---
Chapter 1: The Day I Died
They poured poison into a golden cup and handed it to me like it was tea.
I drank it with steady hands.
Across the hall, the Emperor smiled at the concubine draped beside him. Sweet little Meiyan, the same girl who once knelt before me, trembling like a rabbit. Now she wore my colors. Now she sat where I used to.
The courtiers didn't look at me. The eunuchs said nothing. Even the servants had already turned away, as if I were already gone.
I felt it first in my fingertips. Cold. Then my stomach twisted like someone had driven a knife straight through my spine.
Still, I knelt. Still, I bowed. Still, I played my final part.
Because a proper Empress dies with dignity.
---
I fell before the dais. Graceful, silent. The hem of my robe brushed against the edge of the jade stairs.
No one rushed to help me.
I saw Meiyan lean into the Emperor's shoulder, whispering something with a smile too wide to be polite. He laughed.
That laugh followed me into the dark.
---
But the heavens were not done with me.
I woke to the sound of birdsong and the sharp crack of my maid dropping a porcelain tray.
"Your Highness!"
I gasped. Air surged into my lungs like I'd been drowning. My limbs were heavy. My chest ached. And when I sat up, the first thing I saw was the old embroidery on the canopy above me.
This was my old room. My room before the palace. Before the wedding. Before the crown.
I knew this place. I knew this day.
Because this was the day they chose me.
The day I was told I would become Crown Princess.
---
I stumbled to the mirror. My face was untouched. No lines. No scars. My lips still red from sleep. My hands… not yet calloused from ink and prayer.
I had been dead.
But now I lived.
And this time, I would not die quietly.