Shuri's breathing was laboured, the heavy chains holding her back from moving or asking for even a drop of water.

She had lost count of how many days, years, months she had been stuck in the cold cell for. The only sign of the passage of time was the way the young guards who once guarded her cell started to take heavier steps, grew out their beards, and were eventually switched out once too old.

Immortality had punished her in so many ways. The pain never stopped— they found better ways to punish her.

At some point, the freezing cold left her unable to move her toes. She had already forgotten how to speak.

She could hear some movement in her delirious state, but again, that should have been one of the countless other nightmares she had. 

Slowly, a dress stitched with fine gold thread came into her vision before she looked up to a beautiful face. It was not the one in her dreams. This was someone she recognized— "Melissa..." 

The Empress stood before the concubine who was now shackled and bloody. 

"In the end, it's only my name that you remember. What an honour." Melissa's face was half hidden in the dark, and her expression would give anyone the shivers.

"Oh..." Shuri smiled innocently, unaware of the hidden mockery due to the rising fever.

Even Melissa seemed to be shocked at her state, and waved her hands at the stench of blood in the cell. Then she fished out a knife and threw it at her.

"I feel bad for you. Do it yourself." Melissa muttered. The kind-hearted heroine could not save her due to the circumstances, but the least she could do was offer her a chance at freedom from a life of pain and torture.

Shuri picked up the knife carefully, studying it. Suddenly, her eyes flickered with emotion that she herself could not recognize. 

Before she could say a word, Melissa suddenly stepped forward, as if in a hurry, and pushed the knife forward. Dark red splotches slowly colored the white of prison robes.

"Goodbye, Shuri." Melissa smiled bittersweetly.

***

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The Shuri in the modern world was especially attached to this novel 'Immortality Lives Thrice' because of the character who shared her own name.

The Shuri in the novel suffered throughout her life, and was called a villain when she did nothing wrong.

Shuri couldn't hold back her sobs as she shut webpage of the novel. She shut her laptop close with a helpless sigh, and laid down motionlessly on her bed.

To everyone else, this was the happy ending they had wished to read. But to her, the story was not one worth reading anymore. 

She had never found herself so attached to a character before. Stuck in the hospital for life with an incurable illness, she could only count on her days. With no family to speak of, the orphanage had simply dumped her at a public hospital. And as someone who usually kept to herself, the only company she had within the suffocating walls of the hospital was the character from a novel.

Perhaps it was fate playing games that day, or perhaps it simply pitied her: she ended up waking up in the body of Shuri from the novel. 

***

Confusion and anxiety clouded Shuri's mind.

She suddenly found herself holding the memories of a stranger— memories that were a little too realistic, and all too familiar.

These were memories of Shuri before the fall of her clan, and before she was made a concubine to the first prince.

The happiness of being in a place that did not smell like medicine made her feel giddy with happiness, a feeling she hadn't felt for a long time. But she also dreaded the future. She didn't want to die. 

"My lady... my lady?"

The girl applying rouge on her face stood still, casting nervous glances at her expression. 

Shuri was startled, but she somehow reacted naturally, as if she was used to conversing with maidservants.

"What is it, Lu?" 

"My Lady, you must leave soon."

"Hm," Shuri nodded slightly, looking into the mirror, she held back a smile. She was a villain in this story, but she was a little too beautiful to be a mere side character. That silky hair flowing down her back, those expressive eyes that glinted under the sunlight peeking from the window— she was beautiful.

As she got up, Lu seemed to understand her intentions and bowed. 

"I shall inform them that you will be there soon."

She merely nodded, stood still for a moment, deep in thought. Could she change fate? Could she run from this marriage? She could.

But what she really wanted was to get justice for the supposed villainess Shuri. She deserved a better story too. And she could live comfortably after making it alive. 

This was a small sacrifice for the character that had kept her through days of loneliness. 

Shuri was unfairly called a villain in the story. When her entire clan suddenly fell after war, she was one of the very few people left with immortality in their blood in the entire empire, apart from the royals.

The Bai clan had always been politically neutral, and difficult to deal with. And with the decline of this once powerful line, Shuri was left with no choice but to accept the marriage proposal. Refusing a royal command could make her lose her life. 

She was in no way naive, but being surrounded by people who meant no good did not help. The first prince Caelan, the person she married, did not seem to hold an ounce of affection for her. He was still in mourning after the princess whom he was previously married to had passed away from a mysterious poison. 

Shuri was a mere concubine, and had close to no power. Soon, a woman from a noble family made her way into the prince's heart, and became his official wife, and Shuri was cast aside. 

Melissa was a name that everyone in the capital knew. But only a few months after her marriage, she was poisoned, with no cure to be found. Shuri's chambers were searched, and they found evidence of the poison in her chamber.

Shuri pleaded guilty, begging for a chance to speak for herself. But the crown prince who had already lost his first wife from the same poison, was furious, and sentenced her to death.

Eventually, an antidote was miraculously found, and Melissa tearfully begged Caelan to reduce Shuri's sentence, if not pardon her. And so he decided that she would suffer for eternity in a dark prison cell.

Shuri, who was trapped within the walls, felt for the Shuri who was

trapped within the walls of the palace.

She would change her story.