I didn't feel it.
Not the ground, not the weight of my body and not even the pain, which I had briefly felt moments before. I felt nothing but darkness.
Just absence.
And then—
I felt fire, not on my skin. A fire inside my mind—memories igniting all at once, flooding back too fast and too hot.
'The first time I held the imperial seal.
The night Zhao Yunxie touched my face and said, "With you, I am not alone."
The day he signed my death with his own hands.
The cold, the sword, the stone. The scream someone else made when my head fell off my shoulders.
And underneath it all, I felt something pulling me back through the smoke and blood.
I heard a soft voice calling out a name I don't recognise.
"Yue… Zhenzhen?"
My eyes snapped open.
I started gasping for air while touching my neck, feeling my head…if it's still there.
I let out a breath "oh goodness it must be a nightmare" I closed my eyes trying to remember how vivid it was " but it felt so real" I murmured to myself while looking around.
I was on the wooden floor, dusty like it hasn't been used and the air smelled faintly of sandalwood and mildew. A small oil lamp flickered weakly in the corner near where I lay.
A young maid knelt beside me with wide eyes, mouth trembling. "Miss Yue? You fainted… I–I tried to get help, but the guards wouldn't—"
My hands went back up to my throat, there's no blood and no wound.
My fingers were smaller and softer. My skin smooth and untouched, no scars from the torture.
"Wh…where am I?" my voice shaking.
I saw a basin of water near the wall and started crawling to it on shaking limbs.
The reflection that looked back was not mine, so young and unfamiliar. Pretty but not too pretty for someone to turn for a second look. Round cheeks, small lips, long lashes, and doe eyes. I moved—and so did she. I raised a hand—and the person in the reflection followed.
"So i did die" I said sadness in my voice
"Miss Yue Zhenzhen?" the maid whispered again. "Should I fetch the physician?"
Wait!? Yue Zhenzhen?
The name was familiar now—faintly. A young girl who had entered the palace not long before my death. Low-ranked, not that important because i barely remembered her face.
But I remembered her fate.
She died young.
She was barely noticed, a discarded pawn in someone else's game.
She had no family, no allies. No one who would ask questions if she disappeared.
I gripped the edge of the basin, my knuckles turning white.
They have given me the perfect shell, perfect person for my soul to have a second chance. A perfect chance for my sweet revenge and no one would see me coming.
I looked down at the girl in the reflection, who still waited, pale and unsure.
"No," I said slowly, testing the voice which is surprisingly softer than mine. Still steady. "No physician."
She blinked. "Are you sure miss?"
"Yes." I smiled.
This time, it wasn't the smile of an Empress.
It was the smile of a ghost who had found her way back and I remember everything.