Após renascer, a delicada senhorita é a mais bela da capital.

“Damn girl! Run! Why aren’t you running?”

The usually gentle-faced Aunt Liu now wore an expression twisted by anger. Her plump body trembled from the chase as she leaned against a tree, gasping for breath.

She glared fiercely at Shen Qingdai. “Your husband and master have graciously promised you to Lord Qian as a gift, and yet you dare to run away from the marriage!”

Shen Qingdai looked drowsily toward the speaker. Already gravely ill with a raging fever and having tumbled down the hillside, her mind was a foggy mess.

Is this how my life is going to end? she thought.

Aunt Liu turned to the servants nearby, casually pointing with her hand. “Hurry up and bring her back! If this damned girl runs away again, I’ll have all of you sold off!”

The servants quickly bound her hands and feet with coarse hemp ropes and lifted her onto a nearby carriage.

Shen Qingdai gave a bitter smile. With the medicine her stepmother had given her, she wouldn’t survive the year anyway. Why go through all this trouble?

This so-called stepmother hated her so deeply that even as her life waned, she sought to ruin her reputation utterly.

Slowly, the light in Shen Qingdai’s eyes faded away.

When she woke again, she was back in the mansion.

The servants, merciless in the bitter winter, had doused her with icy water mixed with snow to revive her.

She lay on the floor, utterly humiliated, bound hand and foot, water dripping steadily from her forehead.

Looking around at the familiar furnishings, a bitter