“When I was very young, Wanniang told me that the most noble woman in the world was the Empress, and the palace where the Empress lived was called ‘Kunning Palace.’ I asked Wanniang what Kunning Palace looked like.”

“Wanniang said she didn’t know either.”

“Sitting beneath the leaking eaves in the countryside, I thought to myself—if only I could transform into one of those wild geese flying across the sky, fly to the prosperous capital, fly into the Forbidden City, and see what Kunning Palace looked like. How wonderful would that be?”

The palace gates were tightly closed, with only a single window on the left side slightly ajar.

The sky was overcast, the light dim.

In Kunning Palace, usually so bustling, not a single palace servant could be seen at this moment.

Only Jiang Xuening remained, kneeling upright before a table. With her pale, slender fingers, she held incense tongs, gently stirring the contents of the gold-inlaid Boshan incense burner that sat properly arranged on the table. Wisps of smoke floated leisurely upward through the openings. Her robes, embroidered with golden phoenixes, spread out long behind her, the intricate cloud patterns seeming to shimmer faintly with points of light in the gloom.

“Later, I truly did arrive in the capital. Heaven played a great joke on me—giving me an ambition I shouldn’t have had, yet letting me grow up in the rural countryside. I never developed the bearing of a renowned lady from the capital or a gentle woman from an aristocratic family. And yet Heaven placed me in this prosperous land, this arena of strife, granting me only a beautiful face…”

Jiang Xuening’s appearance was extraordinarily striking, radiant as a lotus flower.

Her moth-like eyebrows curved gracefully, the corners of her eyes slightly upturned, her sandalwood lips dotted with vermillion. Naturally, she possessed an innate charm, and because she had wielded the Empress’s seal and occupied a high position for these years, she had cultivated three parts of rare grace and dignity.

With lowered brows and downcast eyes, she could make hearts skip a beat.

You Fangying stood silently behind her and to the side for a long while, listening to that voice as insubstantial as dust and smoke. Thinking of her life in the eyes of the world—scheming to the utmost, pursuing fame and profit—You Fangying suddenly felt somewhat dazed.

A kind of sorrow arose from her heart.

They both knew she could no longer escape.

Jiang Xuening suddenly smiled: “Fangying, during this time, I’ve been constantly wondering—did I truly make a mistake?”

When she was young, she was raised by Wanniang, unaware of her own origins. In the pastoral mountains and waters outside the estate, she ran wild like a bird that no one could control. Only Wanniang’s rouge and powder could bring her home.

Wanniang came from the ranks of courtesans and was a woman among women.

She said that the world was a man’s world, which only men could conquer. As for women, they needed only to conquer men, and thus they would also conquer the world.

After returning to the capital through various twists and turns, she met the young Marquis of the Yongyi Marquis Manor, Yan Lin. He took her dressed as a man to play freely and wantonly throughout the capital. Even her own parents didn’t dare discipline her too much. There was quite a bit of childhood sweethearts feeling between them.

Later, the Yongyi Marquis Manor became implicated in Prince Pingnan’s rebellion case.

Yan Lin’s entire family was exiled a thousand miles away.

That young man, not yet of age, climbed over the high walls of the Jiang Manor in the night to find her. His voice hoarse, he gripped her hand forcefully: “Ningning, wait for me. I will definitely come back to marry you.”

But Jiang Xuening said to him: “I want to marry Shen Jie. I want to become Empress.”

She still remembered how that young Yan Lin looked at her with a heart-piercing gaze, like a trapped beast struggling, his eyes reddening, his teeth clenched tight.

That night, the youth shed all his immaturity, released her hand, and turned to flee into the darkness.

Five years later, she had become Shen Jie’s Empress.

The road to ascending to the position of Empress had not been smooth, so in her brief life, there were quite a few people like Yan Lin.

Such as Xiao Dingfei, Vice Minister of Personnel.

Such as Zhou Yinzhi, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Even Grand Princess Leyang, Shen Zhiyi, who later perished among the barbarians…

But no one could have expected that the youth of yesteryear would one day make a comeback. After establishing military merit at the frontier, Yan Lin pledged himself to Xie Wei. Under the banner of “purging the Emperor’s side,” he returned in armor, led troops to surround the capital, seized control of the entire Forbidden City, and placed her under house arrest.

Shen Jie had been poisoned by someone, confined to his sickbed, no longer managing state affairs.

Thus Yan Lin brazenly entered and exited her palace, dismissing all palace servants whenever he came.

Throughout the court, no one dared speak.

Everyone knew he was Xie Wei’s right-hand man.

When Xie Wei slaughtered half the imperial palace, it was he who led troops to guard the palace gates, preventing anyone from escaping. When Xie Wei exterminated the Xiao clan’s nine generations, it was he who led men to break down the tightly closed manor gates and drag out the old and young, men and women…

Now, he stood outside her palace gates together with that former Imperial Tutor, Xie Wei.

