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Chapter 1

Meng Yuning was stunned.

Hadn’t she just died? How was it that when she opened her eyes, she was galloping wildly on a chestnut horse through a deserted wilderness?

Could it be that the underworld’s services had upgraded, and when someone dies, they even provide a mount to escort them to the afterlife?

Yet the weather was clear, the spring flowers blooming beautifully—it hardly looked like the path to the netherworld.

Before she could make sense of it all, a sharp pain shot through her head, golden stars flashing before her eyes, nearly causing her to fall from the horse. She scrambled to steady herself and suddenly found a new memory had been implanted in her mind.

Now she was even more bewildered—she had transmigrated into a book?

The horse continued to gallop, but Meng Yuning had no time to ponder further. Hastily, she pulled on the reins. “Hoo~”

The chestnut horse neighed and gradually came to a stop.

Meng Yuning silently thanked her past self for learning to ride horseback during a trip to the grasslands.

Once the horse stood firm, she dismounted, only to find her legs trembling violently from riding too long, barely able to stand. Supporting herself on the horse, she slowly sat down on the ground.

The horse lowered its head, leisurely grazing on the grass beneath.

Seeing that it had no intention of running off, Meng Yuning finally loosened the reins and gently rubbed her legs.

She looked around, taking in her surroundings while recalling the newly acquired memory and the plot of the book she had read.

The original owner of this body, whose name differed from hers by only one character—Meng Yuning was actually Meng Yuning—the eldest legitimate daughter of the Minister of Personnel. She had just celebrated her coming-of-age ceremony earlier this year.

Her husband was the former Crown Prince Qi Jingyan. The two had planned to marry in the latter half of the year. Although the marriage was an imperial arrangement and they had barely met, they were considered a perfect match in the eyes of the world—both talented and beautiful.

Yet unexpectedly, the reigning Emperor Kangwen suddenly accused Qi Jingyan of treason and imprisoned him in the Heavenly Prison for harsh interrogation.

Within days, Qi Jingyan was covered in wounds, his legs broken, but he refused to confess, choosing death over guilt.

Empress Mu, fully aware of her son’s innocence, willingly surrendered the Phoenix Seal, hoping to soften the Emperor’s heart and secure mercy.

But with irrefutable evidence accusing Qi Jingyan of patricide and usurpation, Emperor Kangwen insisted on deposing him as Crown Prince, demoting him to commoner status and banishing him to Lingnan.

Out of desperation to save her son, Empress Mu returned to the Phoenix Palace and hanged herself.

When the Empress Dowager received the news, she hurried to the Phoenix Palace only to find Empress Mu lifeless.

The three-year-old seventeenth prince, Qi Jingyi, collapsed onto the Empress’s body, sobbing uncontrollably.

Beside Empress Mu lay a blood-stained letter pleading with Emperor Kangwen to show mercy, remembering their bond as husband and wife and that Qi Jingyan was their firstborn.

The Empress Dowager wept bitterly, cradling her grandson, ordering attendants to rush the letter to Emperor Kangwen.

Upon reading it and learning of the Empress’s death, Emperor Kangwen flew into a rage and stormed to the Phoenix Palace, only to be met with her cold corpse.

The Empress Dowager, holding her wailing grandson, tearfully implored the Emperor to pardon Qi Jingyan’s exile, even threatening that if he refused, she would die with the child in her arms.

Though their relationship was not especially close, the Empress Dowager was still his mother, and he respected her wishes. The Empress’s death deeply affected him. After sitting beside her for a long time, he finally relented.

He changed Qi Jingyan’s title to Prince Shen and assigned him the fief of Canghai Commandery in Lingnan, ordering him to depart immediately and forbidding his return to the capital without imperial permission.

Though unwilling, the Empress Dowager accepted this as the best possible outcome and insisted that Qi Jingyan marry before setting out—meaning he must take his fiancée, Meng Yuning, with him.

The Empress Dowager’s reasons were twofold: she pitied her grandson’s lonely exile to the wilds of Lingnan and wished to hold Meng Yuning’s family accountable, as the Minister of Personnel Meng Huaifu, Meng Yuning’s father and the Crown Prince’s prospective father-in-law, had played a significant role in the Crown Prince’s downfall.

Among all involved, the greatest victim was naturally Meng Yuning herself.

At the imperial banquet where the marriage was arranged, she had only glimpsed the Crown Prince from afar and never exchanged a word with him.

She knew nothing of the Crown Prince’s alleged treason.

When he fell from power, her father scrambled desperately, assisting the Third Prince in gathering evidence against the Crown Prince, but she had never participated in any of it.

In the end, she became a pawn sacrificed in the clash of factions.

She certainly did not want to accompany him thousands of miles away to Lingnan, a nominal exile.

Crying, she begged her father to find another way, but her selfish father insisted she behave with understanding, saying it was for the family’s future.

Her stepmother knelt with her two younger brothers, tearfully begging her to endure this hardship for their sake, promising they would remember her kindness forever.

Thus, Meng Yuning, clad in a simple dress with only a single bundle, was forcibly sent onto Qi Jingyan’s carriage.

Why did Meng Yuning run away? Because overnight, she had gone from a pampered young lady to the wife of a crippled and exiled former Crown Prince, her future bleak and uncertain, unable to accept her fate.

Moreover, her father’s fickle betrayal made her a hated enemy in Qi Jingyan’s party, someone they wished to kill to ease their grudge.

For so many days, she endured physical hardship on the road and mental torment.

Though Qi Jingyan’s orders forbade anyone from mistreating her or speaking harshly, the cold, wary, even hateful gazes from those around her shattered her heart—a young girl who had never faced real hardship.

As the distance from the capital grew, she could no longer bear it.

That morning, while everyone was fast asleep, she took her only bundle, stole a horse, and fled.

She rode hard, hoping to find her way back to the capital, hide at her family’s estate outside the city, and wait for the danger to pass before sneaking home.

But she did not realize that someone like Qi Jingyan, a fallen Crown Prince caught in the ruthless struggle for imperial power, even if Emperor Kangwen did not wish him dead, would never be allowed to reach Lingnan alive by those with ill intentions at court.

Thus, after leaving the capital’s borders, misfortunes soon followed: bandits ambushed the road, rebels raided, thieves plotted, giant boulders tumbled down the mountains—one disaster after another.

In the original story, after many life-or-death trials, Qi Jingyan’s group finally reached Lingnan.

Meng Yuning, however, fled on horseback for less than half a day before being ambushed by unknown bandits. In her panic, she stumbled and fell off a cliff, perishing.

Just as Meng Yuning thought this through, she noticed a sudden flurry of birds taking flight from the nearby forest. Listening closely, she could faintly hear the sound of hoofbeats.

Her expression changed abruptly. She immediately stood, grabbed the chestnut horse, stepped into the stirrups, swung herself into the saddle, and galloped back the way she had come.

The sudden disturbance in the forest could only mean a wild beast or the bandits. Either way, she wouldn’t survive—and might meet an even worse fate than falling off the cliff.

So she had no choice but to return.

No matter how difficult the journey to Lingnan, no matter how hostile Qi Jingyan and his companions’ faces were, staying with them was at least staying alive.