Buried Alive at His Wedding, I Rose for Revenge

The moment I transmigrated, my eight-year-old son was hammering the final nail into my coffin. Outside the box, drums thundered and wedding music shrieked. My husband, Regent Xiao Chengjin, was marrying my younger sister with my dowry. "Mother, don't blame me," the boy whispered through the lid. "Aunt Rou said she can only become my new mother after you die. She said you would only burden Father if you stayed alive." I opened my eyes. Blood flooded my mouth. Memories that did not belong to me crashed into my skull. The body I had entered belonged to Shen Jingtang, eldest legitimate daughter of the Great General's residence. At nineteen, she married Xiao Chengjin when he was still a powerless prince with more enemies than servants. She sold her jewels to feed his soldiers. She took three poisoned arrows meant for him. She once knelt in the snow for three days to beg the late emperor to spare his life. When Xiao Chengjin finally became the most powerful man in Great Zhao, he repaid her with a divorce decree. Her crime was a******y. The witness was her younger sister, Shen Rou. The evidence was a man's belt discovered beneath her bed by her own maid. Xiao Chengjin did not allow her to speak. He poured poison down her throat, dressed her in burial clothes, and ordered her buried before sunset. Today was Shen Jingtang's birthday. It was also the day Xiao Chengjin married Shen Rou. A wedding and a funeral on the same afternoon. Efficient. "The auspicious hour has arrived!" the matchmaker shouted. Shen Rou's sweet voice followed. "Your Highness, Sister is being buried today while we marry. Isn't this too cruel?" "She deserved it," Xiao Chengjin answered. "But she once took an arrow for you—" "Rou'er." His voice sharpened. "You are the woman I am marrying. Do not mention that filthy name again." The guests rushed to flatter him. "Your Highness places justice above family." "A shameless woman like Shen Jingtang never deserved to be Regent Consort." "I heard she abused the young heir. Death was too merciful for her." Inside the coffin, I licked the blood from my lip and laughed. In my former life, I had been an emergency physician. After a thirty-six-hour shift, I went home early to surprise my fiancé. Instead, I found him in bed with my twin sister. During the fight, he pushed me from the twenty-eighth floor. The final image I saw was my sister at the window, one hand on her swollen belly, smiling as I fell. Now there was another sister. Another man. Another woman framed and murdered before she could defend herself. Were faithless men and poisonous sisters sold by the crate? Outside, the boy asked, "Father, is Mother truly dead?" Xiao Chengjin was silent for a moment. "She is no longer your mother. From today onward, Rou'er is." Shen Rou stroked the boy's head. "Jingheng, be good. Call me Mother." After a brief hesitation, he obeyed. The guests laughed with delight. Another memory flashed through me. Three years ago, when Xiao Jingheng nearly died of fever, Shen Jingtang rode a hundred miles through a blizzard to fetch a physician. One year ago, he fell into a frozen lake. Shen Jingtang jumped in after him and ruined her health so badly the doctors said she would never bear another child. Yet he had driven the nails into her coffin himself. A dog would have remembered who fed it. The child she raised had less gratitude than a dog. I moved my wrist. The poison burned through my organs, but the fools had been too certain of my death to bind me. I pulled a gold hairpin from my hair and pushed its tip into the narrow seam beside the lid. "First bow—to Heaven and Earth!" Crack. The first nail loosened. "Second bow—to the elders!" Crack. The second nail sprang free. "Husband and wife—bow to each other!" I drew a breath and kicked upward with both legs. Boom! The coffin lid flew across the courtyard and smashed the gilded brazier beneath the words A UNION OF A HUNDRED YEARS. Sparks scattered. Guests screamed and fled. I gripped the edge of the coffin and slowly sat up. Blood soaked my white burial gown. My hair hung loose around a face drained of color. Crimson trails ran from my eyes, nose, and lips. I looked like a bride dragged out of hell. The hammer fell from Xiao Jingheng's hand. "M-Mother?" Shen Rou's smile froze. Xiao Chengjin spun around. For the first time, the unshakable regent looked afraid. "Shen Jingtang?" I wiped my mouth and smiled at him. "Your Highness. You married my sister with my dowry, held the banquet in my home, and made the son I raised your flower boy." I stepped out of the coffin. "Your happy little family certainly knows how to celebrate." Shen Rou hid in Xiao Chengjin's arms. "Sister, you are alive?" "Disappointed?" "You committed an unforgivable sin. His Highness showed mercy by leaving your body intact. Today is our wedding. Please stop causing trouble." "My sin?" I pulled the alleged lover's belt from inside my burial robe and threw it at Xiao Chengjin's feet. "Turn it over. Look at the embroidery." He did not move. Shen Rou did. Only a fraction, only a backward twitch of her heel, but I saw it. I ripped the bloodstained hairpin free and pressed it to her throat. The regent drew his sword at once. Its tip pointed at my heart. Nine years ago, he had promised Shen Jingtang that this sword would protect her for the rest of his life. Now it was aimed at the heart that had loved him. "Release Rou'er." "And if I refuse?" "I will kill you." "You already did." I twisted my wrist. Instead of piercing Shen Rou's throat, the hairpin cut open the silk sachet at her waist. A black pill rolled onto the floor. I crushed it beneath my shoe. The bitter scent of almonds spread through the hall. An elderly physician among the guests blanched. "Arsenic!" Shen Rou went white. "The same poison used on me," I said. "Still think my death was justice, Your Highness?" "She planted it!" Shen Rou cried. "Sister slipped it into my sachet during the chaos!" "Then let us examine the belt." I lifted it with my hairpin and flipped it over. A tiny character was embroidered inside: Jin. The wedding hall went silent. The belt used to prove my a******y belonged to Xiao Chengjin himself. I tossed it into Shen Rou's face. "You used your brother-in-law's intimate clothing to frame me. Had you already climbed into his bed before climbing into my place?" The guests' expressions changed. Xiao Chengjin's face turned iron-gray. "Explain." "I don't know!" Shen Rou sobbed. "I swear I don't know!" Hooves thundered beyond the gates. A black-armored messenger stumbled into the hall and dropped to his knees. "Urgent report! Great General Shen Wujiang is alive. He has returned with three hundred thousand soldiers and is less than ten miles from the capital!" Shen Rou jerked her head up. The messenger looked at me. "The general sent one message. Whoever harms a hair on his daughter's head will answer to the entire Shen army." Thunder shook the sky. I looked at my bloody burial gown, then at the sword still pointed toward my chest. "Ten miles," I said softly. "Tell me, Your Highness. When my father arrives, will he cut down you first—or my sister?" An arrow tore through the air. It struck Xiao Chengjin's sword and snapped the blade in half. Armored footsteps shook the courtyard. A white-haired man entered beneath the wedding lanterns, carrying a blood-wet saber. When he saw my burial clothes, his eyes turned red. "Jingtang." His saber crashed to the floor. "Tell Father." "Who in this hall do you want dead first?"