The long street was packed with commoners, all buzzing with discussion over the funeral procession marching down the center.
“What immense grandeur! Who died?”
A bystander clicked his tongue and glanced sideways at the speaker.
“You really are a bookworm, keeping your ears shut to the outside world. The one inside that coffin is our Prince Regent’s consort. I heard this funeral is conducted according to the rites of the Mother of the Nation—how could it not be grand?”
“Is she the consort who rode onto the battlefield in her youth?”
“You’ve heard of her?”
“How could I not have? I heard this princess consort was truly extraordinary—brimming with brilliance, she devised brilliant strategies time and again. That battle at Huaigu Pass years ago made her famous throughout the realm!”
For a moment, the crowd recalled the spirited woman who had once ridden her horse through the streets in high spirits, and a chorus of sighs rippled through them.
Someone asked in a hushed voice, “She only married into the imperial family a year ago. How is she already gone?”
“Word is she died of illness.”
“Ah, you don’t know the half of it. Remember the execution grounds on the North Street two months ago?”
“I do, I do! The blood that flowed—Old Man Wang, who sweeps the streets, said it couldn’t be washed clean even after three days and three nights.”
“I was there that day. Those beheaded on the platform were none other than the Princess Consort’s maiden family—the household of the General of the Pacified North. Over a hundred souls, and what a gruesome death they suffered. What’s more, the one who gave the order was the Prince Regent himself.”
Someone scoffed in disbelief.
What kind of man was the Prince Regent?
Brilliant and breathtaking, dignified and formidable, he had intimidated the court’s veteran ministers when he first seized power in his youth, grasping the tangled web of factions firmly in his hand. Immensely revered, he was like the finest jade of Mount Kun. When he wed the Princess Consort, countless young maidens across the realm cried their eyes out in despair.
Hardly anyone present was ignorant of that grand wedding a year ago.
“The Prince and Princess Consort were renowned for their deep, enduring love. How could he have personally given such an order?”
Hearing this, Lu Yi muttered the same question under her breath.
Qin Liangyu turned to look at her, her beautiful eyes shimmering. “How do you know their love was so deep? Perhaps they were a pair of bitter enemies who loathed each other down to the bone.”
Lu Yi weighed the medicine packet in her hand, utterly bewildered. “This servant heard everyone say so. Surely it can’t be false?”
Qin Liangyu sighed.
True or false—who could know better than her?
For she was the occupant of that receding coffin, the very Princess Consort of the Prince Regent being gossiped about right now: Song Chou.
Perhaps because her soul had refused to scatter, and Heaven, seeing that she had truly died wronged, took pity and allowed her to live once more within this current body.
In short, when she opened her eyes five days ago, she had taken over a new form and become Qin Liangyu, the concubine-born daughter of a merchant family.
As for the matters between the woman in that coffin and the world-renowned Prince Regent, no one under the heavens understood them better than she did.
In truth, the person who had issued that order really was Shen Weiyi.
He was far from the noble and untainted figure others believed him to be. He was ruthless, cold-blooded, and wildly ambitious—showing no mercy even to the woman who shared his bed!
Two months ago, from who knows where, he dredged up supposed evidence that the household of the General of the Pacified North had committed treason, claiming their crimes were unforgivable. Immediately following that, he swept in with drastic measures to strip the general’s estate of its military authority.
How laughable that she had been resting to protect her pregnancy at the time. Only when the entire general’s household was thrown into prison did she hear the news from the estate’s servants.
Yet, bolstered by some baffling confidence that there was genuine affection between her and Shen Weiyi, she naturally refused to believe it and went to his study to find him.
Unexpectedly, as she reached the veranda outside the study, she overheard a conversation.
Shen Weiyi’s advisor was urging him: “Your Highness, the charges against the general’s estate are settled; they are now an abandoned pawn. You and the daughter of Chancellor Lin were childhood sweethearts. Why not take her into your manor to stabilize the situation?”
Holding her breath, her heart pounding frantically, her hands trembled as she reached to push open the door to look at the man.
The very next instant, she heard him utter a few merciless words: “Very well. Go and make the preparations.”
It was only at that moment she truly understood why this Prince Regent, having seized power at such a young age, could stand tall in the imperial court for so many years on his own.
He was, in truth, an utterly heartless man.
What followed was the day of the extermination of her entire clan. Slipping past the men he had posted in the manor, she had sneaked out, only to arrive in time to see him seated high above the execution platform. The executioners’ blades rose and fell, and more than a hundred lives of her Song clan were decapitated in an instant.
