Chapter 1 — The Poor Bridegroom Is the Supreme One

Warm blood flowed through the fingers, dyeing red the golden phoenix-embroidered wedding dress that Ngân Khinh Vy had been wearing since early that morning, the most important wedding day of a famous lady from the Đại Lương family. She clearly remembered the feeling of the cold blade piercing through her chest, so clearly that it seemed like it had just happened and not the story of a life that had ended. Around her, the bright red lantern light of the wedding night suddenly blurred into patchy streaks of light, the wedding music still echoed somewhere in the yard, while she lay collapsed on the cold tile floor of the wedding room, surrounded by the fake panicked face of her half-sister, Ngân Khinh Tuyết.

"Sister, who did this to you..." Khinh Tuyết was crying at that time, trembling as he hugged her, but his downcast eyes sparkled with a cold smugness that only a dying person would be desperate enough to see so clearly. Standing behind, Âu Thế Khang, the rich fiancé who had been arranged for Khinh Vy herself in the Grand Wedding, quietly folded her arms, cold eyes without any pity, as if witnessing an item being thrown away at the right moment when it had no use value.

Then her father, Ngân Bá Viễn, the man who had been respected by her for twenty years of her life, stood tall at the door of the room, his face stiff with anger - not anger because his daughter was about to die, but because of the forged denunciation paper in his hand, stating that Khinh Vy had colluded with a merchant to falsify Ho Chi Minh treasury records, causing the royal court to lose a huge amount of money. "You have humiliated the entire Ngan family," he hissed, not bothering to listen to her explanation, "I don't have a daughter like you."

Khinh Vy tried to open her mouth, trying to say that she had been harmed, that the numbers in the books were not faked by her, that last night she had discovered some unusual things in her private account but had not yet reported it to anyone. But no one listened. Amidst the wedding music still echoing outside, amidst the bright red lanterns throughout Ngan Palace, she died in the abandonment of her biological father, in the betrayal of the sister she once loved like her own, and in the coldness of the man who was once arranged to be her husband.

Khinh Vy was startled and opened her eyes.

The familiar ceiling appeared before her eyes, the delicate lotus carvings on the ironwood frame, the soft morning light filtering through the paper window, and the sound of birds singing outside in the garden. This is her bedroom at Ngan Palace, the room she has lived in since childhood, not the bloody wedding room that night.

She brought her hand to her chest, where the knife had once pierced, and saw only a pounding heartbeat but no wound. Her whole body was cold and sweaty, her breathing was rapid as if she had just escaped from death. She sat up, looked around the room, looked down at her hands - young, soft hands, with no trace of the painful years of her previous life.

"Is it... reincarnation?" She whispered, her voice trembling but her eyes gradually became unusually sharp.

There was a gentle knock on the door, then the familiar voice of Thẩm Vân Nhi, a trusted maid who had followed her since childhood, rang out outside. "Miss, are you awake yet? Today is the day of the Grand Wedding, the master told you to prepare early to get to the palace on time."

Hearing the four words "Grand Wedding", Khinh Vy's heart tightened. She looked out the window and saw that the morning sunlight was still soft. It was estimated that it was only the beginning of the hour of the Dragon. If she was indeed reincarnated, then this was the morning of that fateful day - the day where all the tragedies of her previous life began, and would also end tonight if she did nothing differently.

"Vân Nhi, come here," she said, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

The door opened and Thẩm Vân Nhi walked in with a familiar busy look, holding a stack of gorgeous clothes prepared for the important ceremony. Seeing her lady's pale face, she stopped. "Miss, what's wrong? Did you not sleep well?"

Khinh Vy looked intently at Vân Nhi's still young, inexperienced face - in her previous life, this same maid was bribed by Khinh Tuyết and forced to give false testimony against her, then kicked out of the palace in humiliation, and Khinh Vy until her death still did not know whether Vân Nhi truly betrayed her or was forced. Now, looking at the young girl's clear, dust-free eyes, Khinh Vy suddenly felt a new wave of determination rising in her heart.

"I'm fine," she replied, her voice regaining composure. "It's just a long dream that's too real."

She stood up, walked to the bronze mirror, looked closely at her youthful face - the face of twenty-year-old Ngân Khinh Vy, who had never experienced pain, had never been betrayed, and had never died in humiliation. In her memory, every detail of her past life appeared as clearly as if it were yesterday: how Khinh Tuyết used fake tears to win her father's trust, how Âu Thế Khang was sweet on the outside but cold and cruel on the inside, how the numbers in the Ho Ministry's books were altered so subtly that she herself almost didn't recognize it, and even the name of the person who killed her on their wedding night — an unknown assassin hired from the black market, leaving no trace behind. can be traced back to Khinh Tuyết.

But what tormented Khinh Vy the most was not her own death. It was the last image she saw before closing her eyes: a figure standing silently in the corner of the room, his face covered with indescribable pain, his hands clenched so tightly that they bled because he was helpless to save her in time. That was Tạ Dịch Thần - the "poor" husband she married in the Great Wedding Ceremony in her previous life, the one the whole court laughed at as someone unworthy of the position of the Queen of the Silver Palace.

