I felt a sharp gaze on the back of my neck as I stood in line at the school entrance ceremony. I cautiously turn my head left and right, looking for the culprit. A few rows of students behind me, I feel the gaze as if a laser beam is burning through my skull, but what have I done to earn such a look?
When my eyes finally focus on the source, I only see Yingyue glaring daggers at me. Next to her was the bitch Wang Ling, scratching inside his ear with his pinky. She scrunches her nose when our eyes meet and gives a cartoonish grunt of irritation, enough so that I could tell what she was doing nearly 100 meters apart. Goosebumps run up and down my arms at this obvious show of disgust, reminding me of my deepest traumas. I snap back to the front, laser focusing on the stage. I don’t know why Yingyue is paying attention to me after I’ve already cut all ties, so all I can do for now is keep to myself and avoid her like the plague.
—
Yingyue had a rough night before the first day of college. After Mingyuan’s shocking actions at the betrothal banquet, Yingyue was left awkwardly in the banquet hall with a still stanced up Wang Ling. After a moment of quick thought, she decided to take advantage of the situation and confirm the marriage dissolution with her father. The banquet hall was in an uproar as half the Xu family quickly funneled out, hoping to avoid the embarrassing and awkward aftermath at the celebration, and the other half tried to calm down and maintain their newfound business relationships in the Liu family. In such a wild scene, Yingyue was able to easily find the Liu family patriarch.
“Father, now that Xu Mingyuan has acted out in this way, you can see this will never work out right? Let me choose my partner at the academy, any of the men there will be educated and hardworking, just think of the Royal Academy’s reputation! Any partnership made there will benefit our family, just please let me formally dissolve the marriage with Xu Mingyuan so that I can never fear his presence again!” Yingyue let out her short argument she prepared for this day.
Yingyue’s father, Liu Longwei, stroked his long white eyebrows as he quietly grumbled before finally opening his mouth. “You know the value of this connection, yet still acted out. I held no expectations of Mingyuan but I expected better of you. Do what you will now.” Liu Longwei huffed out a sigh after speaking before hitting the ground with his staff, silencing the noisy hall. As every pair of eyes gathered on Liu Longwei, he raised his chin and spoke loftily, “From today onward, the Liu family will repay the humiliation suffered at the hands of the Xu family ten times. As all witnessed, Xu Mingyuan publicly dismissed his betrothal to my daughter and even stormed out of the hall, with no respect paid to our family. No better than a beast, the Xu will be taught a lesson.” With a cold glare, Liu Longwei clapped his hands twice and disappeared into the air with a “pop”.
Cold sweat ran down the backs of the remaining Xu family members as they exchanged nervous glances. ‘Didn’t Liu Yingyue come begging for a dissolution first?’ Their eyes seemed to say to each other.
—
The exhausted Yingyue thought of her father’s cold eyes as she sat in her escort car with Wang Ling. She earned the freedom she wanted but for some reason she felt hollow. After her father’s angry declaration, she felt the weight of her decisions. From now on she would have to rely on her own self to find the life she was seeking. Thankfully she still had access to her businesses and the funds she had built up over the past couple of years. Yingyue wasn’t great at stock trading but she was decent enough to earn back her money and then some. At higher levels of investment this could add up quickly.
Yingyue soon arrived at her private condo, a small place with a modernist design. As she moved to get out of the car, she belatedly remembered Wang Ling’s existence as he rushed to get the door for her. Yingyue contemplated on Wang Ling’s existence for a moment as she took his hand. “He has unnatural strength for someone his age, and clearly knows some supernatural means to battle with. As a guard, he has a strong sense of responsibility. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to keep him around?”
Now that Yingyue was essentially excommunicated, she needed to build her own solid force to grow some form of authority in the future. Wang Ling happened to be the perfect centerpiece for such an enterprise. As she stood outside her house with Wang Ling, Yingyue started to feel somewhat positive about the future for the first time in a while. His bumpkin posture and attitude could be corrected going at the academy, and his face wasn’t too bad to look at either. Yingyue smiled while looking at him and opened her mouth, “Wang Ling, how would you feel about-?”
Wang Ling raise his eyebrows and opened his eyes wide, excited to hear what Yingyue might ask of him. For the past couple of hours he’d been bored out of his mind but felt he should leave a good impression on this beautiful woman to conquer her in the future. He’d been hoping all night to keep the job with her and use it as an opportunity to slowly flirt with her after gaining her trust. This conversation was the first they were having since the banquet, and he had a good feeling about its direction.
