The night in Kunyang Palace was cold, with autumn light reflecting off silver candles onto painted screens.
Chu Tianjiao sat on the edge of the bed in her white nightgown.
Hongye brought Chu Tianjiao's medicine, first testing it for poison with a silver needle, then taking a small sip herself before handing it to Chu Tianjiao.
"Your Highness, it's time for your medicine."
Chu Tianjiao had been coughing up blood throughout the journey. The imperial physician said she had suffered damage to her core and needed proper rest, absolutely forbidden from returning to the battlefield.
A quarter of an hour later, Chu Tianjiao was writhing in abdominal pain. Hongye stood at a distance, her gaze filled with resolute ruthlessness.
"Why?"
"A good bird chooses a tree to perch on. Your Highness only cares about duty to family and country. This lowly servant doesn't understand such things. I just want to live well."
Hongye, her personal maid, had betrayed her long ago.
Seeing Chu Tianjiao on the brink of death, Hongye finally began shouting, "Someone come quickly! Her Highness's old injury has flared up. Hurry and summon the imperial physician..."
Before the physician arrived, it was Ye Tinglan from the Secluded Orchid Palace who came first.
"Sister, how is she?"
Ye Tinglan approached Chu Tianjiao's bedside, feigning concern while inquiring. Seeing Chu Tianjiao's bluish-purple complexion, she curled her lips in a smile.
By now, poison had invaded all of Chu Tianjiao's internal organs. With a hoarse voice, she spat out a single word: "Leave!"
Ye Tinglan's face was covered in smiles as she leaned close to Chu Tianjiao's ear and whispered, "Sister, rest in peace! Your young brother and the rest of the Chu family will join you soon."
Chu Tianjiao tried to raise her hand to push her away but found her entire body immobilized.
She glared fiercely at Ye Tinglan. If looks could kill, Ye Tinglan would have been riddled with arrows by now.
"Sister, you've been poisoned with my unique Thousand Mechanism Powder. There's no antidote.
I've been administering this poison to you since Yang Pass.
You always had someone test your medicine. The Thousand Mechanism Powder is too potent. Luckily, Qingluan died, and the testers weren't always the same person. Otherwise, you might have discovered it."
Chu Tianjiao coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Ye Tinglan laughed wildly:
"Chu Tianjiao, what good is all your martial prowess now that you can't move?
Do you know why you've been childless all your life? His Majesty gave you medicine to make you barren on your wedding day."
"How could His Majesty allow you to bear children with Chu family blood?"
"And this recent expedition? You took 70,000 of Chu family's elite troops. All dead, aren't they? Do you know why?"
Ye Tinglan grew more excited as she spoke. She stood up straight, looking down at Chu Tianjiao with eyes full of malicious hatred, sneering contemptuously:
"Hahaha, Chu Tianjiao, you may be unrivaled in warfare, but when it comes to harem struggles, you're nothing but trash..."
Chu Tianjiao, filled with hatred, struggled once more to lunge at Ye Tinglan, but her entire body passed through Ye Tinglan's form.
Looking back, she saw her own lifeless body on the bed, eyes wide open in death.
Trapped in the painting for three years, the thing Chu Tianjiao could never come to terms with was that she had survived the Western Rong's swords and spears, only to fall victim to Lu Zhaoling and Ye Tinglan's schemes.
After the eunuchs and palace maids left, the main hall of the Imperial Ancestral Temple fell silent once again.
The Empress Dowager Jingci, bored, began teaching Chu Tianjiao poetry and rhythm. Chu Tianjiao listened drowsily.
When a commotion erupted outside, Chu Tianjiao woke with a start.
A eunuch rushed into the hall, secretly taking the gold vessels from the altar.
The sound of killing came from outside.
"The city has fallen! Run for your lives!"
Hearing this shout, all the portraits on the wall began to shake.
"How is this possible? This is the Capital City. How could foreign enemies breach it?"
"That unfilial descendant Lu Zhaoling, is he eating shit?"
"The Li Country is doomed!"
Last month, Chu Tianjiao had heard from the eunuch tending the incense that the Western Rong, Dongyi, and other countries had formed an allied army and launched a massive invasion of the Li Country.
She never expected Lu Zhaoling to be so useless as to let enemy countries invade the Capital City.
On one hand, Chu Tianjiao worried for the Li Country's people; on the other, she sneered at Lu Zhaoling—this was the consequence of his self-destruction, sacrificing the Chu family's army.
Fire spread everywhere, eventually reaching the main hall of the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
The portraits confining Chu Tianjiao and the ancestors began to burn.
Chu Tianjiao felt the searing pain of the flames. Her soul shattered into countless fragments, dispersing into the world.
"Freedom at last!"
Chu Tianjiao took a final look at the devastated landscape of the Li Country before losing consciousness.
When she opened her eyes again...
Chu Tianjiao was dazzled by the red color before her eyes.
Ghosts fear the color red the most.
She quickly shrank back, only to find herself lying on a bed.
A bed?
After standing upright for three years, can I finally lie down?
Overjoyed, Chu Tianjiao immediately rolled over on the bed.
Curiously examining her surroundings, she found them familiar—this was her maiden chamber before her marriage.
