Ambitious Miss Kang (17th-century concubine wakes up in the modern world)

1

I open my eyes to see a white ceiling with a strange hanging in the middle.

I am in an unfamiliar place, but I am not surprised. Many have betrayed me, and many have failed me. The result was my wrongful execution by the hand of his highness King Sukjong of Joseon.

My husband.

I was his most favored concubine Jang Okjung. I have given him sons, and I have raised my powerless family into power. With my cunning and beauty, I was able to rise to the top, even sending the queen into exile so I could take her place.

But in the end, I was forced to drink vile poison while the insolent guards held me down.

I blinked a few times, studying the place I assumed to be the world of the afterlife.

Will I burn for eternity?

I proudly admit that I have done everything I could for power. I knew that my rightful place was to be the queen and my son to be the next king. My only regret is that I wasn't more ruthless.

I remember the burning pain from the poison that was my sentence. It was the worst agony I have endured; it was worse than childbirth, which felt like my body was being ripped apart. As the poison traveled down my throat, I could feel every drop of it cutting and burning my innards. It was a slow painful death, and unfortunately, I didn't miss a second of it. To the last moment I stopped breathing, I felt the venom reach every part of my body.

Despite it, if I was given another chance, I would do it all over again. If I knew what I know, I would do it infinitely better. I would seduce the king all over again, and I would convince him to make me his queen.

But alas, I was dead. Knowing what I have done in my life, it is a fair assumption that I am to be sent to the darkest corner of hell.

From childhood, men cautioned me that I was too greedy. Their warning comes from their fear of what I can do.

In the palace, the other concubines and even the queen tattled that I was too possessive. Their gossip comes from jealousy.

But they don't know that the definition of what I had was ambition. I was ambitious and I was passionate.

Chirp, chirp.

It is then that I heard the birds chirping nearby. Suddenly I wonder...

Do birds go to hell too?