Circumventing Fate

"-ing that -" The head physician suddenly paused, "I thought you said the Emperor wasn't here." He harshly whispered, grabbing Xiao Ruo's arm in a panic.     

"He's not." Xiao Ruo said with a frown as she shook his hand off, "He went to the main hall."     

The head physician blinked in confusion, "If he's not here, then who is that then?" He whispered in annoyance, pointing at the bed. Xiao Ruo blinked at him, and even though she thought the head physician must have finally lost his mind from lack of stress, she still turned around to "check", and then almost jumped out of her skin when there was indeed someone else there, although she could not see the face because the person was sprawled over Lei Xing's legs, over the blanket.     

Xiao Ruo was dumbfounded, "I - huh?"     

The other servants had also stopped what they were doing and were questioning themselves, wondering when the Emperor came in and more importantly, if they should leave.     

Xiao Ruo was the most confused, the Emperor had just left not long ago. She had also not left the room since he left. If he came back, she would naturally know about it - unless he jumped in just now from one of the windows, but why would he do that? Even then, someone should have noticed, right? There were so many people in the room and no one had said anything.     

Also, the Emperor left here just now wearing black and gold, when did he have time to change? What's more, she was also pretty sure he did not wear this color, she had never seen the Emperor wearing green.     

But then...who else would be on the bed if not the Emperor? Therefore, it had to be the Emperor.     

Xiao Ruo cautiously approached the bed, "Your majesty-...?"     

***     

Back in the main hall.     

The Emperor stopped in front of the Zou Prime minister and looked down at the old man holding up the stack of papers towards him trying his best to steady his hand, but the weakness in them betrayed his best effort. The Emperor really did not know what to make of this.     

When the Emperor did not immediately take the papers, the Zou Prime minister glared at him and ordered, "Take them." It was difficult enough doing this - exposing the underbelly of the world he built to his enemy, he would not be subject to the humiliation of begging.     

The Emperor finally took the papers, still with a frown on his face, he had just opened them when Commander An suddenly rushed in from outside. The Emperor stopped and looked up as Commander An reached his side and hurriedly whispered in the Emperor's ear, "An intruder appeared in the Empress's palace but it-"     

"What?!" The Emperor interjected, he immediately panicked, and would have rushed off if not for Commander An grabbing his arm, "The Empress is unharmed, everything is already under control." He hurriedly reassured.     

The Emperor glared at him and he quickly dropped his hand. The Emperor slammed the stack of papers onto Commander An's chest as he turned his glare on the old man, "If you had a hand in this, death will be the least of your worries." He warned and stormed off before the old man could even grasp what was happening.     

Commander An quickly followed after the Emperor as the Zou prime minister, angered by the threat, pushed to his feet in anger and moved to follow forgetting his current state, "How dare you threaten me?! Do you know who I-" The sharp pain that shot through him quickly reminded him and sent him to the ground as he collapsed in a coughing fit.     

Through watering eyes, he painfully glared at the Emperor's back as he disappeared around the corner, enraged by what just happened and more so, the ridicule he had been reduced to, by his own grandson's hands nonetheless.     

{...I won't forget this, even in death, I won't forget this. I will find a way to-...}     

His thoughts were cut short as his vision blacked out. His aides and the others outside quickly rushed in when they heard the commotion. An Hao glanced around and quickly rushed to the side entrance after the Emperor, he had seen the worry on his father's face after the guard had whispered whatever it was in his ear. He recognized the guard as one of the Emperor's personal guards so he was worried.     

"Your majesty." An Hao called out as he reached the Emperor, causing the Emperor to stop in his tracks and look over his shoulder, "I-" An Hao froze when the Emperor's cold eyes met his, the Emperor had never looked at him like that before. He blinked, swallowed, and quickly fell to his knees and bowed his head, "I should have realized it sooner... I disappointed you." When the Emperor did not say anything, An Hao raised his head to look at him, only to find the Emperor looking past him.     

An Hao turned his head to find Prime Minister Zhao behind him and frowned. Prime Minister Zhao quickly bowed, "I - I was worried...did something else happen?" He asked, looking up at the Emperor with the best worried expression he could muster.     

