Transmigration and Fate

"It hurts!"

The room was thick with the smell of medicine. The air was hot and damp, with a musty odor, and muffled thunder rumbled on the distant horizon.

A battered teenager lay curled up on the bed, groaning in pain, his body trembling slightly.

His consciousness drifted, flashing back to his experiences on Earth one moment and recalling the life of Lu Chen, a teenager from Qingshan Village, the next.

He had suddenly transmigrated to a completely unfamiliar world, injured and without a soul to turn to. Even the slightest movement felt as though his body were being torn apart.

Worse still, he was rarely conscious. Most of the time, he was unconscious, unable to control himself, as though pinned down by a ghost. In his haze, he could only vaguely make out two small, thin figures tending to him at his bedside and crying softly.

That unbearable despair drove him to fight desperately for control of himself, to open his eyes, or even just move a finger.

When he finally gained full control of this body and could open his eyes completely, a voice sounded beside his ear.

To him, it seemed like the most wonderful voice in the world.

Like music from heaven.

"Detected that the host has changed Lu Chen's path of fate. Fate Value obtained: 20 points."

"It hurts!"

Lu Chen regained consciousness, feeling pain all over.

But the pain did not make him forget the voice he had just heard.

"A golden finger? A system?"

In an instant, he saw a pale blue, translucent panel appear before him.

[Name: Lu Chen]

[Age: fifteen]

[Fate Value: 20]

[Luck Value: 0]

[Traits: severely injured, hungry, malnourished, weak constitution, mediocre aptitude]

"Modify traits?"

Before Lu Chen could confirm, the door creaked open.

Two small, thin figures walked in.

When they saw that Lu Chen's eyes were open, both immediately lit up with delight and hurried over.

"Big brother, you're awake?"

"Brother!"

"Boo-hoo, big brother, you're finally awake! Little Tang was so scared!"

Lu Chen now knew what had happened.

Over the past few days, he had fully absorbed his predecessor's memories and learned that these two were Lu Chen's younger brother and sister.

He was also named Lu Chen. He was thirty-one and came from Earth.

Before transmigrating, he had just finished a job interview.

In the more than six months before that interview, he had been laid off at thirty, dumped, lost a family member, failed the civil service exam, and spent months sending out résumés without success.

Every day, he stayed up in his rented room until three or four in the morning, wondering why his life was such a failure and where his future lay.

He had finally landed an interview, only to be tricked into interviewing for a sales job at an insurance company.

After the interview, he was hit by a car!

Then he transmigrated to this world, which resembled ancient China, and took possession of Lu Chen's body in Qingshan Village.

In this world, Lu Chen's father, Lu Hai, had unexpectedly been caught in a downpour while gathering medicinal herbs in the mountains four years ago. He had slipped and fallen to his death off a cliff.

His mother, Luo Qingyi, was a young lady from a distinguished family steeped in poetry and books. More than ten years ago, she had fled with her family to escape the ravages of war. Along the way, some of her family died and others were scattered. In the end, she settled alone in Qingshan Village, married Lu Hai, who was still a hunter at the time, and gave birth to Lu Chen.

After his father's death, his mother had struggled to support their family of four. In the end, she fell ill from overwork and died a few months ago.

As the eldest brother, Lu Chen had wanted to earn more money to support his younger siblings. A few days ago, after catching some fish and shrimp in a stream, he went to sell them in the county town. Unfortunately, he ran into Li Feng, the second young master of the Li Household, who had just lost a jealous rivalry over someone's affections. In a fit of anger, Li Feng kicked his fish basket away.

As ill luck would have it, the basket cut the second young master's foot and drew blood. Even angrier, he seized Lu Chen and beat him.

A passerby could not bear to watch and shouted that someone was being beaten to death. Only then did Li Feng stop, afraid of getting into trouble with the authorities. He also demanded that Lu Chen pay ten taels of silver for his medical expenses, or he would make him pay dearly.

As it happened, someone from the same village passed by and saw Lu Chen. That person helped find a doctor to prescribe two doses of medicine and hurriedly brought him home. Otherwise, Lu Chen would have died in the county town that day.

For the past few days, Lu Chen had lain in bed with his mind in a fog, while his younger brother Lu Ming and younger sister Lu Tang took care of him.

Two children, twelve-year-old Lu Ming and eight-year-old Lu Tang, had been caring for their fifteen-year-old brother. Every day, they lived in fear and sorrow, terrified that one day their brother would die quietly in bed from illness, just like their mother.

Heaven took pity on them. Their brother had finally woken up.

Lu Tang, whose hair was a little dry and yellow, held Lu Chen's hand tightly. Her lips trembled; she wanted to cry but was afraid of upsetting her brother. Forcing a faint smile, she said, "Big brother, does it still hurt? Little Tang will blow on it, and then it won't hurt anymore!"

