The pregnant woman pressed down on the wife, and the cousin collapsed into the prince's arms.

That night, the rain was sparse and the wind was strong, and the pattering raindrops pattered against the banana trees in the courtyard.

Shen Yunshuang lay on her side on the cloud-shaped pillow, her delicate eyebrows furrowed, and she murmured incoherently.

She had another dream, a dream about her past life.

In her previous life, she was not Shen Yunshuang, but a maid in Su Wanrou's household, named Lin Yaoniang.

Su Wanrou was the eldest daughter of the Vice Minister of Rites. She married into the Jingyuan Marquis's mansion at the age of seventeen, which was quite a prestigious event.

The Pei family of Jingyuan Marquis has three branches, all of which have now separated. The eldest patriarch inherited the title, and Su Wanrou married Pei Jingnian, the eldest son of the first branch.

Unlike those privileged young men who held no real office and relied solely on their ancestors' influence, Pei Jingnian was not only dashing and debonair, but also exceptionally talented and learned. He achieved the third-highest rank in the imperial examination at the age of eighteen and is currently working in the Ministry of Personnel.

Although he is currently only a sixth-rank official, he is involved in important administrative matters such as performance evaluation, appointment, removal, and selection of officials, placing him at the core of the bureaucratic system.

In addition, Pei Jingnian is only twenty-two years old, so he naturally has a bright future.

After Su Wanrou married into the Jingyuan Marquis's mansion, she was well-liked by her mother-in-law, Wang, because of her beautiful appearance, gentle and generous nature, and her ability to manage household affairs in an orderly manner.

But after two years of her marriage without conceiving, Madam Wang could no longer smile. No matter how she thought about it, she would never have imagined that her daughter-in-law had fallen into an icy lake when she was young, which damaged her body and made it difficult for her to conceive.

The Vice Minister's wife didn't reveal any of this when the marriage was arranged!

This news was a bolt from the blue for Madam Wang, but she had already married him; how could she possibly divorce him? The Marquis of Jingyuan's mansion couldn't afford to lose face like that!

Unable to divorce his wife, Wang decided to stop giving the two concubines the contraceptive soup. However, half a year passed without any good news. When the doctor was sent to examine them again, he concluded that the two concubines had also damaged their bodies. This was because the dosage of the contraceptive soup was too high, and over time, it had ruined their health.

Since Su Wanrou entered the manor, she has always been generous and virtuous, and has a good reputation even in the capital. However, no one expected that the contraceptive soup for her concubine would be made with a very strong medicine. This is clearly intended to kill off her son's lineage!

After this incident, Madam Wang treated Su Wanrou much worse than before. Su Wanrou lost her mother-in-law's favor, and when her husband learned of this, the way he looked at her completely changed!

She was in a panic, and at this time her husband's cousin came to live with them. The cousin was very beautiful and was favored by her mother-in-law. She felt threatened. In order to appease her mother-in-law and show her virtue, she chose the beautiful maid Lin Yaoniang to enter the mansion and continue the family line.

Lin Yaoniang was pretty, gentle and harmless, and a little timid. If it weren't for her mother's serious illness and the need for expensive medicine to prolong her life, she would not have willingly entered the mansion as a concubine.

Because of her timid and cowardly nature, she was not favored by Pei Jingnian, but her belly was cooperative and she soon became pregnant.

The Pei family was overjoyed! Wang Shi's illness, which had been weakened by anxiety, was greatly improved!

Su Wanrou was also very happy and treated Lin Yaoniang very well. She even set up a small kitchen for her as a concubine and sent her a constant stream of tonics to help her prepare for childbirth.

When Lin Yaoniang was pregnant, she suffered from morning sickness. Su Wanrou sent a doctor to prescribe a formula to strengthen her spleen and stomach. With the decoction and tonics she took, the fetal pulse indeed became strong.

Seeing that Su Wanrou was extremely attentive to this pregnancy, Wang's attitude towards her changed considerably.

Because Lin Yaoniang was pregnant with the baby that the Pei family had been longing for, her life in the mansion was quite comfortable.

But little did she know that after ten months of pregnancy and the moment of delivery, the baby was too big and she couldn't give birth no matter what she did.

Lin Yaoniang was in a state of utter misery, her body soaked with blood. Compared to her, a mere maid, the fetus in her womb was far more precious.

Therefore, when faced with the choice between saving the child and saving the mother, both Wang and Su chose the child without hesitation!

Lin Yaoniang died just like that, dying in great pain, without even seeing the child she had risked her life to give birth to!

Her fair and slender wrists hung down, several fingernails even broken from the excessive force of childbirth. On her right wrist was a plain silver bracelet, which her mother had specially made at a silver shop before she entered the mansion. It was carved with exquisite begonia flowers, but now, a few drops of blood were stained on the begonia petals.

Lin Yaoniang's pain disappeared, but her resentment remained. Then she discovered that she had not been reincarnated as the book had said. Instead, her soul lingered for a long time and eventually attached itself to this silver bracelet.

Therefore, she was able to see the child's tender white face again, the smile lines reflected on Wang Shi and Su Wanrou's faces due to their joy, and the momentary reluctance of Pei Jingnian when he returned from outside and learned of her death, but it quickly vanished into smoke.

She saw so much, and it made her even more resentful!

She couldn't bear to part with her child, nor could she bear to part with her mother!

This silver bracelet was not put into Lin Yaoniang's coffin. Because it was inconspicuous and heavy, it was secretly taken away by one of the maids who served her.

As a result, she stayed in the Marquis's mansion for many more years.

If she could, she would gladly reincarnate immediately, so she wouldn't know that her mother's illness worsened due to her early death, leading to her heartbreak and death. Nor would she know that after her death, the precious medicinal herbs Su Wanrou promised were never delivered to the Lin family on time!

Lin Yaoniang was filled with hatred, but later she saw something even more heartbreaking: her son Zhan'er died at the age of five from a cold!

Haha, how ridiculous! The Pei family's long-awaited eldest grandson grew up smoothly to the age of five, and was clearly healthy and robust, but he died the year after his stepmother gave birth to his younger brother!

How could Lin Yaoniang not guess the reason? Even the household was abuzz with gossip! Because of Zhan'er's untimely death, Madam Wang couldn't bear the blow and also fell ill, passing away in less than a year.

Pei Jingnian thoroughly investigated everyone who served Zhan'er during his illness, but found nothing. It seemed to be just an oversight: a maid had carelessly opened a window, and the wet nurse, knowing Zhan'er had a fever, had carelessly only fed him a bowl of ginger soup.

All the negligence cost his son his life! He also knew that behind this negligence was Su Wanrou's neglect of Zhan'er after giving birth to her legitimate son, as well as the opportunistic behavior of the cunning servants.

He was furious. The people around his eldest son were either beaten to death or sold off, but he had no evidence to convict Su Wanrou.

With her youngest son just turned one year old, Su Wanrou held the child and cried to him every day, proclaiming her innocence.

Looking at his one-year-old son, Pei Jingnian could not do anything in the end. He simply took the child to live with him and raised him, and completely ignored Su Wanrou.

But this wasn't enough for Lin Yaoniang! She felt as if her heart had been shattered into eight pieces. This feeling of being unable to live or die was driving her crazy!

She desperately wanted to kill Su Wanrou, but there was nothing she could do.