Wei Lian's POV
The blade touched my neck, cold as winter.
Any last words, traitor? The executioner's voice echoed across the Imperial Garden.
I knelt on blood-stained stones, hands bound, surrounded by silent guards. Above me, cherry blossoms fell like pink snow. Beautiful. Wrong. Everything about this moment was wrong.
I didn't do it, I whispered. I never even met the Crown Prince. How could I poison him?
No one answered. No one cared.
Across the garden, Emperor Shen Yao watched from his platform, face carved from ice. In three years as his concubine, he'd never once looked at me. Not at ceremonies, not in passing, never.
I was invisible. Forgotten. Nothing.
And now I was dying for a crime I didn't commit.
The evidence is clear, the Empress Dowager announced, her voice ringing with false sadness. Poison found in Concubine Wei Lian's chambers. The Crown Prince dead. Justice demands blood.
Lies. Someone planted that poison. But who? Why target mea nobody concubine from a disgraced family?
I'd never know. In three minutes, I'd be dead.
Execute her, the Emperor said flatly.
Those were the only words he'd ever spoken to me. Two words. Execute her.
The executioner raised his blade. Sunlight flashed along the edge.
I closed my eyes. Thought of my younger brother at the borderlands, fighting to survive. Thought of my dead parents. Thought of three wasted years hiding in shadows, trying not to be noticed.
What a stupid way to die.
The blade fell
Pain exploded through my neck. Hot. Sharp. Then nothing.
Darkness swallowed me.
Finally. It's over.
Except it wasn't.
I couldn't move, couldn't speak, but somehow I was still aware. Trapped. Watching.
Watching the Imperial Guards carry my body away like garbage.
Watching the Empress Dowager smile behind her fan.
Watching Imperial Consort Hua Rong, the Emperor's favorite, mother of the Crown Prince, weep beautiful tears that fooled everyone.
But I saw the truth in her eyes. Victory. Satisfaction.
She did this. She killed her own son and blamed me.
Rage burned through my consciousness, but I couldn't scream. Could only watch.
Days passed. Then weeks.
The palace moved on. No one mentioned my name. I was erased, like I'd never existed.
But worse was coming.
The Emperor grew colder. More paranoid. He executed three ministers for suspicious behavior. Imprisoned General Lin Zhao's family. Started seeing traitors everywhere.
Imperial Consort Hua Rong played her part perfectly, the grieving mother, whispering poison in his ear. Trust no one, Your Majesty. They all want to destroy you.
And he believed her.
Six months after my death, the floods came. The southern provinces drowned. Fifty thousand dead. The disaster relief funds never arrived, stolen by corrupt ministers.
I'd known about those floods. Read the reports in the Imperial Library. Seen the warnings. Could have stopped it.
But I was dead. Silenced.
One year after my death, General Lin Zhao's entire family was massacred. The Emperor ordered it personally, convinced they were plotting rebellion.
They weren't. I'd watched Lin Zhao for months before my death. He was loyal. Honest.
Now his wife and daughter were dead because the Emperor trusted the wrong people.
Eighteen months after my death, everything collapsed.
Rebel forces attacked from the south. The ministers the Emperor trusted? Traitors. Every single one. They opened the palace gates and let the rebels flood in.
I watched the Emperor fight. Watched him cut down dozens of enemies, bleeding from a hundred wounds, refusing to surrender.
Imperial Consort Hua Rong appeared then, alive, beautiful, smiling. Did you really think I loved you? Your empire is ashes, Shen Yao. And I'm the one who burned it.
The look on his face broke something in me. Betrayal. Understanding. Rage.
Why? he choked out.
Because your family destroyed mine seventy years ago. This was always revenge. She laughed. And that stupid concubine you executed? She was innocent. I killed my own son and framed her because I needed you paranoid and broken. It worked perfectly.
The Emperor lunged for her, but rebel soldiers cut him down.
He fell at the base of the cherry tree where I'd died.
The palace burned. The empire crumbled. Everything ended in blood and ash.
And I watched it all. Trapped. Screaming silently. Understanding too late.
I could have stopped this. If I'd been braver, smarter, less invisible
Darkness pulled at me. Finally releasing me. Finally letting me fade.
I'm sorry, I thought at the dying Emperor. I'm sorry I was too weak to save you. To save anyone.
The world dissolved into nothing
and then I gasped awake, sitting bolt upright in bed.
Sunlight streamed through a window. Birds sang. My heart hammered against my ribs.
I looked around wildly. Small room. Simple furniture. My hands, alive, uncut, trembling.
A knock at the door. Lady Wei Lian? The welcome ceremony begins in one hour. We must prepare you.
That voice. I knew that voice.
Su Jin. My maid. Who'd been executed for trying to defend me.
But that was impossible. Su Jin died three years ago. I died three years ago.
Unless...
I stumbled to the small mirror on the wall. Stared at my reflection.
Young. Unmarked. Twenty-two years old.
The same face I'd had the day I entered the palace as a tribute concubine.
Three years before my execution.
No, I whispered. No, this can't be
Another knock. My lady? Are you well?
My mind raced. The welcome ceremony. I remembered this day. Remembered being terrified, alone, trying to make myself invisible.
I'd succeeded too well. Stayed invisible for three years until someone decided I made the perfect scapegoat.
But if I was really back, if this was real
I could change everything.
My lady?
I touched my throat. No wound. No scar. Just smooth skin and a racing pulse.
I was alive. Young. Given an impossible second chance.
I'm fine, I called out, voice stronger than it had been in years. Give me five minutes.
Su Jin retreated.
I stared at my reflection. Same face. Same body.
But different eyes. These eyes had watched an empire burn. Had seen the Emperor fight to his last breath. Had witnessed every betrayal, every death, every mistake.
Eighteen months, I whispered. That's how long until it all falls apart.
Eighteen months to stop the floods. Expose the traitors. Save General Lin Zhao's family. Prevent the Crown Prince's murder.
Save the Emperor from the woman who was destroying him.
But how? I asked my reflection. I'm nobody. A lowly concubine from a disgraced family. Who'll listen to me?
My reflection stared back, and slowly impossibly I smiled.
Then I'll make them listen.
I'd died invisible. Forgotten. Powerless.
This time, I'd be anything but.