Once upon a time, there was a little princess. She was the fairest of all, with white skin like snow and red lips like roses. Her hair resembled ebony silk. She was a renowned beauty, even at her young age. Only God knew how stunning she would be as she matured.
And yet she was destined for a tragic fate. No matter how charming, beautiful, talented and kind she may have been, she was unable to prevent it; her father, the emperor's marriage and the entrance of the villain who orchestrated her demise.
Envious of the princess' beauty, the new empress ordered for her to be sent off to the forest from legends, the cursed wilderness that was said to harbor only destruction and doom. Her father unaware of his wife's schemes, she was abandoned.
Yet unlike one would expect, fate did not play into the little princess's favor. She was killed. Not by the hunter's hand, but by the wilderness and what lied beyond. The originally pure and kind princess became vengeful. Her dying wish was to get revenge, to ruin the empress just as she had ruined her.
Then be it by God's wish or by accident, the little princess was reborn into the body of a dying country's princess. So, her journey of counter-attack began.
Typical rebirth story with an overpowered female lead, yada yada!
That was great. Absolutely fantastic. Divine, heavenly, every single positive adjective you could think of. Great!! The little princess got the chance to get revenge and find love. That's so good for her, yay for justice!
But what did that have to do with her, Ling Yu?! Why was she here, ah... She just wanted to go home~
Ling Yu couldn't describe her despair as she stared down at her tiny, calloused hands. A film of water blurred her vision while she sniffled, trying her best not to suddenly break down in tears. She refused to cry!! Her cool image, she refused to let it shatter so easily.
She had genuinely no idea what was happening, and it frustrated her, ok? One second she was in school at her desk, surrounded by her peers, laughing and chatting it up like the typical highschool student. The next, she suddenly woke up in this strange storage room which she seemed to be locked inside. Not to mention... a weird story filled her mind.
There was a strange pain all over her body, and she felt so scattered. She felt like she had lost something, but she couldn't figure out what it was.
From what she could gather, she had become an insignificant character in a story which she was sure that she had never read before, but somehow knew the entire plot to. A little servant girl named Jade.
She was very disappointed. Not only was she covered with strange bruises and scratches, she had also been transported into some sort of strange story. Now, she didn't even get to be a somewhat decent and important character?? This was madness, absolute bullshit.
And the story wasn't even that good! It was clearly a rip off of the classic Snow White with some stupid rebirth aspects! Who the fuck came up with this stupid plot? Come out, author! I promise I won't beat you too harshly.
Ling Yu grit her teeth, slowly getting up from the ground. Her back was in immense pain from lying on the wooden floor for God knows how long. It merely intensified the suffering she was already going through.
This was a bad day. The worst day.
Ling Yu was startled when she heard someone speaking outside. "...Should we go in?" The first few words were unclear as they seemed to have been speaking in hushed tones before walking up towards the door.
"Do you think she's still alive?" A boyish voice huffed. The voices became clearer and louder as the sound of footsteps disappeared. They were standing in front of the door now.
"Shut up! This isn't any time for jokes. We have to be quick... What if someone finds out?"
Ling Yu's expression turned grim when she realized that the 'she' that the group was talking about was clearly herself, and she didn't think they had good intentions.
It was obvious to Ling Yu that these people were definitely somewhat formidable. She pursed her lips as she looked around the room, unsure of what to do in this type of situation.
I mean, what could she do? Although the sores across her body had become considerably less painful, she could probably press on a wound on accident. There were plenty of people on the other side of the door too, so she doubted she could fight back.
Ling Yu held her breath as the people outside the door went quiet. The only noise one could hear was the loud rattling of the metal lock which held the door shut. She looked around with narrowed eyes, finding it hard to see very well with only the small sliver of sunrays from a single barred window as her source of light.
This seemed to be a storage room. There were gloves, shovels, and other tools lying around and collecting dust. Picking up a shovel to use as her weapon of choice, she felt a bit safer already. Ling Yu slowly inched towards the door with her shovel raised. She held onto the handle tightly with her hands shaking, not from fear, but instead due to her lack of strength at the moment.
The rattling stopped. She heard a click before the door slowly creaked open. Expression turning cold, she prepared herself to swing down at the people entering with no mercy. Well, actually, she didn't want to kill anyone... So maybe a little lighter? Yeah, just a bop on the head.
"Jade!" An excited voice called out. The person yelling pushed the door with her arms wide open, rushing towards Ling Yu. Ling Yu herself was shocked as she froze midway, unable to hit the girl who was now hugging her waist and snuggling her head into her shoulder.
Ling Yu's expression turned completely ugly. She didn't like this girl. How dare she rush forward and hug her with no warning?! She didn't want to be touched by her at all...
She grit her teeth as she tried her best to prevent herself from blowing up. She couldn't afford to mess up, just in case. She was in a completely different environment and didn't have the leisure to do as she wished without thinking about the consequences first.
No one would dare to touch her so intimately without her permission before. She was not pleased, not pleased at all.
It wasn't as though she had mysophobia or something, but she didn't enjoy being hugged by a girl she had never met before.
"Be more careful! Didn't you see how badly she was beaten before? Jade must still be injured, you should hurry up and let go." A man spoke up in a dissatisfied tone, noticing Ling Yu's unhappy expression.
"Aw, alright." The girl frowned as she unwillingly let go. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the shovel Ling Yu was holding. "Ah, ah! Why are you holding that dirty thing? Did you get bored inside? Drop it quickly, we brought food for you to eat!"
The girl didn't even give Ling Yu a chance to speak as she grabbed the shovel and put it away before pushing her to a seat on the side. Surprised, Ling Yu didn't have even a moment to try and resist before she was pressed down onto the seat firmly.
"..." Is this lass asking for a punch in the face?
