They Chose the Fake Princess and Let Me the Real One Die Twice

That year we were scraping by on chaff and weeds, two big shots from the capital swept into the orphanage. After locating the General's long-lost daughter, they tossed out a fortune in gold and handed pastries to every kid. As I reached for my pastry, a barrage of comments occurred in my vision: A:[Girl, hurry up—take out your family heirloom pendant! They're here for YOU!] B:[Expose that fake heiress snatching your birthright, and you'll finally have a home!] They declared the general was my elder brother, the Prime Minister, was my future husband. Yet I just took a shaky bite of the pastry, ducking my head like a scared rabbit. Because the truth was crystal clear—those two had come for the impostor. Whether I take the jade pendant or not. They wouldn't even look at me. The comments scrolled relentlessly, but I stayed silent, stretching out my frostbitten, purple-tinged hands to get my pastry. The moment my fingers pinched the edge of the oiled paper, the prime minister opposite, clad in a rich brocade robe, froze abruptly. His gaze fell on the red, swollen, chapped frostbite on the back of my hand, and his pupils constricted slightly, a faint flicker of emotion welling up in his eyes. His thin lips parted as if he were about to speak, yet in the end, he said nothing. Upon seeing this, a man beside him slapped the pastry into my palm, his voice like a winter blade. He didn't even glance my way. "Next." The pastry's warmth made my eyes sting. I'd known they'd reject me. Yet when it happened, my heart plunged into icy water, leaving me shaking. At the sight of us standing face to face, the barrage of comments went wild. The scrolling words blurred the figure of the man in front of me. Yet I did not follow the barrage's advice to expose Lila Thorne. Instead, I took a harsh bite of the pastry and buried my head even lower. As the stray hair over my forehead hid the corners of my eyes, the cloying red bean paste choked my throat, making it tight. A:[Sweetheart, scream for them!] B:[That's your BROTHER!] C:[The other's your future husband—expose Lila NOW!] D:[Wait a month, and he'll MARRY her!] They all urged me desperately, but I silently squeezed the jade pendant against my chest and ignored them all. Only when the icy chill spread from my fingertips to every part of my body did a sudden sadness wash over me. The barrage did not know that I had been reborn. And I was not the only one. From the moment I saw my elder brother—Ethan Thorne and my husband—Elian Voss just now, I knew—they had been reborn too. And the way they never once glanced in my direction made it even clearer: even knowing Lila was a fake, they would still choose to let the mistake stand. Right before I died, they'd even sighed and said they'd never take me back if they could live their lives over again. And I had no desire to relive the loneliness and misery of being cast aside by them for the rest of my days, like I did in that past life. Watching the pastry handout group turn to leave, I stifled the dull ache in my chest, clenched the oil paper tight, and prepared to head back to the fields to work. But the second I stood up, the red string around my neck holding the jade pendant snapped without warning. The white jade pendant clattered onto the bluestone flagstones, its sharp chime cutting through the air as a cold male voice rang out. "That's the personal jade pendant my mother left for my younger sister." My entire body went rigid, blood seeming to freeze in my veins in an instant, even my breath growing ragged. I lifted my head slowly, and my gaze crashed straight into Kael Thorne's suddenly darkening eyes. He had stridden over before I knew it, bending down to pick up the pendant. His eyes softened a little as the pad of his finger stroked the carved character "THORNE" on its surface.