Transmigration

"Sigh, what rotten luck. How could I be so stupid? I'm a top-tier university graduate, so how could I make such a low-level mistake?" Lin Feng walked down the bustling street, clutching a silver-white mobile phone in his hand, shaking his head and sighing.

As it turned out, today was the day Lin Feng went for an interview at China Mobile. As the leader of China's information industry, China Mobile offered quite excellent benefits for its employees. To secure this job, Lin Feng had started preparing a full month in advance. He searched for information online, familiarized himself with China Mobile's various services, and even bought a suit specifically for today's interview. Although it was just a low-end suit, it still cost Lin Feng a fair amount of money, which made his heart ache for quite a while. However, thinking about the job's salary and various perks, this initial investment seemed worth it.

It could be said that Lin Feng had made twelve-fold preparations for today's interview, even going in with the determination that success was the only option.

Heaven rewards the diligent, and effort truly brings results. Lin Feng's eloquence was excellent; he answered the interviewer's various questions fluently and maintained a confident smile throughout. In the short five-minute interview, Lin Feng performed exceptionally well. Coupled with his degree from a key undergraduate university and his various certifications like English CET-4 and CET-6, he had it all. After answering the interviewer's final question and seeing the interviewer nod slightly, Lin Feng began to daydream. He even envisioned his future life: a monthly salary of nearly ten thousand, a nine-to-five schedule, and an office with air conditioning and sofas. This was the life of a top-tier white-collar worker!

But before Lin Feng's happy fantasy could finish, it was extinguished by a sudden bucket of cold water.

"Lin Feng, is it? I'm very sorry, but you do not meet our company's recruitment criteria!" The interviewer's cold words struck Lin Feng's heart like a bolt of lightning from the blue.

"Wh-why?" Lin Feng snapped out of his fantasy, asking excitedly. Could it be that a month of hard work had all been in vain? Was it all going to flow away like water? Lin Feng was unwilling to accept this, but he also realized his reaction was a bit too intense. Calming his mindset, he asked, "Could you please give me a reason?"

Upon hearing this, the interviewer glanced at Lin Feng and said in a cold tone, "What is your mobile phone number?"

When Lin Feng heard this, he subconsciously replied, "131..."

Boom. He understood. Everything was clear. Lin Feng was able to get into a key university and graduate successfully, so he was naturally not a fool. Once prompted by the interviewer, he knew exactly where the problem lay. He had come to China Mobile for an interview, yet the contact information on his resume was a China Unicom number.

This Unicom number was one Lin Feng had used since his freshman year of college and had never changed. He never expected that such a trivial, minor mistake would cause him to miss out on China Mobile.

Lin Feng's family was not wealthy; they could even be considered poor. His parents were farmers, working from dawn until dusk, facing the yellow earth and backing the sky, supporting him and his younger sister, Lin Ruo, who was six years his junior. Because of his family background, Lin Feng did indeed study hard. He was the first student from his village to get into a key university, which had always been his parents' pride. After entering university, there were many temptations. His classmates were busy dating or playing online games, and the desperate drive he had in his senior year of high school had long since vanished. But Lin Feng was an outlier; besides studying, his only hobby was probably reading web novels.

With the popularization of the internet and the explosive development of the information society, all kinds of web novels had sprung up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Lin Feng had fallen in love with this type of fast-food literature and had read the masterpieces of all the great authors on the web. If asked which novel was his favorite, it would undoubtedly be the masterpiece Coiling Dragon by the great Tomato. Ever since reading Coiling Dragon, Lin Feng often fantasized about replacing Linley in the book, wielding life-and-death power in the Coiling Dragon world, and laughing proudly across the universe.

Lin Feng shoved the phone he had carried for four years into his pocket and looked up at the sky. He thought of his parents' increasingly hunched backs and his little sister Lin Ruo, who was in the prime of her youth but didn't even have a single bright, beautiful dress. He had originally wanted to turn down his school's recommendation for postgraduate studies to start working early, earn money to subsidize the family, improve his parents' lives, and buy his little sister new clothes so she could study at a better school. But all of this had vanished into thin air because of his own small mistake.

Because of this job, Lin Feng had missed the best recruitment period. At this point, the recruitment for all well-known companies and enterprises had already concluded. If he wanted to find a good job, he would have to wait until next year. But would he be able to compete with his juniors next year?

Of course, this bit of a blow couldn't defeat Lin Feng's resilient heart. Pulling himself together, he headed toward the job market. But just as he glanced up, he saw a black shadow striking toward him rapidly from the air. Before he could even react, he felt his vision go black and he passed out.

"Big brother, what's wrong? Father is still waiting for you to go to class!"

