Chapter 4: Rebirth, A Dream Back to the Past
“Father, Mother…”
At the moment her consciousness faded, a single tear fell from the girl's eye within the prison cage. It was the first time she had cried since the massacre of the Chu family, and it would also be the last. As the tear slid down, she could feel her soul separating from her body, and the world around her grew chaotic and distorted.
“Yan’er…”
Had she not died? Why did her mother's call sound so gentle and reassuring, as if it were right beside her ear?
“Madam, the young lady is awake!”
In Chu Junhan’s eyes appeared a female soldier clad in armor, her features delicate and pretty. This was Shadow Butterfly, her mother’s most trusted guard.
Looking up, what greeted her was a field of pure white. Chu Junhan recognized the setting at once—this was the place of her birth, the tent her father used while guarding the border.
She lifted her own hand—small, plump, unmistakably a child’s.
Had she returned to the past?
“Yan’er…” Xifeng gently shook the small figure lying on the bed, worried she might have been frightened.
“My precious daughter is awake! Wonderful! I knew my little Ruyan was destined for great fortune!” A hearty laugh from outside the tent pulled Chu Junhan’s mind back from its blankness. The tent flap was lifted, and in strode a tall, imposing middle-aged man, his expression bright and smiling.
“Keep your voice down, don’t scare the child.”
He chuckled sheepishly, clutching his helmet as he strode to the bedside. “What’s there to fear? Our daughter isn’t that easily frightened.”
“Father, Mother, I had a very long, long dream.”
Chu Junhan could no longer tell whether what she had experienced before was a dream, or if this now was only a dream. She feared that if she woke, she would find herself again in that dark, damp cell; she feared that what she saw before her was just an illusion, and that her parents were already gone…
No! She would not allow herself to repeat her past fate!
“Yan’er, what’s wrong?” Xifeng, seeing her daughter sitting up, instinctively reached out to steady her small back, patting her gently.
Chu Junhan’s chubby hand gripped her mother’s arm, her eyes shimmering with tears. “Mother, I dreamt of an immortal grandfather. He told me that I could ride into battle just like you, that I could become a valiant general.”
“That won’t do. Girls ought to be gentle, virtuous, both beautiful and wise. That path was never for me, and I wish for you to be a kind and gracious lady.”
In Xifeng’s eyes, her daughter should be elegant and composed, not like herself, who was often dismissed as a rustic woman. Besides, her Ruyan was destined to become an empress one day—how could she take up arms and live rough like her mother?
“Why do you always argue with the child?” Chu Xiong, fondly touching Chu Junhan’s head, asked, “My Ruyan wants to be a general?”
Chu Junhan nodded vigorously, like a pecking chick.
Xiao Shengjie, I, Chu Junhan, have returned. This time, will your Xiao family’s throne remain secure? If this is just a dream, then I will make it your nightmare!
Xifeng brushed Chu Xiong’s hand away, scolding him sternly, “Look at how you spoil her! If not for you, would she even know how to ride? If she hadn’t mounted, she wouldn’t have been choked by the reins. I’m telling you, our daughter is only safe by sheer luck. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive you!”
Chu Xiong chuckled awkwardly, “But nothing happened, did it?”
Seeing her father so wary of her mother, Chu Junhan realized her future would most likely be determined by her mother. Her mother had always envied the grace of noble ladies; if she let her mother plan her life, she might once again walk the same tragic path.
But now that she, Chu Junhan, had returned, she would never relive her past!