Chapter Text
The low thrum of music pulsed through the walls of the city’s most infamous bar, vibrating like a second heartbeat. Bodies swayed on the dance floor beneath dim lights, just enough glow to trace the contours of faces seeking freedom, or maybe just fleeting pleasure.
In one corner, a man sat with two lovely women draped over his arms, their flirtatious smiles shimmering like neon sins. Fingers tugged playfully at the collar of his shirt, lips brushing close as if whispering a silent code: Take us somewhere darker. But the man, eyes black as midnight, only curved his lips in amusement.
The night is long, what’s the rush?
He was nursing a glass of something expensive when a voice sliced through the haze. “You bastard. Partying this hard after flirting with a witness and making the captain explode?”
Phuwin, a lieutenant and that man’s unfortunate coworker, plopped down beside him with the weight of someone used to cleaning up messes. The other man chuckled, unfazed, “I wasn’t flirting. I was gathering emotional intelligence. ”
Phuwin scoffed, “Really, Gem? By calling her ‘sweetheart’ and asking for her Line ID?”
The man who is known as Gemini, shrugged lazily. “That’s called technique, my friend.”
“Technique, my ass. If you weren’t the chief’s son, you would’ve been kicked out years ago.”
Everyone knew it. Gemini, detective at the Central District, had never once won Officer of the Month. Never once received a plaque, a ceremony, or applause. The only reason he still had a badge was his father, and the only thing he collected with dedication were empty hearts and bar receipts.
“Well, for your information,” Gemini said, voice low, fingers tight around his glass, “I’d be grateful if that old man finally took away this cursed job and let me live my own damn life.”
There it was, that edge in his tone, sharp and bitter. Phuwin fell silent. He’d known Gemini since they were both stumbling toddlers, and he knew this part of him well, the boy who never wanted to be a cop, the man who despised everything the badge stood for. Because of his father. Because of a wound too deep to name. A past too painful to speak aloud.
They said nothing more.
Mood soured, Gemini raised the glass again. If he could drink himself into numbness, into silence , then that was better than being trapped with a mind that wouldn’t shut up.
That night, once again, Gemini drowned himself in earthly pleasure to keep the hellfire at bay. A hell that had long since made its home beneath his skin.
***
The moonlight danced gently upon the ocean’s surface, silver ripples shimmering beneath the dark sky. Waves crashed softly against the shore, filling the silence of the night with their timeless rhythm. A sharp gust of wind tugged at Gemini’s coat, making him stumble slightly.
Midnight had long passed, though he wasn’t sure when. After a wild night of drinking and blurred laughter, he had decided to clear his head with a slow walk along the edge of the dock. He was a good drinker, though his head throbbed faintly, his mind was still his own. He didn’t feel like going home to that cold, empty apartment. At least here, the sound of waves and the cries of distant seagulls offered some sort of distraction.
Just as he reached the very end of the dock, Gemini spoke into the wind, “Come out, asshole. I know you’ve been following me.”
He turned. A man stood there, face half-hidden by a black mask and cap, a pistol raised and aimed squarely at his skull.
Gemini tilted his head, unfazed, “What’s wrong, man? Too ugly to show your face? Pathetic.”
Even with a gun to his head, he couldn’t resist a jab.
The figure said nothing.
Then… bang!
The gun fired. Gemini dodged just in time, though the alcohol in his system dulled his reflexes. He stumbled. Another shot rang out, this time missing as Gemini lunged, knocking the assailant off balance. The dock turned into a battleground. Fists flew in the dim light. Gemini took a hard hit to the face, he could taste the blood on his lips , but he fought back, wild and sharp. He almost had the guy pinned when a brutal kick landed in his ribs, sending him gasping. He was about to strike again,
Bang!
A sharp pain bloomed in his shoulder. He’d been shot. The world spun. Before he could register the pain, a harsh kick to his chest sent him reeling backward.
And then, c old. salt. darkness.
The ocean swallowed him whole.
He plunged beneath the waves, arms flailing. He tried to swim, to rise, but his limbs betrayed him. His lungs screamed for air. Instead, the sea seeped in, invading his chest like smoke in a burning room.
Time slowed. The pain, the fight, the noise, it all faded.
He was sinking.
