Volume One, Chapter Two: Rebirth

The winter sun, red as vermilion, climbed to the tip of the tower of the Jingan Temple bell tower. Heaven and earth were the same pale white, and at last the snow that had fallen for a day and a night came to a stop.

It seemed she had been dreaming for a very, very long time. Everything in the dream had grown faint and distant, until only the bitter trail of poison down her throat and the sharp blow of her forehead against the corner of a table remained with terrible clarity.

It had been bitter, and it had hurt.

"Ahem."

In the dream, it had felt as though a great stone were pressing upon her chest, making it impossible to breathe. And yet, had she not already died?

She coughed once, then finally forced her eyes open.

What she saw frightened her awake at once.

In the dimness, she met a pair of eagle eyes gleaming with dangerous light.

"Don't make a sound."

The man's voice was low, yet steeped in menace. He moved his hand, and only then did she realize something cold was pressed tight against her throat... the chill of a weapon against her skin!

Shen Rong's scalp prickled instantly.

This scene inevitably reminded her of the time, when she had sought aid from the commander of Huainan and instead been confined under guard. He had always slipped silently into her bedchamber, leaving her unable even to sleep in peace...

One of the man's hands held a dagger to her throat; the other restrained her body. If one did not know better, one might have thought it the secret tryst of a pair of lovers at night.

Realizing something, Shen Rong suddenly froze.

Only then did she belatedly catch the scent of medicine wine mingled with blood on the man, and notice that she herself was dressed in yellow, made up like a young maiden.

Suddenly, a temple bell rang out at just that moment. Each note struck at Shen Rong's heart. She instinctively clamped her lips shut, and a searing pain flared across them at once.

This was not a dream!

Shen Rong's eyes slowly widened. In the clean, pale moonlight spilling into the room, the face of the youth above her and the silhouette of the man who had flashed before her death gradually overlaid one another, rising at last from the depths of her memory...

That insignificant stable boy from the Shen family, A Jiu, who later became the overlord of Huai'an, the King of Huai'an!

At the very last moment before her death, her own words had surged back into her mind: the Jingan Temple in the south of the city... winter... a woman in yellow... a red mole on her chest!!!

Shen Rong's breath caught.

Was this... a second life?

Had she returned to the age when she had just come of marriageable age?

Light footsteps sounded above on the roof. The man tilted his head slightly and held his breath, only to find the woman beneath him breathing more and more heavily.

His eyes narrowed. The blade flashed, and with a sharp hiss, her clothing was slit open. The red mole on the girl's chest came into view.

A hot current surged through Shen Rong's limbs and bones in an instant. Even with her clothes cut open by the man, she did not feel cold at all.

She knew this man feared that she would cry out. Cutting her clothes was meant to make her hesitate; in Great Zhao, a woman's reputation mattered above all else. If she summoned someone, her own name would be ruined.

And if she accused him of being an assassin, he would simply tell them about the red mole on her chest and turn the tables on her.

But she had not cried out in her previous life, and she would not cry out in this one either.

Shen Rong's thoughts gradually settled. Her eyes glittered in the dark with a strange, brilliant light. She knew the man was poisoned, and before long, he would lose consciousness.

His mind began to grow hazy. His gaze drifted and blurred. Just before he collapsed, he lifted a hand as if to do something, and what he saw was the girl's eyes, bright and vivid with a life he had never seen before...

As he faltered in surprise, a thick wave of drowsiness swept over him, and he fell heavily against the woman, unconscious.

Shen Rong did not bother with the man, who now lay half-on, half-off her without awareness. All she could think was: Shen Rong had returned to the very beginning, to the moment when everything had only just started!

The gods and Buddhas had taken pity on her and sent her back to a time when everything could still be changed...

At fifteen, she had heard that Master Kong, the wandering holy monk of the outer world, had returned from his travels and would remain here for three days. In order to seek a divination from him, countless noble men and women from Huaiyang City had flocked to Jingan Temple in the south of the city.

In order to marry Xie Xun, she, who had always disbelieved in ghosts and spirits, had also begun to go devoutly to the south city to pray for marriage.

It was said that climbing the mountain on foot showed the greatest sincerity. By the time she had ascended the thousand steps to the mountain gate of Jingan Temple, the sun was already setting. The monastery had stopped receiving worshippers for incense offerings, so she had no choice but to stay the night at the temple. Of course, apart from her, the whole flock of coquettish women from the main branch of the Shen family had come as well.

That night, exhausted beyond measure, she slept deeply and soundly, never knowing that someone had quietly slipped into her room through the latticed window she had habitually left unlatched...

Having traveled far and wide with her father, she naturally knew how to protect herself, and also knew that in the martial world, it was better to avoid trouble whenever possible. Yet who could have guessed that before losing consciousness, the man would slash at her neck, and the two of them would end up lying together on the bed?

