Chapter One: The Young Master’s Entrapment

“Miss! Miss! Why are you still standing there, lost in thought? Hurry, let's go! If the servants catch us, it'll be over!”

The next moment, Shen Zhi Ning was forced to open her eyes by a violent shaking. Under the cold, pale moonlight, Yu Zhu's forehead was beaded with sweat from fear.

Wait! Yu Zhu? Wasn't she already dead? How could she see Yu Zhu?

Could it be that everything was just a dream?

Shen Zhi Ning, in disbelief, pinched herself. Ouch… it hurt! What was going on?

“My lady, if we don’t leave now, it’ll really be too late! Since that’s the case, forgive me for being forward!”

Before Shen Zhi Ning could react, Yu Zhu grabbed her wrist and ran off wildly. They didn’t stop until they reached an inconspicuous alley.

Shen Zhi Ning felt bewildered. Hadn’t she died in the depths of the palace? Why was she standing here, alive and well, and why did this scene feel so familiar?

She halted.

Yu Zhu, seeing her mistress stop again, guardedly placed herself in front of Shen Zhi Ning, keeping watch.

“Yu Zhu, what time is it now?”

“Miss, it’s already the hour of Hai. The carriage at the city gate has been waiting for us for quite a while.”

Shen Zhi Ning rubbed her forehead.

“No, I mean… what year is it?”

Yu Zhu was puzzled but answered honestly, “It’s the thirteenth year of the Great Qing. We just snuck out of the mansion, and now we’re heading to the carriage.”

Seeing her mistress ask a question even a three-year-old could answer, Yu Zhu could only silently comfort herself that the fever from a few days ago must have muddled her mistress’s mind.

The carriage? The capital? Family rules... Pei Zhi!

Shen Zhi Ning nervously touched her wrist, and in her mind, a sorrowful face took shape—the very demon haunting her life: Pei Zhi.

In her previous life, before she could leave the city, Pei Zhi caught her. He personally dragged her back to the Shen mansion. Her father, furious, locked her in the ancestral hall for three days. Everyone in Yun County knew, and her reputation for violating the virtues of a woman began there.

Yes, it all fit! Memories that had been lost rushed back into Shen Zhi Ning’s mind.

It was the thirteenth year of the Great Qing; she was still in Yun County, and her parents were alive.

Could it be she had been reborn?

To test her suspicion, Shen Zhi Ning led Yu Zhu along a small path, hiding near the carriage to observe the surroundings.

If she guessed right, her cousin—the future Prime Minister—was already lying in wait nearby, ready to catch her the moment she fell into the trap.

Thinking of her cold-hearted cousin, Shen Zhi Ning couldn’t help but shiver.

It was thanks to him that she died in the palace in her last life.

“Miss, are we really not going over?”

Shen Zhi Ning waved her hand and sneered toward the carriage, “This cat-and-mouse drama—once is enough.”

She turned and vanished into the night with Yu Zhu.

Shen Zhi Ning’s previous life was indeed extraordinary, but it was Pei Zhi, the First Assistant, who had painted its most intense stroke.

Her attempt to escape before marriage was only a trivial episode.

Meanwhile, the Shen mansion was ablaze with lights. The servants who spotted Shen Zhi Ning’s shadow hurried back to report.

“Cousin, you truly made me search.”

In the dark, a cold, emotionless voice rang out, ghostly and chilling.

Hearing it, Shen Zhi Ning turned, stunned.

Beneath the icy moonlight, Pei Zhi stood dressed in white, his face expressionless. The vermillion mole at his eye corner gleamed blood-red under the moon.

Even from afar, Shen Zhi Ning could never forget Pei Zhi’s appearance.

He was the man she had hated so much in her last life she wished to grind his bones to dust.

Shen Zhi Ning had always been beautiful, the only legitimate daughter of Yun County’s magistrate. Men from miles around admired her, but she would not even look at the country bumpkins.

Relying on her astonishing beauty, she climbed step by step from Yun County to the capital, eventually becoming the most honored woman in all of Great Qing.

She possessed countless honors, and the Emperor gave her the best of everything.

If only Pei Zhi had not existed… she could have enjoyed a life of glory.

It was around the second year Pei Zhi became First Assistant that countless officials began to impeach her, the Empress secluded in the palace. In their eyes, the decline of Great Qing was blamed on her, the demon Empress.

Of course, Pei Zhi was behind it all...

By then, the Emperor had become a puppet in his hands, and Pei Zhi, at the peak of power, forced Yu Wen Yuan to depose the Empress. Then, a cup of poisoned wine was sent to Changchun Palace, killing her without a shred of sibling affection.

Thinking of today in her last life, Shen Zhi Ning’s face turned pale.

On the day she secretly left the mansion, Pei Zhi somehow learned of it, intercepted the carriage, and, ignoring her pleas, escorted her back by force.

The Shen mansion was lit up all night, and her father threatened to sever their relationship.

She remembered it so clearly thanks to Pei Zhi, whose whip fell mercilessly—no less severe than punishment in the magistrate’s office.

Pei Zhi was the son of Pei Grand Tutor, her father’s sworn brother, so there was not a drop of blood between them. In status, the Pei family far surpassed the Shen family.

Pei Grand Tutor, wanting Pei Zhi to prepare for the upcoming Spring Examinations, remembered his distant sworn brother and sent his only son to the picturesque Yun County for cultivation.

As soon as Pei Zhi entered the mansion, he somehow bewitched her parents, and even the servants obeyed him. Her father entrusted her studies to his care.

A noble son like Pei Zhi taught rules with uncompromising rigor.

So Shen Zhi Ning disliked him—not a little, but intensely.

Before she could recover from her memories, that cold male voice sounded again behind her.

“Cousin, since you’re already at the mansion gate, why not enter?”

Shen Zhi Ning rolled her eyes inwardly, cursing him, but had to turn and bow properly to Pei Zhi.

“After you, cousin.”

The man wore white robes, shimmering faintly under the moonlight. The attendant beside him was dressed in fine black, showing the Pei family’s wealth.

Pei Zhi nodded slightly, his face still cold, and even walking, his attendants cleared the way.

A gust of wind swept the cold, snowy scent from Pei Zhi toward Shen Zhi Ning.

She stared at Pei Zhi, separated by the crowd, her pupils contracting as she tightened her sleeves.

That scent—she had smelled it thousands of times in her previous life, even in her final moments.

It belonged only to Pei Zhi.

Indeed, every time it made her loathe him.

It seemed Shen Zhi Ning truly had returned to the past.

Shen Master and his wife had been devoted for decades, never taking a concubine, so Shen Zhi Ning was their only daughter.

They always hoped to mold her into a grand lady like those in the capital, but whenever they saw her troubled by etiquette, Madam Shen would soften and persuade her husband to relent.

Yet Pei Zhi’s arrival rekindled their hopes.

With the servants’ announcement, Pei Zhi entered, austere and cold, with Shen Zhi Ning trailing behind, unwilling.

“Wretched girl! Kneel now!”

As soon as Shen Zhi Ning stepped into the hall, her father’s thunderous roar shook the room.