The Quiet Empress

The night was gloomy.

In the dimly lit room, a young woman sat before a table. Her exquisite face could be seen from the light on her desk lamp. Her dark obsidian eyes were staring straight at the laptop before her, which was filled with a lot of words.

There was no emotion within her expression.

Ring! Ring!

The young woman passed a look at her phone, which rang with unwelcomed melody. Her slender hand took the phone and swipe it up to answer the call.

“What is it?” the young woman asked in a low and unfriendly tone.

“Feng Ning, Cousin Feng Xian will be holding his wedding in a few days. Will you come?” a man’s voice could be heard from the phone.

The young woman’s expression didn’t change. “Oh, I’ll see if I have time.”

“If you have time? You’re just an unemployed young woman! What else are you doing if not wasting…” a woman’s voice could be heard from the other side of the phone, barking violently.

“Shut up! Feng Ning, just ignore her. Take care of your health, okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Feng Ning hang up and focused her attention back to the laptop before her.

She didn’t have any interest in the outside world anymore. Thanks to the recent years of massive lockdown due to the spread of virus, there were various online job that could be found. Finding one, Feng Ning buried herself in her work and cut off her relationship with the outside world.

In this small room, she felt save.

Tapping her slender fingers on the keyboard, Feng Ning focused her attention on the words on the screen. Her jade black eyes reflected the light from the screen.

It was quiet.

Only the sound of typing could be heard.

After some time, Feng Ning stood up and looked at the refrigerator at the side of the room. This room was very small, which meant that all of the equipment was placed in one room aside from the bed.

“I don’t have any other food.”

Looking at the empty refrigerator, Feng Ning’s eyes flickered slightly.

If only time could rewind, she would have treasured her parents and sibling even more. But there was no if. Staying alone in this world, Feng Ning felt like a broken kite that flew with the wind with no direction of her destination.

‘I’ll go out to find something to eat.’

Walking out of her small room, Feng Ning headed to the lift. Her eyes glanced to the window, looking at the sight of the enormous building that filled the entire area. Added with the brilliant light flashing here and there, it was very beautiful.

But at the same time, it served as a reminder.

She no longer belonged to that world.

Ding!

The lift arrived and Feng Ning entered. She pressed the button number one and waited inside. There were several other people in the same lift as her. Disliking other people’s gaze, Feng Ning lowered her eyes after looking at them for a moment.

No one was talking.

*Snap*

Suddenly, they could faintly hear the sound of something snapping and that the lift was swaying before it stopped. The atmosphere grew tenser and they all looked up in worry as the second snapping sound could be heard.

Feng Ning’s jet black eyes reflected none of her inner emotion. Probably, she no longer have that so called emotion from the moment she lost everything in this world.

‘So, it’s my time.’

Closing her eyes, Feng Ning ignored the terrified scream of other people in the lift as they frantically pressed the bell. She crouched on the corner and sat down with her hand covering her head.

She knew that it would be useless no matter what she did because the height to the bottom floor was so high. Having learnt physics, she also knew that trying to jump at the very last moment was also stupid. It wouldn’t change anything because within this confined room, the speed at which they were traveling would be the same as the lift itself.

Thus, jumping to reduce the impact was nonsense.

*Snap*

The third one had snapped and the screams and worry became even more frantic. No one wanted to die but in this run down building, how could they expect technician to appear within minutes and solve the problem for them?

Thus, Feng Ning gave up.

Memories flashed by her eyes as she heard the last snap and the lift fell down in accordance to gravity.

‘Mom, Dad, Sis, I’ll accompany you now.’ A bitter smile formed on the corner of Feng Ning’s lips.

She missed her family terribly but still strived to live because of her father’s words. He wanted her to continue living. But she couldn’t forget the past and everything. So when encountering this situation, Feng Ning didn’t have the will to think of doing anything.

She closed her eyes as everything turned black due to the impact.

It was quiet then.

‘So, will I enter the hell now?’

Feng Ning never thought of herself as a good person. She was selfish and often didn’t care for other people around her as long as it didn’t affect her. At the same time, she knew how naïve she was when she kept on getting duped by people.

Scammers from phone, bullied by others in class, nearly getting herself killed from trusting a friend she met on the street, and so on.

Her luck was really bad.

Or was it because she was stupid?

Feng Ning didn’t know. She looked around her and noticed that she was now outside the building, floating. The sound of screams filled the area. Then there was fire and the people around couldn’t even get close.

In this remote and lower priced area, how many security was actually deployed by them?

She relaxed and soon, her vision turned blurry.

Now, would she finally leave this world?

Bang!

Feeling sudden tremor, Feng Ning was stunned. She thought that it would be a peaceful departure, but why did it didn’t feel that way? Amidst her confusion, she felt that her body was enveloped in some kind of liquid.

Liquid?

Does Hell or Heaven was this nice?

While Feng Ning was utterly confused, she felt something pushed her out before bright light scorched her eyes. She was shocked and opened her mouth subconsciously as her body inhaled the air.

Then the cry of a baby rang thorough the room.