43 A year later

"You are early than expected"

"Thank you for your compliment"

"I expected more from my sisters... alas"

"It may be presumptuous of me, but shouldn't Princess be in my side?"

Right now Ming Shu was in the Princess study room playing go with Princess Jinghua.

"Hm? What an interesting strategy... what if I do this? And yes I'm by your side but is kind of depressing when I think my Imperial Sisters weren't able to deal with a ten-year-old doll. Wasn't the Imperial Family to be the most scheming? Why they tried such a dumb approach?"

After spending a few minutes, Princess Jinghua trapped the black pieces. Without having to stop to think, Ming Shu countered the Princess's attempt.

"Princess shouldn't talk about your family like that. Their method is rather effective in people at my age"

"Well, they are my family so I can talk as I please. And yes, they were unfortunate to meet you this abnormality, but their failure only means they didn't make proper research about you... Ming Shu, remember you're playing against my Imperial self"

On the board, you could see the black pieces were slowly cornering the white ones and gaining territory.

"This subject is aware, that is why she is playing her utmost in hopes, it can help Princess in her development"

"You are as cheeky and unpleasant as ever"

"I'm sorry for having offended the Princess. Is because I'm young and ignorant"

"Yeah, yeah. Now explain the game for me"

Ming Shu started to explain the strategy she used and the ways of countering it. The Princess listened with much concentration and would ask questions or discuss a few points with Ming Shu.

Their day proceeded like that for the rest of the day. They would do some activity like painting or playing an instrument, and if Ming Shu was superior to the Princess she would explain for her the ins and outs of what she just did.

A year passed with this type of routine. Ming Shu was now used to enter the Palace and have to deal with the spoiled Princess. Although she still disliked the Princess, she already found her more pleasant than in the beginning and could have conversations with her which were unrelated to the subjects.

In this year a lot of things happened. Ming Peizi proposed the implementation of a new system for policing the city. After the Emperor approved, the System was implemented and the number of crimes dropped and this made the Emperor heavily reward the Ming Family and promote Peizi to a first rank officer.

Her siblings also stood out. Zigui won a martial arts contest in his category and was admitted as her grandfather's pupil last month. Yunning also took part in a music contest after much insistence from their master and won the first place. Her fame in the noble circle grew a notch and the bad reputation that she had for me concubine born, started to slowly be replaced. As for Ming Peng, he found himself in the Imperial Academy. There he quickly made into the Top 3 honour students and had the trash reputation erased by his outstanding performance. He was now one of the most sought bachelors in the Capital.

As for Ming Shu herself, she didn't make into the spotlights like her siblings, but because she was the study partner of the most favoured Princess, she had quite a high status among the Young Misses.

But the year was not all made of good news. The Li Household intelligence discovered that Lady Ye was not just a mere buyer, but instead had a relationship with the Poison Sect for years. On their investigation, Ming Shu Grandfather's subordinates found out that many people that opposed Lady Ye had died from some poison and later the death was declared as having another cause. They also determined that her first contact with the Poison Sect was in her childhood, in which she went to a small city to recover from an illness.

Because they couldn't be clear of what position she held inside the Poison Sect, both of Ming Shu's parents decided that they couldn't easily move her or expose that they knew about her background, before making the necessary precautions. Lady Ye's days didn't change completely, only they would punish her for some mistake she made on her new duties or Ming Peizi would not on her like he used to.

Ming Shu stopped reminiscing about the past year when she saw that her destination was close.

Today, she was free from her duty as a study partner and all her siblings were occupied. She decided to slip away and go to her favourite place in her past life.

She urged the horse to go faster, and as the speed grew faster, Ming Shu could feel the early spring cold breeze against her face, as the intoxicating aroma from the peonies assaulted her nose. After dismounting of her horse, it thrilled Ming Shu to see that the place in front of her was exactly how she remembered.

A lake with crystal-like water surrounded by white peonies. In her other life, she found this place when looking for a type of white peony that was considered extremely rare. At that time, she caught the wind that Zhao Song was looking for this flower and decided that she would be the one to find for him. Wouldn't he memorize at least her name if she did that? Unknown to her was the fact that the peony was for him to give to his favourite person and fall into her graces.

Although the peony didn't serve its purpose, Ming Shu found this dream-like place that became her refuge when the situation became dire. With her many memories in this place roaming in her head, Ming Shu made her way through the sea of flowers.