Shen Jie had already passed away, leaving behind an edict commanding her to rule from behind the curtain.

However, the heir adopted from the imperial clan had not yet been installed and enthroned before his head was severed by rioting Tianjiao cultists on his way to the capital and hung on the city gates.

Now, it was her turn.

Jiang Xuening blinked lightly. Her long, thick, curled lashes cast a faint shadow beneath her eyelids, lending her expression at this moment a few parts of the desolation that comes with the unpredictable changes of worldly affairs.

You Fangying looked at her with some wistfulness.

But she had already set down the incense tongs, covered the incense burner, and picked up the large, square brocade box from the table, opening it. Inside lay the Imperial Jade Seal, arranged properly, along with a decree she had written and sealed an hour ago.

The decree stated that she voluntarily chose to be buried with the late Emperor, requesting that Grand Tutor Xie Wei stabilize the realm, assist in governance, and select a worthy ruler to ascend the throne.

Jiang Xuening suddenly raised her head and glanced toward the window.

She didn’t know when, but the snow that had fallen all night had stopped.

Dazzling sunlight penetrated through the cracks in the overcast clouds, shining into this gloomy palace through the window, casting a beam of bright light.

She murmured: “If I had known this would be today’s outcome, why bother with all that striving and scheming? It would have been better to travel ten thousand miles, see those ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains, and be my free and unfettered bird. In this lifetime, in the end, I merely stumbled into the palace walls, prosperity becoming my cocoon…”

You Fangying remained silent.

Jiang Xuening then asked: “Fangying, if given a choice, would you still come?”

You Fangying was the strangest person among all those Jiang Xuening had known.

She was originally a concubine-born daughter of an Earl’s manor, awkward and pitiful. After falling into water one day, her temperament changed drastically. From then on, she showed herself in public, engaged in business to make a fortune, opened banks, established merchant associations. In just a few short years, she became one of Jiangning Prefecture’s foremost major merchants.

Calling her “You Half-City” wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

But her luck was poor. In this struggle of palace and court, she first stood on the wrong side. Though she later pledged loyalty to Xie Wei, she had been guarded against during this time and was under house arrest in the palace.

With both of them in such miserable straits together, they had become confidantes who talked about everything.

Jiang Xuening listened to her talk about her experiences building her business from nothing—so many novel things. She also heard complaints about the overseas barbarian countries she’d visited while doing business, places where even steam engines hadn’t appeared.

Jiang Xuening didn’t know what a steam engine was.

But You Fangying always said she wasn’t a person from here, but came from a very distant place she could never return to.

She also said that the previous dynasty held a huge secret, and if one knew it, anyone with even a bit of sense wouldn’t have made mistakes in this struggle.

It was just a pity that she had learned of it too late.

You Fangying sighed deeply and smiled bitterly: “This godforsaken era where you constantly suffer injustice—whoever wants to transmigrate here can go ahead!”

Jiang Xuening hadn’t heard such crude language in a long time. She was momentarily dazed, but then remembered the time and suddenly called out loudly: “Master Xie!”

On the vermillion palace walls, a blanket of white snow lay.

Outside the palace gates, a dark mass of people stood.

Yan Lin stood at the side with his hand on his sword.

The person at the front stood tall, but upon hearing her call, did not answer.

Jiang Xuening knew he could hear her.

This was the person with the deepest schemes in the entire Great Qian dynasty.

The skin of a sage, the heart of a demon.

Imperial Tutor to two dynasties, Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince—how many people respected him, valued him, admired him? Yet they didn’t know that beneath this exterior of refined elegance like wind and bright moon, he hid a heart full of malevolent energy and covered in slaughter. The Shangfang sword bestowed by the Son of Heaven dripped with the blood of the imperial clan, turning the moat waters red. The pair of hands that played the zither and wielded the brush tightly grasped the lives of the entire Xiao clan, and the corpses of those implicated piled up like mountains.

This was the only person whom she had exhausted all her abilities trying to please yet could not.

“You killed the imperial clan, executed the Xiao family, annihilated the Tianjiao Cult. You hold power and hold my life in your hands. By rights, I’m not qualified to negotiate conditions with you.” In Jiang Xuening’s eyes, a teardrop suddenly fell, searing her hand. “In this life, I’ve used many people. But if I calculate carefully, I wronged Yan Lin, and Yan Lin also took revenge on me. I used Xiao Dingfei and Zhou Yinzhi, and they also used me to rise in position. I schemed against Shen Jie, and now I must be buried with him, going together to the Yellow Springs. I don’t owe them…”

The trajectory of a life drifting and tumbling thus passed by.

