Distance
Distance
"Ah, sorry, I'm actually not going to kill you - not that I even could, but you must agree this is NOT fun or fair!" She said out loud into the dark empty sky to be safe, just in case the old man was listening, so he didn't hold another grudge against her.
She had no idea where she was or how she got here, or how long she had even been here. The only thing she was certain of was that the old man was involved. It could not be a coincidence that right after she berated him, she wound up trapped here.
The last thing she remembered before arriving here was talking to the Emperor after storming off from the Imperial pharmacy. Her first instinct had been that this was a dream, but if it was, it was a really long dream...plus, it did not feel like a dream, it felt too real.
Besides herself, there were two sources of light. One in the far distance, which she theorized was her way out of here, so she had spent what felt like days now walking towards it. Irritatingly, it did not seem like she was getting any closer. Thankfully, she did not feel tired or feel the need to eat, poop, or sleep.
The second source of light, and perhaps the more concerning one, was the one that followed her around. It was about her height, and it was currently hanging out behind her. It had a large circle in its center, an orb where the light shone from, a bright warm light that illuminated her and her way. From the orb's edges protruded eight identically large intricate golden pointers, framing it all around.
The soothing light coming from this orb was perhaps the only thing keeping her sane, this and the fact that every once in a while, the orb's light would clear and show her a picture of the Emperor talking to her, sometimes others like Xiao Ruo and the head physician would come into view too. She could not hear them, and it seemed they could also not hear her. She had given up trying to talk to them, but she was able to piece a few things together by reading the Emperor's lips - she had gotten quite good at it.
It took her a bit of time to come to terms with this, but she concluded that she was somehow trapped in her own mind. Although a vast empty dark space is definitely not how she ever pictured her mind would be like, this was the only explanation that really made sense to her. Especially considering how she was dressed, she was wearing modern clothes - particularly what she was wearing when she died. She could not see her face, but from the hair and clothes, she suspected it was her old self. This made sense, this form was perhaps how her mind's eye still perceived her.
The old man was not the type to give up easily. Lei Xing suspected that this was some sort of test or something similar. She figured the orb that followed her was a window or maybe a door to her life with the Emperor, and she anticipated she would find a similar second orb at the end of this light she was walking towards.
Lei Xing theorized this second orb would show the life she left behind in the modern world. She imagined she would find the old man sleeping there, and he would say something stupid like, "Oh, I knew you wouldn't be able to choose properly with "Kai Kai" breathing down your neck, so I wanted to give you another chance, a fair chance hehe~"
Lei Xing narrowed her eyes at the distant light in annoyance before rising to her feet with a sigh to continue the journey. As to why he made her walk who knows how many miles to get there, he would probably say something stupid about wanting to "give her time to think it over" or some other nonsense when they both knew he only did it to make her suffer.
She has tried apologizing for her harsh words multiple times, but obviously, the old man was dead set on this game. Lei Xing looked behind her at the floating orb and let out a breath, then faced the forward and resumed her march to the distant light, moving even faster.
She was worried about the Emperor. She could not imagine how worried he was, not to mention that he seemed to be threatening to kill people if she didn't wake up in the last lip-reading session. While she did not truly think he would haphazardly start killing people, she was worried he was not sleeping well or taking care of himself. This was already a stressful time for him without adding on her own problems.
{...I swear I'm going to kill th-...}
Lei Xing caught herself before finishing that thought again, she really could not help herself. "Let's just focus on this for now, we'll deal with everything else when we get there, nothing -" Lei Xing suddenly stopped and narrowed her eyes, "Is that getting closer...?" Lei Xing exhaled, and her face lit up, the distant light was rapidly increasing in brightness, it was coming closer. It seemed the old man had finally regained his sense of reasoning!
Lei Xing picked up her feet and happily ran toward the light as well, eager to have this done with. As the distance closed, her feet moved even swifter, and a bright smile formed on her face, she was ready to greet him and say whatever he wanted to get back home. The light got brighter and brighter, to the point where Lei Xing had to shield her eyes. There also seemed to be a strong gust of wind that was coming with it that was making it harder to move. Her run devolved into a walk, and she had to use her arms to shield her face from the blinding light and strong wind.
As suddenly as it had begun, it suddenly stopped. The tempest settled into a nice spring breeze, and Lei Xing opened her eyes to find that her surroundings had once more changed. The dark void was gone, and in its place stood a vibrant peach-blossom forest, and in the sky was the bright full moon accompanied by twinkling stars.
Lei Xing ran a hand through her hair, and her hand rested on her neck as she tried to calm herself. She glanced behind her, and the orb that had followed her all this way was gone. While her mind was still hesitant, her eager feet moved her forward.
She meandered her way through the peach blossom forest with purposeful steps and found her way onto a path. She stopped when she arrived at the entranceway made out of the two huge peach blossom trees, whose branches weaved together to form an archway, the trunks of the two trees appeared to be solid silver, with the two words etched into both of them, "Fen Hua".
Lei Xing did not pay this much mind as she went through the archway and up the flight of steps that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was only when she reached the top that she could see the three majestic mountain peaks. Towering buildings seemingly made out of white jade protruded out of the mountainside.
Lei Xing stared at the quiet, majestic scenery for a while, seemingly caught up in the view, before she solemnly turned to the path on her right and thoughtlessly continued on. Her mind was blank, and no thoughts came to mind... but her feet, they were aware all on their own.
And eventually, her feet brought her to where she was meant to be, where she intended to be on a single path.
The path led to a pavilion that sat in the middle of a lake. And in that pavilion stood a young woman dressed in simple light pink and blue robes that fluttered in the wind, behind that woman stood the floating orb, the same one that followed Lei Xing around all this time. The young woman smiled warmly when she saw Lei Xing, but Lei Xing could not bring herself to reciprocate or do anything really.
Lei Xing stood still, unblinking. She could not take her eyes off of the young woman or take the steps to close the distance between them. The woman in the pavilion also stood still, seemingly hesitant to move closer as well - perhaps she felt the same apprehension Lei Xing had over closing the gap, or maybe she worried she would scare Lei Xing off if she took the first steps. So the two women stood staring at each other from afar, waiting for someone to close the distance.
Lei Xing's mind suddenly woke back up, and her first thought was to run, but her legs refused to comply with the command. Lei Xing frowned and willed herself out of the stupor and looked away, but before she could make her move, the other party calmly spoke, and the wind carried her voice over to Lei Xing, "If you refuse to come, then we will never leave this place."
Lei Xing stopped in her tracks and turned back to the pavilion, the young woman waved her over, "Come, let's sit and talk. You must have a lot of questions."
Lei Xing's eyes scanned the landscape before her eyes settled back on the pavilion and its single inhabitant, who had already taken her seat in one of the pair of plush white accent chairs that flanked a round glass coffee table. This modern coffee "chat" setting seemed out of place in this scenery.
"Xing er'...come." The young woman warmly called out again with a welcoming smile, and this time, Lei Xing's feet thoughtlessly took her forward.