Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Miss Shen let out a startled cry.

She bent down to pick up the branch of Evening Magnolia, which was still glistening with dew.

Holding the flower, her cheeks flushed a deep crimson.

“I… I found it!”

She stole a quick glance at Yan Ci before shyly lowering her head.

This scene felt hauntingly familiar.

In my past life, I was the one who found the flower.

It had been hidden right behind my seat.

Back then, Yan Ci had simply stood there and offered a faint, gentle smile.

It was only later that I learned the truth.

He was merely acting out of spite.

His beloved had married someone else at the border, so he decided he would take a wife as well-to prove he had long since moved on.

As for who that wife was, it didn’t matter to him at all.

In an instant, everyone turned to look at the girl beside me with envy.

Young General Yan Ci hailed from a noble lineage and was the nephew of the Empress.

He went to the battlefield at thirteen and led his own army by fifteen.

At twenty, he became world-renowned after crushing an army of twenty thousand with only three thousand cavalrymen.

He was the most brilliant young general in Great Liang, the man of every noble lady’s dreams.

Now, he stood in the center of the hall, his red robes fluttering over his silver light armor.

When a man like him hides a flower at a night banquet and declares he will marry whoever finds it, who could possibly remain unmoved?

“So it is Miss Shen.”

Seated upon the throne, the Empress smiled gracefully. “Then I shall settle this-”

Before she could finish, a sudden gust of wind swept through the hall.

It was a strange wind.

The palace doors were tightly shut, and the pearl curtains hung motionless, yet the candles in the hall flickered in unison, nearly blowing out.

And the flower in Miss Shen’s hand was snatched away by that eerie draft.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Evening Magnolia swirled across half the hall and landed squarely on my lap.

The entire room fell into a dead silence.

The Empress looked at me in surprise. “Miss Xue (the second daughter) seems to share a destiny with Yan Ci.”

Yan Ci gave an indifferent smile. “In that case, then…”

-Then he would marry her.

If this were my past life, my face would have been flushed and my heart would have been pounding like a drum.

But now, I only felt a bone-chilling cold.

I did not hesitate. I immediately knelt down, cutting Yan Ci off.

“I would not dare!”

“This humble girl already has someone in her heart.”

I found an excuse to leave the banquet.

The night wind brushed against my face, carrying the chill of early spring.

The Evening Magnolias in the rear palace glowed white under the moonlight.

I took a deep breath.

I had actually returned to this night banquet.

I had returned to my sixteen-year-old self, before fate had claimed me.

When I found that flower behind my seat in my previous life, I thought it was a blessing from the heavens.

I never imagined that it would be the very last bit of joy I would ever know.

In my past life, when I married into the General’s Mansion, the entire capital watched just to mock me.

“I heard Young General Yan didn’t even see her face clearly; he just placed the flower at random.”

“With such a lowly background, does she really think she’s worthy? Marrying in will only bring her suffering.”

On our wedding night, Yan Ci never came.

As dawn approached, my maid whispered to me that Yan Ci had retired to his study.

I lifted my own bridal veil and drank the nuptial wine alone.

The wedding candles on the table burned down to nothing, their red wax dripping like tears.

Early the next morning, Yan Ci returned to the border without a single word.

From then on, everyone in the mansion knew the General disliked his new bride.

I was constantly made a target of my mother-in-law’s difficulties and reprimands.

“Someone from such a petty household is truly unpresentable.”

“You can’t even keep your own husband’s heart. What use are you?”

I would kneel on the ground, not daring to lift my head, as tears welled in my eyes.

I asked myself over and over again: Xue Zhuxin, what exactly did you do wrong?

Your mistake was marrying a husband who did not love you.

But in that life, you were never in control of your own fate.