I am reborn as a man

1) From woman to man

In the year two thousand and twenty-three, I, Lin Hua, died.

Cause of death? Beaten up by four powerful men after my stepsister set me up. It was a horrible way to die if I was honest and quite painful. But before I died, I made sure to take her with me by stealing a gun from one of them and shooting her right in her chest.

As I breathed my last, I wished that if there was an afterlife, the heavens would grant me a will to protect myself and a body stronger than what had been reduced to a punching bag.

Like everything had been one long nightmare, I gasped awake in the deafening silence of a room.

For a whole minute, I blinked slowly, calming my head and my pounding heart as I stared at the weird ceiling above me. "What a horrible nightmare," I groaned pulling myself to sit. Suddenly, an intense pain zapped through my head like a fat needle had been shoved in, making me groan even more holding it.

While I went through this maddening pain, the double doors were kicked open before a young man, probably in his early twenties, walked in carrying a blue bowl in one hand and a sheathed sword in his other hand. The choice of clothes he wore could be traced back to thousands of years ago in China just like his hairstyle. But one thing was so clear: he was very, very attractive, especially after I noticed that his eyes were a warm purple color.

Were those lenses? And why was he dressed like that? But most importantly, why am I here?

"Good. You're awake," he spoke, his tone dismissive and condescending. "I thought you would die from a small beating like that. What a waste," he scorned putting the bowl on a small wooden table that held a large white candle lighting this weird room. "Drink it, Lin Xuan!" he ordered glaring down at me.

"Huh? My name is not Lin Xuan!" I shot. "And it was not a small beating. They were bigger than me and had guns and knives!"

Wait. Why was my voice different?

Before I could find an answer to that question, the beautiful man who was now putting his sword down on the table picked up the bowl and grabbed my mouth by my cheeks.

"You can take your craziness elsewhere once you drink this, waste!"

He forced the warm liquid into my mouth. But as soon as its taste was established in my buds, I retched and started scratching the man's hand but he remained rock solid, scowling at me while I suffered.

There was hatred in those purple eyes. Deep-rooted hatred. I began doubting whatever he was feeding me could be poisonous. "Stop wasting this medicine, Lin Xuan, or I will beat you up again and send your corpse to your family in the morning."

Medicine?

Why did he keep calling me a man's name? I was a woman. My name was Lin Hua.

Feeling frightened by his threat, I had no choice but to swallow a little of the said medicine. Only then did he release me.

I coughed up falling to my side, my hair forming a long curtain at the side of my face. It looked so black and too long.

My hair was usually dyed brown and was only shoulder-length. What I was looking at was at least waist-length mass of midnight black hair, and my hands...they were bigger than I remembered.

"Wha-what is this? How? Where?"

The confusion set in and I hopped off the bed but immediately stumbled forward, falling into the arms of this stranger.

My legs were extremely weak and hurting a little.

"Are you stupid? Did you think the medicine would work right away?" he questioned, pushing me backward to force me to sit on the bed. "You can stay here until morning. Your body will be fully recovered. I've arranged for someone to send you back home. But remember, if you make my sister cry again, I will come back and cut off that thing you have been offering every other woman before driving my sword through your heart."

It was a cold icy threat that shook the corners of my heart without even knowing him or his sister or anything at all.

With one last deathly scowl, the man in blue-black robes turned and strode out of the room. The doors banged shut by themselves, blowing a wind in my direction that was as menacing as the stranger.

I exhaled through my mouth, a hand on my chest to soothe the thumping of my poor heart, but immediately felt something was amiss.

My chest had....nothing.

I gasped looking down, both my hands feeling every inch of it, searching for the two mounds that I had cherished so much.

There was just...nothing.

My hands were different, my voice had changed as well, and now my chest was flat. Could this be...my second life?

But, but... "Why am I a man?" I yelled at the ceiling, my confusion getting the better of me.

Putting the gender swap aside, if it was my second life, why was I in a grown man's body and not a baby? How was I expected to navigate this new life without any memory of the previous owner?

'Who brought me here? I want to be reborn as a girl!' I screamed in my mind. 'Make me a girl right now!'

But nobody was responding to me, only the crickets outside made an effort to speak to me.

****Don't read this book if you're homophobic for heaven's sake. The tags are there for a reasons***