Amidst that sea of crimson, she had demanded of him with a shrill, piercing voice: “Back then, to marry you, I did not hesitate to defy my father and brothers, willing to sequester myself in the inner quarters! Yet now, for mere military authority, this is how you repay me!”
Shen Weiyi’s expression stiffened for a fleeting moment. His cold face showed no emotion as he countered, “If we speak of back then, it was you who forced your way into this prince’s presence first.”
Indeed. It was she who had cast aside her dignity; it was she who had acted with willful abandon.
Had it not been for her, the general’s estate would never have fallen to such a plight.
Yet what wrong had an innocent child committed? Her eldest brother’s child was barely a year old, and her sister-in-law was gentle and understanding. Why did they have to suffer such a fate!
At this thought, a chilling frost crept into Qin Liangyu’s eyes.
Looking again at the grand and majestic funeral procession, she found it utterly ridiculous.
How had she failed to see before that he was so fond of empty displays?
A funeral conforming to the rites of the Mother of the Nation?
She truly had no use for it.
Now that she had been granted a second life, what she desired most was to grind Shen Weiyi’s bones to dust, scatter his ashes, and ruin his name, so that he might repay those blood-drenched lives.
Only when the sound of gongs and drums faded away, leaving behind a street littered with paper money, did Lu Yi let out a sigh. “The splendor of the wedding between the Prince and the Princess Consort back then—even this servant heard about it inside the manor. To think such a beauty departed so soon… Did she really die of illness?”
Qin Liangyu pondered for a moment.
In fact, she had not died of illness at all; she had been poisoned to death—two lives lost in one body.
How mocking. Someone hailed by the world as an peerless paragon had met such an ignominious end.
“Probably. Birth, aging, sickness, and death come to all; it is hardly surprising.”
Lu Yi nodded.
Only then did the two women head toward the Qin Estate, carrying the packets of medicine.
No one noticed that on the high terrace across the street, a man dressed in black robes, his hair bound by a golden crown, stood with an air of untamed authority. His gaze was fixed, lost in a daze, upon the receding funeral procession.
Jiyou glanced at the sky, slowly stepped forward, and said in a low voice, “Your Highness, let us return. You have been standing here for most of the day. If the Princess Consort’s spirit knows of this in the Netherworld, she will not find peace.”
However, his sleeve was yanked by Jifeng beside him, whose eyes shot him a warning glare: What time do you think it is, daring to bring up the Princess Consort before His Highness!
Jifeng cupped his hands and stepped forward, speaking with utmost caution: “Your Highness, a messenger has arrived from the palace. Shall we go now?”
Shen Weiyi’s frigid eyes finally stirred. A thick, oppressive aura of ferocity emanated from his entire body. After a long silence, a single grunt slipped from his throat.
“Mm.”
…
Just as Qin Liangyu arrived at the estate gates, she was intercepted by an old maidservant sent by the household’s primary wife, Madam Fang. The maid’s tone was dripping with disdain: “Fifth Miss, the Eldest Miss is discussing a marriage proposal today, yet you return so late. Just running an errand for medicine, and you’ve already forgotten who you are?”
This Fifth Miss had gone before the Old Madam today to lodge a complaint, causing the mistress to lose a tremendous amount of face!
Qin Liangyu was somewhat at a loss for words.
It had taken her most of the day just to grasp the circumstances of this original host.
The Qin Estate was considered one of the foremost wealthy merchant households in the capital city of Bianjing, with countless shops under its name.
Now, Master Qin was a man of means, and naturally, rather dissolute.
The original host’s mother, Madam Yu, had been brought back by Master Qin from a music pavilion. It was said she was exceptionally beautiful and quite talented. After enjoying his favor for a time, she gave birth to Qin Liangyu.
Yet good times never lasted. Soon after, having failed to recuperate properly following childbirth, she faded away like a withered flower.
Without anyone to look after her and bereft of favor, the original host gradually grew into a timid and cowardly girl, so much so that even the servants of the estate could boss her around.
The day she was reborn into this body, she had reportedly fallen into the water after being bullied by her legitimate elder sister, remaining unconscious for several days thereafter.
Yet how could these people ever know that they had long since driven that young girl to her grave, and that she herself was merely a wronged ghost clinging to this borrowed flesh?
Thinking of this, Qin Liangyu’s gaze toward the old maid turned decidedly frigid. Caught under that stare, the old woman shivered, feeling an instinctive wave of dread. Even so, the words tumbling from her mouth grew ever more unforgiving:
“Fifth Miss had best not forget: your being permitted to leave the estate to buy medicine today was an act of grace from the mistress. Behave yourself later, and do not do things you shouldn’t.”