Midsummer, Daliang Imperial Palace, the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet.
"Your subject’s daughter is willing!"
As Lu Qingyuan reached the entrance of Shoukang Palace, she heard her stepsister, Lu Rongyue, speaking with breathless impatience.
"Princess Xian is both virtuous and talented; I have long admired him."
Fearing that she might lose this fortuitous marriage, Lu Rongyue hurried to pledge her loyalty to the Empress Dowager once more.
Lu Qingyuan paused, then lowered her head, a faint, imperceptible smile touching the corner of her lips. So, her stepsister—that arrogantly overbearing girl—had also been reborn.
Just moments ago, she had awakened by the lotus pond, drenched to the bone, with only her maid, Songyan, shaking her shoulders in a panic. She had clutched her chest and sat up with a jolt, her memory still trapped on a battlefield strewn with corpses, standing atop a high city wall, an arrow piercing her heart.
She had been reborn.
She had returned to the age of twenty, during the Empress Dowager’s fiftieth birthday banquet, where she had accompanied the Lu family. During the feast, the Empress Dowager had personally arranged marriages for the two daughters of the Lu family.
In her previous life, her stepmother, Lady Lin—a cousin of the Empress Dowager—had intended for Lu Rongyue to marry the Empress Dowager’s youngest son, Xiao Qi, the Princess Xian. However, Lu Rongyue had caught one glimpse of the Marquis of Zhenbei, Huo Yanxing, and had become obsessed with marrying no one else. In the end, it was Lu Qingyuan who married Princess Xian, while Lu Rongyue married Huo Yanxing.
Three days after Lu Rongyue entered the Marquis’s Estate, rumors spread that the couple had quarreled violently, leading Huo Yanxing to move directly into the military barracks. Later, after abusing the children in the estate, she was disciplined by Old Madam Huo and sent to a remote farm to "cultivate her character." Afterward, Lu Qingyuan followed Princess Xian to his fief and rarely returned to the Capital; a few years later, news arrived that Lu Rongyue had died of illness in the outskirts of the city.
The banquet had already begun, and Lu Qingyuan, having returned to the carriage to change her clothes, was late. She never expected that the moment she walked in, she would hear Lu Rongyue agreeing to marry Princess Xian.
"Good! Good! Good! With Qi’s marriage settled, one of my greatest worries has been put to rest!" The Empress Dowager raised her glass in celebration, and the guests all stood respectfully.
Lu Qingyuan gathered her skirts, hoping to slip through a side door to the area designated for official families.
"Sister, why are you so late?" Lu Rongyue caught sight of her, covered her mouth with a feigned expression of shock, and called out loudly.
After her own rebirth yesterday, she had made up her mind to marry Princess Xian. Fearing that Lu Qingyuan might also have been reborn and would ruin her plans, she had arranged for her maid to push Lu Qingyuan into the lotus pond upon entering the palace, just to stall her.
"I beg the Empress Dowager’s forgiveness. My eldest daughter was raised among commoners and is quite boorish and ignorant of etiquette," Lady Lin said, casting a vicious glare at Lu Qingyuan. "Still standing there? Kneel and beg the Empress Dowager for mercy!"
"No matter, no matter." The Empress Dowager waved a hand. She was in high spirits today; she had watched Rongyue grow up, and she was very pleased to see her marry her favorite youngest son. She had been annoyed a few days ago when she heard the girl making a scene, insisting on marrying Huo Yanxing, but now that her wish had been granted, she cared little for anything else.
"The Marquis of Zhenbei arrives—"
Before the voice could fade, a man with a towering frame strode into the hall. He moved with the presence of a tiger, and the candles in the hall flickered the moment he stepped inside. His black cloak brushed against the peony bushes at the courtyard entrance, knocking several petals to the ground.
Some of the bolder noblewomen in the hall peeked at him. His dark hair was pulled high by a single black iron hairpin, and his sword-like brows slanted toward his temples. Beneath his handsome features, there was an undercurrent of the cold, lethal air of a long-time warrior. Even in the heat of summer, he brought with him a biting, icy chill.
"I am late, and I ask the Empress Dowager and His Majesty for forgiveness."
The Empress Dowager smiled. "Better to arrive at a lucky time than an early one. Since ancient times, good deeds come in pairs. The eldest daughter of the Lu family is also unmarried; how about I bestow her upon the Marquis of Zhenbei as his wife?"
"Empress Dowager, I—" Huo Yanxing stepped forward, about to decline, but was interrupted by the Emperor.
