HTKHM Arc 2 Chapter 1

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To let him space: In a disagreement, you shall let the other party the time to cool down his anger and not barge in, hoping to be listened to.

***

With no feeling of dread, oblivious to any danger, Li Miao actually happily accepted the assistance’s explanations and upon hearing the content of the next lesson, displeasure laced her voice,

“What nonsense are you spouting? Short tempered? Me? I’m the most upright and patient person in Xuanjin’s life, alright?”

The assistance didn’t argue back, instead, the bright light in the room started to fade until complete darkness took its place. Then Li Miao opened her eyes, her mouth twitching. Instead of responding that thing actually directly sent her to that let-him-place lesson. Really senseless! Well, it served no purpose to stay angry, she rather experiments that lesson then.

Ignorance was sometimes bliss and some other times cheer foolishness.

The moment Li Miao opened her eyes, anxiety assaulted her, fear, despair and their friends, she felt it all at once. It was really different from the first world.  Foreign memories assaulted her and came in vagues making her gasped and crouched down trying to regain her breath. Trying to rationalize it, Li Miao thought that the emotions felt by this person at the time were so intense that even she as an exterior soul still was affected. She so desperately wanted to save her lover and this want was transmitted to Li Miao who, almost unconsciously brought lifted her right hand and with those long sharp nails, let it descend to her breast and dug out her heart. Despite the intense pain, the heart was cleanly taken out.

She stared at the still beating and bloody organ then lifted herself up.

She was in a small hut, and on the bed laid a panting man, on the verge of dying. Her hands still not really responding to her, she opened his chest with her sharp nail from where was oozing a sort of green energy and she proceeded to replaced his heart with hers. After which, with that same energy, she sewed him and healed him. Shortly afterward, his complexion got better.

She knelt and gasped then healed her own tormented chest. The heart wasn’t there anymore but as long as it was beating, even if it wasn’t inside her own chest she could still survive. Not eternally, for after six years, if she didn’t retrieve it her body would die but it was an emergency, she couldn’t wait or do anything other than that for the time being.

However, as long as she was near it, her body would unconsciously try to regain back its heart. She needed to further herself a bit. She had six years to find the correct medicine for him. Li Miao looked at the weak heart of the man and wrapped it inside a green energy. The moment she snapped her fingers, it disappeared from sight.

The body still not responding to her, she headed outside and towards the forest.

***

Five years later, Li Miao was finally in command of this body and understood its story. And more so, she understood the anger that this body was feeling.

Coming back from that trip, she just heard that the man she loved was with another.

If Chen Miao was a doting sister to the point of obsession, this one was an angry mad woman that turned her love into hatred. Not that Li Miao blamed her.

To be clear, the story she entered in this time was that of the hunter Arkbolt and the cleaner Scarlet. A cleaner was a demon’s hunter. Scarlet’s family had been massacred by a demon and since then, she had devoted herself to exterminated their whole nation into extinction. She met Arkbolt, a hunter as he went into the forest to hunt a game. At the time, she was fighting a particularly powerful demon who fled away once Arkbolt came closer. The hunter helped the injured woman and that was how their story started. They understood after spending some time together and him helping her around with demons that his constitution was special, demons were scared of him and his arrows actually easily killed them. Together, the massacred plenty of demons becoming a renown couple of cleaners. Their romance was on good track too, as they were even planning to get married. Everything was good until a woman of Arkbolt past came. It turned out she was demoness. And she wouldn’t take no for an answer. With a great deal of difficulty, the two people killed her off and celebrated their union. Their offspring became a particularly strong cleaner and killed the king of demons throwing their nation into chaos making it possible for the cleaners to exterminate them all.

This body’s name was Asa. A demoness. That very demoness from Arkbolt’s past. At the time she fell in love with a human and disguised herself as a human to stay with him. However, their sweet time together didn't last long, for he fell ill and no human treatments could save him. In despair, she revealed her truth to him and hearing him said he loved her no matter her race, she proceeded to give him her heart to prolong his life, while she went and found a medicine from the demon world.

However, as she had the last ingredient, and returned, she was welcomed with news of her lover being intimate with another woman and even planning a wedding. What was her sacrifice for then?

To leave him space, was this broken thing really thinking that she, Li Miao, would do some nonsensical things like these, seeking her own death? Since an alternative universe was created then let it be that in this one she reclaimed what she had given. He wanted to cheat, fine, let him return her heart first, quite literally!

Where would she remember that it was supposed to be a lesson? It was a reproduction of time and she’ll be damned before letting it happen!

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Chapter 2.1: Apocalypse maker

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Heavy eyes, heavy body, sore muscles. Even though he clearly just woke up, he was as tired as though he hadn’t rest for a full week of pulling all-nighters. A voice coming from the watch on his wrist interrupt his thoughts.

