Chapter 1 - Journey
Somewhere near the Chinese border, the plane I was traveling on suddenly developed a technical malfunction.
No one knew what had gone wrong.
No one knew how serious it was.
And no one could have imagined that the young master of the Bai family would die in the sky.
My name is Bai Yue.
I am the young master of the Bai family.
Ever since my uncle took over the Bai Group, my name had often appeared in the headlines.
To outsiders, I had everything.
Money.
Status.
A family powerful enough to make people think twice before crossing us.
But the person who mattered most to me was my uncle, Bai Jichen.
After my grandparents, he was the closest person I had.
He was the one who raised me.
The one who protected me.
And, perhaps, the one who spoiled me the most.
My parents had died when I was not even two years old.
They were killed in a shipwreck involving a luxurious cruise ship.
I was too young to remember them.
I didn't remember my mother's voice.
I didn't remember my father's embrace.
I didn't even remember what they looked like.
The only things I had were their photographs.
There were several of them displayed throughout the villa.
Sometimes, I would stand in front of those photographs for a long time.
Looking at two strangers who were supposed to be my parents.
I wondered what they had been like.
And whether they had ever held me in their arms.
I never found the answer.
Perhaps I never would.
---
Now, I was on my way to Egypt.
To our ancestral home.
The Bai family had a secret that outsiders knew nothing about.
Our bloodline was not entirely Chinese.
Part of our ancestry could be traced back to ancient Egypt.
More specifically—
Waset.
The ancient city was connected to our family in ways that had been passed down through generations.
It was a secret known only to members of the Bai family.
No outsiders were allowed to know about it.
Even I had only learned the truth after growing older.
That was why my uncle had sent me to Egypt.
It was supposed to be nothing more than a journey to visit the ancestral home.
A simple trip.
At least, that's what I thought.
Until the plane began shaking.
The lights above me flickered.
A violent tremor ran through the cabin.
People around me began screaming.
I remained strangely calm.
The plane tilted.
Someone shouted for everyone to fasten their seat belts.
Then came the sound of metal twisting.
My body was thrown against the seat.
For a moment, everything became chaotic.
Screaming.
Crying.
The deafening roar of the engine.
And then—
silence.
Not true silence.
Just a strange moment when everything seemed to slow down.
I looked through the window.
The sky stretched endlessly beyond the glass.
I suddenly realized something.
I'm going to die.
Strangely enough, I wasn't nervous.
I wasn't even afraid.
Instead, I felt...
strange.
A sudden burning sensation appeared on my inner right thigh.
It was so intense that I instinctively reached down.
“What...?”
My vision slowly became blurry.
The burning grew stronger.
It felt as though something beneath my skin was being branded by fire.
My breathing became slower.
My eyelids grew heavier.
Is this how I'm going to die?
I closed my eyes.
And everything disappeared.
---
I found myself standing in a vast, empty space.
There was no sky.
No ground.
No sound.
Only endless whiteness.
Then—
I saw them.
My parents.
They were standing a short distance away.
For a moment, I simply stared.
Even though I had only ever known them through photographs, I recognized them immediately.
“Mom...”
My voice trembled.
“Dad...”
I ran toward them.
My mother opened her arms.
I threw myself into her embrace.
For the first time in my life, I felt what it was like to be held by my mother.
Warm.
Safe.
Familiar.
I wanted to ask her so many things.
I wanted to tell her that I had grown up.
That I had remembered her.
That I had always wondered what she was like.
But before I could speak—
they suddenly pushed me away.
I stumbled backward.
“Mom?”
I looked at them in confusion.
My father was staring at me.
My mother had tears in her eyes.
They seemed to be saying something.
Their lips moved.
But I couldn't hear them.
“Wait!”
I reached toward them.
“Don't go!”
They pushed me away again.
Their figures began fading into the white space.
I desperately tried to run toward them.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't reach them.
Then—
I heard a single sentence.
Clearer than anything else.
“Live.”
My mother's voice.
I froze.
Before I could respond, everything disappeared.
I woke up.
Or at least—
I thought I had.
I tried to open my eyes.
I couldn't.
I tried to move my hands.
Nothing happened.
My legs wouldn't move either.
My entire body felt strange.
Small.
Weak.
Helpless.
What's happening to me?
I could feel people surrounding me.
Their presence was close.
I could hear voices.
A woman was crying.
Her sobs were soft but uncontrollable.
Then, after a while, she suddenly stopped.
Another voice sounded.
It belonged to someone slightly older.
“The baby is breathing.”
A pause.
Then—
“It's a boy.”
My mind went completely blank.
A baby?
A boy?
What were they talking about?
I desperately tried to open my eyes.
This time, I managed it.
But the world was unbearably bright.
Everything was blurry.
I could only see vague shapes and shadows.
The room looked nothing like the world I knew.
The people surrounding me were wearing strange clothes.
The walls were unfamiliar.
Everything—
everything felt like another world.
Or perhaps...
another era.
I couldn't understand how.
But somehow, I could understand the strange language they were speaking.
Then someone lifted me from the woman's arms.
An older man.
His hands were careful as he examined me.
His gaze suddenly stopped.
“It's the birthmark...”
His voice sounded strange.
Everyone became quiet.
I could feel their attention shifting toward me.
More specifically—
toward my inner right thigh.
The older man carefully moved the cloth aside.
And then he murmured two words.
“The Moon Serpent...”
Everyone around him froze.
Shock spread through the room.
The older man continued staring at the mark.
His expression became solemn.
“He has a debt to settle from his past life.”
A woman's trembling voice broke the silence.
“What can I do to save him?”
I heard her begin to cry again.
A man immediately wrapped his arms around her, trying to comfort her.
Then he looked toward the older man.
“Uncle... what should we do?”
The older man was silent for a moment.
Then he spoke.
“Make him live as a woman.”
The room fell silent.
“If you do not...”
His gaze lowered toward the tiny snake wrapped around the moon.
“He will suffer.”
The woman covered her mouth.
The man held her tighter.
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
And I—
could only lie helplessly in their arms.
I didn't understand why.
I didn't understand where I was.
I didn't understand why I had become a baby.
But one thing was certain.
I was no longer Bai Yue.
---
At the Waset household, only those who had been present in that room knew the truth.
To the outside world, the youngest child of the minister's household was a beautiful little girl.
A child with delicate features and striking blue eyes.
A child whose beauty made everyone who saw her hold their breath.
She was given a name.
Iset.
And from that day onward—
the world would know her as the minister's youngest daughter.
But beneath that beautiful name was a secret.
Iset was not truly a girl.
She was Bai Yue.
A soul carrying memories from another life.
And somewhere within his tiny body—
the Moon Serpent had awakened.
