30 3.1 Star Flute Player

When Tian He returned to the white space with Little Stars, she didn't immediately go into the next world, but instead she spent a few moments to try to get over the shock she felt.

"How could elder brother have seen the me in soul form?" After her blank mind returned to normal, she directed the question at the seemingly innocent transparent baby besides her.

Little Stars also donned a shock expression, apparently, he too didn't know the answer to that question.

When she saw that Little Stars couldn't answer her question, she rapidly tried to sort out the possible answers herself. First off, this elder brother of hers is strange in that he has dark flames within his eyes, if she only saw it once, she would never believe that it was true, but after seeing it a few times, she had to doubt whether there was something else about him and the 2nd Imperial Prince who also had dark flames in his eyes. The people that she met in these two worlds definitely do not share this similarity, it was only these two people that she encountered that had these traits.

"What exactly are those dark flames?" She was truly puzzled by this mystery.

All of a sudden, she couldn't help but think that these dark flames within their eyes hold some sort of special powers, for one, it could allow her elder brother to see her in soul form, that's definitely not normal. As for the other powers, she wasn't sure, but she had a hunch about it.

Ever since she saw that Consort Dai from her first world suddenly scream in fear and past away just moments after, she grew skeptical about her sudden death, especially now since she knows that just right before she died, she saw her stare in horror at 2nd Imperial Prince right after he caught that ceramic bottle she threw. She wouldn't have paid it any mind earlier, but now that she knows that this 2nd Imperial Prince also has dark flames within his eyes, she couldn't help but think that her death was related to this 2nd Imperial Prince.

"But how did he do it?" She grew contemplative and started thinking of the possibilities.

In order to cause her death without inflicting any physical damage, the only other way was probably through the soul.

She wouldn't have thought of this before she was forcefully kidnapped to do these tasks, but now that her soul was borrowing others' bodies in these different worlds, killing someone by destroying their soul doesn't seem that farfetched.

If it's like that, then those dark flames' power definitely have something to do with the soul.

"That's really too scary, ah." And a bit too convenient.

Then, does that mean her elder brother also has this power too since he also possesses dark flames within his eyes? But even if that were true, she never saw him use it to kill anyone, or heard any stories about sudden deaths of people without physical injuries around him.

So, does this mean that her elder brother's dark flames are different than that of 2nd Imperial Prince's?

But somehow that doesn't seem to be correct either because she felt that they were similar in a way, she couldn't properly explain it, but it was just a feeling she had that was telling her so.

"This is too confusing." All she's certain of is that one, her elder brother's dark flames can see her in soul form, and two, her elder brother and that 2nd Imperial Prince share the same dark flames in their eyes.

"Sighs, I'm just not going to think about this anymore, there are so many uncertain variables and until I get all the facts straight, it's better to just concentrate on completing my missions." Also, there's the fact that from now on, she had to go on living with the memories of her elder brother without him besides her, this empty feeling inside her heart might just eat her alive if she lets herself drown in it.

"I won't think about it for now." She still needs to complete these tasks in order to obtain her freedom and be sent back home. For things that she had no control over, it'll just be troublesome and painful if she thought about it any longer.

She turned to Little Stars who now had his eyes closed like he was thinking about something.

"Little Stars, I'm ready to accept this time's soul energy from the completion of my 2nd world's mission and be sent to another world for my 3rd mission." She really needed something right now to distract herself from thinking about her elder brother, completing her task couldn't be a better distraction.

Little Stars finally open his eyes after hearing his host's words, "Ah, yes, I shall give you the soul energy now." He waved his hands towards her.

After she accepted the soul energy and felt her soul grow a bit more visual, she quickly told Little Stars to send her on her way. A flash of bright light followed Tian He and her soul was rapidly sent to the next world that the main system designated for her. However, Little Stars didn't immediately follow its host, instead, he stayed in the white space thinking about what he saw when he looked into that person's eyes.

"Why do those dark flames in that person's eyes feel so familiar to me?" For some reason, he had this nagging feeling that he has seen those dark flames before, but where exactly did he see it?

"Hmm, I better keep this to myself before I find anymore clues about this." Although he was technically a new system assigned to its host, he still thought that informing his host about this would only add onto her troubles, and he also didn't want to tell the main system either, what if it thinks that there's something wrong with my programming for feeling these things?

Little Stars threw away these thoughts and went off into the world that its host was sent into. However, unbeknownst to him, these thoughts of not informing the main system has already deterred from its main programming, however; this didn't seem to have bothered Little Stars, instead, deep down, there was this unconscious feeling that told him it was the right thing to do.

…..

When Tian He opened her eyes again, she found herself in a small compartment of some sort, from the looks of it, it looked like a somewhat decorative horse carriage, but judging by its average size that could only fit at most two people, it wasn't that luxurious.

