Pain.
An unbearable pain lanced through her chest, dragging Lin Yue's soul back from the void. She gasped sharply, her eyelids fluttering open.
Above her stretched a golden canopy, embroidered with phoenixes soaring amidst clouds of silk. Curtains swayed gently in the wind, releasing the faint fragrance of orchids.
This was not her cramped apartment. This was not the sterile office.
Her body felt strange—frail, delicate, trembling. Blood stained her lips, soaking into embroidered silks beneath her.
Then it came.
A flood of memories crashed into her like a raging tide. A name seared itself into her mind.
Feng Qianxue.
Princess of the grand Feng Empire. A noble daughter born with beauty and kindness, beloved by her people… and betrayed in the cruelest way.
Fragments of memory stabbed at Lin Yue's mind:
A girl with a soft, sweet smile, calling her sister. Su Wanrou. Gentle voice, tender gestures, eyes full of trust. The kind of friend every young lady dreamed of.
But beneath that mask of gentleness festered envy.
Su Wanrou, always standing in Feng Qianxue's shadow. Wanrou, whose jealousy curdled into poison. Wanrou, who poured venom into her cup while murmuring soothing words.
"Don't blame me, Qianxue," the memory echoed, Wanrou's voice laced with venomous sweetness. "You had everything. I had nothing. Now, what was yours will be mine."
Betrayal.Again.
Lin Yue's hands clenched into trembling fists. She could feel Feng Qianxue's sorrow and despair entwining with her own pain. Two women, two lives—both shattered by the very ones they trusted most.
Her lips curled into a cold smile.
"So be it," she whispered, her voice low and deadly. "Shen Luohan. Su Wanrou. You've both taken my life once. But heaven has given me another."
Her gaze sharpened, no longer the gentle princess's, but the assassin's—icy, calculating, merciless.
"I am Feng Qianxue now. And those who betrayed me… will pay with blood."
The flickering candlelight reflected in her eyes, no longer weak or broken, but burning with vengeance.
From this night forward, the pawn was gone.
What rose in her place was a predator.