Just as Yingyue was about to make her offer, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky, shocking her in body and soul. She screamed so loud her throat seemed like it would become bloody before collapsing on the ground. Wang Ling’s mouth hung open like he was attempting to catch a bug, an expression of total bewilderment encompassing him before he could finally move.
“Liu Yingyue! Oh fuck I hope she’s okay, pretty girls can’t just die like this!” Wang Ling quickly laid Liu Yingyue’s body out flat and checked her pulse. He couldn’t feel a single thing, despite his heightened senses.
“Shit oh fuck shes fucking dead what do I- oh wait.” A smile slowly crept to Wang Ling’s face as he remembered the basics of CPR. His eyes had a greasy look as they narrowed, something that would surely scare any bystander if there were any.
“Don’t blame me for what happens next, Lady Yingyue!” Wang Ling rubbed his grubby hands together before placing them, one atop another, on Liu Yingyue’s chest. He exhaled roughly at the touch, thanking his maker for this opportunity. Not forgetting the urgent situation, Wang Ling began to press and release roughly a number of times, his smile growing with each press. Yingyue’s softness was transmitted directly through Wang Ling’s hands as he pushed, raising his anticipation greatly. After pushing for about a minute, Wang Ling was breathing roughly, preparing himself for what came next. He released Liu Yingyue’s chest and placed his hand behind her head, slightly raising her. He gently pinched her nose as he licked his lips, slowly bringing his face closer and closer to Yingyue’s immaculate visage. His lips came closer and closer, his approach slow as he mentally prepared himself for what came next.
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Just as Wang Ling’s lips were about to touch Yingyue’s open mouth, a light suddenly flashed through her dead pupils. In mere microseconds Yingyue’s brain entered crisis mode and evaluated the situation. Overwhelming disgust covered her face as she determined the best action in the moment, a swift bunch to the gut.
Wang Ling cried out as he suddenly fell over, a sense of unfairness filling his body, confused at the sudden wake up he received from the dream like moment he was in.
—
Yingyue was in a black space after being hit by lightning. Nothing could be seen around her for an indeterminate distance, and even the ground didn’t seem to properly exist. She tried to move her body, in any way she could, but she felt no feedback. Yingyue couldn’t see her hands, or any part of herself for that matter.
“Why is this happening to me?” Is all Yingyue could think about the strange situation before a small light suddenly appeared in the darkness. It appeared to be growing bigger and bigger, a rapid expansion occurring in the span of a few seconds, before entirely enveloping her vision. Yingyue’s mind was suddenly inundated with information as the strange light hit her, filling every corner of her soul with heat like magma.
“My soul is going to fall apart!” Yingyue could only scream in her head as new memories entered her being. A memory of a man in a white suit and a half mask saving her from gangsters. A memory of the same man holding her hand and whispering to her softly. A memory of Xu Mingyuan lying dead on a cliff, lifeless eyes staring at the sky as his blood painted the rocks. A memory of finding a journal among Xu Mingyuan’s possessions. A memory of killing Wang Ling and casting a spell with his blood...
A hot fire ripped through her, bringing out more and more screams.
Then, everything stopped.
The pain suffusing her entire being disappeared.
The light stopped flowing around Yingyue, a figure now stood in front of her. As Yingyue raised her head to see their face, a voice rang directly into her soul, “At last, I’ll be able to be with my love…” The figure’s emotions were conveyed to Yingyue through her soul. Anticipation and sorrow mingled together, and above all, a feeling Yingyue had never felt before. It was so intense she gasped as she grabbed her chest, feeling an ache deep inside. She quickly looked up and met the figure’s gaze.
The face was mere centimeters from her own, an exact mirror of herself. The mirror image spoke, “Sorry to do this to you, me. You just don’t know how badly I missed him. This was the only way.”
Yingyue froze like a deer in the headlights, not willing and not able to do anything. Her mirror image performed a sucking motion with her mouth, drawing in the light around Yingyue as a heavy suction force permeated her soul. She panicked as she realized she too was being pulled into the mirror Yingyue’s mouth.
“Stop, you can’t do this! Xu Mingyuan in this life already hates me! If you take away my ego, nothing will change!” Yingyue screamed out from the depths of her soul.
