During the fourteenth year of Emperor Wei Ming's reign, in the height of summer.
The scorching sun fiercely baked the earth. In the pavilion of the South King's mansion garden, however, a crowd of maids and old ladies were gathered, adding a rare sense of liveliness to the usually cool and solitary mansion.
"Wake her up, now!”
A woman, surrounded by all these maids and ladies, pointed at the unconscious woman lying on the floor, her tone considerably brusque.
The icy tea was poured on her face, and Single Cloud Stream - semi-conscious at best, came back to her senses with a jolt. It was not the chill of the tea that had awakened her, but it was the choking sensation.
As Single Cloud Stream coughed and opened her eyes, she glanced around somewhat dazed at the people in ancient attire. She forced a bitter smile onto her face.
She thought she must've been hallucinating due to lack of rest. She had been up for more than twenty hours due to multiple big operations yesterday. Even her sleep was restless as she had one erratic dream after another.
And there was still a brain surgery scheduled for the afternoon. She had to catch up on some sleep now.
With these thoughts in her mind, Single Cloud Stream wiped off the water from her face and once again, gave in to sleep.
“Miss Jiang, what should we do next?”
“Humph”, Jiang Bieqing sneered, placing the teacup heavily on the stone table, she said through gritted teeth, "Then let's pour some well water on her and see if she continues to play dead."
Soon enough, piercingly cold well water was directly poured onto the thinly clad Single Cloud Stream. After five continuous buckets, Single Cloud Stream, let alone sleeping, her face was almost numb from the cold.
She abruptly sat up; at that moment, she felt as if each nerve ending in her body was being harshly pulled.
Despite being summer, the well water was bitterly cold. As the icy water slid from her collar into her clothes, Single Cloud Stream instinctively wanted to remove her drenched clothes.
However, as she looked down, she was taken aback. When did her white coat change into the ancient Chinese red wedding dress?
"With such specs, it's like a grand phoenix coronet and shimmering robes!"
"No...wait." Suddenly, Shan Yunxi remembered her dream and instantly felt as if her brain was numb.
She swallowed, lifted her head, and glanced around. Ancient-dressed women populated her surroundings, and she even found herself inside an intricate gazebo.
"Dear lord!" Shan exclaimed almost unconsciously.
Shan Yunxi told herself to maintain composure, assuming she was simply tired and thus, the dream felt incredibly real.
She mustered her courage and pinched her arm hard, the real sensation of pain causing her to gasp.
"Seriously?" she thought, "What bad karma did I encounter? Or what went wrong? How did I end up waking up in such a place?"
The people around Shan Yunxi watched her bizarre actions with puzzled expressions.
Jiang Bieqing, however, remained calm. Assuming Shan Yunxi was acting, he spoke faintly, "Now that you're awake, kneel before me."
"What on earth?"
"I said kneel before me!" Jiang Bieqing smacked the table, causing the teacups to tremble slightly.
Shan Yunxi's mind was a chaotic mess. Upon encountering a woman who was treating her in such a domineering manner, she found it almost amusing, "I haven't even kneeled before my parents in my entire life. Who do you think you are? Why should I kneel before you?"
Jiang Bieqing was typically petite and delicate, with a pair of lively eyes that stood out remarkably on her face. At that moment, she was staring at Shan Yunxi with those presumptuous eyes. She pointed her elegantly curved finger at Shan Yunxi, and it took a while before she sneered, almost as if she had heard a hilarious joke.
"Shan Yunxi, have you so thoroughly soaked your brain that it's gone rotten?" She pointed at Shan Yunxi and laughed at the surrounding servant girls and maids, "Look, merely a female branch of the Shan family, and she dares to argue with me. Apparently, I hadn't taught her enough..."
The maids and servants started laughing as well, their contempt and disdain clearly marked as they stared at Shan Yunxi.
"Common girl?" The confusion deepened on Dan Yunxi's face. It seemed that she had a good sleep, and after awakening, not only had she traversed time and space, but even her legitimate identity took a twist, becoming the child of a concubine?
Perhaps, since Dan Yunxi entered the royal palace yesterday, she had been accepting Jiang Bieqing's beatings and scolding without any resistance, hence Jiang Bieqing took the newly betrothed queen of Zhen Nan for granted, a woman she could irreverently manipulate as she pleased.
"Even if you were bestowed in marriage by the Emperor, and married into the Zhen Nan Palace, becoming the queen, so what? You are just a common-born girl after all, not fit for any reputable platform!”
Dan Yunxi scratched her head, thinking no wonder she was wearing a bright red wedding dress. So, she was the queen of Zhen Nan! Then the water splashed at her a moment ago was ordered by this shrew in front of her?
"Who are you?" She raised an eyebrow.
" Me?" Jiang cleared her throat, sat upright, and raised her head, saying, “Listen well, I am the present caval.......”
"What I meant was, what's your relationship with Zhen Nan Wang?"