{...Is she finally dead?...}     

He was standing next to Commander An when the report came and had caught on to the mention of the Empress, that was the only thing he heard. Seeing how the color drained from Commander An's face and his hurry to get inside, followed by the Emperor's behavior has given him much hope for celebration.     

The Emperor narrowed his eyes at Prime Minister Zhao and he quickly lowered his eyes, hoping the Emperor could not sense his hidden glee with bated breath.     

"Imprison everyone who escorted the Zou prime minister here." The Emperor finally spoke, his eyes still on Prime Minister Zhao who whipped his head up to look at him, along with An Hao.     

"Everyone?" Commander An uncharacteristically stupidly asked.     

"Everyone." The Emperor coldly said, his eyes turning to him, "Send the old man to the infirmary...I won't accept any more mistakes." He added looking down at An Hao, who lowered his head. The Emperor turned and hurriedly left, rushing back to Lei Xing's side. He knew he should not have left her alone, he definitely won't make the same mistake again.     

Commander An knit his brows and stood in place, feeling conflicted. He looked down at An Hao who was still staring after the Emperor.     

The Emperor's solution to everything these days was to lock people up. It couldn't be that the Emperor was starting to doubt An Hao too, right? This was his own son, if the Emperor asked him to - Commander An frowned and snapped at attention, there was no way the Emperor was doubting his son. He was getting ahead of himself.     

The Emperor was simply disappointed, it was normal for An Hao to be punished, in fact, he deserved it. This was simply a temporary measure. Once the Empress wakes up, the Emperor's mind will settle and everything will resolve itself accordingly.     

With that, Commander An steeled himself and turned to carry out the orders.     

***     

"I've already told you, there's no other way out of here..."     

"And I should simply take your word for it because?..." Lei Xing irritatedly said, "You don't even know where this is or how you got here, how could you possibly know the way out?" She dismissively asked as she continued marching across the dark expanse, this time with renewed vigor - wanting to quickly get away from this crazy woman. The floating orb was still trailing behind her, with the young woman gliding along with it, relentlessly following her. There was no way she was going to believe this nonsense.     

Lei Xing glanced over her shoulder and her frown deepened as she faced forward, " You don't even know who you are..." She mumbled under her breath.     

"I also told you...I am you." The young woman also mumbled under her breath, clearly sharing Lei Xing's irritation. This seemed to further agitate Lei Xing as she spun around and faced her, coming to a stop.     

"You are not me." Lei Xing bit out, "If you were really me, you wouldn't believe you either, and the fact that you think that I should 'accept'-" She moved her fingers to air quote, "- this nonsense makes it resoundingly clear that we are not the same person. The fact that you even think that shows how deluded and insane you are. Stay away from me!" She shouted and turned to continue looking for her exit, but then the young woman glided in front of her with a frown.     

"I've told you, we don't have time for this. The power-"     

"Ah yes, the power you borrowed. What do you care? You said we'd be able to leave after my body dies, right? Just wait for that, you lose nothing." Lei Xing sarcastically said and sidestepped her.     

"Don't you care about your life there?!" The young woman blocked her again, glaring at her now, looking upset.     

"I care about not being bamboozled by you! Who the hell knows what you're after?" Lei Xing clapped back, returning her glare. This crazy person probably thought she was an easy person to trick earlier because she was very briefly muddleheaded for a few minutes earlier. This crazy woman probably did something to mess with her mind, it was probably those stupid visions.     

Eventually, the young woman backed down with a sigh, "Alright, I don't want to argue with you, we don't have time for that. I -" She took a deep breath, "I admit, this sounds a bit...hard to swallow -"     

"Insane." Lei Xing helpfully supplied.     

"Insane." The young woman accepted with a half-smile, clearly trying to pacify Lei Xing, "Still, you've never met me before, but you know me, you know this face. You found me familiar enough to be curious about me. We are not ones to be curious about people who have nothing to do with us, the world could erupt in flames and we wouldn't care -" She stopped, closing her eyes with a frown, and then corrected, "No, we would care, enough to stop it out of a sense of duty, but that duty does not extend to the individual people of the world."     

Lei Xing scoffed, "I wouldn't. Did I start the fire? Is the fire a result because of my actions? Then I have no duty to interfere, not my business. There, even more reason why we're not the same person." She said with a mocking smile. The young woman narrowed her eyes at her but did not retort. So, Lei Xing thought she had finally got her message across and sidestepped her and walked away.      

