Boom!!
Luo Jing's head started to shake.
Boom Boom!!
His head shook violently.
He's shaking! He moved!!
Bang!!
His head slammed hard against something solid, and Luo Jing groaned.
Slowly opening his eyes, he looked through a blurred vision at the dim gray in front of him. A figure was bustling about, seemingly busy closing windows and tidying up. A window was barely visible to the left of the figure, and outside, with a click, another flash of lightning streaked across, illuminating the room like daylight.
Uh...
Luo Jing moaned, wanting to raise his hand to rub the back of his head, but his body wouldn't respond at all. He felt a tingling, itching, painful sensation all over, as if his limbs didn't belong to him, lying numbly by his side like four thin sticks.
"Am I dead?" His mind was still a bit muddled. He remembered that he died from electrocution by carelessly plugging in an electrical plug with wet hands while taking a bath. He saw with his own eyes a burst of blue electricity between his hand and the socket, followed by a strong smell of burnt and black smoke, and then he knew nothing.
His mind was foggy, as if all memories had turned into a mush.
Luo Jing tried hard to open his eyes wider, wanting to see clearly what was around him.
Bang!
Another violent shake, and his head hit the bedboard behind him, sending a sharp pain through him, and Luo Jing passed out completely.
...
He didn't know how much time had passed, maybe a day, or maybe several days.
He finally felt some sensation in his body, and his consciousness gradually woke from the haze.
Bang. A soft sound, perhaps a door closing.
"Did mom leave?" asked his sister's voice.
"Yeah, she had breakfast and went to buy some fresh vegetables. I'll go to your aunt's place in a bit," a familiar male voice replied, and then there was silence.
Luo Jing suddenly found himself sitting in a cozy bedroom, in front of him a rectangular desk where he was writing rows of letters on white paper with a black fountain pen.
Bright white light streamed in from the window on his right, outside it was drizzling, and the red roofs of the opposite apartment buildings were wet.
Suddenly, like a flood breaking through a dam, a vast and complex torrent of memories rushed into his mind.
"Uh..." He moaned involuntarily, his hand covering his forehead. Countless strange memories flooded into his brain.
Galon? Am I Galon? Have I... traveled to another world?
Ignoring everything else, he rapidly sifted through the memories flooding his brain.
This world was similar to the European Industrial Revolution era. Cars and planes existed, as did firearms like guns and cannons, though they had not yet developed weapons of mass destruction.
His identity was that of an ordinary family boy named Galon, sixteen years old, with parents who were ordinary employees at a rubber company. He also had a sister named Ying'er. The surrounding environment resembled Europe during the Industrial Revolution, but the appearance of his family and himself made it clear this was not Earth.
Both he and his sister had naturally purple-black hair and wine-red eyes, inheriting their hair color from their father and eye color from their mother. Such natural hair and eye colors were unheard of on Earth. Moreover, the most powerful countries mentioned in Galon's historical knowledge did not include China, the United States, or Russia but were the Aru Federation, the Wesman Empire, and the Tulip Republic. Aside from the different geographical and environmental names, everything else was similar to Earth. Here, from a young age, people received quality education, from elementary to university.
He was currently attending Saint Ying Noble Academy, ranked third in the province and just a high school. He had just started his first year and was now on vacation, suddenly falling ill with a high fever. The original Galon had died, and Luo Jing, having traveled here, found himself quite fortunate.
While organizing his memories, he absentmindedly changed his clothes. By the time he realized it, he was already sitting in a small, clean white room, eating a soft cherry cake at a pristine dining table. The palm-sized cake was light yellow with white cream on top, adorned with bright red cherries arranged in a circle.
Luo Jing's attention was still immersed in Galon's leftover memories.
In memory, although Galon and his sister attended a noble academy, it was only possible through their parents' scrimping and saving. To afford their education, every expense at home was reduced to the minimum; their parents hardly bought new clothes or jewelry, and all the company's welfare bonuses went towards the academy's tuition and living expenses.
Unfortunately, neither sibling seemed to have a knack for learning; their grades were always below average, no matter how hard they tried. Moreover, most other students were either rich or noble, making the
siblings feel inferior, which affected their originally healthy personalities. Galon became weird and introverted, while his sister Ying'er became silent and reticent.
