Chapter 1: Transmigration

"Speak! Are you having an affair with a guard!"

The crack of the whip mingled with the woman's mournful scream, echoing through the deep Cold Palace.

The woman being flogged lay on the ground, her clothes soaked through with fresh blood.

The barbs on the whip sliced the skin, leaving streaks of bright red.

"As long as you confess, you won't have to endure this torment any longer," a woman in a red robe, wearing a phoenix hairpin, rose from her chair and slowly approached: "Meng Nanyi, you didn't see this coming, did you? In the end you will still die at my hands; not only you, but your family will die together as well!"

The woman on the ground was already on the brink of death; hearing Meng Qinghe's voice, she opened her eyes and, with difficulty, said: "You... you have such a cruel heart, not even sparing your parents."

"Shut up!" Meng Qinghe thrust a foot onto her face: "Those are my parents; what does that have to do with someone like you, whose blood is of a despicable lineage? I said the ones to be buried with you are your biological parents and those unworthy older brothers. You were locked in the Cold Palace by His Majesty yet you were still dishonest, having an affair with a guard. The Emperor has already issued a decree to annihilate the nine families; those who will die with you are naturally them." Meng Qinghe's face bore a smug smile: "You never acknowledged them; not only do they not blame you, they even think it's fortunate you didn't return, that you should stay in the Minister's Residence to be pampered, and they even rejoice for you! If they knew you were living a life worse than a pig or dog here, how would they feel? Hahaha..."

"You!"

"Meng Nanyi, you cannot blame others; you stole my noble birth! You forced me to live humbly in such poverty for fourteen years! This is a debt you owe me; you should repay it with your life!"

She slowly crouched, her face full of smug arrogance: "Meng Nanyi—no, I should call you Chi Nan Yi. In your next life, remember to stay far from me." She reached out, her fingernail scraping Chi Nan Yi's face, leaving a bloodstain: "What I despise most is this face of yours; even in the Cold Palace you still linger in His Majesty's thoughts. Today I will destroy this face to relieve the hatred in my heart."

At that moment, a scarred hand seized her wrist; before she could recover, Chi Nan Yi's other hand moved with lightning speed, yanked the hairpin from her head, and drove it hard into Meng Qinghe's throat, warm blood splattering on Chi Nan Yi's hand and face, highlighting her blood‑red eyes, looking like a demon straight out of hell.

Meng Qinghe clutched her throat, looking at Chi Nan Yi in disbelief: "You..." Her body slowly collapsed.

Chi Nan Yi no longer had the strength to pull the hairpin out; she stared at it—it was a hairpin personally bestowed by the Crown Prince when she became a secondary consort, which she had always treasured. Now, looking back, it seemed utterly ridiculous.

In the next instant, a whooshing sound rang out, and an arrow pierced Chi Nan Yi's body.

A bright yellow robe flashed into her sight.

"Your Majesty, the Noble Consort has already died."

"Hmm," a voice devoid of emotion reached her ears: "She will be buried with the rites of a Noble Consort, died of illness."

"Eh, what about this one?"

The 'one' mentioned by the eunuch naturally referred to Chi Nan Yi.

Chi Nan Yi did not wait for the man's reply; she only heard some sound coming from the palace gate. She slowly closed her eyes, a tear of blood fell, and if there were a next life, she would never be as foolish as she was this life, never again…

At that moment, deep within a dense forest, several agile figures in camouflage uniforms darted through the trees.

"Captain! What do we do? We're already surrounded!"

Chi Nan Yi glanced around, handed a crystal core to a teammate: "I'll cover you, hurry and go!"

"Captain!"

"Enough chatter, we must get this crystal core out safely. Its importance is paramount; even if it costs everyone's lives, it cannot fall into spy hands. Beyond this forest lies the Boundary Monument; we must return the crystal core to the motherland."

The teammates heard this, a trace of reluctance flashing in their eyes, but now was no time for sentiment. If the crystal core fell into spy hands, not only them but the entire Z Country's secrets would be stolen by another nation.

Just as they left the forest and stepped onto the Boundary Monument, a massive roar erupted from the distant woods, crimson flames shooting skyward, and the explosion made everyone's hearts tremble.

Z Country's famed agent Nightingale fell here.

As the blast sounded, Chi Nan Yi felt her body become weightless, a flash of white light blinded her, and she completely lost consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, a clamor rose to her ears.

"When did this happen? Everything was fine, how did it end up in the water? It's already autumn; the water in the pond must be so cold!" A woman sitting by her bedside glared at the maidservants nearby, saying: "How do you all serve? Even the young lady can't be served properly!"

The maidservants knelt on the ground; hearing the woman's voice, Chi Nan Yi couldn't help furrowing her brows.

Who is this person!

Wasn't I blown up? In my previous life I never got a peaceful sleep; how is it that even in death I still can't rest comfortably for a moment?

Before she could even open her eyes, unfamiliar memories flooded her mind.

This... what's happening?

Whose memory is this?

It took her a long time to process this strange memory.

Time travel and rebirth? Or rebirth three years before the original's death?

What kind of melodramatic plot is this?

In her previous life, the Minister's Residence's daughter Meng Nanyi lived fourteen years before discovering she was a swapped fake heiress; after the true heiress returned home, she refused to go to the countryside to live in poverty, and, with the Minister and the matriarch's earnest pleas, chose to stay in the Minister's Residence, where the matriarch even promised to treat her as a biological daughter.

She had thought the Minister and his wife kept her by their unwillingness to let go of their affection, but in truth it was because the Crown Prince liked her face; the Minister wanted to use that face to win over the Crown Prince, and the Meng Family had cultivated her for over a decade to make her a palace consort—how could they let this pawn be discarded so easily?

She not only mastered the Four Books and Five Classics but also studied military strategy; after marrying the Crown Prince as a secondary consort, she constantly plotted to help the Crown Prince seize the throne.

Consequently, the day after the Crown Prince successfully ascended the throne, she was driven to the Cold Palace on fabricated charges, and then Meng Qinghe, now the Noble Consort, falsely accused her of an affair with a guard and tortured her to death.

Not only did she die, but her true family also suffered calamity.

All of this was bestowed by the people of the Minister's Residence.

According to Meng Qinghe's mind, she had no such scheming, so those behind her…