Chapter 1

"Help me..."

On the blood-soaked battlefield, sand, corpses, and blood that hadn't yet dried converged into winding streams of blood, coiling around the woman's feet.

She looked in the direction of the hoarse cry for help and saw the man who had been full of life in front of her just a moment ago now kneeling on the ground with a spear piercing his chest.

A trembling hand reached out toward her, as if pleading for help.

The woman was terrified by what she saw.

The air around her seemed to freeze, making her unable to move, and tears uncontrollably streamed down her face.

The man's miserable state was reflected in her blurred vision.

She couldn't bear it, and just as she reached out to touch the dying person before her, everything vanished into smoke...

He Chunlou.

The crowd waiting in line for fortune telling and that aloof and sinister man came back into her sight.

A tear fell onto the mahogany table, and the surrounding noise returned.

Si Yanmo then realized that everything just now was nothing more than a divination.

Half an incense stick's time ago, she was telling fortunes for someone on the second floor of Hechunlou.

A man with his hair tied up and wearing a black robe, his brows revealing a sharp edge, walked towards me from a private room not far away.

This man held a long sword at his waist, and every move he made exuded a chilling aura.

Upon seeing this, the onlookers silently stepped back, making way for him so that he could easily reach her.

Si Yanmo stared at the person's eyebrows and eyes, feeling that they looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had seen them before.

The man placed the sword on the table, making a "clang" sound.

He sat down with an imposing air, his sharp, spirited phoenix eyes meeting hers without flinching.

"Please, fortune teller, cast a divination for me, would you mind?"

The man's voice was mocking, yet carried a hint of cold indifference, making Si Yanmo instantly realize that this person had ill intentions.

But since the person had already sat down, the calculations still needed to be done.

"What does the young master wish to calculate? The past, or the future?"

"That will happen in the future, of course."

Si Yanmo pinched her fingers as usual, waiting for the familiar judgment to appear in her mind.

But she never expected that this time she would be dragged into that bloody battlefield, and a flood of memories that did not belong to her would rush into her mind.

No.

It's not just memories, it seems there's also a future.

It was as if she had witnessed a person's entire life firsthand...

Si Yanmo snapped out of her daze, quickly wiping away her tears. She was thankful that she was wearing a bamboo hat, which covered her entire face, so no one could see her loss of composure.

She raised her head and stared intently at the man in black through the gauze curtain, her eyes filled with a hint of inquiry: "Young master, your life may be in danger within a year."

The man clearly didn't believe him. He leaned back, glancing at his sword on the table with a hint of threat. "The diviner can't say I'm in danger just because I'm carrying a sword. Who among those who live with swords hasn't been living on the edge, risking their life?"

Believe it or not.

She didn't want to say more.

The shock of what had just happened was too great for her; she hadn't yet recovered from the fright and grief, and her heart was pounding wildly.

Those around her who were waiting to see what would happen seemed to have noticed the change in her mood.

Someone spoke up in defense: "Young master, the Diviner has never been wrong. You can't be so aggressive just because someone said something unpleasant!"

When the man met the man's sidelong glance, his voice grew softer and softer. He felt a chill run down his spine and beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead. He quickly avoided the man's gaze, lowered his head, and dared not speak again.

Meanwhile, outside Hechun Tower.

Zhong Zihe, the owner of Hechunlou, was dressed in a red robe with more jingling accessories than the statues in a temple. He was holding a folding fan that he hadn't fully closed yet. He was rushing upstairs, taking three steps at a time as he climbed the stairs.

"Ouch, young master, slow down!"

A chubby boy, panting heavily, realized he couldn't keep up with his young master at all. He grabbed the handrail and looked up at his master's back.

The others simply stopped chasing and remained standing there, panting heavily.

Zhong Zihe ignored them, went up to the second floor, bypassed the dense crowd of people queuing up, and rushed directly to Si Yanmo's divination table, whispering a few words in her ear.

Si Yanmo's eyes widened immediately. "What? Father's back so early? Then hurry back!"

She immediately got up to leave, but as soon as she stood up, she felt a pain in her wrist and was pulled back.

