Arriving at the pavilion she saw that they had been followed but still she ignored it. Opening the door she and the mouse entered. Closing the door behind he she was happy to see that the little ones were still asleep.

Whispering, “Little mouse, where’s the teapot and water?” Pointing towards a side room he asked, “Why a mouse?”

Side eyeing him she grinned. Brewing the herbs she gave it to him lukewarm, “Try sleeping now… this should help – who is fetching you after class?”

“No one, I walk to the army base when classes are over for my training,” he answered while rubbing his eyes with his fists and yawning.

“Alright, I’ll take you with me, go go, sleep, sleep is good for a mouse,” she waved him off.

“Aunty, I’m not a mouse,” he protested while laid down his head.

“You’re my mouse, now sleep!” she ordered making him smile and closed his eyes. Falling into a peaceful sleep thanks to the healing effects of the herbs Rucheng picked out for him.

From inside she could hear the gossiping voices of those outside. Sealing the doors shut, ‘I really need to figure out what the fuck is happening… Firstly, I was somehow reborn into the body of the same person as me. Secondly, Mamma is alive. Thirdly, I am a commoner. Fourth, I teach at this place called Scholar Village. Fifth, I’m in charge of the Silent and Wise class. Sixth, I have powers? According to Myung-ah, its cultivation but according to my understanding, cultivation is growing something like plants or animals… so it’s growing superpowers that everyone in this world or specifically in Scholar Village has except for my class. I’ll ask them about that later. Besides all of this, no one seems to like me, I wonder why…’

Pulling out the fan from inside her sleeve she looked at it, taking note that when she shoved it in her sleeve, it was a whip.

Folded, there seemed nothing out of the ordinary about it. ‘It’s white with a silver frame.’ Opening it she frowned. The material was made of low quality cloth, it was worn out turning a slight yellow and it had no special markings on it.

Thinking for a moment, ‘Earlier on, I needed a whip to beat those two fuckers.’ Looking at her fan she asked it, “How did you turn into a whip?” To her low expectations, she received no answer!

Rolling her eyes she said, “Turn into a whip.” – No reaction, “Wow…” she marvelled amused.

Placing it down on her desk she looked at it, ‘You were a beautiful silver whip earlier on.’ Hearing her compliment the fan shuddered.

‘Can you hear me?’ she asked. In response to her the fan slightly opened then closed on its own.

‘Can you turn into a whip?’ she asked it and listening to her, it shone silver and turned into a whip.

Picking it up in her hands she felt the power surging from it into her hand. Looking closer, she found that it was very detail; the dragon scale like markings were feathers bunched together on the handle.

The whip was short but thinking back to earlier she remembered that it was longer. ‘Can you grow?’ It shone and the whip grew.

Understanding this, she said, ‘Turn back into a fan’ and it did.

‘What else can you turn into?’ It opened and closed in response like before.

‘I don’t understand the fan language,’ she said and it opened and closed again.

‘…’ Rucheng looked around feeling stupid.

‘Turn into a sword,’ she tried. The fan shone and it was a beautiful silver sword with a dragon head handle.

‘An Umbrella,’ she asked it and it turned into a beautiful silver umbrella with dragon markings all over it.

‘Bow and arrow,’ it turned into a dragon shaped bow, she looked at it and frowned since there weren’t any arrows. She raised her arms and pulled at the string and an arrow formed in her hand. She let go and it flew a pathetic distance since she wasn’t trying and it hit a book on a shelf near her.

Calling out many more weapons, it did as she asked; feeling that she had an understanding of how it worked she asked it, ‘Do you have a name?’ and it gave no response.

‘How about I name you Miao?’ she said seriously but there was no response.

‘Mouse?’ still no response.

‘Tiger?’ – No response.

‘Multipurpose fan?’ – No response.

‘You’re full of shit!’ She complained and the fan shuddered.

‘How about Cheng?’ the fan felt overwhelmed, so many names but it didn’t like any of them.

‘What about Na Dong?’ she asked and saw a slight shine on the fan.

‘???’ the fan wanted to know the reason behind the name.

‘Na Dong as in Na Dong, there’s no meaning behind the name because you can’t be defined.’ She answered.

What she said made sense. The fan opened and the characters ‘Na’ and ‘Dong’ appeared on it written in silver thread.

‘Where’d the thread come from?’ she asked curiously.

‘…’

‘Where’d you come from?’ she asked it.

Folding into itself it flipped over until it reached the end of the desk. Moving slightly with a shudder, it fell off and onto her lap. Flipping over, it hit against her stomach gently but the slight hit brought a deadly pain to her body.

The pain was so excruciating that she thought she was going to die again when she suddenly remembered that where Na Dong hit her. This place was where she was stabbed before she passed on.

Biting on the inside of her cheek, she sat up straight in her chair. Rubbing at the hurting spot, she slowly undid her robes. Looking at the spot where it hurt, she was dumbstruck.

Above her belly button was a red gem embedded into her skin. Looking at Na Dong who was back on the desk, innocently making her frown, ‘When did this get here?’

Closing her robes, she held onto the spot and rested her head on her desk. The pain coming from that spot was too much for her to bare and tired her out.