A bone-deep chill and a searing, stinging heat across her back dragged Lin Hanxue out from the bottomless darkness.
With a gargantuan effort, she pried open her heavy eyelids. Her vision was instantly met with the sight of a damp, moldy ceiling and the sound of shrill, mocking laughter that felt like needles piercing her eardrums.
"Look at this dead appearance. To think she actually has the nerve to occupy a room in the Imperial Harem. Even the palace maids have better quarters than this ugly, good for nothing."
"Hmph, what concubine? She is nothing more than a stain on the Emperor's reputation. Even after being beaten like this, she doesn't even know how to beg for mercy. A trash idiot is truly a trash idiot."
The voices of several women hovered around Lin Hanxue's ears, dripping with a disgusting level of malice.
Who are these lowly wretches to unexpectedly dare to curse her as a trash? When had the International Medical Organization allowed such arrogant fools to bark in front of the Ghost-Handed Doctor? Were they tired of living?
Unable to deal with the agonizing soreness of her body, Lin Hanxue forced her eyes wide to look toward the origin of the noise.
Three women, dressed in the silk robes of mid-ranking concubines, stood in the center of the dilapidated room.
Their faces were twisted with sneers of contempt.
One held a blood-stained bamboo cane, while the other two had their arms folded across their chests, looking down as if they were watching a dying insect.
After they noticed that the person laying on the freezing floor had actually woken up, not only did they not show the slightest hint of guilt, but their mockery intensified.
"Oh? The 'Ghost Concubine' of the Cold Courtyard has finally opened her eyes? It is truly a waste of good medicine that you didn't just die from that beating." The lead concubine, whose face was caked in thick, cheap powder, stepped forward and kicked Lin Hanxue's injured ribs with her pointed shoe.
The other concubine sneered, her eyes sweeping over Lin Hanxue's deathly pale and scarred complexion. "Ugly idiot, later when the palace manager comes to check the headcount, you should know how to shut your mouth. If you dare to mention a single word about the 'discipline' we gave you today, I can guarantee that your next meal will be your last."
The disdain, threat, and blatant hostility had nevertheless failed to provoke the slightest amount of fear in the woman lying on the ground.
At this moment, Lin Hanxue was simply unable to attend to what these scoundrels were saying.
Segment after segment of strange yet familiar scenes were flooding into her mind like a tidal wave.
Those memories, which completely did not belong to her, crashed against her consciousness.
If she had not forcefully resisted the urge to vomit from the mental strain, she probably would have lost consciousness once again.
The memories belonged to a girl from the age of a silent toddler to a forgotten young woman of eighteen.
One screen after another of disarrayed scenes formed a record of a life lived in the shadows, a life of hunger, cold, and endless bullying.
They revealed to Lin Hanxue a completely unfamiliar world.
This world was a far cry from the modern era of hospitals and high-tech labs.
This was the Great Yan Empire, a land where Imperial power was absolute and ancient herbalism reigned supreme.
Yet, in this world of court intrigue and hidden masters, the host body she had possessed was a useless piece of garbage true to its name.
Being a world-renowned medical genius of the 21st century, Lin Hanxue simply did not dare to believe that she, who ought to be dead after that laboratory explosion, had unexpectedly had a rebirth into this pathetic girl's body.
Even more, Lin Hanxue did not know whether to laugh or cry, as this forgotten woman unexpectedly had the same name as her own.
The host body was the daughter of a fallen general, sent into the palace as a political pawn only to be discarded and "abandoned" in this desolate courtyard before the Emperor even laid eyes on her.
For three years, she had lived like a phantom, her face ruined by malnutrition and her spirit broken by the Emperor's other women.
As the physical pain flared once more, a cold, sharp light flickered in Lin Hanxue's eyes.
A trash? An idiot?
She felt a strange warmth radiating from the jade birthmark on her wrist but it only lasted a second.
Lin Hanxue's lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile that looked terrifying on her pale face.
Since this world thinks I am a ghost, then I shall show them what it means to be haunted by a God of Death.
The lead concubine, seeing the strange, bloodthirsty smile on Lin Hanxue's face, felt an inexplicable chill run down her spine. However, thinking of this girl's usual cowardly nature, her face immediately contorted with rage.
"You ugly trash! To unexpectedly dare to smile at me like that? It seems you haven't been disciplined enough!" She raised the blood-stained bamboo cane high, intending to strike Lin Hanxue's face.
However, the strike never landed.
In a blur of motion that the three women could not even follow, Lin Hanxue had lunged forward. Her thin, scarred hand shot out like a lightning bolt, gripping the concubine's wrist with a strength that shouldn't belong to such a frail body.
With a cold snort, Lin Hanxue applied pressure to a specific acupuncture point.
CRACK.
"AHHHH!" A blood-curdling scream erupted from the lead concubine as the cane fell from her lifeless fingers. Her wrist had been dislocated with surgical precision.
"You scoundrel... I'll kill you!" The other two concubines, after a moment of stunned silence, rushed forward in a frenzy.
One woman felt her legs instantly lose all sensation, causing her to collapse onto the moldy floor like a sack of grain.
The other felt a sharp pain in her chest before her voice suddenly vanished, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, unable to make a single sound.
In less than a minute, the three "arrogant" ladies were wailing and rolling on the ground in a pathetic display.
"You... you dare to hit us? We are the Emperor's women! You're dead! We will report this to the Emperor and have your head chopped off!" the lead concubine shrieked, clutching her broken wrist while scurrying toward the door like a beaten dog.
"Go then," Lin Hanxue said, her voice raspy and bone-chillingly calm. "But if I see your shadows in my courtyard again, I won't just break a wrist next time."