"Trying to run?" The man in black gripped her wrist tightly, his face fierce. "Don't even think about leaving until you've explained yourself clearly."

Si Yanmo didn't want to get entangled with him and tried to pull her hand back, but the other party was very strong. With a strong pull, she almost fell onto the divination table. Her hat was only two fingers' width away from the man's forehead.

Suddenly, the man's face loomed large before her eyes. Even through the gauze curtain, she could vaguely see his dark eyes, which held anger and a hint of unease.

"Young master, you don't mean to have taken a fancy to our Mo Li, do you?"

Si Yanmo heard Zhong Zihe's teasing from the side and turned around to glare at him, but unfortunately, he couldn't see her through the gauze curtain.

She clearly felt the man's grip on her wrist tighten, and the skin there turned red, making her wince in pain.

"They say you've never made a mistake, but you said out of the blue that I'll die someday. How can I believe you?"

This clearly means that she's not leaving until she gives an explanation.

Si Yanmo gritted her teeth. Time was of the essence, so she decided not to waste any more time and turned around to look directly at the other person.

"Young master, you were abandoned by your father when you were young. At the age of seven, you were thrown into the wild and almost became food for wolves. You lived on the black market. When you were eighteen, your master died to save you..."

Suddenly, she thought of something, paused, exhaled, and didn't continue speaking. Instead, she asked directly, "This concerns your past, young master. Surely you know more about it than I do. Am I right or wrong?"

"Young master, you are of noble birth. Do you truly wish me to explain everything?"

She leaned closer and whispered in his ear, "Your Highness, the King of Qin—"

Upon hearing this, the man's expression gradually stiffened, and when he heard the last four words, his brows furrowed, and he unconsciously loosened his grip on her hand.

Si Yanmo seized the opportunity to extricate herself, not caring whether she had offended this important person.

At this moment, all she wanted was to go home.

She turned around too quickly, and the straw hat on her head accidentally touched the pillar next to her and fell down.

Startled, Si Yanmo immediately raised her hand to cover her face with her sleeve, then turned around, squatted down, and picked up the straw hat.

The moment she stood up, her beautiful peach blossom eyes and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye caught the eye of the still-stunned man.

Behind me, there were only complaints—

"Oh no, I didn't get a turn again!"

"I heard she only sees three people a day. If you don't get a spot today, who knows when you'll be able to get one!"

...

After she left, a guard rushed to Zhou Yanqing's side: "My lord, didn't you say you wanted to have tea? Why did you come out?"

"Just having my fortune told."

His gaze remained fixed on the spot where Si Yanmo had just left, his expression unreadable.

Chen Wu clearly hadn't expected this answer, yet dared not let his master's words fall flat, "Then... is the calculation accurate?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yanqing snorted coldly, "No."

With that, he strode downstairs and returned to his carriage, saying, "To the palace."

Inside the carriage, the renowned King of Qin, one of the Five Lords of the Great South, stroked the dark green thumb ring on his thumb, his face grim.

As the Lantern Festival approached, he came to Nanjing to attend the Lantern Festival banquet at the emperor's behest.

Passing by Hechunlou, he stopped to rest and have some tea. He overheard a group of people discussing a fortune teller on the second floor, saying that he didn't need any divination tools or beat around the bush; he could know the past and the future simply by pinching his fingers.

He didn't pay much attention at first, but silently sat down in a private room on the second floor and looked in the direction of the fortune teller. He witnessed an old woman thanking her because her daughter-in-law had been saved by her prophecy.

On a whim, Zhou Yanqing decided to have his fortune told for fun, but to his surprise, the woman told him that he was about to die.

He thought the man was trying to swindle him out of money to "ward off disaster" because of his expensive clothes.

It wasn't until Si Yanmo listed his past one by one that he realized something was wrong.

Most of the people who knew his past are dead; he wouldn't leave any survivors.

I don't believe a fortune teller far away in the south would know these things.

Can she really figure it out?

But if it's true, it means that the statement "there might be a life-threatening situation within a year" is also true...

——

Si Yanmo followed Zhong Zihe skillfully out the back door and into the carriage before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

How did we end up meeting him?

She sat by the window, patted her heaving chest, and muttered to herself.

