It was clearly 2018 AD, but the strange time, Ephemeris 3001, was displayed before him.
Xie Mingzhe's mouth twitched involuntarily. His brain felt like it was about to explode from the thought of time travel. Unable to take it any longer, he slammed his head into his hands. The doctor saw his distress and immediately grabbed his wrists, urging him to calm down. "Don't worry. You've been in a coma for a month. It's normal to have some memory loss upon waking up, but it will slowly return."
Stunned, Xie Mingzhe stared at his pale fingers, his mind spinning. After a moment, he asked, "Do I have any relatives?"
The doctor looked at him sympathetically. "The records show you are an orphan."
Xie Mingzhe: "..."
So, even after traveling through time, he was still an orphan?
Seeing the disbelief on Xie Mingzhe's face, the doctor patted him gently on the shoulder. "Stay strong. It's a miracle that you woke up. Your health will recover with time. The future always has a way forward."
Xie Mingzhe forced a smile and nodded. "Thank you, Doctor."
After Dr. Qin left, Xie Mingzhe struggled to sit up. He stumbled into the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, trying to steady his nerves.
The face staring back at him in the mirror was unmistakably his own, yet different. His face was pale from lying in the hospital bed for so long, but the features were the same. However, the face looked younger—like it belonged to an eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school.
With a pounding headache, Xie Mingzhe buried his face in the cold water. He wished that all of this was just a dream within a dream and that he would soon wake up.
After a long pause, he raised his head, only to find that he was still in the bathroom, and the reflection staring back at him was still his eighteen-year-old self.
Was this really him in another time and space?
They shared the same name, the same appearance. Slowly, fragments of memories began to surface about the original owner of the body.
The original Xie Mingzhe had become an orphan at a young age. He lived frugally on the government's relief funds. But once someone turned eighteen, the support stopped. At seventeen and a half, he had been admitted to the Art Department of Capital University, but before the new term began, he moved to the capital to work for his tuition fees.
At that time, manual labor jobs—like washing dishes, sweeping floors, and moving bricks—had already been replaced by robots. High school graduates were having a hard time finding work. Living in a slum, Xie Mingzhe struggled to find any job, looked down upon by others.
During an interview for a job at a low-level building, he fell off the building, sustaining serious brain injuries. He was rushed to the hospital and had been in a coma ever since.
This Xie Mingzhe had been a hardworking and diligent young man. Unfortunately, his life had been far less fortunate than that of the other Xie Mingzhe, who had lived in the 21st century.
The other Xie Mingzhe had been an orphan too, but he was the top student in science in his county and won a scholarship that covered his entire college tuition. He led a frugal life in college, saving some of his scholarship money by tutoring and taking part-time jobs.
His plan was to get a job and buy a small house in a second-tier city, living a stable, peaceful life. However, after a night of drinking with his roommates, he was transported to this world, where he saw the miserable state of this Xie Mingzhe.
It was incredibly unlucky.
Xie Mingzhe rubbed his pale face.
The feeling of his fingertips against his skin seemed to tell him: stop struggling. You've started a new life now.
Had God chosen him to live as this poor boy after his life had just turned around? Was that fair?
If he committed suicide now, could he return to 2018 AD?
Pinching his thigh hard, he felt the sharp pain. He realized that this body was real, and he dared not commit suicide. Who knew where he might end up—some other strange time, or maybe he'd just die? At least this world had advanced technology. It was far better than traveling to ancient times, where he'd have to survive by eating weeds and wearing leaf-made clothes.
With that thought, he felt a bit calmer.
Since he was alive, he might as well try to survive. He didn't need a luxurious life, just one that was simple, peaceful, and stable.
Taking a deep breath, Xie Mingzhe reluctantly accepted that he was living a new life in another world.
In this world, his life had been far from easy. Today, on his eighteenth birthday, he was so poor that nobody—except for the doctors—cared that he had woken up from a month-long coma.
He had no relatives, no friends. Not a single person would shed a tear if he died.
He was a loser in life.
But none of that mattered. From this moment on, everything would change.
Xie Mingzhe looked at his reflection in the mirror and clenched his fists.
"My past can't be changed. But I'll fight for my new future!"