Chapter 25: Nightmare

Shen Mengli smiled; she had no task that required Xique to go through fire and water for her.

In her previous life, Xique had remained unmarried her entire life, laboring away by her side with tireless devotion. In this lifetime, she hoped that Xique would find happiness, secure a loving husband, and bear healthy children.

After rewarding Mother Hu and Xique, Shen Mengli did not show favoritism; she bestowed gifts upon all the servants in Snow Bamboo Residence, filling the entire courtyard with a festive air.

Listening Rain Pavilion.

Lin Qingyu, dressed in a jade-colored gauze cloud-patterned gown, lay upon a sandalwood lotus-carved bed. Her eyes were tightly shut, cold sweat beaded on her forehead, and she murmured incoherently, as if trapped in a nightmare.

"No!"

With a sharp cry, Lin Qingyu jolted awake, her face etched with terror.

"Mistress, what is wrong?" Hearing the commotion, Biyu hurried in from the outer room.

"Biyu? Why are you here?"

Seeing Biyu, confusion clouded Lin Qingyu’s eyes. Had Biyu not been beaten to death by Shen Mengqing? And as for herself, after she had schemed to kill Shen Mengqing, she had been poisoned to death by her own personal maid, Dujuan. Why was she here?

"Mistress, haven't I been here serving you all day? Did you have a nightmare?"

"What time is it now?" Lin Qingyu gripped Biyu’s hand and asked anxiously.

"Replying to Mistress, it is the fifth year of Guangqi."

She had been reborn!

She had returned to fifteen years ago, just when the Heir Apparent had first married.

This was Lin Qingyu’s second rebirth. In her first life, she had been an ordinary office worker in the twenty-first century, dying of sudden cardiac arrest from overwork and late nights. She had then been reborn as a courtesan in a high-class establishment in the Great Xia Kingdom. In that life, she possessed beauty she had never had before, and by feigning a life-saving favor, she made Qi Yunyan, the Heir Apparent to the Prince of Duan, fall in love with her.

It was a pity that her status was too low, and she could only be taken as a concubine. Fortunately, the Heir Apparent, Qi Yunyan, had his heart set entirely on her; even after his family arranged a legal wife for him, he cherished only her. She had never expected that she would not die at the hands of the Heir Apparent’s consort, Shen Mengqing, but would instead be defeated by a mundane, unremarkable maid.

Fortunately, heaven had eyes.

It had given her another chance at rebirth, allowing her to return to the time when Shen Mengqing had just married into the Prince’s mansion, before anything had happened. In this life, having grasped the advantage of foresight, she would surely crush that wretch Shen Mengqing and ensure that everyone who had bullied her met a miserable end. Then, she would become the Consort to the Heir Apparent and the mistress of the Prince of Duan’s household.

"By the way, where has the Heir Apparent gone?"

"The Heir Apparent has just returned from accompanying the Consort to her maiden home, and he is currently being summoned to the study by the Prince."

Qi Yunyan actually accompanied Shen Mengli on her return visit? This was something that had never happened in her previous life.

"What is the Consort’s name?" Lin Qingyu asked again.

"The Consort’s maiden name is Shen Mengli," Biyu replied.

Everything was different!

In this life, even the choice for the Heir Apparent’s consort had changed; it was not Shen Mengqing, but her elder sister, Shen Mengli.

Lin Qingyu had no interaction with Shen Mengli in her previous life, but her husband, Zhuo Hua, was the highly influential Chancellor of the dynasty. As Zhuo Hua’s wife, Shen Mengli had been the subject of much public attention, and she had heard of her reputation.

How had Shen Mengli become the Heir Apparent’s consort? Wasn't she supposed to be Zhuo Hua’s wife? Could it be that something she was unaware of had occurred in this timeline?

"Biyu, I recall that the Consort was originally supposed to be Shen Mengqing. How did it become Shen Mengli?"

"Mistress, it is like this: it was indeed settled as Shen Mengqing at first, but before the wedding, the two families swapped the brides. It is said that Shen Mengqing was enamored with a student of Master Shen, and the Prince, out of kindness, allowed her to marry that student, while Shen Mengli married into the Prince’s mansion to become the Consort."