Chapter 1: A Summer Day Returned From Death

The summer heat was suffocating.

The blazing sun scorched down, stirring unease in people’s hearts.

By the moon-gate window, an old matron dressed in a brown tunic stood ramrod straight, endlessly lecturing the young lady before her.

“Third Miss, how many times must this servant repeat herself.

You must remember your current status at all times.

It is not yet the hour for rest, so how could you loosen your shawl and let your waist slacken like this.

And look at your sitting posture.

Your bearing was never strong to begin with, and if you do not keep yourself restrained on ordinary days, if you are careless and someone catches sight of it, what then.

The Eldest Miss would never behave in such a manner.”

“You must also remember that the Yan household has towering gates and deep courtyards.

The rules inside are so strict that not the slightest misstep is permitted…”

The old matron’s surname was Wu.

She was Madam Pu’s trusted confidante and the one who oversaw discipline.

Her temperament had always been fierce, her conduct rigid and unbending.

She was like Madam Pu’s very eyes, tolerating not the smallest deviation from those beneath her.

Pu Wange—no.

She should be called Pu Jinyu—sat upright in silence, enduring the scolding.

In the past, she would at least respond once or twice.

Now, she did not utter a single word.

Even with rouge and powder applied, one could still vaguely see the sickly pallor beneath her complexion.

Her personal maid, Jing Chun, noticed that something was amiss.

She hurriedly stepped forward to explain on her behalf, saying that Pu Jinyu had not been deliberately slacking off.

The weather was simply too hot, and her skin could not endure it.

She explained that it had not taken long for heat rash to break out across her back.

That was why, while no one was around, she had loosened her shawl and let her waist relax.

They had even been discussing whether to apply medicine.

Jing Chun had originally been the personal maid of Pu Jinyu’s legitimate elder sister, Pu Wange.

She held a certain standing within the Pu household.

Thus, when she spoke, Old Madam Wu gave her a thin measure of face.

Still, in order to assert authority and offer a warning, the matron turned her gaze back on Jing Chun.

“As the young lady’s personal maid, why didn’t you remind her earlier.”

“If anything goes wrong and the matter gets exposed, all of us will die.”

Her voice was deliberately lowered.

Her expression was dark and displeased.

“Yes, yes… you’re absolutely right.”

Jing Chun nodded rapidly.

“We servants will be more careful next time and remind her properly.

We will also make sure to look after Third—Eldest Miss.”

She nearly failed to correct herself in time and hastily slapped her own mouth.

Old Madam Wu frowned at this and warned her repeatedly to be more cautious.

After muttering on for quite some time, her throat finally went dry.

She accepted a cup of tea Jing Chun poured for her and then left the room.

“Miss, are you all right?”

Seeing that the young lady’s complexion was poor and that she had not spoken for a long while, Jing Chun grew worried.

“If you’re feeling unwell, shall this servant fetch a physician.”

“It may be risky, but it’s better than waiting until things become serious.”

Pu Jinyu seemed lost in thought.

She neither heard the words nor responded.

Her face grew paler by the moment, her hand clenched tightly, as though gripping something unseen.

After waiting for some time with no answer, Jing Chun frowned deeply and immediately sent a small maid to fetch a physician.

The small maid passed through the beaded curtain.

The jade strands collided with a clear, tinkling sound.

As they swayed, pearls shimmered with flickering light.

The silent young lady’s lashes trembled as the light danced across her vision.

It was as though she had just awakened from a dream.

“N-no need to call the physician.”

Hearing this, the small maid halted and turned back.

Jing Chun hurried forward anxiously, pouring a cup of tea.

“Miss, are you truly all right?”

The capital had been unbearably hot these past two days.

Although ice blocks and wind wheels had been placed indoors, Pu Jinyu’s skin was exceptionally sensitive.

No matter how fine the fabric of her clothing, it was useless.

She could not endure heat, wind, or sun.

At the slightest warmth, heat rash would bloom across her skin.

Her complexion was pale and delicate.

When the rash flared repeatedly, it looked especially alarming.

Jing Chun had applied medicinal ointments for her.

