Chapter 3 - Parallel world

What work? What reason?

The general swallowed the words about to leave his mouth. He wanted to slap himself to see if his cheek stung. Maybe he was dreaming. He clenched his fist, his nails digging into his palm. He felt a pinch.

His daughter could speak.

Luna watched her 'father' as his mouth kept opening and closing like that of a goldfish. Confused, shocked, doubting expressions flitted across his face.

All of a sudden he stood up, the scrolls in his hand clattering to the ground. Tears formed at the corner of his eyes and he almost tripped as he hurried to embrace his wife and child.

"Ling'er! Say 'father' again!", he said, overjoyed.

Luna was frustrated. She was being squeezed so hard by her parents, she couldn't breathe.

"Father, Mother... daughter can't breathe...", she said.

Her father immediately let go and wiped his tears. Just then, footsteps were heard as someone entered the room.

"Brother, sister-in-law, what's happening? The house is so noisy today."

As her mother turned towards the door Luna saw the person who had come in. It was none other than her aunt. She was her father's foster sister. As she was infertile, she hadn't gotten married even though she was in her 30s. However, everyone loved and commended her as she took care of Luna as if she were her own child.

What a load of bullshit!

Luna has regained the memories of her new body, named Song Li Ling, as she was being carried to the study. Comparing them to the memories of her last life, she found that this world had the same people and relationships albeit the difference in names. And the abusive aunt from her last life was even more vicious in her current life.

Gu Liu Yue was a beautiful woman. She could not be compared to Chu Li Fen but, she was still considered above average. She had lost her parents when she was young and the general's father took pity on her as she was his sworn brother's daughter. She was taken in as their foster daughter. As she grew up, she fell in love with her foster brother and burned with jealousy when he married Chu Li Fen. When Chu Li Fen got pregnant, she secretly poisoned her tonics and by the time they found out, the fetus had been affected. The newborn was mute.

Even after the baby was born, Gu Liu Yue removed her frustrations on the child. She would take her from her mother under the guise of a doting aunt wanting to spend some time with her niece and then punish her by giving her less milk, adding drugs into the milk that would make the child suffer stomach aches, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. It would look normal, like something a newborn child would go through in the first few months of her life.

As Song Li Ling grew older, her aunt started changing the drugs. She added a slow-acting poison to her meals called Eternal Dream. It was undetectable and took more than 2 years to completely manifest in the body after which the victim would fall asleep. They would be locked in their own body and feel the unbearable pain of their organs burning from internal heat and turning to ash before they finally died.

Though the poison would be undetectable, it would still cause light fevers and mild stomachaches. When the mute Song Li Ling tried to protest and refuse from having her meal, everyone thought she was just throwing a tantrum.

As the child of a general who was a level 5 Elder Knight and an alchemist who was a level 4 Elder Saint, she was born with above-average intelligence, but since she was mute and hadn't learned to write, she was often misunderstood as a spoilt child who had either average intelligence or was a complete airhead.

Because of this, Gu Liu Yue had given Song Li Ling a heavier dose of poison the previous night. The little fragile body couldn't handle the sudden rush of toxins and she died in her sleep. Luna's soul had then occupied the body.

Luna vowed to get justice for the innocent life lost at the hands of Gu Liu Yue and protect her new family like her own. Luna was now Song Li Ling.

She looked at the clueless aunt and gave her a wry smile.