The Princess Consort sent someone to summon Zhou Sichun, her chest heaving with rage. “That wench? She’s not worthy! Tell her to hand over the keys!”

Zhou Sichun arrived promptly, obedient as ever, accompanied by only a young maid. She looked so innocent, as if she had no idea why the Princess Consort had called for her.

At the sight of her, the Princess Consort’s fury surged straight to her head. She glared at Zhou Sichun—full-figured yet fresh-faced—and could barely restrain herself from tearing her apart. Without a second thought, she ordered her to kneel outside under the blazing sun and demanded the family law be invoked to punish her for insubordination. No amount of persuasion from Nanny Chang could change her mind.

But before the punishment could fall, another young maid by Zhou Sichun’s side ran off in panic and brought the Prince back.

Zhou Sichun knelt, tears shimmering like pear blossoms in the rain, her voice low with grievance. She only said she wasn’t worthy, that the Princess Consort had every right to be angry. She even took out the key on the spot to return it.

The more patient and sensible she appeared, the more furious Fu Yanghong became. “This is still my household! I was the one who put Chun’er in charge. You’ve barely stepped out before you’re turning everything upside down again!”

The Princess Consort was so enraged she nearly spat blood. Her hand trembled as she pointed at Fu Yanghong. “You favor your concubine and cast aside your wife! You’ve abandoned all propriety—letting that shameless woman climb over my head?”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Fu Yanghong snapped coldly. “Is that the tone a Princess Consort should use? All these years, you’ve bullied Chun’er in this house, flaunted your power outside. If not for the fact that you gave me Yier, I would’ve cast you aside long ago!”

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His icy words made the Princess Consort’s eyes blaze with hatred. She shouted in fury, “I am the Princess Consort you married through the proper three letters and six rites! I bore the legitimate heir of the Fu family! If you dare humiliate me, I’ll make sure the whole world sees what a disgraceful scoundrel Fu Yanghong truly is!”

Fu Yanghong had no desire to argue further. Inwardly, he felt relieved that Fu Yi was intelligent enough to see things clearly. He told Zhou Sichun she needn’t meet with the Princess Consort again; as for the household affairs, she would continue to manage them as before.

The Princess Consort was no longer confined, but the lifting of her punishment only deepened her despair.

She collapsed into her chair, dazed, until it suddenly struck her—she still had someone to rely on. She still had Fu Yi!

Yes, all these humiliations would mean nothing in the end. As long as Fu Yi became the heir, as long as the Fu family ended up in his hands, she would one day make them all pay—make them suffer as she had.

“Go fetch Fu Yi. Tell him to come see me the moment he returns to the manor!”

...

At that moment, Fu Yi was meeting with Bai Qingqing. Through his words, Bai Qingqing saw her family’s plight from a different angle.

“What I don’t understand,” she said, a knot of anxiety tightening in her chest, “is why things are no longer the same as in the previous life.”

“Could it be,” she continued, her voice taut, “that our presence—yours and mine—has changed something without us realizing it? Is that why the scheme against my family came earlier this time? I feel completely at sea. None of this matches what I once knew.”

She had believed there was still time, that it wasn’t too late. But everything had shifted, and though the timing was different, the malice aimed at the Bai family remained just as bitter and cruel.

“I honestly don’t know what I should do...”

Fu Yi tried to comfort her. “You should look at the bright side. In the last life, once the nursery rhyme spread, your family was declared guilty without a shred of doubt. This time, there’s still room to maneuver.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “Honestly, it's not just you—even I feel like this is all absurd. In that past life, I didn’t have the faintest clue what I was doing. I was played like a fool, running in circles, thinking myself noble and clever.”

Unlike Bai Qingqing, he hadn’t noticed a thing even up to the moment he died. In some ways, she’d done better than him.

Bai Qingqing asked softly, “Now that things have come to this... do you have a plan?”