Whoosh. The sound of wind whistling past her ears was the first thing she registered. Then came the frantic slapping of oversized, emerald-green leaves against her face.
Ahhhhhhh!
Thump.
Bai Yue hit the forest floor with a dull groan, her lungs momentarily forgetting how to function. She lay there for a second, staring up at a canopy so thick it looked like a solid roof of jade.
"Ouch..." she hissed, reaching up to scratch her head. Her fingers brushed against something soft. a flower? A twig? "What the hell?"
One minute—literally, one minute ago—she had been leaning in, eyes fluttering shut, about to finally kiss her long-time crush, Chen Jue. Then, the door to the cafe had burst open. A robber, a flash of steel, the deafening crack of a gunshot, and then.…..darkness.
"Waaaaaaaaaa!" Bai Yue scrambled into a sitting position, her eyes wide with terror. "Does that mean I'm dead? Am I a ghost? Is this the afterlife? Why is the afterlife so.….itchy?"
She looked down at herself and froze. She wasn't wearing her favorite sundress anymore. Instead, she was wrapped in what looked like a primitive wrap-around top and a short skirt made of incredibly soft, dappled fur and hand-woven hemp fibers. It was rustic, strangely sturdy, and definitely not from the clearance rack at the mall.
"Your soul was transmigrated."
A voice boomed, vibrating deep within her skull like a sub-woofer.
"AHHHHHHH!" Bai Yue shrieked, jumping three feet into the air.
"Don't shout!" the voice hissed, sounding remarkably annoyed. "Unless you want to attract predators. This isn't a city park."
"Predators?!" Bai Yue whispered, her voice cracking. "Who are you? Where am I? Am I on a prank show?"
"Listen carefully," the voice commanded. "I have brought your soul into the body of the villainess of this world. Her memories will soon slam into your head."
"Ugh?! Why would you do that?!" she cried out, her hands flying to her hips. "I was about to get my first kiss! Take me back to Chen Jue! This instant, strange voice!"
"Quiettttttt," the voice drawled. "I will explain later. For now, you have a mission: Find your cubs. Redeem yourself. If you fail, this world will reject your soul, and you'll blink out of existence."
"Cubs? What are you—ARGH!"
Before she could finish the sentence, it felt like someone had shoved a USB drive directly into her brain and hit 'Download All.' A white-hot headache bloomed behind her eyes. Images flashed: a high-walled tribal village, a woman with a cruel smile throwing a bowl of hot soup at a servant, and three different, stunningly handsome men looking at her with nothing but pure, unadulterated loathing.
She saw the names: Bai Yue, the most beautiful and most hated "Rare Female" in the territory. Wait, they shared the same name!
She gasped, clutching her temples as the pain subsided into a dull throb. "I abandoned.….no, this body abandoned those beautiful children? And when their fathers are so handsome?! Is this girl insane? Who leaves a Snow Leopard and a Fox Lord for some guy who doesn't even like her?"
The voice gave a low, dry chuckle. "I knew you would be perfect."
"Hey, wait! What exactly are you? A god? A system? A hallucination caused by that gunshot?"
The voice began to answer, "I am the—" but it abruptly cut off.
Shuff-shuff.
The sound of rustling bushes nearby made Bai Yue's blood run cold. "Hello? Voice? Hello?!"
Silence. The voice was gone.
"Great. Just great."
Relying on years of experience running away from angry shopkeepers and gym teachers (she was surprisingly fast when she was being chased), Bai Yue didn't wait to see what was in the bushes. She lunged for the nearest massive tree, her fingers finding grips in the bark with a strange, instinctual ease. In five seconds, she was perched on a sturdy branch ten feet up.
"Ha! Take that!" she whispered, looking down.
Two men emerged from the foliage. They weren't human, not entirely. One had a mane of shocking white hair. The other had bright orange hair and pointed, furry ears that twitched at every sound.
"I could swear I heard the cursed one's voice," the orange-haired one, a fox beastman, muttered, his golden eyes scanning the ground.
The second one had shimmering, iridescent scales dusting his cheekbones and a forked tongue that flickered out for a second. "She should be at the edge of the village, sulking. If she's out here, she's looking for trouble."
They both looked up at the same time. Their eyes met Bai Yue's.
"AHHHHH!" Bai Yue screamed.
"AHHHH! THE CURSED FEMALE!" the men screamed in unison.
They didn't attack. Instead, they scrambled backward, looking like they had just seen a ghost. "She's in the trees! She's definitely possessed!" the snake beastman yelled, and they both bolted back into the forest as if their lives depended on it.
"I am not cursed! Argh!" Bai Yue shouted after them, feeling a bizarre sense of insult. "I.…..sigh. Hello? Voice? God? Deity? Anything?"
Nothing.
She sighed, leaning her head against the trunk. She needed to find those cubs, but where? The memories in her head began to shift, aligning with the landscape. Wait.….she knew this area. The original Bai Yue used to come here to spy on people. To be more specific, spy on hot beastmen! Before she became obsessed with the protagonist's man.
"Wait... wait... this is the area where the elite beastmen come to bathe! There's a hot spring right around..."
Just as she was leaning forward to get a better view, a head shot out from the flurry of leaves directly in front of her. A pair of intense, dark eyes locked onto hers.
"What exactly are you doing in my tree?" a deep, velvet voice asked.
"SCREECH!" Bai Yue's hands slipped. Her grip failed, and gravity, her oldest enemy, took over.
As she plummeted toward the ground for the second time that day, her only thought was: I really hope this guy is a fast catcher.