Yang Zhilan jolted awake, her consciousness swimming in a sea of inky darkness. She blinked trying to orient herself, but there's no up or down—just an endless void. Her body feels weightless, suspended in nothingness. Panic begins to rise in her chest when suddenly, a figure materializes before her.
It's a young girl, perhaps no older than thirteen dressed in dark blue dress. Kind of like the ones in Medieval Europe.
The fabric's edges blurred into the darkness. The stranger's long black hair floats around her face as if submerged in water.
Yang Zhilan's mind was foggy, her thoughts disjointed. She struggled to form words, her voice sounding distant and echoing. "Who... who are you? Where are we?"
The other girl's eyes, previously unfocused, suddenly snap to attention. She seems to come out of a daze, blinking rapidly as if adjusting to the strange environment. "My name is Yin Daili, and I just got hit by a truck ....like just now," she responded, her voice carrying a hint of confusion. "And you?"
"Yang Zhilan," she replied, the name feeling both familiar and strange on her tongue.
Confusion flashed across Yin Daili's face, quickly replaced by alarm as she fully takes in their surreal surroundings. Her mouth opened, perhaps to say more, but before any words can escape, an invisible force yanked Yang Zhilan backwards.
Yang Zhilan's eyes widened in shock as she's pulled away. She watched Yin Daili stretch out her hand, fingers grasping at the void between them. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before Yin Daili's form begans to fade, dissolving into the darkness like mist.
The world shifts, and Zhilan finds herself falling. Just as panic threatens to overwhelm her, she lands softly in a lush garden. The sudden sensory overload is jarring—vibrant flowers in every hue imaginable, the gentle trickle of a nearby stream, and the melodious songs of unseen birds fill the air. A soft breeze carries the sweet scent of jasmine and lotus.
As Yang Zhilan looked around in awe, drinking in the serene beauty, a voice startled her. "So, she's finally here."
Yang Zhilan whirls around, her heart pounding. Before her sat a woman draped in dark grey robes that seem to absorb the light around them. Her face is very striking, with eyes that seemed splattered with mischief and curved almost like an cat.
"Who... who are you?"Yang Zhilan stammered, taking an involuntary step back.
The woman's lips curl into a smirk. "Tch! Who I am is not important. What I have to say to you, however, is."
She glanced around nervously. The woman's voice seems to come from everywhere at once, reverberating through the garden in an unsettling manner. "What... what do you want to say?"
"A chance to know who you are," the woman replied, her tone cryptic.
Skepticism creeped into Zhilan's voice. "A chance to know who I am?"
The man's otherworldly eyes bore into Zhilan. "Don't you feel there's something odd about you, Yang Zhilan?"
Yang Zhilan stared at the woman's ethereal face, a chill running down her spine despite the garden's warmth. "I... I guess. I feel like I'm missing something important."
A smile spread across the woman's face, but it doesn't reach her eyes. There's something off about it that Zhilan can't quite place. "Well, it's because you're in a different world than your own."
"What?" Zhilan's mind reeled, unable to process this bizarre statement.
"Exactly as I said," the woman continued, her voice carrying a hint of amusement. "The world you're in right now is not your own. You've entered the body of Yang Zhilan in this world, a canon fodder as some may call it. In your original world, you have a real family waiting for you back home."
YOU ARE READING
Batter My Heart,Mr Xi (Book 2)
General Fiction(Sequel to Ties and Fate.) Yang Zhilan's idyllic village life is shattered when her late adoptive father's past comes back to haunt her family as he had double-crossed a very powerful mercenary group. Adding to the turmoil, she doesn't remember t...
