Waking

When he slowly woke from the dream, the first thing Gao Linyuan felt was the cold, hard surface beneath him. Next came the damp air drawn in through his nose, mixed with the smells of rot and a rank, bloody stench. Last of all, a dull ache inside his head throbbed in time with his heartbeat, as if something were stirring there. A crick in his neck? He really shouldn't have changed pillows... It wasn't warm out—how had the kitchen trash gone foul in a single night... Thoughts kept rising through his muddled mind. His eyes still shut, one hand was already reaching beside the pillow to pick up his phone and check the time, while the other pinched toward his nose, trying to block the strange smell. But he neither touched a phone still attached to its charging cable, nor pinched a nose. Or rather, what he pinched was not his own nose... but a straight, smooth nose bridge, fine-skinned and a little cool under his fingers, and the equally soft face to either side of it. Whose face was this? Gao Linyuan snapped alert and forced his eyelids open. His surroundings flooded into view. He lay curled in a narrow alley. Under him was a pavement of sharp broken stone. On both sides stood classically styled houses of brick and stone, their second floors jutting outward so that the already narrow lane felt even more cramped. In the corners, several heaps of nameless refuse gave off a pungent, rank stench. He wasn't at home? Then where was this? Questions crowded into Gao Linyuan's mind. The headache that had just begun to ease came back. Then broken memories woke one after another. Ignoring the pain, he got up from the ground, his body swaying and as hard to control as if he were hungover, then raised a forearm, and looked at his palm by the faint crimson light. They were fair-skinned hands, evenly proportioned, the knuckles slightly prominent from thinness. Then came slender forearms with veins lying faint beneath the skin; a body with a trim waist and a softly rounded chest; and a plain long dress stained with many mottled black marks. Sure enough, this was not his body at all... And most important of all, this body... ...this body was female! With a boom, more incoherent fragments of memory abruptly flooded his mind. Xialuote, born in Telier, capital of the Kingdom of Yindisi, now living in Suxite, having just passed her seventeenth birthday... Her mother had died early. Her elder sister and elder brother had also left this world one after another, through accident and through war. Now she and her father had only each other... She believed in the "Eternal Blazing Sun," but only as a lukewarm believer. She went to church to pray now and then, and could not even make the gesture of spreading both arms to embrace the sun quite correctly... She had been well educated. Besides her own country's Yindisi language, she had a passing acquaintance with Ancient Fusake and with the Luen language and Fusake language derived from it... Yindisi? Fusake? Luen? Clinging to a last thread of hope, he slowly turned his stiff neck and looked up at the sky, squeezed by the buildings on either side into something like a straight line. In the pitch-black night, a scarlet-red half-moon leaned out beside the rooftops and covered the whole alley. It let Gao Linyuan see that the crimson light over everything came from the moon itself, lying across it all like a sheer veil—at once alluring and uncanny. That shattered the last of Gao Linyuan's wishful thinking. A red moon he had never seen, low houses that looked like medieval buildings, a linen dress on his body like a stage costume... All of it proved beyond doubt that this was not Earth. He really had transmigrated, and by what was called soul transmigration, into an unfamiliar woman's body! From the memories gradually reviving in his mind, this world was still in the time before the Industrial Revolution. There were no steam engines, no electricity, and certainly none of the internet modern people knew. Even the flush toilet had not been invented. Emptying the filth from chamber pots wherever one pleased was daily life for most households. His gaze slowly settled on the rotting refuse in the corner. The corner of Gao Linyuan's mouth twitched. Transmigration was not so fine as the web novels he had read made it out to be—especially when he had appeared in a dim alley, keeping company with nameless excrement... Right! A jolt ran through him. He forced himself to calm down and quickly searched the broken memories for why he had appeared here in the middle of the night. But unlike that earlier knowledge, fragmented yet still connected, what had happened not long ago was like a puzzle missing its key pieces. Looking down on it, one could make out the outline, but not the details. All that remained of Xialuote's last memories was a shrill scream, violent shaking, sticky blood, a cold body, and a stretch of deep