"I find this eldest daughter of the Lu family to be quite clever and bright. Having her marry you would hardly be a waste of your talents." The Emperor gestured lightly, and Huo Yanxing followed his gaze to see Lu Qingyuan.
So it was her. Huo Yanxing narrowed his eyes slightly and remained silent. The Emperor took his silence as consent.
The Empress Dowager exchanged a look with Princess Xian and continued, her expression kindly, "The Huo family lacks a mistress to manage the household. I shall select some servants from the palace to assist you in preparing for the wedding."
"I thank the Empress Dowager." Huo Yanxing knelt to offer his gratitude.
Lu Qingyuan followed suit. Keeping her head low, she could only see the man’s back in her peripheral vision; even while kneeling, he remained as straight as a pine. Huo Yanxing seemed to sense her gaze, and as he stood and turned, he looked toward her. Their eyes met, but Lu Qingyuan did not avert her gaze in the panicked, maidenly way he might have expected. Instead, she looked at him with calm detachment.
Her gaze held no shyness; instead, it carried a hint of profound relief.
Back at her seat, Lu Qingyuan poured herself a cup of wine and drank it. In her previous life, after marrying Princess Xian, it had looked glorious from the outside, but she had suffered in silence. On their wedding night, seeing the scar on her shoulder, Princess Xian had been filled with disgust and abandoned her. The concubines in the inner residence were vicious, colluding to poison her food with drugs that left her unable to bear children. Finally, when Princess Xian rebelled, Huo Yanxing was ordered to suppress him. To create a diversion, Princess Xian had left her alone to guard the city while he and his concubines fled. She and the soldiers and commoners had held on for three months, but despite her tactical traps, they could not withstand the might of the Huo Family Army. The day the city fell, she was killed by an arrow shot by the Huo Family Army on the city walls.
But since Lu Rongyue wanted this "good fortune" so desperately, she could have it.
Lu Qingyuan had no interest in it.
In the carriage ride home, Lady Lin clutched her daughter’s hand, grinning from ear to ear.
"My dear daughter, you have finally seen sense. That third son of the Huo family may have a handsome face, but the Huo family’s luck is cursed. In the battle against Beiyan five years ago, he was the only one of the younger generation left alive. Now the estate is filled with nothing but the old and the young, and they are incredibly difficult to handle. I cannot wait to see how Lu Qingyuan manages as the mistress of that Marquis’s estate!"
Having accomplished her goal, the weight finally lifted from Lu Rongyue’s heart.
That’s right—the Huo family was a den of wolves! In her past life, she had originally been promised to Princess Xian, and to ensure a smooth marriage, she had even gone to Baoguo Temple to burn incense. But upon returning, she had fallen in love with Huo Yanxing at first sight and had fought with her family repeatedly to marry him, almost causing her doting father to use family discipline on her.
She had never expected that after marrying him, while Huo Yanxing had no women around, he was completely indifferent to her charms. Even when she tried to seduce him and put aphrodisiacs in his wine, he remained unmoved. Those little beasts in the estate were even worse; they were disrespectful, sabotaged her at every turn, and then twisted the truth before Huo Yanxing to make her look like the villain! Old Madam Huo was just a coarse, old hag who used family discipline for the smallest trifles, forcing her to work the fields with the servants at the suburban manor!
What angered her even more was that because Lu Qingyuan became the Princess Xian, she had to bow to her every time they met! And Princess Xian had doted on her, lavishing her with the newest fashions and jewelry.
Lu Rongyue snuggled into Lady Lin’s arms, acting like a spoiled child. "Oh, I was just muddle-headed before. It was good that you planned this for me, Mother."
Lady Lin’s expression darkened, her voice dropping lower. "The current situation is volatile. The Empress Dowager and His Majesty are at odds, but the Empress Dowager favors her youngest son, Princess Xian. I see him as the one with a bright future. As long as you marry him and support him well, you will surely enjoy endless glory and wealth in the future!"
That was right. Lu Rongyue remembered that in her previous life, when Princess Xian rebelled and Huo Yanxing went to suppress him, she had been left in the Capital. She had somehow contracted malaria, and hearing the rumors that Princess Xian’s troops were about to take the city, she realized that once he ascended the throne, Lu Qingyuan would become Empress!
She had been so consumed with hateful trembling that she couldn't catch her breath and had simply died.
Since Heaven had given her a chance to be reborn, she would reclaim everything that belonged to her!
"I understand, Mother. Once I sit on that supreme throne, I will see what Lu Qingyuan has left to fight me with!"