They had accomplished little.

Because Pu Jinyu’s skin tone was too fair and differed from Pu Wange’s, she had to apply powder daily to conceal the discrepancy.

Only then could they ensure nothing went wrong.

With powder applied again and again, the rash healed only to break out anew.

It never truly disappeared.

In previous years, relief only came once autumn arrived and the weather cooled.

But now, it was only early summer.

The season still stretched long ahead.

“Shall this servant bring you a bowl of iced snow yuanzi?”

Seeing how poor her complexion was, Jing Chun tried to coax her.

It was something Pu Jinyu liked.

In the past, whenever she felt wronged, Jing Chun would secretly bring her a small bowl.

“You should go as well.”

Pu Jinyu did not answer whether she would eat it.

She lifted her eyes to look at Jing Chun.
“…I want to be alone for a while.”

Meeting her gaze, Jing Chun felt that something was different.

What exactly was different, she could not say.

Pu Jinyu had been scolded by Old Madam Wu before.

Yet she was rarely this silent.

Especially her eyes.

They were deathly still.

Like a pool of stagnant water without the faintest ripple.

Jing Chun wanted to say more, to offer comfort.

But Pu Jinyu had already closed her eyes.

Seeing this, Jing Chun could only withdraw.

“This servant will remain outside.

If you need anything, just call.”

Pu Jinyu did not respond.

Jing Chun led the maids out of the inner chamber.

Their footsteps gradually faded away.

Once the room emptied, Pu Jinyu’s hands resting on her knees slowly tightened.

They trembled.

She lowered her head and stared blankly at her palms.

The calluses from holding a brush were far fewer.

There were no old burn scars at the tiger’s mouth of her hand from candle flames.

She turned toward the dressing table.

In the bronze mirror, the young lady reflected appeared dignified and elegant.

Yet upon closer inspection, there was a faint trace of youthful greenness in her brows and eyes.

This was not the face of a twenty-nine-year-old woman.

Setting everything else aside, her lower abdomen was flat.

She was not with child.

Only then did she touch her stomach.

Then her face in the mirror.

Only then did she barely regain a sense of reality.

She seemed to have truly died… and returned to life.

Yes.

She had died from difficult labor and yet lived again.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself back in a summer afternoon of the third year after marrying in another’s stead.

On this very day, after lunch, she had quietly loosened her shawl and relaxed her waist, hoping to stretch and steal a brief moment of rest.

That was when the old matron sent by her legal mother caught her.

The matron immediately dismissed everyone else and berated her relentlessly.

She scolded her for still not shedding her rustic habits after three years.

She accused her of having no sense of propriety at all.

Her spittle nearly sprayed onto Pu Jinyu’s face.

She should have died.

So why was she alive again.

Was it all an illusion.

No.

It was not an illusion.

Her previous life had been lived in constant fear and anxiety.

She had endured hardship and suffering for so long.

If it were merely a dream or hallucination, it would have been far too merciful.

She could never forget it.

That had been more than ten years later.

She had been nearing thirty.

Yet she never crossed that threshold.

Perhaps from overwork across those ten, nearly twenty years, she became pregnant but failed to deliver safely.

Not long after the fetus stirred, she collapsed from exhaustion.

In the end, both mother and child died.

After her death, her soul did not disperse.

It drifted.

And in doing so, it learned many truths.

Her legitimate elder sister had not died.

Not at all.

She had not succumbed to illness early.

She had staged her death to follow her lover.

Among those who came to mourn at the memorial hall, Pu Jinyu saw her elder sister in disguise.

Alive.

Hidden among the crowd.

Watching her spirit tablet as an outsider.

That was not even the most important revelation.

The most laughable of all was her concubine mother.

The woman she trusted and loved most had deceived her from beginning to end.

Her concubine mother had never been coerced.

Her legal mother had never threatened her life to force a substitute marriage.

Instead, for the sake of her own splendid future, when the Yan–Pu marriage was approaching and the legitimate elder sister suddenly fell gravely ill, her concubine mother seized the opportunity to rise in status.