When Lin Feng regained consciousness, he heard a childish voice ringing in his ears.

Confused, Lin Feng lowered his head and saw a tiger-headed, brainy little boy standing in front of him, a pair of bright, watery eyes looking at him with confusion.

Lin Feng turned his head and looked around. The unfamiliar environment, the wooden threshold that felt completely out of place in modern society, and the ancient, weathered atmosphere rushing toward him—all of this caused Lin Feng's brain to crash.

"Big brother, big brother, why are you acting silly again?"

Seeing his brother looking blank and staring vacantly at their front door, the tiger-headed child shook his brother's arm, trying to wake him up.

Being shaken, Lin Feng regained his senses. He reached out and pinched his thigh hard; the piercing pain told Lin Feng that all of this was real—it wasn't a dream. But if this wasn't a dream, how could he have appeared here so inexplicably? Could it be that he had transmigrated?

Having read countless transmigration web novels and even often dreaming of transmigrating himself, Lin Feng's ability to accept this was naturally better than most. But all of this was merely his speculation.

Coming back to his senses, Lin Feng looked at the tiger-headed little boy in front of him and, thinking of how he had called him "big brother" earlier, he tentatively asked, "I am your big brother?"

"That's right, you've always been my big brother." Seeing his brother speak, the little boy said with a giggle.

Hearing this, Lin Feng noticed that his body had actually shrunk by more than half compared to before. He estimated that he was now about seven or eight years old, while the child in front of him was only about three or four.

"Little brother, what is my name?"

By now, Lin Feng had accepted the fact that he had transmigrated. Although it was hard to accept, wasn't this what he had always dreamed of? Since the fact was already set in stone, why bother searching for the root cause? The most urgent task now was to figure out where he had transmigrated to—was it a spatial shift, a time shift, or both? Since the little boy in front of him insisted that he was his brother, Lin Feng accepted the role to avoid revealing any flaws.

"Your name is Lin Feng. Don't you even remember your own name, big brother?" Although the little boy was young and naive, he was starting to grow suspicious of Lin Feng's series of nonsensical questions.

"You..." Lin Feng was about to ask how he knew his name, but then he realized that perhaps the person he had replaced was also named Lin Feng. Thinking of this, Lin Feng changed his question: "Then what is your name, little brother?"

"Big brother, my name is Wharton!" the little boy in front of him said with a look of grievance. After speaking, he pursed his lips, his eyes welling up with tears. Could his brother have forgotten his name too? Thinking of this, Wharton's eyes filled with tears, ready to spill over.

Wharton? Lin Feng was stunned. He felt like he had heard the name Wharton somewhere, but he couldn't recall it for a moment.

Just then, a voice rang out from behind Lin Feng: "Young Master Lin Feng, your father is still waiting for you to go to class. Let me take care of Young Master Wharton."

Lin Feng turned his head and saw an old man with a bulbous nose walking toward him. At that moment, Lin Feng finally realized why the name Wharton was so familiar. In the book Coiling Dragon that he loved so much, wasn't the protagonist Linley's younger brother named Wharton? Could this be the Coiling Dragon world? Had I transmigrated into the Coiling Dragon world and replaced Linley? Had my dream come true?

"No, that's not right. Isn't the protagonist in the original book named Linley? How could he be named Lin Feng like me? Could I have transmigrated into being Linley's younger or older brother? But it seems Linley doesn't have a brother named Lin Feng, only Wharton..."

Before Lin Feng could continue his train of thought, the butler Hiri's voice rang out again: "Young Master Lin Feng, are you tired from exercising? Hurry up and take a bath, change your clothes, and don't keep your father waiting."

Hearing this, Lin Feng, who was extremely familiar with the plot of Coiling Dragon, immediately confirmed that he had indeed transmigrated into the Coiling Dragon world. Although he was shocked, there was clearly no time to dwell on it now.

"Forget whether it's Linley or Lin Feng. It's just a code name anyway. Perhaps the protagonist of Coiling Dragon was always named Lin Feng, and Linley was just something Tomato made up."

Imitating the character of Lin Feng from the book, he replied, "I know, Grandpa Hiri!"

After washing up and changing into a clean set of clothes, Lin Feng entered the living room. At this moment, Hogg Baruch was sitting upright at the dining table on the side of the room. In front of Hogg were three thick books.

"Father!" Lin Feng bowed respectfully. The plot was similar; although Lin Feng had never met Hogg, he knew that this stern-faced man was his father, the current head of the Baruch Clan, Hogg Baruch. At the same time, he would also be his father in this new life.

The plot from the original book did not change. Hogg nodded coldly, and Lin Feng immediately walked over and stood not far from Hogg.