“Doctor Qian, captain Fen said he made a decision.”

“…”

“Please come quickly.”

The voice urged when he didn’t respond. A little disorientated, he sat down on the bed, as much as he could pushing things here and there to have room. He then looked at the device on his wrist and pressed the single button on it, before talking,

“All right, I’m coming.”

The voice coming from his own mouth was that of a woman, even though it was somewhat tired and coarse.

The bedroom he was in was not only confined but quite packed. Even the bedroom didn’t have anymore space. All around him, there were huge crystal containers filled with green liquid and strange animals inside. There were tables by the left, filled with test tubes. On the bed he was sitting, there were many books taking almost al the space. They were about genes’ mutations, genetics, chimeras and so on…. Near him were pen and pencils and a paper that was used not too long ago. More than saying this person went to sleep, it was likely that she fell that she was so tired she fainted while writing!

As he was getting up, he browsed through his mind.

This was an apocalyptic world with zombie themes and evolution. The protagonist of this world was Fu Mei, a young researcher in A Uni’s lab. She was in there when the explosion occurred and particles entered the atmosphere. Debris had knocked her down and she had fainted. When she woke up, the world as she knew it had long changed to one filled with undead walking down the streets everywhere. The story followed her survival as she searched for her friends, family or at the very least any kind of survivor. With a stroke of luck, she stumbled upon Captain Fen’s survival group who taught her some things after she panicked seeing the members summon things like water, fire or wood. She was explained then that some people awakened abilities. Yet, no matter what she ate, nuclei or whatever was its name, there was nothing that she could summon. They were researching a base. It was later, in a critical moment, that it was found that Fu Mei had healing abilities, letting those who had been wounded restored their previous state. It was found too that if she used her power mere seconds after one was bitten or scratched by a zombie, he wouldn’t turn into one. This, however, worked only for humans. So, when her dog got transformed, it served nothing and she had to kill it to save her companions.

Captain Fen’s body, however, was quite unique. When wounded, he could return back to his healthy state without the help of Fu Mei’s healing ability. However, this changing only served his own body, he he couldn’t help his companions. His powers couldn’t be shared.

In these hard times, humanity became worse than beasts, so powers like that were preciously hidden. Nonetheless, no matter the amount of precaution taken, others still discovered both Fu Mei and Fen Xun miraculous healing abilities and both of them were chased everywhere they went. Finally, when some of their groups’ members betrayed them, they were ambushed and brought to M city’s laboratory where reportedly, inhuman tests were done on people. When they tried to break free, the person in charge there killed some of their friends, and threatened to kill the rest if they didn’t cooperate. Claiming that anesthetic would ruin the desire results, these people tortured them in the name of science, not giving them any kind of pain suppressant.

Fu Mei befriended one of the military men there and talked sense into him, going as far as turning back to normally his friend who was bitten and on the verge of transforming. Colonel Rui. With his help, they freed the rest of the people and rescued others, burning down the whole lab and its diverse monsters inside. Together, they constructed a safe base where everyone was treated equally. Captain Fen and Fu Mei ended together while the other boys who fell in love with her just pin on her silently.

Now who was he supposed to be?

He seemed to be Qian Lin. The very woman director of this laboratory, and namely the one given orders around here, the one responsible for said inhuman treatments and tortures. She was the head of researchers and also the reason of this apocalypse in the first place. The villain of the story.

Her fate wasn’t all pretty after Colonel Rui’s abandonment. She was made to test her means of torture, after delighting themselves in her suffering, they broke her feet and let her at the mercy of zombie, dying an agonizing death.

Opening his eyes after absorbing it whole, his mind was clear now: his target was Qian Lin. His identity was that of Qian Lin too, meaning, this time, he was a she.

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1.3

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For a couple of worlds now he had remarked, he came when the villain didn’t yet turn into villain, so it was relatively easy. It was the same now too. Satori for now, killed no one. It could have been worse, he could have occupied the body when the person was already sentenced to jail or more. It wouldn’t have been the first time too. Some couple worlds back, he came right when the person was being guillotine. He was only there to feel the pain, nothing more. Other times he came when the person was given the capital sentence, death by electric chair or injection. Worlds were he was given some jail time in comparison were bliss and if he could do something to actually derive away from that fate it was even better.

Since Satori was already in the city, it meant that his mother was already in the hospital.

The reason why this person persistently returned to his mother’s side even though the woman didn’t want him was because she was the only one to look at him in the eye and after her, it had been Midori. When he showed Midori his real face, she didn’t have a repulsive or digust expression but instead touched his face delicately, telling him that he had magnificent eyes. Even if at the beginning, he had been given to her to show around and help as duty because the teacher said so, after she genuinely wanted to befriend this person. Seeing past his frightening appearance, she was indeed worthy of being called the protagonist of the world.

