"Wake up, sis." Small hands roughly shook Alysha's body, rousing her from the dream world. Grudgingly, she opens her eyes, mind still muddled from the fog of sleepiness.

"Uh... I'm getting up... Just one more minute..." Alysha murmurs, trying to turn away from her annoying little brother... Wait, she has a little brother?

Alysha immediately shot up, eyes going wide as a devastating headache attacked her poor brain. She screams in pain as she holds her head in between her hands, her body shaking uncontrollably.

"Sis!" The young voice screams, but Alysha couldn't hear it. All she could feel was pain and suffering. 

Her head feels as though it's going to burst while a thousand burning hot needles dig into her body. She can't stop screaming and trashing as the worst pain she ever felt in her entire life combined breaks her apart.

She barely hears the panicked words of two other people rushing into the room and trying to hold her down. Finally, after what felt like an eternity and more, the pain slowly begins to subside, leaving her a tired, whimpering mess. 

When she finally comes back to herself, she can finally properly focus her eyes. Looking up, she can see the concerned faces of a large, burly man and an equally large woman staring down at her with concern. Next to the two large adults, a young child not older than 6 years was also looking at Alysha with confusion and fear in his eyes, an ugly red mark on his cheek.

"Yu Weng? Are you alright now?" The large woman asks, her arms encircling Alysha and holding her close. Alysha couldn't help but return the hug, even as thousands of questions run through her mind at lightning speed.

"Sis...?" The little boy asks, crawling up to her bed and also trying to hug her. The large woman makes some space for him so he too can crawl into the hug.

The large man kept his distance but still looked at the trio's hug with nothing but love and a bit of fear in his eyes. Meanwhile, Alysha was very confused.

She didn't know these people... And yet, she did. Foreign memories were slowly trickling into her mind, and soon enough, she understood.

For whatever reason, she'd been brought into another world. Her memories of the other world were a bit fuzzy, especially the last couple days, and yet, she definitely knew she wasn't from this world.

This body wasn't hers. This family wasn't hers. And yet, both were. It was confusing.

"M-mom..." She whispered, a little awkward at the word. She didn't know what else to say, how to apologize for stealing away their daughter.

"Shh... It's ok, dear. Go back to sleep." Her mom said, almost in a whisper. Alysha obliged, allowing her mind to fall back into the dark oblivion.

Her dreams were messy. She re-lived the life of a normal girl born to a normal family. This little girl's father worked as a lumberman, chopping trees and turning them into dull but useful furniture. Meanwhile, the mom worked at home, taking care of the kids as well as organizing everything for their daily life.

It was a normal family in a normal village. The little girl herself was also quite run-of-the-mill, playing with other girls and helping her parents when she could. And yet, one night, seemingly at random, Alysha had arrived. And that was when the endless dream ended.

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Finally, when she once more woke up, she found herself with an armful of a crying brother. The young boy hugged her tightly, tears streaming down his face as he whispered, "You're okay... Sis..."

Alysha was initially confused at the over-the-top reaction, but then the memories of this new body rescued her. Not longer than a year ago, their third brother, a mere 8-year old, had died a rather horrific death a disastrous disease. Both she and her little brother had been traumatized by the sight, and both had cried for hours.

In a world with a complete lack of medicine, such deaths were all too common.

Alysha wandered through the rest of the day like a robot. Her mind was too busy trying to assimilate both sets of memories together into a coherent whole, hence, she barely responded to anything and would even occasionally walk into the walls of the house.

Alysha's new parents were obviously concerned, but they didn't know what to do. Her little brother, however, seemed to have made it his life's mission to be as close to her as possible. He basically refused to be in any room except the one she was in.

Not that there were that many rooms. Their house was pathetically small, with only 4 small rooms. Two bedrooms, a 'kitchen', and a living area. 

Granted, it was still better than most houses in the area, but it was a far cry from what Alysha was used to.

Finally, two entire days later, Alysha at last 'woke up' from her trance. 

She wasn't at all happy with what had happened. She liked her life back in her previous world, but there was little she could do about it.

Her brother, however, was incredibly happy about her return to reality. He smiled and guilt-tripped her into playing with him for the entire third day of her journey into this new world.

He brought her outside their house and into the relatively empty streets of the outer village. They were roads that Yu Weng had roamed since her birth, and yet, Alysha had never seen them. 

However, her little brother didn't care about her apprehension. Together, they ran around, playing catch and exploring. At night, they returned home to a relieved mother and absent father. They were given a small dinner consisting of hot rice and bread, the typical dinner of this world.

Alysha was still half-reeling from everything that had happened so damn quickly, but the genuine love that this body's mom and brother showed her was quite helpful for her mental state.

That night, she reflected on everything. She wasn't Yu Weng, that much was obvious. She could never be the stereotypical Chinese young teen, happy with this small and peaceful life in a tiny village, ready to be married off when she came of age.

She had nothing against the previous inhabitant of this body, in fact, Alysha admired her for being so strong of character. Yu Weng had to be, considering the hardships their family went through on an almost daily basis.

However... She didn't want such a life. Back in her other world, she'd lived a life of excitement and adventure, working as a field officer for the army, specializing in recon. It hadn't been a pretty job, with plenty of her colleagues dying every month, but it'd been an overall well-paying and fun job for her. 

She almost wanted to go back, however, one thing held her back from actually wishing that. 

She'd been an avid reader back in her days, devouring book after book. Hence, she'd long since come into contact with the 'xianxia' genre. In the genre, most authors described an energy called 'Qi', a magical force capable of more or less anything imaginable.

Coincidentally, Alysha could feel a strange thrumming in the air. A power that was impossible to describe with words, something that was everywhere and yet nowhere. It was something that, in her old world, simply didn't exist.

Hence, connecting the dots, Alysha could tell that this world was at least somewhat like those worlds, or at least similar. Perhaps she was wrong, but she doubted it. Her gut rarely lied to her.

With a strange sense of hopefulness, she tried to reach out to this strange power. Connect her mind to it, somehow. 

At first, nothing happened. However, Alysha refused to give up so soon. She tried again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

Finally, when the sun was close to coming up, Alysha's eyes were red and she had dark bags under her eyes. However, she wasn't ready to give up. Not yet. 

She tried one last time, and miraculously, she finally felt it. The strange power 'responded' to her mind. It was a strange feeling, but Alysha didn't allow herself to falter. She tried to move this power slightly, and it did, a tini tiny bit. 

The next moment, however, the feeling was lost, and she felt herself lose control of the Qi. Still, she smiled. She had arguably no idea what she just did or if it was all imagined, but she doubted it was. 

Perhaps, there was hope for her to crawl her way out of this body's boring destiny.