“Help!”
The biting cold wind, carrying heavy snow, sliced across her skin like knives. In a secluded alley, a frail figure stumbled barefoot through the icy snow as she fled.
Shuixian wore only a tattered thin gauze garment that offered no protection against the bone-chilling cold.
Her exposed skin had turned blue-purple from frostbite, and her feet were cut by sharp stones on the road, leaving bloody footprints with each step that were immediately buried by the relentless snowfall.
Cold, piercing cold.
But deeper than the cold was the despair that had seeped into her very bones.
Three years! She had been imprisoned for three whole years in the filthiest, most torturous brothel in the capital!
If she refused to entertain customers, she would be locked in a pitch-dark woodshed like livestock, subjected to humiliation and brutal beatings.
The once loyal, straightforward and innocent young maid had long had her dignity crushed and her naivety extinguished, leaving only pure hatred to sustain her broken body.
Tonight, taking advantage of the drunken negligence of her guards, she had finally managed to cut the hemp rope binding her wrists with a shard of porcelain she’d been sharpening for who knows how long. She burst through the wooden door of the woodshed and escaped!
If she could just make it out of this dark alley and reach the well-lit main street ahead, they wouldn’t dare capture her openly!
The light at the alley’s entrance was right before her eyes!
Summoning her last ounce of strength, Shuixian lunged toward that brightness.
However.
Just as her fingertips were about to touch the hopeful light at the alley’s mouth, several dark figures descended silently from the high walls on either side like ghosts!
“You wretched woman! Still trying to run?!”
An iron-like hand brutally twisted her arm, the intense pain making her vision darken.
The person covered her mouth and nose, cutting off her last hope of crying for help.
“Mmph… mmph!”
Shuixian struggled desperately, her feet kicking futilely in the snow. Tears of despair welled up and instantly froze in the frigid air.
She was violently dragged back into the depths of the alley. A moldy rag was roughly thrown over her head, blocking out the last traces of light.
Blows rained down on her frail body, each strike filled with vicious intent.
Later, she was thrown onto what felt like some kind of cart or carriage, jolting along to an unknown destination.
It’s over… this time it’s truly over.
How would the brothel madam torture her? Break her legs? Or directly work her to death through forced prostitution?
Shuixian curled up, her consciousness gradually fading amid the intense pain and cold.
After what felt like an eternity, the jolting finally stopped.
She was roughly pulled down and dragged into some place.
A door closed, shutting out the wind and snow outside. A familiar fragrance drifted through the air.
At that moment, the rag covering her head was violently ripped away!
The blinding candlelight made Shuixian instinctively squeeze her eyes shut. She breathed with difficulty, adapting to the light before slowly opening her eyes.
The scene that met her eyes made her blood run cold in an instant!
There was no ferocious brothel madam, no filthy thugs.
Only a young woman in palace attire sitting upright in an armchair at the center of the room.
It was actually Yi Guichun! No, she should now be addressed as… Noble Consort Yi!
And standing by her side, wearing a mocking smile, was none other than Shan Cha, who had once worked alongside her for years and was now Noble Consort Yi’s trusted palace maid.
Shuixian stood there in tattered clothes, barefoot and bloodied, shivering from the cold – the very picture of utter wretchedness.
Noble Consort Yi sat with regal composure upon her high chair, like a deity gazing down upon lowly ants.
“What’s this? Surprised to see me?”
Her vermilion lips parted with cruel mockery. “Did you truly believe you had escaped?”
Shuixian’s pupils contracted sharply. Could it be…?
“Heh!”
Noble Consort Yi savored the terror and dread on Shuixian’s face, her smile growing increasingly venomous.
“Fool! Did you think your petty tricks could deceive anyone? My people have been watching you since the moment you cut the rope! Letting you run was merely to let you taste hope right before your eyes, only to have it brutally crushed!”
Her teasing tone belied the viciousness of her words.
Shuixian felt as if her heart had been struck.
Intentional! It was all intentional! Giving her hope only to make her despair more completely!
“Why…” Shuixian’s voice was hoarse, “I bore you… a royal son. Why… must you treat me this way?!”
Three years ago, enduring excruciating pain, she had exerted tremendous effort in the delivery room to give birth to a male infant—the emperor’s first son after years without an heir!
Noble Consort Yi had leveraged this to leap into her current position, enjoying boundless honor and glory!
Yet she, the true mother, had been falsely declared dead from difficult childbirth and hemorrhaging, then thrown by Noble Consort Yi’s subordinates into the devouring abyss of Hongxiao Pavilion!
Her wholehearted loyalty, even offering her body to bear a royal heir for her mistress—was this her reward? To be discarded like worthless trash after being drained of all value, then trampled and tortured to death?!
“Why?”
Noble Consort Yi rose abruptly as if hearing the world’s greatest joke.
She approached Shuixian, who was bound to the pillar, her eyes seeming to want to strip Shuixian’s bones and devour her flesh.
“Since you began serving me in childhood, I’ve hated you! Why should I, the legitimate daughter of the Yi family, precious and noble, have my foundation ruined by a damned childhood chill, making it difficult to conceive?!”
