The start and the end

Cheng Yan felt as if someone was shouting.

"Wake up witch!"

He turned his head away, but the sounds he had heard did not disappear, instead they became even louder.

"WAKE UP!"

Cheng Yan opened his eyes immediately. He did not see any of the things he had grown familiar with, the screen was gone, the desk was gone, and so too, was the wall which he had plastered with Post-its. They were replaced by a strange scene, rows of small brick houses, a round public square that was crowded with people, and an elevated platform to the side with a man who is sound asleep. Cheng Yan was standing on an elevated platform in the center of the square. The chair he sat on was not his usual soft swivel chair, but instead, he was standing next to a pair of hard wooden poles, with a rope strung around his head. Standing ahead of him was a group of people whose gazes were fixated upon him. Among them were a few young women who were dressed as medieval ladies like what he had seen in Western movies, and they were busy discussing among themselves. A man stood in front of him, holding him up so he wouldn't die.

"Where on Earth is this? Wasn't I working urgently on my blueprints?" Cheng Yan's mind was blank, perhaps caused by three consecutive days of working overtime that had pushed him to the limit mentally and physically. All he could remember was when he finally broke down of fatigue, his heartbeat began to palpitate unsteadily, and he wanted nothing but to lie on the office table for a rest…

"You have finally woke up, it's time for your highness to give the verdict."

The man removed his hands and walked to the left side of the platform, staring at the man in the platform above.

Cheng Yan thought as he licked his dry lips. "Verdict, what verdict?"

He soon knew. The people in the public square were all looking in his direction, while waving their fists and yelling as loud as they could. Some even threw stones at him. Cheng Yan felt the breeze crashing into his body as he felt an unbearable coldness, he looked down, and found out his clothes were ripped and ragged, and that he possessed a bulging chest.

"Am I a female? What is happening?"

Cheng Yan looked around him, looking at the contraption that bounds him. Cheng Yan had only ever seen such an ancient instrument of death in movies. The gallows of two pillars extending upwards about four meters from a raised base. The top ends of the two pillars were connected by a crossbeam, which was embedded with rusty metal rings for a thick yellow hemp rope to travel through. One end of the rope was tied to the frame of the gallows, and the other end was tied around his neck.

"Am i getting hanged?" Cheng Yan thought, the fear combined with the cold almost made Cheng Yan fall, nearly leading to his demise.

"Alright then," Cheng Yan thought to himself, "exactly what crime did I commit that so many people are waiting with indignation for me to be executed? I don't remember anything about this world."

"WITCH, KILL YOURSELF!"

"IF ONLY YOUR SPECIES DIED OUT!"

"HANG THEM ALL!"

"END ALL OF THESE MINIONS OF THE DEVIL!"

"i'm a witch, and this is not a dream. It really hurts and i'm not waking up anytime soon," Cheng Yan's eyes swelled up as tears started to fill them. "I have done nothing and i'm already being screwed over by religion... come on, I can't even feel any powers!"

"RELEASE ME PLEASE!" Cheng Yan shouted, the mental and physical pain he is enduring has corroded his thinking process, all he can think of was how to live, but such a notion was almost impossible without a miracle. Cheng Yan waited... and a miracle didn't come.

Cheng Yan is about to get hypothermia, the person, most likely the prince, that is on the platform to the side, finally woke up, and ordered him execution immediately. Cheng Yan panicked, as he didn't want to die so quickly in this world, but what could he had done? This was probably the fastest way a transmigrator died.

He died, as the trapdoor opened and his weight pulled him down while the rope dragged his neck up. His body, suspended in mid-air, while cheering could be seen around the platform.