1 Transmigrated!

I awoke with a shudder, a painful feeling in my upper chest. As I gasped, I sputtered, eyes red and nose burning. Water was spit onto a ready basin.

I took in the scene around me through painful breaths. It was chaos. In a large, expensive looking bedroom, a crowd of people in ancient Chinese clothing were gathered around me. Some were crying, some were agitated, and some were running about. It was a cacophony of sounds as conversations, the sound of people moving about and water sloshing around in a basin collided with each other. The overpowering smell of bitter herbs lingered in the air. When they noticed I was awake, cries of relief could be heard. "Noble Concubine!" "Noble Concubine Ling! Thank God!" "Doctor..."

The people closest to the bed immediately cleared a path to my side. My head spun as a middle aged man with a long beard emerged from the gap and respectfully took my pulse, rattling off some medical terms to the young girls closest to me, who looked equally as confused as I was feeling right now. No one was answering my questions yet, making me feel like a spectator in a play. Where was I? The last I remembered, I had been on a private yacht to Morocco, when my party was hit by a thunderstorm and very choppy seas. The yacht was tossed about, and water came in at a terrifying rate. We were all flung into the dark, unrelenting sea.

So... why did I look like I was transported into a period drama? I barely processed what was going on around me as I tried to understand my situation. "The Emperor is here to visit!" someone shouted, breaking off my train of thought. Everyone in the room put down what they were doing, flustered, and kowtowed facing the door, shouting in unison "Long live the Emperor!".

In a stupor, but with a sense of dread foreboding, I tried to get up to see who it was. Emperor? What? Amidst my confusion, a tall, young man in imposing golden dragon robes walked in, followed by an entourage of servants. His cold, steely eyes fixed on me. He had a sharp, chiselled jaw, a narrow, pronounced nose, and slanted cat-like eyes. His hair was pulled back, revealing a widow's peak. A very heavy looking headpiece sat on his head, dangling as he moved. "No need to get up." He said reasonably, pushing me down lightly. I laid back down unwillingly. "E-Emperor..." I started. Finally! Someone who might give me answers. He looked like he was in charge in here!

He was much younger than I would have expected, with a noble, intimidating bearing and aristocratic good looks. I felt like all the air in the room had been sucked out by his arrival. Tension hung in the air, so taut it could be cut with a knife. "How are you feeling?" he asked. Putting aside why and what I was doing here, I decided to answer his question first.

I held her chest. "It hurts..." Involuntarily, I coughed. "Noble Concubine!" the young girls cried again. "Doctor, what are you doing!" the Emperor reprimanded. The middle-aged man promptly got up from the floor and spurred into action again, looking terrified. He held my pulse before jabbering on about how I had experienced a great shock and there was still some water in my lungs, so he had prescribed medicine and with rest I would be fine. There were a great assortment of terms he used that I realised I didn't recognise.

The Emperor glared at him, then turned back to me. "Have some rest. Don't push yourself." was all he said, before he turned around and left. Once he was a good distance away from the door, the room finally revived again, as everyone got up from the floor and busied themselves with the tasks they had been doing prior to his arrival.

"Noble Concubine, did you see that? The Emperor personally came to visit!" said a healthy looking girl on her left. Although she was dressed in what she assumed were servant's robes, the quality and design of her robes were a notch better than the rest. As she spoke, dimples appeared, and her eyes shone with excitement. Her hair was bunched into two twists on top of her head, and adorned with some questionable glittering hair accessories.

"Yes, maybe you have gained his favour!" the slightly plump girl on her right said excitedly. Turning from left to right, Ling Yue realised they were dressed in identical robes, and likely had similar positions. As she leaned over her bed to arrange the blankets, I caught the sight of 2 twists at the back of her head, tied in the middle, reminding me of rice dumplings (粽子 zòng zi) hanging from roadside stalls. A long and sharp pin was skewered at an angle, with some dangling multi-coloured beads hanging at the side. She had plump, rosy cheeks, and large, double-lidded eyes. Her short and flat eyebrows made her seem very amicable.

I held up my hand weakly, motioning them to stop. "Sorry but... can I ask... where I am?" "Well.. Lunar Palace." the girl with twists on top of her head said, with a strange expression. "Then... what year is it? Who am I? Why is everyone calling me Noble Concubine? Is this a joke?" I asked.

The room suddenly went quiet as everyone turned to look at me.

"Noble Concubine! Have you hit your head?" they immediately started panicking, and the doctor once again picked up my wrist.