Chapter 1: Urban Legend—Starting with 3.2 Yuan?
“Move aside, move aside! In this situation, artificial respiration is absolutely necessary…”
A woman weighing a good seventy or eighty kilograms, with a face that looked like it had been through a car accident, pushed through the crowd of onlookers. She struggled to squat down and was just about to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the young man lying on the ground after drowning.
Chen An felt like his head was throbbing and his whole body was uncomfortable. He laboriously opened his eyes, only to see a huge face that looked like the reincarnation of an ancient demon. The woman was puckering her lips and moving toward his face.
“What the hell?!”
Chen An used every ounce of strength he had to turn his head aside, finally avoiding the fate of being kissed on the mouth.
However, her lips still landed on his cheek.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the woman’s face. Her smile looked like a chrysanthemum blooming in full glory.
The thought of being kissed by a woman like this was simply too much.
Unable to suppress his intense nausea, Chen An immediately vomited.
But the moment he did, he realized something was wrong.
Why the hell was he vomiting nothing but water…?
The woman felt a little disappointed, but when she saw the surrounding people looking at her, she wore a proud expression.
“See? Didn’t I save him? He just needed to vomit the water out. Young people these days really don’t know how to think things through. What could possibly be so terrible that he had to jump into the river…?”
A few minutes later, after realizing there was no more excitement to watch, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Before leaving, the woman even stuffed a piece of paper into Chen An’s hand and comforted him, telling him that it wasn’t a big deal and that he could come to her if he had any problems.
Just thinking about that woman’s face now made Chen An shudder all over.
Sitting on a bench in the park, Chen An paid no attention to the water still dripping from his clothes.
He still couldn’t calm down.
After all, transmigrating into another body was simply too absurd.
Could it be because he had left too many regrets in his previous life?
Or perhaps, as Buddhism said, after putting down the butcher’s knife, one could attain enlightenment? Maybe because he had donated his entire fortune before dying, Heaven had decided to give him another chance at life?
She should be able to finally give up and get married now, right?
Chen An gave a bitter smile.
Those were things he couldn’t worry about anymore.
He had better sort through his memories first.
Soon, Chen An’s expression became extremely strange.
There was no other reason for it—the original owner of this body was an orphan.
That alone wasn’t particularly strange.
The strange part was that he hadn’t grown up in an orphanage. Instead, he had been taken in as a disciple by an old Taoist priest when he was young.
That still wasn’t the most important part.
The most important thing was that, according to his memories, only he and his master had lived in the Taoist temple since childhood.
The temple barely received any incense offerings either.
The two of them survived mainly by farming.
As for his unreliable master…
The old Taoist priest was practically the CEO of the temple on the side, helping the young women and married ladies from the surrounding villages with their illnesses and even “clearing blocked drains” to make a living…
But in Chen An’s eyes, was that really just legitimate drain cleaning?
No wonder the old Taoist priest had looked so sickly and skinny when he died, while so many young women and married ladies had shed tears over him.
Tsk. What an indecent old man…
As for why Chen An had transmigrated into this body, he seemed to have figured that out too.
After the old Taoist priest died, Chen An, who had been fooled by him since childhood, genuinely believed that he possessed divine medical skills, as well as the ability to tell fortunes and read people’s faces.
So he took everything the Taoist temple owned and, amid the reluctant gazes of the village women, resolutely set off for the capital to make a name for himself.
Unfortunately, after arriving in the capital, he discovered that this place was nothing like the small village where he had lived before.
In just two days, he had spent all the little money he had.
He couldn’t find a job that could support him either.
With no other choice, he brought out his supposed specialty and set up a fortune-telling stall outside a park.
As for the result…
There was no need to say it.
How could the unreliable skills his master had taught him possibly be reliable?
After a series of completely nonsensical tricks, he had successfully made the serious-looking man in front of him want to kill someone.
Naturally, Chen An wasn’t stupid enough to stay around and get beaten.
He ran for his life.
Unfortunately, he tripped and fell into the river.
