An Yonghui?" Li Yanshu said with disbelief, not sure of what he was seeing. She still locked eyes with him and it felt like the world grew still.
"Who are you?" She opened her mouth to ask again, her gaze familiar but unfamiliar. She had never looked at him with those eyes before, what could he call that look?
Suddenly, someone's voice thundered, breaking the silence. An Yonghui yelped, almost stumbling as she righted herself. This made her break her staring contest with Li Yanshu. A man was clutching down on her cloth, bowing as he began shouting.
"Heaven and earth are furious,
Not even the finest gifts can appease them,
Not even the finest gifts can appease the anger of the dead,
The dead are not ones to be trifled with,
A young innocent girl, mocked for her death,
It is no wonder she came back."
The man cried out as he bowed. An Yonghui was creeped out by this as she began to drag her clothes from him.
"You...let go. Who the hell are you referring to?" She said, dragging her clothes from the man's grip but he proved to stubborn.
What the hell is with this senior's strength? I can't....
"Dark skinned princess, spare me. I know your anger is not something that can be solved easily. But for the innocent, please judge wisely." He said bowing his head. "
An Yonghui still tried to get her dress away from him but to no avail. She looked at him with a look of suspicion.
" Are you scared of me?" She asked. The old man nodded. She scoffed.
"What is this?" She muttered to herself as she looked around then back at the man. "First, let go of my dress." The man look up at her, visibly not trusting her words. "Do you want to make me more angry?"
"No, no." He said in panic, hesitating but eventually lets go. She inches away from him slowly and sighs.
Suddenly, she shouts as if in pain making people around startled. They think she must be crying in grief from death.
"What is going on here?!" She shouts in a heavy tone as she points at them. "Who are all you people? Why are you all dressed like that? You acting a drama?"
She scoffs, laughing. The man from earlier shouts again. "Dark skinned princess, your ghost....." He starts but is cut off.
"Shut up. Do I look like a ghost to you? I'm clearly human." She points to herself.
"Impossible, so what are you saying? That you rose from the dead." A man from the crowd calls out, disbelieving her words.
"I was never dead, I just fainted out of stress. What are you people, mistaking an unconscious person for dead.! " She said in shock, disbelievef at what this people were saying.
Dead, no way.
She could clearly remember it, she was on her way to the car, then she got dizzy and fainted. And the last person she saw was Lin Shen. She scoffed, clearly knowing what was going on. She sighed, massaging her head. It was clear he was pranking her.
He was an actor, so of course, he could find costumes like this so easily and could hire as many actors as he wanted. What an expensive joke. An expensive not funny joke.
"She wasn't dead?" Wen Suihan said silently to himself. So all this time, it was deception? That wasn't possible, he went there last night, saw the body, even touched it to confirm. No breath, no pulse. How... he couldn't even come up with how it was possible to stage something so well. Something wasn't right.
Turning to Li Yanshu, he began to feel nervous. Li Yanshu eyes was already red from anger, his nails biting into his palms as he curled his knuckles.
"Your highness..." Wen Suihan began but Li Yanshu cut him off.
"Shut up!." Li Yanshu practically growled. Wen Suihan flinched and said no more. Only turning back to the scene before him.
Lu Meifen was more shock than anger. An Yonghui died, she really died. Even their best physician came and diagnosed that a poison had killed her, that life no longer was in her body. But here she stood, as if nothing had happened.
Impossible, impossible.
She turned towards the prince who was looking at her in fury. Lu Meifen was now visibly shaken, recalling what An Yonghui said. "That she only fainted". It felt like a confession, and with that, It could be seen as the An family playing the royal family for fools.
Her eyes now burned with anger, An Yonghui had implicated their family, feigning death and Lu Meifen had fell for it. She had sent letters to the prince and the royal family in her handwriting and name, it made her look like an accomplice. If this got to the royal family, the An family would be wiped out, it was a great sin to deceive the royal family.
"An Yonghui!" Lu Meifen shouted as she walked over to her in a fot of rage. She pointed at her. "You...you... Do you know what you've done?"
An Yonghui looked at the woman standing before her. "Even if you are an elder, it is still rude to point your finger at someone." She said, pushing the finger aside.
"You..." Lu Meifen huffed with anger.
"Madam Lu, care to explain?" Madam Lu stiffened at the voice oozing with anger. She slowly turned towards the prince and knelt.
"Your highness, I have no hand in this. Even I was deceived by An Yonghui. You can ask the servants and workers in my home, you can contact the family's physician, I can swear that I had nothing to do with this. Please spare me." She bows on her knees, shaking with fear. Her head filling with different thoughts.
