Cut On My Ear (Yuying)

There's a soft, whirring sound coming from above. The place smells more like a medicine cabinet than it smells like a room. It was silent save for the sound of Yuying's quiet breathing as her chest rose up and down under the sterile sheets.

Just then, Yuying lets out a soft grunt. It's barely audible, but it's there. Soon enough, the grunt extends to a soft groan as Yuying attempts to creak her eyes open, only to realize that her eyelids were so heavy that it was as though someone had attached weights to them.

Yuying manages to crack open her eyes slightly after considerable effort. She sees something hovering above her through her blurry vision. It was spinning round and round as though it was some sort of strange-looking abyss or a UFO like the one from live-action Mr. Bean coming to abduct her.

Yuying scoffs internally. She can barely let out a grunt, let alone a scoff. Yuying rejects the ridiculous idea of getting sucked right into an abyss or getting taken away by a UFO as she squints with all her might, trying her best to focus on the object that she was looking up at.

Sure enough, it's neither an abyss nor a UFO. It's a ceiling fan.

Yuying frowns, only to immediately regret it as soon as she did it. Even though it was just a simple action, it sent shocks of pain throughout her body.

Yuying felt like she'd been hit by a bus, and then run over by it immediately after. No, Yuying wasn't being dramatic. It was a kind of pain that she'd never experienced before.

/Damn, I didn't know they had ceiling fans in heaven.../

Just then, Yuying widens her eyes.

/Wait a minute...a ceiling fan...?/

Yuying forces herself to snap her eyes open. She completely ignores the brightness of the light in the room glaring into her eyes after having kept them shut for God knows how long now as she scans her surroundings.

Yuying instantly becomes aware of the pungent smell of disinfectant invading her nostrils, as well as the plain, white walls of the room that she was in. Despite the fact that the windows were open, the air was awfully humid.

It's at this moment that Yuying realizes that she was neither in heaven nor was she still in that strange ancient Chinese universe that she'd woken up in.

Yuying was back in Singapore.

Well, more accurately, in some random hospital in Singapore.

Yuying weakly clutches the sheets beneath her. They felt like your typical rough and scratchy hospital linen rather than the soft, cool silk that she'd woken up on.

Yuying runs her fingers over the hospital gown that she was wearing. Unlike the high-quality robes that she'd woken up in, the hospital gown felt just as rough and scratchy as the sheets that she was laying on. Even though it was slightly uncomfortable and itchy, Yuying was so tired that she couldn't even find the strength to scratch at it.

Yuying slowly slides her hands up and cups her face. It didn't feel as chiseled or defined as the face that she'd woken up with. It felt...softer. And rounder.

Yuying widens her eyes as she realizes what this probably meant.

Yuying moves her hand up to confirm her suspicions. She traces her brows with her fingers. They felt soft and more sparse, rather than thick and coarse. She closed her eyes as she brushed them with her fingers. They were round rather than almond-shaped, and her eyelashes were longer and finer than the body than that of the fact that she'd woken up with.

Yuying brushed her fingers over her nose. A cute, button nose took the place of the sharp nose that she'd woken up with. She then slid her fingers down and traced her lips. They were soft and plush, rather than thin and slightly chapped.

At last, Yuying glances down her body as she runs her hands over her chest. Even though they were as small as ever, there was no doubt that there were there. Gone was the firm and toned chest that Yuying had woken up with.

Yuying decides to give her girls a little squeeze instead of pinching her arm to make sure that she's not dreaming or hallucinating.

"Ouch," Yuying croaks as she squeezes them ever so slightly. Her voice sounded so hoarse that it was as though she hasn't had a sip of water in years.

/This isn't a dream or a hallucination./

/I'm back in my own body./

/I'm actually back in my own body...!/

Yuying is so ecstatic that she completely forgets about the pain that she'd been feeling as though they'd magically disappeared. She sighs in relief as she gives her girls another squeeze and a little jiggle just to celebrate.

/I'm back.../

/And I'm alive.../

/I'm not dead...!/

Yuying is so thrilled that she continues to bounce her girls excitedly. She feels like one of the protagonists of the many dramas that she'd watched or the many books that she'd read, emerging relatively unscathed after a tough battle.

