“Shang Ruyi!” screamed her husband. His expression became stricken as the air around her wobbled.

“Long Xuan!” she cried, frantically reaching towards him as she slipped into a whirl of black smoke.

When her vision cleared, she became aware of fifty pairs of eyes glaring at her. She stared back at them, uncomprehending.

Dropping the pen she was holding onto the paper in front of her, she saw that she was standing in a classroom, wearing a familiar uniform. She tried to smother her gasp, but she could not prevent the sudden wave of horror that swept over her as she realized where she was.

“This...Why am I back??” she whispered, panic wrapping around her heart.

The entire high school auditorium erupted into uproar as she fainted dead away.

----

“...think she’s awake! She’s awake!” cried a relieved voice next to her. It was a voice that she hadn’t heard for twenty years and hadn’t thought to hear again in her lifetime.

“Uncle?”

Ruyi blinked, grimacing at the harsh light above her and the sound of beeping.  She turned slightly to see her uncle sitting next to her hospital bed with her aunt seated near the window.

“Ah! Good girl! You still remember your uncle,” he grinned, tearing up a bit. Her aunt looked annoyed, but thankfully kept quiet.

“Mmmn,” Ruyi agreed, still trying to process things around her.

“Little Yi, you gave us quiet a scare, ah...you studied too hard this time...don’t make us worried again, ah?”

“Sorry Uncle...” she dropped her head, trying to look ashamed for causing a commotion. 

Meanwhile her mind was racing.

Why am I back?

The last thing she remembered was her hand slipping out of her husband’s as he screamed her name, trying to catch her as she fell out of the flying ship. This alone shouldn’t have been able to kill her as she had cultivated to a high level, but...

Right...poison...I couldn’t use my cultivation because someone had poisoned me just before that...and the flying ship was being attacked.

Her heart hurt as she once again heard her husband’s agonized roar.

Long Xuan...why did I return to my world? To the exact day I left it?

“Like it never happened...” she murmured.

“Eh?” her uncle asked, bending closer. “What did you say?”

She shook her head, taking a breath, and smiling through the tremble of tears on her lashes. 

“Nothing,” she said softly, as her heart squeezed in her chest, threatening to choke her breath. “I’ll take better care in future so as not to worry you.”

“Don’t waste your breath, Ruyi,” her aunt scowled. “Your uncle had to take time off work to see you. Where’s the money to pay for that or your medicals bills? Haah?”

Well...for twenty years, I really didn’t miss this...Ruyi thought, lowering her gaze to hide the disdain that had descended into her eyes. I kept quiet when you bullied me in my last life, but since then I’ve been a princess of Fuyun continent...

“Well Auntie, maybe you can spend less at the mahjong table,” she said calmly, ignoring her aunt’s sharp squawk of indignation. “Or at the back alley gambling den you go to on Thursdays, hmmmn? Anyway, no need to pay. I’ll work something out with the hospital.”

She lifted her chin, daring her aunt to say something else.

“You--!” her aunt sputtered, looking purple in the face.

“Ehhh...wait a sec, Little Yi,” her uncle protested, rubbing a hand through his hair and giving his wife a harried look. “That’s not too appropriate...of course, we’ll help you pay your medical bills...”

“No we won’t!” her aunt hissed. “You ungrateful brat! Who do you think gives money to your grandmother for keeping you when we have our own family to feed?”

“Ahhhh...” her uncle sputtered in growing fright, eyes flicking between them.

Ruyi’s expression remained stony, but then she smiled.

“It’s true. I’ll be eighteen in two months. I can work. There’s no need to give money...not that Grandma gets anything that your wife steals anyway...”

Her uncle choked.

“What are you saying?!” her aunt screeched.

“That’s right...you should ask Grandma...she only ever gets half of what you tell Auntie to give us. Instead of worrying about me, put your own house in order...or maybe you already knew, but thought I wouldn’t notice...?”

Her uncle swallowed as he stood up from the chair, looking like his tie was on too tight. Ruyi smiled slightly, eyes frosty.

Her aunt recoiled, as if seeing her for the first time.

I was the Third Princess Consort of Fuyun. Still haven’t had enough?

“Little Yi...” her uncle pleaded, his voice taking on a slight whine.

She sighed, but her heart was cold.

“Uncle, I’m grateful for your care up to this point, but from now on you don’t have to come see me,” she said in a tone that brooked no argument.

He swallowed.

“I-I’ll come again when you are feeling better,” he sighed. “We’ll leave you to rest...”

She nodded, too exhausted to say anything more.

Now was not the time to worry about these trivial things. The only thing she cared about was returning to Fuyun continent and to her beloved Long Xuan.

Clenching her fist, she suddenly felt something burning on her finger and opened her hand.

Eyes widening, she saw that the jade ring that Long Xuan had given her on their wedding day was still on her finger. Though it had hidden itself until now, for whatever reason it had appeared. 

Pulsing with warmth, it gave her hope that she would be able to see him again.

---

There had been nine dragons in the upper realm continent of Fuyun. Nine brothers.

