"Is this how death feels like?" Xu Mei wondered as darkness engulfed her like a thick, suffocating blanket.
After feeling life slipped from her soul, she was thrown and suspended in nothingness.
It was as if she was walking aimlessly without direction or purpose in darkness, at the same time, it felt like she was still laying down, unable to move, just wallowing in nothingness.
"This void darkness can't be heaven... Can it?"
"Wait...did I go to hell?" Xu Mei's thoughts were frantic.
"No, God, please! I shouldn't go to hell after all I have endured in life... After being bullied, shamed, mocked, hated and still got killed."
She tried to speak, to scream, to feel something but there was only void. Her voice wouldn't emerge, her limbs felt nonexistent, and time seemed to stretch endlessly in this realm of complete emptiness.
Hours passed, or perhaps days; she couldn't tell. The darkness was all-consuming, relentless, until...
*"I will enjoy all I have been deprived of, have unlimited sex, eat well, live lavishly and punish those that betrayed me."*
The thought crashed back into her mind like a wave as her eyelids fluttered open.
Bright light flooded her vision, making her squint against its harsh intrusion. She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust, trying to comprehend what was happening.
"Of course I had died. Have I been transported to heaven now?" She thought, seeing as things had changed from what she was feeling earlier.
She opened her mouth to check whether she could talk now and a raspy whisper that didn't sound quite like her own, came out.
"Uh oh..."
"Why do I suddenly feel alive?" She wondered as she listened to her heartbeat and felt it working just fine, unlike before.
"My God... did you truly answer my desperate prayers?" She whispered, hope blooming in her chest like a fragile flower.
Then the realization struck her... She had been reborn.
A smile slowly swept across her face, growing wider and wider until she was practically beaming with jubilation. Her desperate plea for a second chance had been granted!
The door to the room creaked open, interrupting her moment of triumph.
And the most gorgeous man she had ever laid her eyes on walked in.
Xu Mei's breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened slightly.
The man was young, tall, broad-shouldered, with perfectly styled dark hair, bright round eyes that seemed too beautiful for a man, a well defined jaw and even pink lips.
With his confident stride of someone who owned the world, It was as if he had just walked out of a fashion magazine. His three-piece suit was immaculate, tailored to perfection.
He didn't only look gorgeous and breathtaking, he looked like he could buy the whole world by just snapping his finger.
Xu Mei was too stunned to speak, too mesmerized to even blink properly.
"*What is such a man doing in my space?He must have walked into the wrong room.*" She wondered, still believing she was trapped in her old, hideous body. *.*
When the man's eyes finally found hers, his entire face immediately lit up with happiness and relief.
"Miss Lin Yuexi! You're awake. Thank God, you're finally awake." He called out, his voice deep and smooth like aged whiskey.
"Lin Yuexi?" Xu Mei's brows furrowed in confusion.
"You're mistaking me for someone else." She said, attempting to sit up in the bed.
But as she moved, something felt... completely different.
She didn't feel the usual heaviness that plagued her every movement. Her protruding stomach that used to roll and shift with each breath now felt strangely flat against her body.
Where was the weight that had pressed down on her for decades?
With confusion washing over her like ice water, she looked down at her body, then without thinking, she jumped down from the bed, the IV drip in her hand tried to pull her back but she yanked it off desperately.
Maxwell, the man who had walked in was immediately appalled by her sudden movement.
"Wait, you shouldn't move around yet." He started, moving toward her with concern written all over his handsome features. The look in his eyes showed he was terrified something had gone wrong with her brain after the accident.
But Xu Mei wasn't hearing him. She was too busy jumping up and down, staring at her body in absolute bewilderment. She checked her arms, frantically searching for the chunky fat she normally carried, but found nothing but slender, toned limbs.
She walked back and forth across the room, expecting to feel the familiar friction of fat rubbing between her thighs, but there was nothing. Her legs moved freely, gracefully, without the burden she had carried her entire life.
Her hands flew to her cheeks, touching where her double chin should be, where the excess flesh should hang, but instead found a sharp jawline and smooth skin.
That was unbelievable!
"Are you alright?" Maxwell asked, worryingly, approaching her with growing alarm.
She still wasn't listening, too lost in her exploration of this impossible new reality.
Maxwell was about to call for a nurse when the woman suddenly turned around, her eyes wide and desperate.
"Can I get a mirror?" She asked breathlessly.
Maxwell was taken aback by the strange request, but something in her eyes; a mixture of hope and terror, made him nod slowly. He pulled out his phone from his suit jacket and dialed a number.
"Bring a large mirror to Miss Lin's room immediately." He ordered, sharply, his tone leaving no room for delay.
~~~~~~~~~~
A few minutes later, one of the hospital staff had dropped off a full length mirror.
His eyebrows were furrowed in confusion, definitely wondering what prompted such unusual request but he knew better than to query the Almighty Maxwell Salvador, the cold ruthless billionaire!
After the staff's departure, Xu Mei approached the mirror slowly, her heart pounding, her chest heaving up and down like a caged bird desperate for freedom.
With trembling steps, she positioned herself in front of the reflective surface and looked up.
What she saw in the mirror broke out a scream from her throat, loud enough to shatter a glass.
The old, ugly, obese reflection she expected to see; the one that had haunted her for forty years, was nowhere to be found. Instead, staring back at her was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.
Young, probably in her early twenties. Slim and fit with curves in all the right places, still visible in the hospital gown she had on.
Her face was breathtakingly gorgeous; high cheekbones, full lips, large expressive eyes framed by long lashes, and skin that seemed to glow even under the dull hospital lighting. Even dressed in a simple hospital gown, she looked like she had stepped out of a magazine.
"No... no, this isn't possible..." She whispered, reaching out to touch the mirror, half-expecting her hand to pass through it like some cruel illusion.
Maxwell was instantly alarmed by her scream.
"Nurse!" He called out urgently.
A nurse rushed in, her expression professional but concerned.
"What's wrong? Is she in pain?" The nurse approached to examine her, but Xu Mei shoved her away, still transfixed by her reflection.
"This isn't real. This has to be a dream. I'm dreaming, aren't I?" She kept muttering to herself, turning her face side to side, watching the beautiful stranger in the mirror mimic her movements.
"I need to get the doctor. I think she's having some kind of mental episode." The nurse shook her head worriedly and rushed back out.
But as the nurse left, a profound calm suddenly washed over Xu Mei. The pieces began falling into place in her mind.
"God had truly answered my prayers. Now, I can enjoy everything that I have been deprived of." The realization was so pleasing. She had been fully reborn, not just given a second chance at life, but gifted with everything she had ever dreamed of. Beauty, youth, a body that didn't betray her at every turn.
Her first wish echoed in her mind, the one she had made in that moment between life and death.
"*To get laid first.*"
She turned around slowly, her eyes finding Maxwell's concerned face. He was even more handsome up close, and now, in this incredible new body, she finally felt worthy of approaching such a man, so confident that no man would turn her down now.
Then as if something sparked in her, without hesitation, without shame, she blurted out the words that had been burning in her mind:
"Do you want to have sex with me?"
Maxwell's lips parted in shock, his eyes widening as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard.
The silence that followed was deafening. And after waiting for a second without getting any response, the woman spoke up again;
"Well, scratch that, let me rephrase it! I want to have sex with you and I'm certain you wouldn't refuse, would you?" A confident smile broke out on her face as she spoke.
That however lasted for a split second because despite her newfound confidence, what the man did next shocked her.
After a moment of just staring at her, the man's shocked expression faded slowly, giving away to a cold, calculating one as he held her gaze.
His right hand shot out and he...