Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Not Yielding an Inch
Luo Ning took a blade for the Empress Dowager and was badly wounded.
Her whole family became rich and honored because of her.
The wound reached her lungs and heart and would not heal. She was sent to a warm country estate in the Southern Region to recover for three years. When she came back, there was an extra cousin at home.
The cousin lived in Luo Ning’s courtyard and used Luo Ning’s monthly allowance and maids.
Luo Ning’s parents and brother doted on this cousin, and her grandmother thought highly of her. Even Luo Ning’s own childhood sweetheart secretly admired the cousin, saying she was better than Luo Ning in every way.
The Empress Dowager had first planned to grant Luo Ning the title of County Princess. But because her mother stirred things up, the title of County Princess fell onto the cousin’s head instead.
Luo Ning could not take it and made a big scene. They all said she had gone mad.
After they caused Luo Ning’s death, everyone in the manor let out a sigh of relief. Each person felt they had thrown off a heavy burden.
Luo Ning spent eighteen years as a ghost, watching the Marquis Manor fall apart bit by bit. Everyone who had failed her died a terrible death. Then she was reborn.
She lived again.
“Eldest Miss, up ahead is the Thirty-li Post Station in the Southern City District. Do you want to get out and rest?” the coachman asked her.
Luo Ning shook her head: “No, go straight into the city.”
She added: “We are not going back to the Marquis Manor. Go to Anxing Ward first.”
The coachman did not know why, but he still obeyed.
Two maids had come back with Luo Ning. One of them, named Qiu Hua, asked: “Eldest Miss, what kind of place is Anxing Ward?”
“It is the private residence of Eunuch Wei from the Empress Dowager’s Imperial Palace,” Luo Ning said.
Qiu Hua was surprised: “You are going to see Eunuch Wei? You are not going home first to pay respects to Lord Marquis and Madam?”
In her last life, Luo Ning had gone straight back to the manor.
Something had happened.
It was one of the reasons why every step afterward became so hard.
Less than a year later, her two trusted maids, Qiu Hua and Qiu Lan, were killed one after another. Her two best helpers were gone, and her situation grew even worse.
“There is no hurry,” Luo Ning said.
When they reached Anxing Ward, Luo Ning got out of the carriage and knocked on the door herself.
Today was a court rest day, so Eunuch Wei was in his residence tending flowers and plants.
When he heard it was Luo Ning, he hurried out to welcome her.
When Luo Ning had blocked that blade back then, Eunuch Wei had also been by the Empress Dowager’s side and had seen it with his own eyes.
“Miss Luo.” His face was full of smiles. “I heard you went away to recover. Are you better now?”
“I am fully recovered. Thank you for your concern, Eunuch. I just entered the city today and wanted to first pay my respects to the Empress Dowager, but I am afraid it will not be easy for me to enter the palace gates alone…”
“Let this servant take you there,” Eunuch Wei said warmly.
Luo Ning reached Shoucheng Palace without trouble and met the Empress Dowager, Madam Cui.
The Empress Dowager had never forgotten the life-saving favor.
“You look taller now. You have been raised well. Fresh and pretty. I am very pleased,” the Empress Dowager said, holding her hand the whole time.
In her last life, after Luo Ning returned to the city, she often brought up going to see the Empress Dowager, but her mother would not allow it.
“If you go stand in front of the Empress Dowager, you will only be using that favor to ask for payback. You will get us killed,” her mother had said.
The Empress Dowager had sent people to ask for her several times. Only when it truly could not be done anymore did the messages stop.
After Luo Ning died, the Empress Dowager lit a lamp for her at Fahua Temple for fifteen years, praying she would gain a good next life, rich and healthy.
Pulling her thoughts back, Luo Ning tightened her grip on the Empress Dowager’s hand: “Your Majesty, this humble woman is doing well in every way.”
“If you want anything, just tell me,” the Empress Dowager said.
“The Buddhist prayer beads on your wrist, could you grant them to this humble woman? I wish to borrow the Buddha’s light and your grace to seek a peaceful road ahead,” Luo Ning said.
She did not act shy or refuse to ask. Instead, the Empress Dowager felt a warm softness in her heart.
The Empress Dowager very much wanted to do something for Luo Ning.
She at once took off the Buddhist prayer beads she had worn on her wrist for many years and gave them to Luo Ning.
They then chatted about small daily matters.
Luo Ning was not stiff at all. She spoke in a brisk, smooth way, telling the Empress Dowager all kinds of interesting stories from the country estate in the Southern Region.
Her words were even a bit playful, making the Empress Dowager laugh out loud.
The Empress Dowager kept her to stay for lunch.
Luo Ning then had to go back.
She stood up and saluted: “I have just come into the city and have not yet greeted my grandmother and parents. I will come to disturb Your Majesty another day.”
The Empress Dowager told Eunuch Wei to escort her.
With her goal achieved, Luo Ning carefully put away the Buddhist prayer beads and went back to the Marquis of Zhen Nan Residence.
The gate of the Marquis Manor was very wide, with a tall gateway tower, a broad stone terrace painted red, and two big stone lions that looked powerful and grand. The tall red doors were heavy, and the round door studs shone bright gold.