Lu Chen's face was pale. He raised a hand and rubbed Lu Tang's head, his heart softening a little. With a smile, he said, "Little Tang, don't be afraid. Big brother's fine now. If I'm lying, I'm a puppy!"

Lu Ming stood to one side, his eyes red. Pressing his lips together, he quietly turned his head away to wipe his tears and sniffled. "Brother, lie down. I'll bring you your medicine."

With that, he ran off, his footsteps pattering, and soon returned carrying a bowl.

"Big brother, hurry and drink your medicine. You'll get better soon!" Lu Tang blinked her tearful eyes and looked at Lu Chen expectantly.

Lu Chen caught his breath, took the medicine, and drank it down in one gulp.

Bitter. So bitter!

Even more bitter than his life.

From now on, he did not want to taste bitterness anymore!

Baring his teeth, Lu Chen showed Lu Tang the bottom of the bowl. "Look, Little Tang, I finished my medicine. When you wake up tomorrow, big brother will be better!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

Lu Chen glanced outside. It was completely dark.

Lu Ming brought another bowl of porridge, and the three of them shared it. Only then did Lu Chen send the two of them to bed.

"And they tried to trick me into thinking they'd already eaten."

He shook his head.

They were too poor here.

To pay for his mother's treatment, the family had spent every last coin and still owed the clan head some money.

It was also the lean season. The crops in the fields had yet to ripen, but the grain in the rice jar was already running low.

He opened the panel.

"System, I want to modify a trait."

He selected [severely injured] and silently said, Modify.

His Fate Value dropped to 10.

In an instant, "severely injured" became "lightly injured."

He felt the pain in his body lessen considerably at once. Lifting his clothes to inspect his injuries, he saw that the swelling had gone down in some severely bruised areas, and the bruises were barely visible.

The discomfort was also gone from the places inside his body that had been aching faintly. His internal injuries might have healed.

His head was no longer dizzy, either.

Earlier, he had felt that his ribs might be broken, but now they seemed to have healed too.

"Ten points to change severely injured to lightly injured? I've still got ten points..."

He did not modify anything else.

Going from severely injured to fully healed overnight would be too drastic a change. Anyone could tell something was wrong, and his younger brother and sister, who had been caring for him all along, were no fools. It would be too conspicuous.

Besides, his light injuries did not hinder his movements now, so there was no need to rush.

He took a careful look at the description of his golden finger.

"Fate Value, Luck Value, and the like can be consumed to modify one's own traits."

"And by changing the fate of others, one can obtain Fate Value and Luck Value, awarded according to the extent of the change in fate and causality."

"Change fate, obtain Fate Value, and modify my traits?"

He leaned against the head of the bed, staring into the darkness outside the window, lost in thought.

Since hungry is listed as a trait, that means traits aren't set in stone. Maybe I can add traits through certain actions?

He thought for a long time.

He thought of his parents on Earth and how heartbroken they would be.

He thought about how he could better survive in this world.

He also thought about how to develop and use his golden finger.

And what kind of world was this, anyway?

Was this some dynasty in China, and had he traveled back in time? Or was he no longer on Earth, but in another world?

Were there powers here that surpassed those of ordinary people, such as martial arts, immortal cultivation, and so on?

That would determine his plans for the future.

Should he find a way to earn money and study so he could enter officialdom, practice martial arts and roam the jianghu, or try to find out whether he could cultivate immortality? Or should he simply lie flat in the village, farm, marry, have children, and spend his life there?

However, young Lu Chen had only ever gone as far as the county town in his dozen or so years of life. His experience was truly limited.

As Lu Chen pondered Where am I? and What should I do? he also wondered how to get some grain.

As a transmigrator, weak and still lightly injured, did he have any advantage in this world?

Was it that he had spent a few more years scrolling through short videos than the people here?

Or that he had seen a little more?

If this world resembled ancient China, he was more inclined to study, take the imperial examinations, and become a high official.

This world did have imperial examinations, and there was an old Xiucai in the village who had once been the teacher at the village school.

Later, the Xiucai grew old and could no longer teach, so the school closed.

Besides, his predecessor, Lu Chen, was not illiterate.

His mother, Luo Qingyi, was a young lady from a wealthy family and had taught Lu Chen to read.

Having inherited all his predecessor's memories, Lu Chen could naturally read as well.

"There's too little information to judge. I can only take things one step at a time, gather information from various sources, and then decide."

P.S. Everyone said the opening of the first chapter was terrible and really put readers off. I thought about it for days and decided to revise it. Wherever the comments don't match the text, that's where I made changes.