Chapter 2: Rebirth _2

On the second day of the fourth month, in the third year of Chengping, she arrived in the capital, carrying Liang Ji's spirit tablet as her wedding companion.

From that day forward, she shed her fine clothes and willingly became a widow for her late husband.

One year, two years, three years passed. Ying Shi's days in the Liang Mansion were peaceful.

She thought her life would continue in this manner, and she would slowly overcome the pain of her lover's death.

She believed that in two more years, when the child of the right age was born to Liang Ji, the elders would approve of adopting a child in his name.

It would be good for her to continue living with her child in the future.

But unexpectedly, six years later, news suddenly came from outside the capital that Liang Ji had been found.

It turned out that Liang Ji had led his troops to recapture the Heluo region but had been ambushed. In a critical situation, he jumped into a turbulent river on his horse and was severely injured. Someone had rescued him.

Liang Ji had lost his memory, unable to remember anything.

Once his memory returned, he rushed back immediately.

However, Liang Ji returned with his family.

People praised Ying Shi for her loyalty and righteousness, shedding tears over a marriage that spanned a lifetime. But in just six years, they turned and laughed at Ying Shi, calling her sentimental and foolish.

They said she had taken the position of someone else's wife, mocking her as a resentful woman who had come between a couple.

Yes, yes, I was too naive, believing the casual words I spoke as a child to be promises.

I was foolish. I married into this family willingly.

Liang Ji was not wrong, nor was Fu.

After all the calculations, it turned out that I was the one who made the mistake.

Since Liang Ji's return, Ying Shi had been in great pain.

Her dignity was shattered in front of the couple. Every time they appeared, it felt as though they were stripping and whipping her in public.

Ying Shi still had self-respect and considered leaving this place.

But when she thought back, she realized that she had destroyed any chance of returning the moment she married.

The Liang family is an aristocratic household, whose power has reached the peak in recent years.

And what about me? What do I have behind me…?

Ying Shi only wanted to survive with dignity.

She cast aside her pride and begged many people for help, but they would rather destroy ten temples than a relationship. No one was willing to help her, to offer her a way out.

She cried herself to sleep each night, her pillow soaked with tears. In time, she could no longer eat or sleep.

Countless nights, she wept, lamenting how she had brought shame to the Ruan family. How could they have produced such a descendant, one who brought such disgrace upon them?

All of Ying Shi's resentment and pain turned into a blade, torturing her day and night.

The warm sun could not chase away the endless chill in her bones. No matter how hot the charcoal fire was, it couldn't warm her increasingly withered body.

Her once-healthy body withered away day by day, and only fear gripped her when death seemed near.

She was shocked to realize that she truly didn't want to accept it… She didn't want to die.

She was still so young...

Why, why can a treacherous person be made a marquis and prime minister, surrounded by a beautiful wife and children?

Yet someone loyal to love and her promises is turned into nothing, her memory forgotten by all.

…

She couldn't hold on any longer.

She didn't know when she left, only that it was a cold, lonely afternoon.

After Ying Shi died, it felt as though she turned into a cloud.

She floated above the Liang Mansion, gazing at her own funeral.

In the final two years of her life, she had been isolated from the world, trapped in a small courtyard.

Few knew of Liang Ji's original wife.

After her death, her funeral was grand.

All the officials of the capital and the Liang family's lackeys attended.

She watched as people shed tears for her, whether real or fake, crying in front of her mourning hall.

She passed by familiar faces and even saw Liang Ji, who had returned, exhausted.

The love and hate of the past no longer stirred her heart.

Light and shadows danced before her eyes, and golden flowers bloomed.

At some point, she opened her eyes, her head splitting with pain. She saw white flags fluttering in the distance, smoke swirling around her.

Everywhere, mourning clothes were visible.

Funeral music mixed with wailing, and the sound of Suona music blended with strong incense.

Ying Shi instinctively tried to rise, but then she heard someone calling her from behind.

She turned around, blankly, and saw the face she could never forget, not even in her dreams.