Yeline huffs and puffs as she hurriedly glanced around her. She was back at the little house that Yahui lived in.
From the bedside, a tiny bowl of warm black liquid sits there. The excitement of meeting her sister and confirming her existence in this world was alarmingly assuring to her.
Now she knows she isn't alone in this place. If she was, she wouldn't be able to do anything. With this meeting,she would be sure to keep trying until they find each other. A relieved sigh escapes her mouth as she thinks back to their discussion.
"Yahui, it's mother."
The voice was coming from outside the door. It seemed she had heard the sigh.
If it was going to stay like this, she'll have to pretend to be Yahui. She wouldn't have a place to stay if she left.
Until she can be on her own and find Raina, she'll have to make do. But wouldn't that mean their daughter already died and she was occupying her body? What happened to Yahui? Yeline shook her head and cleared her throat.
"Come in."
Yahui's mother enters the room with another set of food. But as Yeline glanced down at herself, she quickly realized she was in a new set of clothing.
"You've been asleep for 3 days."
"What about school? Doesn't that mean I missed it?"
Yeline thought to herself as hard as she could. She has to find some memories of the academy that she goes to. But no matter how hard she thought to herself, not much came up from Yahui's memories.
"You still have a day of break left, right?"
She blinked several times, confused but quickly regaining her composure. Nodding her head, she slowly sits up on the bed.
"Drink the medicine and then eat this. You don't want your father worrying about your health do you?"
Right, if he was worried he wouldn't have slapped her like that. But at the same time, when she recalled their conversations, he did mention how Yahui was gambling away her school money. What is wrong with you Yahui?
She takes the small bowl of medicine hurriedly gulping it down. Feeling the hunger in her stomach, Yeline slowly ate and savored the bowl of fish. Her mother sighs in relief at her daughter's diligent attitude.
"Mother. I'm sorry."
Yahui's mother smiles as she hears the apology. She slowly pats her head as reassurance. The bruises on her face had slowly disappeared except for the large ones that had now gone a bit green.
Her mother watches her eat and finish the bowl of fish. She slowly takes the blankets off and tries to get up from her bed. Her mother stops her from trying to walk.
"Don't. The doctor said you should take it slow and rest a bit more. You've suffered a lot from that fall, haven't you?"
Yeline thinks back on the lie she told Yahui's mother and nervously laughs. However, she got off of the bed and slowly walked.
If she doesn't she might not remember how to walk anymore. As soon as she stepped, she could feel her knees weakening. This body was truly weak and needed exercise.
Yahui's mother quickly walked over to her to hold her shoulder as support. Yeline awkwardly takes the tray and bowls, making her way towards the door.
"Mother. What is my academy called again?"
Her mother looks at her confused at the weird question. Yeline opens the door and walks over to wash the dishes outside. Her mother guides her, wanting to take the dishes from her hand.
"I thought you've always wanted to go there? No, I shouldn't ask questions. It's Xue province's greatest academy, no? Kiu Academy of Skills."
Yeline's eyelid twitches as it rings a bell in her mind. This name sounds awfully familiar yet she can't grasp why.
Her mother anxiously glanced at her hand as she washes the dishes. Everything had happened too quickly for Yeline to truly understand the whole situation.
She only understands that Yahui's parents were struggling financially and Yahui was a gambler.
When finished, she gets up and tries to put the dishes away but her mother quickly grabs it and puts it back inside.
Now that her feet had adjusted to walking, she was going to try to get this body healthy.
Aside from that, she also needed to get more information on this place and find out why she came here. When she does, maybe there will be a clue on how to go back.
Yeline walked steadily into the house. She reached for the books that were neatly stacked.
If she asked what empire they were in, she would surely raise suspicion. Maybe she can find out from the books.
That seemed to fail as she only read the names of the provinces, towns, and villages. But this place was known for their booming fishing industry.
Of all places, maybe they traded most successfully with the Xuěyǐng Jiè and Yānchén empire. But it doesn't snow here and it isn't fully sandy and hot here either.
Yeline grabs her forehead and tries to not cry from the frustration.
It doesn't matter, as long as she goes to the school, she can get plenty of information. Maybe she can just go out and ask around.
She hurriedly places the books back and gets ready to go out. That was until Yahui's father entered the room.
Yeline stopped in place as Yahui's father awkwardly observed her. Did this man suddenly realize that she wasn't Yahui?
That is going to be very awkward. A sigh comes not from Yeline but Yahui's father.
"You. You truly disappointed me, Yahui."
Then he wheeled himself outside to where Yahui's mother had gone out to. This man doesn't seem to be too bad of a person, except for the part where he slapped her. Maybe Yahui deserved that but not her.
Yeline decides to let it slide and silently slips away from the house. The parents of Yahui seemed fine that she as their daughter was dressed as a boy.
But if this Yahui wanted to look like a man, she had to do more than dress like one. Yeline glanced at the road leading down to the sea.
She'll run a couple laps back and forth but before that, she needs to warm up her body. As it is rather weak, she must be careful not to overexert it.
Yeline stretches her legs and arms. As soon as she was done stretching, she jumped straight to jumping jacks. Luckily, she had a small warm-up routine to follow.
But by the time she was done with warm-ups, her breaths were so loud and huge it had surprised her. This girl's stamina was horrible, no wonder she couldn't even swim.
Yeline decided maybe it was better to walk than to run or jog. She truly needs to consider everything.
A strong smell of the sea reminds her of that incident with the fishermen. What could she have done for them to treat her badly?
But that wasn't her only other concern. She also had trouble trying to remember their faces.
Hopefully she doesn't meet them on the way to the sea. She'll cautiously walk back and forth.
With a hat that she took from the ground, she made sure her face was covered. There's no telling what would happen if she met those guys again.
She doesn't want to experience the pain of those memories. As soon as she arrived on the shore, she realized why it was the fishing industry that boomed.
The sea was a beautiful turquoise almost clear light green color. There were multiple little children playing along the beach.
Further into the sea, she sees multiple boats with fishermen. Having had enough of the sights, she goes over to a little boy and asks.
"Which empire can compete with ours?"
The little kid glanced up at her with curious eyes. In his hand, he held a broken doll.
"None, mommy said that if I grow up, I have to become a warrior. She also said daddy's a liar and he grew wings and flew to the Snow empire."
Yeline nods her head as the kid begins to spout out nonsense. Maybe she should ask someone much older.
"And if you stay here in the Yānchén empire, you can get rich from fish."
She raises her eyebrows as the young kid casually mentions their empire. Despite that, she needed multiple confirmations.
The little boy's mother ran over to him, carrying him away cautiously. She had glared at Yeline like she was going to kidnap the kid.
Did she look that intimidating? In a body like this?
Yeline walks over to a couple of others asking a similar question. In the end, she truly was in the Yānchén Empire.
Having gotten her answer, she finally speed walks her way back.
"The Yānchén Empire?"
How was she supposed to meet Raina when she's in the empire that is known to be hostile? Will she die if she tries to go over to the Snow Empire?
As she walked upward, a couple of laughter caught her attention. Some voices sounded familiar, as her body reacted to it.
Scared, she looks around for a place to hide. She held in her breath as the footsteps walked past her hiding spot.
Why the heck was her heart beating so fast?
"Yahui."
Startled, she jumped backwards, landing on her bottoms.