I didn't recognize the smell, and it bothered me. Was it incense? That's it. It smelled like my mother's temple but different.
Am I dead?
My eyes forced themselves open, but I immediately shut them again. The attack of crimson all around me caused an ache behind my lids.
Am I dreaming? Why is everything red?
"I saw that!" a woman's voice declared above me. The tone could have been my mother's, but otherwise, it was all wrong. "Dr. Tang, you are awake. You can't hide from me."
I regrouped and opened my eyes again. I lay on a shelf bed covered in silk brocade blankets and cushions.
"Am I dead? Is this hell?"
"Yes and no and no," the disembodied voice answered.
"How can it be yes and no and no?" I sat up, and my head swam as I surveyed the room around me. My brain refused to process what my eyes registered.
"First, let me start with the easy one. This is not hell, well, not for most people, so that was the 'and no.' The 'yes and no' is that Dr. Baiyu Tang died in a horrific car accident, but Miss Xiang Bai, the youngest daughter of General Xiang, is very much alive, and you are her."
"I am not," I disagreed.
"You are, and you don't have much time until your husband arrives."
"Husband?"
"Yes, dear, you just got married. Notice the red everywhere?"
"I did. It looks like one of my mom's C-drama sets." I touched the silk curtains hanging from the top shelf bed. And noted the red paper lanterns hanging from every available gap in the detailed latticework of the walls. The entire room screamed expensive and ancient. "Wait, who are you? Better yet, where are you?" I scanned the room again for the owner of the grandmotherly voice.
"I am your keeper, here to guide you through your new world."
"My new world?"
"You have been chosen, dear, to begin a new life here."
"But I'm happy with my old life," I protested, sliding my legs to the floor and admiring the white cloth boots covering my feet until the red skirt of my dress draped down, abruptly hiding them from my view.
"You are dead in your old life. No one is happy when they are dead."
"Can I be not dead?"
"Unfortunately, we have no control over your body in that world, but your soul we have brought here."
"Who are we?"
"Oh, I've said too much. Your husband is coming. Remember, you are not a 21st-century physician in the United States of America. You are a young noblewoman from a small city in a country very similar to ancient China in your world. If you search your mind, all the information about your current family and life is there. I have captured her memories and stored them best I could, but it may take time to sort them out."
"Wait, where is the girl who owns this body?" I'm not sure why my first exploration of the body brought my hands to my chest, but the small mounds I discovered were unfamiliar. A woman knew her breasts, and these were not mine.
"The original Xiang Bai poisoned herself right after her wedding to General Bao."
"Why? Is he that awful?" My hands slipped down to my slender waist and narrow thighs, hiding under the thick stiff red hanfu. This girl must have been shorter than me and did far less midnight snacking.
YOU ARE READING
The Journey Forward | ONC 2023 Version
FantasyWaking up in a different body was just the beginning. Dr. Baiyu Tang didn't expect to die, but Xiang Bai sought it. Somehow, their soul's crossed, and Dr. Tang woke up in Bai's body. Not only did she wake up in the body of a woman who should have...
