Transmigration

When Shi Yuan woke up, the sharp pain at the back of his head briefly made him wonder whether he had failed to die properly.

His eyelids drooped with pain as he peered at the thin white blanket over his legs. Sure enough, someone had saved him. He was in a hospital room now.

When he had jumped into the river to save that child, he had felt a sense of release.

His parents had died in an accident, and none of his relatives had offered him any sincere comfort. Even though he was already twenty-two, they kept insisting that it was unsafe for a youngster like him to hold on to so much compensation money. Every last aunt and uncle had their eyes on his parents' estate, leaving him both bitterly disappointed and endlessly frustrated.

His best friend had stolen his graduation thesis, preventing him from graduating on time. Yet his classmates were spreading rumors that he was the one who had plagiarized his roommate's paper.

From family to friendship to his future, everything had fallen apart. He had not wanted to die, but he truly could not see any hope in living.

What was he supposed to do now?

Shi Yuan stared blankly at the foot of the bed.

Dying once had been an awful experience, but he did not quite have the courage to keep living, either.

"Oh, you're finally awake."

A young voice came from the doorway. Footsteps followed, and an impeccably dressed young man walked up to his bed.

"You got drunk and ran into it yourself last night. The bar has surveillance footage, and there were plenty of witnesses. Nobody pushed you." The young man pulled out the stool at the foot of the bed and sat down casually.

Shi Yuan did not recognize him, but his words sounded somewhat familiar. No-more precisely, they looked familiar.

Enduring his headache, he let that incredible possibility take shape and asked tentatively, "What about the wedding?"

The young man scoffed. "You're still thinking about the wedding? I never would've guessed. You really care about Wei Zelin, huh?"

"How are we supposed to hold a wedding when the groom's in the hospital? Just lie there and behave. You've already registered the marriage anyway. Does it even matter whether there's a wedding?"

When the name "Wei Zelin" came out of the stranger's mouth, Shi Yuan sucked in a sharp breath. It really was...

Thorn was a novel his roommate, who had also been his best friend, had recommended to him. Shi Yuan still remembered that thief holding his phone and saying, with a look he could not decipher, "This novel's pretty interesting. One of the supporting characters actually has the same name as you. Give it a read when you have time."

Although that man had terrible character, and Shi Yuan had no idea why he had recommended the novel, the book itself was genuinely quite good. The fact that a minor villain shared his full name had made it particularly memorable.

Thorn was a boys' love novel that mixed business warfare, romance, friendship, kidnapping, an unforgettable first love, and plenty of other elements. Even the synopsis promised a colorful story.

The content might have been clichéd, but the author's prose was delicate, every character felt flesh and blood, and the details of the corporate battles were thrilling. Shi Yuan thought he had even seen a promotional article claiming that someone had bought the rights to Thorn and a production company would soon adapt it for the screen. He had no idea whether that was true.

And the young man before him... If Shi Yuan was not mistaken, he had to be one of Thorn's villains-Wei Zexuan.

Wei Zexuan came from an established family in Capital City. His parents loved each other and doted on him. He was intelligent, and with his background, he had no need to be particularly ambitious. As soon as he graduated, his Father Wei brought him into the company and kept him close to train him. Three years later, he was already the youngest project manager at headquarters.

Wei Zexuan had a perfect life and an arrogant disposition. He could not tolerate so much as a grain of sand in his eye, and that grain of sand was his older paternal half brother-Wei Zelin.

Before marrying into the Wei Family, Father Wei had been married once before. Wei Zelin was his son with his first wife, only three years older than Wei Zexuan.

Shi Yuan sneered. In other words, that old bastard Wei Ming had hooked up with the Wei Family's daughter when Wei Zelin was only one or two, then abandoned his wife and son to marry into the Wei Family, a prestigious old family in Capital City.

By coincidence, both families had the surname Wei. Otherwise, Wei Zexuan would certainly have taken his mother's surname.

Wei Zelin had only entered the Wei Family at eighteen, after finishing his college entrance exams. By then, his mother, Qi Ling, had terminal stomach cancer. Raising him had already been difficult enough for her, and she had no money left to treat her incurable illness. Wei Zelin had gone to see Wei Ming alone without telling her.

There was no way he could hide such a large sum of money from Qi Ling when he brought it home. Even as she lay dying, she refused to use Wei Ming's money. In the end, she succumbed to her illness.

After her funeral, Wei Ming brought Wei Zelin into the Wei Family. Qi Ling's relatives never contacted Wei Zelin again.

When Shi Yuan first read the book, Wei Zelin's weakness had infuriated him, too. Later, however, Wei Zexuan fell for the male lead, Shen Duo. Not only did he constantly make trouble for the romantic lead, You Gui, he also used his family's power to pressure Shen Duo into an engagement. When that failed, he had You Gui kidnapped, finally provoking Shen Duo's fury.

Shen Duo and Wei Zelin joined forces. One allied with other companies from the outside while the other searched for weaknesses within the Wei Corporation. Together, they finally brought down the enormously wealthy family that had stood for so many years.

Wei Ming and his family met a miserable end. Their fortune was wiped out, and both Wei Ming and Wei Zexuan were sent to prison.

While reading the novel, Shi Yuan had simply thought Wei Ming was despicable and Wei Zelin was perfectly justified in taking revenge. But now the words on the page had become a real world, and he himself was among the targets of that revenge. A jumble of emotions surged through him.

If he was not mistaken, the body he was in now should belong to...

"Shi Yuan, what's wrong? Did hitting your head make you mute, too?"

Shi Yuan sighed again. Sure enough, he was the minor cannon-fodder character who shared his name.

"I know..."

