Darkness lifts not suddenly, but gently, like mist thinning at dawn.
Madam Liu thinks this must be death.
There is no pain. No weight pressing on her chest. No bitterness of medicine lingering on her tongue. Only a strange lightness, as though her body has finally let go of everything it once carried.
So this is the afterlife, she thinks distantly.
Then
"Lady… Lady, please wake up."
A voice.
Clear. Young. Familiar in a way that makes her heart tremble.
Her brows knit faintly. That voice should not be here. She had heard it crying through tears, breaking beside her deathbed. She had heard it from far away, as though from another world.
"Fourth Lady!"
The voice grows urgent, closer now.
Her lashes flutter.
When her eyes open, light spills in.
The first thing she sees is not darkness, nor the shadow of death, but a ceiling high and elegant, adorned with painted vines and delicate flowers curling across pale wood. Sunlight filters through gauze curtains, scattering warm gold across the room. The air smells faintly of fresh leaves and morning dew.
Her breath catches.
This is not the room where she died.
Slowly, uncertainly, she turns her head.
At the bedside stands her maid.
Su.
But not the Su she remembers.
This Su's face is smooth and youthful, her cheeks still full, her eyes bright and unlined by grief. Her hair is neatly tied, hands steady, not shaking with despair.
Madam Liu stares.
"Lady, you finally woke up," Su says with relief, a smile breaking across her face. "You scared me. You didn't move at all."
Her voice is alive.
Madam Liu's fingers curl into the silk bedding beneath her. The fabric is soft—too soft. Her body feels… light. Strong. Not hollowed by illness.
She sits up.
No dizziness. No pain.
Her heart begins to pound.
"Su…" Her voice escapes her lips, and she freezes.
It is not the hoarse, broken whisper of a dying woman.
It is clear. Gentle. Young.
Her hands rise slowly into her field of vision.
They are pale and smooth, fingers slender, skin unmarked by bruises or years of endurance. She presses them together, feeling warmth, softness life.
A memory strikes her without mercy.
Hands once rough from scrubbing her own wounds.
Skin once sagging, colorless, stretched thin over bones.
Eyes once dry, unable even to cry.
Her chest tightens.
"I…" she murmurs, pushing herself off the bed.
Su reaches out instinctively. "Lady, where are you going?"
Madam Liu doesn't answer.
Her steps are unsteady, not from weakness but from disbelief. She moves toward the corner of the room where a bronze mirror stands, its surface polished bright.
She stops in front of it.
And forgets how to breathe.
The woman reflected back at her is young no older than seventeen. Her skin is luminous, untouched by suffering. Her eyes are wide and clear, sparkling like stars just after rain. Her lips are naturally pink, her posture still carrying the innocence of someone who has not yet learned what cruelty feels like.
This is her.
Not the hollow-eyed woman waiting for death.
Not the silent wife beaten into obedience.
This is the girl she once was before marriage, before humiliation, before despair.
Before everything began.
Her fingers tremble as she lifts a hand and touches her cheek. The reflection mirrors her, warm and real.
Not a dream.
Her throat tightens, and emotion surges up so violently she nearly collapses.
I remember.
The deathbed.
The regret.
The tear that fell when she closed her eyes.
She remembers thinking If I were given another life…
Her knees weaken, and she grips the mirror's edge.
Heaven has answered her.
Not with comfort.
But with a chance.
A chance to choose differently.
To speak when she once stayed silent.
To fight when she once endured.
To protect herself when no one else would.
Behind her, Su watches in confusion, unaware that the Lady standing before her carries the weight of an entire lifetime of suffering.
Madam Liu slowly straightens.
Her eyes, once gentle to the point of ruin, harden just slightly like calm water hiding something deep beneath its surface.
"So…" she whispers to herself, voice steady now, "this time… I will not make the same mistakes."
Sunlight floods the room.
And for the first time in two lifetimes, Madam Liu feels something unfamiliar settle into her heart.....
Hope.