"System, this time, it won’t be the same as the last, will it?" Gu Shengyin specially asked the system before entering the next world.
"Host, please rest assured."
Gu Shengyin closed her eyes in relief, waiting to be transported after receiving the assurance.
This world was a matriarchal country where imperial power reigned supreme.
The body that Gu Shengyin inhabited belonged to the eldest daughter of the Phoenix Emperor of the Heavenly Phoenix Dynasty, Huang Changge.
It was said that at the moment of her birth, natural phenomena occurred, with a colorful glow filling the sky and hundreds of birds converging toward the Imperial Palace, their necks stretched to sing.
The Phoenix Emperor, overjoyed, bestowed upon her the name Changge and established her as the Crown Prince.
From birth, Huang Changge was showered with utmost love and favoritism. She did not fail the expectations of the Phoenix Emperor and the citizens of the Heavenly Phoenix Dynasty, possessing a natural brilliance and the gift of never forgetting what she reads. Her martial abilities were backed by an extraordinary Root Bone.
Even the Phoenix Emperor always treated her as the successor.
However, as her siblings were born one by one, the sisters who once worshiped their elder sister each began to harbor their own thoughts.
Due to the different statuses and being taught separately by the Phoenix Emperor from a young age, Huang Changge’s relationships with all her siblings were distant, except with her own younger sister, Huang Mingge, who was also born to the Phoenix Monarch.
Huang Mingge was four years younger than Huang Changge and always clung to her elder sister from a young age; Changge was very fond of this pampered and coquettish younger sister.
In the year she turned fourteen, Huang Changge was betrothed. Her marriage partner was the eldest son of the Marquis Wenyuan from the Phoenix Monarch’s maternal family, Shi Qingyi.
Huang Changge didn’t harbor romantic feelings for her cousin who was one year her junior. She was simply following the Imperial Mother’s wishes, selecting a Legal Spouse advantageous to herself.
She had always perfectly fulfilled the role of a qualified heir to the dynasty. She thought that she would gradually get involved in government affairs and, after the Imperial Mother grew old, become the new leader of the Heavenly Phoenix Dynasty.
The unexpected happened all too quickly.
While she and Shi Qingyi were in disguise attending the lantern festival, someone leaked the Crown Prince’s whereabouts, and the group encountered a carefully planned assassination attempt.
Just as the assassin’s blade was about to touch Huang Changge’s body, Shi Qingyi, who had always been standing by her side, pushed her away and took that deadly blow himself.
It was at that moment that Huang Changge placed this cousin and future Legal Spouse in her heart.
She thought to herself that a person who would die for her at a critical moment should not be let down.
Fortunately, Shi Qingyi was saved and brought back.
Huang Changge began to treat Shi Qingyi well, confiding her secret thoughts to him and even dispatching hidden forces of the Crown Prince to ensure his safety.
Huang Changge felt that if she were to ascend to the throne in the future, she must not take as many side consorts or Monarch’s Attendants as her father did. She did not want Shi Qingyi to be as unhappy as her father.
Yet, before any of this could be realized, a decree from the Phoenix Monarch had already arrived at the Crown Prince’s palace.
Huang Changge looked incredulously at the contents of the decree, at the pile of "secret correspondences" that had been found in the hidden compartments of her study, and even at the objects implicating her for cursing the Phoenix Emperor to an early death.
Behind the Palace Attendant who delivered the decree stood Shi Qingyi.
Huang Changge was confined by the enraged Phoenix Emperor.
She could never understand why Shi Qingyi would betray and frame her.
Not until Huang Mingge’s visit.
The little girl who used to tug at her sister’s sleeve and act spoiled had grown into a beautiful and noble young woman.
"Sister, are you wondering why Cousin Qingyi did that?"