And in those final moments, as shadows danced at the edges of his vision, he saw it. The blurry silhouette of the man on the dock above, standing like some specter of vengeance, his outline merging with the night. A reaper in black.
Gemini let his eyes fall shut. He welcomed the silence.
For once, the noise in his head had stopped. And in that stillness, he finally felt… peace.
***
“I must live… for Xiao Si.”
“Xiao Si is still in danger… far too fragile to bear the weight of the throne alone.”
“I swore. I swore I would return to him.”
***
Gemini’s eyes flew open as he gasped, lungs greedy for air. Blinking rapidly against the blinding light that greeted him, he squinted, was it already morning? Was he… alive?
Questions flooded his foggy mind, pounding alongside the pain that screamed from every inch of his battered body. But when he tried to move, he froze. His wrists and ankles were bound tight. His clothes clung damp against his skin, but something felt off. Heavy. Strange. Blinking again, he looked down, and nearly choked.
“What the fuck..? What the hell is this costume?! Am I dreaming?!”
His body rocked slightly with motion. He was inside… a wooden box? No, something was moving. A cart? Wait, was he kidnapped? Being trafficked? Damn it, this is exactly why he never wanted to be a cop. This had to be about the drug cartel they were tailing. He knew it.
Quickly, he fumbled with the ropes around his wrists, surprisingly, they came undone with ease.
“Amateur,” he muttered. “Whoever tied this needs a remedial scout camp.”
He crouched low and peered through the narrow gaps between the wooden slats. Hoofbeats echoed in his ears, no, not just hoofbeats, but dozens of them. He caught a glimpse and nearly forgot how to breathe.
Men in armor. Real armor. Hair tied up in warrior knots. Their faces grim beneath steel helmets, weapons at their hips. Clothes he’d only ever seen in historical dramas Phuwin used to binge-watch.
Gemini blinked again and looked down at himself. His own clothes were no better, old, rough fabric, caked with mud, reeking of sweat and blood. His heart raced as he lifted a trembling hand toward his head… and froze.
“What the actual hell?! Since when do I have long hair?!”
***
The hall was steeped in tension, heavy with unspoken doubts. At the far end, the Emperor sat on his throne, his bearing calm, but absolute. His features were carved with a grace too fine for war, skin as pale as moonlight, lips red as ripe cherries, yet his gaze… sharp enough to strike down a thousand armored men.
Liang Sihan, the youngest ruler in the history of the Yao Dynasty, swept his cool eyes across the ministers assembled before him. Not a word dared disturb the silence, until the Minister of War bowed and spoke, voice cutting through the stillness,
“Your Majesty… It has been two months since General Shuang vanished. And for two months, the northern border has remained under the Wei Kingdom’s control.”
“Speak plainly,” the emperor said, voice cold as steel.
“With the deepest respect, is it not time to appoint a new general?”
Liang Sihan said nothing. The words stung, though not because they were wrong. For weeks now, his advisors had pressed him to fill the empty post. The empire could not afford indecision.
And yet…
Deep within his chest, beneath the layers of crown and title, he still clung to hope. Hope that the man who once stood beside him in battle and beside him in silence… would return .
He opened his mouth to speak when the heavy doors suddenly burst open.
A soldier stumbled into the great hall, breathless and disheveled. Murmurs erupted among the ministers, and the High Advisor shot to his feet, voice thunderous.
“Insolence! His Majesty did not summon you!”
Another guard moved swiftly to drag the soldier away, hand already at their blade, ready to strike.
But Liang Sihan lifted a hand, just once , and the room fell into reverent stillness.
He recognized the soldier. One of Shuang Xingyu’s men. Loyal to the bone.
“You had better bring news worth your life,” the emperor said, voice like the edge of winter.
The soldier trembled, his voice barely above a whisper, “G-General Shuang… he is alive, Your Majesty.”
***
Gemini groaned softly as two armored guards dragged him by the arms through a vast corridor. He had tried to fight back when the wooden crate he’d been locked in was finally pried open, but his body betrayed him, worn, bruised, and starved of strength. Judging by how hollow he felt, he must have been left to rot for days, if not longer.
“Gentlemen, I think I’ve shown up to the wrong cosplay party-” his words were cut short when his body was unceremoniously thrown to the ground, landing hard against the polished floor.
