Rebirth Plan to Save Leader

Chapter 1: Wedding Night: Betrayal and Abandonment

“Ah—!”

“My face…”

In the bridal chamber, the bride’s face was being peeled completely off her flesh.

Her miserable screams echoed through the Eastern Palace.

“Father, Mother, Eldest Brother, Second Brother, Third… Brother…”

With a trembling voice, Shen Zhao called out to her closest family members before her.

She watched as her eldest brother held a knife, slowly separating the skin from her face bit by bit; her second brother tore it off with his own hands; her third brother looked on coldly.

And her parents… stood there, indifferent.

Shen Zhao could not believe that the people before her her own family were trying to harm her.

“You…” Enduring the excruciating pain, she asked, “Why are you ruining my face?”

The door creaked open.

Another woman dressed in bridal attire was carried into the hall by the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, Xiao Xuanzhou.

With great difficulty, Shen Zhao lifted her head and saw her newly wedded husband holding a woman who looked exactly like her. A tearing pain struck her chest.

The woman in his arms… was her twin sister Shen Qingrou.

Xiao Xuanzhou stopped before her and looked down from above.

“I once asked you would you be willing to be a concubine? Do you remember what you said to me?”

Shen Zhao’s breathing grew heavier as fragments of memory surfaced.

“The Imperial Astrologer read my physiognomy. I have a blessed face, destined to be the Phoenix Star. When the Crown Prince ascends the throne, I must be Empress. How could I become someone’s concubine?”

“Even if it were as a secondary consort, you still wouldn’t agree?”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Do you remember now?” Xiao Xuanzhou’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

Shen Zhao slowly raised her eyes and crawled forward with all her strength, grabbing the hem of his robe.

“So it was you… you made my family destroy my face.”

Xiao Xuanzhou set Shen Qingrou down and pulled her into his arms.

“With the same face, you are said to have the fate of a Phoenix, while your sister was slandered as a lone, ill-fated star. But I don’t believe in such nonsense. I insist on seeing once your face is completely ruined, ugly like a ghost how you could still become my future Empress.”

“You… you…” Rage exploded within Shen Zhao. Her grip on his robe tightened as she spat out in fury, “Xiao Xuanzhou, how vicious you are!”

“Get lost.”

Her father kicked her hand away.

Shen Zhao rolled across the ground several times. When she looked up, a bronze mirror reflected a face covered in blood hideous and terrifying like a demon.

She could not believe that on the night of her wedding to the Crown Prince, she had become prey to be hunted betrayed by both the one she loved and the family closest to her.

But…

If Xiao Xuanzhou wanted to destroy her, why were the Shen family members also so cruel?

“Father, Mother, brothers… why did you deceive me as well?” Shen Zhao pointed at them. “Today’s wedding was never meant for me to marry into the Eastern Palace!”

Her father said, “The Crown Prince clearly favored your sister, yet you insisted on holding onto the title of Crown Princess, bringing shame to the Shen family. If you must blame someone, blame yourself for refusing to give up the position.”

Shen Zhao laughed a hysterical, almost mad laughter.

She pointed at Xiao Xuanzhou and Shen Qingrou. “They engaged in an improper relationship without matchmaker or propriety, yet it becomes my fault?”

“Shut up!”

Her eldest brother rushed forward and stomped heavily on her back.

Just as Shen Zhao spat out a mouthful of blood, a hand pried her mouth open and forced something inside.

Burning charcoal!

“Mmm—!”

Her scream was smothered by a thick cloth stuffed into her mouth.

In agony, she looked toward her mother, pleading for help.

But her mother shrank into her father’s arms, covering her eyes. “Heavens, this is too disgusting. How could this be my obedient daughter? I never knew she was so ugly.”

The hand Shen Zhao had stretched toward her mother slowly fell.

As the last light faded, her life quickly slipped away.

But unwillingness kept her eyes wide open, staring at everyone in the hall those pale, lifeless eyes filled with overwhelming resentment.

Shen Qingrou said fearfully, “Your Highness, my sister refuses to close her eyes in death. I’m scared.”

Xiao Xuanzhou covered Shen Qingrou’s eyes and said coldly, “Gouge out her eyes and send them to the Duke’s residence. Isn’t the old madam there looking for a woman for Xie Chenyu’s ghost marriage? Then I’ll grant him the so-called First Phoenix Star, Shen Zhao.”

At the brink of death, Shen Zhao heard a man’s voice calling her:

“Shen Zhao, do you want to be reborn?”

She opened her eyes and despite having had them gouged out, she could see.

Before her floated a headless corpse in a vast white void. Yet she recognized him instantly Xie Chenyu.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

The headless corpse seemed to sense her response and said, “I can help you be reborn. Coral Literature this is where dreams begin, and where they come true. But you must help me…”

Before she could respond, Shen Zhao was swallowed by a beam of light.

When she opened her eyes again.

“I heard the Crown Prince has already found the woman who saved his life eight months ago. He plans to abandon the Shen family’s Phoenix Star and make that woman the Crown Princess instead.”

