Incense can uplift the spirit—a refined pleasure.
Yet the ingredients used in blending fragrances are often medicinal herbs. Medicine can save lives, but it can also take them, depending on the skill of the one who wields it.
Today, she had used saffron and the juice of the milkweed flower in her incense. She had not allowed Xiao Changqing to touch it. She did not love him, nor did she hate him.
She only wished for her path to the underworld to be clean and untroubled—free from the entanglements of love and hatred, free from schemes and conflicts.
She also believed that Xiao Changqing would not die. He still had his mother, his brothers, and the world he was so determined to claim.
"Your Highness, may you... may you ascend the throne soon..."
These were Gu Qingzhi's final words to Xiao Changqing. Her consciousness was swallowed by the sound of hurried footsteps approaching.
Go and fight for the world, become that solitary ruler destined to slay brothers, massacre kin, and even murder his own father...
Even in death, she wore a faint smile—a frozen expression that pierced Xiao Changqing's eyes like a blade.
He had been wrong. So wrong.
Gu Qingzhi did not merely possess an icy heart that could never be warmed; she also possessed the most excruciating cruelty in this world, one that made life worse than death.
……
In the darkness, drifting in and out of consciousness, Gu Qingzhi felt a severe discomfort in her throat and a sharp, dragging pain in her abdomen—pain so familiar it reminded her of the time she had ended her own child's life. At the thought of the child, her heart ached faintly.
She had carefully blended incense to prevent pregnancy, yet somehow, she had still conceived. If not for that, why would she have had to end the child's life herself...
By her calculations, it happened just before the Gu family was falsely accused of treason—back when she was still feigning affection and playing along with Xiao Changqing.
Was this her punishment? Even in the underworld, was this pain destined to follow her?
But she had no other choice.
The five great families—Gu, Cui, Wang, Xue, and Fan—had deep roots spanning centuries. Even as dynasties rose and fell, they remained prestigious and wielded immense power at court.
The Fan family had declined in the previous dynasty. Gu Qingzhi had long advised her father to be wary of them. However, after she married into Prince Xin's Residence, her influence waned. Her father was stretched thin, and with traitors within their own household, the Fan family seized the opportunity to collaborate from within and without, setting an inescapable trap for the Gu family.
As the daughter of a disgraced official, Xiao Changqing was too naive. Even if he wished otherwise, he could not defy his mother, Noble Consort Rong. At best, her fate would be demotion from wife to concubine. As for her child, aside from Xiao Changqing, no one in the Xiao family would ever regard it with any respect.
She had always been decisive in action, never willing to live under another's thumb, nor would she endure humiliation and bide her time in silence.
Did the Fan family believe that by betraying their allies and destroying the Gu family, they could restore their own prestige?
Utter foolishness. They were merely an arrow in the emperor's hand, aimed at the Gu family.
This time, her death would make the Fan family understand that they were lower than ants.
Were they prepared to face the charge of conspiring to harm an imperial heir?
If all went well, the Gu family might even be cleared of the false accusation of treason.
As a daughter of the Gu family, she could at least say she had repaid the debt of her upbringing and education.
As her thoughts gradually cleared, Gu Qingzhi opened her eyes. A brilliant blue sky stretched above her, dotted with drifting clouds, and a flock of birds soared past.
She tried to move her hands and realized she was floating in water. When she attempted to shift, she found her body weak and exhausted. To avoid sinking, she relaxed her body and could only move her eyes.
To her right was a sheer cliff face that plunged into the water, stretching beyond sight, only an arm's length away. To her left lay rolling green hills and a grassy bank, about two zhang away from her.
"How did I end up here...?" Gu Qingzhi wondered, utterly bewildered.At this moment, she could only remain floating. It was absolutely impossible for her to swim ashore on her own. She could only hope someone would pass by and rescue her, or wait until she regained a bit of strength to make a plan.
Fortunately, the river current was gentle, so she shouldn't be swept too far away. The only worry was whether she might encounter dangerous creatures like man-eating crocodiles in these waters.
Pushing aside her chaotic thoughts, Gu Qingzhi closed her eyes. A jumble of images flooded her mind, causing dizziness and a throbbing headache.
After a long while, she finally reopened her eyes, her expression extremely complex.
This bizarre phenomenon, something one only read about in strange tales and legends, had actually happened to her. She was no longer Gu Qingzhi but was now living in the body of someone who had just breathed their last. This corpse floating on the mountain river wasn't just anyone—it was the body of the renowned Northwest King Shen Yueshan's legitimate daughter, Shen Xihe.
The Youning Emperor's personally enfeoffed Zhaoning County Princess.
The reason she had died in the river was because Shen Yueshan was sending her back to the capital. She had set out from her maternal uncle's home in Jiangnan West Circuit and was traveling by boat. Just after entering Jingzhou, her personal maid pushed her into the river from the ship, and she had drifted here.
Gu Qingzhi died on the fifth day of the fourth month in the nineteenth year of Youning. Now it was the sixth day of the fourth month in the nineteenth year of Youning. Shen Xihe had been floating in the river all night and, due to her weak constitution, had just breathed her last moments ago. And somehow, Gu Qingzhi had awoken in Shen Xihe's body.
She closed her eyes, hoping Shen Xihe herself would return. She had no attachments left in this world and didn't crave living another life.
She didn't know how long she had been drifting. Although she hadn't encountered any danger, she increasingly felt that she might truly have to continue living as Shen Xihe.
She opened her eyes wistfully and just happened to catch sight of a black dot falling from the sky. It rapidly grew larger, heading straight toward her.
Gu Qingzhi—no, from now on, Shen Xihe.
Despite her complete exhaustion, she mustered strength in this life-or-death moment, quickly flipped over, and swam to the side. The object falling from high altitude was too fast. She had only managed to swim a short distance when something heavy landed behind her with a loud "thud.The splashing water and huge waves crashed toward her, making her back ache sharply. Simultaneously, a metallic taste rose in her throat. She bit her tongue hard, using the pain to fight off dizziness, and used the impact force to swim toward the shore.
Soon she grabbed onto rocks at the riverbank, gasping heavily as she gritted her teeth and climbed up. Once ashore, she collapsed, breathing in large, ragged gulps.
After a while, the stinging pain in her throat and chest eased. A breeze blew by, carrying with the chill an unusual faint fragrance that brushed past her nose. This scent was very unique—as someone skilled in blending incense who had smelled nearly all flowers, this was the first time she had encountered such a fragrance.
She struggled to keep her eyes open and saw before her something that resembled interwoven heart-shaped ribbons, emerald green and vibrant, with red stamens at the intersections.
With difficulty, she reached out and grabbed it, whispering almost inaudibly: "Fairy Ribbon..."
As all her strength drained away, she could no longer resist the encroaching darkness. Before her eyelids closed completely, she seemed to see many people running toward her.
"County Princess! County Princess!"
Hearing the anxious cries clearly, Shen Xihe finally allowed herself to fall completely unconscious.
......
Bitter, sour medicinal soup was poured into her mouth. Shen Xihe really wanted to refuse, but the burning pain in her organs left no room for stubbornness. She cooperated and drank it down. Finally, a slight warmth spread through her icy abdomen. After finishing the bowl of medicine, she mustered enough energy to open her eyes.Before her eyes was a peach blossom-entwined blue silk canopy, filled with a warm, fragrant aroma. The incense burning was a blend of costus root, frankincense, and asafoetida, known for its effects of resolving turbidity, dispelling stasis and phlegm, and activating meridians to clear the brain.
As this thought flashed through her mind, Shen Xihe was startled to realize how remarkably acute her sense of smell had become!
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