“Shit, was that really necessary?” he muttered, wincing.
He lifted himself to his knees, dizzy but curious. His eyes traced the fine red carpet beneath him, woven with golden dragons dancing along its center. His gaze followed the gilded embroidery, until it landed on a throne.
An actual golden throne.
Was that real gold? Or a really committed movie set prop?
But what truly stole his breath wasn’t the throne. It was the man sitting on it.
Clad in robes of deep blue, embroidered with a phoenix in shimmering gold thread, he sat like a lion ready to pounce. His expression was cold, impenetrable. But his face… Gemini swore he had never, in all his chaotic, meme-filled life, seen someone so breathtakingly beautiful. This man could ruin lives with a blink. And Gemini? Well, his heart was already halfway to the gallows.
With trembling hands, he pressed a palm to his chest.
“Whoa… am I in heaven? And are you the god in charge? Look, I don’t believe in any religion, but if being judged by a hot deity is the price of sin, respectfully please count me in.”
A blade was instantly pressed to his neck. One of the guards who had dragged him here snarled, “Mind your tongue.”
The emperor didn’t flinch. His brow furrowed slightly, then smoothed again into a mask of indifference.
“My traitorous general… dares to crawl back into my court?” His voice didn’t rise, it didn’t need to. The authority in it could split mountains.
Gemini, still dizzy from beauty and concussion, blinked.
“Okay… uh, hi. Funny story, but I think there’s been some sort of time-space... mix-up here—”
“Silence, Shuang Xingyu.” The emperor’s voice cracked like thunder through the vaulted ceiling.
Gemini gulped and coughed, raising a hand in surrender.
“Listen, Mr. Your Majesty, or... sir. I'm not this.. uh.. ‘Shang... Singyo?’ Whatever. I’m a police officer. If this is some kind of prank, I swear I can arrest all of you for kidnapping”
Gasps rippled through the court like falling dominoes.
Liang Sihan rose from his throne. Slowly, he stepped down. Each footfall echoed like a drumbeat of judgment. His face betrayed nothing, but his eyes…
“You disappear for two months after burning our maps,” he said, voice low and bitter, “selling our secrets to Wei, and leaving me to bury our men-” A crack formed in his words. No one noticed. No one, except himself, “…and now you return to mock me?”
Gemini furrowed his brow. What in the fever dream nonsense was this?
“Whoa, okay. Let’s take it down a notch, man. I don’t even know how to betray someone. I can barely stay loyal to a gym membership.”
The emperor halted, standing just in front of him. For the first time, their eyes met. And in that moment, Gemini saw it, behind the wrath and authority. A flicker of something else.
Confusion. Pain. Longing.
It lasted no more than a heartbeat.
“You even speak like a fool now,” Liang Sihan said coldly.
And still, despite himself… he could not look away.
Even up close, the emperor looked surreal. His skin was porcelain under the lantern light. His eyes glinted like obsidian daggers. Gemini had stared down the barrel of a gun before, once even with a knife pressed to his ribs. But this? Gemini felt like he might drop dead at any moment, out of fear, or attraction, or even both.
Gemini raise his hands slowly in front of him, “Okay.. uh… how about we all just take a breath and- oh fuck!” a guard behind him struck the back of his shoulder with the hilt of his sword. He stumbled forward, catching himself just before kissing the floor again.
“Seriously? Again with the hitting? Are you into bdsm or something bro?”
Liang Sihan said nothing. He turned away, as if Gemini had already exhausted every grain of his patience. His voice was soft but laced with steel, “He won’t say a word. Throw him into the Ice Pavilion”
Gasps rippled again.
“Y-your Majesty.. But the Ice Pavilion hasn’t been used in-” the minister of defense shutted down by Liang Sihan.
“I said,” Liang Sihan snapped, turning his gaze sharply, “Throw him into the Ice Pavilion”
The guards didn’t hesitate this time.
“Hey! I can walk, you don’t have to-” Gemini protested as his arms were seized again, tighter than before.
As they dragged him out of the grand hall, he craned his neck to look back. His eyes caught the emperor’s for a fleeting second. And he saw it again. That flicker of hurt, confusion, and regret.