Would the prince believe her? Would that be enough to prove her innocence? If not, this could ruin her and her family including her two children.
She gritted her teeth, face filled with sweat.
"Okay." Li Yanshu finally speaks. Lu Meifen looks up at him. "And don't worry, I'll also speak out for you to the emperor. You're safe,hmm?"
Lu Meifen just felt a big load come off her chest. She releases the breath she held without realizing.
"Thank you, your highness, for judging this well." She said weakly, strength had already left her.
We're safe, we're safe.
"You can stop the drama now." An Yonghui finally speaks. They all turn their attention towards her. "Honestly, you guys are really S-tier actors, even I was convinced that this was real but my time is being wasted here." She said. "Well chow." She gives a wave, turning her back to the prince.
Lin Shen must be on set right now. She thought inwardly.
She also wonders how they were able to pull this off but knowing her brothers, they must have wanted to make her take time off from studying today. She nods her head from side to side.
Behind her, Li Yanshu watches her as she walks as if none of this mattered. He raises his hand and snaps his finger. Wen Suihan nods and rushes towards An Yonghui, unsheathing his sword.
"Watch out!!!" Suddenly, a voice rang in An Yonghui's ear so loud, it hurt but it saved her because she was able to notice Wen Suihan coming from behind her and dodged.
That was close.. She screamed in thought as she calmed her beating heart.
"What are you...."
No time to speak as Wen Suihan continued coming after her swiping his sword at her. She struggled to dodge all of them. The villagers all ran away to protect themselves as neither An Yonghui nor Wen Suihan cared moving all around the place.
"Stop.....stop....stop!!" She said as she avoided him. Spotting an opening, she successfully pushed him back creating space between them. She panted, wiping her face of sweat when she saw blood on her palm. Her eyes widened.
That's a real sword? Impossible, this is a set. They're acting a film, aren't they?
Seeing the blood, it felt as of the world had gone still.
"It is not an act. It's all real." The same voice rang in her ear again. "You were lucky to have dodged Suihan's sword, more lucky that he was going easy on you."
An Yonghui turned back. "Who's there?" She said, alert. "You?"
Now An Yonghui remembered, she had seen an hallucination of a girl in a Hanfu who had acted strange. And now the same girl was right in front of her.
"You shouldn't act rashly right now." The girl began to talk.
"Who are you? What do you mean it's all real?" An Yonghui doesn't give her time to talk because she was freaking out now.
"I am the original soul of the body you possess. My name is An Yonghui and I can't last right now. But I'm telling you that you must watch your step in this world. Or else you'll die. To survive, you need to try to recall my memories." She said quickly as her soul begins to disappear. "Time will resume now. Be careful."
"What do you mean? What did you do to me? Hey!!!!!" But it was all in vain as the girl vanished and time resumed.
An Yonghui holds her head in distress.
Li Yanshu turned to Wen Suihan. "You're going easy on her?"
"No, your highness. I'm trying not to kill her." Wen Suihan said, head bowed.
Li Yanshu scoffs. " Guards, capture her and bring her to me."
"Yes!!." They shout and moves to surround An Yonghui.
An Yonghui hearing it in time panics. If this is real, then I can't stay here. I don't know what's happening but I can't die clueless. I need to run.
Before she could step forward, a guard grabs her but An Yonghui who was already at the verge of breaking down bites him, and counters him with an attack that pushes him to the ground, hurt and groaning.
The others also try to strike at her at once but she takes a step back to avoid it but that one step turns to a big leap. Using one of the guard's head as a stepping stone, she leaps all the way to the street away from the guards and Li Yanshu.
Seeing an opportunity, she begins running away down the street.
"Don't let her get away!!!" Wen Suihan shouts and the guards also give chase.
********
It was hard trying to get through the busy street. Bumping and pushing people away, as they throw curses, An Yonghui was trying not to fall. If she did, there was a chance that she could get caught.
"Sorry, excuse me, pardon me." She said as she weaved her way through the people flood.
Not far behind, the guards were also weaving through the people flood. "Stop right there!!." They shouted after her.
An Yonghui not watching where she was going almost got hit by a carriage but the horseman managed to avoid her in time but it crashed the carriage.
The horseman quickly ran to the carriage to help the passenger out of it. A beautiful lady came out of the carriage, fuming though unharmed. She was elegantly dressed in a hanfu made of expensive silk and her hair was decorated with beautiful dangling beads and pins. This was Yu Mingzhu of the Yu family. She hit the man on the head.
