Uncovering the Truth About the Villainess

Chapter 1 | Reincarnated

Trigger Warning: the following chapter mentions suicide.

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The red, sweaty face of a fat woman looming over her was the magnificent sight Cui Huifen awoke to when her eyes, that felt awfully heavy, fluttered open and she regained consciousness.

Looking at the fuming stranger, Cui Huifen's features scrunched up in confusion. "Who are you?" She asked slowly, her voice coming out hoarse and weak.

The woman glaring at her looked stunned for a moment before laughing humorlessly, "who am I? Who am I? I will be your worst nightmare if you don't get out of here you little bitch!"

Her high pitched scream rang in Cui Huifen's ears like thunder and she shuddered, feeling a headache come on.

It had been many years since someone had had the audacity to yell at her the way this woman was doing right now. It was... annoying to her ears.

"Get out! Get out right now you leach!" The woman yelled and pointed to a door.

Ignoring her commands, Cui Huifen rubbed her temples to subdue the ache in her head from the noise.

Trying to get her bearings in place, she looked around the place she was in.

The place—perhaps an apartment—was a pigsty with rats running along the walls, mold growing in every crevice, dirty, stained brown carpets and a rotting ceiling.

Safe to say, it was the dirtiest and smelliest apartment she had ever been in. Every household pest known to man resided in its corners and a strange, putrid smell wafted in the air.

It was so bad she felt like puking. How could anyone ever live here?

And most importantly, why was she here and how was she alive? This made no sense at all.

She remembered being kicked out of the convention center and getting into an accident on her way to a business meeting. And especially remembered the excruciating pain she felt of her bones crushing on impact, of her ribs puncturing her lungs and tearing through her skin.
The strong metallic smell of blood in her nose and its taste in her mouth was a good indicator of her definite death. 

These were things that she would never forgot. They made it as clear as day that she had certainly died.

But now she was... alive? It seemed impossible, yet here she was breathing and seemingly uninjured.

Well, except her neck felt kind of sore.

She looked down to examine her body and her eyes widened when she saw a rope tied into a noose beside her.

Suicide?!

Suddenly a sharp pain shot in her head and the fuzzy image of a strange woman in white and a pristine jade chess board flashed in her mind like a memory in the passing.

But before she could grasp it, she was pulled out of focus.

"Hello? Earth to Cui Huifen!" A fat hand waved in front of her face aggressively. "If you're done admiring your artwork on the walls, get out!" The woman in front of her shouted.

It was then that Cui Huifen noticed that the walls that had imposing scribbles of graffiti and frowned.

Forgive me. It said on all four walls like a chilling last goodbye.

Nothing about this place was familiar to her, however the words on the walls... seemed to ring a bell.

Unfortunately, before she could try scanning her memory for anything, she was forcefully dragged out of the apartment.

The fat woman threw a dirty backpack, which she remembered was next to her when she woke up, at her harshly and locked the apartment door with a slam.

"Don't you dare think about crawling back in here you little wrench!" She spat at Cui Huifen in disgust and turned on her heel. As she walked off, Cui Huifen heard her mutter, "what a little slut. She probably killed that child by the looks of it too. Whore!"

Questions filled Cui Huifen's mind. Like how was she alive and why was she here? Where was this place and who was that lady?

This... this was too much for her to process. She needed to get out of here and get some fresh air.

She walked cautiously towards a set of stairs that likely lead the way out of this poorly conditioned building. Papers of eviction were taped onto the doors of every apartment in the passing, which served an explanation as to why the building was pin-drop worthy silent.

It seemed that that fat woman had been the landlord or a worker of them.

Nonetheless, it still boggled Cui Huifen's mind knowing she was alive and breathing.

What she assumed was that she had reincarnated, but wasn't reincarnation rebirth? Wouldn't she have lost her memories and been a baby?

However, if she recalled correctly, that odd woman had addressed her correctly as Cui Huifen. This... made no sense at all.

Furthermore, it may be a weird thought, but this body didn't feel like it was her's at all. Something just felt off.

As she walked down the stairs, she thought back to the noose that was beside her and a chill travelled down her spine.

Was there a switch in souls? Because she never considered suicide before. Had the previous owner of this body tried to kill herself? A transfer of life between one who's life was taken away from them and another who took their own life? Could that be it?

She didn't know. But as she continued the line of thought, she felt another sharp pain in her head and an awful high pitched sound in her ears. She gripped the staircase railing tightly, but it became so bad that she had to hug her head.

She felt like her ears were going to bleed and her head was going to explode.

The pain was so sharp and intense that she trembled and cried in agony. As her body felt weak, she stumbled on the second last step and fell weakly onto her knees on the landing, grazing the skin on her knees to the point that it bled.

Her brain felt like it was being torn apart as memories that did not belong to her flooded her mind like a powerful ocean current that she could not go against. After realizing how painful it was to try blocking them out, Cui Huifen shuddered and gave in.

These new memories that entered her were completely foreign, yet felt strangely familiar and she didn't know why or how.

But at least some of her questions were answered by this intrusion of memories and she was now more than certain that she had reincarnated, or rather her soul had come to possess another body.