Lin/Shen
Lin Xueyo woke to the sounds of birds chirping.
For ten breathless seconds, she struggled to recollect her surroundings. The ache in her entire body settled in first, followed by an overall sluggishness she never felt. Her body felt foreign and strange. She groaned, forcing her eyes open.
Huh? Where am I?
Looking around, she wasn't in the women's tent anymore. The room was spacious, with blinding sunlight pouring in from the windows, and sparsely furnished. The bed she laid on was thin, and that immediately made sense why her entire body was hurting. It felt like sleeping on a pile or rocks!
She sat up, stretching her arms above her head as she yawned.
Wait. that sounds strange…
She looked around the room again. Then the memories came crashing in. the walk. The cave with the glowing pool and that silver haired woman. Lin Xueyo shot to her feet the moment she recalled that crazy woman trying to drown her.
"I almost died!" she cried out. Instantly, she froze in horror, her hands flying to her throat.
The voice that just spoke wasn't her voice. It sounded like a man.
And her hands…she stared down at them. Instead of her soft, slender hands, she saw large hands with callouses and unmanicured nails.
A man's hands.
She screamed, jumping away as if to run from her hands.
Deep-rooted panic gripped Lin by her throat. Something was terribly wrong with her!
Frantically, she jumped to her feet, searching for any reflective surface at all. She spotted a small mirror on the desk filled with scrolls and she snatched it up so fast the mirror cracked.
"No…" she gasped in horror. "No no no no! This can't be happening to me!"
A man.
The face staring back at her was that of a man.
Lin Xueyo turned her head left and right. She closed her eyes and opened them, hoping it was a mistake and her eyes would correct and she'd see her beautiful face again.
No matter how many times she tried, it was futile. Each time she opened her eyes, she was staring right back into his eyes.
She touched her face, and the reflection moved, those manly hands touching his face too, like he couldn't believe what was happening. Lin Xueyo drew back like she'd touched a scalding pot.
The man's face was full of despair and confusion. It wasn't like Lin Xueyo had become a man and was staring at the male version of herself, no, the face was totally unrecognizable.
She tried to be optimistic, make some light out of this situation. The man was handsome, that was sure. His eyes were sharp and dark like midnight. His hair was long and pin straight, the same black Lin Xueyo admired in herself. His features were sharp, and he was slender but well toned, a very beautiful man indeed, A face that would make any woman in Yunjing do a double-take.
She dropped the mirror, pacing the floors without comfort. Even the consolation of being a handsome man wasn't enough to set her frazzled spirits at ease.
"That woman!" Lin Xueyo exclaimed, jumping in fright as she wasn't used to hearing such a rich deep voice coming out of her throat.
It had to be that woman!
That strange woman must have been a witch or a sorceress! And she had played into her so well. That sorceress witch had fooled her and taken her lovely appearance and now she was left in a strange male body.
But if she was now wearing a different face, what had happened to her face and body? Had that witch taken her appearance and used it for something evil?
Fear filled her as she remembered tales of how witches stole people's appearances to commit heinous acts. Had she been a victim? Her parents would be so disappointed by her impulsive and poor decision.
"No." Lin shook her head.
As if to convince herself that she wasn't in some sort of nightmare, she slightly opened the breeches and peeked inside. If she was honest with herself, she was a little curious about how a grownman's private part looked since she had never seen one in her whole life of existing on the earth.
"I'm…I'm a man!" she screamed, clawing at the sides of her face, the image of her down there burned into the back of her mind. Her knees gave way and she crumbled to the ground, hugging herself and sobbing. "I'm a man. I'm a man. I'm a man." she chanted over and over again, as if by doing so she would unravel everything.
A loud pounding on the door jerked her out of her crying, followed by a voice filled with raw power and authority. "Shen Yichen! How long will you rot on that bed?!"
Lin Xueyo froze. Her entire blood turned to ice the moment she heard that voice.
No. It can't be. There's no way it's possible!
The pounding came again, louder. "Shen Yichen! Open this door!"
She sat up, her knees too weak to support her weight. "Your—"
She didn't get to finish her sentence. The door broke. It flew off its hinges, slamming into the floor and toppling over. Lin Xueyo flinched, covering her head with her hands. Thunderous footsteps filed into the room.
"Announcing the Emperor!" a loud shout rang out through the air.
Whether it was muscle memory or something else, Lin Xueyo's body reacted. She bowed her head, her forehead touching the floor as she bowed deeply. A pair of black boots appeared in front of her. A heavy, menacing aura settled over her shoulders, weighing her down into the ground.
A deeply annoyed voice said; "Greet your Emperor, Shen Yichen."