The third day began much like the second—before dawn, with harsh voices and the acrid smell of wood smoke filling the air. But as Chun Hua pulled on Li Xuan's worn clothes and prepared to face another day of suspicious glances and backbreaking work, something felt different.
The jade bracelet was warm against her wrist.
Not just warm from her body heat, but actually radiating a gentle warmth that seemed to pulse in rhythm with her heartbeat. She'd noticed it briefly the night before, but now, in the pre-dawn darkness, the sensation was unmistakable.
"Li Xuan! Move your lazy bones!" Mei Lin's voice cut through her contemplation.
Chun Hua hurried toward the kitchen, but throughout the morning's preparations, the bracelet's unusual behavior nagged at her thoughts. During her previous life, she'd worn it every day for years without experiencing anything like this. Her grandmother had called it a family heirloom, passed down through generations, but she'd never mentioned any special properties.
The morning passed in a blur of vegetable cutting and wary glances from other servants. True to her decision from the night before, Chun Hua made an effort to appear less skilled than she actually was—allowing her cuts to be slightly uneven, working at a more typical pace, occasionally asking questions that Li Xuan should reasonably ask.
It grated against every professional instinct she possessed, but it seemed to work. The hostile whispers diminished, and even Mei Lin appeared less suspicious.
"Better," Master Ding grunted when he inspected her station. "Still adequate, but not suspiciously so. Keep working like this and you might avoid being sent back to dishwashing."
By midday, the kitchen had settled into its usual rhythm. Chun Hua found herself assigned to washing vegetables in a quiet corner near the storage areas—tedious work, but it gave her time to think and observe.
The jade bracelet continued its gentle pulsing, growing noticeably warmer whenever she was alone. During a brief break, she slipped away from the main kitchen area, following a narrow corridor that led toward the storage rooms.
The palace was larger than she'd initially realized, with countless corridors, chambers, and courtyards stretching in every direction. As a lowly kitchen servant, Li Xuan's movements were restricted to specific areas, but Chun Hua's curiosity drove her to explore the boundaries of those restrictions.
She found herself in a small courtyard tucked between storage buildings, empty except for a few scraggly plants struggling to grow in the shade. It was quiet here, peaceful in a way the bustling kitchen never was.
The moment she was alone, the bracelet's warmth intensified dramatically.
Chun Hua lifted her wrist, examining the jade carefully. It was a simple piece—pale green stone carved with subtle cloud patterns, set in a delicate silver band. She'd always assumed it was valuable mainly for sentimental reasons, but now she wondered if her grandmother had been hiding secrets.
As she traced one of the carved patterns with her fingertip, the bracelet suddenly blazed with warmth.
The air around her shimmered like heat waves over summer pavement. For a moment, she thought she might be fainting again, but then the shimmer solidified into something impossible.
A doorway. Made of light and shadow and somehow more real than the stone walls around her.
Chun Hua stared at it, her rational mind insisting this had to be another hallucination. Time travel was impossible enough—magical doorways were beyond any reasonable explanation. But after everything that had happened, what counted as reasonable anymore?
She reached toward the doorway with trembling fingers. The moment her hand crossed the threshold, cool air washed over her skin, carrying scents that made her heart leap with recognition. Garlic. Ginger. Star anise. The complex aromatics of a well-stocked professional kitchen. Before she could second-guess herself, she stepped through.
The space beyond defied every law of physics she understood. It was roughly the size of a large walk-in cooler, but somehow felt much bigger. Shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling, filled with ingredients and equipment that belonged to her world—her time.
Modern spice racks held dozens of varieties she hadn't seen since the cooking competition. Stainless steel containers were labeled with everything from molecular gastronomy additives to rare salts. A section of the wall was lined with knives that would have made her fellow chefs weep with envy.
"This is impossible," she whispered, but her hands were already reaching for a bottle of aged balsamic vinegar that had cost her two hundred dollars in her previous life.
"Not impossible," said a voice behind her. "Just unusual."
Chun Hua spun around, her heart hammering. A small white cat sat just inside the doorway, regarding her with intelligent amber eyes.
"Did you just...?" she began.
"Speak? Yes. My name is Xiao Bai." The cat's mouth didn't move, but the voice was definitely coming from him. "I've been waiting for you to find this place."
"Waiting for me?" Chun Hua sank onto a small stool that appeared to be made from the same silvery material as her bracelet. "You knew I was coming?"
"Not you specifically," Xiao Bai admitted, beginning to groom one white paw. "But someone from your world, yes. The jade bracelet is a bridge between realms. It's been dormant for several generations, waiting for someone with the right... compatibility."
"My grandmother," Chun Hua said slowly. "She gave this to me. Did she know?"
"Probably not the full truth. But her grandmother might have. These things skip generations sometimes." Xiao Bai paused in his grooming to fix her with those unsettling amber eyes. "The question is, what do you intend to do with this opportunity?"