"Ah, I see... It finally makes sense." The young woman said, Lei Xing rolled her eyes but did not stop, "You are the cowardly side of me." The young woman added and Lei Xing's stopped in her tracks.      

Lei Xing slowly turned around and was met with a condescending gaze, the young woman also had a slight smirk on her lips that also seemed to be looking down on her, "The side of me that always wants to run away, the side that worries so much about the thoughts of others that she wallows in self-loathing. The first thing you did on meeting me was to cower and inquire about others, not me, others"     

"You look down on the world, and yet despise it for looking down on you when you yourself look down on yourself. I was wondering why I was able to be so calm and at peace here, it was because you were gone. I did not miss you, I did not even realize you were gone. If my thinking is correct, then you must know how I got here, we may not remember it, but you were probably trying to run away from something again... you even coming here was probably trying to run away from something as well, isn't it?"     

Instead of getting angry, Lei Xing broke out in laughter, "Alright... alright. Sure, why not? I think we're on the same page here, we both want nothing to do with each other, so f**k off!"     

"Running away again, of course." The young woman said before Lei Xing could move. Lei Xing clenched her fists, she was boiling on the inside, battling with her pride right now. The woman had been in her head, so, of course, she was able to gain these "insights".     

"You don't know me. You might think you do because you used underhanded means to play in my head, but you don't know me." Lei Xing's voice was filled with defiance. She couldn't help but feel violated by the woman's intrusion.     

"Let me tell you my theory," Lei Xing continued, her voice steady. "You've been here so long that you've forgotten who you are, so you latch onto me to define your existence. I may despise myself sometimes, but I also love myself more than anyone. You don't even have that."     

Lei Xing raised her head proudly, a defiant smile on her lips. "Stay away from me." With those words, she turned and stormed away with determined strides.     

{... Thank you for messing with my head and making me feel like the butt of an even bigger joke, I swear when I find that old man this time I'm really gonna kill him! Don't know how, don't know when, but I will!...}     

The young woman watched her departing figure for a moment before closing her eyes with a sigh, "I guess it can't be avoided..."     

Lei Xing suddenly found herself frozen mid-step. She could no longer move her body, not even her eyes or mouth, nothing was in her control. She was even locked out of her own thoughts. An overwhelming sense of panic filled her as she watched the young woman glide out in front of her.      

The young woman gave her a wry smile, "I said I was content to just watch, that was a lie. I also can't wait for you to die... I'm sorry I can't do that, I won't." She said and then glided forward, seemingly through Lei Xing.      

Next thing, Lei Xing felt her body move, but it was not by her will, "It would have been easier if we willingly reconciled...This is going to hurt like hell, brace yourself." Lei Xing heard her own voice say.      

Her body was truly hijacked!     

Before Lei Xing could fully panic with this new reality, the floating orb began acting up. The central orb's light brightened, almost to the point of it being blinding, the light slowly crept into the intricate golden pointers as the floating orb rose into the air, moving back a few paces, before settling in place mid-aid, fully alight and bright, beckoning them to come.     

Her body turned once more and scanned the dark expanse of the void, nostalgic feelings creeping up - she would miss it. Lei Xing knew these emotions were not hers, she detested the place from the moment she arrived. The unending darkness gave no peace, only anxiety.     

These insane emotions were her crazy captor's... this was really problematic, she was even stuck feeling someone else's emotions.     

Seemingly done reminiscing, her body faced forward, took a deep breath, "Thank you for showing me..." With those dubious last words to her passenger, they flew into the orb's blinding center. Although it felt more like smashed into the floating orb with the pain that followed.     

Lei Xing's body began to disintegrate, the agonizing pain on a relentless loop. It felt as if she were being torn apart, each cell and inch of her body shredded away. Just when the pain seemed to relent slightly, it transformed into a sensation of being pulled inside out, with her eyes at the epicenter of this excruciating agony.     

As she teetered on the brink of what felt like her imminent demise, Lei Xing suddenly felt herself being pulled back by a powerful force. The pain dissipated, replaced by an overwhelming rush of life—a deluge of thoughts, feelings, memories she longed to embrace, and others she desperately wished to erase.