What the hell happened between them?
***
The trek to the Ice Pavilion felt longer than it should have. Gemini was hauled down a series of stone corridors lit by torches, past wide-open courtyards and narrow gates. Eventually, the walls turned to pale frost, breath turned to mist, and his soaked clothes clung to his skin like ice sheets.
“The hell is this place? Elsa’s vacation home?” he muttered, shivering violently.
One of the guards clearly didn’t understand the reference but jabbed him in the side anyway.
They stopped in front of a large door made of black iron and wood. Its surface was layered with frost. One of the guards unlocked it with a heavy bronze key.
The door creaked open.
Gemini barely had time to see inside before he was shoved in, stumbling across the cold stone floor. The door slammed shut behind him with a thundering finality, and a moment later, he heard the unmistakable sound of a lock turning.
He stood in silence.
The chamber was dim and bitterly cold. Snow dusted parts of the cracked floor. A single slit near the ceiling let in moonlight that bathed the room in silver. There was a straw mat in the corner and a heavy chain bolted to the wall. No blankets. No warmth.
“Perfect,” he muttered sarcastically. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”
He hugged himself for warmth, his teeth already beginning to chatter. With a sigh, he slumped against the nearest wall, sinking slowly to the ground.
“…Shuang Xingyu, huh?” he whispered into the cold. “What kind of messed-up telenovela did I land in?”
His fingers trembled as he rubbed his palms together. The silence echoed, broken only by the occasional creak of ancient wood above.
Then it hit him.
Not the cold but the absence.
There were no electric lights. No buzzing from LED bulbs. No faint hum of a generator. No camera blinking from the ceiling. No smell of gasoline. Not even a single muffled ringtone or the sound of traffic in the distance.
It was too quiet.
"...This isn't just another country," he muttered to himself, the realization blooming like ice in his stomach.
His eyes scanned the room again. The architecture. The iron hinges. The rope that bound his hands earlier, coarse, rough-hewn, like it was made from actual plant fiber, not synthetic blends.
He shifted uncomfortably, trying to piece things together. That throne room. Those men in armor. That emperor. The sword that nearly slit his throat looked hand-forged, not decorative, not modern. And the armor wasn’t cosplay, it was heavy and functional. He could hear it clink when the guards moved.
He rubbed his temples. “Okay. Okay, Gemini. Let’s think.”
He remembered falling. Water. The pressure. The light. The sharp pain in his chest. And then… waking up in a wooden box. Being dragged. Being called a general. By a man who looked like he stepped out of a wuxia drama and had the emotional range of a Shakespearean prince.
Gemini slowly got to his feet. He paced, each step echoing against the frostbitten walls.
“This can’t be real. This isn’t real,” he whispered.
But then he froze.
His eyes had fallen on a small inscription carved into the stone wall. Sloppy, barely legible, but there.
Year 933
Gemini’s jaw dropped slightly.
His brain scrambled. Wait. That calendar, he remembered hearing about it once.
“C’mon Gemini… use your stupid brain at least once..”
Something clicked.
A dynastic system, ancient, predating modern China by nearly a thousand years. Used during a short-lived empire. Yao Dynasty … or is that Tang?
“Wait a minute… Shuang Xingyu…”
He'd heard it before. Not on TV. Not in a movie.
In a lecture, once, years ago. He had dozed through most of the class, but there was something about a general, a legendary general who had vanished during a critical battle and was accused of high treason after losing the northern border to a rival kingdom.
The professor had called it one of the greatest military betrayals in ancient history.
Gemini’s knees buckled, and he dropped to the floor.
“No. No no no no no. That can’t be me. I.. no! Shit, I’m not even good at chess!”
He laughed. A short, cracked sound.
“I’m a cop, for god’s sake, how the hell am I a war criminal from a thousand years ago?!”
His voice echoed off the walls and returned to him in cruel silence.
Outside, snow had started to fall. Gemini sat there, staring at the wall, mind racing.
If this was real, and it was feeling more real by the minute, then the man who wanted him dead was the emperor from that story. The one who lost everything. Who had to sign a truce that cost thousands of lives. Who had, reportedly, never trusted another soul again.
He was not just in the past. He was in someone else’s tragedy.
“Am I going to die again…?”