"Yesterday, I told you about all the nations in the Yulan continent. Now, repeat it back to me." Hogg said coldly.

All the nations of Yulan? Lin Feng broke into a cold sweat. Although he was very familiar with the plot of Coiling Dragon, he wasn't familiar to that extent. In the original book, it only gave a general overview of the distribution of national powers in Yulan here, and it was never mentioned in detail again. Even as a loyal Coiling Dragon fan, he only had a vague and fuzzy understanding of this issue.

But Lin Feng knew from the original book that Hogg was extremely strict in managing his household, and his education of Lin Feng in the book was even more severe to the extreme, not allowing the slightest disobedience. It seemed that today, he had to answer this question whether he wanted to or not.

Thinking of this, Lin Feng began to recall the plot of Coiling Dragon. Just as Hogg was about to lose his patience and scold him, Lin Feng stammered, "The entire Yulan has three major dangerous areas: the first mountain range, the 'Magical Beast Mountain Range'; the second mountain range, the 'Sunset Mountain Range'; and the first forest, the 'Forest of Darkness'. The three dangerous areas cover an incredibly vast territory. Among them, the Magical Beast Mountain Range runs almost from north to south, spanning over ten thousand li in length. Inside, there are countless magical beasts, and there are even Saint Realm magical beasts with the power to 'destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth'. The entire continent's different landscape was formed because of this Magical Beast Mountain Range."

The Magical Beast Mountain Range, the Sunset Mountain Range, and the Forest of Darkness were places frequently mentioned in the later stages of the original Coiling Dragon book, and Lin Feng was relatively familiar with them.

He raised his head slightly and caught a glimpse of Hogg's stern face. Lin Feng's heart began to flutter. He vaguely remembered that in the original book, Lin Feng went on to analyze the major empires and alliances, and afterward, because he forgot how many duchies and kingdoms were in the Holy Union, he was punished by Hogg with a cane.

It seemed that today, whether I wanted to or not, I was going to have to take those lashes. Since a beating was unavoidable, I might as well speak according to my memory.

After organizing the memories in his mind, Lin Feng continued, "To the west of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, there are two major alliances: the Holy Union, which belongs to the Radiant Church, and the Dark Alliance, which belongs to the Dark Church."

"To the east of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, there are four great empires: the Yulan Empire, the O'Brien Empire, the Rhine Empire, and the Luo'ao Empire."

Having said this, Lin Feng stopped. He only remembered the names of these great empires and alliances; as for where exactly they were located, or how many other duchies and kingdoms existed, he couldn't recall. Regardless, he was already prepared to take the lashes; after all, the Lin Feng in the original story had been punished with them as well.

"Is that all?" Hogg's expression turned cold as he continued, "I ask you, how many kingdoms and how many duchies are there in our Holy Union in total?"

"Our Holy Union has, has..." Lin Feng feigned deep thought. Even though the lashes were inevitable, he still had to put on a show. If Hogg found out he was a transmigrator who had taken over his son's body, his life would be forfeit. Although the possibility was extremely low, he couldn't afford to be careless.

"Hmph."

Hogg's face remained cold as he retrieved a switch from the side. Seeing this, Lin Feng sensibly extended his right hand.

The muscles around Hogg's eyes twitched, and the switch in his hand struck out with two sharp "crack, crack" sounds, landing solidly on Lin Feng's right palm. Two bloody welts immediately appeared on Lin Feng's hand. Lin Feng simply gritted his teeth and endured it, not letting out a single sound. However, he was cursing Hogg up and down in his heart; he clearly remembered that the Lin Feng in the original story had only been hit once, yet he had been hit twice. It seemed the amount of punishment really did depend on how much he answered! But thinking about how he had occupied this man's son's body and even erased his soul, taking two hits could be considered a small form of compensation.

"Lin Feng, you must remember, we live in the Holy Union, so you must be most familiar with the affairs of the Holy Union!" Hogg looked at his son coldly. "In the entire Yulan continent, there are roughly six major powers: the four great empires and the two alliances!"

These were the exact words from the book, and Lin Feng nodded vigorously. Yet, he couldn't help but grumble inwardly: you didn't even explain it as clearly as I did, so what reason did you have to hit me? Hitting me is one thing, but at least give me the same treatment as the Lin Feng in the original book—you hit me twice! Of course, he only thought this to himself; Lin Feng didn't dare to voice it.

The subsequent events unfolded similarly to the original book. Hogg began to teach Lin Feng common knowledge, and Lin Feng acted extremely obediently. A wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him, and besides, his palm, which had been struck twice, was still throbbing with pain. Lin Feng didn't dare to ask for another beating.