“Oh, who was the one dancing with him all night at the prince's coming-of-age banquet yesterday? She’s so mysterious and enchanting. I bet she must be a princess from some country.”
“Mysterious and enchanting? More so than Beiliya?”
“Beiliya? Beiliya indeed possesses unparalleled beauty, but that woman is different… The moment I saw her, my heart didn’t feel like it was my own anymore. Her dress was covered in stars, and her high heels sparkled more than diamonds… But it’s strange, I can’t seem to remember her face anymore.”
“Oh, she’s so lucky. I wish I could dance with the prince all night too. The Carlo Prince is so handsome and gentlemanly; every young lady in the Solro Kingdom dreams of marrying him.”
“No, no, don’t include me. I prefer someone like Louis Duke, proud and cold, so arrogant he’s almost unbearable…”
The conversation seemed to escalate into an argument, and the elegant, ancient French accent started to sound like buzzing flies, irritating and annoying. Liu Yu rolled over, wanting to go back to sleep, but someone poked her in the back.
“Beiliya, between Carlo Prince and Louis Duke, who would you choose?”
…Carlo Prince and Louis Duke?
Liu Yu thought hazily. She must have read too much before going to bed; even her dreams were related to books now.
The person behind her continued poking:
“Beiliya, Beiliya…”
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
“Who would choose between a prince and a duke?” A fluent stream of French escaped her lips. “If I had to choose, I’d choose the best one, the God of Light.”
The buzzing stopped, and the surroundings fell into a deathly silence.
Liu Yu instinctively looked up and found that over a dozen pairs of eyes were fixed on her without blinking. The mockery and malice in those eyes were so intense they seemed ready to turn into arrows and pierce her through.
It was then that she realized something was wrong.
She wasn’t lying in her own soft, fragrant bed but was instead in a room with a Baroque-style interior.
The room had large windows, and light filtered through the stained glass, softly illuminating the surroundings—
Rows of pure white desks carved with rose patterns, each occupied by many young girls. They wore exaggerated European-style puff skirts, and each one glared at her fiercely, as if she had dug up their family graves.
“Beiliya!”
At that moment, a woman in her late thirties or early forties stormed into the room, her high heels clicking loudly. It seemed she had overheard the previous conversation and pointed a long teaching stick at her. “You ignorant, arrogant…”
She was so angry she was trembling. “How dare you blaspheme our great God of Light! Get out! Stand outside for an hour, right now!”
…Beiliya?
Liu Yu’s eyes widened: Could it be what she thought?
She instinctively looked at her arm, the snow-white skin as crystalline as the first snow of winter, with tiny blue veins visible beneath—
Her childhood malnutrition had made it impossible for her, no matter how much money she spent on skincare, to achieve such flawless, translucent skin.
And this puff-sleeved, rose-purple tutu...
Liu Yu’s mind instinctively flashed a line:
“Beiliya was naturally beautiful. In Natasi’s eyes, her step-sister was like the most exquisite doll she had ever seen at the Benoit Store. She had snow-white skin, golden wavy hair, and ocean-blue eyes… But her bad temper was as memorable as her beauty.”
She… Beiliya?
Liu Yu pinched herself.
“Ouch—” Her deskmate glared at her angrily. “Beiliya, what are you doing?”
“Does it hurt?”
Her deskmate seemed even angrier:
“Why don’t you try it?!”
It seemed to hurt.
“Beiliya!” The middle-aged woman on the podium screeched at her like a hen. “Get out! Now!”
The classroom buzzed again.
“What a fool, thinking her beauty gives her the right to dream of the God of Light…”
“Ten years ago, the most beautiful and noble Princess Helen of the entire continent only dared to say she wanted to be the God’s concubine… and ended up as a pig.”
“The glory of the God is everywhere; those who blaspheme will be punished.”
…
Liu Yu was expelled to the hallway outside the classroom.
Her classroom was on the sixth floor, offering a view of endless white domes, flocks of white pigeons, and distant snow-capped mountains that disappeared into the clouds.
The wind from the mountains carried a chill, instantly waking Liu Yu up. Strangely, despite the presence of the snow mountains, the air was still humid and hot. She was wearing a puffy skirt—
Yet she didn’t feel cold at all.
Carlo Prince, Louis Duke, Beiliya…
The white domed ceilings, the endless snow mountains, the strange climate…
Liu Yu pinched herself again—
Now, she was absolutely certain. She had transmigrated.
She had transmigrated into a brainless Mary Sue novel titled "The Magnificent Reversal of Cinderella."