Who would have thought that three years ago, the master of this place had only been a proper third-rank military general?
The plaque that read “Marquis of Zhen Nan Residence” had been granted to the Luo family by the Emperor after Luo Ning took that blade. It was to show his filial piety toward the Empress Dowager and to praise Luo Ning for saving her life.
The residence itself had also been bestowed by the throne.
This grand, shining plaque had been stained with Luo Ning’s blood.
“Who is it?” The servant boy at the gate stopped them.
“The Eldest Miss has come back,” the coachman said.
Luo Ning and Eunuch Wei were riding in the same carriage. The two maids sat outside.
Maid Qiu Hua said to the servant boy: “Lower the threshold and let the Eldest Miss’s carriage enter.”
The servant boy shut the gate again and went inside to report.
Seeing this, Eunuch Wei comforted Luo Ning: “Maybe they have not yet received the message.”
“Yes.” Luo Ning smiled. “I must trouble you to wait with me a while, Eunuch.”
“Waiting a while is nothing. I came today for the special purpose of sending Eldest Miss back to the manor,” Eunuch Wei said.
A moment later, a steward came out.
The steward spoke in a lofty tone: “Use the corner gate on the west side. The threshold of the main gate cannot be lowered so easily.”
Qiu Hua grew angry as soon as she heard this: “The Eldest Miss is returning to the manor. This is a big event. How can she use the corner gate?”
Coming back and entering by the corner gate would lower her status.
“Please forgive us, Eldest Miss. This is the rule. The Marquis Manor is not what it used to be. All carriages enter through the corner gate now,” the steward said.
He added, “Eldest Miss has been away from the manor for a long time. You will slowly learn the rules later.”
Qiu Lan was so angry she could not speak.
Eunuch Wei was shocked, but he quickly understood.
They were simply being ungrateful and tearing down the bridge after crossing it.
Eunuch Wei stepped down from the carriage: “Please ask the Marquis of Zhen Nan to come out. I bear a verbal decree from the Empress Dowager.”
The steward did not know who Eunuch Wei was, but he knew the first-rank eunuch robe on his body. His legs shook with fear. “Honored Eunuch, th-this…”
“Do not be rude. Go report at once!”
Thus, after her rebirth, when Luo Ning came home, she was not forced to enter through the southwest corner gate.
Her grandmother, parents, elder brother, and sister-in-law all came out to greet her.
Her cousin Bai Ci Rong stood behind her mother, wearing a silver-red cloak. Her looks were extraordinary and her manner gentle and elegant, making her stand out at once.
In her past life, Luo Ning had been blocked at the gate, and her carriage had been forced to enter through the corner gate. From then on, all the servants in the manor had looked down on her.
Once she lost the dignity of the Eldest Miss, her path went down step by step, and everyone could step on her whenever they wished.
In this life, at least the steward and the servants all knew the Eldest Miss was not a pitiful thing they could bully at will. If they wanted to bully her to please the cousin, they had to first see whether they would still have a way to live.
Petty underlings were hard to handle. It was best to deal with this matter first.
Luo Ning entered the Marquis of Zhen Nan Residence smoothly, this place that should belong to her.
Eunuch Wei spoke a few casual words, then went back to the palace to make his report.
In Grandmother’s main courtyard, her parents, elder brother and sister-in-law, two aunts, other sisters-in-law, and cousins were all there, filling the room with lively chatter.
Everyone was talking and laughing, as if Luo Ning’s trouble at the gate with the little steward, being blocked outside, had never happened.
“How is A Ning’s courtyard being prepared?” Grandmother felt a bit tired and wanted to end the gathering.
Mother answered her: “Hui Fu Courtyard has long been put in order.”
Everyone present drew their expressions back a little.
Before Luo Ning left home, the Marquis Manor had already been granted to them. At that time, she had lived there for three months, in Wenqi Courtyard.
Wenqi Courtyard had many rooms and a fine location. It was second only to the East and West Main Courtyards where Grandmother and her parents lived.
“Mother, what about my Wenqi Courtyard?” Luo Ning asked.
Mother smiled: “Someone is living in Wenqi Courtyard now. Hui Fu Courtyard is just the same. It is behind the East Main Courtyard. Now that you are back, I want to live close to you.”
She spoke very openly, as if it was only natural.
It sounded as if there was nothing wrong at all.
Luo Ning did not question her like in her last life, when she had made Mother cry in front of Grandmother and Father. She also smiled: “I still want to live in Wenqi Courtyard.
Back then I almost died, and I only slowly got better after moving into Wenqi Courtyard. That place is a blessed land for me. Since someone is already living there, I will stay in Grandmother’s warm pavilion for now. When it is cleared out, I will move back.”
She then smiled and asked, “Who is living in such a good courtyard? Did Brother and Sister-in-law move in?”
She looked at her sister-in-law. “Sister-in-law, I can only stay in my maiden home for a few years. Can you be a little kinder to me? After I marry out, the Marquis Manor will all be yours. Why are you in such a rush over this for now?”
The room fell silent again.
“Sister, I am the one living in Wenqi Courtyard,” Cousin Bai Ci Rong, standing to the side, answered with a smile.