The next day, she was awakened by Shen Yu. Clearly, Shen Yu had misunderstood her.

In her previous life, in order to keep others from learning that she had been alone in a room with a strange man, she had begged her cousin to keep the secret. Xie Xun had never cared for her to begin with, thinking her coarse and uncouth, unlike proper women who observed the rules of conduct.

What happened after that, she no longer managed.

Only later did she learn that Shen Yu had actually claimed credit for rescuing the man, and for some reason had even brought him back to the Shen family. Since it seemed of no consequence, Shen Rong had let it pass. Later, she saw that man several times in the Shen household, and he seemed not to know where he lived, nor what his surname was. She had guessed that this was probably because the poison had not yet fully left his system.

Shen Rong abruptly threw off the mountain of a man压ing on her, sat up, and by the moonlight studied his face. Even in such a sorry state, one could still tell from his somewhat unkempt appearance that it was a remarkably good-looking face.

This was the twentieth year of Great Zhao, and she was fifteen.

Beneath the seeming peace and prosperity, hidden currents had already begun to stir where ordinary people could not see them. If she did not plan ahead, then even with the memories of her previous life, the Shen family might still fail to escape its former fate.

This time, she would not repeat the same mistakes.

Those who wanted to seize her family’s wealth, ruin her father, and toy with her feelings—she remembered each and every one of them.

Picking up the dagger that had fallen onto the bed, she copied his earlier motion and slit open the grayish garment across the man's chest in a single stroke. A lean, powerful chest was exposed to the air, the beating of his heart beneath it fully revealing the vigor of his youth.

"Not a bad face. And that body is top-notch too. Tsk."

In her previous life, she had been bewitched and dazzled, captivated by Xie Xun's beautiful skin to the point that no one else had ever caught her eye. Looking at things now, such matters were hardly worth mentioning. It seemed she had missed out on many interesting things in her last life...

Wealth, power, beauty...

Shen Rong had always been willful from a young age. In her previous life, she had grown sick and tired of being restrained by others. Now that she had lived again, why should the things that men desired be denied to her?

Shen Rong had never been the sort to swallow her grievances and make peace. If fate was destined to push her along the same road as in her last life, then she would choose her own path this time, and decide for herself where to go. She did not believe that, given a second chance, she could not command her own destiny.

With unhurried movements, she removed the ancient jade pendant hanging from his neck and examined it closely. On it were strange, intricate characters; she did not know what they meant. But in general, a pendant worn close to the body was a token of identity...

Shen Rong turned her head and fixed a dangerous gaze on the unconscious man lying there, then raised her hand and gave that handsome face two crisp slaps.

Seeing him frown faintly in his sleep, looking uncomfortable, Shen Rong curled her lips and lifted the jade pendant in her hand.

"A Jiu..."

"You lurked in the Shen household for nearly two years, and in the end even joined Shen Yu in trapping me at the Buddha hall of Jingan Temple. You're no good either. The life I saved you from, both in my previous life and tonight, I will... take back from you bit by bit someday."

She was not the Shen Rong of her former life now. As for the future King of Huai'an, she could not simply let such a fat piece of meat slip away. If used properly, he would become a blade in her hand.

She pried open the man's mouth and tossed a pill inside, then flung the blanket over him. After that, she went to the soft couch by the window, leaned back with her arms folded, and closed her eyes.

It was not long before Shen Rong opened her eyes again in irritation, pulling the heavy cloak around herself. The winter wind outside kept pushing at her face in gusts.

The deeper the night grew, the less willing she became to endure it.

Why should she let this man of unknown origin have the bed? More importantly, he was practically her enemy!

Throwing off the cloak around her shoulders, Shen Rong slipped on her shoes, returned to the bed with righteous confidence, kicked the sleeping man farther in, and lay down herself, yanking the blanket entirely over her own body.

For the sake of his handsome face, she would leave him half the bed. Nothing more.

Shen Rong yawned. After climbing so many steps for half the day, she was terribly sleepy. Before long, she fell asleep, unaware that in her dreams she had begun, without noticing, to edge little by little toward the source of warmth...

Beyond the tightly shut window, the crisp calls of birds awakening in the distant woods could be faintly heard.

Shen Rong suddenly opened her eyes. When the breath so near her face was still that of the sleeping A Jiu with his eyes closed, the wildly pounding of her heart finally began to settle.

The man's handsome face, somewhat rough around the edges, had two more traces of youth than in her previous life, but the sharpness of his features already showed, still barely restrained.

The wariness in Shen Rong's keen eyes slowly faded.

Good—it was not a dream. She had truly returned to the year she was fifteen.

Only then did she realize she was pressed tightly against the man's burning chest, and that both her arms were shamelessly wrapped around his lean waist!

Without the slightest reluctance, Shen Rong pushed him away. At that very moment, laughter and voices from far and near rose outside the monastery courtyard...