She wished to secure a foothold in the Pu household.

She proactively offered counsel to the legal mother.

She said that there was another daughter raised at a rural estate.

Her appearance resembled the elder sister’s.

Her age and build were similar.

She could be brought back.

Disguised anew.

Trained in the elder sister’s speech and mannerisms.

She could deceive everyone.

Marry in the elder sister’s place first.

And once the elder sister recovered, the two could be switched back.

Pu Jinyu only came to understand all this because after her death, she could not bear to leave her concubine mother behind.

She worried that life in the Pu household would be difficult for her.

So she drifted back to see her one last time.

Her concubine mother lay prostrate by the bedside, crying.

Her hair was disheveled.

Her sorrow appeared heart-rending.

Her rouge was smeared by tears.

It looked as though her heart and bowels were torn apart.

Yet those tears were not shed out of genuine pain for her daughter.

As she cried, she cursed Pu Jinyu for being short-lived and useless.

She lamented that even after becoming pregnant, she could not give birth.

She complained that she had died at such a time.

Why not die earlier.

Why not later.

Why not give birth first and then die.

Now that she was dead, what was her concubine mother to do.

Trapped in the deep courtyards of the Pu household.

Aging.

Losing favor.

With no support to rely on.

She cursed her endlessly as a money-losing burden.

Born a girl.

Wearing her down for half a lifetime.

Only to die so soon and inhumanly at the end.

Hearing this, Pu Jinyu’s mind buzzed.

She froze in midair, unable to comprehend.

She stared at her concubine mother’s tear-streaked face.

She could scarcely believe it.

This was her true heart.

Had she not heard those words herself, she would never have believed anyone who told her so.

Listening to her own mother’s wailing cries and watching the tears fall, Pu Jinyu hazily recalled the past.

It was so distant it felt like an old dream.

Back then, she had not yet lived as the puppet named Pu Wange.

She was still Pu Jinyu.

She had a name of her own.

Looking back on her life, as an illegitimate daughter, she had been forced from birth to dress as a boy to please her father.

Falsehood could never become truth.

As she grew older, her identity could no longer be concealed.

Her concubine mother decisively schemed to send her away to a remote, desolate place.

At the time, the young Pu Jinyu could not understand abandonment.

She mistook those tearful eyes for love and concern.

Concern that she had disguised herself from such a young age.

Deliberation that she could not continue this forever.

So she was sent to the countryside.

In truth, it was all a lie.

Her concubine mother had simply seen her as a burden.

If not for the incident involving her legitimate elder sister, she would likely have been abandoned there for life.

Instead, she was dragged back to become a useful tool once more.

Gold and jade.

What her concubine mother wanted was a true piece of gold jade in a male body.

Not her counterfeit “Jinyu.”

Again and again, she had been used and discarded.

All to secure her concubine mother’s position and wealth.

Even in death, she received not a shred of goodwill.

Looking back on the first half of her life, Pu Jinyu found it laughable.

Pitiful.

She had only awakened to the truth upon dying.

By then, it was already useless.

In the thirteenth year of Yangyou, she succumbed to exhaustion.

She died from difficult labor at the age of twenty-nine.

She was buried in the Yan household under the name of Pu Wange.

Her body and soul were trapped for a lifetime within that bone-devouring estate.

She thought her soul would disperse.

She thought she would die carrying her resentment with her.

Yet instead, she was reborn.

When she first opened her eyes earlier, all she felt was noise.

Endless noise.

She saw a mouth opening and closing incessantly.

Upon focusing, she realized it was Old Madam Wu’s aged face.

As her consciousness returned, those nagging words grew clearer.

Her heart pounded.

Her fingers dug into her palm.

Pain surged again and again.

It told her this was real.

Alive.

Now, lifting her eyes through the moon-gate window, she saw the Yan household’s red bricks and blue tiles.

The soft gauze curtains of the inner chamber.

Thinking of everything that had happened in her previous life, she curled her lips into a cold smile.

She slowly lowered her lashes.

She put on a meek, pitiful expression.

And hid the surging torrent of emotion beneath.