Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The agony still lingered in my body. My limbs had been severed one by one. A bucket of cold water was dumped over my head, forcing me awake, leaving me with no choice but to watch as I was turned into a human swine.

I thrashed violently in the pain. Xu Mu, the childhood sweetheart I had once grown up with, stood before me with a long blade in his hand, looking at me in disgust. Then he took a strip of white silk and wiped the blood from the blade.

“Filthy.”

I could not believe this was the man I had cherished in my heart for more than ten years.

Xu Mu and I had been betrothed since childhood. During my ten years in the pleasure house, I had used the money I earned from selling myself to take care of his widowed mother. Yet when we met again after all those years, all I heard was this:

“Filthy. Wearing Ying’er’s name while doing such debased things. Death is already too good for you.”

I hated them with every fiber of my being. I had never enjoyed even the slightest benefit from the Su Clan’s glory, yet I had borne the suffering of the Su Clan’s downfall in Su Yueying’s place.

Debased? I could not help but let out a cold laugh.

The Su Clan had committed a grave crime. Su Yueying, the daughter of a convicted official, would have been treated worse than a dog in the pleasure house. When they needed me to take Su Yueying’s place and bear her punishment, why did no one call me debased then?

The icy river water gradually covered my mouth and nose. I thought of Mother again. That day, she had knelt outside the general’s estate, weeping until her voice bled. “She only wants to live. She hasn’t hurt anyone. What crime has she committed…”

Then I felt someone drag me up.

“She is Su Yueying, the Eldest Young Miss of the Su Clan.”

Those words rang beside my ears again.

During my ten years in the pleasure house, I had wondered countless times what would have happened if I had denied that I was Su Yueying back then.

I forced my eyes open. Two soldiers hauled me up, and a heavy cangue was about to be locked over my head.

The scene felt painfully familiar, as if I had returned to the day the estate was confiscated.

I immediately spoke, saying the words I had thought about for ten years. “I am not Su Yueying.”

In my previous life, when Father took me away, he said he would definitely come save me. I would only spend a few days in prison in Su Yueying’s place. The Su Clan had people to smooth things over, and they would not let me suffer.

I believed him then. But that wait lasted ten years.

I looked at the two soldiers. “I am not Su Yueying. You have arrested the wrong person. How will you answer to His Majesty?”

The two soldiers hesitated.

Father stood off to the side with a cold expression and snapped, “Shut your mouth.”

I immediately pointed at him. “See? Even a servant can scold me. How could I be the Eldest Young Miss of the Su Clan?”

The soldiers released me, suspicion on their faces.

I rose to my feet. Behind the crowd, I saw the corner of a moon-white skirt.

The corner of my lips curled. I grabbed the dress Father had forced onto me and tore it open, revealing the coarse hemp clothes of a Su Clan servant underneath. “I am a maid from the Su Clan’s flower room.”

Then I held out my hands. Though they were still slender and pale, they were not the same as the hands of a truly pampered young lady.

There were marks on my hands from being pricked by flower thorns a few days ago. “The Eldest Young Miss of the Su Clan injured her hands. How could they possibly not even give her medicine?”

At this, the two soldiers immediately shut the main gates, locking everyone inside. “We are under orders to arrest everyone from the Main Branch of the Su Family. If anyone attempts to pass one person off as another, it will cost them their head.”

After saying this, their gazes swept over Father again and again.

Father’s face turned ashen. His sinister glare almost seemed ready to pierce straight through me.

In my previous life, when I was taken away, I saw with my own eyes Father take advantage of the chaos to protect Su Yueying and lead her away from the crowd. I waited and waited in prison, but in the end, all I received was the imperial order sending me to the pleasure house.

I walked into the crowd and stood behind Su Yueying.

Although she had changed into a servant’s clothes, a sliver of her moon-white skirt still showed. Who knew whose clothes Father had snatched in his panic?

Su Yueying’s delicate, beautiful face had been smeared with ash powder, and her hair was disheveled. Standing among the servants, she truly did not draw attention.

I quietly reached toward her waist and pinched hard.

“Ah!” Su Yueying jumped.

Her voice was sweet and melodious, like the cry of an oriole. The two soldiers were immediately drawn over. Each grabbed one of Su Yueying’s arms.

I saw Father standing not far away, the veins on his hands bulging, the pain in his eyes nearly spilling over.

“I am not Su Yueying.” She looked at the soldiers with tears in her eyes, fragile and pitiful.

Who would have thought the soldiers had no pity in them at all? One of them tore open Su Yueying’s sleeve, revealing the moon-white dress beneath. “For a maid, you certainly dress well. Even Moon Shadow Silk supplied exclusively to the palace has found its way onto your body.”

The soldier gave a cold laugh. “Take her away.”