Crabapple in Flames: Reborn, I Will Not Be a Slave

Qin Xintang, a palace maid, was sold into slavery at the age of ten. She endured years of backbreaking labor in the Laundry Bureau and lost hearing in her left ear after being tortured. After leaving the palace, she gained her freedom from servitude and opened a rouge shop. She married her childhood sweetheart, Xie Yu, thinking she would finally live a peaceful life. However, Empress Xue Mingzhao, who had fallen out of the emperor’s favor, faked her own death to save her dignity. She forced her way into Qin Xintang’s home, seized the residence, and treated Qin Xintang with contempt as if she were still her servant. In her past life, Qin Xintang discovered the affair between Xue Mingzhao and her husband Xie Yu, only to be poisoned to death by the two of them. Reborn, Qin Xintang returns to the day Xue Mingzhao arrives at her door. This time, she refuses to be at others’ mercy. She pretends to comply outwardly while secretly forming an alliance with Zhuang Yurong, her former fellow sufferer who has now risen to the rank of Noble Consort. She sees through the guard Lu Yanzhi’s obsessive love for Xue Mingzhao and his craving for power. Taking advantage of an assassination attempt at the Hundred Flowers Banquet, she sets a trap with a suzhou embroidery sachet and eliminates Lu Yanzhi by claiming credit for saving the emperor. Qin Xintang fully exposes Xie Yu’s selfishness and coldness, and decisively writes a letter of divorce to cut off their relationship. Stripped of support, Xue Mingzhao is sold to the northwest region, where Xue’s family had inflicted great harm on locals, to endure the torments of slavery. Zhou Jinshu, the reborn daughter of Minister Zhou, who also bears a blood feud from her previous life, chooses to join forces with Qin Xintang and Zhuang Yurong. A year later, the tormented Xue Mingzhao is brought back to the imperial city. Still refusing to admit defeat, she takes the chance of Zhou Jinshu entering the palace to plead her case before the emperor, hoping to win his sympathy. But solid evidence proves she faked her death to deceive the sovereign and committed adultery outside the palace. In the end, Xue Mingzhao is ordered to drink poisoned wine. Her body is wrapped in a straw mat and discarded in an unmarked mass grave. With her vengeance fulfilled, Qin Xintang breaks free completely from the chains of slavery. She makes a living with her skill of blending fragrances, living with dignity and freedom as a person with her own identity.