She was also innocent—

She had to fight to win back Li Yanyong.

Li Zongheng pondered for a moment, then said:

“As for a solution, I do have one.”

“I haven’t married yet, but at my age, having a concubine wouldn’t be strange. You can say you’re my concubine.”

He, helping her?

Wasn’t he known as the Iron-Faced Yama?

Lin Zhaoxue asked sincerely.

Li Zongheng said it was to compensate for her tragic life as the mistress of the household, where she was worn down until death.

Lin Zhaoxue didn’t believe him, but still said, “Then you are a good person.”

This was indeed the best solution.

Using Li Zongheng’s concubine status, she could enter the Li estate, see Li Yanyong, and meet his current wife.

Considering her options.

Lin Zhaoxue’s mind, inactive for five years, slowly began to deliberate.

Finally, she nodded in agreement, expressing her deep gratitude.

Li Zongheng had many matters to attend to.  Not long after Lin Zhaoxue woke up and agreed, he casually tossed her a half-phoenix jade pendant as proof of her identity and left swiftly.

Outside the room, Li Zongheng’s many guards, nurses, and doctors were waiting.

Only Lin Zhaoxue remained in the room.

Lin Zhaoxue picked up a bronze mirror and examined her features.

Compared to five years ago, she had indeed matured and become more beautiful, but not gaudily so. Her complexion was much better than five years ago.

She had recovered well, with no signs of illness.

That night, she digested everything alone.

She had just woken up, her mind was extremely muddled, and she had many questions.

For example, why had she been resurrected?

Why was Li Zongheng, the head of the household she feared most, the first person she saw upon waking?

And why would he help her?

If it was truly out of gratitude for her managing the household, it was even more absurd.

Li Zongheng wasn’t one to meddle in other people’s affairs; he wasn’t someone who cared about such things.

Her long-standing fear of Li Zongheng made Lin Zhaoxue wary, always suspecting he had ulterior motives.

But she couldn’t afford to think too much about it now.

She had to see Li Yanyong.

*

The next morning, Lin Zhaoxue packed her small bundle, boarded the carriage that had been prepared in advance, and headed to the Li estate.

The carriage was luxuriously comfortable, ensuring a pleasant journey even over long distances.

Lin Zhaoxue reflected:

Li Zongheng, the head of the Li family, truly treated himself best within the entire Li estate.

He wore the most expensive and beautiful silk, ate finer food than the emperor, and his carriages were made with brocade from Hangzhou.

The fabric was meticulously tailored, providing a supremely comfortable ride.

Compared to Li Yanyong’s simple and austere lifestyle…

They were polar opposites.

Before going to the Li estate, Lin Zhaoxue had the guards take her past her parents’ house, the Chancellor’s mansion.

She stopped for a quarter of an hour in front of the square stone-drum gate, her carriage concealed.

She was afraid that her sudden appearance would cause her parents further grief.  She inexplicably felt hesitant to see them.

Lin Zhaoxue eventually turned the carriage around—but not to avoid her parents.

She planned to write a letter at the Li estate, explaining everything, and then send it to her parents so they would be prepared and not be shocked by her sudden reappearance.

The carriage left a long wheel track.

Five years had passed, yet it felt like a lifetime ago.

She saw the Li estate again.

The plaque on the gate was newly fixed.

Stepping forward.

With the support of Li Zongheng’s nurse, Lin Zhaoxue entered the Li estate through a side gate.

This was the first time the authoritative head of the household had brought a woman into the estate, even if only a concubine, she was treated with importance.

She was well-settled in a back wing.

Upon returning to the estate, the most important things besides Li Yanyong were her son.

With Li Zongheng’s identity, Lin Zhaoxue easily found out about her son.

Her son had already passed the Tongzi examination, was a renowned prodigy, and was currently attending school.  She estimated that she would only be able to see him during the Lantern Festival.

She was relieved and reassured.  Her son was well, so she was at peace.

Secondly, she wrote a letter to her parents explaining that she was still alive, keeping it with her to send later.

After doing this.

Lin Zhaoxue braced herself, and before Li Yanyong’s wife could come to find her, she proactively sent a visiting card.

*

Amidst bamboo and rocks, amidst verdant grass.

Lin Zhaoxue returned to the courtyard she was most familiar with in the Li estate, where she had spent seven years.

It had been her and Li Yanyong’s marital home.

Now, it housed another woman.

Lin Zhaoxue felt a mix of emotions.

