Shen Sangning, the former Old Madam of the Ningguo Duke’s Mansion, regains consciousness on her wedding night. The piercing pain from her waist jolts her awake, and she finds herself in a dark bridal chamber with a man on top of her. Shocked and furious, she bites his shoulder hard until she tastes blood. The man calls for a maidservant, and when the lamp is lit, Shen Sangning recognizes the face of Pei Ruyan, her husband’s elder brother who died young. She realizes she has been reborn at eighteen. In her previous life, her stepsister Shen Miaoyi had swapped wedding attire, causing Shen Sangning to marry Pei Ruyan’s younger brother Pei Che. She had spent a lifetime reforming Pei Che from a dandy into a celebrated general, restoring the duke’s prestige, but died exhausted at forty. Now, she is married to Pei Ruyan, the heir apparent who has only two years left to live. Determined not to repeat her past, she decides to win Pei Ruyan’s favor and bear his child, securing her position and preventing the second branch from inheriting the title.The morning after, Shen Sangning learns that Shen Miaoyi has also been reborn, half a month earlier, and has willingly married Pei Che, believing he will achieve great fortune. Pei Ruyan, cold and distant, spends his wedding night in the study. Shen Sangning goes to find him, apologizing for her bite and offering to apply medicine. Pei Ruyan remains skeptical of her sudden warmth. Later, she encounters Shen Miaoyi and Pei Che. Shen Miaoyi spitefully hints that Pei Ruyan will have no children and demands that Shen Sangning, whose mother was from a merchant family, manage businesses for her. Shen Sangning retorts, exposing Shen Miaoyi’s low birth and refusing to be used. Pei Che overhears and scolds Shen Miaoyi. Shen Sangning insists that Shen Miaoyi copy the Dao De Jing a hundred times as punishment.As rain begins, Pei Ruyan, mistaking her reddened eye for tears, compromises and agrees to return to Qingyun Courtyard with her. He takes her wrist and leads her under the eaves before walking ahead. Shen Sangning follows, pondering his sudden softness. She asks him directly whether he felt any joy or expectation before marrying her. The question hangs in the air as he continues walking, unanswering. Shen Sangning’s mind is set: she must keep Pei Ruyan alive and conceive his child, rewriting the fate of herself and the entire Ningguo Duke’s Mansion. Her rebirth grants her a second chance, and she is resolved to seize it by conquering the heart of the stoic heir apparent and overturning the tragedies of her past life.