She recognized the beauty of his paintings, his kindness and all his god points. In consequence, he opened his long frozen and pretty much inexistent beating heart to her. A pity his sincere feelings hadn’t been returned. The most regrettable thing was that, in the end, she hadn’t even acknowledged them; just telling him that he was confusing friendship and love because he had so little friends, urging him for that to befriend others.

Satori sighed a little and washed his face, before exiting the toilets, deciding what exactly his next actions were going to be.

The body he was in had yet to kill someone so there was no redeeming to do. Now, it would be good, if there were some things that could be done for this body to be a bit happy. Making his mother acknowledge the fact that she was indeed his mother seemed to be a good thing to put on that list.

After all, it seemed that what the previous owner wanted in the end, wasn’t for someone to fall in love with him but for someone to actually accept his feelings, acknowledged them. He didn’t need them to be returned. He had loved his mother but she was unwilling to even called heself his mother, he had loved Midori but she was unwilling to even called what he felt love. Concerning that Midori too, as far as he could have her stop saying he was confusing friendship with love then his heartache wouldn’t push him to do unreasonable thing and it could be good too. A clean and truthful rejection sounded better than her denying his feelings altogether.

In account of things to do, to have his paintings published seemed excellent too.

His shoes clacking on the floor he kept browsing through the memories, wondering if there were other things that could make him, Satory, happy. After all, now, he was Aobara Satori!

The soul within this body had long forgotten its own name, but each time, he would take the body owner’s identity perfectly to the point where their characters would be his as well. Very little would stay in his mind after he left the world and it seemed with each passing world he was forgetting more of himself than he should. However, he had long decided that it didn’t matter. To keep his own sanity, he fusioned perfectly with the body he was in, their pain was his too, their joy was his, their anger, their faults and even their actions, past and present. He shared everything. That was why their redemption was his too and well as their joy.

Still thinking, he wondered if he should find someone to love? It was the sole thing he wasn’t good at, playing with people’s feelings. It was the only sensation that couldn’t quite be synchronized with his and let him remembered that in the end, he was but an unknown soul in another’s body. If there were missions related to true love, he was, most of the time, ready to forfeit and didn’t mind the punishment which followed.

The punishment he received was like his soul being crushed then burned then cut in pieces and healed, only for the torture to restart. The time it lasted and the pain was proportional to the importance of the tasked he failed to accomplished. And when the task was really important, the punishment was even more crueler.

That didn’t mean that he never loved anyone. It was just that, his love was his own personal affair and if the one he fell in love with happened to coincide with one of the ends to make the villain happy, then it was just that, a coincidence. Since he himself wasn’t sure about his gender, he wasn’t really tied about his partner gender either. He had loved men and women alike in the body of men and women alike.

This Satori, in his life, he had loved only two persons, one was his mother, the other, the protagonist. He was rejected by both, unable to have a maternal love nor a romantic one. Maybe after having a clean rejection from the protagonist it wasn’t necessary to do anything more in view of feelings.

On his final mental list, the new Satori had dressed those four points to attained happiness.

* His mother’s recognition

* His love being ackoledge by the protagonist –aiming for a clear rejection

* His painting been renowned

* Suing the hospital in which he was

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1.2

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The timeframe he came to was the third year, when Aobara Satori recently came in this high school. Since it was the third year she was in the city, the heroine was already clothing herself like everyone, she was also in a somewhat unclear relationship with Akeshi, the both had feelings for each other but neither wanted to recognize it. For now, it was a sort of love-hate romance.

The one who pushed him just now was Akai Hisai, the younger, problematic twin brother of Akai Setsuna.  At this stage apparently, the heroine had yet to talk some sense into the guy and his group of friends.

Not long later, the door opened to thirty something man, their professor, who immediately demanded them to reorganize things.

While fiddling with his tools, Satori tried entering his personae completely. Was this time simply a romance school gone awry? Of course not! Since he was here, then this Satori definitely isn’t that kind of saint. He should have or was going to have blood on his hands.

***

In front of the toilets’ mirror, his mask resting not far from his hand, he took in his new appearance. His face seemed to be encased in his head, one eye was lower than the other, his nose was bent to a strange angle. It was… a peculiar sight, added to that the long bangs that was covering his face in an attempt to hide it, it could be seen that Satori wasn’t particularly proud of his face. Concerning his figure, this body was on the fat side without being obese.

Actually, that figure was mostly due to malnutrition. This person, if one was polite would said he had a remarkable physique, if to be honest, for those with lesser courage, it could be consider  quite scary.

