Rebirth and Rewriting Fate

Inside the inn, Ye Xingchen lay pale on the bed. A young man was taking her pulse beside her. Gu Ruoxiao, standing nearby, asked, "Feng Xing, how is she?"

The young man, Feng Xing, stood up with a furrowed brow. "Master, this girl may be suffering from excessive grief, but..."

"Just what?" Gu Ruoxiao asked coldly.

“This girl has probably been poisoned by some kind of slow-acting poison. As for what kind of poison it is, I can’t figure it out right now,” Feng Xing said apologetically. “It seems that she was stimulated and the poison was triggered. Fortunately, she is not in any immediate danger. Why don’t we go back to the capital and have my master take a look?” Feng Xing suggested.

“My uncle is always running around in the martial arts world. If we could find him, we wouldn’t need you!” Gu Ruoxiao rolled her eyes.

"Master," Chiwu called from outside the house.

"Go and prepare the medicine," Gu Ruoxiao instructed.

"Grandma!" Ye Xingchen woke with a start, a sharp pain in her chest. She looked out the window; the dark sky was slowly brightening. She got up and went outside, sitting down against the corridor. The fire on Xiyan Mountain was truly raging; in the distance, she could still vaguely see black smoke rising. Nothing had changed after all; she had still foolishly hoped to change her fate. Ye Xingchen closed her eyes, thinking to herself with self-mockery.

"You're awake?" Gu Ruoxiao's voice came from behind him. He placed a bowl of medicine on the stone bench. "Drink it when it cools down."

Ye Xingchen remained silent.

"Xiyan Mountain..." Gu Ruoxiao paused, "I will handle everyone's funeral arrangements properly."

"You interrogated the person, didn't you?" Ye Xingchen said, looking out of the corridor.

The silence behind them acquiesced.

"We arrived in time, so why did the fire still spread so much?" she asked calmly.

"Because they had already buried the oil."

"When?"

"half year ago."

Ye Xingchen turned to look at him. "They confessed that their orders were to set the mountain on fire as soon as you came down," Gu Ruoxiao added.

Ye Xingchen stood there, her eyes flashing with unprecedented rage. Her hands were clenched into fists, her knuckles white from the force, and a faint grinding sound could be heard. Her voice was low and hoarse, each word seemingly squeezed out from between her teeth, filled with unspeakable hatred and resentment: "Gu Chengjie, I'm going to kill you!"

"You mean, the Fourth Prince did this?" Gu Ruoxiao stepped forward and pressed for an answer.

"Six months ago, I told him that there was still half a scroll of parchment in Xiyan Mountain, and that only I could go up Xiyan Mountain, and that everyone else would die. I just didn't expect that he had already dug a pit for me in six months."

"Yesterday you said that you couldn't save them in your past life, and you can't in this one either." After a long silence, Gu Ruoxiao spoke again.

"Yes, in my past life I went up the mountain alone and came down the next day. After coming down the mountain, I met the person who set the fire last night. He said that he was sent by Gu Chengjie to pick me up. When I returned to the capital, I found out that Xiyan Mountain was gone. When I went to question Gu Chengjie, he said that the government was suppressing bandits and accidentally set the mountain on fire."

“But the rumors circulating in the capital are that you went to Xiyan Mountain, encountered bandits, and out of anger, you set it on fire.” Gu Ruoxiao frowned.

"Tsk, that was Gu Chengjie saying he wanted to build momentum for me so that no one could bully me. Thinking about it now, it's laughable, but how could I have believed him back then?" Ye Xingchen laughed self-deprecatingly.

"Wait a minute!" The next second, she suddenly seemed to realize something, her eyes widened instantly, and she turned her head sharply. "How do you know about the rumors in the capital in my past life?" She stared at Gu Ruoxiao in disbelief and asked with difficulty, "Could it be that you also..."

