Chapter 1

In Chengzhou, I was known as the most decorous young woman in the city.

My elder sister was renowned throughout Chengzhou for her breathtaking beauty.

When the Crown Prince visited the Gu family to discuss a marriage, he said only that he wanted a wife who knew how to manage a household.

After we married, we treated each other with respect for many years. I kept the Eastern Palace and the imperial harem in perfect order.

When I was sixty and gravely ill, he suddenly asked me:

“Is it truly a good thing for a woman to be too virtuous?”

“Didn’t even the proud, pampered Noble Consort learn to restrain herself with age?”

He gazed at the canopy above the bed, then sighed softly.

“If I’d known, I should have asked to marry your elder sister.”

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the days before the marriage negotiations.

The Crown Prince came to our home as before, but this time he did not say that a man should marry a virtuous wife.

I looked at him and knew he had returned with the memories of his previous life, too.

I asked myself whether I hated him.

I did not.

Because this time, I no longer wanted to spend my whole life being the perfect, virtuous wife for his sake.

1

My elder sister and I were twins, but we were nothing alike.

She was as lovely as a flowering crabapple in spring.

I was pretty enough, but beside her I looked ordinary.

Our parents adored my sister’s face. From the time we were little, whenever there was something good, they gave it to her first.

By the time they realized they had spoiled her into a willful, arrogant girl, they could no longer rein her in.

My sister knew she was beautiful.

If someone looked at her more than once, she considered it only natural.

At one banquet, the prefect’s wife asked about the lessons at the girls’ school.

My sister could not answer and sat there, her face burning red.

The surrounding gazes pricked at her like tiny needles.

Our parents were so anxious they could not get a word out, so I stood and came to her rescue.

I did not seize the chance to show off. I only smiled and said that my sister was better at needlework.

“Our parents often say that my sister and I each have our own strengths. After the Madam’s guidance today, when we return home, we can help one another make up for what we lack.”

My sister nodded along with me, and at last she saved face.

From then on, whenever we attended a banquet, I stepped in and smoothed things over for her.

People said I was not competitive or jealous, and that even though I knew my sister was more beautiful than I was, I always protected her. I was, they said, a rare and virtuous young woman.

Truthfully, I had been jealous once, too.

The newest hairpins and bracelets were always placed on my sister first.

Only after she grew tired of them would she toss them casually to me.

On New Year’s Eve, while firecrackers went off outside, Mother always pulled my sister into her arms first, afraid the noise would frighten her.

I could only stand nearby and cover my own ears.

Later, I came to understand that resentment would not change their favoritism.

If I could not compete for their affection, I might as well keep a calm heart. At least I would suffer less.

Year after year, I gradually earned a good reputation, and our parents began to pay more attention to me.

Everyone in Chengzhou said the Gu family’s second daughter was proper and virtuous, the perfect choice for a household’s principal wife.

That was why Xiao Chengjun came in person to ask for my hand.

In my previous life, he had wanted to become an enlightened ruler remembered by history. He believed he needed a virtuous wife by his side.

Our parents were overjoyed and immediately agreed to the match.

My elder sister cried all night.

She could not understand why Xiao Chengjun had met her first but ended up choosing me.

She begged our parents to speak on her behalf and switch the bride to her, but for the first time, they did not indulge her.

Before I left home to marry, each of my parents took one of my hands and repeated their instructions.

“If you take that position one day, you don’t have to give us special treatment. Your mother and I are already old. Empty titles won’t do us much good.”

“It’s just your sister… She’s been spoiled and she isn’t very clever. We plan to find her a husband willing to marry into our family, but how many more years can we protect her? If you look after her, we can leave this world at ease.”

The idea of finding a husband to marry into our family stayed with me all night.

When dawn came, I no longer dared think about it.

By then, I had been appointed Crown Princess. Decades later, I became an Empress praised by everyone for her virtue.

The factions in the Great Sheng harem were incredibly complicated, but under my firm hand, the palace remained calm.

Just as Xiao Chengjun had said before he died, even the most overbearing Noble Consort had learned to restrain herself in old age.

Now that he had another chance at life, he wanted to make a different choice.

So did I.

2

The news that the Crown Prince had personally come to Chengzhou to seek the hand of a Gu daughter quickly spread throughout the city.

The street outside our residence was packed with people hoping for a glimpse of the excitement.

Everyone wanted to see the bearing of the future Son of Heaven.

Our parents were both astonished and delighted.

They had never imagined such good fortune would come to the Gu family.

Xiao Chengjun was the Empress’s legitimate son. He was handsome and refined, with an easy, unhurried manner.

In my previous life, at this point, he had been gentle and modest.

But the man before me now carried the authority of someone who had spent many years in the highest seat.

I had been his wife for decades. One glance was enough to tell me that he had returned, too.

Some things were etched into the bones. No youthful face could hide them.

When my sister met him, her eyes lit up and her cheeks flushed.

She had always been proud and had never taken an ordinary man seriously. But she once told me privately that if she ever had to marry, she would marry the most exalted man in the world.

In her previous life, she had not gotten her wish. Still, she followed our parents’ arrangements and married into a family that kept her comfortable for the rest of her life.

Xiao Chengjun made it clear that he had come to seek the hand of a Gu daughter.

Although he no longer said a man should seek a virtuous wife, our parents instinctively presented me first.

Father smiled stiffly and hurried to introduce me. “This is my second daughter, Qinghe. Everyone in Chengzhou praises her for her decorum and virtue…”

Xiao Chengjun did not wait for him to finish.

“This time, I’ve come to marry the Gu family’s eldest daughter.”

Our parents froze.

My elder sister was exceptionally beautiful, but her reputation was nowhere near as good as mine.

I had expected this scene, so I stepped half a pace back.

My sister, however, happily stepped forward and curtsied.

“I am Gu Mingzhu. Thank you, Your Highness, for favoring me. I am willing to enter the Eastern Palace.”

At that moment, Xiao Chengjun gazed at her intently, as though he had finally made up for a regret from his previous life.

Our parents recovered and hurried to stop my sister.

“Mingzhu, don’t be rude.”

Xiao Chengjun did not mind at all.

“A little breach of etiquette is nothing. Once she enters the Eastern Palace, the palace matrons can teach her.”

In his previous life, he had been an enlightened ruler, and I had been a virtuous Empress.

He focused only on affairs of state and never let matters within the palace trouble him.

When I was thirty, I occasionally mentioned a quarrel among the consorts. He would listen, then simply smile.

“Those little disputes in the harem aren’t a serious matter.”

After that, I stopped troubling him with the palace’s infighting.

Now, when my parents said my sister had been rude, he naturally thought that was a small matter, too.