“Why isn’t she awake yet?”
“Should we call the doctor over?”
“I need to inform the school counselors.”
“Just wait for a few more minutes.”
…
The noisy sounds ca incoherently to Liu Man. She wasn’t able to process the words before a huge wave of strange mories ca rushing into her mind.
It was the mory of a girl. All the emotions that belonged to the girl, the countless faces she saw, and the countless conversations she had. Liu Man saw concrete, bricks, cars, and airplanes. This was such a strange but wonderful world. Liu Man, in the past, would’ve never even imagined or even thought of this. Even Zhi Guai couldn’t make up things that were in this world in his stories. It was as if this world belonged to a dream.
TL’s Note: Zhi Guai stories are mystery and ghost novels popular in the South and North, Wei and Jin Dynasties.
She had the sa na as this girl. They were both called Liu Man.
She was a princess that was never announced and born in the cold palace. Yet, she died in the sa place. Twenty four years. In such a short life, she’d never even stepped out of the front doors of the palace even once.
TL Note: The cold palace is a place in the palace where the Emperor puts the abandoned wives that he doesn’t need.
It was such a cold winter. She’d pleaded for the servants to bring so firewood, but was rejected nonchalantly. Although she was a princess, her position in the palace was even lower than the servants. Because of the winter and the coldness, Liu Man had to put on all of her clothes and hide under the thin blanket, while shivering horribly. In this dark night, everything that surrounded her was only the coldness and silence. Yet, she could still hear the soft music and muffled laughter coming from far, far away. Sadness filled her heart, and her breaths were getting heavier and heavier by the mont. She didn’t know whether it was from the coldness or exhaustion, but in the end, she lost consciousness.
She wasn’t sure why she was able to dream if she was dead already. These scenes were so realistic: it was as if she was really there. Is the underworld really like this?
But the mories from this girl told her that what she dreaming of, was the the world in the future: two thousand years after her ti. In this world, the emperors, servants, noble families, cold-blooded wars, and the rule of having “only wine and at for the rich,” were already history. Nowadays, people live in huge, tall buildings, and travel by cars, subways, trains, and airplanes. No matter how far away their destination was, if they wanted, then they’d always be able to arrive at there in, at most, a day. No matter what people wanted to buy or eat, all it took was a few clicks on an electronic device, and in no ti, there’d be people delivering it. This was an era of peace. The new arising civilization was special and wonderful, with new things created every mont. No matter how poor you were, or how average your family was, as long as if you were hardworking, then you’d still be able to feast and live in great places.
This girl who held the sa na as her was also soone from an average family. She lived with her parents, who were paid pretty well. Her father worked with the governnt, but wasn’t really in a high rank. Her mother was a full-ti housewife. The couple really cared about her and gave her everything she needed. She lived up to 20 years old, without having to care about anything. But only until she was twenty.
The mories abruptly stopped rushing in.
Liu Man slowly opened her eyes and stared at the slightly blinding chandelier that hung above her head, slightly confused.
This world was so good. There was never any blackness.
“Man Man, Man Man!” When a girl who was stood beside the bed saw her waking up, she exclaid happily.
TL’s Note: Man is her first na and Liu is her last na, so Man Man is probably her nickna.
The mories from this body told her that the girl in front of her was her college roommate, Li Xiaoru. To be more precise, both of the girls in front of her were her roommates.
They were all Sophomore students from the Capital City Music University, and were studying in the piano major.
“Man Man, you almost worried us to death,” said Wang Nina, who’d been standing a bit far away from the bed. She ca over in just one step and asked her, “What happened? Why did you faint just right after taking a call?”
A call… Liu Man rembered what was said in the call and continued her silence.
Li Xiaoru poked at Wang Nina, then signaled for her not to pry.
Li Xiaoru was still staring at Liu Man, looking very worried. Liu Man was the liveliest girl among them, but at this mont, her face was dull. When she looked at the two of them, it was as if she was looking at strangers. The doctors said that she blacked out because she was stimulated. They also said that it wasn’t really a big issue and that it would get better. But then, why was she like this when she woke up?
“I…” Liu Man paused for a mont to get used to her new voice. After thinking about what she was going to say in her mind, she said slowly, “I’m fine now, I apologize for worrying you guys.”
She then looked at the two of her roommates and asked, “Where am I?”
“At the school clinic,” Li Xiaoru replied.
After hearing the answer, Liu Man instantly sat up, “I need to go ho.”
“Are you sure you don’t want the doctors to check over you again?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Liu Man said, and then stood up. Because her legs were very unstable, Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina had to quickly help her stand. She was still wearing the clothes that she wore from before she fainted. The puffer jacket she wore was all wrinkled up, and her face was so pale that it looked scary. She didn’t look fine at all.
Liu Man, who never liked to have direct contact with strangers, tried to push Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina away, but then suddenly realized her current situation and stopped. She witnessed and now held another girl’s mory, but that didn’t an that she absorbed all of that person’s emotions/personality. No matter how close these two people were to the old Liu Man: to the present Liu Man, they were, at most, only familiar strangers.
“We’ll accompany you,” Li Xiaoru was still not reassured.
“Yeah, we’ll go with you,” Wang Nina said, too.
Liu Man considered for a mont, then nodded her head slightly.
The cold air welcod them as soon as they walked out of the school clinic. She looked up, then realized that it was winter: the sa season that occurred as when she died. The huge trees were lacking leaves, the adows, now yellow, held piles of fallen leaves. The road in front of them was littered with passing by young adults, all with puffer jackets and unique auras.