Growing more agitated, she continued, “Why should my future husband, my honor and favor, depend on the womb of a lowborn house slave like you?!”
Noble Consort Yi leaned down, gripping Shuixian’s chin fiercely, forcing her to look up. “You didn’t know, did you? My dear Shuixian? Did you think your naturally fertile womb was heaven’s gift? Pah!”
Her eyes gleaming with madness, she sneered coldly:
“That was secret medicine my mother fed you when you were young! Your purpose for existing was to bear bloodline for me, Yi Guifei, for my future husband! You’re merely a container! A breathing womb! Understand? You wretched slave!”
Shuixian trembled violently, not from cold, but from the shock of this revelation!
So that was it! So that was it!!!
She recalled being selected in childhood for her snow-pure loveliness to serve the legitimate young mistress, then the lady personally presenting her with a bowl of sweet soup every first day of the month.
No wonder, no wonder she had conceived a royal heir after just one night of favor.
So her constitution had been forcibly cultivated by the Yi family’s medicines into this fertile state!
In the Yi family’s eyes, she had never been human! Only a carefully cultivated breeding tool to carry their ambitions!
“Hahaha…”
Watching the color drain from Shuixian’s face, leaving only the ashen pallor of despair, Consort Yi let out a distorted laugh.
Her laughter was filled with the thrill of vengeance.
“Look at this face of yours…”
She traced her fingertip over Shuixian’s features, which even after enduring such torment still retained traces of their former breathtaking beauty.
“A low-born servant, how dare you possess such fox-like allure?… It’s truly an eyesore! Since childhood, how many men in the manor have stared at you? Even my father and brother nearly… Hmph!”
Killing intent flashed in her eyes: “The usefulness of your womb has been exhausted. Now, this face of yours sickens me to look upon! Shan Cha!”
“Your servant is here!”
Shan Cha immediately stepped forward, her voice trembling with barely suppressed excitement.
Consort Yi retreated a step and delivered her final judgment: “Ruin this troublesome face for me… carve it to pieces!”
“No!”
Shuixian let out a piercing scream, struggling with all her might but remaining immobilized by the tight bonds.
The cold blade, carrying Consort Yi’s profound hatred, sliced down mercilessly!
Rip!
Pain! Such agony!
The excruciating pain of torn flesh instantly overwhelmed all her senses! Warm liquid gushed down her cheeks, indistinguishable whether blood or tears!
One cut! Two! Three!
The overwhelming pain drowned Shuixian like tidal waves, each fall of the blade feeling like it was dismembering her soul!
Why?!
Why was she born a slave to be slaughtered at will?!
Why were her body and fate controlled by others from birth?!
Why could people like Consort Yi and Shan Cha so easily decide her life or death?!
“Ah!!!”
Extreme suffering, mixed with overwhelming hatred, transformed into blood-curdling wails!
She hated!
In her final moments, she focused her dying strength, fixing her gaze on Consort Yi’s vicious, twisted face.
If there is a next life… I, Shuixian, will make you repay this blood debt!
Darkness completely swallowed everything.
Shuixian jolted violently, gasping for air like a drowning person suddenly breaching the water’s surface!
Before her eyes were golden dragon-patterned brocade curtains, the unique scent of Dragon Saliva Incense lingering at her nostrils, beneath her the incredibly soft touch of cloud-patterned silk bedding.
No blood, no coldness, no Consort Yi’s malicious face!
This was… the Emperor’s bedchamber?!
Realization dawning, Shuixian’s heart raced so violently it seemed about to leap from her chest. With trembling disbelief, she raised her hand to touch her cheek.
Smooth skin!
None of those hideous wounds, no torn flesh!
Was this real?! Not a dream?!
Overwhelming ecstasy instantly swept through her, tears streaming down uncontrollably.
She had been reborn! Truly reborn! Returned to this critical moment that changed her previous life’s destiny… the night of imperial consummation.
In her previous life, this very night, she had been so flustered, shy, and awed by Consort Yi that she appeared wooden and rigid, even unintentionally resisting the Emperor, displeasing Emperor Zhaoheng who left abruptly after a perfunctory consummation.
How stupid!
Shuixian cursed her former self vehemently in her heart.
Awe? Fear? She had paid the price in blood and tears to understand that in this man-eating deep palace, and throughout the entire world, the most useless things were these cheap emotions!
In this life, she lived for revenge alone! And this opportunity to serve in the royal bedchamber was the first step on her path of vengeance!
Just then, the sound of a man’s footsteps echoed from outside the hall, growing gradually closer until they halted beyond the door.
The heavy palace door was slowly pushed open by a distinctly jointed hand…
A tall, erect figure enveloped in the crisp moonlight from outside stepped inside. The bright yellow dragon-patterned casual robe symbolized supreme imperial authority, further accentuating his broad shoulders, long legs, and imposing presence.
Unlike his fully dressed form, Shuixian on the bed followed the rules of royal bedchamber service.
Beneath the quilt, she was completely naked!