“The Shen family’s eldest daughter has been cultivated by the entire clan to become the future Empress. If the Crown Prince doesn’t want her anymore, there will surely be quite a show.”

Shen Zhao looked around, momentarily stunned.

Just a moment ago, she had been in the Eastern Palace waiting for the Crown Prince. Now, she was sitting in the Orchid Garden of the Shen residence.

She looked down at her clothes. Instead of a bright red wedding dress, she was wearing a pale bluish ceremonial gown strictly chosen according to her mother Cui Xuenian’s preferences.

Her mother had always reminded her that the Crown Prince liked that color she must cater to his tastes.

As the destined Phoenix Star, Shen Zhao had been valued and carefully trained by her family since childhood.

She never dared to disobey her parents or brothers, and everything in her life had been arranged by her elders.

Not daring to go against her parents or elder brothers, she let the elders arrange everything in her life.

Marrying into the Eastern Palace and becoming the Crown Princess was the great hope the Shen family had placed on her.

The scene before her was exactly the grand coming-of-age ceremony the Shen family had prepared for her her most glorious moment.

All the nobles of Yanjing had come to attend her ceremony. Her parents had also deliberately hinted to the Empress and the Crown Prince that the Shen family’s “Phoenix Star” had come of age and was ready for betrothal and marriage.

The ceremony had gone smoothly, and after it, Crown Prince Xiao Xuanzhou publicly announced to everyone that Shen Zhao would become his Crown Princess.

At that time, she had been full of anticipation.

But she had clearly been tortured to death by Xiao Xuanzhou so what was going on now?

Shen Zhao spread her hands and looked at them. Smooth and fair like jade these were living, breathing hands.

Thinking back to the moment before her death, a chill of realization surged through her.

Someone had helped her be reborn.

…

Her mother, Cui Xuenian, stood beside her, while the Old Madam of the Duke of Jin’s residence held a comb, arranging her hair as part of the coming-of-age rite.

The scene was exactly the same as in her previous life.

The only difference was the whispers among the noblewomen at the banquet.

“Madam, His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived,” a steward guarding the gate hurried into the inner courtyard.

From her mother Cui Xuenian’s embarrassed expression at the rumors, Shen Zhao saw the moment of relief that crossed her face.

But before that breath of relief could fully escape, the steward added:

“His Highness has also brought back a young lady, saying she is the Second Miss of the Shen family the elder miss’s twin sister. She will also undergo the coming-of-age ceremony today, and His Highness intends to betroth her as the Crown Princess.”

Bang.

Cui Xuenian accidentally knocked over a jewelry box beside her.

The atmosphere turned awkward.

It was the first time Shen Zhao had seen her mother so flustered.

Without saying a word, Shen Zhao lowered her gaze to the pearls rolling at her feet.

She gently lifted her foot, stepped on them, and crushed them.

A faint curve lifted her red lips as she sneered inwardly:

Shen family… your retribution has come.

Shen Qingrou had a physical flaw she had suffered from a stutter since childhood.

To curry favor with the Crown Prince, the Shen family had wanted to plant a “piece” within the powerful Duke of Jin’s household, which held military authority.

So after Shen Zhao became engaged to the Crown Prince, they remembered Shen Qingrou, who had been raised in a countryside estate, and brought her back to betroth her to the Duke of Jin.

Shen Qingrou could only speak one word at a time, unable to form even short phrases of three to five words. In important settings, she would become completely mute.

In her previous life, it was Shen Zhao who guided her helping heal her emotional wounds, patiently teaching her to speak, to read, and to master music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Only then did Shen Qingrou gradually become the refined noble lady their parents had hoped for.

But Shen Zhao never expected that Shen Qingrou would turn around and betray her, even saying:

“I’m the one the Crown Prince has been searching for the one who saved his life. If I hadn’t been unable to speak since childhood, unable to express my feelings to him, I would have revealed my identity long ago. Why should it be your turn, Sister? I refuse to accept it! We have the same face why should you be Crown Princess while I cannot?”

Back then, Shen Zhao had foolishly rebuked her:

“Because I am the Phoenix Star cultivated by the family. Sister, you’re dreaming foolishly.”

Now, looking back, it was she, Shen Zhao, who had been the foolish dreamer.

But…

In her previous life, the Shen family only brought Shen Qingrou back after she had been engaged to the Crown Prince.

So why had it happened earlier in this life?

Shen Zhao lifted her eyes and in the crowd, she saw a familiar figure.

He wore a robe of deep violet brocade, just past twenty, with an otherworldly bearing.

He was the youngest and most accomplished war hero of Great Yan the Duke of Jin.

And also the man the Crown Prince had assigned to her in a ghost marriage before her death in her previous life Xie Chenyu.

Recalling the voice she had heard before dying, a storm of indescribable shock surged within Shen Zhao’s heart.

Could it be… that it was Xie Chenyu from her previous life who had helped her be reborn?