The dagger was in her sleeve.

She gently drew it out. The cold, gleaming blade reflected her eyes and the magnificent golden hair ornament beside her temple.

Jiang Xuening’s body began to tremble, her voice also trembled, her eyes filled with tears. But she had no right to cry. She could only speak word by word, as if weeping blood: “But there is only one person—upright his entire life, originally strict in upholding the law. It was I who coerced and forced him, harmed him into going astray, sullied half his lifetime of pure reputation. He is a good official. I earnestly hope Master Xie will remember that on the journey to the capital years ago, Xuening fed you her blood to save you. With my one life, exchange for his one life, and let him have a way to live…”

Who could have predicted that the thin-hearted, cold-hearted Empress who seemed to have no heart would one day exchange her own life for a mere Vice Minister of Justice?

Was it that she had no heart, or that others had failed to warm that heart?

The person outside the palace gates stood unmoved for a long time.

After a very long while, a single word was heard, spoken flatly: “Acceptable.”

What a beautiful voice.

Still like long ago.

Jiang Xuening smiled in relief and resolutely raised her hand—

“Pfft.”

When the sharp dagger cut through the blood vessels on her slender neck, it made a sound like tearing paper. Accompanying it seemed to be the clanging sound of someone’s long sword falling to the ground outside the palace gates.

She too fell.

The exquisite golden hair ornament smashed against the ground, and the deep red gemstone embedded on it shattered and scattered. Warm fresh blood flowed down the steps, slowly spreading across the cold floor, very much like the shallow stream she used to play in barefoot when she was young.

Stumbling into the palace walls, prosperity becoming her cocoon.

This Kunning Palace had ultimately become the tomb that devoured her bones and buried her life.

Outside the window, the clear sun emerged, shining on the snow, bit by bit, slowly melting it after all…

Such a long dream. In the dream, a lifetime of cause and effect was all chaotic, yet the feeling of the blade crossing her neck was crystal clear.

It really hurt.

Jiang Xuening thought—had she known, she should have chosen a less painful way to die.

“Cough.”

In the dream, something seemed to be pressing on her chest, making it hard to breathe. So she coughed and finally opened her eyes with effort.

However, what she saw startled her.

She was lying on a disheveled couch, or more precisely, lying between two men. Close at hand was the handsome, refined face of a young man, their breaths almost mingling. He had even raised an arm to carelessly drape it over her.

Jiang Xuening’s scalp practically exploded.

This scene inevitably made her think of when Yan Lin returned to court and placed her under house arrest, always silently stepping into her palace, preventing her from sleeping peacefully…

She immediately flung the man’s arm away and turned to stand up from the couch.

The young man lifted his eyelids in his drunken slumber, surprised by her behavior. He half-sat up and even reached out to pull her back: “Mm, Brother Jiang, let’s continue sleeping—”

“How dare you!”

Having been an Empress who had even commanded all the officials, when Jiang Xuening heard his improper words and saw his dissolute behavior, she completely instinctively slapped him across the face!

“Smack!”

This sound was quite loud, finally startling the black-robed youth sleeping at the other end of the couch with his sword as a pillow.

He opened his eyes—long brows, straight nose, thin lips, with an inherent sharpness about him. Seeing this scene, there was a moment of bewilderment, but immediately after, he caught sight of the brocade-robed young man’s disheveled clothing and the five slightly red finger marks on his right cheek, as well as Jiang Xuening’s shocked and angry face.

With a sharp “clang,” the youth reacted. In an instant, he stepped forward to block Jiang Xuening, drew his sword from its sheath, and pressed the sword tip against the young man’s neck!

His face, still bearing a trace of youthful immaturity, was covered with frost.

He demanded coldly: “What did you do to her?!”

The young man was both surprised that he would so impulsively dare to draw his sword against him, and also felt wronged and innocent. He couldn’t help but cover his own cheek: “What could I do? This Prince doesn’t have those proclivities!”

The youth’s brows furrowed as he looked at him with great suspicion.

This Prince…

Jiang Xuening suddenly froze.

Only at this moment did she belatedly smell the wine on herself, discover she was wearing a blue robe embroidered with bamboo patterns in silver thread, dressed as a young man. The palm that had just struck someone also transmitted a burning pain.

Dressed as a man.

This wasn’t a dream.

And the face of the young man being held at sword-point and the figure of the youth blocking her gradually surfaced from her memory: one was Prince Linzi, Shen Jie, who later became Emperor; the other was the young Marquis, Yan Lin, who later became a rebel!

Was this the “rebirth” that You Fangying always talked about?

In her previous life, she had been careful and cautious, coaxing men to do her bidding. In this life, right from the start, she had slapped the future Emperor…

If she knelt down to apologize now, would it be in time?