The life swap begins with Consort Hua becoming Lady Qin.

Yu Ying'er was still crying: "Your Highness, I've suffered an undeserved calamity! You're a good person, Your Highness, good people will surely be rewarded. Please spare me. If those ladies in the back courtyard continue like this, I'll really lose my life!"

Yixiu looked at her and slowly asked, "Will good people be rewarded?"

Yu Ying'er nodded vigorously.

Yixiu laughed, a very happy laugh.

"This lady does not believe that good people are rewarded, nor does she care for it."

"This lady only wishes for... only wishes for evil to be punished."

Her voice was calm, but Yu Ying'er's heart skipped a beat and a chill ran down her spine.

Yixiu looked at her quietly and said lightly, "You're really no good either. Shuhe only treated you badly once, and you schemed to make her fall off the artificial hill, almost disfiguring her. With a heart like yours, do you really expect a good reward?"

Yu Ying'er was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly cried and begged for mercy.

"Your Highness! Your Highness has wronged me! I wouldn't dare! I—"

Yixiu, however, was too tired to listen anymore.

She simply looked at Jianqiu calmly and ordered, "Send her down."

Just four words.

Yu Ying'er's hair stood on end instantly. She screamed and turned to run away, but after only two steps, Jian Qiu grabbed her hair and pulled her back hard.

Two rough-looking old women immediately entered from outside, grabbed her from both sides, gagged her, and dragged her outside.

But her struggling soon stopped.

The room fell silent again.

Yixiu stood up and slowly walked into the next room.

Yinzhen was awake, staring blankly at the ceiling.

For more than a month now, he has been like this, like a living dead.

Yixiu was already used to this.

She gracefully walked to his bedside and sat down, picked up the bowl of medicine that had been cooled to a perfect temperature, and softly called out, "Fourth Brother."

Yinzhen did not react.

Yixiu didn't mind, and continued gently, "Do you still remember our Honghui?"

Yinzhen still did not react.

"What about the second prince, whom my sister gave birth to? Or rather... Hongfen?"

This time, Yinzhen's eyes finally flickered slightly.

Yixiu burst out laughing.

"For so many years, I've always wanted to ask you, Your Highness. If my Honghui and my sister's Hongfen were both alive, which one would you prefer?"

"Will it be like you and the Fourteenth Prince in Mother's heart, one like a treasure and the other as lowly as grass?"

Yinzhen's gaze instantly glared at him, and he made a rapid, hoarse sound in his throat, as if someone had stabbed him in the most sensitive spot.

Yixiu, however, was not afraid at all.

She laughed even harder, her eyes and brows seeming to be bathed in a strange light.

"So you're saying, isn't this karma?"

"Do you still remember what our Honghui looked like? He was such a smart, thoughtful, and sensible child. To be frank, sometimes I even think that Hongxi from the deposed crown prince's residence might not be able to surpass him."

"He is the eldest son of the grandfather, and my only son."

She stared into Yinzhen's eyes: "Does Your Highness still remember him? Do you remember how he died?"

Yinzhen suddenly fell silent.

He stared intently at her, his eyes revealing a deep sense of wariness.

He belatedly realized that Yixiu was a little different tonight.

It was as if she had finally torn off the layer of gentleness, forbearance, virtue, and thoughtfulness that had been plastered on her face for many years, revealing the resentment, hatred, anger, and fury that had been buried beneath.

And madness.

Yixiu, however, remained oblivious and continued to smile.

Tears followed.

"Of course you don't remember!"

"At that time, my sister finally became pregnant, but the pregnancy was unstable. You summoned all the physicians in the manor to her courtyard to be on standby, but left my Honghui alone in the room with a persistent high fever and nowhere to turn for help."

"For so many years, I have never even asked how Honghui died or if he left any words before he died."

"In the dead of night, I can't help but wonder, does my father also have fears? Fears that the son he killed with his own hands will never forgive him, even in death?"

"But you know that."

"Our Honghui is so kind; even if a stray cat is injured, he wouldn't bear to have it chased away. How could he possibly hold a grudge against you?"

"When he was sick, what he kept thinking about and longed for was still his father taking him out for a spring outing, riding horses, and flying kites."

"He was still hoping for you until his death."

As Yixiu spoke, tears streamed down her face, but the smile on her face never faded.

The mixture of laughter and tears was even more chilling than simple hatred.

"But this child, this child who loves you with all his heart, is discarded by you like trash. Even after he died, you wouldn't even bother to look at him."

"Your heart and eyes are only filled with Hongfen, who is in your sister's belly."

"A child who died at birth, who didn't even have time to be listed in the royal register, yet you kept vigil for him for many days and gave him a name."

She looked at Yinzhen, and spoke each word as if she were finally uttering the words she had suppressed for half her life:

"Doesn't it remind you of how your aunt treated you and Fourteen back then?"

"Yinzhen, Yinzhen."

"In your aunt's heart, you are no different from Honghui. You are both children who died long ago."

Yinzhen's eyes were bloodshot, and he struggled violently. The strange noises in his throat became more and more urgent, as if he wanted to refute, to scold, and to make her shut up.

Yixiu looked at him and suddenly burst into laughter.

With an almost unbridled sense of exhilaration.

Suddenly, her laughter stopped.

She looked down at him, her voice calm:

"It's all retribution."

"Yinzhen, in the end, Heaven is fair. Good people should be rewarded, but wicked people like us should also be punished."

"You betrayed me and ruined Honghui."

"I personally sent my sister and Hongfen to the Yellow Springs."

Yinzhen's eyes widened suddenly.

Tears welled in Yixiu's eyes, but a genuine smile, a rare sight for her in decades, graced her lips.

"Now, Heaven has deprived you of your throne, your dignity, and even your current state. Even a beggar on the street lives a more human life than you."

"And I—wasted half my life, without father or mother, without children to see me off in my final days."

"fair enough."

She turned around and, in front of him, slowly poured spoonful after spoonful of bitter medicine into the potted plant next to her.

"We both deserve our punishment."

With a loosening of his grip, the empty bowl fell to the ground.

"For the rest of my life, I should be bound to one place, tormenting myself day and night to atone for my sins."

-

The next day, Hongzhou was taken back to Gengshi.

After that, the gates of Prince Yong's mansion remained tightly closed, and the only news to the outside world was that the prince was seriously ill and his wife was attending to him day and night, refusing all visits.

The palace continued to offer condolences, and the household continued to pay respects, but the number of people who could actually enter that gate was becoming increasingly smaller.

No one has seen Prince Yong and his wife, Ulanara, since.

Many years later.

That day, the food that was brought in remained untouched for a long time. Jianqiu found someone, broke down the door, and found two people lying on the bed, both dead.

Yi Xiu was dressed neatly, her hair was in a bun, and there was even a faint smile on her lips. She was holding an old, faded rattle in her hand.

Yinzhen, however, was haggard and emaciated, his body skeletal. His eyes remained open until his death, staring straight at the top of the tent, as if he refused to accept his fate until the very end.

Between the two, there was a pair of jade rings that had been completely shattered.

May this cycle continue.

We will never see each other again, whether in life or death.