The wind howled through the cracks of the Cold Palace, shrieking like a mourning flute. Snow piled at the threshold, untouched. The brazier had long gone cold.
Shen Lian knelt in her tattered robes, her body trembling from the chill, her fingers wrapped tightly around a crimson scroll. Gold letters glinted on its surface—"Decree of Dismissal"—written by the very man she once called husband.
She had fought for his crown. Silenced her own heart. Handed him power on a golden platter.
And in return… he gave her this.
A cup of poisoned wine.
She drank it all. No tears. No screams. Just one bitter laugh.
"This life," she whispered, as blood bloomed across the snow, "was wasted on you. May you choke on that throne."
Her vision blurred. Her limbs numbed. Memories flickered like dying candlelight—her wedding, her coronation, her father's broken armor on the battlefield. Her sister's laughter. The Emperor's back as he walked away.
Then the world went white.
And then—warmth. The chirping of birds. The scent of plum blossoms.
Shen Lian gasped and sat upright.
No frostbitten limbs. No blood on snow. Just stone paths and swaying bamboo.
She was back. Home. The outer courtyard of the Shen estate.
A shadow stirred in the snow.
She turned.
There, half-collapsed in the frost, was a boy. Thin. Pale. Bleeding. His lips trembled as he looked up, eyes flashing with pain—and defiance.
"Save me," he said.
Shen Lian stared into those eyes—eyes she had seen years later, kneeling outside the palace gates, begging for her life with madness and devotion.
"This time," she said softly, her voice like frost, "you'll live. But you'll belong to me."
The wind stirred again, no longer screaming.
Somewhere beyond the courtyard walls, a bell rang.
Shen Lian rose slowly, her fists clenched.
She was thirteen again.
No allies. No power. Not yet.
But she had time—and this time, she wouldn't play by their rules.
She would write her own.
Let them laugh at the quiet girl from the outer courtyard.
Let them whisper and scheme.
In the end, their victories would pave her road to the throne.