“Bang!”

A loud noise jolted Han Ziqing awake from her dream. What lay before her eyes was not her usual room, always bright through the night, but an endless expanse of darkness!

She instinctively reached toward the switch on her right, but the moment she raised her hand, wave after wave of dizziness struck her, and a massive flood of unfamiliar memories came rushing into her mind, each fighting to arrive first!

Han Ziqing, fifteen years old, an unfavored, timid, and cowardly concubine-born daughter of the Prime Minister’s household in Da Zhou!

Could it be that even having a nightmare could cause her to cross over? To cross into the body of a woman who shared the very same name!

Those unfamiliar memories told her that she was currently inside “Nation’s Beauty,” the most extravagant restaurant in the capital of Da Zhou, and that something had happened to her there.

She had taken some drug called Charm Fragrance, and had been violated by someone?

No!

Nothing could describe the shock she felt in that moment. Han Ziqing wanted to sit up, but found herself utterly weak, unable to move.

Though the original owner of this body’s experiences were unbearable to accept, as a mercenary in her past life, she quickly forced herself to stay calm—in an environment this dark and unfamiliar, the greatest danger was not the unknown, but losing one’s own composure!

Yet once Han Ziqing had calmed herself, she caught a strange fragrance in the air. It seemed to be the scent of some kind of medicinal herb, lingering faintly, as though someone had been there!

Did it belong to that person? The one who had violated her?

Who exactly was it?

Breathing in the unfamiliar, faint fragrance, Han Ziqing kept alert to any movement in the darkness while recalling how she had come to “Nation’s Beauty.”

It was her own elder sister, the legitimate daughter of the Han Prime Minister’s household, Han Xi’er, who had tricked her into coming here!

Prince Yao of Da Zhou was soon to come to the Prime Minister’s residence to select a consort, and Han Xi’er, fearing that her own beauty would be overshadowed and that Prince Yao would instead be drawn to her, had resorted to this vicious scheme. Was this a sign that Han Xi’er lacked confidence in herself, or that she thought too little of Prince Yao, the one hailed throughout Da Zhou as the “War God”?

Whatever the reason, it was no longer any concern of hers. But now that she had inherited everything belonging to the original owner of this body, the humiliation the original owner had suffered was now her own disgrace as well!

What a sister. What a fine sister Han Xi’er was.

Just wait. Once she regained her strength, she would most certainly settle this score properly! After all, she was no longer that timid, cowardly “Han Ziqing” of before—she was a mercenary from the twenty-first century!

As Han Ziqing sorted through her thoughts, she paid attention to her own physical condition, feeling that the exhaustion in her body was somehow strange. Heaven only knew what drug Han Xi’er had made her take!

Regardless, Han Ziqing’s stamina was excellent—years of mercenary training had given her a body with far greater endurance than an ordinary person’s. She had originally assumed she would recover quickly, but to her surprise, not only did she fail to recover, she grew increasingly exhausted, her consciousness growing hazier and hazier!

How could this be?

This went against all reason for how such a drug should behave!

Gradually, no matter how hard Han Ziqing tried to stay conscious, she slowly slipped into unconsciousness!

To lose consciousness in a place like this—was Heaven playing some kind of joke on her?

All around was darkness. Yet just outside this fully sealed chamber lay an outer hall, and the man who had violated her had not left.

Who was he?

Though the outer hall was not as pitch-black as the inner chamber—not so dark that one couldn’t see one’s own hand—it was still quite dim. There, a man in loose, flowing robes stood with his back to the lamplight, facing the window.