Act 2
"I'm home." Yue XiFeng announced as she took off her shoes, preparing to enter the small, messy, and disheveled living room with leaks above the roof.
Indeed in this life, she wasn't a glamorous aristocrat, but instead, she was dirt poor and couldn't do a thing about it since she had no assets.
As weird as it may sound, she was curious about the life of a poor person and was subtly fascinated by it. So, she felt that there wasn't a need to utilize her skills yet, and she remained inconspicuous, only showing her abilities whenever necessary.
"Welcome back." A voice greeted and she was met by the sight of a slender middle-aged man who looked unkempt as his bald head could be seen shining under the twitching light.
He is her present life's father, Liu Xiang whose business went bankrupt years ago, resulting in them going into poverty, hence living in this run-down neighborhood where crime was likely to be imminent.
But the tragic thing was, his business was ruined by his wife and her biological mother, Yue Nian.
Yue XiFeng could feel heaven's laughter upon deciding her fate and inwardly cursed, revealing a bitter expression.
Ironic, isn't it? Her past enemy became her biological mother.
Yue XiFeng entered a small room that was regarded as her bedroom and threw all her belongings onto the floor without a care for the mess of a room she lived in. A futon that was surrounded by books and clothes could be seen in the center of the room, while a dresser and a table stood awkwardly beside it as they did not conform to one another.
She promptly changed out of her school uniform before motionlessly lying down atop her futon, pulling a blanket as a means to protect her body from the cold spring breeze. XiFeng emptily gazed at the white ceiling that was stained by brown blemishes before covering her eyes with her slender arm, softly muttering indecipherable words.
"Five long years..." Her lips puckered as her mind spiraled with numerous thoughts, recalling various things that happened since.
Exactly five years ago,
on what was supposed to be the best day of the year, she experienced a lucid dream and woke up sweating profusely as her heart thuped irregularly, accompanied by headache-inducing traumatic memories of her past, causing her mental state to drastically plunge into despair.
***
Red. Everywhere she looked, it was red.
A blood-filled throneroom, filled with sorrowful and frightening wails was clearly seen as there was a large and luxurious golden throne situated in the middle, surrounded amidst towering white pillars.
The metallic stench of blood permeated the entire room as it grew thicker and thicker due to the ongoing shrieks of battle in the middle of the room.
A lofty figure imposingly stood afront the golden throne as her lips curved upwards with a demonic smirk. But a pair of cold and gleaming eyes could be plainly seen contrasting her smile, as she foresaw the shell-shocked expressions of the people being slaughtered mercilessly with indifference.
The guards ruthlessly assaulted them one by one until the opposers were all cornered without a way to retreat. Though strangely, none of them were killed as most were merely grazed in a specific area to seem as if he lost a lot of blood.
Realizing this fact, her amused grin shifted to a thin line as her eyes squinted in suspicion.
In a miserable state, the opposers glared fearfully at the smiling woman who revealed her perfect row of teeth in return, finally realizing the actual scenario in play.
As the fighting subsided, the throne room was left in an unfortunate state with bloodied and kneeling guards situated on the carpets that were littered with corpses, no longer looking like a main part of the palace, but rather, a slaughterhouse.
Fortunately, the opposers were swiftly apprehended by the surrounding guards and were all forced to kneel before her with heads pressed down to the bloodied carpeted floor.
"You are too brutal, you monster!" One of the kneeling man, with only a single arm intact, clamored through clenched teeth with deep resentment reflected in his eyes.
Yue XiFeng silently stood in place before smiling gently at the kneeling man, as if she were the saint.
"What did I do?" She asked in a soothing voice, completely unlike her current appearance.
The kneeling official sneered before cocking his head up to unearth his grim and bloodied face.
"All those people died because of your decision, and you will be the one to pay for it!" He said with a dark expression before revealing a sinister smile.
'My son... you will finally be at peace.'
...
"Now!" The official cried startling Yue Xifeng whose smile twitched with her brows furrowed.
Soon enough, the kneeling guards stood up and pointed their weapons towards her, a hint of fear and resolve reflected in their dreary eyes.
"So you're all rebelling huh?" Her light voice resounded as her eyes gleamed with amusement, causing the expression of the officials to blacken.
"Very well, I'll play with you." She explained as she flipped up a nearby sword and trickled her slender fingers on its glistening blade before cleanly splitting a nearby official's body in half.
***
Yue XiFeng slowly opened her eyes, realizing that what she saw was the latest memory fragment. Though she was completely aware of her past, her memories of the incident were vague, hence being shown little by little in her dreams.
Shining brightly above the clear blue sky, the sun highlighted her beautiful face, shedding light on her dimly lit pigsty of a room. To her dismay, immense grief assaulted her beating heart, causing it to beat irregularly at a quickened pace while feeling an unprecedented type of pain.
"So I was deeply hurt..." XiFeng murmured as she clenched her chest, holding back the tears that threatened to spill out of her dark eyes.
But she quickly regained her composure as though she realized something as she glanced at the alarm clock that stood by her bedside.
The large red numbers shone from the small dark screen that was protected by a blue box.
The numbers 08.00 A.M glowed on the alarm as she clicked on a button above it, and discovered that she was late.