Except that Yuying hadn't been in a tough battle.

She had a close call.

"Miss Liu...?"

Yuying immediately freezes at the sound of the demure voice. She slowly lifts her head up and finds a nurse standing there, looking very confused, and rightfully so. Yuying and the nurse have a brief five-second staring contest before the latter clears her throat.

"Am I interrupting something...?" the nurse asks, sounding even more confused than she looked. It's at this moment that Yuying realizes that she still has her hands on her girls.

"I-It's," Yuying immediately splutters as she removes her hands from her girls, "It's not what it looks like!" She's so embarrassed that she goes completely red in the face. Yuying groans internally as she hopes that an abyss or a UFO would actually come by now and just suck her right in or something.

"I-If you say so," the nurse stutters, looking just as flustered as Yuying. She struggles to regain her composure before she continues. "Anyway, my name is Nurse Lee," she introduces herself, "What's your name?"

"Mi-," Yuying almost says 'Ming'er' before she quickly corrects herself, "Yuying. My name is Liu Yuying." She'd heard the name 'Ming'er' so many times that she'd almost accidentally blurted out his name.

"Do you know where you are?" Nurse Lee asks as she scribbles something on the clipboard that she's holding. Yuying figures that she's running through the questions for patients who'd just regained consciousness or something. It must be some sort of a standard procedure.

"I'm in a hospital," Yuying replies confidently. She'd read way too many fanfictions about protagonists waking up in hospital rooms after a dramatic encounter or accident to not know by now. Besides, the pungent smell of antiseptic was a dead giveaway.

"Do you know what day it is today?" Nurse Lee asks. This time, Yuying pauses to think. She isn't actually sure what day it was on this day. She'd spent so much time in that strange ancient Chinese universe that the entire concept of time seemed to have blurred.

Yuying couldn't even remember what day it'd been before she'd ended up in the weird ancient Chinese universe. Heck, she could barely remember what she'd done the day before she'd woken up in some random ancient Chinese prince's body.

And so, Yuying decides to make a wild guess. After all, she has a one out of seven chance of being right.

"...Saturday?" Yuying murmurs after thinking about it for some time.

"You're right," Nurse Lee nods. Yuying does a mental fist pump for guessing the day right.

"Do you remember what happened?" Nurse Lee asks. This time, Yuying stays silent. She doesn't even try to make an attempt to answer.

/Yes, I remember what happened./

/I stepped out to take a breather during the intermission of the Choosing./

/I went to a quiet corner outside the Main Hall, where I was ambushed by an assassin./

/I ran for my life with the assassin hot on my heels before tripping and falling down a flight of stairs./

/And then...I ended up here./

Yuying gulps as she looks up at Nurse Lee, who was patiently waiting for an answer.

/I can't possibly tell her all that...!/

And so, Yuying gives up.

"No," she confesses, "What happened?"

"You fell down a flight of stairs," Nurse Lee replies. Yuying couldn't help but widen her eyes slightly at her answer. She hadn't expected Nurse Lee to get it right.

/What?/

/How does she know that I fell down a flight of stairs...?!/

/Did the realities of the two universes overlap or something...?!/

However, Nurse Lee wasn't finished yet. "Yes, you fell down a flight of stairs," Nurse Lee repeats when she sees the shocked look in Yuying's eyes, "While you were doing your research assistantship with one of your professors, Professor Williams, for her project."

Yuying's eyes grow even wider at this.

/I was in the middle of my research assistantship with Professor Williams...?!/

/But I haven't even started yet...!/

/How does one even manage to fall down a flight of stairs while doing a research assistantship...?!/

Just then, Yuying recalls the way that the assassin had sliced at the side of her right ear.

/The assassin grazed my ear with his sword back in the ancient Chinese universe./

/While 'I'd' somehow fallen down a flight of stairs in this world too, there's no way there would be an assassin in this modern world like there would be one back in that universe./

/As such, there's no way that there would be.../

Yuying finds herself unable to finish her sentence as she lifts her hand up to touch her right ear.

There's a bandage on it.

/...a cut on my ear.../