When Ye Qing woke up, she was in a different place. It was a small room that was furnished with what seemed to be leather. There was a large window in front of her that was placed at an odd angle. Trying to move revealed the fact that she was strapped down to something.
Even with the first core being snug inside of her dantian, Ye Qing did not have enough strength to break free. Each core should double her body's original strength until their fusion so either her body had been degraded or the restraints were more powerful than she expected. It seemed more likely that it was her body that needed to be worked out; everything was stiff and she didn't know if she even had proper muscles under her fat. Scanning her own body with soul sense wouldn't work because her own soul's protection made it impossible; you couldn't scan someone unless their soul was significantly weaker than yours.
Ye Qing felt her body sway and caught a glimpse of the wet nurse looking at her from the side. Turning her head, Ye Qing locked eyes with the woman. It was probably best to stop thinking of them as giants. There weren't any people her size that she had seen so it was likely that she was just small in this world. The wet nurse smiled and reached her hand out to touch Ye Qing; out of instinct, Ye Qing blocked her hand and held it back. The wet nurse's smile got even bigger.
{Who is she speaking to?}
Just as Ye Qing thought that, she heard the voice of the nice lady and the grumpy man from earlier. Using her senses, Ye Qing was able to find out that they were currently moving and that the other two were sitting behind her. She was right, they had adopted her. The carriage they were in had more explosions helping it move which made Ye Qing worried; why did theirs need twelve explosions when the ones around them only need four or six with the occasional one having eight?
The wet nurse brought out some strange slab with her free hand. It used a similar energy as the balls and ceilings of the buildings and carriages had running through them but it had much less. A bright light came out alongside a weird sound; why did everybody try to blind her? Ye Qing let go of her hand to try shielding her eyes from any other lights. The wet nurse undid her own restraints and brought her face closer to Ye Qing. She was staring at the slab so Ye Qing didn't think that she would do it again.
{I was wrong! Why would she try to blind herself!?}
After Ye Qing's eyes adjusted, she could see the other side of the slab. It showed everything on the other side of it, like a monster that could camoflauge itself but even better since it was mostly clear. The young woman tapped the slab and Ye Qing could now see the wet nurse's face from a different angle. There was a baby next to her. Ye Qing reached out towards the slab and noticed something odd. The baby reached towards her. Ye Qing tried moving her hands in different positions and even flapped her lips a little bit to confirm.
{No! This can't be true! This has to be an illusion!}
Ye Qing needed to find something to disprove what she was seeing. Unfortunately, she could only find the opposite. The person that she thought was a wet nurse had signs that showed that she had just given birth. Illusions couldn't change what she saw through her spiritual energy. There were no other babies around and this woman was too happy to have lost her own child.
{I'm a baby? I must have died, then. I've always wondered what happened after death but I never expected to be able to remember my past life.}
Ye Qing felt like everything she knew to be true was just a lie.
{But he was so certain that we would become stars after our death. Was he wrong?}
She didn't have all of the answers. Maybe she just misunderstood his words. He had never been wrong before so she didn't want to believe that he was wrong this time.
At any rate, Ye Qing could now see the truth of her situation. These people weren't strong, she was just weak. This supposed wet nurse was her mother in her new life. Nobody around her had any cultivation and she was starting to suspect that magic didn't exist here.
Ye Qing needed to learn more about this place in order to confirm her suspicions but everything seemed so peaceful. It reminded her of Daqin and how her husband's sacrifice helped bring about an endless peace. With nobody else as strong as her, it would be easy to protect her family and pay back her new mother for giving her a second chance at life.
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Tatyana's new look surprised the other girls. They were expecting her to show up in colorful clothes like normal, not ones that made her look like an experienced woman. Aria imagined that Vanessa would be getting a lot of exercise tonight since Tatyana would be getting unwanted attention.
"Why are you wearing such provocative clothes? Are you looking to hook up with someone?" Abigail chose to speak her mind and ask the question that everyone wanted to know the answer to.
"What? No! Why would you think that?" Tatyana panicked. She didn't know the first thing about dating, let alone hooking up with strangers.
"You're dressed like the kind of woman that invites a man into the bathroom for quick sex. What kind of look were you going for?" After twisting the proverbial knife into Tatyana's gut, Abigail asked her the other question on everybody's mind.
"I'm going to change." Tatyana started to walk back into the room when Aria stopped her.