The story behind his face wasn’t really all too mysterious or that God wanted to punish him either. Truthfully, he had been normal when in his mother’s womb, however, the one who was in charge of his mother’s delivery was a novice and had it all wrong. A baby was fragile and his bones quite malleable. It couldn’t help but bend at the rough treatment given by that ignorant person who was too prideful to hear the words of the nurse.

After her delivery, when she saw her baby’s face, his mother had shrieked and didn’t want him. She kept claiming that her baby had been changed, that the hospital sold her baby and let her this defective one. There was no father to start with. In the small town, she was forced to take care of her child.

Ashamed of him, she would lock him in the basement. It was quite formidable actually that Satori didn’t lose his sanity –or at the very least not completely.

When one day he ran away and tried to see the world, everyone gasped, shrieked and ran away from him, calling him names. Unbearable one to a small child. Children were unwilling to play with him, adult would gaze at him as though he was a monster, He would be pointed with fingers on the road. He felt like a monstrosity.

He willingly went back to his mother’s house again and she once again locked him.

By the age of thirteen, it seemed the protection of children had been notified of his case and they came to take him away. But no matter which the family they brought him in, those people were unwilling to meet his eyes. When talking to him, they were always looking elsewhere. Even if his mother was always scorning him, at the very least, she would talk to him while directly looking at him. Even if those strangers were trying to treat him better than his mother, he felt that he couldn’t stay with them. So, he was always running to come back to his mother. At the end, the protection of children let him alone, after making sure to have him admit to school and that he wasn’t abuse anymore.

Anyway, as a preteen, his mother couldn’t lock him freely anymore, he was fighting back and unwilling, and she grew scared that he would retaliate when she slapped him. He was given more freedom then. When that same mother who used to abuse him fell seriously sick, the teenager was really frightened and did his utmost to take care of her. Despite that, she would always complain that he wasn’t her child. Human beings weren’t supposed to be scary, she’d say, which womb did he crawl from, the devil? Used to her harsh insults, Satori didn’t even bat an eye anymore and kept on listening as she kept on saying how even his own mother didn’t want him anymore, saddling her with him.

To take care of the ungrateful woman he tried bringing a bit o money with part time job. To not scare people, he had long taken the habit of wearing a mask wherever he went but even like that it wasn’t easy to find one. He tried selling his drawings then. Since little, in that room she locked him in, most of his companions where sketching pads and pencils, drawing utilities. As she was a teacher, when her conscience would flare, she would come and teach him personally-that was before the social services inscribe him in school.

More than once, he had sat himself in front of a mirror asking himself why he had such a face? That children association’s representant had said that for now, they could do nothing about that. Surgery couldn’t be practice on him for the time being. He had to wait for when he could be twenty three at least. He was still a child in his growth, fragile skin and malleable bones, a surgery now wouldn’t be good and since his bones had yet to solidify and develop, a surgery at this moment would have a catastrophic result in the long run.

When his mother’s state got worse, and he thought he would be left all alone in this world, he was contacted by some people who saw his drawing. That was how Satori got in the city. He was recommended to Loah’s art school, a scholarship supporting him and the fact that he was always either first or second in competition helped financed his mother’s stay in the hospital.

Later, even when he would be twenty two, after Midori’s rejection, he didn’t give up on that mother. To finally satisfy the question in his heart, he took a test revealing that he was indeed his mother’s child. But even faced with the results, the woman was unwilling to recognize him and even until her last breath, she was saying that he was definitely not from her womb.

With her death, Satori snapped. He researched the hospital where he was born and every one of the staff paid for his facial deformity.

Well, that was quite heavy.

After those cold blooded deaths he decide to kill the heroine and love her in the after life!

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Simple Life Chapter 4: Meaning of love

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How could the best of men be defined? The best lover? Was he the one who didn’t let his lover down? The one who didn’t let her suffer any kind of grievances, he cleared the roads for her long before any danger could lurk in the dark? He acted before needed to be told, gentle and kind to his partner? Cold but warm to his beloved? Indeed, such a person was a good lover, a good man, an excellent protagonist of romance novels. He was absolutely well-loved by the readers. His heroine certainly would, even if at the beginning she didn’t, irrevocably fell in love with him. Such a man, after all, was bound to be loved… only, loving that person, if you weren’t the heroine, could only bod your downfall!