Liu Man raised both of her hands up and tried to catch the hot air that she was breathing out, as if it were solid.
How wonderful.
Although she still had an unrealistic vibe, it was now, when she finally accepted the fact that she had transmigrated into another era and beca another person.
Liu Man’s house was close to school, only ten miles away. There was no traffic at this ti of the day, so they were able to reach their destination not long after entering the taxi. Liu Man lived in a newly-built compound that was just for the family of the workers.
Outside the compound, a parked police car was extrely noticeable. The few security guards from the compound who were standing beside the car, were staring at Liu Man with very strange looks, as she got off the taxi.
Liu Man didn’t respond to their looks and instead turned around to stop the two girls from accompanying her into the house. She thanked them whole-heartedly, “Thank you so much for today. I really don’t want to trouble you with anything else.”
They were already at the entrance of the compound, so the two girls didn’t insist at all. “Okay, fine. Say hi to your parents for us.”
Liu Man nodded her head and said “thank you” again, before walking slowly into her compound.
Li Xiaoru watched her as she walked away. She felt as if Liu Man was different from before. The huge puffer jacket she wore, still wasn’t enough to cover how weak she looked. But, her footsteps were strikingly light, as if she wasn’t wearing those heavy and long boots, but instead walking barefoot.
Did Liu Man walk like this before?
She was bewildered, but couldn’t think of the way Liu Man walked before. Who would observe and rember these kinds of details?
Maybe she was just worrying too much. Maybe Liu Man learned this all by herself in so manner lessons.
Li Xiaoru thought.
Liu Man’s apartnt was on the fourteenth floor. After she walked out of the elevator, she unlocked the door with her key.
Everyone in the room turned around and looked at her, including her mother and the two police officers with their uniforms on.
Liu Man’s mother, Zhang Pei, looked as if she were just crying. Her eyes were still red. Seeing her daughter, she imdiately stood up from the couch. Her eyes started to water up again. “Why are you back so late?”
“There was a bit of traffic on the road,” Liu Man hid away the details of her fainting. She took off her boots and hung up her puffer jacket, not exactly slowly, but not exactly quickly either.
“These two officers are here to investigate the situation. Officer Wang and Officer Chen. Your father, he…”
Liu Man nodded her head. She already knew about it.
The call was from Zhang Pei. Last night, Liu Man’s father, Liu Chenyu, had been driving after drinking and, as a result, had killed a delivery guy. This morning he was taken by the police at work, under everyone’s eyes, and was now in custody. This was the reason why Liu Man fainted.
However, all of these which he earned might vanish because of this incident.
Liu Chenyu ca from a small village. Not only did he get into a prestigious school based on his own hard-work, but was also able to gain a foothold in the highly competitive capital city. Therefore, becoming a federal official. He had a virtuous wife and a beautiful daughter. Although his struggle was truly not easy, it was still very inspirational.
“Officer, Man Man was at school last night. She had nothing to do with her father’s incident,” Zhang Pei told the police officers, because she was afraid that this might get Liu Man involved.
In fact, right after Liu Chenyu hit the delivery person, he imdiately got the person to the hospital. But Liu Chenyu was intimidated by what he had done, and had instead run away. He didn’t dare to return ho, but instead stayed at a hotel. He didn’t know that he would get arrested the next day, when he had just gotten to work.
The police officers had already done enough investigation to know what was going on, and didn’t have any ans to interrogate Liu Man. It was already dusk and the sky was darkening. They put everything away, stood up, and were getting ready to leave, “Thank you for cooperating with our investigation.”
“Officer, will my husband be given a sentence?” Zhang Pei hesitated, but still decided to ask.
“This will be decided by the prosecutor’s office and the court. We are only responsible for the investigation. All you can do now is to wait for any further news,” the police said in an official tone. They were very experienced in this field and had encountered all kinds of people. Most of them all had the sa reaction as Zhang Pei’s, so their hearts would not be softened just because of a few tears of a won.
But what was the most suspicious was the girl’s reaction. Compared to her emotional mother, she was expressionless. It was as if she was just a passerby, eavesdropping on their conversation.
But it wasn’t Liu Man’s fault that she didn’t show much emotion. She didn’t feel many emotions for Liu Chenyu yet, and she also didn’t yet learn the rules of this world. Her mind was still slightly confused.
The room went quieted after the police officers left. Zhang Pei anxiously sat down on the couch.
Zhang Pei was outraged at her husband. Drinking was Liu Chenyu’s greatest weakness. He had a lot of business etings, and every ti, when soone advised him to drink, he wouldn’t stop drinking. Zhang Pei had told her husband multiple tis to stop, but he wouldn’t listen. Usually, Zhang Chenyu would call a taxi when he beca drunk. But there were tis where he thought that he wasn’t drunk and still risked driving. The problem was that, sothing would always go wrong when you thought that it wouldn’t.
A human’s life, Zhang Pei was scared just thinking about it. She even considered going to the hospital and see how bad it is. But she was scared that the family mbers of the dead person would berate her, scream at her, or even hit her as revenge. So, she instead hid away all of her compassion and apologies.
Zhang Pei wasn’t expecting Liu Man to do anything, or even comfort her, because she knew Liu Man very well. She and her husband loved their child so much. They made sure that she had nothing to worry about, starting from a young age, causing her to beco spoiled and habitual, with a willful behavior. She had never experienced any huge issues, and when suddenly such a big event happened, then Liu Man’s resistance certainly must’ve been worse than her.
Why else would she be so expressionless and just stand beside the couch. She must be too scared!
Credits: Sydney, Dora, & Kathrien
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