darkness. Blood... Gao Linyuan looked down without thinking, and realized the black marks on the dress were dried blood, its color even darker under the crimson moonlight. Could Xialuote's body already have died before this, so that his transmigration had instead become the chance for a "resurrection"... Even as he guessed, his hands reached toward his body. He hesitated for an instant at the soft chest and the slender waist, then felt along them regardless. There was no sign of a wound. Even the clothes were not torn. The blood was someone else's... Wait—what was this? The hand groping at his waist pressed down on something hard. He carefully drew it out from inside the linen sash at his waist and, by the moonlight, confirmed that he held a sheathed short dagger. He drew the dagger on instinct. The keen edge gave off a cold gleam, but a smear of black covered most of it. Blood! A bloodstained dress, and a bloodstained dagger hidden on him—could this body be some murderer on the run... Worry over the transmigration, the headache that kept rising, and memories surfacing in fragments all tangled in his mind, and Gao Linyuan could think no further. He carefully slid the dagger back into its leather sheath and tucked it into the sash at his waist. He worked his still somewhat stiff body, found his direction with the help of the moonlight, and scrambled out of the dim alley on hands and feet, bracing against the wall and pushing off the ground, until he came onto a broad street. The red moon still hung high, but it was no longer the only light. Not far off, a heavy oil lamp was fixed to a wall corner by an iron bracket. Its orange-yellow glow happened to fall over Gao Linyuan, giving his stiff, cold body a thread of warmth, and a feeling of having returned to the civilized world. By the lamplight he quickly looked all around. His gaze passed over the alley he had come from, the doorways and columns of differing shapes on either side, the crude railing across the street, and, farther off, a river whose surface glittered and yet was unusually still. For a moment he did not know where he ought to go. The memories Xialuote had left him were still waking. At this moment, Gao Linyuan only remembered that "his" home was in Saint Luoke District, in the eastern part of Suxite. Where he was, and which way was east, he had no idea at all. Fortunately, he would not have to worry about that for long. "Who goes there!" A furious shout reached his ears. Gao Linyuan looked up. Two men had appeared on the far side of the oil lamp's light. They wore gray-white clothes and cloth caps. One walked in front carrying a glass oil lamp; the other gripped a round-headed staff nearly as tall as he was. Both watched this way warily. The shout came from the man with the lamp. The pronunciation of those brief words was unfamiliar, but the matching meaning surfaced at once in Gao Linyuan's mind. He realized it was the Yindisi language, the one this body knew best, and answered without thinking: "I'm only lost." The clear, crisp voice that left his mouth startled even him. The two men before him, dressed like night watchmen, exchanged a puzzled glance as well. The one who had shouted earlier frowned and looked Gao Linyuan up and down, his gaze stopping on the black stain on the skirt's hem. "Several murders happened in the Old City at the same time. The security commissioner says every suspicious person on the road is to be questioned." The lamp-bearer had clearly taken the bloodstained girl before him for a suspect. His face was grim. "Whether you're lost or not, you're coming with us." That hard manner made Gao Linyuan take a step back, leave the light, and retreat into the dark. At the same time, as if those words had struck a keyword, more memories began to ripple through his mind. A security commissioner was the official in charge of public order in each district, equivalent to a chief of police. Under him, aside from a few paid patrols, most were night watchmen drawn from citizens serving by civic duty. These two should be the latter. Their usual night rounds were only a matter of going through the motions, but since there had been a murder, they would not let any suspicious person go. And Xialuote had appeared in a dark alley covered in blood and carrying a weapon, her memories thrown into confusion by the transmigration. If he was seized, he would very likely become the scapegoat once the killer could not be found—thrown into prison without ever knowing why, or even hanged outright. At that thought he took another step back. His eyes darted to the dim street beyond the lamp's glow, searching for a way to run. The movement only made the two night watchmen more certain the girl before them was suspicious. The man with the lamp drew a short club from his waist. His companion raised the round-headed staff and leveled it at Gao Linyuan like a spear. Working together, they closed