– **Liu Mansion** –
The sprawling beauty of the Liu Mansion stretched toward the horizon, and in its western courtyard, a lone maid dashed frantically toward the Lucent Pavilion.
"Xuanwen! Xuanwen! I have bad news!" the maid called, breathless as she approached.
Xuanwen, poised over a delicate scroll of calligraphy, calmly raised her head. "Why such haste? What happened?"
Li Hualing, her maid, trembled as she spoke. "Old Mistress Liu has returned from the temple, and she's summoned you to the main hall... Miss, do you think she knows? What are we going to do?"
Xuanwen's brush wavered for a moment before she set it down gently. "I've been wondering when this would happen."
Lifting the parchment, she examined her work. "My handwriting has improved quite a bit, don't you agree?"
Hualing looked exasperated. "Miss, this isn't the time to discuss calligraphy! If the old mistress has uncovered everything, this could end badly, right?"
Unbothered, Xuanwen laid the paper aside, her voice steady. "The main hall, you said?"
Hualing nodded anxiously.
– **Main Hall** –
Inside the grand hall, tension hung thick in the air. Seated were Prime Minister Liu Boyou and his wife, Madame Ye, along with their youngest daughter, Liu Xuanqing. Xuanwen's uncles, Liu Buyi and Liu Tao, were also present with their families. The atmosphere bristled with unease.
Old Mistress Liu stood at the center, her face flushed with fury as she hurled an account book to the floor. "Liu Xuanwen! Do you admit your crime?"
Xuanwen knelt before her, eyes cold, yet resigned. "Yes, grandmother, I do."
"Don't you dare call me grandmother!" the old mistress snapped. "You've stolen from your own family! How could you?"
With unwavering calm, Xuanwen replied, "I had no choice, Old Mistress. How could I not envy everyone else? Why should they have more than me—the eldest daughter?"
Before anyone could react, Madame Ye strode forward and slapped Xuanwen hard across the face, sending her stumbling backward. As her mother raised her hand for another strike, Xuanwen caught her wrist, holding firm.
"You must stop and reflect, sister," Liu Xuanqing, her younger sister, said softly, pity flickering in her voice.
Xuanwen's lips curled into a bitter smile. "Reflect? You, who has lived in luxury all your life, dare to lecture me? You have no idea what I've endured."
"Xuanwen!" her father's voice thundered. "Guards! Take her away and give her thirty lashes for her insolence!"
Just then, Nanny Yin burst into the hall, her face ashen with fear. Dropping to her knees, she cried out in desperation, "Please, spare the young lady! She did all of this for me! Old Mistress, I beg of you, have mercy!"
The room fell silent as her plea echoed against the walls. Prime Minister Liu Boyou's face contorted with fury. "How dare you speak so brazenly before your masters!" he thundered. "Guards, drag them both out! Punish them with as many lashes as they can endure!"
Nanny Yin's trembling form remained hunched on the floor, her tears spilling onto the stone, while Xuanwen's cold eyes darted toward her.
Old Mistress Liu stood still, watching the unfolding scene with an expression torn between shock and sorrow. "Boyou, stop!" she commanded, though her voice wavered slightly. "There's more to this than we understand."
Liu Boyou's hand clenched into a fist. "Mother, this servant has no place interfering in family matters. She's overstepped, and so has Xuanwen. They both need to be taught their place!"
But Old Mistress Liu sighed heavily, raising a hand to halt the punishment. "No, Boyou.But Xuanwen, you have crossed the line this time. You will be sent to Nankou to repent for three months."
Xuanwen's eyes blazed with defiance. "I'd rather be expelled from this family than sent to Nankou!"
The old mistress shook her head, disappointment weighing down her words. "You... take her away."
As the guards dragged Xuanwen from the hall, the sound of her footsteps echoed in the silence, leaving her family behind to grapple with the aftermath.
Prime Minister Liu Boyou spoke gravely. "Mother, Xuanwen has gone too far this time. Stealing from the family for two years... I've been too preoccupied with my duties to notice. It is only thanks to you that she was caught."
Old Mistress Liu sighed again, her face creased with sorrow. "If I were to expel her, it would be too harsh. Xuanwen has suffered. Ever since her birth, you and your wife have been absent, consumed by your responsibilities. She grew up alone, Boyou."
Madame Ye remained silent, her gaze cast downward, while Xuanqing stood by, her hands clenched in the folds of her dress.
Liu Yang, Xuanwen's cousin, spoke up, his voice sharp. "Grandmother, you are right about her suffering, but that does not excuse her actions. If Xuanwen wishes to be expelled, why not grant her that wish?"
Liu Tao, his father, pinched his arm hard, silencing him before any more could be said.
As day turned to night in the West Yard, Xuanwen busily packed her belongings, her movements sharp with frustration.
"Honestly, I thought they were going to expel me! But instead, they want me to go to Nankou? Why not just erase me from the family tree already?" she grumbled, stuffing her things into a bag.
Nanny Yin, kneeling beside her and helping with the packing, teared up. "Miss, you don't deserve this. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been sick back then, you wouldn't be suffering now. I'm so sorry, Miss."
Xuanwen chuckled softly. "Even if you hadn't been sick, I still would've stolen."
Nanny Yin looked at her in confusion, but Xuanwen didn't offer an explanation. After all, the truth was far more complicated. She wasn't the real Xuanwen—at least not in the way they all thought. In fact, Xuanwen had been someone from another world, a reader of this very story. Before the accident that brought her here, this life had only been words on a page.
It happened when she was on her way to a archery shooting field, and the building collapsed. She knew the construction company had a terrible reputation, but she didn't expect it to be this bad. Now, looking back, Xuanwen still felt a twinge of anger.
