In the heart of the city's wealthiest district, the Wen family's private villa glowed like a dream under the moonlight — marble walls, towering glass windows, and a sprawling garden blooming with night roses.
Inside, behind the highest floor's closed doors, Wen Yanyi's bedroom was a kingdom of silk and shadows.
She lay sprawled lazily across a bed big enough to swallow her whole, white silk sheets draped over her long, slender legs. Her skin was porcelain — pale as fresh milk under the soft golden lamps, the curve of her neck leading down to delicate collarbones peeking from her silk nightgown. The fabric clung to her like mist, tracing the line of her slender waist, the gentle slope of her shoulders, the subtle swell of her chest.
She shifted, letting her bare legs stretch across the sheets. In the gilded mirror across the room, her reflection gleamed like a dream — hair long and dark, lashes thick enough to cast shadows, lips soft and tinted a natural rose.
She knew exactly what she looked like.
And exactly how to use it.
With a lazy sigh, Wen Yanyi rose from the bed, silk whispering against her skin. She slipped the nightgown off her shoulders. The fabric slid down her body and fell in a pool of white at her feet, baring her milk-white skin to the moonlight spilling through the glass walls.
Barefoot, she padded across the marble floor to the grand bathroom. Steam curled from a sunken tub already filled with warm water, surface covered in fresh rose petals. She stepped in, water lapping at her thighs, her waist, until she sank beneath the blooms with a soft exhale.
For a while, there was only silence — the faint splash of water, the drifting scent of roses, her own heartbeat echoing in her ears.
When she emerged, she was all wet skin and dripping hair, water sliding down her smooth shoulders and collarbones like beads of crystal. She wrapped herself in a fresh silk robe and sat at her vanity. Drops fell onto the marble counter as she ran her fingers through her hair, studying her reflection — the face that had once ruined her, that she'd polish into her greatest weapon.
One year, she thought, brushing a rose petal across her lips. One year since I came back.
In her last life, she'd been spoiled and reckless — a delicate princess clinging shamelessly to Shen Jiyan, her childhood sweetheart who'd never once pushed her away. She'd thought it would always be that way — until another girl arrived and stole it all. His love, his name, his protection. Left her desperate, crawling in the dirt until everyone turned on her.
In the end, she'd died alone — her family destroyed, her name spat on.
Not this time.
Now, a year since she woke up seventeen again, Wen Yanyi had transformed herself. Still pampered, still a spoiled heiress — but this time, she was everyone's precious moonlight. The soft, gentle girl who never threw tantrums, who always smiled sweetly, who everyone adored and wanted to protect.
One month from now, Shen Jiyan would return from abroad — the golden heir, the quiet prince she once thought belonged to her by right. But this time, she wouldn't run to greet him, weep for him, beg him.
This time, she'd stand far enough to seem untouchable — sweet enough to linger on his mind.
She pressed the rose petal to her lips, her eyes darkening with a secret smile.
This time, she thought, I'll make you look at me first. And when you do…
A drop of water slipped from her hair, trailing down her throat.
You'll come to me willingly. Just like you always should have.