Chapter 1

I once naively believed the crown prince truly loved me.

Then his consort had me beaten to death in the snow. My family was falsely accused of treason and collusion with the enemy. The entire clan was executed.

As my last breath vanished into the blizzard, I finally understood.

The crown prince who kept saying he loved me, who had held my hand so tenderly, had only ever seen me as a pawn in his struggle for power.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to my coming-of-age banquet.

Before me, he held the hand of the woman he truly loved.

My dear elder cousin.

His future consort.

They looked at me warmly, gentle as though they had sincerely come to celebrate my adulthood.

Deep in their eyes, calculation gleamed coldly.

In this life, I would make them repay the blood debt of the last a hundredfold.

01

I died in a heavy snowstorm.

The execution rods struck my back again and again. The sound of breaking bones was horribly clear beneath the silent sky.

Blood poured from my body. Fresh snow froze it quickly into dark-red patches against the white.

Before me, Qin Wanrou wore costly fox fur and held a hand warmer, composed and leisurely, as though enjoying a play.

She was my elder cousin.

The same Qin blood, but never my sister.

She smiled gently.

Every word was more venomous than a snake.

She said she had forged the evidence of Father’s treason herself.

She said Zhao Yi had never loved me. She alone had always been in his heart.

She said Father, Mother, and my elder brother had gone ahead.

Our family could finally reunite on the road to the underworld.

I looked at her.

At her gentle face.

Her mild smile concealing bone-deep poison.

Behind her stood the man I had loved more than life.

Crown Prince Zhao Yi.

He watched coldly.

As though I were a dying insect, without a trace of pity.

Only then did I understand.

All of it was false.

Our family had been a pawn in his struggle for succession.

Useful, we were supported.

Useless, discarded.

Crushed.

Erased without mercy.

My awareness faded.

The snow thickened.

Layer upon layer.

Quietly covering me.

Burying me.

And the hundred and thirty innocent souls of the Qin family.

…

When I opened my eyes again, everything was painfully familiar.

The brilliant banquet hall.

Silk-clad, perfumed guests.

Laughter everywhere.

Today was my coming-of-age ceremony.

Zhao Yi approached holding Qin Wanrou’s hand.

Their smiles were proper and dignified.

Their exchanged looks full of affection.

Just as before.

Only I knew the cold calculation beneath the gentleness.

The blade hidden inside it.

Hatred from my previous life struck like a venomous snake sinking its fangs into my heart.

The chill in my veins was colder than the blizzard before my death.

I trembled.

Not with fear.

With excitement.

At finally reaching the day of revenge.

Zhao Yi stopped before me.

His voice was gentle as ever.

“Yue’er, for your coming-of-age ceremony, I found a luminous pearl from the Eastern Sea. I hope you…”

I cut him off coldly.

Every eye in the hall turned toward me.

I could feel Father’s and Mother’s astonishment.

I looked at none of them.

My gaze passed Zhao Yi.

Passed Qin Wanrou.

Settled in the least-noticed corner.

A man sat quietly alone.

In simple princely clothes.

In a wheelchair.

Pale.

Thin.

Zhao Heng—the Seventh Prince, who had broken both legs falling from a horse and had long been forgotten and scorned.

He had sat in that same place in my previous life.

Silent as a shadow throughout.

We had never spoken, even once, before I died.

Yet after death, as my soul drifted through the world…