After being busy fighting against my thoughts, I was handed a silk dress to put on before meeting the emperor.
If I never saw another bolt of silk in my life, it would be too soon.
"This one flatters your form, Your Grace," said the head maid, her smile sharp enough to slice through a royal throat.
I stared at the pale lavender robe clinging to my new body like wet paint. It shimmered under the candlelight, the embroidery so intricate I was afraid breathing would ruin it.
"I look like an expensive dumpling," I muttered under my breath but loud enough for them to hear.
No one laughed, Of course not. No one ever laughs in the palace unless it's at your funeral.
The handmaidens fluttered around me like decorative moths, brushing oils into my hair, dusting crushed pearls over my cheeks, and arranging a silver hairpin shaped like a phoenix through my now waist-length black hair.
I tried to smile but failed hopelessly and just held still, limbs locked like I might accidentally activate a death trap.
"Do I need to kneel?" I asked, voice tight. "Bow? Recite something?"
Silence fell in the room for a minute.
Then they exchanged looks, that kind of look that says "why is he acting brand new today."
But the real issue? I can't exactly tell them I woke up inside my own novel.
A younger maid stepped forward cautiously. Trying her best to put up with my behavior, then she uttered whilst holding eye contact with me.
"When His Majesty enters, you kneel. Head low. Eyes down. Speak only when spoken to, and… do not look him in the eyes."
"Ah." I nodded solemnly. "So exactly like being in a writing workshop with my old editor."
She didn't laugh either.
Fantastic. I was going to die wearing perfume made of crushed roses and pearl dust.
By the time they led me down the silent, echoing hall toward Azure Hall, I was sweating beneath the silk. Not from heat but dread.
The palace was just as I had written it: vast, cold, beautiful in a cruel sort of way. The floor beneath my bare feet gleamed with polished jade, so smooth it made my steps sound like sins being whispered into the void.
Carved dragons lined the walls. Lanterns flickered in tall sconces, throwing long shadows that danced across columns painted in imperial gold.
I could hear my heartbeat louder than my footsteps.
This was it. The chapter I wrote where Lian Yu is summoned for the first time… before being conveniently poisoned and sent into silent exile.
My throat tightened.
Two guards flanked the great doors of Azure Hall, each holding a halberd. At a nod from the eunuch escorting me, the heavy wooden doors creaked open.
Inside, golden light spilled from massive lanterns shaped like lotus flowers. Everything was warm, radiant, and terrifying.
A long carpet of crimson silk stretched toward a raised platform where he sat.
Emperor Long Renzhao.
Oh no.
He was even worse in person.
Worse in the sense that I had made him too good-looking. That was on me. That was entirely my fault.
Wearing obsidian robes embroidered with dragons, he lounged on the high throne. Sharp jaw, high cheekbones, eyes like black ice.
He wasn't smiling. He didn't need to. The silence around him bent like the very air feared him.
I gave him that face, I thought, bitterly. I gave him that aura. I gave him that stupidly sexy power complex and now I'm going to die because of it.
I hit my knees with all the grace of a collapsing scarecrow.
"Your Grace, Concubine Lian Yu presents himself," the eunuch announced.
I bowed my head low. Like, eat-the-floor low. My palms pressed to the cool stone.
Even though it isn't chapter 16 yet, but I can't afford to die just in chapter 1.
Nothing, he didn't say anything…the room was filled with deadly silence.
Was this it? Was he just going to sit there and let me stew before ordering my execution?
Then came the voice.
That cold, lazy , raspy voice—echoing through the room.
"Rise, Concubine Yu."
I twitched.
Why is that voice hot? That's illegal.
Slowly, carefully, I stood, head still ducked, unsure how far was too far. Was eye contact punishable by death? I couldn't remember.
Did I write that? Maybe. Probably.
"I heard you were unwell," he said, voice unreadable. "And yet here you stand. Curious."
"I… recovered," I offered, wincing internally. Recovered? From dying and taking over the body of your fictional creation?
The Emperor studied me. I could feel it. That calculating gaze, dissecting me down to the marrow. I dared to lift my eyes, just for a second.
Big mistake.
Those eyes were not indifferent. They weren't warm either—but there was a flicker. A crack in the cold.
Was that… interest? My stomach twisted.
"You've been silent for a long time," the Emperor said. "Too long. It made people forget you were here."
I blinked. "I—" Trying to come up with another excuse but didn't know the right choice of words.
He stood then, descending the steps with slow, deliberate steps. Each footfall echoed in the cavernous hall like thunder.
He stopped in front of me.
Up close, I hated how tall he was. Tall and broad-shouldered, radiating the kind of danger that made the air feel thinner.
Then, gently, so gently it almost felt like a dream, he reached out and touched my chin.
I forgot how to breathe.
"You look different," he said.
No shit.
"You'll attend the Lantern Banquet tonight," he continued, voice a low command. "I trust you'll behave."
My brain short-circuited. The Lantern Banquet? That's two chapters early.
"I—Yes, Your Majesty," I managed, forcing a bow.
I could feel the weight of every gaze in the room. Whispers barely contained. Jealousy sharpening like hidden blades.
No one expected this. Lian Yu was irrelevant. Unimportant. Doomed.
Not anymore.
The Emperor walked away without looking back.
The eunuch bowed again. "His Majesty has spoken. You will be escorted to prepare."
I nodded, dazed, and let myself be led away.
Once the doors closed behind me, I pressed a hand to my chest and tried not to scream.
What the hell was that?!
He touched me,looked me dead in the eye and invited me. Should I take this as a warm welcome or should I be scared—because that was unexpected.
I staggered toward my chambers like a ghost, limbs trembling.
Lian Yu was back in the game.
And I? I was officially off-script. That was a great start off, atleast this proves I can rewrite the story from the inside.
"Cool," I said breathlessly. "I just unlocked a bonus death route."