If you asked Lane and if she considered the heroine's point of view, then of course, she would say that such a man was absolutely lovely, the ultimate kind of lovely. No pushover, no wishy-washy, he knew what he wanted and defined well his relationships with others. He didn’t let his significant other be slighted, neither did he let her feel jealous for his pleasure. Indeed, he deserved some applause… only, Lane was no female protagonist but the reader. Even if readers were supposed to support the main characters and since most of the time romance stories were depicted in the female lead's point of view -thus supporting the female lead-, Lane was simply a complicated person and couldn’t immerse herself and wholly support the person. As a reader, a complicated one, with sometimes picky tastes, she liked putting herself in the shoes of every character of the novel she was reading, everyone that marked her at least and or who was a constant character in the novel. As such, such a dreamy man… in other characters' point of view, she simply wanted none of it.

For his other wives, he was simply being disloyal, irresponsible, and should be –for most of the time he wasn't- the outlet of their anger. Concubines actually shouldn’t put the blame on the heroine, but that womanizing bastard. If he wanted to love the heroine alone, then he could dissolve his harem and like this, personally, Lane wouldn’t have anything against him anymore. But, for those, like the protagonist of ‘The cold emperor’s pampered wife,’ she had quite a choice of colorful words to describe them.

Wei Xing, the crown prince before becoming emperor, had one main wife, Zhang Shui, three high-rank concubines, and four lower rank ones. By the time he became emperor, there would only be four of them left. One dying of poisoning, one during birthing, losing her life and her child and two others were beaten to death for killing the previous one by administering the poison. 

The actual plot of the story started when he was already the emperor. Not too long after that, he met the heroine who would become his empress later in the story. She was the princess of the neighboring country, sent to marry here to consolidate the peace and also so that the neighboring country could receive the military aide of this country. Sending the poor woman in this country was equal to her becoming a prisoner, but bearing the responsibility of her position, she came her head held high. Despite a rocky start, she still managed to capture the heart of the emperor, who, like the title said, pampered her to no end.

By then, it wouldn’t be good if he dislocated his harem. After all, those women had been with him since his adulthood, if he sent them away, the public would criticize, and would shoot at the empress. So, his solution was to not care for them.

That child who had been poisoned and harmed, was it that he wasn’t yours too? What's with this indifference as you're judging the affair? That woman who was crying out your name in despair, was it that you never held her at all, hadn’t you once been intimated with her? Just because she isn't the one you love the most, should you discard her so cruelly?

That kind of double standard things, Lane simply couldn’t handle them.

Now, if you asked her, should he then dislocated his harem? That too, wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. The women would be considered soiled goods, no one would marry them. In times like these, they would have nowhere to go.

But indeed, abandoning them in the palace wasn’t the best solution either. The story emphasized how the heroine wouldn’t bully them, would give them good clothing, money, and standing. But, what about their man? Didn’t they want to be intimate with him too? Why should they live as widows when they could exercise their rights or was it that only men should know the pleasure of the bedroom? What about children? Didn't they want to hold children of their own? They couldn’t divorce even if they wanted to, they couldn’t fall for another man. They were in this golden prison without any power. Their children –for there were some who gave birth before the heroine came- would always have tragic endings and their husband wouldn’t care.

Lane obviously had no solution that would completely appease her. Dissolving the harem could be considered good, only at the supposition that those women weren’t with him since his puberty for, in that case, this was a quite bad taste in her mouth; keeping the harem and being so obviously unfair too wasn’t good. Really, nothing satisfied her completely. That was why Lane hated harem stories the most. Couldn’t stomach them. They were never fair. Which then certainly explained her discomfort now that she had transmigrated into one. Blast thing.

So why did she read ‘The cold emperor’s pampered wife’? At the time she was reading, the author hadn’t added the harem tag, and since the story was from the heroine’s point of view, it was much later that she got to meet the male lead, and by then, she was curious to see how many things would get resolved… although it was true, though, that she deleted the thing from her electronic library when the double standard bastard of the emperor had felt nothing at the death of his concubine son, simply because he wasn’t the heroine’s.

That said, it was still good that she was at the very least, inside a story she knew even if not completely. It was still good too, that she wasn’t part of the palace intrigue, but an insignificant servant. However, she was still inside a house with soon-to-be-dead masters. What a worrisome matter this one.

Imperial concubine Zhang’s family. They caused quite a headache to the emperor. An ambitious master, a cold and rigid main wife who suppressed the concubines. That mother was always pressing her daughter to have a child, always gifting her all sorts of herbals concoctions to facilitate the process. And that legitimate son who will later become general Zhang. His fate was a bit pitiful. He was indeed an arrogant person but Lane found that, in the end, the only reason why he died was that he loved his sister dearly. He had tried to save her even after learning what she did, when clearly, everyone in his clan, father and mother alike, were trying to distance themselves.

He was quite pitiful indeed.

That web novel in all truth hadn’t been bad. It was well written and all, but there were just too many things that didn’t sit well with Lane so she tossed it aside.

