“The Eldest Young Miss specifically requested Yao’er to enter the Prince’s manor. Master, you cannot be biased and let the Fifth Young Miss take her place!”
Looking at her mother pleading for justice on her behalf, Lin Yao’s nose stung with unshed tears. Her mother, Madame Zhao, was unloved by her husband and lived a bleak, agonizing life in this household. Yet, whenever it concerned her daughter, she would fight with her very life.
“Sister Zhao, what are you saying? The Prince’s manor is no ordinary common household,” interjected Madame Chen, a delicate, manipulative woman and the concubine most favored by Master Lin. “Yao’er is practically illiterate; would the Prince even spare her a glance? Sending her in would only lead to suffering. My Shu’er, on the other hand, is proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. The Prince will surely favor her.”
“She’s not going there to be the Princess Consort! She’s going to serve the Prince. What use are painting and chess? As long as she knows how to serve a man, that’s enough!” Madame Zhao argued loudly.
The Eldest Young Miss of the Lin family was the current Princess Consort. However, the Prince refused to touch her. Desperate, she had asked the family to send a younger half-sister to the manor to assist her.
Prince Yu was a man who shunned worldly desires, his heart set entirely on Buddhism. It was common knowledge that if a woman could successfully tempt him to break his vows and bear his child, she would ascend to the heavens in a single bound.
Thus, Madame Chen wanted her own daughter, Lin Shu, to take Lin Yao’s place. Madame Zhao refused to budge—the Princess Consort had clearly named her daughter!
Seeing Madame Zhao’s aggressive stance, Madame Chen feigned terror and shrank into Master Lin’s embrace. “Master, please, say something,” she whimpered.
“Enough! If we let Yao’er go, her reckless nature will only offend the Prince and bring trouble upon our house. I believe it’s better for Shu’er to go,” Master Lin declared.
Madame Chen flashed a smug look. Madame Zhao was so livid she wanted to tear the woman apart. “Master! How can you be so biased? Yao’er is your flesh and blood too!”
Master Lin actually recoiled a step from her fury.
Suddenly, Lin Yao stepped forward and tightly embraced Madame Zhao. “Mother, I don’t want to go to the Prince’s manor. Let Sister Shu’er go.”
In her previous life, her mother had fought desperately for this “opportunity.” And what did it bring? Her mother was sentenced to thirty strokes of the cane; Madame Chen intentionally blocked the doctor from arriving, and though her mother barely survived, she lost the use of both legs.
Madame Zhao’s eyes reddened. “It’s all because I’m useless. I can’t even protect an opportunity meant for you.”
“Father, Mother, I think it’s better if Sister Yao’er goes after all.”
A young girl walked into the room—it was the family’s pampered Fifth Young Miss, Lin Shu.
“Sister Yao’er has skin like snow and a… well, generous figure. She is perfectly suited to seduce men. Isn’t that exactly why Eldest Sister chose her?” Lin Shu looked at Lin Yao with a mocking sneer.
She wasn’t wrong. Despite her plain dress and simple hairpin, Lin Yao’s face was heart-wrenchingly beautiful, her eyes filled with a natural, lingering charm. Just standing there, she was breathtakingly alluring.
“Shu’er, don’t just give everything away! This concerns your entire future!” Madame Chen cried out in panic.
“Mother, I’m not entering the Prince’s manor. I want to marry Gu Yulan.”
“Gu Yulan? Your father’s student? His family are mere farmers, and he holds no official rank. Why on earth would you marry him?”
Lin Shu frowned. “Mother, don’t look down on him. In the future, Gu Yulan will be a Marquis and the Grand Secretary!”
At that moment, Lin Yao knew: Lin Shu, like her, had been reborn.
In the previous timeline, Lin Shu had usurped Lin Yao’s place to become the Prince’s concubine, while Lin Yao was married off to the student, Gu Yulan.
Prince Yu was the Emperor’s legitimate son. Brilliant from youth, he was set to be named Crown Prince at fifteen. However, that year, a high monk praying for the Emperor declared that the Prince had a “Divine Fate with Buddha.” Since then, the Prince had sought enlightenment. Had the Empress not threatened to take her own life, he would have fully ordained as a monk.
To “break” his Buddhist heart and show him the beauty of the mortal world, the Empress had flooded his side with women. Yet, he remained cold and abstinent, never even looking at his own Princess Consort.
Lin Shu had entered the manor with grand ambitions of bearing his firstborn and climbing the social ladder. She threw away her ladylike dignity to seduce him, even standing naked before him, but the Prince remained unmoved. Once, she angered him so deeply she was punished with thirty strokes. She spent five years in a sexless marriage, eventually seeking solace with a servant out of loneliness. When caught, she was beaten to death and tossed into a mass grave.
Meanwhile, Lin Yao’er’s life with Gu Yulan appeared idyllic. Gu Yulan rose quickly through the ranks, eventually becoming the Grand Secretary. Lin Yao became the most envied woman in the capital. On the day Lin Shu was killed, Lin Yao was celebrating her son’s first birthday with the elite of the city.
Lin Shu died hating her, convinced Lin Yao had stolen “her” glorious life.
“Lin Yao, the Prince’s manor is a den of tigers and wolves. Go and ‘enjoy’ it,” Lin Shu whispered triumphantly into Lin Yao’s ear. “I’m going to marry my darling Gu.”
Lin Yao almost smiled. Did Lin Shu truly think Gu Yulan was a catch?
“Mother, I won’t marry a heartless Prince. You have no idea how terrifying he is,” Lin Shu insisted to a bewildered Madame Chen before they left the room.
Back in her own dilapidated courtyard, Lin Yao sat with her mother.
“Fortunately, that wench Lin Shu had a fit and stopped fighting for the Prince’s manor,” Madame Zhao sighed in relief. “But what did she mean about Gu Yulan becoming a Marquis?”
“Perhaps she’s gone mad,” Lin Yao replied.
Indeed, mad. The Gu household was far more treacherous than the Prince’s manor. Thinking of her past life there, Lin Yao felt a chill down her spine.
In that life, her mother-in-law had been abusive. To support the family while Gu Yulan studied, Lin Yao ran a tofu shop. Men harassed her, and women called her a “vixen” because of her looks. When Gu Yulan finally gained power—largely due to Lin Yao’s secret schemes—he brought home a mistress and a secret child.
He had been drugging Lin Yao for years to keep her infertile so his mistress’s child could be his heir. Ultimately, he was manipulated by that mistress into a treasonous plot, leading to the entire family’s execution.
She had toiled for half a lifetime only to end up at the executioner’s block. In this life, she wanted nothing to do with the Gu family. If Lin Shu wanted that “glory,” she was welcome to it.