Chapter 2

Old Madam Song escorted me to my own courtyard, ordered the servants to wait on me properly, and left.

I stood in the room, momentarily dazed. A maid in green spoke out of turn.

“Miss, you probably never saw a room this fine before.”

I glanced at her.

“I may never have seen one, but it belongs to me now. No matter how much you chatter, you’ll never get to live in it.”

Choked by my retort, the maid gritted her teeth, her eyes full of jealousy.

I waved a hand.

“All of you may leave. I’m tired and want to rest. I don’t need anyone attending me.”

“Yes, miss.”

Once the room was quiet, I lay down on the large bed piled with a cloud-brocade quilt. A tangle of emotions rose in my heart.

In my last life, I had watched every word I spoke and yielded at every turn, yet after entering the prime minister’s residence, I had been given only a guest room. In this life, I had cast off every restraint and acted willful and vicious, yet I was given this splendid place.

The human heart was truly unfathomable.

That was right. I had been reborn.

In my previous life, Chancellor Song found me when I was being forced to beg in the streets, dressed in rags and pitiful beyond words.

I thought everything would become better once Father brought me home. I never expected Song Jinyu to be waiting here.

Radiant Song Jinyu stood in stark contrast to my filthy self.

My fiancé pitied her. My elder brother acknowledged her alone as his sister.

Father did nothing. Only Old Madam Song treated me well. She always told me this was my own home and I need not tread so carefully.

She did not understand. It wasn’t that I had no desire to fight; I simply could not win. I was terrified of losing everything I had just gained and returning to my old life.

So I acted with endless caution. But my unwillingness to compete did not mean Song Jinyu felt the same.

She feared my identity. After all, I was the prime minister’s true daughter.

Song Jinyu planted a maid at my side. The maid constantly reminded me how far beneath Song Jinyu I was, while claiming she would help me establish myself in the household.

She earned my trust, then worked with Song Jinyu to drug me.

News that the prime minister’s newly recovered daughter had been found half-dressed in bed with seven or eight men swept through the capital in an instant.

Chancellor Song flew into a rage. To protect the family’s reputation, he sent me to a nunnery.

Song Jinyu paid off the men entrusted with the journey. They took me to the Earth God temple in the countryside and violated me in every conceivable way. Afterward, Song Jinyu’s birth mother ended my life.

“A filthy little slut thinks she can compete with my daughter? Know your place!”

She severed the tendons in my wrists and ankles. I had always believed I died from the agony alone.

Only at that final moment did I realize it was not Old Madam Song who failed to understand. It was me.

No matter how deeply everyone favored Song Jinyu, the matriarch who truly ruled the household stood on my side. She acknowledged me as her granddaughter.

For the daughter of the prime minister’s household, manners and decorum came second. What mattered most was carrying herself with confidence and generosity of spirit.

I did not need to bow and scrape or proceed timidly in everything. Still less did I need to belittle myself, forever afraid of offending someone.

I was the honored daughter of the prime minister’s family. How could I let an impostor push me aside?

Perhaps my resentment ran so deep that Heaven granted me another chance.

The first thing I did upon waking was steal silver and bribe someone to send word to the prime minister’s residence. Then I went to an apothecary, bought a drug, and slipped it into that wicked woman’s meal.

It was the first time I had killed. Warm blood splashed across my face, filling my nose with its metallic stench. Not only was I unafraid, I felt an inexplicable rush of pleasure.

What I had not expected was for Chancellor Song to arrive so quickly and catch me in the act.

After I told him what had happened and who the wicked woman was, he remained silent for a long time. Finally, he reached out, stroked my hair, and said,

“Father will take you home.”

The person I had been in my last life would have been beside herself with joy. This time, I merely nodded.

Perhaps my deranged state frightened him. In this life, Chancellor Song treated me with exceptional indulgence and courtesy.

But I did not care. He had treated me neither well nor badly in my previous life. I could feel no closeness toward this father of mine.

All I wanted was to return to the prime minister’s residence, take my revenge, and protect the one person who had treated me kindly in my last life.

Before I died, the men who abused me said that Old Madam Song had quarreled fiercely with Chancellor Song over his decision to send me to the nunnery. Her health had already been poor. The shock left her bedridden and paralyzed, with little time remaining.

In this life, I would protect her.

I wiped the tears from my face and closed my eyes to sleep.

As long as Song Jinyu remained alive, I needed my rest. I had to be ready to kill her at any moment.