Sighing, she took her bath. It was ice cold and chilly. It was a miracle that everyone didn’t come down with a cold in this mansion. She had a pretty face now and was called Fu Bin. Looking at her reflection in the water she tried repeating her name. It wouldn’t do if she kept dozing off and not responding when called.

She was quite beautiful and seemingly coquettish. The female lead had been described as the most beautiful in that web novel, a beauty that could destroy cities, and the male lead was her perfect match in this regard. She wondered how they looked like in real life.

And that Zhang Shen, how did the book describe him again?

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Simple Life Chapter 3: A webnovel

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The day started with her doing chores left and right. Lane was used to chores. She did that many times with her grandparents, that wasn’t the annoying part. The annoying things were that there were some people deliberately messing with her. How could she not grow angry? She, however, restrained herself. People’s identities should be considered here. Laws apparently didn’t cover servants that much from what she gathered from the gossip and the maids' ends. It definitely wasn’t her previous world where there were people vouching for equal rights between men and women; don’t talk about gender equality, if she could have others look at her, not as an instrument or a tool, it would be considered good. Under those premises, she could only tread cautiously, trying to reduce her sense of existence as much as possible and hold in the bubbling annoyance deriving from malicious people around her waiting to see 'Fu Bin''s joke as the very until she could adapt to the concept of living here. 

However, as much as she was trying to gather as much information as she could about the place she suddenly woke up to, it was true that she knew too little about her whereabouts. So, she stopped trying to just learn through others' conversations and straight-up started asking for clarifications. Jing Lu was amiable enough to answer without sneering or laughing at her. It was a good thing that 'Fu Bin' was a new recruit here while Jing Lu had been here for quite a time now, previously used as an errand girl. They could both barely pass off as acquaintances and had yet to understand each other's personalities, thus no one could see that she was somewhat of an imposter.

They were in Zhang Manor, Zhang family lineage being quite famous, apparently. This courtyard was dedicated to the firstborn and also legitimate child of old official Zhang, the child of his main wife. Yeah, the man had way too many wives in Lane’s opinion. She tended to forget that polygamy was an existing notion.

“It’s him that we’re going to serve personally.”

“Serve you say, with so many others, one for his tea, for his food… just which serving would be left to us?”

“You don’t know?” gasped incredulously Jing Lu, as though Lane suddenly grew another head.

Lane had a foreboding feeling at this and grew impatient, suddenly finding the other’s pause too dramatic.

“You’ve talked so much, are you going to stop now? Out with it!”

The suddenly shy girl appeared to blush a little.

“...In bedroom matters,” whispered very softly the embarrassed and now red as a tomato teenager, fidgetting, suddenly seemingly uncomfortable with the topic. 

If she had something in her mouth, Lane would have liked to say that she would have dramatically throw it up, or choke on it, but those things were just too dramatic to really happen, and caught unaware, she could only cough.

What servant? Wasn’t she actually turned into a prostitute!

“Well, that’s if we’re lucky to be accepted.”

Girl, there is something wrong with your head! That's considered unlucky! She tried hard not to scrunch her face,

“And how many maids serving him are there?”

“This time around, only the three of us were selected. Since he is always refusing, the mistress isn’t insisting and only proposed for the sake of proposing recently.”

Lane left out a sigh of relief and started to ask more questions about Zhang's family. She couldn’t outright ask about this world, it would seem too strange, but since she’s actually a new maid here, she could ask about this residence first. And indeed, she learned many things.

This Zhang family, from the previous generations, used to be a military family. However, since the current head's grandfather's generations, this country had been at peace with its neighboring ones and military men weren't as glorified as they used to be. Couple with the fact that when came the now head of the family's generation's, sickness had taken the lives of the firstborns, leaving only the skinny and somewhat coward youngest son, who, as the youngest and the most spoiled one, hadn't really been forced to learn military arts as his brothers were. So, when misfortune fell upon the family, the little one, a young adult at the time, had too much of an aversion for weapons to pick up its learning, and anyway, he had already passed the imperial exams. With time, Zhang's family's glorious military achievements slowly started to turn into simple records with no heir to the family's arts. 

However, although it was true that the current old master Zhang had never been quite good with his hands and feet, his oldest son was said to be a genius in those areas. From a young age, he was personally instructed by his paternal grandfather, the latter hoping, even if it's only for this one grandson to not let their family forget its roots.

The current head of the family, Official Zhang, had one wife and five concubines. His main wife had two children: Zhang Shen the oldest son and Zhang Shui, the second miss who recently married the crown prince and became the crown princess. With his concubines, official Zhang had other children, but none of their names rang as familiar as the first two. This was when Lane contemplated the idea that maybe she didn’t transmigrate into a random world, but perhaps one that she should know about.

