Li Mei's hands floated over the keyboard, her fingers dancing across the cool keys, bringing lines of code into digital existence. The monitor's light cast a cold blue glow on her anti-radiation glasses, framing a thin face usually touched only by exhaustion. It was half past midnight. Again. TechNova's headquarters in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, hummed with the drone of the air conditioning and the silent whir of thousands of servers downstairs. Here, on the twenty-eighth floor, only a few cubicles still had their lights on, silent witnesses to the limitless ambition that drove this city.
"Mei, how's that module coming along?" Manager Wang's voice, raspy from too many late nights, cut through her concentration. Mei lifted her head, her neck stiff. Wang stood at her cubicle's edge, his shadow stretching across the gray carpet. He held a Starbucks cup, likely his tenth of the day.
"Almost done, Manager Wang. Just minor debugging." Mei tried to make her voice sound more enthusiastic than she felt. Inside, she cursed the invisible bug that popped up like a ghost in the dead of night. It was a bug making their new e-commerce payment system's interface vulnerable to cross-site scripting attacks, a tiny flaw that could be fatal for millions of transactions.
Wang nodded, his eyes sharp on Mei's screen. "Good. We have a demo for the investors from Shanghai tomorrow morning. No issues. This is a crucial project." He turned, his steps heavy, heading to the cubicle at the far end.
Mei sighed. Crucial. That word was a melody played daily at TechNova, an unending battle cry. Every deadline, every project, every line of code, was "crucial." Mei's family in Hunan Province might not fully understand what she did in this metropolis, but they knew "crucial" meant money, meant future, meant hope.
Her mother called every week, her voice a mix of worry and pride. "How are you doing in Shenzhen, Mei? Are you eating regularly? Don't work too hard." Then, moments later, in a quieter, more hopeful tone, "When can you send money for your brother's school? The price of rice here has gone up again." Mei never complained. She understood. She was the backbone of her small family, a bridge between the village fields and the city's glass towers.
Back to the code. Mei took a sip of her cold instant coffee. The caffeine no longer gave her a boost, just a slight tremor at her nerve endings. She started to feel the familiar migraine that usually arrived at vulnerable hours like these. This was the price to pay for chasing dreams, a price every young person in Shenzhen knew well.
Suddenly, the lights in the office flickered. Once. Twice. Mei frowned. Power never failed at TechNova. The building had multiple backup energy systems. Unless...
"What's going on?!" Wang's voice sounded panicked from across the room.
The lights flickered again, longer this time, followed by a low rumble from underground. The rumble wasn't an earthquake. It was more like a giant machine waking from a long sleep. Then, the sound turned into a vibration that Mei felt under her feet, growing stronger, deeper.
"There's a problem in the server center!" a technician shouted from a distance. "Backup systems are failing!"
The electricity completely died for a moment, only to come back on with a dim glow, as if the world was blinking. Mei felt a sharp uneasiness. Something was terribly wrong. TechNova's main server center was the heart of all their operations, the nerve center for millions of users' data.
The vibrations intensified. Monitors on desks began to flicker wildly, displaying nonsensical lines of code, jumping graphs, and then, strange symbols Mei had never seen. The symbols looked ancient, abstract, and utterly foreign to a software engineer's eyes.
"What the hell is this?!" Mei heard Wang shout again, louder this time, mixed with the piercing sound of alarms that had just begun to blare.
Mei stood from her chair, her eyes glued to the screen. The strange symbols multiplied, seemingly devouring all modern data. The vibrations from below became unbearable, as if something was boiling beneath the earth. Mei felt her breath catch. Her heart pounded, pumping adrenaline through her body.
Suddenly, a bright, lightning-white light exploded from the floor beneath them. It wasn't just electrical light; it was a pure energy blast that blinded the eyes. The glass walls shook violently, and Mei heard cracks forming in the building's structure.
"Take cover!" someone yelled.
Mei had no time to react. The wave of energy struck her, piercing her body with infinite force. She felt a strange sensation, as if her soul was detaching from her skin, pulled by an invisible, incomprehensible power. Her vision blurred, surrounded by blinding white light and a deafening roar. She felt herself being drawn into a vortex, floating aimlessly, weightlessly.
Her mind was blank, then filled with chaotic flashes of images: rice fields in a village, her mother's wrinkled face, a crowded subway car, familiar lines of code, and then, silhouettes of magnificent ancient buildings, luxurious silk robes, and strange faces with tall hats.
The energy wave faded, replaced by a deep darkness that swallowed her. Mei didn't know how long she floated in that void. Perhaps seconds, perhaps centuries. She only felt a cold emptiness, and then, the strange sensation of a body that wasn't hers.
A New Chapter: Awakening in the Palace
A heavy sigh escaped lips that felt unfamiliar. Mei's eyes, feeling heavy, slowly opened. Darkness still surrounded her, but this time, there was a soft warmth. She felt smooth silk fabric beneath her hands, and a strange, sweet, slightly intoxicating incense aroma filled her senses. Not the smell of instant coffee or the ozone from an air conditioner.
"The Princess Consort is awake!" A woman's voice sounded nearby, her tone relieved and slightly panicked.
Princess Consort? Mei tried to move her body. It felt heavy, not like her own slender and slightly muscular body from her habit of walking fast in Shenzhen. This felt softer, more... feminine.
