8:30 pm, B city modern-day china
In a closet-sized room of an apartment on the third floor of an old apartment complex in the local student community west of B city. A slender woman lay on her stomach on a narrow single bed.
The small window opposite the bed was left open to allow the cool night breeze to come in.
The sole occupant of the small room Su Liya dressed lightly to allow easy access to a cool breeze, in white cotton shorts and blue coloured strapped cotton singlet.
Su Liya lay flat on her stomach dead to the world when the digital alarm clock on the bedside table began to ring. The alarm blasted loudly, waking her. She had set an alarm for 8:30 pm because of her online appointment by 9 pm. She rushed down from the bed and ran into the bathroom.
Ice cold water gushed out of the muzzle as she turned on the shower. It fell on her shoulder and back, making her jump back as the flowing water hit her back.
"Damn, this old plumbing system. Dear universe, please bless me with an overbearing CEO so I can get out of this old house. " Su Liya chuckled as she heard, those words, she soaped her body up before bravely stepping back under the water. Su Liya was no daydreamer, but like every girl out there she enjoyed the little escape romance novels gave her.
Su Liya was a romance novel enthusiast. She followed quite a few books, but her favourite book was Dizzy Scholar's ongoing online web serial novel titled, The Emperor's cunning wife. She had followed the entire first volume of the online novel from start to finish and was anticipating the start of the next volume.
The first chapter of 'The Emperor's cunning bride' Volume 2 would be released in the next thirty minutes. As one of the top fans of the author and a budding online novel reviewer promised her 1000 followers on weibo to host a live stream and give a review of the first chapter of the new volume.
Su Liya was a die-hard fan of the author of 'The Emperor's Cunning Bride', Dizzy scholar. She had followed her for over five years, back when Dizzy Scholar was still starting. After so many bestsellers Dizzy scholars had become a household name in the online serial novel industry for her unique writing style.
Su Liya stood under the shower until all the soap ladder was washed out of her body. She quickly wiped the water droplets off her body with her soft cotton towel before wrapping it around her and running out of the bathroom. She unwrapped the towel, threw it on the bed and put on fresh house wear.
Su Liya picked up her small pink brush and ran it through her cropped pixie cut light brown hair. She had grown comfortable with leaving her hair short after so many years. It was also cheaper and easier to manage so Su Liya didn't bother growing her hair out.
Keeping short hair was very economical as it saves her the high cost of maintaining long hair, which was a luxury for a ward of the state like her. It was because of her financial situation that she got involved in an online review of books.
Su Liya was a sophomore student in the department of international relations at B city university. She wasn't one of the top students, but her results were okay.
She got inspired to try her hand at online novel reviewing after reading an article on one of the biggest internet influencers in China.
She started with just a hundred and fifty followers on Weibo but has now grown to over a thousand followers in just four months. That in itself was huge progress.
After her daily grooming, Su Liya connected her electric cooker, filled a small pot with enough water for a serving of noodles and placed the pot on the burner. While the water began to heat up, Su Liya cut some vegetables for the noodles into a bowl.
Su Liya dropped a serving of ramen into the boiling pot, then poured in the vegetables and stirred gently. Su Liya watched the clock in intervals.
Once her noodles were boiled, she turned off the hot pot, brought down the pot of noodles and poured it into a bowl.
She placed the bowl next to her laptop to cool. While it cooled, powered on her laptop and after booting logged into the WN books online website and clicked on Dizzy scholar's online webpage.
It was two minutes to the lunchtime of volume 2 of 'The Emperor's Cunning Bride'. A countdown clock appeared on the screen as soon as the webpage opened.
Su Liya sat in front of the laptop and began eating the bowl of noodles until it finished. As soon as the countdown clock stroke zero, a new page opened and the first chapter of the second volume of the online web novel opened.
Just as the first chapter opened, thunderstruck suddenly and everywhere went dark. There was a blackout in the entire B city, but unlike other blackouts, her laptop went black too. Su Liya pushed back her seat and stood to check what went wrong when her laptop turned on immediately.
The laptop screen flashed and the green numbers quickly passed through the display. Su Liya moved closer to check what was going on with the laptop. As she placed her hand on the laptop, the room was brightened up by a sudden flash of lightning.
There was another thunder strike, that stook the laptop directly. She stiffened as an electric current ran through her body, settling her blood on fire. Her blood heated up rapidly like boiling water as the current threw her across the room. She hit her head on the wall and blacked out.
******
When she came to, she laid sideways on what felt like glass, in an ancient-looking throne room made of gold. She saw a beautiful couple dressed in white with gold crowns. The couple sat gracefully on their throne, their body movements off the charts. The couple gave off a dignified air.
The woman stood and walk gracefully towards Su Liya, who had risen to a seating position. "Wow, she looks like a goddess," Su Liya thought as she watched her come closer.
The woman who Su Liya referred to as a goddess glowed, her skin sparkled like diamonds. She was incredibly beautiful, with delicate features. She was oval-faced with a slim, pointed high bridge nose, beautiful brown eyes with long full lashes and small lips.
The Goddess looked like she stepped out of a fantasy. Su Liya was so absorbed by the goddess's beauty that she didn't notice that her name was called until she felt a warm hand rest on her shoulder.
Shocked, Su Liya exclaimed, "what_" and took a step back. Su Liya looked up, she found herself gazing into one of the weirdest eyes she had ever seen. The goddess's eyes, which looked almond from afar looked like pure gold up close.
The goddess must have noticed her discomfort because her eyes immediately changed to the beautiful almond colour from before. The goddess smiled, stretched out her hands and said
"Hello Liya, I am Mazu the heavenly empress. You are about to die, but what would you do if I said I have a way to help you live?"
Her last sentence caught Su Liya's attention. Su Liya stood straight.
The Heavenly Empress smiled and said, holding out her hands to Su Liya she continued, "Take my hand if you want to live."