"What's wrong, Xiao Mo'er?" Zhong Zihe asked.

"fine."

Si Yanmo shook her head, gently parted the curtain with her delicate hand, and the cries of vendors from both sides of the street instantly entered the carriage.

Her gaze unconsciously fell on the ancient temple at the end of the street, and her thoughts returned to the moment in her previous life when she was killed by having her heart cut out.

Yes, she was reborn.

In her past life, she was the daughter of a merchant's charity, and was pampered. However, due to a high fever in her childhood, she became mentally disabled and her mind remained at the age of five until she fell into the water at the age of 17 and recovered.

A year later, at the Lantern Festival banquet, because of the auspicious omens associated with her and her sister's births, she was chosen by the emperor to be the wife of his third prince.

She thought she would live a lucky life, but she never expected that in less than a year, she would be framed as a witch by the third prince's concubine because of a power struggle within the inner quarters.

In that Digu Temple, his heart was cut out while he was still alive and offered as a sacrifice to Digu, the god worshipped by the Southern people.

Perhaps it was a blessing from heaven, but when she opened her eyes again, she was back to the year she fell into the water at the age of seventeen, and she even had the ability to see other people's destinies.

Having learned from her past life's experience, Si Yanmo decided to play dumb and escape the marriage; survival was the most important thing.

The only person who knew she had returned to normal was her childhood sweetheart, Zhong Zihe, who was standing beside her.

When she had nothing to do, she would go to Zhong Zihe's restaurant to consult fortune tellers, thinking that she should avoid this deadly disaster first and then think about other things.

Today is a crucial day in my destiny—two days before the Lantern Festival banquet, and also the day in my past life when the imperial decree invited my father and his female relatives to the palace to attend the banquet.

But she never expected to meet Zhou Yanqing.

This man, whom she had only met once in her past life at a palace banquet, appeared at Hechun Tower and even came to have her fortune told...

Could it be that there's been a change in my destiny?

Si Yanmo felt a vague unease rising in her heart.

Unbeknownst to her, a larger carriage was traveling in the opposite direction, its canopy adorned with tassels bearing the character "Qin" hanging from its four corners...

A short while later, her carriage and Zhong Zihe's carriage crossed a street and stopped in front of a mansion.

Before us stands a gate tower about twenty feet high, with exquisitely carved wooden brackets under the lintel, and the plaque in the middle reads "Si Zhai" from right to left.

Si Yanmo immediately pulled out the hairpin from her head, stuffed it into Zhong Zihe's hand, and skillfully messed up her originally exquisite hairstyle.

After getting off the bus, he grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground and smeared it on his face.

Just before going inside, she whispered to Zhong Zihe, "How is it?"

The other person gave a thumbs-up affirmatively, "No problem, go in."

Watching her skip and hop into the house, Zhong Zihe relaxed, put away the hairpin in his hand, and neatly opened his fan, revealing two bold characters: "Enjoy to the fullest."

He turned around, got into the carriage, and smiled at the driver, "Let's go back to Hechun Tower!"

As Zhong Zihe's carriage slowly drove away, Si Yanmo stepped inside and heard the sound of another carriage behind her. Her parents and sister quickly came out to greet her.

She turned around and saw a steward stepping down from the carriage, holding a black gold imperial edict.

It's here!

"Inheriting the legacy of the ancient emperors and paving the way for future emperors, the virtuous and capable clerk of the Shantang Censor is of exceptional talent and integrity. Therefore, we cordially invite him and his family to attend the Lantern Festival banquet on the fifteenth of the lunar month. This is hereby decreed."

After reading the imperial edict aloud, Yu Siguan handed it to Sijianwen.

The man accepted the gift and kowtowed in gratitude, his smile widening.

"This is a great blessing, Sishantang," said Manager Yu in his congratulations.

Si Jianwen replied politely, then took out a small golden ruyi (a type of scepter) about half the size of his palm from his sleeve and handed it to Si Guan.

The other person smiled and silently tucked it into their sleeve.

Only Si Yanmo silently clenched her sleeves.

What an incredible blessing!

Yes, it is a great blessing for them.

But for her, it was the beginning of misfortune...