Su Xiao's POV
The time was 3:17 am.
But what was I doing? I was crying.
Outside, a siren wailed. I ignored it. I was also ignoring the edits for my manuscript, which were three weeks late.
It was the ugly, exhausted kind of cry. The kind you get when you're overworked, underslept, and emotionally wrecked by a video game.
I decided to play to relieve stress!
But what did I get? Heartbreak!
Fuck you, Astra!
On the screen, the scene from Love and Deepspace was playing for the fifth time. Zayne as the Foreseer in "Tower of Secrets" Myth. It wasn't even the main story, but it was the key to his whole tragic character.
What I think it was was a connected web; I didn't want to delve into it deeply. Bound to an icy tower, fated to love and lose the MC, me! That plays the game in every single life, with only a field of jasmine flowers in his mind as a memorial.
If I had known it would end like this, I wouldn't have bought the card.
My beloved money!
The author was brilliant, and I hated them for it. It was a hopeless, tragic loop in every one of his myths.
First, it was Snowfall Embrace; the second was this? What other heartbreaking myth would come to be released?
"It's just... unfair," I whispered, my voice thick. I locked my phone. The screen went black, reflecting my own tired, blotchy face.
I am a writer. I know a cop-out when I see one. "Tragic, fated love" is just lazy. It's easier than writing a real, earned happy ending.
I scrubbed my eyes. "All that power, all that pain... and he never even gets a choice."
I leaned my head back against the couch. "God, I wish... I wish I could go there and finally write him the happy ending he deserves."
The words hung in the stale air.
But before I could even scream, I was pulled into a vertigo of colors, the kind that makes your stomach drop. It was like I was falling through a vortex.
"What the fuck is happening?!"
I screamed through the chaos, and bam, I crashed into something soft, but firm. It knocked the wind out of me, and I was left lying there gasping for air.
My whole body was in weird angles.
My heart was pounding through the chirp from the birds outside, through my stunned silence, and my first thought: Was that an earthquake?
I sniffed through the air, only for my nose to smell something sweet and heavy with smoke.
I pilled my eyes open almost reluctantly.
This wasn't my apartment.
The ceiling above me was carved from brown wood. The air smelled of ink and herbs, plus the smell of smoke I couldn't pinpoint.
I pushed up fast, clutching the blanket against my chest. The room looked ancient. Heavy wooden furniture. Something you would only find in a historical Chinese drama.
A low table with a teapot steaming faintly. The walls were of good woodwork, and sunlight bled through paper windows.
A shiver ran through me.
"What the hell..." My voice trembled. "Where am I?"
I slid off the bed, nearly tripping on the hem of the green robe that now clung to my body....green robe. I gasped, raising my hand and looking down at my body.
Ancient-style Chinese robes. Hanfu. Layers of them. A pale green one underneath, a darker green one on top. The sleeves were ridiculously wide. A silk sash held it all loosely at my waist.
The fabric was light but coarse, stitched with faint thread near the cuff. Definitely not anything from my closet.
This wasn't real. It looked like a movie set—a high-budget historical drama.
Panic rising, I stumbled toward the mirror hanging near the door. It wasn't glass but polished bronze, dull and warped. Still, it showed enough.
The reflection staring back wasn't me.
At least I think it wasn't me who lay on the bed watching dramas and listening to Chinese songs instead of doing something good with her life.
This me, looked younger, barely even twenty. Her skin was smooth, her features delicate, her eyes a sharper brown than mine had ever been.
Her hair was black, long, tied with a jade clasp.
I raised a trembling hand to my face, and it was soft and squishy. The girl in the mirror did the same.
"This... this is a dream," I whispered, touching the cold bronze. The girl in the reflection touched it back. Her fingers were long, pale. Not my fingers, which were calloused from typing.
The door creaked.
A young woman stepped in, carrying a basin of water. Her sleeves were rolled to her elbows, her plain robes quite similar to a servant's. The moment her gaze landed on me, the basin slipped from her hands, crashing to the floor.
"My lady!" she gasped, eyes wide. " You-you're awake?"
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. What exactly could I say. That I am not your lady?
She dropped to her knees, her hands shaking. "I must inform the master–"
"What is all this screaming? Lowering the prestige of the Su Clan with your animal shrieking. Has the trash finally died?"
A second figure sauntered into the room as if she owned the place.
She looked my age, and she was... alot. Her robes were a bright, obnoxious pink, with gold threads stitched all over them. Her hair was held up with a bunch of jade pins that must have been incredible heavy.
She looked like a typical villain.
She stopped in the doorway, her eyes taking in the scene. She saw the spilled water. She saw the terrified, kneeling maid. And then, she saw me, standing by the mirror.
Me, the stranger that is still trying to wrap my head around what the fuck was happening.
Her lips, painted a perfect red, curled into a sneer.
"Still alive?" She said, her voice soft, but sharp. "How...unfortunate."
I had no feelings towards her words. She stepped closer to me, looking quite irritated from my lack of response.
She smiled faintly, and I instinctively flinched. The scent of sweet plum from her robes was so strong it was suffocating. She looked annoyed that I wasn't cowering or crying.
"You truly have no shame, elder sister. Waking up after three months of sleeping when everyone believed you'd never open your eyes again."
Three... months?
My blood ran cold. I hadn't just fainted. I'd been gone. Was this the reason I was here?
Her gaze flicked over me, lingering on my plain green robe, then lowering to my bare feet on the wooden floor.
"Though perhaps it would've been kinder to let you rest forever," she said. "After all, your spiritual root was rather... disappointing, wasn't it?"
The words hit like a slap, though I didn't fully understand why.
"My– what?"
She crossed her hands, frowning at my question. "I suppose Father will be disappointed. He was just about to cut off your medicine ration."
Medicine? Father? Su Clan?
This wasn't a dream. This wasn't a hallucination. So where the fuck was I?