The smell of smoke was the last thing she remembered.
Shen Lian covered the child with her coat, shielding the little body from the flames. She had no time to think, no time to hesitate. The clinic was on fire, the wooden beams cracking, heat pressing from all sides. She couldn't see the exit anymore. Her hands were burned. Her throat hurt. Still, she held the child tight.
When the roof came down, there was no pain only silence.
Then light.
It was soft and hazy at first warm but not fire. Air filled her lungs, strange and heavy, like it didn't belong to her. Everything around her felt different the world smelled of dirt, straw and something faintly sweet.
She tried to move but couldn't her body was small,tiny in fact She couldn't even speak.
Panic rose, but only for a moment something was wrong something was impossible she was alive, but... how?
Cries filled the air not hers — someone else's. Voices low and worried a man and a woman. She couldn't make out their words, but their tones were soft caring.
Rough hands lifted her gently from a pile of old blankets she was wrapped in cloth, something tucked against her chest. A faint clink of jade sounded, followed by the crinkle of paper.
"What's this?" the man murmured.
The woman gasped"Is it a letter?"
"I think so... but it's smudged water damage maybe or tears."
There was silence as he read or tried to. Then a sigh.
"It's too blurred to understand just a few words left… 'protect her'… and 'phoenix'?"
The woman hummed lowly "Look at her she's so small we can't leave her out here like this."
The man hesitated,"We're barely feeding ourselves Ruolan ,the drought just ended the fields won't give anything for weeks."
"We have enough for one more mouth and look at her poor thing. She's fate's child, I can feel it."
The man didn't reply, but after a while he placed the letter and the pendant aside and picked up the child picked up her.
"We'll call her Yi Rong," the woman said softly,"Let her name carry peace."
That was the beginning of her second life.
The village was called Qinghe small and quiet tucked between hills and narrow farmland. It had survived the drought, just barely people were tired, thinner than they should be, but they helped one another and the rains had finally come back with new hopes.
Fang Zeyu, her adoptive father, was a strong man with rough hands and a gentle voice. He spoke little but worked hard always made sure there was something on the table, even if it was just millet porridge and wild vegetables his wife Ruolan was softer always humming, her hands busy with sewing or cooking or patting dirt from Yi Rong's clothes.
Yi Rong grew up quickly but quietly she was different from the other children in the village calmer always observing always thinking.
While others chased chickens and play in the stream, she would sit by the herb garden behind the house, tracing the shape of leaves with her small fingers when Ruolan picked herbs to boil for Fang Zeyu's sore back, Yi Rong would point out the bitter ones that shouldn't be used together.
Ruolan noticed,"Rong'er," she asked one evening brushing Yi Rong's hair by the torch light , "how do you know these things? You're not even five yet."
Yi Rong looked up with round eyes"I just... know mother i see it in dreams sometimes."
Ruolan smiled but a flicker of wonder passed through her face "Dreams, hm? Then your dreams must be very kind."
Fang Zeyu was less talkative, but he listened their conversation quietly.
One evening, after a long day in the fields, he came back limping slightly. His knee ached every year when the cold season came early. Ruolan fussed bringing warm cloths and ginger tea. Yi Rong slipped away for a moment, then came back with a small wrapped leaf in her palm.
"Father chew this" she said ,offering it to him.
He raised an eyebrow "What is it?"
"Mulberry bark," she said, "It helps when knees hurt."
He blinked,"Where did you learn that?"
Yi Rong shrugged, "Auntie Li said her grandmother used it." It was half a truth,Yi Rong had overheard Auntie Li talking about mulberry trees and the rest she remembered from her old life.
Zeyu didn't ask further he chewed the bark made a face then patted her head.
The seasons passed and the drought that had left the land dry and brittle finally gave way to spring rains. Water returned to the creeks, green buds appeared on the trees,Ruolan's vegetable patch began to fill again with mustard greens, radish, and beans.
Yi Rong helped plant seeds, her tiny hands poking holes in the dirt beside Ruolan's.
"Will we have enough to eat this year?" she asked one morning.
"If the weather stays the same," Ruolan answered wiping sweat from her brow,"But even if it doesn't, we'll be fine your father works hard."
"Can I help more?"
"You already do Rong'er." Ruolan chuckled, tying her hair back with a cloth ribbon, "Who do you think fetches water faster than any of the other children?"
"I just don't want mother and father to go hungry."
Ruolan paused at that her eyes softening,she reached over and pulled Yi Rong into a hug.
"What child says things like that, hmm? We're the adults, You're the one we're supposed to feed,don't worry about grown-up things Rong'er Just grow up well, that's enough."
There were good days and quiet ones.
Yi Rong's favorite time was evening, when the sun dipped low and the sky turned soft orange. Fang Zeyu would return from the fields, his shirt damp with sweat and sit under the old tree near the house sometimes he chopped the wood other times he just sat with a bowl of rice and meat stew while Ruolan fanned herself nearby.