Just then
The wooden door burst open, heavy footsteps rushing into the room. "You better hope Master Zhou doesn't find out that you bathed an imposter in his favorite bath and let them straight into his home." The cold, crackle of a voice resounded and behind the shelves, I hid.
My breath clogging up and my skin getting pale. Xue Lian breathed out in a ridicule, tossing her hair backwards. "They must have figured out something. If we leave so soon, Zhou Chang's death will be delayed and that means a drop down in level for you."
"What....?" I blinked with a dire expression. It was evident that Xue Lian wasn't after my safety in any form. "What do I do then?"
"Follow me, there's an exit through the back. It would lead us to Zhou Chang's imperial garden. We can wait till it dies down then sneak back in."
Xue Lian responded with no iota of fear, clutching to my wrist and dragging me through the other pathway linking the room to the imperial garden. My legs grew heavy with each run I took.
Slipping through a narrow path dimly lit by flickering floating lantern with moon lightening striking the lotus evergreen pond right in front of us. I barely caught my breath when Xue Lian collapsed on the chair, breathing heavily.
She gazed at my two legs and then hers and groaned. "I must say, you mere mortals are something else. Truly evolution did you bad! Other apes walk on four legs and you....you specie just had to choose to walk on fucking two legs! It hurts----"
I couldn't help but shake my head at her theatrics. Of all the things to complain about, she had to choose running?
I flicked her lightly on the forehead, only to stop halfway, feeling the warmth that I hadn't noticed before. It was subtle, but it was there. Her skin—real. Human-like, even.
She groaned, rubbing the spot where I'd flicked her. "Ouch! That wasn't necessary." But she didn't seem bothered—more amused by it.
I stayed silent, my thoughts drifting. Why did it feel like she was more human than a system?
Xue Lian caught my gaze and smirked, as if she could read me without effort. She stretched her legs out in front of her, tilting her head back, completely unbothered by the situation. "We've got a long night ahead of us. If you're not too tired, of course. You're going to need all the stamina you can get to finish this."
Her words stirred me from my thoughts.
Another running again? Haven't I tried enough for a day?
"Okay, you have to understand something! I was transmigrated into a weakling leukemic patient body. You don't expect me to generate stamina over night! I haven't even gotten used to running in large princess or robe dresses. And you, you are just sassy!"
"Quit whining you mere human! Unless you want to stay here and have yourself trapped in Suô Hún for the rest of your life."
Steams visibly went from my head along with a groan. Xue Lian did know how to piss the fuck out of me! I didn't complain anymore and kept following her till she reached the edge of the imperial garden, where the moonlight barely touched a crooked cluster of stone hedges.
She crouched down, pressing a palm against one of the stones, pulling each and every bits till a hole was formed. She dusted her palm against the soft blooming flower. "This leads to the eastern wing. Once we escape you can choose to quit the mission or continue the quest."
I let out a breath, limping a bit before my stamina increased to over a hundred percent. She went first in and then I waited, trying to see how greuesome it would be struggling past rocks and sands just to get through the Zhou Imperials.
"Xue Lian?" I called her name out and there was no reply. I took in bdeel breaths, getting on my crawling knees about to move in when a large grip yanked me away. Her nails dug into my throat.
"I can see you had the efforentery to pretend to be me. Do you know how much trouble you've caused to Lotus bloom Hood?" Her tone was light and darkened as she tightened her fist on my neck.
"Jia Lin?" I muttered, losing my voice as breathing became harder. "if you could let go, we can talk like normal people."
"And who said I wanted to talk? Tell me how much you have garnered about Master Zhou and how the hell you got into my clothing!"
I bit my lips, my skin paling and my legs wiggling in the air for support. Just when I needed Xue Lian, she was nowhere to be found. The grip lessened a bit, and I threw her off guard, both of us fumbling painfully to the ground.
"You bastard!" She yelled, seeing that she cracked her foot on a stone. I rose from the ground weakly clutching my stomach.
"Someone can't just leave you and trouble won't find you?" It was the sarcastic voice of Xue Lian that snapped me off my thoughts. She pulled me to her side and coldly watching Jia Lin struggle with her broken ankle. "You must be Jia Lin, the all time slut? Finally got to meet you in real life. Tell you what, you better run away cause any minute from now, those guards are gonna come looking for you!"
In the blink of an eye, I was no longer in the garden but back inside a chamber—on a bed, no less—with Xue Lian perched casually at the edge like she owned the place. She groaned, peeling off the top layers of her robes until she was left in nothing but her undergarments.
"You could do all that and still made me run for my life?" I asked, my voice hoarse.
She gave me a slow, wicked grin. "Where's the fun in that?"
I sank into the bed, missing the sensation of not being chased or being devoured by some sex maniac all in the name of killing the target. The dimly lit room was enough for me to see that someone else had come into Shen Mi's chamber.
"Someone was here before I was. Does this mean that they are aware of my disappearance?"
"Shen Mi is known to take a walk in the park and the villages. No one would suspect a dime about you. And for you, Lin Xi, there's much you need to learn about the system, the devil bone and your family."
"Shen Mi's family or mine?"
"You still haven't accepted the reality hat you are now Fourth young Miss Shen Mi?"
I sank deeper into the bedding, the silk sheets offering no comfort against the weight pressing down on my chest. "I'm not used to it," I murmured, turning away from Xue Lian's probing gaze. "I still miss home."
Lifting the cold stone pillow beneath my head, I lay on my side, eyes drifting up to the patterned ceiling where moonlight slipped through narrow lattice gaps. A sigh escaped me—long, silent, aching.
"What's going on back in my timeline?" I whispered, not really expecting an answer. "Will Mom and Dad still be alive? And Yangyang… my daughter… is she waiting for me?"
The silence stretched for a moment, heavy and unbearably sharp.
Xue Lian's voice came low, quiet, like the first cold drop before a storm. "They're still dead," she said bluntly. "Until you finish up."
The words cracked something in me.
I closed my eyes, swallowing the rising burn in my throat. I should've known. The system never gave without taking something in return. I was here, alive in someone else's body, but everything I had—everyone I loved—was frozen in a timeline held hostage by fate.
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, but I didn't let them fall. I couldn't afford to. Not here.
Not now.
"What happens if I fail?" I asked softly. "If I mess this up?"
Xue Lian crouched beside the bed, her voice uncharacteristically gentle. "Then your story ends here. Their story ends there. You don't get a second transmigration."
I stared into the night sky, the stars far too unfamiliar. Then I have no choice but to keep going, I thought. For them. For Yangyang.
But I couldn't help but whisper one last thing:
"I'm scared, Xue Lian. What if Shen Mi's fate and mine were never meant to cross?"
Xue Lian let out a soft exhale and reached out, brushing a loose strand of hair from my forehead.
"Then rewrite fate," she said. "That's the whole point of you being here."