Since Zhang Shui seemed to be more familiar with her memories, like she could pinpoint who she was, she gave in to curiosity and asked more information about the other.

Zhang Shui married the crown prince last year for her sixteen birthday and became the crown princess. The crown prince, Wei Xing, besides this wife also had three concubines apparently, but he had yet to have a child.

Zhang Shen, for his part, was in the military troops since his thirteen years, coming back from time to time at the end of the year, staying until the new year to spend some time with his family before reporting back again. In that prospect, he was going to come back in some days. The man was said to achieve merits quickly and was climbing the ladders just as quickly. Even someone like Jing Lu was saying that he was certainly going to be a general in a couple more years. -Which was alarming to Lane. Climbing the ladders quickly meant he was given the possibilities to do so and for those possibilities to exist, didn't it mean that this country wasn't peaceful anymore? That was a frightening notion!-

General Zhang, Lane tested in her mind, it sure had a nice ring.

And suddenly, like a flash, that Deja Vue impression, suddenly got stronger and she finally understood why. That web novel, ‘The cold emperor’s pampered wife’ wasn’t there a general Zhang in there too? Not only that, there was also this famous imperial concubine Zhang! Goodness, was this really it? She was inside a novel? Of all things, it was something with palace intrigues. Not that in her position she would assist in those intrigues anyway.

If she remembered it right, and since it wasn’t that long since she read it, she was certain of the fact, that concubine Zhang and that general Zhang were bound to die. Their whole clan accompanying them. Well, well, well, the novel said nothing about the servants, but Lane sincerely hoped that servants were excluded in those bloody situations!

The offense had indeed been great! It wasn’t divulged to the public and had been passed as wanting to take the emperor’s life for the concubine, but since she was a reader, Lane had been privy to what really happened. At that time, the crown prince was already the emperor. He still had yet to have a child and wanting to secure her position, Concubine Zhang got pregnant by another. Once the matter was found, the general was implicated. The emperor killed her whole family and their nine generations.

What a scary time to be living in!

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Simple Life Chapter 1: Fu Bin

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“Xiao Bin, Xiao Bin”

Lane felt someone shaking her, none too gently at that, but her body was so tired that no matter her willingness, her eyes just refused to open. The person’s soft voice now carried a hint of exasperation.

“You ah, how can you sleep like this, are you a pig?” As she was saying that, she was shaking even more fiercely.

“She still dares sleep so soundly. I say, dump a bucket of cold water on her, and let us see if she’s still in the mood to sleep.” Another feminine voice arrived at her ears.

‘Try it, and I swear to you that I would not throw a bucket, but directly fling you in the river!’ thought the mad Lane who still, for some unfathomable reason, couldn't convince her own body to move at will.

None of both voices were from people Lane could remember. Wasn’t she in her own apartment anyway? Who were these people? Barging in on someone's property, weren't they afraid? Were jails for dogs? And waking her up like this at that, without any gentleness! Really, she must report!

“Sister Hua, how can you be so heartless ah, don’t you know about sister Bin’s situation?” reproached the first person, “If she wets her cloth, who will give her any replacement? She won’t be able to assist the morning call and will be punished!”

Disdain was almost palpable as the other voice resounded again,

“So what? Didn't she ask for it? Sticking to her even now, aren't you afraid of being implicated? I'm not you, I owe her nothing. More so, she's unsightly and unpleasant, I won't offend sister Zhu for her. I talked enough, if you know what's good for you, you'll act in consequence. You're your own person, just know that I won't be helping anymore... I’m going, if you’re late because of her, don’t think I’ll speak for you!”

The person’s voice had started to sound less and less as though she was walking away and in the end, it completely disappeared. Lane could only interpret it as the person exiting the room.

The one shaking her, whose hand was still on Lane's body, trembled a bit, and even through her clothes, Lane could feel it. What? Were the words spoken to her so scary? Really? 

After a moment, Lane’s eyes became obedient and opened themselves.

The room she was in was small and she was sleeping on ragged things on the floor. It was humid and cold. Deeply unpleasant, not talking about the fact that her back hurt and her whole body was somewhat sore from the sleeping arrangement.

The moment she opened her eyes, the girl in the room literally forced her to stand, joy in her voice as she exclaimed,

“Ah, finally! Come, hurry, elder Zhu is calling for the position change!”

Lane didn’t have the time to understand anything, that she was practically dragged outside, forced to run along many corridors at the pace of the girl who was holding her hand in a desperate grip, and finally, arriving at that girl's destination, both of them lined up with other women in servant clothing. They were all lined up- seven lines of twelve people each from her approximation- in a vast court behind a mansion. Everyone was wearing the same clothing style with the same colors and even the same hairstyle, which, in her dazed state, Lane failed to notice that the girl from before was arranging her hair from behind her.