"There's no time. Besides, it's not as bad as Abigail makes it seem. You look fine. Just don't leave Vanessa's side and people won't bother you." Aria was lying. If she met Tatyana dressed in those clothes then she'd definitely think that she was looking for sex. This made her rethink the way that she assumed things; just because someone looked like a slut, it didn't mean that they were one.
Tatyana chose to believe Aria's words and got into the van. Julia was already inside of it and she was wearing the same clothes that she wore over to Tatyana's house. Abigail and Aria only changed into casual clothes so Tatyana felt really out of place.
The ride to the club was short but took longer than it should have due to Aria's driving. They were only barely on time since the first performance was in five minutes and they'd need to wait in line. There was a five dollar charge to get in which Aria covered for the rest of the girls. Tatyana felt even more out of place when she got into the club. There were eyes on her when they were on the street but there were lots of people inside the club with their eyes on the ramp leading to the dance floor.
"Come on, let's go backstage for a bit. You two haven't met the band yet." The two that Aria was talking about were Tatyana and Abigail. Julia was related to one of the members and Vanessa had been listening to their music for years so they already met the band members. Aria was excited since this was the first time her brother was going to play his own song on stage. Before this, they had played as a cover band on their high school's stage.
Unlike Aria, Arsenio went to a co-ed school. It was Arsenio's fault that their parents sent her to the private girls school; he was always changing girlfriends from the last year of middle school to his second year in high school. They didn't want her to end up being with a guy like him and it seemed to be working since she never dated anybody. For the next year he was dating a girl one year older than him but they broke it off when she moved to go to a University in a different state. Ever since then his music has been more depressing but the sad pretty boy look gained him some fans at the community college he attended.
The five of them were stopped by a guard when they approached the door to the backstage. "My brother is in one of the bands that are competing."
"You could be the Pope's sister and I still wouldn't let you through. No backstage pass, no entry." Arsenio didn't give her anything like that. The only pass they had was the one that let them vote in the competition that they got at the entrance. Rather than make a scene, Aria guided the girls to one of the booths that were open.
"Sorry about that. I'll introduce you two to them later, okay?" Tatyana didn't care if she met them but she might change her mind if she liked their music. Abigail just didn't care about meeting them; she realized on the way over that since Tatyana's computer was brand new that it would come with games. That brand of GPU had been offering three games that Abigail didn't own and Tatyana should still have the codes for those games somewhere since it applied to laptop GPUs as well. While Abigail was in her own world, Aria and Vanessa went to go get juice for everybody.
"Is this seat taken?" Before Tatyana had a chance to tell him that her friends were just gone for a while, the man sat down next to her. "I've never seen you around here before. Can I get you a drink? The bar is supposed to be non-alcoholic tonight but I know a guy."
Was this guy trying to flirt with her? "No thank you. My friends have already gone to get me a drink."
"Then I can buy you a second one. It'll be a long night. I can help keep you company." The guy reached over and grabbed her shoulder. The guy didn't know how to respect personal boundaries and the smell of his cologne was overwhelming. Did he really expect her to be interested in him?
Tatyana moved away from him after shaking his hand off of her. "I'm not interested. Leave me alone and don't touch me." She had never met a man as rude as him.
"What about me aren't you interested in? Your type always likes to play hard to get but then you'll shake your hips on top of me when you see how much money I've got." Just what type did he think she was? Her own bank account had over one hundred thousand and the shares that her parents gave her every year for her birthday were now worth tens of millions of dollars.
"Just how much money do you have for you to be so confident? Millions of dollars? Billions?" Tatyana shook her head when she noticed the logo on his jacket. "I somehow doubt that you've got millions if you're wearing that."
The man was offended at her comment. "As if you would know high end brands. This is a genuine suit from a high end luxury clothing brand."
That comment made her laugh. "If you were a woman, sure. I'm very familiar with that brand and know that the men's suits they had were extremely unpopular. You can still find them for cheap at outlet stores." If it was anything but fashion then she wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with a man like this.
The man got offended at her comments since she outed him as a fraud. He had been able to fool women before since a dress under the same label had been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. He'd have to cut his losses and find a different target. "As if you'd know anything about luxury brands." The man got up and left just in time; if he had stayed any longer then Vanessa would have arrived and he'd be leaving in an ambulance.
Tatyana thought about how ironic that encounter was and couldn't help but laugh. "What has you laughing like that?" Aria was just putting the drinks on the table and sitting down when she heard Tatyana.
