Xu Luoning's final memory was the suffocating sensation of icy lake water rushing into her lungs.
In The Great Yin Dynasty, the lotus pond in the backyard of the General's Estate rippled with blood-red patterns.
The warm spring sunshine of late March shone upon Xu Luoning's pale face.
She watched helplessly as her half-sister, Xu Qingyao, stood on the bank, a mocking smile curving across a face that bore a thirty-percent resemblance to her own:
"Sister, don't blame me. If you must blame someone, blame yourself for occupying the position of Crown Princess for too long."
"Did Sister really think that knowing a little bit of medicine would allow you to steal my place as Crown Princess?"
Xu Qingyao's red lips curled into a cold smile, and an emerald-inlaid fingernail guard grazed Xu Luoning's neck.
"Father already sent your birth characters to the Eastern Palace. Tomorrow, I will be the one to marry in your place..."
She struggled, wanting to grab a willow branch hanging down from the bank, but she only saw Xu Qingyao slowly squat down and lightly flick her fingertips, causing the willow branch to slip away from her palm.
The lake water rose over her mouth and nose. Before her consciousness faded, Xu Qingyao's voice drifted lightly into her ears:
"Rest assured, your maternal grandfather's family will soon be going to keep you company."
"Push her in." Xu Qingyao lightly wiped her hands with a handkerchief.
Two burly maidservants held down Xu Luoning's blood-soaked shoulders. As the chilling pool water washed over her mouth and nose, the last thing she heard was Xu Qingyao saying to the Crown Prince's attendant:
"Before my eldest sister accidentally fell into the water, she had already handed the antidote over to me..."
When she opened her eyes again, a harsh ringing sound echoed in her ears, mixed with wave upon wave of jeering laughter.
"Xu Luoning! You dare sleep in physics class? No wonder you rank dead last on the exams!"
A piece of chalk slammed against the desk. Xu Luoning jerked her head up, confronting a completely unfamiliar scene...
Neat rows of desks, glaring fluorescent lights, and a blackboard covered in dense, unfamiliar symbols.
She looked down at her hands—slender and fair, devoid of the calluses left behind by years of holding acupuncture needles, but holding a ballpoint pen printed with cartoon patterns instead.
"I've time-traveled..." she murmured to herself. Memories of the original body flooded into her mind abruptly:
A high school senior with the same name, whose mother died early. Her father, Xu Mingde, remarried a stepmother, Zhou Wan, who moved into the Xu Family along with her "stepsister" Mu Xueqing, who was two years older than her.
The original owner had a timid personality and rock-bottom grades. She had been framed by Mu Xueqing as a green tea bitch who "seduced directors" and "clung to Movie Emperor Gu for clout," earning her the cold ridicule and sarcasm of her classmates.
"Hey! What are you spacing out for?" The boy in the front row turned around and knocked on her desk.
"Was it you who caused Mu Xueqing to injure her leg in the nurse's office? She got hurt just to bring you your notes!"
Xu Luoning narrowed her eyes.
In her memories, Mu Xueqing had indeed handed her a notebook yesterday, but at the corner of the stairs, she had "happily" been caught by passing students just as the original owner supposedly pushed her—a blind spot for surveillance, leaving her with no way to clear her name.
After school, Xu Luoning avoided the crowd and walked toward the school gate, only to hear sharp gossip behind her.
"How does she still dare come to school? Senior Sister Mu is even in the hospital!"
"I heard she was still trying to latch onto Movie Emperor Gu's coattails, publishing press releases claiming she was his girlfriend, only to get thoroughly exposed until she had nothing left..."
Her footsteps paused. She turned around to look at the few giggling girls:
"According to Article 246 of the Criminal Law, fabricating facts to defame others under serious circumstances is punishable by up to three years in prison."
Her voice was as cold as ice, startling the girls into freezing in place.
"Y-You're talking nonsense!"
"Do you need me to help you contact a lawyer?" She curved the corners of her lips, though there was no smile in her eyes. "Or we could go to the police station to discuss the procedure for retrieving surveillance footage?"
The crowd instantly fell silent. On her way home, Xu Luoning detoured into a pharmacy to buy a set of silver needles.
As she passed the entrance of an alley, the screech of brakes suddenly rang out—