Chapter 1: Borrowing a Corpse to Return the Soul

“Sister Chi, I didn’t mean to... I’m sorry.”

“How easily you say that. That was my mother’s dowry, the only one of its kind in all of Bianzhou. You broke it—do you think a mere apology is enough?”

The familiar voice made Lü Yan wonder if she was hallucinating. She pressed her hand to her forehead and opened her eyes to see seven or eight noble ladies gathered in a circle before her.

Through a gap, she seemed to glimpse a familiar figure. When the blurriness before her eyes faded, she stared in disbelief and rubbed her eyes.

Wasn’t that her mother—who had been forced to hang herself a year ago?

Lü Yan could hardly believe it. This woman looked much younger and more proud than her mother as she remembered her. Yet the longing for her lost mother surged up so forcefully that she didn’t even have time to wonder where she was before she called out, her voice trembling with emotion:

“Mother?”

Instantly, everyone’s gaze turned to her. The woman at the center, Chi Guiwan—whom she had just called mother—looked at her with obvious fury, her tone sharp and raised:

“Who’s your mother? He Lingyi, are you so homesick you’ve lost your mind?”

The words were utterly unkind, even tinged with visible disgust.

This was a far cry from the mother she remembered—so often sorrowful, self-pitying, and defeated. With a flick of her sleeve, Chi Guiwan knocked over an inkstone on the table. The noble girls around her fell silent in fear, except for Chi Guiwan herself, who glared with fierce and wayward anger.

Lü Yan drew in a sharp breath. So it wasn’t her mother after all!

When her mother died, there wasn’t a single unbruised spot left on her body. How could she be compared to the youthful, naturally dignified woman before her?

Her knees buckled, and she sank onto a stool, looking around in confusion.

If this wasn’t her mother, then who was she?

Suddenly, a piercing headache struck, and a rush of foreign memories flooded her mind.

The commotion around her continued. After a moment, Lü Yan realized she had been reborn into another’s body.

She had returned to the time before her mother’s marriage, and her current identity was that of He Lingyi, the orphaned daughter of an old friend of the Chi family, who were the household of the Assistant Minister of War.

Both her parents were dead, but her grandfather was He Changzhang, a renowned scholar in the southern provinces.

Because of the close ties between the families, she had been sent all the way here to study at the newly established women’s academy in the Chi household—not just her, but also the eldest and second daughters of the Chi family and several other girls from officials’ families in Bianzhou.

As for the one now crying pitifully on the floor, that was Shen Miaoling, daughter of an Assistant Director in the Department of Carriages in Bianzhou.

Her father held a sixth-rank position—lower than the Assistant Minister of War, Chi Yunjing, who was of the fourth rank. Thus, when today’s trouble broke out, all Shen Miaoling could do was weep—there was nothing else for her.

Outside Rongxin Pavilion, willows swayed in the breeze and sunlight poured down, making the inner pond shimmer with light.

Inside, however, the atmosphere was icy.

Tears streaming down her face, Shen Miaoling looked at the furious eldest daughter, Chi Guiwan, and made as if to kneel in apology.

“Please, Sister Chi, don’t be angry. I truly didn’t mean it. If I’d known that was your late mother’s dowry, I would never have touched it. I’m just a simple girl who’s never seen such precious things. Please be magnanimous and forgive me...”

With that, she dropped to her knees, her abject humility making Chi Guiwan, who had just lost a treasured object, seem the villain. Seeing the hostile looks from all around, Chi Guiwan’s hand began to tremble with rage, and her voice grew shrill.

“What are you kneeling for? Are you saying I’m being unreasonable about this?”

She reached out, intending to pull Shen Miaoling up and question her, but the others stepped in, fearing she was about to strike.

Shen Miaoling, “terrified,” retreated and bumped into the newly awakened He Lingyi.

He Lingyi looked up just in time to see the second daughter of the Chi household, Chi Guiying, who was watching from the sidelines, exchange a meaningful glance with Shen Miaoling. In that instant, He Lingyi understood—these two had planned this together!

Not only had they conspired to break the jade goblet, but they intended to use the incident to bolster their own reputations!

Chi Guiying had always loved playing the good Samaritan—unchanged after all these years.

If she hadn’t drugged her mother and ruined her reputation all those years ago, her mother wouldn’t have been rejected by the General’s household or forced into a humiliating marriage with the Lü family.

Every sneer and insult her mother had endured in the Lü household traced back to Chi Guiying!

In fact, among those who drove her mother to her death, Chi Guiying was one of the leading culprits!

The thought sent a surge of hatred through her. Her eyes fell on Chi Guiying with a seething, almost bloodthirsty rage, just as Chi Guiying stepped forward, putting on the guise of a peacemaker to shield Shen Miaoling and speak earnestly:

“Elder sister, calm down. Miaoling truly didn’t do it on purpose. We were all admiring the cup together when your sudden shout startled her and made her drop it. If it will help, I’ll give you mine instead. It may not be as fine as the one that broke, but it’s a gift my uncle brought me from Qingzhou. I’ve barely used it—it’s practically new...”

She didn’t finish before Chi Guiwan cut her off.

With an icy snort, Chi Guiwan snapped, “Oh, so you’re siding with outsiders now? Don’t forget, you’re my sister! What’s Shen giving you that makes you speak up for her?”

This outburst laid bare Chi Guiwan’s sense of injustice, and even the newly-awakened He Lingyi’s eyes reddened in sympathy.

Yet not a single noble girl in the room sided with Chi Guiwan. Instead, they looked on Shen Miaoling with pity and admired Chi Guiying’s show of loyalty.

Memories of similar scenes flooded back.

Since enrolling in the academy that February, the other girls had learned of the treasures filling Chi Guiwan’s storeroom, stirring jealousy and resentment.

Though she was merely the daughter of a fourth-rank official, her maternal family came from a marquisate. Toys and trinkets that left the other girls wide-eyed with wonder were mere trifles to her.

Over time, grievances grew.

At first, everyone feared Chi Guiwan’s explosive temper. But after provoking her several times and seeing that she was all bark and no bite, they began to take advantage—damaging her reputation while helping themselves to her possessions.

Today promised another “good show”—and everyone was eager to join in.

The room filled with admonishments and sarcastic jibes, with Chi Guiwan beset on all sides. At that moment, the ever-virtuous Chi Guiying spoke up again:

“Elder sister, we are sisters—how could I not support you? But Nanny Zong will return soon, and if she finds us quarreling, she won’t care who’s at fault. She’ll punish us all, just like last time when we were caned. Didn’t Lang Yun say you had to ice your hands for days? Do you want that again?”

At once, He Lingyi saw Chi Guiwan’s fighting spirit wane—and that would never do!

Had she been reborn only to watch her mother suffer all over again?

She let out a disdainful laugh, fixed her gaze on Shen Miaoling, who was just rising from the floor, and, with a stern and righteous air, declared:

“Well, I’ve seen bullies before, but I’ve never seen someone use weakness as a weapon so shamelessly. A claim of innocence and a few tears, and you think that means you don’t have to pay? Ridiculous! Should I ‘accidentally’ ruin your prized wolf-hair brush, Shen, and if you get upset, does that make you unreasonable?”

With these words, she exposed the two girls’ ploy for all to see.