The Beginning

The Beginning

"Have you found a job?"

Lin Qi had just returned home after walking around outside. He looked at his girlfriend, who was cooking, and shook his head apologetically.

His girlfriend was neither disappointed nor particularly emotional, as if... failing to find a job was perfectly normal.

Lin Qi tried his best to avoid communicating verbally. He was afraid that the woman who slept beside him every day would notice something strange about him.

His girlfriend carried a slightly warped frying pan over to the chipped, wobbling wooden table. She placed a fried egg on a plate of minced meat, then sat down.

"Don't think too much about it. I still have some money. Maybe you'll find a job tomorrow. Eat first!"

Lin Qi nodded and began enjoying the not-so-delicious dinner.

The fork pierced the egg's slightly congealed outer layer. The thick yolk flowed over the chunks of minced meat, like a natural seasoning or some kind of sauce that made the meat more appetizing.

He ate mechanically, while his mind was occupied with other matters.

He had transmigrated. He didn't know what scientific principle or other cause lay behind it, but in any case, he had transmigrated.

Before transmigrating, he had held all sorts of jobs: courier, insurance salesman, waiter, half-fledged cook...

During the thirty years before his transmigration, he had done many insignificant odd jobs. After turning thirty, his life had undergone a tremendous change.

As he later put it, he had spent his first thirty years accumulating experience, then finally achieved a breakthrough. His impassioned speech had successfully moved the judge...

Then, after sleeping for the first time in that cramped room and deciding to write an autobiography someday to recount his legendary life, he gradually drifted into sleep—and transmigrated.

The moment he transmigrated, he appeared in this home. The owner of this body happened to be named Lin Qi as well, but this was an entirely different world, with no connection whatsoever to his "previous life."

He had nothing besides a girlfriend.

The current him was the very picture of the most abject kind of social parasite. He ate his girlfriend's food and lived in her home. Apart from helping her relieve certain frustrations at night, he was no different from a parasite.

Over the past few days, he had used looking for work as an excuse to wander around outside. This world gave him an indescribably novel feeling.

It felt like the 1940s or '50s, perhaps the '50s or '60s. Technology was not particularly advanced, yet at the same time, it was in the midst of an explosive period of development.

All kinds of products constantly appeared before the public, dazzling the eyes. On the street, he had seen a slogan on a promotional poster: "Ari Dai, Yisi Aniu Dai."

In his eyes, this world and this society were overflowing with money. He only needed to bend down and pick it up.

His blood was beginning to boil faintly, and his heart had grown strong and vigorous. Deep within him was a yearning. He firmly believed that there was a reason for his transmigration.

Perhaps something brought me here so that I could leave my own legend behind!

"Go run the hot water. Let's take a bath today..." His girlfriend instructed him as she cleared away the plates.

Lin Qi nodded and stood up. He walked toward the bathroom nearby and casually asked, "But we just took a bath yesterday..."

During the time since his transmigration, he had discovered that he and his girlfriend had a very clearly planned lifestyle. It wasn't completely chaotic.

The weather was neither hot nor cold at present. Unless they exercised strenuously, they did not sweat much, so they basically did not need to bathe every day.

It wasn't that people were unwilling to clean their bodies daily. It was simply that clean clothes and hot water both cost money.

The wealthy did not care about such minor expenses. They would even install boilers in their homes to provide heating and buy washing machines so they could do laundry whenever they pleased.

But for the poor, such things were unnecessary expenses they could not afford. Their lives therefore had to become orderly.

They calculated every expense carefully and adhered to a lifestyle as regimented as that of monks, saving every penny they could. That was their life.

It wasn't that they wanted to live orderly lives. More than anything, it was because they were poor.

His girlfriend turned and walked to the sink, twisting open the faucet to rinse the dishes. "Our hot water will be shut off after midnight. We'll wait until next week to pay the bill. That'll save us a little."

Lin Qi shrugged. He entered the bathroom and turned on the faucet. After letting the initial cold water run out, hot water steaming in the air began flowing through the pipes.

After bathing, the two of them lay down on the cramped bed and soon fell asleep.

Lin Qi's girlfriend worked at a supermarket as a cashier. She worked ten hours a day, including one hour of break time.

She often brought home food that was nearing or past its expiration date, along with cheap household supplies. That was why the two of them could survive even with only one person working.

The two had been classmates in high school. Neither had managed to get into college. Lin Qi had worked as a laborer for a while, but later quit because the job was too exhausting.

Catherine, his girlfriend, had found this job at the supermarket and managed to keep it ever since.

This was a very typical family of losers. Neither Lin Qi nor Catherine knew how much longer this kind of life could continue.

Perhaps they could hold out until the day they entered into marriage, then continue barely scraping by for the rest of their lives.

But it was also possible that some sudden burst of emotion could end this fragile relationship at any moment.

Early the next morning, Lin Qi washed up briefly. Catherine had already left, leaving a box of cereal and a bottle of milk on the table.

He went to the cupboard, poured the milk into a pot to heat it, and checked the expiration date while he was at it. Unsurprisingly, it had already expired two days ago.

Milk like this was supposed to be disposed of immediately at the supermarket, thrown into the trash. Yet many supermarket employees were willing to endure extremely long hours and meager wages just to work there.

What they valued were the things they could obtain for free.

The rich aroma of milk was intoxicating. Lin Qi was accustomed to soaking various things in hot milk, while Catherine and the others preferred to soak them directly. That tasted awful.

After breakfast, he tidied up his appearance and stopped at a street not far from the place they rented.

He hadn't done absolutely nothing over the past few days. Of course, this didn't refer to looking for a job. He had merely been considering where he should obtain his first sum of money.

Although this world was completely different from the other one, the trajectories of certain developments could still be traced.

For example, knowing that the land beneath his feet would be worth a fortune a hundred years later. Knowing that the prices of artworks would soar year after year. Knowing that...

Anyone standing where Lin Qi stood now would feel a surge of ambition, because most people could seize the pulse of the future.

The problem was that most people's ambitions could remain nothing more than ambitions. They would never be realized, because the present was not the future—and everything required capital.

Where was the capital supposed to come from?

It wouldn't fall from the sky, nor would it float in on a flood. In reality, even if many people were given the chance to return to the past, they still would not have the ability to change their lives.

Perhaps some would, but their gains would be limited. They might buy one or two more houses, then wait until old age and stare blankly at assets twice as large as those in their previous life. That would be quite different from what they had imagined at the beginning.

Some people were destined to stir up storms, while others would remain helpless even if given the opportunity.

Clearly, Lin Qi belonged to the former. He already possessed all the necessary qualities. He had succeeded before, and that was the decisive factor.

He stood there watching a laundromat across the street for most of the morning, scribbling calculations in a notebook. He was working toward earning his first pot of gold.

As noon approached and the number of people on the street began to dwindle, two men in trench coats blocked his path. One of them had a hand inside his coat, apparently gripping something.

"Mr. Fox wants to see you, friend!"

The two men clearly weren't good people. Of course, it was also possible that Lin Qi was overthinking it. He showed no fear at all. Instead, a smile appeared on his face. "I've been waiting for you for several days. What are you waiting for? Lead the way."