The original Xuanwen had met a grim fate, almost killed by the villain for failing an important mission. That's when she—this Xuanwen—had taken over the body. The real Xuanwen had been manipulated and driven by jealousy, coerced into stealing from her family by none other than the Second Prince, Zheng Zhusheng. The villain of the story. She was supposed to poison the female lead and spy on the Prime Minister, but she had proven to be little more than a pawn in his grand scheme.
Xuanwen sighed inwardly. She didn't want to be caught up in this plot, but somehow, she'd landed in the middle of it—already entangled with the villain.
"Miss?" Hualing, her maid, interrupted her thoughts. "Do we really have to go to Nankou? I've heard there are bandits there. What if—"
Nanny Yin lightly smacked Hualing on the forehead. "You worry too much. We'll be fine," she said, though her anxious expression betrayed her words.
Xuanwen smiled faintly. "Should we run away once we get to Nankou?"
"Miss, please don't say such things," Nanny Yin pleaded. "This is your home. You're only going to Nankou to repent. You're not being banished forever."
Xuanwen's smile deepened, though it didn't reach her eyes. The original Xuanwen had never lived a happy life, nor did she have a peaceful end. Born to her mother, Ye Yun, but sired by a commoner, she was never truly part of the Liu family. Her parents had always neglected her, with only her grandmother showing her occasional affection. But her mother's regret over her lover, and Xuanwen's illegitimacy, had left a stain on her life.
Her younger sister, Xuanqing, was the apple of everyone's eye. She basked in the love and attention Xuanwen longed for, which only fueled her jealousy. Xuanqing received everything Xuanwen believed should have been hers. The only ones who truly cared for her were Nanny Yin and Li Hualing.
"I don't belong here, Nanny Yin," Xuanwen said quietly.
Nanny Yin grasped her hand tightly. "How can you say that, Miss? The Madame is your mother, and the Prime Minister is your father. They may be angry now, but they'll forgive you. You're their daughter, after all. No parent's heart is so cold that they wouldn't forgive their child."
Xuanwen chuckled softly. "You really believe that, don't you?"
**Elsewhere...**
Su Huian grimaced, gritting her teeth as she pressed an acupuncture needle into her arm. A deep, purplish bruise marred her skin—a telltale sign of poison coursing through her veins. She took a deep breath and pulled the needle out, sighing as the pain subsided.
"This should fade in a few days," she muttered, studying the bruise with a determined gaze.
It was hard to believe, even for her, that she had regressed five years into the past. In her previous life, Su Huian and her entire family were executed for a crime they never committed. Worse yet, she played a role in their downfall. The guilt weighed on her, and this second chance was her only opportunity to rewrite their fate.
She wouldn't make the same mistakes again. The first step was to rid herself of the poison that had been secretly administered by someone she never suspected—Liu Xuanwen.
Liu Xuanwen, the eldest daughter of Minister Liu Boyou, was widely admired for her family's reputation and good deeds. Yet in Su Huian's past life, Xuanwen had mysteriously died within a year. While no one knew the cause, Su Huian had a hunch it was tied to the rebels.
Su Huian had been executed before the rebels took control of the palace, so she never learned the true mastermind behind the chaos. But now, with this chance, she was determined to prevent the fall of her family. In her former life, her distrust and distance from her loved ones had led to their ruin. This time, she would protect them at all costs.
"Miss?" Her maid, Jiaying, called from outside the door.
Su Huian quickly stowed her acupuncture tools. "Yes, Jiaying?"
"A letter has arrived from Miss Xiao Rong."
Su Huian's heart skipped a beat as she took the letter, unfolding it hastily. It was an invitation to Xiao Rong's grandmother's birthday banquet.
Her breath caught. She remembered that banquet all too well. Xiao Rong's grandmother had died at the event, poisoned. It had triggered a political firestorm, straining relations between the empress and the Xiao family. In her past life, the incident had been a crucial part of the rebels' strategy to destabilize the court.
Su Huian folded the letter, her mind racing. She had to stop it this time. The rebel plot would unravel if she intervened, and with it, the threat to her family.
This time, she was ready.
**Elsewhere…**
In the dimly lit bathhouse, the soft glow of moonlight filtered through the steam rising from the pool. A lone figure reclined in the water, his head tilted back, gazing at the ceiling. The room was silent, save for the occasional drip of water and the distant murmur of the night outside.
The silence was interrupted by a voice. "Your Highness, another letter has arrived."
The figure stirred, beads of sweat trailing down his temple. Slowly, he rose from the bath, water cascading off his broad shoulders. He wrapped a robe around himself and approached his waiting subordinate.
"What does it say this time?" he asked, his tone calm yet carrying an edge of anticipation.
Gao Liqin, the loyal servant, bowed as he replied, "Old Mistress Xiao's birthday banquet...perhaps it's nothing serious this time?"
The prince paused for a moment, his expression unreadable, before letting out a low chuckle.
"Is there ever nothing serious in these letters?" Crown Prince Zheng Jianyu remarked, his voice laced with irony as he dried his hair.
Gao Liqin remained silent, watching his master closely. The crown prince had been receiving a series of cryptic letters for weeks now, each one hinting at plots, betrayals, and unrest. They had all proven too accurate to ignore.
"Did the Xiao family send any formal invitation?" Jianyu asked, his eyes flickering with a gleam of intrigue.
Gao Liqin nodded. "Yes, Your Highness. The invitation arrived earlier today."
The crown prince's lips curved into a faint smile. "Good. It seems the next move in this game will unfold at the banquet."