The banging on the door and shouts from the other side woke Lin Xiao Mei'er, her eyes started to blink until she finally opened them.
She groggily looked around wondering where she was. Where am I ? The room she's in looked nothing like the small apartment she's renting from Madam Lu, the floor was not concrete but mud floor and the room was dark and dilapidated with a thatched roof and it had minimal furniture in it. The bed in it was made of bamboo trees and grass as a cushion. There was a small functional drawer beside the bed where the door was hanging out broken, the clothes inside were little and worn out.
The sound of a middle aged woman banging on the door and shouting furiously made her turn her head towards the weak almost collapsing door.
"Second daughter, you don't want to work today right? After we've fed you rice you're trying to ditch work" the woman screamed from the other side.
Second daughter? Xiao Mei'er was confused, who is the second daughter? She looked down at herself to see herself wearing worn out ancient style garments. Huh?
What's this? These clothes look like the ones they wear in the ancient movies she watches.
"Did you not hear me? You're pretending not to, second daughter?" The woman voice, more angry than before, broke her thoughts.
Xiao Mei'er tried to stand up to go open the door when the pain came in full force, her arms were aching, her back was on fire, and her stomach growled like she hadn't eaten for days. She froze, dropping down back on the floor like a sack of potatoes.
She groaned, her body covered in bruises, and her strength deplenished from no food, she tried sitting up again but the pain stopped her. This was odd, everything was odd, from the room, to the clothes, to the pain radiating through her body, and the woman shouting at the door.
"Where is this? Where am I? Why is everywhere so hot?" she muttered, sweat rolling down her face, and her hand shaking from pain. She got no response as she was speaking to the air.
The banging on the door increased, and she tried to stand up the third time,even though she was successful, she froze, not because of pain but this time memories... that were not hers, no, it was from the owner of the body.
She wasn't in her body anymore, she had transmigrated.
The original owner has the same name as her and she was the ugly, unwanted second daughter of the Lin family. Her father was the second son of the family and he died alongside her mother on the mountain from a tiger attack and that made most of the villagers scared to go deep into the mountains. After her parents death, she was taken in by her father's brother and at first they took care of her for show but later started making her do all their chores and gave her minimal food. Every mistake means beatings and no food. The night before, she was beaten because she didn't bring the firewoods to the shack fast enough which made rain beat some of them, the beatings were too much for her already weak body with food and she died.
Lin Xiao Mei'er blinked her eyes slowly, her throat dry,
"I really transmigrated...."
In Xiao Mei'er's past life, she was a 25 year old retail worker who had no rest because she had to work to earn money and put food on her table, she had no family, friends or even a boyfriend, just debts, unpaid bills, and not enough money. She had worked herself to death, literally. The last thing she remembered before she woke up here was the blinding lights, her ringing ears and the sound of her body hitting the cold floor of her room.
And now... she was here, wherever here was, broken, scarred, and unwanted.
She moved towards the door and opened it to face a middle aged, heavy woman with a harsh face holding a broomstick in one hand and her other on its way to bang on the door again.
"So, you've been hearing me since you lazy brat! Do you think laziness will fill the drum, cut the firewood, sweep the compound, and cook food?" The sharp voice rang in her ears with particles of spit hitting her face, making her head throb. If she was thinking this was a dream before,this just confirmed that she had really crossed.
"I'm sorry, I'll go do them now" she bowed her head a bit muttering under her breath.
"You better do, you ungrateful brat! Do you think you would still be here if my family had not taken you in?" She mocked Xiao Mei'er's face and turned around and left.
Xiao Mei'er watched her leave, then shut the door and leaned against it with her eyes closed, taking in everything.
Suddenly, one second, she was in the dilapidated room with thatched roof and mud floor, and the next she found herself in a brightly lit mall. She froze...
The air smelled clean and sterile, and the floor beneath her was spotless
white tile. Smooth shelves stretched in front of her, stacked with products arranged in a neatly order by category. She moved inside and she saw rows of food, instant noodles, canned goods, fruits, ingredients, even snacks. Moving further down, she saw shelves stacked with cosmetics, soaps, hair shampoos, medical supplies, and even other goods. She caught sight of a big refrigerated goods section and went to inspect, inside there were bottled water, soft drinks, ice creams of different flavors, and even alcohols of different brands. There was also a wine section but it didn't have much in it like the others, It had some of the wines she used to see with ridiculously high price tag and some cheap ones too.
The mall looked like the one she used to visit in her past life to buy groceries, clean, quiet and fully stocked up to the brim. Strangely, there was no one there, no cashiers, no customers, just...her.
"Am I back?" She muttered, wondering if she was back to her life and had not transmigrated.
And then....a small mechanical voice echoed softly at the back of her mind,
"Hello, Master"