Midnight, cool breeze, plus a pale moon.

There were clouds, extremely thin ones floating beside the blue-green moon, slow yet swift, wispy and fine like delicate cloud sleeves on a slender woman’s arms.

When Qin Chang Ge opened her eyes, this was the scene that greeted her.

She was lying beside a narrow small window. The night wind carried a chill like fine snow as it whistled in, blowing up her black bangs to reveal her smooth forehead. On her forehead, a small three-leaf flower faintly bloomed.

She raised her aching fingers and gently touched her lips. What met her touch was dry, slightly cracked skin. Qin Chang Ge looked at her fingertips in the moonlight and was not at all surprised to find a faint trace of blood.

This body… was truly ravaged.

The burning pain below her waist, the dry ache in her throat, the splitting pain on her skin, the dull pain within her body… Hmm, it seemed this body not only had considerable external injuries but also internal injuries.

Qin Chang Ge frowned. Fine, so she had transmigrated, but why did she have to transmigrate into someone sickly? Looking at this status, she was also a palace maid who had just been punished. Who knew what crime she had committed – perhaps tomorrow at dawn she would still be dragged out for execution.

Execution was execution, Qin Chang Ge thought lazily. Perhaps she could even return to her previous life and continue those convenient days with television, computers, bars, and airplanes.

With some difficulty, she climbed up and sat with her knees drawn up, deep in thought. In her previous life, she had just been accepted to art college and encountered an earthquake during her first field trip for sketching. In the endless spinning of earth-shattering upheaval, she vaguely remembered a vast screen suddenly unfolding before her eyes. Memories of her past life flowed quietly across the screen like a rewinding tape, clear and swift, displaying the legendary life of a woman. That woman was like a mysterious udumbara flower blooming under moonlight in the vast world – light robes and slow sashes, gentle smiles and light frowns, strategic planning mixed with romantic feelings. Yet in the end, she was only shocked to remember that final scene – the tragic, bloody ending of perishing in a sea of fire.

In the swiftly passing time, she heard an aged voice slowly chanting: “There is that phoenix, there is that new emperor, you betray my grace, I repay your favor, rolling waters flow, magnificent robes flutter, unresolved deadly feud, no sharing of moonlight.”

She heard that voice whisper in her ear: “Go, reclaim what you have lost.”

She asked in bewildered confusion in the chaos: “What is loss, what is gain?”

That voice laughed without answering and gradually faded away.

She then fell into complete darkness.

When she awakened again, she possessed this body. Qin Chang Ge slowly lowered her head to look at her clothing – a blue skirt and white jacket, with a silk cord hanging from her waist tied in a simple yet elegant knot.

Indeed, this was the Xiliang Imperial Palace.

This knot was something she had tied for amusement in her past life in the Xiliang Dynasty when she was still Noble Consort Rui overseeing the six palaces. When other consorts saw it, they all said they liked it and tied their cords the same way. Later, the palace maids admired it and learned to tie it too. Since the Xiliang imperial family’s regulations on women’s clothing in the palace were strict but not detailed enough to rank even silk cords by hierarchy, and she was considered a lenient mistress, over time it actually became fashionable throughout the palace.

A cold smile slowly bloomed at the corners of Qin Chang Ge’s mouth.

Double knot of united hearts, heart within heart. Back then, when she personally tied this knot, her heart was full of joy and affection. Under red candles, in splendid halls, within nine layers of gauze curtains, a woman’s smile stretched far and wide. Slender fingers moved like threading flowers, tying a knot to remember her beloved’s heart: “Your heart and my heart, daily united as one heart”… Every strand was filled with affection, every inch and segment was happiness… Yet she never knew that affection could not withstand life and death’s impermanence, could not withstand secret calculations, could not withstand the fickle manipulation of this heartless and ungrateful Xiliang Dynasty that repaid kindness with enmity. In the end, she had only tied an eternally unsolvable death knot!

Faint moans drifted through the room, thick deathly air shrouded the deep, dark shabby chamber. Qin Chang Ge reached out and gently touched a motionless female body beside her. It was ice cold to the touch – dead for quite some time already.

Supporting herself against the wall, she stood up and staggered through the bodies lying in disarray, touching them one by one without changing expression. She couldn’t help but sigh softly. These delicate women ultimately couldn’t endure the lack of food and medicine after severe punishment, delicate flowers becoming lonely souls in the underworld.

The pure white hem of her skirt swept across the stone floor, staining it with scattered spots of blood like plum blossoms blooming tragically beautiful. Qin Chang Ge’s footsteps suddenly stopped.

In the corner, a woman was leaning askew. Through her disheveled long hair showed a deathly pale face, but she still had a breath left. Those extremely faint moans were coming from her mouth.

Squatting down, she reached out to brush away the tangled hair stuck to the woman’s face with sweat and carefully examined her delicate features. Under her gaze, the woman stirred and slowly opened her eyes, her gaze vacant.

“Tell me,” Qin Chang Ge’s voice was gentle but her eyes coldly indifferent, “who am I?”