In her previous life, Khinh Vy did not pay any attention to Dịch Thần, viewing that marriage as just a reluctant arrangement of fate after she deliberately refused other rich men out of temporary pride. She lived with him in indifference, engrossed in plans to preserve her position and protect Khinh Tuyết from gossip, to the point of not even noticing the unusual things about her husband: his strange calmness in the face of danger, his eyes that were sometimes so deep as if he had lived for a thousand years, and once - just once - she saw him use his bare hands to break a hard iron bar as if it were just a dry branch.

Now, with all the memories of both lives, Khinh Vy understands one thing: Tạ Dịch Thần is not as simple as he seems. And on the last night of his previous life, he — and no one else — was the only one who was truly pained by her death.

"Miss, what are you thinking? The hour of the Dragon is almost over, we have to prepare," Vân Nhi gingerly reminded her, still holding her husband's clothes.

Khinh Vy turned to look at the maid, her eyes were completely different from before - no longer the impatience or confusion of a young lady about to enter the most important day of her life, but the cold, sharp calculation of a person who had died and come back to life. "Vân Nhi, I ask you something. If today, I do not choose young master Âu Thế Khang as my husband, but choose someone completely different, how do you think my father will react?"

Vân Nhi was stunned, almost dropping the stack of clothes in her hand. "Miss, you... what are you joking about? Young Master Âu Thế Khang is the only son of the richest businessman in Đại Lương. The old man has been looking forward to this marriage for a long time. Why did you..."

"I'm not joking," Khinh Vy interrupted, her voice unusually firm. "I have thought carefully. That marriage... will not bring me anything good."

She walked to the window, looking out at the large yard of Ngan Palace, where the servants were busy preparing for the ceremony. In the distance, she could see the silhouette of Ngân Khinh Tuyết standing and chatting with concubine Triệu Nhã Trân, both wearing gorgeous clothes, smiling faces but hiding a hard-to-recognize expectation under the gentle cover.

In her previous life, Khinh Vy never noticed anything unusual in those eyes. But now, with all the memories of her unjust death, she clearly saw the eyes of someone waiting for their prey to walk into a trap.

"In this life," she whispered to herself, her voice soft enough for only herself to hear, "I will not let history repeat itself. I will choose my own path, no matter how poor that path seems."

She turned back to look at Vân Nhi, her eyes determined. "Prepare some clothes for me. And remember, from today, anything unusual you see at Ngan Palace, no matter how small, you must report to me immediately. Don't hide anything, even if you think it's not important." Vân Nhi nodded, even though her heart was still full of doubts at her lady's confusing change, she still followed suit. She started helping Khinh Vy change her clothes, comb her hair, put on a brooch, and prepare for the important ceremony about to take place at the palace.

While sitting in front of the mirror, letting Vân Nhi braid each strand of hair, Khinh Vy closed her eyes, trying to rearrange the entire chaotic stream of memories of her previous life into a clear sequence. She clearly remembered that the Grand Wedding Ceremony would take place at the hour of the Horse in the main palace hall, presided over by National Teacher Hồ Trung Đạo. She clearly remembered the list of nominated gentlemen, in which Âu Thế Khang was at the top because of his richest family background, and Tạ Dịch Thần was just a name added to make up the number, coming from the poor Vọng Điền village south of the capital, almost no one paid attention.

She also clearly remembered that in her previous life, because of her pride and temporary impulsiveness when she saw Khinh Tuyết openly flirting with Âu Thế Khang in front of her, she angrily chose Tạ Dịch Thần just to prove that she did not need a rich fiance. Unexpectedly, that impulsive action accidentally saved her from the original plot, but in the end she still could not escape death because Khinh Tuyết found another way to harm her right on the wedding night.

In this life, she will no longer act on impulse. She will proactively, deliberately, completely cede Âu Thế Khang to Khinh Tuyết - letting those two greedy people take on each other, fight each other for their own benefit, while she silently builds a new life next to the man she missed in her previous life, the one she is sure holds secrets greater than anyone can imagine.

"Miss, it's done." Vân Nhi stepped back and looked at her achievements with satisfaction. In the mirror, Khinh Vy appeared resplendent in a brocade dress embroidered with delicate patterns, her hair carefully braided with a jade hairpin, but her eyes exuded a sharp, decisive look that was completely different from the gentle, somewhat weak image she had in her previous life.

Outside the yard, the sound of drums and gongs began to ring, signaling that the float was about to depart for the royal palace. Khinh Vy took a deep breath, stood up, and walked out of the room with a calm appearance, but in her heart was burning an unshakable fire of determination.

In her previous life, she died because she trusted too much in unworthy people, because she was too indifferent to the person who truly protected her. In this life, she will not repeat that mistake. The fateful wedding day is waiting for her, and this time, she will be the one to rewrite her destiny, step by step, with the same wisdom and alertness that her unjust death in her previous life taught her.