Shi Yuan paused as he spoke. He cleared his throat, and his soft, slightly hoarse voice sounded again.

"I know what to say. Don't worry, Young Master Wei. My head hurts terribly, so I won't keep you." Shi Yuan desperately needed to sort out his thoughts and had no desire to get entangled with Wei Zexuan.

Having enjoyed plenty of amusement at Wei Zelin's expense that day, Wei Zexuan was in an excellent mood and did not take issue with Shi Yuan. He left after a few words of warning.

Enduring his headache, Shi Yuan struggled his way to the bathroom.

The young man in the mirror had a face as fair as white jade. His eyebrows were neat and delicate, above a pair of almond-shaped eyes with rounded outer corners and slightly broad openings and lids. His long eyelashes were so thick that they crossed over one another, looking a little untidy upon closer inspection. His nose was finely shaped with a straight bridge, and his small lips had a pronounced central curve, their color pale from illness.

Even his shaved head and the gauze wrapped around it did nothing to detract from his exquisite features.

Shi Yuan stared at the mirror in shock. That familiar face was his own original face. "Shi Yuan" looked exactly like him!

He had already felt a flicker of doubt when he spoke to Wei Zexuan. His voice was distinctive. During puberty, he had suffered a serious illness, with a fever reaching forty degrees Celsius. He had recovered, but his voice had stayed that way: soft and gentle, slightly low and hoarse. It was not resonant, but it was unusual without being unpleasant.

Hearing his own familiar voice had made him suspicious, which was why he had paused while speaking to Wei Zexuan.

At that thought, he raised his left hand, trembling. Sure enough, there was a tiny black mole on the outer side of his ring finger. Bewilderment filled Shi Yuan's eyes. Was this the original character's body, or his own?

The "Shi Yuan" in Thorn had originally come from a fairly well-off family that could be considered a third-tier established family. Vain and status-conscious, he had gone to great lengths to ingratiate himself with Wei Zexuan. He usually trailed after him like a lackey, attacking whomever Wei Zexuan pointed at.

Before Wei Zexuan fell for Shen Duo, his greatest pleasure had been humiliating Wei Zelin. The crowd that fawned over him followed his every lead, and whenever they saw Wei Zelin, they rarely had a decent word to say. "Shi Yuan" was the worst of them and had thoroughly offended him.

"Shi Yuan's" family owned a business his father had inherited from his grandfather. It had been doing well in traditional industry, and they could at least have maintained what they had. But then the male lead burst onto the scene, making a tremendous success of online operations. Traditional businesses in Capital City that partnered with him reaped considerable benefits, while those that had once looked down on Shen Duo because of their own status were now affected to varying degrees.

"Shi Yuan's" father was narrow-minded and determined to crush this newly risen upstart. Naturally, he was no match for Shen Duo, and instead his own company ended up facing a severe debt crisis.

At the time, Shi Yuan had read that episode as a satisfying early victory in which the protagonist put his detractors in their place. He had never imagined that the debtor would now become his own father, at least in name.

A small sum would not solve the problem now. They needed at least a billion or more in working capital to keep things going, so "Shi Yuan" had no choice but to beg Wei Zexuan for help. As luck would have it, Mother Wei's close friend was about to return from abroad with her daughter, and Mother Wei wanted Wei Zexuan to meet her.

Wei Zexuan liked men and naturally had no interest in some friend's daughter. Shi Yuan had also annoyed him by repeatedly pestering him, so he simply told Mother Wei that he would only consider marriage after Wei Zelin married first.

Mother Wei was displeased. Her expression darkened as she told her son, "Who does Wei Zelin think he is? What does it have to do with us, whatever freak he marries? Does he deserve my attention?"

Wei Zexuan coaxed her. "He's certainly nobody, but when we discuss my marriage later, Dad is bound to ask a few questions. I happen to have an excellent candidate on hand. Why don't we arrange it for him?"

He leaned close to Mother Wei's ear and explained Shi Yuan's circumstances.

Mother Wei considered it. She had long since seen what sort of person Shi Yuan was: someone utterly unpresentable. Shi Guohua had nearly driven his company into bankruptcy with all his reckless maneuvering, so this was hardly a good family. Pairing Shi Yuan with Wei Zelin would surely provide her with endless amusement.

Mother Wei agreed on the spot. As for Wei Zelin's opinion, would he dare have one?

Wei Zexuan had much the same idea. The 1.5 billion he lent the Shi family was not a gift. When the time was right, that money would become payment for shares in their company. If the Shi family refused to sell, they would have to repay him immediately. With all their current debt, never mind 1.5 billion—even fifty million would force them to sell their cars and property. By arranging for Shi Yuan to marry into the Wei Family now, he would make Shi's Father lower his guard after receiving the money. Then he could both make Wei Zelin's life miserable and seize control of this long-established industrial company. It was the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone.

When Father Wei learned of his plan, he was very pleased as well. Even a starving camel was bigger than a horse. The Shi family's business could sell for several billion; acquiring it for 1.5 billion would be practically getting it for nothing.

When Father Wei informed Wei Zelin, he did not object, just as expected. Wei Zexuan stood nearby, watching him with contempt.

"You really can swallow anything to stay in the Wei Family. I wonder, if Dad told you to get down on the floor and act like a dog one day, would you do that, too?"

Wei Zelin had grown accustomed to his insults. He accepted the approaching absurd marriage just as calmly, as though he were not one of the grooms.

(To his younger half brother, Wei Zexuan, Wei Zelin was like a worm on a withered leaf of a towering tree: impossible to shake off and utterly disgusting. Only by making the other flourishing leaves lash at him every day could Wei Zexuan ease even a fraction of his loathing.) -Thorn