Reborn as the Poison Duchess: The System Crowned Me Empress
Chapter 1: The Taste of Crane Red
The Crane Red poison did not kill instantly. That was its true cruelty.
It burned like a swallowed handful of crushed glass and live wasps, tearing a fiery, agonizing path down my esophagus before pooling like boiling acid in my stomach. I collapsed onto the freezing, cracked marble floor of the Cold Palace, my fingers curling into useless claws against the stone. A violent, ragged cough tore from my lungs, and thick, black blood splattered across the pale floor tiles.
Through my blurring, tear-filled vision, I saw the hem of a gown. Not just any gown—the blindingly yellow silk of the Phoenix Robes, embroidered with gold thread that caught the dim light of the bleak room.
"Sister," a voice spoke, dripping with honeyed venom and fake pity. "Does it hurt? Oh, it looks like it hurts terribly. But it shouldn't hurt half as much as the news I bring you."
I forced my heavy, trembling head upward, my neck muscles screaming in protest. Standing above me was Lu Yao. My illegitimate half-sister. The fragile, weeping white lotus I had pitied. The penniless, shivering orphan I had foolishly allowed into my marital home out of the goodness of my heart.
Now, she stood wearing the Empress’s coronet, heavy with pearls and rubies.
And standing right beside her, holding her hand with gentle reverence, was the man I had worshipped for ten grueling years. Shen Ze, the Duke of Zhenguo.
"Shen Ze..." I choked out, a fresh wave of black blood spilling over my lips. I reached a trembling, calloused hand toward him. "I gave you... my Lu family’s military seal... I knelt in the blizzard for three days to beg the Emperor to spare your life... I paved the way for the Third Prince with my family’s gold... Why?"
Shen Ze looked down at me. There was no love in his eyes. There wasn't even pity. There was only absolute, unfiltered disgust, as if he were staring at a dying cockroach that had soiled his boots.
"Because you are a vicious, overbearing shrew, Lu Wan," he said, his voice cold and flat. "Did you really think I could ever love a woman whose hands are stained with the blood of the battlefield? A woman who speaks out of turn and commands men like a general? Yao'er is pure. She is kind. She is everything a woman should be. I have loved her since the day I brought her into the manor."
My heart stuttered, a cold numbness spreading through my chest that had nothing to do with the poison. "You... you used me. You used my family's army..."
"Used you? Of course I used you," Shen Ze sneered, stepping closer. "And now, your usefulness has reached its end. In fact, as of an hour ago, your arrogant Lu family has been entirely uprooted."
I froze. The agony in my stomach momentarily vanished, replaced by a soul-shattering terror. "What... what did you say?"
Lu Yao giggled behind her painted silk fan, her eyes crinkling with sadistic delight. "Oh, didn't he tell you? The Third Prince ascended the throne this morning. His very first decree was to declare the Lu family guilty of treason. Your father, your three brave brothers... they were all executed at the Meridian Gate. I heard the executioner’s blade got dull because your eldest brother’s neck was so thick. Their heads are currently rolling in the dirt, waiting for the dogs to find them."
No. No, no, no!
"Father! Brothers!" I screamed, a raw, animalistic sound of pure agony tearing from my throat. The mental image of my proud, booming father and my fiercely protective brothers kneeling in the mud, framed by the husband I had forced them to support, shattered my mind.
"You beasts!" I roared, the pain of the poison entirely eclipsed by a tidal wave of grief and rage. I lunged forward, intending to bite, to tear, to rip the flesh from Shen Ze’s bones.
But I was too weak. Shen Ze simply raised his heavy, iron-toed military boot and kicked me squarely in the chest.
CRACK.
Three of my ribs snapped inward. I flew backward, sliding across the marble, gasping for air that wouldn't come. My lungs were punctured. The taste of copper flooded my mouth.
Shen Ze adjusted his sleeves, not even out of breath. "Rest in peace, Lu Wan. Or better yet, rot in hell. I will take good care of your family's fortune, and I will take even better care of Yao'er."
Lu Yao smiled sweetly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Goodbye, Sister."
The darkness began to drag me down. The edges of my vision turned black. As my final breath rattled in my throat, my unblinking eyes stared at the opulent ceiling of the Cold Palace.
I was blind, I thought, a tear of blood leaking from the corner of my eye. I was a fool who traded my family’s lives for a man’s lying smile.
With the last ounce of my fading consciousness, I swore a blood oath to the heavens, my soul vibrating with a hatred so potent it felt like it could tear the fabric of the universe apart.
If there is a next life, I will not be a virtuous wife. I will not be kind. I will be a demon crawling from the abyss. I will peel your skin, Shen Ze. I will shatter your bones, Lu Yao. And I will watch your beloved dynasty burn to ash!