However, instead of answering, Gu Ruoxiao remained silent; sometimes silence is tacit agreement.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze, and an indescribable tension and surprise filled the air. This unspoken confirmation made her heart sink, and a chill ran from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, causing her to shiver involuntarily. So that's how it is; it seems that everything now makes sense.

After a long silence, Gu Ruoxiao spoke up, "What happened to the poison in your body?"

Ye Xingchen glanced at him, then looked towards the corridor outside, "Would you believe me if I said it was the First Madam who did it?"

"So, in order to get revenge, you also targeted Ye Ruohuan?" Gu Ruoxiao asked uncertainly.

"Hmph," Ye Xingchen sneered, "So, you think the same way as Gu Chengjie."

"I want to hear what you have to say!" Gu Ruoxiao said decisively.

Ye Xingchen clenched his arms and began his long recollection, "When I returned to the Ye family, the First Madam began to poison me. Other families would just use one kind of poison if they wanted to harm someone, but she was always cautious and wanted double protection, so she poisoned my food."

The reason Ye Ruohuan met with this misfortune can only be attributed to the First Madam's karma manifesting in her daughter. That day, the nanny responsible for administering the medicine to the First Madam was preparing everything in the kitchen when she urgently needed to use the restroom. At that time, the head cook of the Ye family often brought his children to the mansion for a visit, and one or two children would frequently sneak into the backyard to steal food. By sheer coincidence, one of the children stole half of Ye Ruohuan's stew, which was discovered by his mother in time. To avoid attracting attention and getting herself into trouble, she targeted my stew, since it was common for my stew to be underweight. So she poured half of it into Ye Ruohuan's bowl.

Actually, the First Madam had used a slow-acting poison, so Ye Ruohuan wouldn't have died. Unfortunately, there was an ingredient in the medicine that Ye Ruohuan was allergic to. After consuming it, due to her allergic reaction, and because the appropriate medication wasn't administered in time, she suffocated and died. That's the truth, believe it or not.”

"How did you find out?" Gu Ruoxiao asked.

"It wasn't me who discovered it, it was Nan Rao. During Ye Ruohuan's funeral, she overheard the doctor who treated Ye Ruohuan talking about food poisoning, and she became suspicious. Moreover, she was very close to the children in the backyard, and the children told her that the stew she had stolen that day was delicious. Nan Rao was clever; after making the connection, she went to test the poison to confirm it."

"You just said double insurance? Two kinds of poison? What kind of poison?"

“One is a contraceptive soup. You shouldn’t have forgotten that I returned to the Ye family because of my engagement to the royal family. The contraceptive soup can both allow me to establish connections with the Ye family and make me insignificant and unable to move forward in my husband’s family. What a brilliant scheme.” Ye Xingchen calmly recounted the facts of her past life, but no one noticed that her clenched fists were so tight that her nails dug deep into her palms, and bright red blood silently seeped from between her fingers.

"What about the other one?"

After a long silence, Ye Xingchen replied, "I don't know."

"So you hate the Ye family?"

She remained silent.

The sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn, and golden rays of sunrise slowly painted the horizon.

Ye Xingchen stood up, stood in front of Gu Ruoxiao, and smiled.

"I finally understand why you wanted to kill me back then. I also know why you warned me to stay away from the Eighth Prince, and why you were always watching me. I poisoned your closest confidant, the Eighth Prince, conspired with Gu Chengjie to usurp the throne, and disrupted the court. In my past life, you must have really wanted to kill me, right? Now, I'm right in front of you. Do you want revenge?"

She stared at him. "You only get one chance. If you don't kill me now, I'll fight to the death to live. I have my own things to do, and I won't let you kill me so easily."

After a moment of silence, Gu Ruoxiao said, "Let's go inside and rest."

Ye Xingchen turned her back to Gu Ruoxiao, choking back tears as she whispered, "But is it fair to pin all those evil deeds that haven't even happened on me?"

She went back inside, closed the door, and slid down, hugging her knees and crying silently. So he was from a past life too, which is why he would never love her. Who would love someone who killed their loved ones? Xi Yanshan, I will avenge you!