193 What is your heart made out of? Part II
“Blessings from Bai Hua to the Empress.”
Bai Yu returned to sitting on her phoenix throne. She did not approach Bai Hua to help her stand up, only waved her hand slightly as a gesture, telling her to stand at ease. Bai Yu let the heroine, who was as sweet and fragile as her name, stand there.
Bai Yu did not let Bai Hua sit down. She leaned back, relaxing in her throne as she calmly studied the woman’s lowered face. She should be asking her sister for the reason she came, but the villainess felt it would be more amusing to let the silence urge her to the point of revealing her suppressed feelings.
Bai Hua had already had to wait a long time while she was talking to her mother. And now she was made to wait even more after being able to have an audience. Not even a saintess would have unlimited patience, especially when her heart was filled to the point of bursting with emotions. Eventually, Bai Hua lifted her head. Swollen eyes on her beautiful face were as prominent as the peach blossom eyes that looked at Bai Yu gleamed with reproach. Her thin lips moved, uttering words in their mother tongue that Bai Yu had not heard for a long time…
“What is your heart made out of?” Her voice trembled with every word.
Bai Yu’s brow was raised with interest… She chose to speak Thai? Was it because her emotions were at rock bottom, or was it because she did not want anyone else to know what they were talking about? Very well, she was also tired of having to mock anyone with Da Yang’s flowery words.
“What did I ever do to you? Why do you have to be this cruel to me, Miss Yoknapha?”
Hmph! Bai Yu internally huffed.
The first time she asked Bai Hua about Yoknapha, she refused to know her. Then, when Bai Hua came to tell her about Bai He before she left for the border, she did not reveal who she was in that past life. Still, with the brain of a genius doctor, Padma must have already figured out who she was.
.....
“Now that you know I’m Yoknapha, why can’t you think for yourself about what you’ve done to me?” She did not answer the question, only nonchalantly ridiculed back in the same language. She had hoped to see Bai Hua finally reveal her anger.
“What did I do?” Bai Hua pointed at herself. Confusion and frustration formed in her charming eyes despite her best attempt to hide them from the person who was destroying her life. “What could I ever do to you? I’m just an ordinary woman who suddenly woke up in someone else’s body. Even though we’re in the same predicament, you don’t have any sympathy at all. You refused to help me, and now you’re doing this to me!”
Bai Yu’s lips slightly moved to form a subdued smile as she arched her brow at the other person, not uttering a word back. She could not openly smile, lest Bai Hua realize that she was being intentionally provoked.
Seeing indifference from the person who should understand her the most in an unfamiliar world, Bai Hua could no longer suppress her emotions. She had endured enough after being thrown into this world and had to live in shame for being born of a concubine.
From a genius who was pampered and respected to a woman who was hated and insulted by the world. And when the day came that she found someone who loved and protected her, that person was taken away. Ouyang Mingxian had to marry a woman with a status higher than her, while she became second consort, a title only honorable in name but abhorred as a mistress in reality.
“Your lover was once taken away from you. You should be the one who knows best how that feels. Why can’t you have sympathy for me too?”
This damned woman dared mention the past life to her like this?
Bai Yu straightened her back in her seat as she glared at Bai Hua with cold eyes. Originally, she intended for her half-sister to vent all her feelings since this would be the only chance for Bai Hua to reveal her bitterness about everything. Then she would give guidance on how to live as a second consort while remaining hopeful. However, what she said irritated Bai Yu.
“Have you ever wondered why you have to be here, as Bai Hua?” Bai Yu chose not to be polite to someone she had given up on sympathizing with. There was no one left in the palace other than the two of them. She had signaled to the maids with her gaze, dismissing them from the room already. Furthermore, the conversation was in a language that those within Da Yang would never understand; thus, Bai Yu had stopped trying to be friendly with the person who, at the very least, had the blood of the same family in her veins.
“And have you ever wondered why I have to be Bai Yu?” The mandate of heaven had been altered. It would not be a crime for her to use it to teach this woman a lesson.
“Did you really think it was heaven playing tricks on us by putting our souls in the bodies of women in another world? No… No, it isn’t.” Bai Yu shook her head. She stood at her full height, looking down on the person below, her gaze full of hatred.
“It’s not heaven that’s playing tricks on our fates. It’s you. You’re the one who played with my fate!”
Despite knowing full well that her own wickedness was the cause of this never-ending cycle of karma, Bai Yu still wanted to make this woman feel the same pain she had gone through. She wanted her to realize her crime of using love as an excuse and make Bai Yu the antagonist.
Bai Hua turned quiet at the gaze directed at her. The hatred in it was more than what she felt the first time they met.
“No…” Bai Yu pretended to smile. “I should say that it’s you in the past life that played with my life back then!”
“W…What do you mean?”
“This isn’t the stupid transmigration you’ve seen in those dramas. It’s our past lives. It’s the world where you sabotaged my whole life!”
Not only Bai Hua herself, but her mother as well, who had hurt Bai Yu all along, under that mask of a heroine. Hmph! She had used the word ‘us’ and ‘our’ already. She wanted to hurl!
“Both you, I, and Ouyang Mingxian aren’t characters in the series like you think. That series you know is actually our past life!”
“…N…No. That’s not true.”
“It’s true. All of it!” Seeing the shock in the woman’s eyes, Bai Yu was further satisfied with striking the truth into Bai Hua’s heart. She wanted Bai Hua to feel what she felt. She wanted Bai Hua to shoulder this stupid fate like her as well.
“Do you want to know what would happen if you and I didn’t transmigrate here?”
Bai Hua shook her head. Silent tears fell from her peach blossom eyes. The truth could not be further from what she had expected.
“But I want to tell you…” Bai Yu stepped down from the phoenix throne. She strode forward, slowly approaching Bai Hua.
“In that last life, Bai Yu loved Ouyang Mingxian to the point that she was willing to do everything for him…” The figure in the golden robe carried an air so intimidating that Bai Hua unconsciously stepped back.
“Blinded by love, never realizing that she was being used by him. She was his empress consort, all without knowing that he only wanted her power… In the end, Bai Yu died of heartbreak when she discovered that all along, Ouyang Mingxian loved another woman who was not her. And that woman was Bai Hua!”
“That’s not true!”
Bai Yu forced out a huff from her throat in pity. Bai Hua cried out, even though she should have realized that the Bai Hua in that story was her past life. The fragile heroine shook her head with cheeks streaked with tears. She slowly retreated from Bai Yu, as if she was frightened by the fury emanating from the woman before her.
Bai Yu stepped forward to be close to the woman in front of her, reaching her hand out and squeezing Bai Hua’s chin with irritation at seeing this woman’s fragility, which was as fragile as an enchanting flower.
“You are the Bai Hua in that life, and I am the Bai Yu in that life too.” The wicked, devastatingly beautiful face moved closer to the sweet, delicate face full of tears. Bai Yu whispered through her gritted teeth. She had to restrain herself from using her strength to crush this woman with her own hand.
“That life that you’ve taken Ouyang Mingxian from me, I know that pain more than anyone else.” The hand that had gripped Bai Hua’s chin let go as it pushed that hateful face away with full force. Unable to brace herself, Bai Hua stumbled back and fell.
Bai Yu walked closer, ignoring the collapsed form of her half-sister. A golden shoe embroidered with a phoenix pattern, indicating the high status of its wearer, stepped onto the soft fabric of the pink dress on Bai Hua, who was trying to move away.
Bai Yu smiled once more, then added.
“So in this life, I want you to taste that feeling of having your lover taken away too. I hope you won’t mind, miss heroine.”