in from different angles, as if to drive him back toward the alley behind him. Gao Linyuan, just out of that dark alley, knew it was a dead end. Done for. He should have pretended to cooperate, and picked a moment on the road to run... Regret washed through him, but it was too late to help. He knew his last chance was to slip into the dark and get away before the two closed the circle. He was just about to cut past the man who held the lamp in one hand—whose short club could not reach far enough—and risk taking a blow to escape, when he suddenly saw a shadow appear behind the two of them. Thud. With that muffled sound, the night watchman with the long staff, a step behind the other, sank into the dark and was gone. The staff rolled to Gao Linyuan's feet. The lamp-bearer realized his companion had fallen and whipped his head around, only to take a heavy blow full in the face. The short club left his hand. The oil lamp flew upward. His body pitched backward and crashed hard to the ground. Gao Linyuan instinctively looked at the long staff that had rolled to his feet, then at the two night watchmen, neither of whom moved. They did not struggle. They did not twitch. Not even a cry of pain came from them. Only the oil lamp, flung into the air and not yet fallen, was caught by a white-gloved palm. As the light swayed, the shadow showed itself. What appeared before Gao Linyuan was a tall man in a black tricorn and a thick, waist-fitted coat that reached his thighs. A white silk neckcloth showed at his chest. Below, he wore close-fitting breeches, white stockings stretched tight over his calves, and black square-toed leather shoes. That respectable dress, as if the man had stepped out of a movie, left Gao Linyuan somewhat dazed. That he had dealt with two night watchmen so easily only added a shade of mystery to who he was. But before Gao Linyuan could decide whether to run, the man in black had already taken off his tricorn, revealing slightly curled white hair, set his feet together, and bowed slightly in greeting. "Miss, I am Aidian. Your father, Baron Lawuer Suolun, sent me to fetch you." Suolun... a baron? More memories welled up in Gao Linyuan's mind. The only kin this body of his still had to rely on, Lawuer Suolun, was a member of one of the ancient families that had founded the Kingdom of Yindisi. Though the Suolun still held the country to this day, Lawuer was only a thinly blooded branch of the family. He had the empty title of baron, and none of the strength to match it. After his finances ran into trouble, he had even fled the capital, Telier, in disgrace, and returned to Suxite Province, where his domain lay. Even so, Lawuer Suolun still had noble blood and a hereditary station. He was a respected aristocrat. Wait—by that logic, was he an aristocrat now too? Gao Linyuan—no, Xialuote Suolun—felt a leap of joy. Even the waist she had bent to keep herself hidden straightened a little. She was just about to answer with a noble's grace when Aidian spoke again. "The situation is extremely urgent. Please come with me at once." Xialuote nodded. She glanced at the two night watchmen lying on the ground, alive or dead she could not tell, stepped around them, and followed Aidian—lamp in hand, hat on his head again—at a quick pace along the riverbank. And, as if stirred by one shock after another, the memories in her mind that belonged to the original Xialuote Suolun kept waking in time with their steps and with the brightening and dimming of the street lamps. ...The river beside the street should be one of the two main rivers that ran through Suxite, the Suona River. South along the river, the bridge linking the east and west banks would take her into Saint Luoke District, and back to Baron Suolun's residence... ...In this world, where aristocrats and commoners were different in essence, so long as she got home, changed out of this bloodstained linen long dress that was nothing like a noble's clothing, and resumed her usual dress, then even if the night watchmen from just now woke and identified her in person, no one would believe them... At that thought, the nerves that had been drawn tight ever since the transmigration finally eased. Xialuote looked up at Aidian walking ahead with the lamp, his leather shoes tapping on the uneven paving stones, yet she could not recall who he was, no matter how she tried. He seemed to know her, but she had never seen him... Growing more doubtful, yet afraid to ask and give away her "loss of memory," Xialuote hesitated until the two of them left the riverside street for a broader road, where huge lamps hung overhead on ropes. Only then did she speak. "The night watchmen said there were murders in the Old City. Does that have anything to do with the emergency you mentioned?" As if surprised by the question, Aidian slowed a little. His head, under the tricorn, turned this way. He glanced at Xialuote from