"Pang Shun!! What are you doing?!" She shouts, fuming, her hands on her waist as she glares.
"I'm sorry, Lady Yu. It's just the carriage almost hit someone so I tried to dodge." He says laughing nervously. She pulls his ear.
"You..." She is interrupted as she sees the guards running past them. "What's wrong with them?" She asked rhetorically though.
"They seem to be chasing someone. Actually, they look like the guards of the fifth prince." Pang Shun points out, his ear still held by Yu Mingzhu.
"That's true." She said as she watched them, wondering what they were chasing. Turning back to Pang Shun, she lets go of his ear. "Get this carriage moving, Father is waiting for me. Also, fond out what's going on with the fifth prince." She said, hands folded.
"Yes, Lady Yu." He replies and moves to right the carriage.
Back to An Yonghui, she tries to outrun the guards by confusing them. She even goes over a wall where some animals are, earning the wrath of the owner.
"You little....how dare you?" The lady shouts throwing a wooden spoon.
An Yonghui dodged it. "I'm sorry." She jumped over the wall again and met herself on a lonely road.
It looked like an old district. The street was empty and there were few buildings that were intact with others a pile of rubble.
Knowing she couldn't run for long as she was getting tired, she decided to hide in one of the buildings.
It was dusty with cobwebs everywhere. Old furniture where scattered but still strong. She took one, blew off the dust and sat down to catch her breath.
Running her hand through her hair, her face twisted with worry. She wondered why this was happening, where she was and what she did to deserve this.
She felt tired and drained. All she wanted was to see her family again, to hear their voices.
"That girl must be behind this." She whispered as she recalled seeing the girl right before she fell unconscious. Remembering the girl muttering some words.
If only An Yonghui had slowed down and rested like her third brother said, she wouldn't have had to have hallucinations and fainted. But she couldn't help it, she just wanted to show she belonged, a black girl in the white world. The feeling that she could lose them if she was not up to standards haunted her everyday. Her family always said they didn't care and wanted her to take it easy, that she was their one in a million.
But it wasn't easy, remembering the past,even though she was just a young girl at 5 when she arrived at China in a cargo ship from Africa set for Asia. Black people always had it hard with white people especially during the time of slavery. If the An family hadn't taken her in, she wouldn't have had a good life. It felt unreal to her and she always thought, no...knew that things like that doesn't come for free. That was what she believed from her family when she was still in Africa.
Inferiority is a bitch. She thought bitterly.
Just then, her heart ached prompting her to press her hand over it. Some memories began to play in her mind, ones she knew wasn't hers but before she could process them, she heard people outside. Looking through a hole, she recognized the guards.
Her heart sank. She couldn't run anymore and she was extremely tired. What could she do now?
There was no one to answer that question. But still she still stood up and studied the roof of the house. It was all going to come down soon, she could use it to permanently stop them.
Moving around, her eyes scanned the space. The floorboards were loose. The support pillars cracked. The whole place was a skeleton—barely holding itself together.
She raced toward one of the rotting support beams at the center. It swayed as she shoved against it. She used her legs to hit it too making weak. The structure was already groaning and she knew just one shove would do it.
Then, a guard saw her and shouted for his companions. The doorway, the only path out side the house was blocked by them.
"Lady An Yonghui, do not resist anymore. The door is blocked and there is no escape." A guard said, as they inched closer to her.
"Tch." She smirked. "You wouldn't touch me."
"Surround her and block her path. " He commanded and the others followed.
An Yonghui watched the formation. She smiled.
Thank you for making things easy for me.
With a grunt, she slammed her foot into the structure. The beam gave a loud snap. A low groan rolled through the ceiling. Dust rained down. Everything was moving.
Now I have to get to the door.
The guards all lunged forward but An Yonghui was faster. With the place breaking down, it was distracting the guards for her to be able to intercept them.
Gaining a way forward now, she rushes towards the door but the place was going down fast.
"Stop." The commander was on her tail, about to reach her but a beam from the roof fell in between the two crashing down heavily. An Yonghui fell down, not noticing the cut on her leg thanks to the adrenaline she had, but still stood up and continued running. Heaven was on her side as she made it out before the place came down fully.
Still running through the dusty smoke, she came out towards a pathway and following it, was met with a big market. Everywhere was lively, people where moving around buying and looking around. No one seemed to notice her.
Looking up, she read the time as past 1 in the afternoon. She laughed, i made it.
She slid down and rested on the ground for a little while when someone came to her.
"Lady, you alright?" At first, she was silent then she looked at him.
"Hungry."