the pile of catkins.
Whoosh!
Willow catkins were highly flammable. The flames quickly consumed the study doors.
Lu Zhi was so terrified that she collapsed to the ground. “Miss, you…”
This was the Wu’an Marquis Manor.
Inside the study were the manor’s Heir, who had just distinguished himself in suppressing the Northwest rebellion, and the daughter their father loved most…
The Miss must have gone mad with rage!
Yan Qing, however, calmly commanded: “Go and bring me a chair.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Qing Luan pulled the timid Lu Zhi away.
Pungent, thick smoke snaked into the study from all sides, startling the sleepers within. Soon, the sounds of Yan Tan and Lu Qiao Nan’s startled cries and coughing were heard.
Yan Qing sat in the courtyard, listening without expression.
Lu Qiao Nan had practiced martial arts since childhood and had spent several years in the military; escaping the fire would not be difficult for him. However, if he had to bring a delicate and weak woman with him, it might be a bit challenging.
Would Lu Qiao Nan abandon Yan Tan?
In her previous life, these two had been inseparable in front of her, their love so deep they were unwilling to repent, wishing to live in the same bed and be buried in the same grave. They had made her, the legitimate wife wedded with the full “three letters and six rites,” look narrow-minded and intolerant. In the end, she had been consumed by resentment and died in misery.
Yan Qing didn’t know what had gone wrong.
She and Lu Qiao Nan were childhood sweethearts. They had been betrothed since they were young, and for as long as she had memories, they had viewed each other as the person they would spend their lives with.
Everyone in the capital knew that Lu Qiao Nan was madly in love with her. Once, just to win a smile from her, the young man had used countless resources and money to force all the peonies in Yongjing to bloom overnight.
He had also recklessly climbed her walls in the middle of the night just to see her face.
A young man’s affection, hot-blooded and sincere.
On the day he led his troops to war, he had stood beneath her window and said with deep devotion, “Qingqing, wait for me.”
And so, she truly waited for him for three years.
She never imagined that upon his return three years later, on their wedding day, he would consummate a union with her scheming concubine-born sister in the study.
In her previous life, Yan Qing had sat in the bridal chamber all night but never saw Lu Qiao Nan come to lift her veil. It wasn’t until the next day, when Yan Tan was making a scene of wanting to die in the Marquis Manor, that she found out what had happened.
On the wedding day, the groom abandoned the bride to commit adultery with the bride’s sister in the study. If this news got out, not only would the reputations of the Marquis Manor and the Yan Manor be ruined, but Lu Qiao Nan’s newly bestowed position as Commander of the Imperial Guard would also be stripped away.
To protect the reputations of both houses, she was confined to the bridal chamber for three days.
Lu Qiao Nan knelt to admit his mistake, Yan Tan wept and sought death, and people from both the Yan and Marquis manors took turns persuading her to “make a small matter out of a big one.”
Yan Qing could no longer remember how she survived those few days. She only knew that afterward, both the Marquis Manor and the Yan Manor announced to the public that Lu Qiao Nan had married two women on the same day, and that the sisters would serve the same husband in deep affection.
To prove the truth of these words, Yan Tan moved into the West Courtyard as a Parity Wife, standing on equal footing with Yan Qing from then on.
But Yan Qing was stubborn and proud; how could she endure such humiliation? From then on, she closed the gates of the East Courtyard, refusing to see Lu Qiao Nan ever again.
She thought she would spend the rest of her life this way, but bad news arrived one after another…
War broke out again in the Northwest. Her maternal grandfather led the army but was ambushed due to an error in judgment. The Northwest suffered a crushing defeat, and the Yong Dynasty lost several cities in succession.
Her eldest and second maternal uncles both died on the battlefield.
Her maternal grandmother led the women and children of the Ye Family to strike the Dengwen Drum, pleading for the Emperor to grant the Ye men justice. However, someone suddenly reported that her grandfather had colluded with the enemy and committed treason, intentionally losing the battle.
The Emperor was furious. The remaining young children of the Ye Family were all beheaded, and all the women were exiled to the North. Her grandmother died on the journey…
Upon hearing the news, her mother became bedridden and soon passed away.
Later, even her only remaining younger brother was mysteriously hacked to death by thugs…
Yan Qing didn’t know what they had done wrong to deserve such tragic ends.
But she knew that after her grandfather died, her father was promoted to the rank of First-Grade Prime Minister.
Lu Qiao Nan was also promoted, titled as the Pingxi Da Jiangjun, and granted a Jiangjun Fu, enjoying boundless glory.
Even Yan Tan was granted a Gaoming title.
Only the souls of the Ye Family, her mother, and her brother remained unmourned beneath the earth.
Later, when the new Emperor ascended the throne and exonerated the Ye Family, Yan Qing finally learned that the people who had destroyed her grandfather’s family were her own biological father and her husband!
She spat out a mouthful of black blood onto the bed.
In the end, she died harboring a bitter hatred!
What Yan Qing didn’t expect was that when she opened her eyes again, she had returned to her wedding day.
After a brief moment of shock and bewilderment, Yan Qing quickly made her choice.
Whether it was a dream or reality, no matter what, she had to stop the tragedy of her previous life.
Furthermore, she would make those who harmed the Ye Family and herself pay back in blood and debt. Thus, she set the fire before the study…
The male and female leads are both reborn. The male lead is a bit crazed, and the female lead is very smart.
There is romance and a plot. The story is a slow burn; both the plot and the emotions develop gradually. Supporting characters also have stories. This is not a one-dimensional, mindless “face-slapping” novel. Please enter with this in mind.