I transmigrated at the very moment the stage lights came crashing down.
My final memory was the waves of laughter at a stand-up comedy show. I was holding the microphone and joking, “They say emperors in palace dramas spread their favor evenly. If you ask me, they should introduce a KPI system and let the consort with the fewest nights in attendance go...” Suddenly, the spotlight overhead began to creak ominously.
“Look out!” The audience's screams were swallowed by a blinding white light.
When I opened my eyes again, the scent of sandalwood mixed with dragon's musk hit my nose. I was lying on a carved red sandalwood bed, beneath twelve layers of gauzy silk curtains swaying in the night breeze. Outside, the water clock marked the passing hours.
“Your Majesty, you're awake?” A young woman in a pale yellow palace dress hurried in with a copper basin. When she saw me try to sit up, she dropped it with a clang. “Please lie back down! The imperial physician said the lamp stand hit the back of your head. You absolutely mustn't, ”
I stared at the water rippling in the basin and suddenly grabbed her wrist. “What dynasty is this? What's the emperor's name? Who am I?”
“Y-Yongchang Year Three...” The maid trembled like a leaf. “You are Empress Lin, the empress of the central palace. His Majesty granted you the title ‘Bright...’ last month, ”
In the bronze mirror, I saw a face that looked about seventy percent like mine. A cinnabar dot marked the space between her brows, and a bloodstained bandage wrapped her left wrist. Wait, the birthmark on this body was in exactly the same place as the burn scar I had in my modern life.
“Empress Bright Moon...” I touched the inscription on the jade comb in the dressing case, and a sudden, splitting headache hit me. Fragments of memory surged in like a tide: sitting alone by the candles until dawn on her wedding night, the emperor coming to comb her hair on the fifteenth of every month, and half a burned portrait hidden at the bottom of her jewelry box.
As the midnight watch drum sounded, the doors to the bedchamber burst open.