The entire book revolved around Cinderella, with Natasi as the absolute protagonist. Except for her early hardships, Natasi’s life was a smooth green light. With her luck akin to that of a koi fish and her pure, clear nature, she conquered the hearts of one powerful man after another. Eventually, she even met the biggest of them all—
The God of Light, the master of this world, the sole supreme being.
Compared to the God of Light, other princes and dukes were insignificant. Under the God’s protection, Natasi finally reached the pinnacle of her life—
She was summoned to the divine palace, where she remained by the God of Light’s side.
However, perhaps the author loved the male lead too much—
At the end, Natasi didn’t become the divine empress. Instead, she became the highest-ranking divine attendant in the palace, granted immortality and power second only to the God of Light.
For a romance novel, this was undoubtedly a bad ending, a bittersweet ending. Countless readers threatened to send the author knives, but the author insisted on not changing the ending, even leaving a line:
“A deity should forever remain on the altar, to be gazed upon by all. No one can obtain the heart of the God of Light, not even Natasi.”
Liu Yu had stayed up until one in the morning to finish the book, only to be left with a mouthful of old blood from the ending. She went to sleep with resentment.
Who knew that upon waking up, she had ended up here.
She had become a named, significant female cannon fodder in the book—Natasi’s evil, stupid, and toxic step-sister, Beiliya.
This cannon fodder had a crucial role: she was meant to highlight Natasi’s purity and kindness with her own wickedness and stupidity, eliciting pity from the powerful men. She also played a key role in driving the plot—
She and her equally evil and stupid mother would bully Natasi from time to time. In the end, she even dared to dig out the eyes of the God of Light’s incarnation: this would allow Natasi to connect with the God of Light and become his savior.
Fifteen days after the eyes were dug out, she died.
“When Beiliya was hung on the gallows, she was no longer beautiful. She had become a mummified corpse. Natasi watched from a carriage, and maggots had infested her body. Even the eagles despised her flesh—she and her stepmother hung together, never to bully her again. Natasi let out a sigh of relief and quickly whispered a prayer of repentance.”
So, what point in the story had she transmigrated to?
If yesterday was the prince’s coming-of-age ceremony…
At that moment, the voice of the female teacher in the classroom clearly reached her:
“Three days from now, the divine envoy will come to our Soren Academy for the test. Hopefully, one of you will become a favored one of the God…”
The church’s spire rang out, dong, dong, dong…
Eleven times.
Liu Yu counted clearly. From her high vantage point, she could see the spray of water—
The musical fountain had started to sing.
This was bad.
Three days for the favored one test, eleven chimes, last night’s prince’s coming-of-age ceremony…
This meant that the God of Light’s incarnation’s eyes had already been dug out before the last class. He had been left alone in the cave behind the fountain, hidden by the fiery bushes—no one had found him.
Then, Natasi, who had been bringing food for the original Beiliya, discovered him.
No, it couldn’t happen.
Liu Yu thought, she must get there before Natasi and claim this savior role—
Although, it felt a bit shameless.
As she thought this, Liu Yu saw a young girl in dull clothes enter the school gate from afar—
She carried a basket, likely containing a lunchbox, and wore a gray apron. She skipped happily toward the school.
That was Natasi, the Cinderella—
She was here.
She would save the God’s incarnation and, from then on, be blessed with koi-like luck. Her already smooth path would become even more effortless.
On the contrary, those who harm the gods themselves will become jinxed, experiencing a string of bad luck—choking on water, falling into a cesspit while walking, and even having a tooth broken by a piece of candy.
This marks a watershed in the original owner's life.
The most direct consequence is that tonight, she will be thrown into prison for three days for attempting to harm the avatar of the God of Light—Gaia, whom she mistakenly believes to be a commoner but is actually a fallen noble.
The reason for her accusation is simple.
The family crest she dropped, which Gaia tightly grasped in his hand, represents the Fergus Family: a golden iris.
The original owner always carried it with her, symbolizing the never-fading glory of the Fergus Family.
...In any case, she must first avoid this immediate crisis.
Liu Yu ran like a deer.
Her rose-colored skirt fluttered, revealing the pure white lace edge of her stockings, and her high heels clicked rhythmically on the ground.
She darted past the high steps, ran across the lawn, and dashed through the music fountain reflecting the seven-colored sunlight, finally reaching the back of the rockery—
A cluster of flame-like shrubs surrounded the rockery.
This place was secluded and devoid of human presence.
Everyone at Soren Academy had heard a legend that countless skeletons were buried beneath those flame-like shrubs.
So no one ever came here.
Natasi was standing there.
She turned around in surprise:
"Sister Beiliya?"
Liu Yu's gaze fell on her palm:
In the sunlight, a golden iris was shining brightly.
The ruby-encrusted stamen beads looked like drops of blood that were both vivid and startling.