Entering the inner room.

Li Yanyong was still at work, so she didn’t see him, only his new wife.

Dressed in a lilac litchi-patterned dress, with raised eyebrows and delicate features like a cat, she had a faint fragrance of Lingling.

She appeared gentle and harmless, but the complexity in her eyes suggested that she was not as simple as she seemed.

The woman invited her to sit, but her eyes held hostility.

Clearly, she wasn’t happy to see Lin Zhaoxue, the “fox-like concubine” who had seduced Li Zongheng.

They faced each other.

“How long have you been married?”

“Where’s Sheng’er? Are you kind to him?”

“Where’s Li Yanyong? When will he be back?”

Lin Zhaoxue was anxious.

She asked these questions immediately upon meeting.

Of course, she wasn’t stupid.

She was asking these questions because she initially thought the woman would recognize her.

After all, she remembered her portrait hanging in the room, and Li Yanyong was not detail-oriented.

She had once asked Li Yanyong to remove the portrait from their matchmaking days out of jealousy, and he had forgotten several times.

Now, he definitely wouldn’t have removed it.

He wouldn’t have considered such details; Lin Zhaoxue was used to it.

But the woman clearly didn’t recognize her.

The woman paused, her initially friendly gaze turning wary and distant.

Seeing this strangeness, Lin Zhaoxue realized.

She didn’t recognize her?

The woman’s expression grew colder, her dislike more apparent, but she still answered, likely out of consideration for Li Zongheng’s status.

Mentioning Li Yanyong, her expression became sweet:

“My husband and I have been married for over a year, still in our honeymoon phase.”

“As for my son, did the Head of the Household even tell you about Sheng’er? Isn’t Sheng’er closest to him? He should know very well.”

“My husband… my husband always sends a message to me before he returns. It depends on whether he wants to see you.”

The word “husband” stung Lin Zhaoxue.

Her head throbbed.

Finally, she forced herself to calm down.

This was normal; she had to face it and overcome it.

After calming down, she took this opportunity to carefully observe the woman, noting the differences in their styles—

After a closer look at the woman’s face, Lin Zhaoxue was somewhat enlightened.

After observing her.

She only had one thought—

So young.

Li Yanyong’s new wife had a youthful glow, and the clarity in her amber eyes showed that she had not suffered hardships.

And her?

Lin Zhaoxue thought of herself in the bronze mirror.

She had also been like that.

But in this era, especially for noble ladies like her, they emphasized getting married young.  In the midst of her suffering in the Li estate, the youthful glow on her face had been replaced by pallor, and her dark eyes held only dullness.

Wait, no.

Both married into the Li estate, in similar circumstances…

Why were Li Yanyong’s new wife’s eyes so bright?

Even seemingly joyful?

She looked like someone who hadn’t suffered any hardship.

What about the Li family’s relatives?

They were all troublemakers.

Or was this woman exceptionally capable? Could she manage those relatives?

Lin Zhaoxue had questions, so she asked:

“I hear that the Li family has many relatives, and they’re all troublemakers. You must have suffered a lot in the Li estate.”

“Life in the Li estate must be difficult.”

But the woman looked puzzled: “Suffered hardship from relatives in the Li estate?”

Lin Zhaoxue nodded.

The woman was even more confused:

“There’s only my husband and I in the entire estate, where are the relatives?”

Lin Zhaoxue sensed something was wrong.

Her eyebrows furrowed, and she tightened her voice: “What do you mean?”

The woman looked surprised:

“Don’t you know? My husband and I separated from the Li family long ago.”

“There are no relatives to speak of. We don’t even see each other during festivals, let alone cause me trouble.”

Recalling her married life, the woman’s face flushed with shyness:

“My husband is always considerate and thoughtful. He felt sorry for me, saying that the Li estate was full of wolves and tigers, that all the relatives were scheming, and that leaving me, a woman, in the estate would be too difficult for me to handle.”

“So, before he married me, he decided to separate from the family.”

“Now that we’ve separated, the relatives have all gone their separate ways, so I don’t have any worries about the inner household, and I’m alone and have nothing to do.”

“To be honest, I feel too idle.”

Lin Zhaoxue tensed up.

Then, she managed a smile:

“Since you’ve separated, why is Li Zongheng, the head of the Li family, still living with you?”

Because she didn’t want to believe it, Lin Zhaoxue tried to find flaws in the woman’s words to refute them.