A faint light began to seep in, not from LED lamps but from flickering candles. Mei looked around. She was in a luxurious, yet unfamiliar room. The walls were carved with intricate patterns, silk curtains hung gracefully, and above her, a bed canopy made of wood carved with dragons and phoenixes. This was not her rented apartment in Shenzhen. This wasn't even a five-star hotel.
Two young women knelt beside the bed, wearing long gowns with wide sleeves and neatly tied hair. Their faces were filled with worry.
"Princess Consort, thank goodness you're awake," said one of them, who looked older, her voice gentle. "You worried us. Her Highness didn't eat for two days after that incident."
Mei stared at her, confused. "Incident? I... who am I?" She tried to say "I'm Li Mei," but what came out of her lips was a softer, higher voice, one she didn't recognize. It felt like the wrong voice box.
The two women exchanged glances, their expressions turning anxious. "Princess Consort, don't you remember? You are Xiu Luan, the Princess Consort of His Royal Highness the Prince, and you fainted after the incident in the Orchid Pavilion. The Palace Doctor said you just needed rest, but... your memory?"
Xiu Luan? The Prince? Orchid Pavilion? The words sounded foreign and strange to Mei's ears. She tried to remember Manager Wang's name, her company's name, even her apartment address. Empty. Her brain refused that information, as if she had never been Li Mei. Yet, she knew she was Li Mei. She felt that identity deep within her, regardless of what her lips and brain were saying now.
Mei tried to lift her hand. Her fingers were slender, her nails neat and long, not her own short nails sometimes stained with marker ink. Her skin felt smooth, without the small scars from cable scratches or the edge of a mouse she knew so well. She stared at her palm. No calluses from holding a mouse for hours.
This was not her body.
Panic began to creep into her chest. An impossible, absurd reality flooded her. She had died. Or gone crazy. Or...
"I'm thirsty," Mei said, her voice still unfamiliar.
The younger woman quickly poured tea from an elegant porcelain pot. Mei took the cup, feeling its warmth in her palm. She drank slowly, trying to calm her racing heart. The tea smelled of jasmine, its taste soft and slightly bitter.
"What happened at the Orchid Pavilion?" Mei asked, trying to gather information. "Why did I faint?"
The two servants looked hesitant. "His Royal Highness the Prince..." the older woman began, "he... he accused the Princess Consort of trying to poison Concubine Ling. Of course, that's not true! But after that, His Royal Highness punished the Princess Consort to kneel under the scorching sun for a whole day. You fainted after that."
Poison? Punishment? Kneeling under the sun? Mei gasped. This was a very different world from the code and meetings in Shenzhen. This was a world where lives seemed much cheaper, and intrigues far more dangerous.
She closed her eyes, trying to comprehend her situation. Her soul, Li Mei, a software engineer from the 21st century, trapped in the body of Xiu Luan, a weak princess consort in the ancient Zhou Dynasty. An explosion in a server center involving an ancient artifact... could that be the cause? Had she time traveled? Or rather, only her soul had transmigrated?
"What are your names?" Mei asked.
"I am Lian, Princess Consort. And this is Xiao Ling," the older woman replied.
Lian and Xiao Ling. Mei looked at them, trying to scan their expressions. They seemed sincere, worried, and loyal. Perhaps she could trust them, at least for now.
"I... I need time to remember everything," Mei said, acting. "My head still hurts."
Lian nodded understandingly. "Of course, Princess Consort. We will leave you to rest. If you need anything, just call."
They bowed respectfully and left, closing the wooden door behind them. Mei was alone in the room, surrounded by ancient luxury that felt like a prison.
She got out of bed, her legs feeling weak. She walked to a brilliantly polished bronze mirror in the corner of the room. Mei stared at her reflection.
The face staring back at her was unfamiliar. A beautiful face, with soft features, large, slightly melancholy eyes, thin lips, and porcelain-white skin. Her hair was long, raven-black, and neatly tied with a golden hairpin. This was Xiu Luan. Not Li Mei.
Mei reached out and touched the mirror. Cold.
How could this happen? How could she go back? Was there a way to return to Shenzhen, to her world, to her code, to the life she knew, even if it was full of pressure?
Her mind began to race, trying to find a solution. As an engineer, she was trained to solve problems. This was the biggest problem she had ever faced. If this was some kind of bug in the space-time dimension, there must be a patch. If this was an unexpected loop, there had to be a way out.
She looked around the room again. Every detail, every pattern, every painting, was a clue. She had to gather data. She had to understand this new system. She had to find a way to survive in this cruel world.
And most importantly, she had to find out what had truly happened to her. And whether the "incident" at the server center was just the beginning of something bigger, or just a fatal coincidence.
Mei took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm within her. She was Li Mei, an engineer from the future. She would not surrender to a fate she did not choose. She would forge her own path in this Zhou Dynasty.
She looked out the window. The starlit night sky seemed much brighter than she remembered in Shenzhen, always shrouded in city light haze. In the distance, there was the melancholic sound of a flute, and the scent of unfamiliar flowers drifted on the wind.
This was a new beginning. Or the end of everything. Mei didn't know yet. But she would find out. With all the logic and resilience she possessed.