However, she noticed that although the carriage's size was quite mediocre in her perspective, the red decorations on it made it seemed festive almost, now that she looked around herself, everything from the window curtains to the cushions were red, even her clothes were red.

"Is this time's target obsessed with the color red or something?" Looking at just one color while riding a carriage isn't exactly relaxing.

Since she could feel the carriage moving, she opted to focus on receiving her mission details first before opening the carriage doors to see what's outside.

"Little Stars, come out. I want to receive this time's mission details now." She called out softly for him.

However, even after waiting for a few seconds, she still hasn't seen any particles of pink light that would indicate that Little Stars was forming.

"What's keeping him?" If she didn't get the target's and the world's details in time, she would be in trouble if anyone starts talking to her.

She called out his name again, but even after waiting a few more seconds, she still didn't see him appear.

"This Little Stars, just when I thought he was going to prove himself useful to me. If it wasn't because I was too shocked by that scene of elder brother looking at my soul, I would have already pinched those chubby white cheeks of his until they turned red." She regretted not doing that now.

Just when she was about to resume calling for him, she finally saw that transparent cute baby take form in front of her.

When Little Stars finished forming, he was greeted with a fuming host and immediately shouted 'oops' in his head.

"Host~, I'm sorry for not coming sooner." He floated towards her while looking at her with his big semi-moist eyes.

When she saw those adorable eyes look at her and his small cute transparent hands try to hug her, she fumed for a second while glaring at him before she relented and sighed in helplessness.

"Little Stars, it's fine. At least you've arrived in time before anyone spoke to me." She really couldn't resist the cuteness of this baby. Damn it, this time for sure, once she's done with this time's task, she'll squeeze those chubby cheeks and rub those tiny hands as much as she wants to.

Suddenly, when Little Stars saw its host look at him with those eyes full of expectations, he couldn't help but feel a chill run down its back. What's this feeling? It kind of makes me want to stay away from the host.

"Little Stars, let's get down to business and give me the details for this world's task." She rapidly changed to a neutral expression after catching that hint of wariness within his eyes.

Little Stars awoke from his thoughts and slightly nodded towards its host, then waved his hand and a transparent screen was seen in front of them. Tian He saw that and began reading about this world's details.

This world's setting was similar to the previous one, but the people here relied on their instrumental skills to tap into the element they had affinity with and summon it to do their bidding. In this world, it was divided into many small to large kingdoms, however; the real rulers were the main headquarters that represented each of the elements.

Their influence is spread out through the many halls they've established throughout each kingdom. Depending on the power of a kingdom, the number of elemental halls stationed there would also vary. For example, for a decently powerful kingdom, all the elemental halls could be found stationed there, but for a small kingdom, they would be lucky if they have just one of the element's halls established there.

This time's original owner is a 17-year-old girl named 'Zhao Ming Yue'. She was just a plain village girl that had a bit of an affinity with the water element, and some decent talent in playing the flute after practicing by herself and learning from the village head's pointers. Her parents were regular farmers and she also had many elder and younger siblings. Her day to day life was normal on the farm which mainly consisted of her helping her parents do the chores around the house and occasionally playing her flute in the village's plaza to the children who would gather to listen to it.

However, that all changed on the day an entourage of majestic guards passed by her village's plaza when she was playing her flute to the attentive children, a wealthy dressed man that looked particular intelligent came out from an extravagant horse carriage and requested to have her follow him to serve his master with her flute playing.

Apparently, this loyal advisor has been searching for unique instrumentalists to help treat his master's severe insomnia, after the doctor's strict orders on this and the agreement of his master, he immediately began searching for instrumentalists that could express certain emotions with their playing. After listening to the original owner's flute playing, he thought that although her flute playing skills wasn't that advanced, it was still able invoke some relaxing feelings into people, or else those full of energy children wouldn't have earnestly sat around her to listen to her play.

The original owner's parents of course vetoed against this idea of their young daughter going far away to entertain a random man but the adviser didn't take it to heart and offered a position to the original owner as his esteemed master's concubine while promising that on the honor of his master, they would be given proper gifts as the bride's family and subsequent funds for the original owner's services.

Hearing about and looking at the authentic jade token that represented the powerful position held by the master of this adviser, the original owner's parents wavered in their choice. If their young daughter was actually hired into an unknown man's place, they would naturally be worried about her still pure reputation, but now that a marriage was offered, they didn't have to be concerned about that. As farmers, they knew that this life of toiling in the fields wasn't the best for their children and now that such a great offer was presented in front of them, they couldn't help but want their daughter to follow this adviser.

The original owner was a filial child and wanted to contribute more to her parents, so she naturally chose to accept the adviser's request and follow him to be his master's concubine. Besides, the original owner also had her own selfish wish of wanting to learn more about flute playing, so there wasn't much resistant against this marriage offer.

