Chapter 1

I died. Fell to my death. There was an enormous splash of blood. Before my eyes closed, I heard Shen Sui’an’s anguished roar.

“Youyou!”

How ridiculous. I had given him everything, and in the end he could still spare me a cry of my name. Perhaps, for a villainous supporting character, that counted as something.

I had been an ordinary young woman in the twenty-first century. A car accident had sent me into a romance novel, reborn as its wicked female supporting character.

I treasured my life. My new identity might be that of a pampered imperial princess, the younger sister of the crown prince who was the male lead, but I never forgot how the supporting character’s scheming ended: a length of white silk and a lifeless body. I trod carefully at every turn, determined to be a model citizen of ancient times.

By rights, I should have been able to keep my head down until a perfect happy ending. My mistake was reaching for the devoted second male lead who belonged to the heroine alone. And so I died.

The rebels made the crown prince and Shen Sui’an choose between me and the heroine, Li Yaoyao.

One was my brother. The other was my husband. Both rushed to her side.

My death was ugly. Before I died, I had to watch my love and my brother crowd around the heroine.

I was reborn again, this time as a scraggly girl who had not yet reached fifteen. By then, that so-called crown-prince brother of mine had spent ten secure years on the throne.

So I had been dead for ten years.

Ten years might be a long time to anyone else. To me, it had happened yesterday. The feeling of blood choking my mouth and nose after I fell from the city wall still haunted my whole body. From then on, I dared not climb high buildings.

My new name was Kong Youniang. My father had died when I was little, and Mother had raised me by earning our living herself. This body had an older brother too, one whose sole, unshakable allegiance was to his little sister.

The three of us lived our warm, quiet life in a small town, until I earned enough selling food to pay for my brother’s journey to the capital for the examinations.

“What? You want to take Youniang and me to the capital with you, and never come back?”

Mother was astonished by his proposal.

“Mother, I’m confident I’ll pass the examinations this year. Besides, the Kongs are from the capital in the first place. Our ancestral home is still there.”

My brother settled Mother into a chair and patiently explained his plans.

“Father died at the rebels’ hands. I know you’re afraid of stirring up painful memories, but our roots are in the capital! Don’t you want to burn paper offerings at his grave during the Qingming Festival?

“And my sister grows prettier by the day. This place is remote and lawless. The county magistrate has hinted several times that he wants her as a bedchamber maid. I, Kong Jingzhi, have worked this hard at my books so I can support you both. My sister will never be anyone’s concubine! Once I have a degree, I’ll find her a fine husband. We must move as soon as possible and get away from this filthy place.”

And so Mother was persuaded. In ancient times, Mencius’s mother had moved three times for her son; now the whole Kong family was heading for the capital.

That night, lying beside Mother in the boat’s cabin, I listened to water slap against the hull and could not fall asleep for a long time.

We would reach the capital in three days. With my present station in life, surely I was unlikely to cross paths with anyone from my past.

If so, all the better.