But why all this red?
As she pondered, the door opened, and two maids entered.
"Young Miss, you're awake?"
The head maid, Qingluan, approached the bed and tugged at the brocade quilt Chu Tianjiao had wrapped around herself, but couldn't move it.
Chu Tianjiao wrapped the quilt even tighter, determined to defend her brief moment of joy sleeping bundled up in bed.
"Young Miss, tomorrow is your wedding day with the Fourth Prince. How could you drink so much today?"
Chu Tianjiao, huddled in her quilt, heard Qingluan's complaint clearly and perked up: "Is it the night before my wedding?"
Qingluan pulled back the quilt, revealing Chu Tianjiao's head. She smiled:
"Young Miss, are you still drunk? Drink this hangover soup."
With that, Qingluan and the other maid worked together to prop Chu Tianjiao up.
As Chu Tianjiao sipped the hangover soup brought to her lips, she thought to herself:
"Have I been reborn?"
She pushed away the fine white porcelain bowl in front of her and raised an eyebrow as she examined Qingluan.
"Qingluan, you're not dead?"
Startled, Qingluan took two steps back and knelt down.
"Young Miss, if you wish for Qingluan to die, Qingluan will certainly obey."
Chu Tianjiao jumped out of bed barefoot and bent down to help Qingluan up.
Her feet touched solid ground.
Gone was the floating sensation of being a disembodied soul.
The arm of Qingluan she held was warm.
"Qingluan, how old am I this year?"
Qingluan looked up suspiciously, saw that Chu Tianjiao wasn't joking, and respectfully answered, "Young Miss is fifteen years old."
Chu Tianjiao couldn't help but laugh heartily: "Hahaha, I, Chu Tianjiao, have returned!"
Sang Shen, standing next to Qingluan, shuddered, looking at the wild and unrestrained Chu Tianjiao with her hair in disarray, her gaze filled with curiosity.
Chu Tianjiao suddenly hugged Qingluan tightly. "Qingluan, I'm so happy to see you again!"
Convinced that Chu Tianjiao was still drunk and acting out, Qingluan resignedly allowed herself to be squeezed and rubbed.
"Qingluan, quick, quick, bring me something to eat! I haven't eaten in three years. I'm starving!"
"Young Miss, you just gnawed on a pork knuckle at the evening banquet. You're wearing your wedding dress tomorrow, you can't eat anymore."
"To hell with the wedding dress! I want a feast. Sang Shen, quickly inform the kitchen. I want steamed abalone, crystal pork knuckle, crispy pigeon, sliced chicken with egg white, roast duck..."
Chu Tianjiao rattled off more than a dozen dishes. Sang Shen, tasked with relaying the order, listened with her mouth watering, excitedly rubbing her hands.
"Grand... oh, Young Miss, I... I'll go order right away."
Chu Tianjiao, still excited about her rebirth, completely missed Sang Shen's incoherent speech.
Qingluan kept trying to dissuade her.
But after being hung in a portrait for three years without eating or drinking, only able to watch during sacrifices but not partake, nothing could stop Chu Tianjiao's appetite now.
Tomorrow was Chu Tianjiao's wedding day, and the kitchen had already prepared many dishes for tomorrow's banquet.
Many of the dishes Chu Tianjiao ordered were ready-made, so they were quickly brought over.
Watching Chu Tianjiao feast with gusto, Sang Shen, who was serving on the side, was so tempted that she kept fidgeting. Several times she reached out to grab the crystal pork knuckle on the table, only to have her hand slapped away by Qingluan.
Qingluan was Chu Tianjiao's head maid, well-versed in etiquette and customs, with authority over the other maids in the courtyard.
"Sang Shen, what's wrong with you today? Don't take advantage of the Young Miss's good nature to forget your place. Reach out again, and I'll have to punish you!"
Chu Tianjiao's small mouth was stuffed full, nearly choking her. Her almond-shaped eyes darted around, fixed on the dishes on the table.
That look seemed to suggest that she found her mouth too slow in eating and wanted to devour the food with her eyes as well.
As she reached for water, Chu Tianjiao noticed Sang Shen's pitiful expression, looking like she was about to cry from hunger.
She pointed to a plate of stir-fried bamboo shoots and waved her hand, gesturing for Sang Shen to eat.
Sang Shen excitedly picked up the plate of food, dodging Qingluan's attempts to stop her, and rushed to squat by the wall. Without a word, she began stuffing the food into her mouth.
Her ravenous eating style was identical to Chu Tianjiao's.
Qingluan was exasperated, thinking to herself: "Why are these two acting like starving ghosts reborn tonight?"
After the meal, Chu Tianjiao cradled her round, full belly and sprawled in her chair, asking Qingluan to rub her stomach.
"My lady, what if you get sick from overeating? How will you manage your wedding tomorrow?"
Qingluan's casual complaint made Chu Tianjiao suddenly aware of the impending crisis.
The wedding tomorrow?
Marrying Lu Zhaoling again, the scoundrel who caused the destruction of her Chu family?
To be an empress for another lifetime, only to end up hanging on a wall after death?
Chu Tianjiao shuddered.
"I won't marry him! I'd rather die than marry him!"