Chun Hua looked around the impossible space, her mind reeling with possibilities. With access to modern ingredients and techniques, she could create dishes that would astound everyone in this ancient world. She could revolutionize imperial cuisine, maybe even use her position to gain influence and power.
"I don't understand how any of this is possible," she said finally.
"Magic," Xiao Bai said simply. "Your world lost most of its magic long ago, but it still exists in places like this. The jade bracelet was created by someone who understood how to weave connections between worlds."
"Are you magical too?"
"I'm a spiritual guardian, assigned to help whoever awakens the bracelet's power. Though I must admit, you're the first one to die in one world and wake up in another. That was... unexpected."
The casual mention of her death sent a chill through her. "So I really did die? During the competition?"
"Your body did. But souls are more resilient than most people realize. When the bracelet sensed your life force fading, it pulled your spirit across the dimensional barrier and anchored it in Li Xuan's body."
"What happened to her? To Li Xuan's soul?"
Xiao Bai was quiet for a long moment. "She was dying too. A wasting sickness that the palace physicians couldn't cure. Her spirit had already begun to fade when yours arrived. In a sense, you saved each other."
The revelation was both comforting and disturbing. She hadn't displaced an innocent girl, but she was living in someone else's body, carrying someone else's history and obligations.
"What do you know about Li Xuan's background? The other servants keep hinting that she had 'family connections.'"
"Ah." Xiao Bai's tail twitched. "That's a complicated story. Li Xuan was not just any kitchen servant. Her bloodline... well, that's something you'll need to discover for yourself. Some knowledge must be earned."
"More mysteries," Chun Hua muttered.
"Life would be boring without them," Xiao Bai replied cheerfully. "Now, shall we focus on more immediate concerns? Like how you're going to use all of this?" He gestured with his tail at the shelves of ingredients.
Chun Hua stood up, running her fingers along the edge of a stainless steel prep table that had appeared while they were talking. "I need to be careful. I've already attracted too much attention with my knife skills."
"Wise. But being too careful can be a mistake as well. You have abilities that could benefit many people in this palace. The question is how to reveal them gradually, without arousing dangerous suspicion."
She nodded, her chef's mind already working through possibilities. Simple improvements first—better seasoning, more efficient preparation techniques, subtle enhancements to existing dishes that could be explained as lucky experimentation.
"How often can I come here?"
"Whenever you're alone and genuinely need something. The bracelet will guide you. But be warned—this space exists outside normal time and reality. If you spend too long here, people in the outside world will notice your absence."
"And you'll be here?"
"I'm bound to the bracelet until its power is no longer needed. Where you go, I go." Xiao Bai hopped onto the prep table, his claws making no sound on the steel surface. "Though I should mention that I appear as an ordinary cat to everyone else. Only you can hear me speak."
Chun Hua reached out tentatively to stroke his fur. He was surprisingly warm and solid for a magical guardian. "This is all so overwhelming."
"Most worthwhile things are. But you're not the first person to be given extraordinary circumstances. The question is whether you'll use them to benefit only yourself, or to help others as well."
The weight of responsibility settled on her shoulders like a heavy cloak. In her previous life, her ambitions had been largely selfish—fame, fortune, recognition. Here, with Li Xuan's memories beginning to surface in fragments, she was beginning to understand how much suffering existed in this world. Servants worked themselves to death for barely enough food to survive. Palace hierarchies crushed anyone who showed ambition. Even the nobility lived in constant fear of political upheaval.
"I want to help," she said quietly. "But I need to survive first."
"A reasonable priority. Shall we start with something simple?"
Xiao Bai led her to a section of shelving that held basic seasonings—salt, pepper, dried herbs that would be familiar to anyone in this time period, but processed and refined to levels of purity that wouldn't exist for centuries.
"Take small amounts," he advised. "Enough to improve a few dishes, but not so much that the quantities seem impossible to obtain through normal means."
Chun Hua selected a small container of sea salt, some dried mushrooms that would add umami depth to broths, and a few other ingredients that could plausibly be acquired through palace supply chains.
"What about equipment?"
"More difficult to explain. Start with ingredients and technique. Equipment can come later, when you have more influence."
As she prepared to leave the magical space, Xiao Bai jumped down from the table and padded toward the doorway. "One more thing. This bracelet has been dormant for generations because the previous owners weren't ready for its power. You were chosen not just because of your culinary skills, but because of your character. Don't let this world's harshness change who you are."
The doorway dissolved as they stepped through it, leaving them back in the quiet courtyard. To anyone watching, it would have looked like she'd simply been resting in the shade for a few minutes.
But everything had changed.
Chun Hua looked down at Xiao Bai, who now appeared to be an ordinary white cat. He meowed once, then began walking back toward the kitchen with the casual air of a palace cat going about his business.
She followed, her mind buzzing with plans and possibilities. The ingredients hidden in her sleeves felt like precious treasures, and for the first time since awakening in this world, she felt truly hopeful.
Tonight, when the kitchen was quiet and she was alone, she would begin her real work.
The transformation of Li Xuan—and perhaps the imperial kitchen itself—was about to begin.