"You fainted again, miss."
The girl's voice fluttered nervously as she played with her hands beside the low sleeping mat.
I opened my eyes for the second time today—though it felt like my first in this strange body. The room was cramped, wooden beams worn out with years of being left alone. There was an incense stick burning crookedly in a rusted bronze holder. Faded silk curtains hung along the narrow window, with yellow stains where sunlight once touch.
A single black moth beating itself against the paper screen.
Yue Zhenzhens quaters has been neglected and forgotten just like herself.
Well this perfect.
I sat up slowly, allowing my limbs to tremble at my weight as if I were still weak. The girl beside me wearing a gray apron of a junior maid—immediately reached out to support me.
"What's your name?" I asked, blinking slowly. My voice soft, confused expression trying to make myself look vulnerable.
She hesitated. "Chun'er."
I nodded faintly. "I… I feel strange. I don't remember collapsing."
Chun'er bit her lip. "You've been ill for a few days, miss. You haven't eaten anything since the spring wine offering."
So she's been starved and sick. That explains this body's weakness.
"Is… is today…" I let the words trail off, feigning disorientation.
Chun'er filled the gap without question. "It's the second day of the third lunar month, miss. His Majesty returned from the northern front last night. The palace is all in a rush—they said he brought three barbarian heads in a cage."
I almost let out a laugh. That was how he used to announce his return, blood before decorum.
Three heads in a cage. Just like his court: clean silk over rot.
That detail, confirmed it for me. I was ten years in the past. Before the war with Liang reached its peak.
Before I had married Zhao Yunxie that so called emperor. Way before they even painted my name in ink and blood on an execution scroll.
I closed my eyes and let the room settle around me.
This was not my chamber in the Phoenix Pavilion. There were no gold filigree incense holders. No carved screens or silk floor mats or glazed windows.
Here, the air smelled of damp wood and cheap incense. The bedding was thin that I could barely keep warm in winter. The floor uneven and spider webs in ever corner of the room.
I am starting from the bottom, but it's not like it's my first time.
"What is… my standing?" I asked slowly, eyes still closed. "Do I have…a rank?"
Chun'er hesitated again, clearly unsure if I'd gone mad or was merely fevered.
"You're Lady Yue. A gifted concubine. Brought by Duke He last week." She paused. "You haven't been summoned."
I opened my eyes again. "Which consort currently holds favor?"
"Consort Ning," she said quickly, almost without thinking. "She's been summoned six nights in a row."
Of course she has.
Consort Ning an arrogant and dangerous. She's skilled at smiling while cutting someone's throat with her words. She'd hated me in my past life—and now, she wouldn't even know my name.
That would make things easier.
"Do they watch us?" I asked suddenly.
Chun'er flinched. "W–what do you mean?"
"The other girls. The higher-ranked ones. Do they watch from the gardens?" I pointed with my chin at the direction of the gardens.
She nodded, more uncertain now.
That's Good. Let them watch.
Let them glance over at me and see a weak, sickly girl with no patrons, no beauty to threaten theirs. Let them assume I would be sent back to my family soon in shame and silence.
I pulled the thin blanket tighter around my shoulders and turned away from her, facing the wall.
"Bring me water," I said.
Chun'er rose and bowed. "Yes, miss."
The door shut behind her.
After checking if she's truly gone, I let the trembling stop. My hands stilled and my posture straightened.
I would stay invisible for now.
"But not for long" I whisper with a gleam in my eyes.