Preface: A New Lease on Life

7:50 a.m...

It hurt. It hurt so much...

8:25 a.m...

Was this another day of waking up in pain...?

9:15 a.m...

Why was my body so weak...?

9:35 a.m...

If only I had a healthy body. Then I could really see this world...

10:00 a.m...

I felt as though I had seen my whole life: everyday life... my parents... New Year's celebrations... school... falling down... doctor's visits... hospital stays... pain...

At 10:10 a.m., Chen Yu died of his illness...

Before his consciousness faded, he had a dream. In it, a voice asked him what he would wish for if he could start over.

He answered softly, "I wish I had a healthy body and a clever mind. Then I could get into a good university, study medicine, and save more people like me. I don't want to see doctors helplessly shaking their heads anymore. I want a new lease on life..."

Later, Chen Yu was reborn. He became the child of a wealthy family, and even at a young age, he displayed abilities that other children his age lacked.

At one year old, other children still knew little beyond crying and sleeping.

Chen Yu, however, had already begun learning to speak whenever he was awake.

Since he had started over as a baby, his body needed to relearn language and adjust to it.

At three, Chen Yu had already begun leafing through every medical and pharmaceutical book he could find, memorizing the appearance and effects of most medicines.

At seven, Chen Yu began exercising, and he could already make the most of traditional Chinese medicines to write simple prescriptions for people.

At ten, his family recognized his determination to study medicine. They found him a teacher and enrolled him in numerous tutoring classes. They had worried that he might not be able to handle it all, but he took it in stride.

At the same time, Chen Yu enrolled in martial arts classes and began learning all kinds of kung fu. Every day afterward, he was either studying medicine or practicing martial arts.

Watching his daily routine, his family feared that Chen Yu would spend his entire life this way. Eventually, they used a business trip to Japan as an excuse to take the teenage Chen Yu there, calling it a vacation.

And so, for the first time, Chen Yu ventured out from home and took in the scenery beyond it.

"I told you, Xiao Yu, you can't stay home all the time. Look at you-you don't know anything about being out in the world," the woman beside a young boy complained on the plane.

"I don't want to go out. I just want to stay home and read," Chen Yu said quietly as he gazed at the sky outside the window.

"Could you just listen to your mother? You've stayed home for over a decade. Apart from going to school, I've never seen you go more than ten kilometers from home."

The man beside him stroked Chen Yu's head as he spoke.

Chen Yu said nothing. He kept looking out the window, his right hand resting against his chin, unmoved.

Seeing this, the man said no more and simply kept swiping through something on his tablet.

"Honestly, I don't understand any of this. I don't know why you're studying it, either. It's not as if our family is in this line of business." The man scratched his head as he looked at the pictures on the tablet and the multiple-choice questions that followed.

"Oh, if he likes it, just let him study it. He's our only child. Shouldn't we take good care of him?" the woman said, giving the man a smack.

"I... well... ah." The man had been about to say something, but then he reconsidered. They had only this one child, and sometimes they were terribly busy. His greatest fear was that his child would turn out like the ones in television dramas, developing an unusual personality, some strange condition, or peculiar habits.

But Chen Yu was famously well-behaved. He never cried or made a fuss at home. Every day, all he did was read. Later, when he became interested in martial arts, he went out occasionally for the classes they had enrolled him in, and then there was elementary school.

The man had been delighted. Having a child who gave him so little to worry about was wonderful. Chen Yu was exactly the kind of child he had always hoped to have.

It had seemed fine at first, but later, it began to feel wrong. His extraordinary maturity and good sense made the man fear that something might be amiss.

All the hospital examinations, major and minor, had found nothing wrong. They had been told that if they were worried, they could take him out to see more of the world. A little relaxation would do him good, too.

So the man had taken him out, conveniently using a business trip as an excuse for a vacation.

"Choose B. The medicines in A would interact. Someone could die," Chen Yu said, glancing at the man's tablet.

"Oh... well, all right." After hearing that, the man chose B. A green light popped up, indicating that the answer was correct.

"Ha! That's my son. You're amazing," the man praised him, pumping a fist in the air.

"Put your things away. We'll be there in half an hour. It's a very short trip," the woman said, picking up a blanket beside her and draping it over Chen Yu.

"All right, all right, I know. Xiao Yu, you should get some sleep, too." The man tucked a blanket around the woman, adjusted Chen Yu's, and covered himself snugly as well before drifting into a light sleep.

Chen Yu had not fallen asleep yet. He looked out the window toward their destination-the small island.

(From this point onward, country names will all be replaced with names that mean the same thing.)

(A serious reminder: most of the seemingly unreasonable events and details early on will be explained later. Also, since I started writing this on a whim, the quality isn't very good. My health has to come first, so there will only be one update a day. Please bear with me.

Many people started reading after the recommendation, so only a small number have been following along all this time. Most of you are newcomers, but everyone's suggestions are welcome.

I'll also do my best to post quality content, though that really isn't easy for a middle school student. I started writing this book on a whim, too.

The early plot is fairly normal, but after chapter ten, some things stray from real-world figures. After all, now that we've come this far, the protagonist has to undergo some mutations, right?)