"Some guy was flirting with her." Julia was surprisingly the one to tell Aria what happened while she was away. She didn't speak much but whenever something related to love popped up, she would talk about it. She seemed to like the idea of dating someone more than the act of dating itself.
"That's not why I was laughing. Did you notice that suit?" The other girls didn't know anything about clothing like she did. "The T logo on it stood for Tatyana. It's my mother's luxury brand that she named after me." Tatyana was the only one that found the interaction to be hilarious. The other girls didn't know that Tatyana's father was the only person that she had seen wearing the suits under that brand and that it sold so poorly that they had to create an entire brand just for men's clothes.
The music was starting so Tatyana quieted her laughing down. For the first hour it was mostly covers to popular songs so there was nothing that really stuck out to her. The songs that she recognized sounded better when she listened to them on her phone and computer. The bands weren't terrible but their performances could never reach the studio recordings made by the professionals.
There were a few new songs that she heard that she liked but most of the new ones just annoyed her. One band had their singer--if you could call them that--yelling out their lyrics. It didn't sound good at all. There were a few enthusiastic people on the dance floor and Abigail was jumping up and down while listening but Tatyana couldn't understand why they enjoyed it.
Even with the weird songs she didn't understand and the less-than-perfect covers, Tatyana was really enjoying her night out. She had never experienced anything like this and would definitely want to come back in the future. Going to see a play or opera was nothing like this; those felt detached while she felt like she was part of the action with these bands playing so close.
"There they are! Go RENO! Woooo!" Aria was not the only girl that was being vocal; they seemed to have a lot of fans in the club.
Tatyana was able to tell which one was Aria's brother. He had curly brown hair that was shorter than hers, hawk eyes, and a toothy grin that made him look a little dangerous. "Alright, New York! We hear you loud and clear! We're RENO and this is our new song, Alone in Space!"
The lights dimmed down and Arsenio started playing his guitar.
♫We both know it was a long time coming
A finale to my frantic running♫
♫No up and no down, no roof and no floor
I am drifting in space forevermore♫
The other guitar, the bass, and the drums started to be played as the music's tempo increased. Tatyana was already enraptured with his voice.
♫The only one to talk to now is me
(No-one else is home)
Left wondering; is this a fantasy
(As I drift alone-)♫
All of the instruments stopped playing for a bit before the chorus. Tatyana watched as Arsenio took in a deep breath to prepare for a long note.
♫Alone in space~
Say goodbye to the human race♫
♫Alone in space~
Forever gone, don't leave a trace♫
The rest of the audience was drowned out; Tatyana could only hear his perfect voice and the instruments accompanying it. The other instruments quieted down, leaving his voice and guitar to control the stage.
♫Now there is nothing left to fear
Now there is no reason to care♫
♫Cold and dark are my only friends
As I drift towards my bitter end♫
Just like before, the other instruments started to pick up along with the tempo. Tatyana had goosebumps as she waited for the long notes from the chorus.
♫I'm done waiting for you to lie
(Disconnect the phone)
No-one left to care if I die
(As I drift alone-)♫
{Here it comes!}
♫Alone in space~
Say goodbye to the human race♫
♫Alone in space~
Forever gone, don't leave a trace♫
Unlike the previous time, the instruments kept continuing on with the higher tempo.
♫Alone in space~
Drifting at a quickening pace♫
♫Alone in space~
There is no need to give me chase♫
The extended chorus finally ended and the instruments went back to being quieter, continuing to drop in volume until in the end the song returned to being Arsenio singing over the sound of his guitar.
♫Here I reach my destination
Solitude and desolation
I wait for death from starvation
Or oxygen deprivation♫
♫Here I'm left alone
Alone in space♫
Tatyana was completely hooked after hearing his song and cheered loudly with the rest of RENO's fans when the band bowed at the end of their song. "Thank you, everyone!" "Remember to stay so that you can vote for us at the end of the show." Two of the other band members shouted out to the crowd. One of them was the person on bass that was singing backup to Arsenio and the other was the second guitarist. Arsenio just sat there up front with his toothy grin, waving at the crowd.
Tatyana couldn't help but keep her attention on Arsenio. She was already a fan of his voice and wanted to meet him in person. Her heart wouldn't stop beating heavily until he left her sight and went backstage. It felt like she was a different person after hearing his song; like the sound waves washed over and baptized her.