the corner of his eye and nodded. "The Church and the garrison have both turned out. The streets are full of night watchmen. If they catch you on the spot, even the Baron would find it hard to get you free." The Church... did that mean the "Eternal Blazing Sun," or the other great religion of the Kingdom of Yindisi, the "Craftsman Church"? Aidian had even set them ahead of the army. Was it because religion held enormous power in this world? Xialuote guessed from the fragments of memory and her own line of thought, then pressed on. "Then will I be all right? Two night watchmen saw my face and took me for a suspect. And there really is blood on me, and I was in an alley in the Old City..." "So long as you are not caught outright, your father will take care of everything." Aidian answered with certainty. Xialuote was not so sure. She had already remembered that the street she stood on was the main road across the peninsula at the center of Suxite, and remembered where the Municipal Square and the exchange lay along it. But she had no memory at all of what had actually happened to this body before she transmigrated, or of why the original Xialuote Suolun had fainted in an alley dressed as a commoner. She gravely doubted whether that father, whom she had never met, could truly settle everything. And the memories that kept waking confirmed another important thing... "Mr. Aidian, you said just now that you would escort me back to see my father." She slowed her steps and gradually left the reach of the black-hatted man's lamp, until she was in the dark between two streetlamps. After he gave a "mm," she went on, "But why is the way we're heading the Dock District?" The steady tread of footsteps stopped short. Xialuote hesitated no longer and bolted for another street at her side. She had already noticed that Aidian, who spoke of taking her to see her father, was leading her farther from home, and that he had not held back at all when he struck the night watchmen. She suspected he was not a rescuer sent by Lawuer Suolun at all. But she had held off acting, afraid that, still unused to this new body, she would not get more than a few steps down the open street before he caught her. The road she had chosen now was not far from the Municipal Square, where the officials and nobles lived, among them no shortage of people of standing who knew Baron Suolun and Xialuote. If she could reach them and give her name, she would be safe! But she had not run more than a few steps before the familiar sound of leather shoes came from behind her. After a brief hesitation, Aidian gave chase, closing the distance at astonishing speed. At this rate she certainly could not reach the city hall. Even if she did, the night guards would very likely seize her first—an unidentified person covered in blood... Listening to the wordless pursuer's footsteps rapidly drawing near, a flash of inspiration crossed her mind. Among the rows of doorways and windowsills on both sides of the street, she found the one that memory knew. With a bang, Xialuote slammed bodily into a dark brown wooden door some three meters high. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she knocked and shouted at the same time: "Is Baron Gusitafu in? "I am Baron Suolun's daughter! "Help!" She pounded twice more before turning, her back to the door, and looking the way she had come. Black clothes, black hat, white neckcloth and gloves swaying, Aidian appeared not far off with the oil lamp, seeming unhurried and in fact anything but. The light fell across his face and showed an expression in which puzzlement outweighed anger. He seemed still unable to understand why his employer's daughter had suddenly fled him as if she had gone mad. Just then, the heavy wooden door slowly opened inward, leaving a gap just wide enough to pass. A short man dressed as a servant appeared. Before he could speak, Xialuote slipped through the gap and into a spacious open courtyard. Compared with the dim, deserted street, the place was bright with many oil lamps. Several menservants and maids who had still been at their work stared this way in surprise. On the stairs at the far end of the courtyard, a tall middle-aged man with chestnut hair of medium length was coming down at an easy pace. The lapelled coat he had thrown on in haste was not yet buttoned, and the look he turned on Xialuote was searching. Only when she saw Baron Gusitafu, who had some acquaintance with the Suolun family, did Xialuote truly let out a breath. Suddenly she sensed another gaze. She looked up on instinct toward the second floor of the half-open courtyard. Behind a window that had just been opened, a head leaned out—chestnut hair slightly curled, a high straight nose, lips on the thin side. Blue eyes looked curiously down at the uninvited guest below. That was the only child of Baron Gusitafu's house, close to Xialuote in age: Luosaier Gusitafu.