Year 692 in the Great Wei Dynasty, 6th Year Reign of Emperor Wei Shixun.
"ELDEST BROTHER! NO! I WON'T LET YOU!" Huaiyang's voice pierced through my ears as I watched the tears form in her eyes. Huaiyang's grip on my hand is tight, telling me not to go. But, no. I will not let her stop me. I have to do this, to save this family. To save everyone.
"Chen, are you really sure about this? Once you arrive at the Yikun Palace, there's no turning back." my mother, Duchess of Jiannan, Wen Lian, said. Worry and fear etched on her eyes. I nodded my head. I'm sure about my decision. And there is no one that can stop me.
Jiang Huaiyang started to cry as she looked at our father, Duke of Jiannan, Jiang Zixin, pleading for him to stop and just refuse the Empress Selection invitation that arrived a fortnight ago. Of course I know that the Duke cannot refuse that important order from the Imperial Palace.
"Eldest Brother, please don't go." Huaiyang said, tears continued to flow on her face. I shook my head and held her hand. If I let you go, we will lose our lives Jiang Huaiyang, I wanted to tell her.
As I lay my tired body on the soft mattress, I started to think how I had decided to end up going to the Empress Selection. This world seems to be very chaotic yet calculated. And I feel like I'm going crazy because of it. Right. I'm not from this world, well, my soul is not from this world.
My name was Kim Jongdae. I worked in a multinational corporation in Seoul right after I graduated from the university. And I was 25 years old when I was hit by a car when I was crossing the road going to my apartment because I was reading something. And that something was an update of the webtoon that I liked.
I held my phone tight as I suppressed the pain that my body was feeling after hitting a car's bumper, trying to dial 119 before my eyes closed. I felt everything blacked out. And when I opened my eyes, I became Jiang Chen, the eldest son of the Duke of Jiannan. For a few days, I locked myself in my room because I couldn't believe what happened to me. I was reincarnated to the webtoon I was reading!
Not as the female lead, or villainess… but the side character's elder brother! In the first season of the webtoon that was entitled 'The Thorns of the Red Rose', my sister, Jiang Huaiyang, gets chosen in the Empress Selection; becoming the Empress of a fictional empire called the Great Wei Dynasty. Just a year after she was crowned as the mother of the Empire, she was executed due to treason along with all the family members and staff of Jiang Mansion. Basically wiping out the whole mansion off the Empire and seizing all of their assets after.
Just a month after the Jiangs' deaths, the Emperor remarried; and he married someone who did not even participate in the Empress Selection [since it is a rule that once the Empress dies, the Emperor should remarry someone who participated in the Empress Selection, or if the Empress who passed away did not come from, the Emperor should choose from the noble families of Weizhen City]. In the webtoon, the Emperor chose someone from the South.The daughter of Marquis of Leling, Shen Lihua. In the second season of the webtoon, she was revealed to frame my sister because she wants to be the Empress. She seduced and used an ancient love spell towards the Emperor when the Emperor visited their county; since everyone in the Great Wei Dynasty knew that the Emperor bore no romantic feelings for my sister, thus making the spell very effective on him.
Jiang Huaiyang was chosen to be the Empress because of the influence of the Jiang family among the nobility in the Great Wei Dynasty, as well as the trade business of my father that has been passed on from generations of Jiangs. The Jiangs may not be residing in Weizhen City but the clan's influence spreads throughout the nation. Shen Lihua orchestrated the Jiang clan's execution to get what she wanted. I remember how I wanted to strangle her to her death in the chapter where she confessed her sins to her mother, the Marchioness, before forcely feeding her a poisoned wine.
Before I die, the author is still going to post the last two chapters before the ending. So I basically knew what was going to happen. We are all going to die if my sister participates in the Empress Selection. The Jiang Mansion will be annihilated once my sister accepts the position of the Empress.
But then, my father can't say no to the Empress Selection invitation because if we do, we will be labeled as traitors of the Empire by refusing the Imperial Order. So I decided to go, instead of my sister. I will try to avoid our gruesome fate by changing the story. I will rewrite our history.
"Young Master," Lin Jiayi, my personal maid, is shaking as she helps me pack my things. Well, most of my clothes and personal items were already packed as soon as I announced to my family that I will be going to the Empress Selection at the end of the week.
"What is it, Jiayi?" I asked. The young maid lowered her head. I remembered, when I first woke up in Jiang Chen's bed, she was smiling at me as a sign of relief. And then she proceeded to tell me that the Duke and Duchess as well as Huaiyang were so worried because of the accident I got into.
"Young Master, must you really do this? It hasn't been a long time since you recovered from the accident…" she almost whispered. Apparently, the real Jiang Chen had an accident while he was having an inspection within the trade route of Jiannan, governed by the Jiangs, going to the Empire's capital, the Weizheng City. According to Jiayi, I was unconscious for almost two weeks and the physicians that were summoned by my parents were not sure if I would still be able to wake up or not because I was already in the vegetative state.
"Yes, Jiayi. I have to keep Huaiyang, my parents, and the whole mansion safe." I sincerely said. Lin Jiayi is someone that Jiang Chen fully trusts. I remembered from Jiang Chen's memories [since it was just briefly mentioned in the webtoon] that she was executed because she refused to flee even though the Duke and Duchess terminated every staff member of the mansion before the imperial army arrived.