Dan Yunxi was direct, not a word wasted. Jiang Bieqing merely faltered, and soon her unease was drawn out.
Jiang Bieqing disguised a glance towards the side, even though her appearance was still arrogant, her voice was much weaker than before.
"I am... I am staying here because Princess Chang Le, the sister of Zhen Nan Wang, let me. She said in the future, it is I who will be beside Zhen Nan Wang!" When Princess Chang Le was mentioned, her spirits stabilized and she laughed.
"So you mean, you're here eating and drinking in the Zhen Nan Palace without a title?"
Dan Yunxi clapped her trousers and got up from the ground. Suddenly, an intense pain surged through her head, numerous fragmented scenes pouring into her mind. She felt as if her head was about to explode.
There were scenes from her childhood, scenes where she was bullied by a few girls, and there was a stern man that seemed to be despising her all the time - he looked like her father.
She swayed a little. The flashes must be the memories of the previous owner of this body...
The scene shifted, and she was conducting surgery on a wounded individual amidst an explosion on a battlefield in Africa, at that time she had been working for over 30 hours. A nurse nearby advised her to rest in the local language, and as soon as she finished the operation, she fell asleep on the operating table.
When she woke up, she was jarred awake as before.
She lifted her eyes and looked at Jiang Bieqing, who clearly harbored malicious intentions towards her, and the band of maids and old women who were willing to do his bidding. She sighed in her heart. She had worked arduously to save lives and heal the wounded before, and now, not being made a comfortable young lady was tolerable enough, but to be bullied this badly right from the start.
Not only that, but the original owner of this body had been bullied from a young age, with a soft personality that didn't fight back. That's why she was forced by her sister to marry into this terrifying and menacing royal palace... She knew her luck was always bad, but she didn't expect it to be this terrible.
She sighed and pushed through the maids on both sides. Although she appeared somewhat weak, under all eyes, she sat down on the chair next to Jiang Bieqing.
Jiang Bieqing looked at her and frowned in disgust, "Don't think you can fool me with this act, I'm telling you, I'm not here to be tricked! I..."
Suddenly, Shan Yunxi touched her shoulder, signaling her not to be anxious, "I want to ask you, were you the one who ordered to wake me up this way?"
"So what if it was? I am the daughter of the Secretary of War!"
"Ah..." Shan Yunxi nodded, sounding quite agreeable, then she pointed at her clothes and asked, "What is this?"
"A wedding garment?"
Shan Yunxi nodded again, and asked, "Then, who am I?"
"You're the Queen, granted to Prince Zhenan by the Emperor!"
Shan Yunxi confidently nodded in affirmation, then slammed her palm on the small wooden table beside her. The force was so great that it instantly left a fine crack in the pear wood table, causing a tremor among the people around.
Especially Jiang Bieqing, who was closest to her, her eyes were shaking, seemingly frightened by Shan Yunxi's strength. This was completely unlike the fragile and submissive Shan Yunxi from before.
"Do you know that I am the Queen granted to Prince Zhenan by the Emperor? I want to ask you, who gave you the courage to hit me?"
Shan Yunxi cast a piercing glance around at the maids and old women, then she grimaced and shook her hand, alas, it felt a bit numb from the strong exertion just now.
As she rubbed her hand, she swore at them with full force: "And you people, who have turned my world upside down, how dare you help a nobody, an outsider, insult me? Don't you know it's against the Emperor's will? I bet you all are sick and tired of life!"
Such a big accusation scared everyone.
Jiang Bieqing was dumbfounded by her tirade. She really didn't understand why this person, who had never left her sight except for the moment she fell into the water, was acting so differently.
Yesterday, at the wedding ceremony, Dan Yunxi was submissive and didn't dare to speak loudly. Today, however, she seemed like a different person, daring to scream and shout at her!
And these maidservants, they were normally bullies but they became cowards at the sight of real authority. They used to address her respectfully as Miss Jiang but now they were so scared they didn't dare to breathe.
"You...You..." Looking at these maids, Jiang Bieqing was furious. She pointed at Dan Yunxi, but she couldn't utter a word.
"Whoa there, take a deep breath and slow down. You don't want to anger yourself to death, that would be such a major loss..." Dan Yunxi genuinely cared for her. After all, she was a real doctor before she woke up in this ice-cold place and hated to see anyone suffer in front of her.
"What are you all looking at? Why don't you come up and beat her to death?"
Jiang Bieqing had never been defied before. She dared not make eye contact with the fierce Dan Yunxi and quickly ordered the maids on both sides to take care of the woman.
Dan Yunxi snorted coldly. Since her childhood, she had always been considered tomboyish by her mother, especially after getting her doctorate a few years ago, her juniors had always referred to her as a ‘bulldozer.’
No one had ever been so arrogant with her. She turned and grabbed a stick from the maid's hand, spun it halfway around and hit the maid's kneecap. The maid fell to her knees.
Like a demonic goddess, she looked down on everyone. "When I'm not pissed off, do you all take me for a Hello Kitty?"