The eldest three were the Crown Prince Long Jun, the Second Prince Long Shan, and the Third Prince Long Xuan. They shared a good relationship and ruled the continent with wisdom and grace. The land prospered and people enjoyed a long peace, but a darkness grew in Long Shan’s heart as he coveted the position of Crown Prince. That darkness became a heart demon and ate Long Shan’s soul away until he went berserk and committed terrible crimes. The continent divided and so did the nine dragons.

When Ruyi arrived in Fuyun continent twenty years ago, she was dropped into a civil war so bitter and fierce that parents fought children and wives fought husbands. It was in the midst of this chaos that she had met Long Xuan and become his lover. Together with the Crown Prince Long Jun, they supressed the second Prince’s armies, killed Long Shan, and returned Fuyun to order.

With the war over, Ruyi and Long Xuan had married, and Crown Prince Long Jun who had recovered from an assassination attempt had ascended the Dragon throne as emperor. 

On their wedding day, Long Xuan had given her the jade ring and set his pearl inside her, allowing her mortal body to bear the children of a dragon. Over the years they spent together, she’d borne him two sons and a daughter.

“And now...it’s like Long Xuan’s wish never happened...” she murmured, trying to swallow the tears clogging her throat.

Wait. Wish...? That’s it!

“The wish! I almost forgot about that!” she cried, scrambling out of her hospital bed.

Long Xuan summoned me through a wish spell. If it’s been reversed then it’s like it never happened, but you can’t remove a dragon pearl once it’s been placed into a mortal body. Whatever timeline they tried to erase hasn’t been wiped out entirely because the jade ring and the pearl still exist! That’s why they wanted to kill me! They wanted to erase my existence in that world so they could reverse everything that’s happened since I was summoned.

“But...that’s not good...” she muttered to herself, standing at the window. She’d been thinking all night without sleeping and now it was almost dawn.

Long Xuan summoned me out of desperation...he was on the verge of death and called me to Fuyun inadvertently...if he’s never in that situation again, then he will never use the spell...

But she had his pearl.

“If...if I am desperate enough and call out to him using the pearl...could it work in reverse? Will the pearl send me to him?” she wondered out loud. 

There’s only one way to find out...

Resolving to do it, she grabbed a chair and smashed out the window, scattering glass everywhere. She didn’t feel the pain of the shards biting into her hands and legs as she ducked her head out and swung her legs out front of her, dangling her feet out over thin air.

There was a thud of shoes and the sound of an alarm, but she ignored the people that barged into the room.

“Please stop, Miss! Please come in from the window!” a nurse coaxed, slowly inching towards her, hands held out to show he didn’t intend to hurt her. Behind him, in the hospital room, the doctors and nurses looked anxious, waiting with a straight jacket as people began to point at her from the street below.

Well...this isn’t exactly what I had in mind...she thought ruefully. It’s certainly desperate...but...

She flinched, staring at the tiny world below.

Solid concrete...

“Long Xuan...” she whispered, feeling a terrible ache in her heart. “Please hear me...Long Xuan...”

“Little Yi!” cried her uncle, suddenly rushing through the door. “Come back! Please! We’re sorry! We’ll pay your medical bills, just pleased don’t commit suicide!”

“That’s right! Don’t die over this! It’s not worth it. We’re family!” cried her aunt, as people tried to hold them back.

Ruyi smiled bitterly from under her hair.

Still faking it...and trying to get a few bucks worth of sympathy...

A tear trickled down her cheek.

Long Xuan...she thought in despair. If you hadn’t wished for me back then, I might really have committed suicide...the idea that even one person wanted me...that one person was grateful that I had appeared in their life...

“Long Xuan...if I can’t go back to you, then I would rather be dead...” she murmured, closing her eyes against the cold rush of wind against her hospital gown.

Outside, the sun was rising brilliant and red as blood.

Eyes still closed, she sucked in a breath, and pushed off with a smile on her face.

“Long Xuan...I love you...”

At the very last moment, just as her body slammed into the concrete below, she felt the warm glow of the pearl in her chest and the jade ring burn on her finger.

---

Long Xuan sighed at the girl sleeping in his bed. 

He’d been quite startled when he’d walked into his bedroom to find her heavily injured and bleeding on the floor. Healing her had been easy, but the rest...

He had initially thought it was a prank that Long Jun had played in his quest to foist concubines on him, but the jade ring on the girl’s finger and the warm core of a dragon pearl in the girl’s body made him suspect that this was no joke.

In fact, the jade ring was his mother’s, and should have been locked deep in his underground treasure room, but even stranger than that...the pearl was also his. He currently still had his hidden under his heart scale, but there was no mistaking the pearl resonating within her, calling to him. 

A dragon would only give up his pearl to a mortal woman for one reason. Therefore, this woman was his...even though they’d never met.

The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became. In all his twenty years as a dragon prince, he had never imagined giving up his pearl to a mortal. Ever.

What the hell could it mean?

She twitched.

He stiffened, jerking away from the bed in surprise.

“Long Xuan...” the girl muttered, still asleep. “Long Xuan, I love you...”

He sighed.

What the hell do I do now? he wondered, staring at her.