[Ding! Supreme Resentment Detected.] [Soul frequency vibrating at catastrophic levels. Initiating binding protocol...] [Initializing 'Empress Maker System'...] [Host Identity Confirmed: Lu Wan, Legitimate Duchess of Zhenguo.] [Rewinding Time Axis: Three Years. Coordinates locked.]
A strange, mechanical voice echoed in the void, completely devoid of emotion yet ringing with absolute authority.
I gasped.
My eyes snapped open, and my body bolted upright. I was violently hyperventilating, my hands frantically clutching my chest, expecting to feel the jagged edges of broken ribs and the burning agony of Crane Red.
Nothing. There was no pain.
I blinked against the soft, warm light of a dozen flickering candles. There was no cold marble floor. There was no bleak, freezing Cold Palace.
I was sitting on a massive mahogany bed, surrounded by sheer, flowing silk curtains. The rhythmic, soothing drumming of heavy rain pattered against the delicate paper windows. I looked down at myself. I was wearing the plush, crimson sleeping robes of a noblewoman.
"Madam! Madam, please, I beg you, don't go out there!"
A weeping voice broke through my shock. I turned to see a young girl kneeling by my bed, her forehead pressed against the plush rug, her shoulders shaking violently.
"Chixia?" I whispered, my voice hoarse.
My loyal maid. In my past life, Chixia had been beaten to death by Shen Ze’s guards because she had tried to smuggle a stale steamed bun into the Cold Palace for me to eat. Now, she was here, her cheeks round and healthy, though currently stained with tears.
"Madam, you must calm down," Chixia sobbed, looking up at me with red, swollen eyes. "The Duke... the Duke has been kneeling in the torrential rain for two hours! He says... he says if you don't agree to let Second Miss Lu Yao enter the manor as an Equal Wife, he will kneel in the mud until he dies!"
The words hit me like a physical blow.
An Equal Wife. Pingqi.
I stared at my hands. They were smooth, pale, and unscarred. The thick, ugly calluses I had developed during my three years of hard labor in the Cold Palace were completely gone.
I am back.
The realization crashed over me like a tidal wave. I had returned to the exact day my nightmare truly began. Three years ago. The day Shen Ze brought Lu Yao home from the countryside, claiming she was my illegitimate, helpless half-sister who had been cast out and needed protection.
In my past life, this was the moment that broke my heart. I had sobbed hysterically. I had screamed at Shen Ze for his betrayal, demanding to know why he wanted to elevate a bastard born of a lowly servant to the status of an Equal Wife—a position that directly challenged my authority as the Legitimate Duchess. My screaming had made me look like an unreasonable, jealous shrew to the entire household. Eventually, out of my desperate, pathetic love for him, I had relented to stop him from catching a fever in the rain, allowing the viper into my nest.
I touched my chest, feeling the steady, strong beat of my healthy heart.
A low, chilling laugh bubbled up from my throat. It started quiet, but soon I was laughing so hard my shoulders shook, my eyes wide and manic.
Chixia recoiled slightly, looking terrified. "M-Madam? Have you gone mad from grief?"
"Mad?" I whispered, a cold, terrifying smile stretching across my face. "No, Chixia. For the first time in my life, I am perfectly sane."
[System Quest Issued: Crush the Scum Husband's Dignity.] [Objective: Establish absolute dominance. Do not let Lu Yao become an Equal Wife.] [Reward: +500 Dynasty Points. Skill Unlocked: 'Aura of the Tyrant'.]
There it was again. That mechanical voice inside my mind, accompanied by a glowing blue translucent screen that hovered in my peripheral vision. I didn't know what this 'System' was, nor did I care. If it wanted me to humiliate Shen Ze, we were already best friends.
"Chixia," I commanded, my voice snapping like a military whip. The tone was so vastly different from my usual gentle demeanor that the maid physically jumped. "Stop crying. Get up off your knees."
"Madam...?"
"Go to my wardrobe," I ordered, throwing the heavy silk blankets off my legs and stepping onto the floor. "Fetch my grand ceremonial robes. The dark crimson ones. The ones embroidered with the nine golden phoenixes, granted to me by the Emperor when I was named a First-Rank Duchess."
Chixia blinked, completely bewildered. "Madam? But... but those are for imperial banquets! The Duke is angry, he is kneeling in the mud... shouldn't you wear something plain to show him you are sorry for arguing with him?"
I stopped and looked at Chixia. I walked over and gently cupped her cheek, remembering her broken, bloody body in my past life.
"I have nothing to be sorry for," I said softly, though my eyes were as cold as glaciers. "Let him be angry. Let him freeze. Today, I am going to teach my good husband the fundamental difference between the master of the house... and a stray dog living off scraps."
Comments