“Qin Shuying, accompany me for a walk.”

After Princess Fuping spoke, she took the first step.

Qin Shuying responded and followed behind Princess Fuping.

“Qin Shuying, I’ve investigated your situation over these past few years.”

Qin Shuying’s heart skipped a beat. Princess Fuping had met with her many times, always appearing like an outsider—not only an outsider to her world, but seemingly an outsider to the world of princes and princesses as well.

Princess Fuping was very mysterious.

Why would she investigate her for no reason?

“Your Highness, this subject is curious—why would Your Highness investigate this subject?”

“Because your current behavior is too different from before.”

After speaking, Princess Fuping stopped walking, her gaze deep and penetrating as she stared at Qin Shuying.

Qin Shuying felt an unprecedented sense of oppression.

After a moment of silence, Qin Shuying said: “Your Highness, if a person has experienced life and death, they will certainly be different from before. Your Highness is not this subject, so you wouldn’t experience that kind of despair and pain, and therefore wouldn’t understand this subject’s transformation.”

Princess Fuping gazed deeply at Qin Shuying. Qin Shuying neither dodged nor avoided, bravely facing Princess Fuping’s knowing look. “Experienced life and death? What do you mean by that?”

“I mean when a person dies, then comes back to life again.”

The shock in Princess Fuping’s heart was no less than Qin Shuying’s. She had guessed correctly—was Qin Shuying also reborn? But that wasn’t right. If she was reborn, how could she be willing to marry Liang Zhe?

In her previous life, Princess Fuping hadn’t known Qin Shuying at all, nor had she ever heard her name.

But she knew Liang Zhe, and she knew that Liang Zhe had died this autumn.

If Qin Shuying was also reborn, she would definitely know about this. There was no other reason—Liang Zhe had died very disgracefully, and with Luo Meixiang’s publicity, everyone in the entire capital knew about Liang Zhe’s death.

Liang Zhe had died naked on top of four dancing girls, dying from exhaustion.

He had literally worked himself to death!

Although the matter was unseemly, it still reached the inner quarters and was used by ladies as a negative example to educate their children never to learn from Liang Zhe’s debauchery.

Combined with later troubles befalling the Marquis of Zhengxi, people in the capital became even more aware of Liang Zhe’s death.

Therefore, Qin Shuying wasn’t reborn. Otherwise, how could she possibly be willing to marry Liang Zhe?

Since she wasn’t reborn, why was her behavior so vastly different from before?

Qin Shuying looked at Princess Fuping’s puzzled expression. Though her heart was in tumult, her face showed grief: “Your Highness, this subject’s father and mother gave their hearts and souls to the Qin family. After father and mother passed away, this subject’s aunt actually bribed physicians, repeatedly trying to kill this subject, and confined her to the inner quarters where no one could see her. This subject had to observe mourning for her parents while guarding against her aunt’s step-by-step schemes. Several times this subject nearly died. Your Highness, don’t you think this subject has already died once? No, has already died several times!”

Her dramatic transformation was bound to arouse suspicion from observant people, so Qin Shuying had long prepared this excuse.

“Your Highness, you have never lacked food or clothing, and you hold noble status. You cannot experience this subject’s situation of crying to heaven with no response, crying to earth with no answer. You cannot experience the difficult situation of having white called black with no way to defend oneself. You cannot experience the pain of being fish on the chopping board, at others’ mercy. Your Highness, even with this subject’s explanation, you probably still cannot understand this subject’s feeling of having died several times.”

Princess Fuping was stunned. She slowly said: “I can. I can understand.”

At that time, when she was confined to the back courtyard, wasn’t that exactly crying to heaven with no response, crying to earth with no answer? How long had she lived through such days? She could no longer remember clearly.

She hadn’t died early but had lived for a very, very long time—long enough to go from initial terror and despair, to later heart-death, and finally to being like withered wood.

Therefore, when she opened her eyes upon rebirth, she felt neither surprise nor joy. Perhaps, having lived so long, she had long understood that worldly affairs are impermanent—what was there to be joyful about?

So when she appeared before others, she rarely spoke or expressed anything.

Once, in the flower garden, when she saw Qin Shuying, her heart, still as dead water, stirred slightly. However, it was only a little, and soon these ripples were replaced by the numbness and composure she had grown accustomed to.

She was like an outsider, coldly watching everything before her. Even her desire to dissuade her mother would occasionally fade. Every time she failed to persuade Mother Consort, she would think: forget it, she would end well anyway, and Mother Consort had been just as stubborn then, personally pushing her into that pit of fire.

But when Qin Shuying mentioned “crying to heaven with no response, crying to earth with no answer,” she suddenly remembered that child from long, long ago.

That child had long since been reincarnated, gone to who knows where. But that was also her child, her only child from the previous life!

How could she possibly forget?

When that child fell ill and she was imprisoned in the back courtyard, watching helplessly as the child gradually lost life—wasn’t that crying to heaven with no response, crying to earth with no answer?

Later, when she regained her princess dignity, that family was delivered into her hands for personal disposal. But the child was already gone—no amount of revenge could have meaning.

Tears suddenly burst from Princess Fuping’s eyes, catching everyone off guard.

Qin Shuying looked in shock at Princess Fuping’s torrential tears, immediately at a loss for what to do. This…

Suddenly, Qin Shuying thought of an unlikely possibility and stared wide-eyed at Princess Fuping.

“Tumultuous waves” was no longer sufficient to describe Qin Shuying’s state of mind.

She had wondered why Princess Fuping, being Consort De’s daughter, should logically have a good relationship with Liang Qiong, yet had been relatively friendly toward her on multiple occasions.

When others kicked her while she was down, Princess Fuping wouldn’t join in. When Princess Fu’an squeezed her at Guangbin Tower, she had even helped her.

It seemed that Princess Fuping’s hidden history must be extremely desolate and painful.

She was a princess—how could she have experienced such things?

Could it be…

After experiencing strange tranquility like two women whose emotions fluctuated like small trees swaying in a fierce wind, they looked at each other. Qin Shuying was the first to smile.

“Your Highness, it’s all this subject’s fault for bringing up such heartbreaking past events, making Your Highness cry.”

Princess Fuping’s emotions calmed down, and she said indifferently: “It’s nothing. Women’s survival is not easy. You should conduct yourself well in the future.”

Qin Shuying bowed: “Thank you, Your Highness.”

Qin Shuying turned to leave. Just as she took a step, she heard Princess Fuping say behind her: “Qin Shuying, you… you must be careful that Liang Zhe isn’t harmed by others… this autumn, yes, this autumn…”

Qin Shuying’s entire body shook. She quickly turned around, only to see that Princess Fuping had already turned and left even faster than herself.

What did Princess Fuping mean by this?