Incense can soothe emotions—it is an elegant pleasure.

However, the materials used in perfumery are mostly medicinal ingredients. Medicine can both save and kill; it all depends on the skill of the user.

Today’s incense contained saffron and the essence of lotus-born osmanthus flowers. She hadn’t let Xiao Changqin touch the incense—she neither loved nor hated him.

She only wanted her path to the underworld to be pure and clean, free of love, hatred, obsession, schemes, and strife.

She also believed Xiao Changqin wouldn’t die. He still had his mother, his brothers, and his obsession with the empire.

“Your Highness, may you… may you ascend to the throne soon…”

These were Gu Qingzhi’s final words to Xiao Changqin before her consciousness was swallowed by the sound of hurrying footsteps.

Go fight for the empire, go become that destined lonely soul who must kill brothers and even commit patricide…

Even in death, she maintained her smile—that frozen smile that deeply pierced Xiao Changqin’s eyes.

He was wrong, he was wrong.

Gu Qingzhi not only had a heart too cold to warm, but she also possessed the world’s most devastating cruelty!

…

In the darkness, floating up and down, Gu Qingzhi’s throat felt particularly uncomfortable. A sinking pain in her abdomen felt exactly like when she had killed the child with her own hands. Thinking of the child, Gu Qingzhi felt a slight stab of pain in her heart.

She had prepared contraceptive incense, yet somehow she had become pregnant. If not for this, why would she have had to kill him with her own hands…

Counting the time, it was just before the Gu family was framed for treason when she was still pretending to accommodate Xiao Changqin.

So, was this punishment? Would this pain follow her even to the underworld?

But she had no other choice.

The five great families—Gu, Cui, Wang, Xue, and Fan—had deep roots spanning hundreds of years. Even through several dynastic changes, they maintained their illustrious names and influence over the court.

The Fan family had declined in the previous dynasty. Gu Qingzhi had warned her father early to guard against them, but after she married into Prince Xin’s manor, she faced many inconveniences. Her father was too busy, and then a traitor emerged in the family, allowing the Fan family to coordinate inside and outside forces to set a deadly trap for the Gu family.

As the daughter of a criminal, Xiao Changqin was too naive. Even if he was unwilling, he couldn’t oppose his mother Noble Consort Rong. The best outcome for her would have been a demotion from wife to concubine, and her child—apart from Xiao Changqin, no one in the Xiao family would have cared about it.

She had always been decisive in her actions, never living at others’ mercy, and would never endure humiliation while quietly biding her time.

Did the Fan family think that betraying and harming the Gu family would restore their family’s prestige? Utterly foolish—they were merely an arrow in the emperor’s hand, aimed at the Gu family.

This time, her death would make the Fan family understand that they were less than ants.

Were they prepared to face the charge of harming an imperial heir?

If successful, the Gu family might even be cleared of treason charges.

As a daughter of the Gu family, she had done her duty to repay their nurturing grace.

As her thoughts gradually cleared, Gu Qingzhi opened her eyes. Azure sky, blue heavens, drifting clouds, and a flock of birds passing overhead.

She moved her hand, only to discover she was floating in water. Trying to move, she found her body completely exhausted. To avoid sinking, Gu Qingzhi relaxed her body, only able to move her eyes.

To her right was a cliff wall plunging into the water, its bottom invisible, barely an arm’s length away. To her left were rolling green mountains and grassy plains, the shore about twenty feet away.

“How did I end up here…” Gu Qingzhi was deeply confused.

At this moment, she could only maintain her floating state. It was impossible to swim to shore on her own. She hoped someone would pass by and rescue her, or that she could gather a bit of strength before making plans.

Fortunately, the river was calm, so she likely wouldn’t be swept too far away. She just didn’t know if she might encounter dangerous creatures like alligators in this river.

Pushing aside her scattered thoughts, Gu Qingzhi closed her eyes. Some chaotic images rushed into her mind, causing her head to spin and ache.

After a while, she reopened her eyes, her expression extremely complex.

The kind of bizarre occurrence that only happened in supernatural novels had befallen her. She was no longer Gu Qingzhi, but living in the body of someone who had just died.

This corpse floating on the mountain river was none other than Shen Xihe, the legitimate daughter of the famous Northwestern King Shen Yueshan.

The Princess Zhaoning, as bestowed by Emperor Youning.

The reason for her death in the river was that Shen Yueshan was sending her back to the capital. She had departed from her maternal uncle’s home in the Southwestern Jiangnan region, and when the boat reached Jingzhou, her maid had pushed her into the sea, and she had drifted here.

Gu Qingzhi died on the fifth day of the fourth month in the nineteenth year of Youning’s reign. Now it was the sixth day of the fourth month in the nineteenth year of Youning’s reign. Shen Xihe had been floating in the river for a night, and due to her weak constitution, had only just died moments ago when she mysteriously awakened in Shen Xihe’s body.

She closed her eyes, hoping Shen Xihe herself would return. She had no attachments left in this world and didn’t aspire to live another life.

She didn’t know how long she had been drifting. Although she hadn’t encountered any danger, she increasingly felt in her heart that she would truly have to live on as Shen Xihe.

Opening her eyes resignedly, she happened to catch sight of a black dot falling from the sky, rapidly growing larger as it plunged straight toward her.

Gu Qingzhi—no, from now on, Shen Xihe.

Though completely exhausted, she burst forth with strength in this moment of life and death, quickly turning her body to swim away. The object falling from high above was too fast—she had barely moved any distance when behind her came a “boom” as the heavy object crashed down.

The water spray and huge waves rushed toward her, making her back ache severely. At the same time, her throat filled with blood, and she bit down hard on her tongue, using the pain to fight back her dizziness. Taking advantage of the impact force, she swam toward the shore.

She quickly grabbed onto rocks at the water’s edge, panting roughly as she gritted her teeth and climbed up. Once ashore, she collapsed, gasping for air.

After a while, the stabbing pain in her throat, heart, and lungs finally eased. A breeze blew past, carrying an unusual fragrance along with the chill that brushed past her nose. This scent was extremely unique—though skilled in perfumery and familiar with hundreds of flowers, she had never encountered this fragrance before.

She struggled to support her eyelids open and saw before her something shaped like intertwined ribbons, glistening emerald green, with red stamens where they interwove.

She reached out with difficulty to grasp it, whispering almost inaudibly: “Immortal’s Sash…”

Her strength completely drained, she could no longer resist the darkness consuming her. Just before her eyelids closed, she seemed to see many people running toward her.

“Princess! Princess!”

Hearing the anxious calls, Shen Xihe finally allowed herself to lose consciousness.

…

As the sour, bitter, and spicy medicinal soup was poured into her mouth, Shen Xihe wanted to refuse, but her burning internal organs wouldn’t allow her to be willful. She cooperatively drank it down. Her cold abdomen finally gained some warmth. After finishing the bowl of medicine, she had enough energy to open her eyes.

She saw peach blossom patterned cyan silk gauze bed curtains. The warm fragrance permeating the air was a compound incense made from agarwood, frankincense, asafoetida, and other ingredients, effective for dispelling turbidity, stopping phlegm stasis, and activating meridians to clear the mind.

As this thought passed through her mind, Shen Xihe was startled to realize her sense of smell had become so keen!