“Master, that girl is in there!”
With a creak, the door was pushed open.
The room, which had been dark for several days, finally let in a sliver of light, but a cold wind came with it.
Su Wan’ning shuddered. In her dazed state, she saw several people standing by the bed. The one speaking was her uncle by marriage.
“This girl spent several years working in the palace as a cook, and her heart grew wild. She actually dared to steal and sell a secret imperial recipe! Master, do whatever you wish with her. We have absolutely no objections!”
Su Wan’ning was stunned. She had never touched any imperial secret recipe. What was her uncle talking about?
She wanted to speak, but after burning with a fever for three days without eating or drinking, her throat hurt terribly. She could not utter a word.
A strange man let out a cold laugh. “Even sacrificing this wretched life of hers wouldn’t be enough to appease our Old Ancestor! Take her away!”
In a daze, Su Wan’ning was dragged into a magnificent residence.
A group of fierce-looking servants wielding long, thorn-covered whips lashed her again and again.
She cried out in agony.
Eventually, she could no longer even make a sound.
Only after it felt as though the flesh and bones throughout her body had been shattered did they finally stop.
She felt like a pile of mud sprawled across the ground, barely able to breathe in, with almost no breath left to breathe out.
She did not want to die!
But she could not understand how she had ended up in such a miserable state.
She had returned home after leaving the Imperial Food Bureau years ago and had always kept to herself. How could she possibly have offended someone so powerful? And why would her uncle frame her?
Just then, a familiar figure approached.
Su Wan’ning struggled to narrow her eyes.
It was her aunt!
“You’re still alive?”
Madam Li stepped on her wrist, her voice dripping with malice. “Your cousin has become the Crown Princess. It’s time for you to die too!”
Su Wan’ning could neither move nor speak. She could only widen her eyes and glare fiercely at Madam Li.
Her cousin had merely been a palace maid in the Imperial Food Bureau. How could she have become the Crown Princess?
Could it be…
As if she knew exactly what Su Wan’ning was thinking, Madam Li burst into delighted laughter.
“Thank goodness for that medicinal recipe you came up with back then. It cured the Crown Prince’s loss of appetite and won him over to Wei’er.”
“That little wretch, you even held something back and didn’t give Wei’er the complete recipe. Luckily, we managed to trick it out of you over the years… We’ve profited from you for all these years. Now, it’s time for you to die!”
Su Wan’ning vomited another mouthful of blood.
So that was how it was.
Three years ago, she and her cousin, Lin Yuwei, had both been palace maids in the Imperial Food Bureau.
After learning that the Crown Prince suffered from a loss of appetite, she carefully developed a medicinal dish to help regulate his health and added it to a palace banquet.
After the banquet ended, Lin Yuwei had panicked and told her that her dish had displeased one of the nobles. She told Su Wan’ning to take the money and valuables home and said that as long as she took good care of their aunt, Lin Yuwei would bear the blame herself.
Unable to refuse, Su Wan’ning had returned home with guilt and gratitude in her heart.
On the way home, she had been attacked by bandits who had severed the tendons in her hands, leaving her crippled. It was only because her aunt’s family had carefully nursed her that she managed to recover and regain her strength.
From then on, she had treated her aunt’s family with even greater sincerity. She had used her remaining savings to buy them farmland and property, and she had taught her cousin everything she had learned about recipes and cooking techniques without holding anything back.
She had thought this was what family did—supporting one another.
What she received in return was this cruel truth.
Every kindness had been a scheme.
Every touching moment had been exploitation.
And after squeezing every last bit of value out of her, they had repaid her with a merciless, inhumane slaughter!
Su Wan’ning’s vision turned blood-red.
Why?
Why did the villains get to steal the fruits of her labor and use them to climb to greater heights, while she could only die silently after being framed and persecuted?
She was unwilling to accept this!
If she had another life, she would never let this family of beasts off!
Overwhelming hatred surged through her.
Su Wan’ning’s breath caught, and she lost consciousness.
The moon sank, and the stars shifted.
Her body suddenly jolted.
A ray of sunlight streamed in, and Su Wan’ning abruptly woke up.
Was she… in a carriage?
But hadn’t she already died?
“Madam Su, we’ve arrived at the inn.”
That voice…
It was the escort leader Lin Yuwei had recommended to her!
Su Wan’ning immediately lifted the carriage curtain, and the face of Escort Leader Zhao appeared before her.
Then she looked at the hand gripping the curtain.
The fingers were slender and well-proportioned, clean and strong.
She had actually been reborn!
She had returned to the time when she had just left the palace!
Her hands had not yet been ruined, and all the savings she had accumulated over the years were still with her.
Everything could still be changed!
In her previous life, she had stayed at the inn booked by Escort Leader Zhao. In the middle of the night, bandits had broken in and severed the tendons in her hands. From there, she had fallen step by step into the carefully laid schemes of that family.
In this life, she would take back everything that belonged to her and make those beasts pay for their blood debt with blood!
But first, she had to keep calm.
Once she returned home safe and sound, she would settle every single account with them properly!
Suppressing the hatred churning inside her, Su Wan’ning kept her expression calm and stepped down from the carriage.
There were five people traveling together. The others had already entered the inn, so Escort Leader Zhao urged her, “Madam Su, please hurry. If we get settled early, we can rest sooner and set out earlier tomorrow.”
“Why is this inn getting more and more run-down?”
Su Wan’ning deliberately sounded displeased.
Having just come out of the palace, it was perfectly normal for her to have higher standards.
Escort Leader Zhao did not suspect anything and patiently explained, “The farther we get from the capital, the more desolate the surroundings naturally become. After another two days, once we enter Jibei, things will be much better. Please bear with it for now, Madam Su.”
“I want to stay at the relay station. You’re so capable, Escort Leader Zhao. Surely you can find a way?”
Su Wan’ning looked serious as she gazed at the relay station across from the inn.
“I really can’t do that…”
Escort Leader Zhao looked troubled.
Before he could finish, an argument broke out inside the relay station.
“You fool! You can’t even make a decent meal. Does the imperial court feed you for nothing?”
“We’re out here in the middle of nowhere. The young lady’s demands really are a little too high. Please, I beg you, don’t make things difficult for us.”
Su Wan’ning’s heart stirred.
This was the person who had come to the inn in her previous life looking for a cook!
As long as she could prove herself, perhaps she could stay at the relay station tonight!