Then, the original owner was rushed back as a bride to her future husband's mansion that was located in a nearby large kingdom. A few other female instrumentalists were also given the same offer as the original owner, but it looks like she wouldn't be the last one because the adviser still continued searching after he left the original owner at the mansion, apparently, he didn't want to pin all his hopes on the original owner.

The original owner thought that her life would be a bit easier now that she didn't have to do chores all day and she could finally have more time to focus on honing her flute playing, but she was just a simple village girl, she was naturally ignorant of the schemes that went on between prestigious concubines, especially since she was new and the other concubines failed in treating their husband's insomnia.

Also, how could they be resigned to share their husband with a poor village girl?

She was the perfect target for these concubines who mostly came from well-off families, or else how could their instrument playing that was honed through practice and guidance from actual teachers be able to catch the eyes of that intelligent and knowledgeable adviser under their husband?

So unfortunately for the original owner, she 'accidentally' slipped into a small lake in the mansion and drowned to death before she even got to try to treat this husband of hers. Her only dream and regret were that she never got the chance to completely master her flute playing and treat the insomnia of this 'kind' husband of hers who accepted her as his concubine even though she was just a poor village girl with only semi-decent flute playing skills compared to the other well-off concubines he accepted.

Even if she only met him once on their wedding day, she was still grateful for his open-mindedness about choosing candidates to be his concubine and to help him treat his illness without regards to status. After all, she did receive free lessons on flute playing and her family was also being rewarded even though she hadn't done anything to help him yet, her good conscience naturally made her feel a bit guilty and that eventually turned into a regret when her life ended all too soon.

After Tian He finished reading this world's details, she couldn't help but facepalm her forehead at the 'innocent' and 'ignorant' personality of this original owner. She really had the urge to ask her how could she not know that those concubines would harm her? There had to be some sort of signs that indicated that they were hostile to her. And drowning in a lake, it's obvious that someone pushed her in, or else how could she not have been rescued in time? These concubines were definitely the culprits behind the delayed reaction of the people in the mansion that eventually led to the early demise of the original owner.

"Sighs, whatever the case, since I've taken over your body now, I'll help you fulfill your wish and relieve you of your regret. And judging by the festive red I'm wearing and the decorations in the carriage, it looks like I've arrived just in time for the wedding." She really pitied this original owner, if she wasn't filial to her parents or didn't want to improve her flute playing skills, she would have never died so early.

"In a any case, building up my flute playing skills while learning this summoning of the original owner's water element seems to be interesting." At least this will serve as an excellent activity to drown her mind in, although it was hard in the beginning, she was gradually getting used to the empty feeling caused by her lover's absence inside her heart.

"It's not so bad once I don't think about it." She had resolved herself to retain these memories of him, but she found out that every time she thought of them, her eyes would uncontrollably grow moist and her heart would throb painfully, it was harder than she thought to control herself, it looks like this will take some time getting used to.

After Tian He dismissed Little Stars, she soon heard the sounds of the carriage stopping and the announcement of her arrival as her husband's future concubine bride.

"I guess it's show time." She took a deep breath and changed her confident expression to a nervous one.

Since the original owner was a simple village girl, she'll have to properly act like she didn't know any courtesies or manners a young lady from a well-off family would know. The character that she needed to play this time is really passive and she suddenly couldn't help but think that it will be a bit harder to play this one out compared to her last one.

At least her last target person was an educated individual that had the proper position and background for her to act justifiably because she had that right, but now, judging from the world's details, she knew that her position in this mansion should be the lowest one out of all the concubines. Even if they all shared the same husbands, she knew that there were internal rankings among the concubines based off of one, the husband's favor and two, the family's background of their maternal family. Since the original owner currently has neither of them, she'll have to make due with her own strength.

"Hmph, if these concubines think that they're expecting a meek girl to join their ranks, then they couldn't be anymore wrong." Although she couldn't butt heads with them directly, she could still plan countermeasures behind their backs, she'll make sure that no one will even know it's her.

"Lift the curtains, it's time to bring in the bride." A middle-aged woman's voice sounded out from outside the carriage.

Tian He quickly readied herself by placing the red silk face cover over her face that the original owner had taken off earlier and got up to get piggybacked onto that middle-aged woman's back so she could be taken to her husband's wedding room. Since her eyes were covered now, she couldn't distinguish the faces of the people around her, but her perceptiveness still sensed unfriendly stares being directed at her from a crowd of people that she passed by.

She mocked them silently inside, really these concubines, she hasn't even gotten married yet and their hostility was already showing.

Hmph, no matter what you're going to do, I'll make sure you won't get away with it that easily.