"Later, you're going to school. Don't fool around with classmates, study hard, and aim for a good university," their father, Longbal, advised sternly while eating salad, "And Ying'er, stop burying yourself in novels all the time. Focus on your studies."
"Okay," Ying'er obediently responded, sitting to Luo Jing's right in a delicate white waist-tightened blouse, adorned with a white chest flower accentuating her young and cute figure. She wore a black and purple pleated miniskirt, with thick black stockings covering her legs due to the skirt's shortness. Ying'er ate her cake, her black leather shoes' toes touching each other, head bowed, looking very docile.
Luo Jing silently ate his cake, occasionally taking sips of milk. He glanced at his sister's attire, noting a black symbol with a silver sheen at her chest, a wreath surrounding a row of letters, indicating she was wearing the Saint Ying Academy's female uniform.
He looked at himself, in a tailored white shirt with similar black and silver stripes at the cuffs and collar, paired with tailored black trousers and black leather shoes. The outfit was equally handsome and high-class.
The siblings' appearances were ordinary, only slightly enhanced by their unique hair and eye colors. Ying'er's features were plain, with just the right amount of freckles and acne on her face. Galon himself had messy hair, lifeless eyes, and sunken eye sockets, looking unwell and uncomfortable.
Luo Jing, having absorbed most of Galon's memories by the end of breakfast, helped clean up the dishes with his sister, then each went to their rooms to prepare their school materials.
"Brother, have you seen my history book?" Ying'er called out loudly from her room.
"No," Luo Jing, now Galon, replied offhandedly.
He was also packing books – history, geography, etiquette, mathematics, and several other subjects, even more than on Earth's high schools, including swordsmanship and archery. He stuffed the books into his black backpack, exhaled softly, and walked to the window, opening it to let in a cool, moist breeze.
Below, between two apartment buildings, was a gray-black checkerboard courtyard. To the left, people were lining up in front of a man holding a banner, slowly gathering in larger numbers, though it was unclear what the queue was for. The banner read 'Colins Must Win'.
Directly below, a woman pushed a gray-yellow wooden cart filled with pancake selling tools and ingredients from the building's entrance.
Suddenly, a white bird flew past Galon, disappearing after a few turns.
He suddenly realized he was indeed in another world, looking down from his fourth-floor apartment at a scene completely unlike China.
The people outside had various hair colors – blond, silver, or red – and different eye colors and skin tones. They used a language similar to English. With Galon's memories, he could understand and read this special alphabet.
Now, he was no longer the adult from Earth but a sixteen-year-old boy with an ordinary family and background, as well as a weak body. His parents worked daily, leaving in the morning and returning in the evening. He and his sister came home from school once a week, living a simple life, hoping to pass the unified exam and attend a good university for a better future.
Having a good job was their parents' greatest hope for them.
"If it weren't for the weak body, maybe I wouldn't have been able to make it here," Galon mused with a bitter smile, feeling that during the carriage ride home when he lost consciousness, Galon's body might have been resisting his consciousness' invasion. With a stronger body, he might have been completely rejected.
"According to the memories, this world is still in the Industrial Revolution era, with firearms but no decisive strategic weapons, similar to the world before the advent of nuclear and missile weapons," he thought carefully, "It's not the world of magic, qi, or immortals I imagined, without any supernatural signs."
Unsure how to live in this world, initially excited about the transmigration, he was disappointed to find it was just a technologically backward civilization.
"Well, let's take it one step at a time. For now, the priority is to recover my health," Galon said, looking at his thin arms, and sighed.
Carrying their backpacks, the siblings headed to the door, locked it, and Galon, with the household trash in hand, led the way downstairs. Observing the other residents and the era's conditions as they went.
The stairwell was dim, with only two households per floor, each with a brass mailbox engraved with names beside their doors, showing signs of age.
Most residents were well-dressed in suits and long
skirts, standing tall despite the tiredness on their faces, rushing about in a fast-paced life. Only a few seemed in poor condition, including some tenants and small vendors.
The siblings remained silent until they reached the street and disposed of the trash. Galon glanced at Ying'er, who was shorter than him by half a head, his step-sister brought by their father from a previous marriage, while he was his mother's child with her deceased husband. Despite sharing hair and eye colors, they had no blood relation and their relationship was just slightly better than that of friends.
As usual, they boarded the academy's shuttle bus, which already had a few scattered students on board.