The mirror Yingyue just smiled as she continued to suck. To her, who had formed a deep obsession, nothing could shake her power in the soul realm. A weak, younger version of herself who lacked purpose was nothing more than food to be eaten to a powerful martial artist with an obsession like her.
“No! Please, I’m begging you, let me live!” The original Yingyue gave out one last pitiful shout before her soul was wholly consumed by her superior self. Yingyue let slip a satisfied grunt as she patted her belly, the shadow covering her body now filling in with details as she assimilated with her soul.
“Now, let's go see Mingyuan before anything else!” Yingyue pumped her fists in the air with a smile as she slowly turned to mist.
—
“Get the hell out of my face, scumbag!” Liu Yingyue shouted as she sucker punched the puckered up Wang Ling. An expression of mixed disgust and horror covered Yingyue’s beautiful face as her new ego quickly assimilated with her body. Awful memories of Wang Ling poured into her mind, upsetting her greatly.
“Guah! Wh-what did I do?! I was resuscitating you, is this any way to treat your savior?!” Wang Ling shouted indignantly, full of regret that he couldn’t prepare himself mentally quicker.
Liu Yingyue quickly tried to stand up to regain some dignity, but swayed woozily as she felt the pathetic strength left in her legs after her ordeal. As she swayed extremely to one side, Wang Ling caught her and supported her body. Liu Yingyue instinctively cringed from Wang Ling’s disgusting touch, remembering the years of manipulation she suffered at his hands after Xu Mingyuan’s death. A shadow passed over her expression before she schooled her emotions, using her years of experience as a high tier martial artist to avoid letting her emotions affect her plans.
“Th-thank you Wang Ling, I don’t know what came over me, I’m sorry for yelling. I don’t think my legs have any strength now. Could you help me into the house before calling my doctor?” She stuttered from her intense hatred, letting just a bit of emotion leak through. Liu Yingyue knew she needed medical attention, based on her understanding of her own body. She may have been an extremely powerful sorceress in her own world, but in her younger body she had not even a drop of Qi. Yingyue started to blush from the intense effort of standing, which exhausted all of her remaining energy.
Wang Ling noticed Liu Yingyue’s stutter and blush, feeling on top of the world in spite of the heavy punch to his guts. “Heh, my body is protected with Qi passively even as a beginner martial artist, so a woman’s punch couldn’t hurt me. I understand Fairy Yingyue was just shocked, not upset with me! And look what happened after, she was so happy she couldn’t speak properly and started to blush in my arms! What else could it be but love?!” Wang Ling became lost in his delusions, quietly leading Liu Yingyue to her house with a dumb look on his face.
Liu Yingyue kept her head down as her skin crawled under Wang Ling’s creepy fingers. Her barely contained revulsion spilled into her expression via eye twitches. She thought to herself, “Mingyuan, I will save you from this life!”
—
At the Royal College admission ceremony, Yingyue scanned the venue from the back of the stadium grounds like a hawk. No student left her sight, a constant comparison of posture, hairstyle, hair color, and height was being calculated in her head. She was searching for a single man. After a mere 20 nanoseconds her Qi addled brain was able to pinpoint the target.
Yingyue felt her vision narrow as Mingyuan entered her sight. His broad shoulders and noble posture immediately absorbed her focus, all sounds deafening around her. Her heartbeat pulsed in her chest, at first slow and powerful, like a bell that shook her body. It began to speed up, pounding more and more, until the deafened surroundings were filled with nothing but pounding.
Just as she was becoming completely absorbed in her trance-like state, Mingyuan shuddered and turned around. For a brief moment his eyes met Yingyue’s passionate gaze. In a moment of panic Yingyue’s brain was filled with memories of Xu Mingyuan’s suffering and untimely death. Her face twisted in pain as she looked away from Xu Mingyuan on reflex, filled with so much guilt she could only react like a child.
“Mingyuan, I’m sorry! I’m sorry for everything I did before! I will make you happy in this life!” Yingyue once again affirmed her feelings. In that moment, she suffocated her emotions to avoid causing a scene and began thinking about the future. “I wonder if those other vixens managed to claim their bodies? I can’t be so optimistic to hope I’m the only one who made it back. In particular, I can’t imagine Fengmian or Yuyan laying around for long after getting their memories back… Fengmian is clever, she’ll know what to do, but I can’t expect much from Yuyan…” Yingyue sighed and started mentally journaling everything she would need in the future.