When Xue Dongting opened her eyes she saw snow, the sky full of swirling snowflakes. She was nearly buried in snow.
She lay on a bamboo raft in the middle of a big lake. Her eyelashes were tiny little icicles.
Her thin clothes fluttered and rippled in the cold wind. Her crepe waistband rustled and tremored.
She was a bit foggy. Had she⌠Had she not died?
Third Princeâs steel sword had clearly plunged into her chest. She clearly remembered the cold sneer on his lips, remembered that woman holding the white cat, her stunned expression yet betraying a faint sense of satisfaction.
Xue Dongting reached out and waved her hand before her a few times, stirring the whirling snowflakes in the air. It was odd. Why was the deep, ugly scar on her pale wrist gone? That was from when she was twenty, when she had helped Third Prince root out a dissenter. She had helped Third Prince Zhao Xuanzhi climb step by step to the position of crown prince. What she had received in return was an ice cold stab through the heart. And that woman with her white cat, the gentle, weak prime ministerâs daughter, had become the princeâs lawful wife.
Xue Dongting laughed at herself. Who was she? She had started out as nothing more than a singsong girl from a border town by the eastern sea. When she was seventeen, the Bureau of Astronomy happened to make a prophecy that if one âobtained the Dongting girl by the eastern sea he would have the worldâ. And so Third Prince Zhao Xuanzhi came from afar and taken this lowly singing girl from her border town Cloudgem Lodge.
Xue Dongting was in a daze. She didnât know where she was. She felt she had done many bad things in her life, that when she died she ought to be sent to the pits of Hell. But this place didnât seem like Hell. In the frigid air wafted a faint scent she found familiar.
Suddenly there was a shout from lakeside. âXue Dongting! Itâs so cold out, what are you doing taking a cat nap out on the lake? Hurry up and get over here!â
She couldnât help but flinch. That was Mama Qiaoâs voice. How could that be? Three years after she left Cloudgem Lodge Mama Qiao had passed away from an illness! Xue Dongting suddenly sat up and looked toward the bamboo building on the bank. It was from here that she had left a long time ago. Was that Cloudgem Lodge?
Xue Dongting mumbled, âIâve come back? Iâve⌠Iâve been reborn?â
Tears dripped down her face. She clenched her fists and thought, âIs this an opportunity from Heaven, another chance at life? In this life, I wonât lead a dangerous life and submit to being pushed around. In this life, I wonât get caught up in that prophecy from the Bureau of Astronomy. Iâm not the Dongting girl from the eastern sea, Iâm Xue Dongting!â
A cold breeze whistled past, rippling over the frigid water. That icy feeling told her this was not a dream. She stood up trembling, took up the raft oar, and with a series of grunts and exclamations rowed to the shore. She took one look at the slender-waisted but dignified looking beautiful woman before her and Xue Dongting came up and hugged her, held her tightly.
Mama Qiao staggered, baffled. âGirl, whatâs gotten into you?â
Xue Dongting was crying. âMama Qiao, now I know, youâre the only person in my whole life who will treat me well.â In her previous life at the third princeâs estate she had encountered too many malicious hypocrites.
Mama Qiao scratched her head helplessly. âAlright, stop acting, I wonât scold you, okay? Whatâs a girl of sixteen talking about her âwhole lifeâ for?â
Xue Dongting zoned out for a second, then looked up at Mama Qiao. âIâm now⌠sixteen?â
Mama Qiao frowned. âCan you not even remember how old you are?â
Xue Dongting nodded and forced a smile. âI remember, I just wanted to make sure.â
In the autumn of her seventeenth year, the third prince would arrive.