Chapter 1: Reborn on the Very Night the Wicked Strike

Every time the weather turned cold, the second young lady of the Shen household came down with a strange illness called “sleepless madness.”

She would often run out of her room in the middle of the night with her hair loose, muttering words no one could understand, crying one moment and laughing the next, even smashing things. The physicians of the city took turns examining her. Some said she had suffered a terrible fright, others that it was a sickness of the heart and hard to cure, but none of them could offer a remedy that worked.

The strangest part was that every time she had a fit, she never once ran into anyone else’s courtyard by mistake.

Her target was always my chambers, the chambers of the eldest legitimate daughter of the Shen household, Shen Zhiwei.

The first time, she smashed the white jade tea set the Third Prince had given me.

The second time, she tore apart the Hundred Flowers Paying Homage to the Phoenix, the painting I had stayed up seven nights to finish, meant as a gift for the Empress Dowager.

The third time, she stole the solid gold phoenix hairpin my grandmother had left me and hid it, and I searched for it for years without finding it.

My birth mother died early, and my father took Lady Feng as his second wife. Shen Ruolan was her daughter, two years younger than me.

Every time, I was hurt and furious, and I went to my father to demand justice.

And what came of it?

My stepmother, Lady Feng, would hold my younger sister Shen Ruolan in her arms and cry until her eyes were red.

My father, Shen Zhenhuai, would point straight at my face and shout:

“Shen Zhiwei! Ruolan is so ill she’s lost her senses. You’re the eldest sister. Not only won’t you give way to her, you squabble with her over every little thing! Do you have no feeling for your family at all?”

I explained. They didn’t listen.

I brought proof. They said I was petty.

I begged them to have a physician look at Shen Ruolan’s illness again, and my stepmother clutched her and wailed that I was trying to drive my sister to her death.

Little by little, the whole capital came to know that the eldest daughter of the Shen household had a cruel and spiteful temper, that she wouldn’t even forgive her own sick sister.

The marriage that had been quietly understood between me and the Third Prince was called off.

The praise for my talent turned into mockery.

In the end, my father used my ruined reputation as an excuse to force me into marriage with a man known for his brutality, hoping only to trade that marriage for gain for the family.

I was locked away in a derelict courtyard and endured beatings and humiliation until my body gave out.

The night I died, the snow fell thick.

The door was pushed open.

Shen Ruolan came in wrapped in a fox-fur cloak, my grandmother’s phoenix hairpin, the one I had searched for all those years, set in her hair.

She walked to my bed and bent down to look at me.

Her face was as gentle and fragile as ever.

Only her eyes were frighteningly cold.

“Eldest Sister, do you know why Father and Mother always believed me and never once believed you?”

I struggled to open my eyes.

She laughed.

“Because you’re too upright. You think that as long as you do nothing wrong, others will give you justice. But in this world, whoever is more pitiful is the one who’s right.”

She stroked the hairpin in her hair, her voice light, as if she were telling an amusing story.

“All I have to do is cry a little, and Father scolds you. All I have to do is say I’m scared, and Mother punishes you for me. And you? The more you explain, the more wicked they think you are.”

“Shen Ruolan…”

I ground my teeth, my nails clawing at the old quilt.

She leaned close to my ear.

“Eldest Sister, you’ve lost this life.”

With that, she stood and calmly left.

I died in that cold room, carrying a hatred that could never be undone.

If there is a next life…

If there is a next life, I will never let myself die so foolishly again!

“Miss! Miss, you’re awake!”

A familiar voice sounded by my ear.

My eyes flew open.

Above me were pale green bed curtains. A red sandalwood dressing table. A red candle burning low on a bronze stand.

Moonlight came through the window and fell on the silver scissors beside my jewelry box.

I looked around, dazed.

These were my chambers.

Not the derelict courtyard. Not the cold bed where I had breathed my last.

Slowly, I looked down at my hands. They were pale and smooth, without the crisscrossed wounds of my past life.

“What year is it?”

My personal maid, Ziyun, was startled.

“Miss, have you slept yourself muddled? It’s the twelfth year of Yong’an, the seventeenth day of the ninth month.”

The seventeenth day of the ninth month!

I gripped the quilt.

I had finished the Hundred Flowers Paying Homage to the Phoenix three days ago. It was drying on its rack. Tomorrow I had planned to roll it up and put it in its box.

And tomorrow night was the very night Shen Ruolan first faked her illness, burst into my courtyard, tore that painting apart, and smashed the white jade tea set from the Third Prince.

In my past life, that was only the beginning. Before then, she had only secretly taken small things of mine, so small I had no way to prove anything.

And tomorrow, Vice Minister of Personnel Gu Mingxuan would come to the house to discuss official business with my father and stay the night in the front courtyard.

In my past life, Shen Ruolan’s slander had made me lose all face in front of that lord.

But this time, nothing would go the way it had before.

I got out of bed and went to the bronze mirror.

The girl in the mirror had bright eyes and delicate brows, her face still holding the innocence of sixteen.

I touched my face.

Shen Zhiwei, you’re alive.

Then everyone who pushed you into the abyss will pay, one by one!

“Ziyun.”

“Your servant is here.”

“Do these things for me at once.”

I turned, and my gaze grew cold.

“First, go to the storeroom and bring out an old white jade tea set to put in my room. The tea set the Third Prince gave me must be locked away somewhere safe, and no one is to know.”

“Second, tomorrow morning go to the biggest apothecary in the city and find a physician who is highly skilled and knows how to keep his mouth shut. Invite him to the house. Remember, don’t let any of the second young lady’s people find out.”

Ziyun stared at me, bewildered.

“Miss, what are you planning to do?”

I smiled.

“Prepare to receive a guest.”

Tomorrow night, Shen Ruolan would come.

But what awaited her would no longer be an older sister who only knew how to rage and cry.

It would be a trap.

And once she stepped in, she would not walk out unscathed.

The next morning, Lady Feng sent someone with a message.

She said an honored guest would be in the house that night, and I was to stay quietly in my courtyard and not wander about.

I only smiled when I heard it.

In my past life, I never understood why Lady Feng made a point of warning me like that.

Now, thinking back, she had probably known all along that Shen Ruolan was going to make trouble.

In fact, Shen Ruolan might not be the only one behind it all.

I had Ziyun prepare paper, ink, and pigments for a new painting.

This painting was not the gift for the Empress Dowager.

I deliberately painted something with nearly the same composition as my well-known Hundred Flowers Paying Homage to the Phoenix, then placed it where it would be easiest to see in my room.

The real painting went into a wooden box, locked, and handed to a trusted old nanny for safekeeping.

Next, I had the glazed vase by the window replaced with an old one that already had a crack.

I told Ziyun to watch the back gate of the courtyard from dusk. If she saw the second young lady’s maid sneaking over, she was to hold her there and not make a fuss.

Finally, I had Ziyun hang a lantern in the corridor with a slip of paper hidden inside, to note down the time and what happened.

The more Ziyun heard, the more astonished she looked.

“Miss, you already know the second young lady is coming to wreck your things?”

“Not just to wreck my things.”

I slowly closed the lid of the wooden box.

“She wants to give me a reputation for cruelty, so that I can’t present the painting to the Empress Dowager with my head held high.”

Ziyun went pale.

“But if that happens, won’t your reputation be ruined, Miss?”

“That’s why I have to make her say what she wants out loud herself.”

I looked out the window.

Night had fallen.

A cold wind blew through the trees, scattering dry leaves across the yard.

I knew she would be here soon.

And this time, I wouldn’t let her leave so easily.