No, Lane was preoccupied with something else. The color of the sky! It was still dark outside, who knew what time it was. Way too early for sure!

Briefly, Lane wondered if they were filming on set or something, but it didn’t appear to be the case. She couldn’t see the cameras, the director, and she herself had certainly never been an actress. Panicking a bit inside, she bit the insides of her cheeks and resolved to calm herself. Wait and see. Her imagination was running wild, but couldn’t come up with any logical explanation. She better, for her own mind's peace, wait and see.

Not long after they arrived, other women came. They had different clothing colors, but the style was roughly the same and they seemed older than those who were already lined up. They were three middle-aged women and they all had stern expressions on their faces as though someone owed them money. They stopped in front of the lines and took the time to observe the people in front of them for a while. Lane's gaze met with the one in the middle and the other's lips lifted, as though mocking her. It was quite perplexing for she couldn't remember offending this person at all. Then, that same woman unrolled the paper in her hands and started reading. It was a list of names. Names were called and attributed to locations. It didn't take long for Lane to understand that bit. The affectations were where those servants who were called were going to work. 

Was she, Lane, turned into a servant now? What happened to her job in the company?

Definitely, she had yet to wake up! What kind of bizarre dream was she having?! She heard about lucid dreams, but this was her first time experiencing one!

The one who woke her up before nudged her and Lane, snapping out of her daze,  met the proud caller's cold eyes, and the smug look she had before turned into a nasty smile on her face. Did she say ‘Fu Bin’? What does this name have to do with her?

“What? Can’t recognize your name anymore?”, taunted the previous voice that she recognized as the one who wanted to throw a bucket at her.

Lane took the time to properly look at the person. It was a pretty girl with two buns neatly styled on her head like everyone around here. A teenager apparently or maybe a childish-looking young adult. Lane would range her years between sixteen to twenty-two. Not a person worth picking a fight with.

But even though she had yet to talk, others actually seemed to think she was going to pick a fight.

“Silence you two.” Ordered the woman ahead, looking particularly annoyed with Lane. Really, 'I did nothing' wanted to complain the latter who had yet to understand the situation she was in.

“Sister Bin is just tired from yesterday’s punishment, forgive her,” spoke the one who woke her up. What a kind fellow.

If the matter wasn’t brought up, it would have been best, but now it seemed, the caller's dissatisfaction with her increased.

“Good, good, you think you’re here to play? You three are to be assigned to the young master’s personal need!”, harshly said the middle-aged woman.

The women around suck in their breath, the one who talked paled while the one who provoked her before knelt -in a loud sound, making Lane wince, hoping that the little girl's knees were okay- begging for forgiveness.

Wasn’t it just a job affectation, was that young master so terrible? Questions like those, Lane wasn’t asking herself that for the time being, she had yet to round her head over the fact that she somehow turned into a servant? A maid? And for unfathomable reasons she had a feud with one of the superior maid?

That superior maid was really annoyed too for she immediately chased them away to collect their things and go to their new posts.

Later, when they were packing their measly propriety in the previous room she woke up to, Lane took the chance to ask the questions in her heart. But the one who responded was that annoyed fellow.

“You’re just a newly arrived maid, yet had already dared to fight elder Zhu’s authority, if it wasn’t for you, would we be punished like that?”

Not losing her temper, Lane asked,

“Is it so bad there?”

“You, you,..." the other's temper was really big, just a shy point to stomping her foot, that was how much she was angry, "you don’t even know this? Since when had the young master ever been happy with the maids-concubines he was given? Isn't it just a way for her to chase us out of this mansion?”

Looking at the calm fellow who was silently ordering her things with a grievous expression on her face, and not contradicting, this seemed to be true. Actually, hearing those words, tears started pearling in that teenager's eyes.

Lane didn't think it was a good reason enough to cry over though.

“Isn’t it just losing the job, then?”

The girl's face twisted and it wouldn't be surprising if the next second she pounced on Lane to scratch her and slapped some senses in her head!

“You! Do you think that you’re still merchant Fu’s beloved child!" She paused to laugh mockingly, and with a sneer, she lifted her small bag now that she finished packing and glared fiercely at the woman who was spouting ridiculous and brainless nonsense, "You’re now nothing more than just a servant!"

Lane sighed and returned to moving her hands, letting this hot-tempered woman talk by herself -or rather kept on insulting her. Those kinds of childish things were far from being what could bother her. 

A couple minutes later, her bag was made, though small. She lifted it and a small broken piece of jade fell from it, letting her know about the hole it had.

Crouching down to retrieve the jade, her hand halted as she looked at her face reflecting in there. Lane’s hands shook.

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