Since he couldn’t swim, he died.
No wonder that while receiving the memories, Chen An had also felt a huge wave of resentment and unwillingness, along with the faintest trace of hatred.
Chen An could only say that this kid had been far too innocent.
What the hell kind of divine fortune-telling?
And what so-called divine medical skills?
All because he had given the boar belonging to a widow in the village twice the normal dosage of an aphrodisiac, causing the sow—which had supposedly been unable to conceive—to become pregnant…
That was enough for him to believe he possessed divine medical skills?!
Holy crap.
They were all tears.
Maybe it was better that he had died.
After being deceived to this extent, sooner or later he would have been sold off and still helped the seller count the money.
But that bastard…
If Chen An ever found him, he would make sure that bastard regretted it.
Otherwise, he would be letting this body down.
Chen An suddenly froze.
Had he just been affected by the original owner’s emotions?
Was this a side effect of merging with the memories?
He took a deep breath and adjusted his state of mind.
Then he reached into the small pocket sewn into his underwear and pulled out his ID card.
He also had three yuan and twenty cents in crumpled cash.
That was his entire fortune.
Chen An found the situation extremely troublesome.
This was the capital!
The emperor’s own territory, where every inch of land was incredibly expensive.
With the little money he had, simply staying alive was going to be extremely difficult.
In his previous life, Chen An had received terrible news just before graduating from university.
Both of his parents had died in a car accident.
He had gone from a carefree second-generation heir to a formidable and outstanding entrepreneur over the course of ten years.
Later, he had also been tormented by illness.
He had experienced far too many ups and downs in life…
Pulling himself back from his thoughts, Chen An realized that his most important goal right now was to stay alive.
As long as he didn’t die, there would always be a day when he could make something of himself.
He looked up at the sky.
The sun had already set.
He rubbed his growling stomach.
He had gone two days barely eating three meals.
It was time to deal with his fourth meal.
Being poor was a sin.
With his current condition, he couldn’t even afford to catch a cold.
Chen An had visited the capital many times in his previous life, but those visits had all been for business negotiations.
Therefore, the surrounding environment was extremely unfamiliar to him.
All he could do was wander around aimlessly.
He didn’t forget to complain about the original owner being ridiculously poor either.
The guy didn’t even have a phone!
Even if he couldn’t afford a smartphone, couldn’t he at least have an old-fashioned phone?
After walking for almost an hour, Chen An found himself surrounded by alleys and apartment buildings.
His head was still completely confused.
But that wasn’t even the most important problem.
The most important thing was that Chen An could clearly feel the strength draining from his body little by little.
It felt just like a phone running out of battery and preparing to shut down.
He watched as one shop sign after another passed before his eyes.
Waves of delicious aromas drifted past his nose.
Holding his growling stomach, he desperately wanted to walk into a restaurant and have a proper meal.
But when he looked at his current miserable appearance, he estimated that he probably wouldn’t even make it through the door before being thrown out.
Even if he somehow managed to get inside, he would have to eat without paying and then risk being beaten.
Could his already weakened body withstand that?
Chen An didn’t dare gamble.
He was so depressed.
If he had transmigrated into the body of an ordinary university student, he was confident that he could live quite well in such a huge city with his abilities.
But now he was a triple-nothing person.
No house.
No car.
No education.
He might even have trouble finding a job hauling bricks…
After wandering around aimlessly for a while longer, he really couldn’t walk anymore.
He squatted down by the roadside to rest.
As he watched the people coming and going, a strange emotion suddenly enveloped his heart.
A few meters away, an electric scooter stopped.
A young man wearing a yellow delivery uniform got off and quickly ran into a nearby shop.
Less than a minute later, the deliveryman came back out carrying several packed meal boxes.
He opened the box mounted on the back of the scooter and put them inside.
Then he turned around and hurried back into the shop.
Clearly, he still had something else to pick up.
Seeing the huge bag of takeout meals, Chen An immediately figured out what was going on.
It was probably food ordered by some company for employees working overtime.
Looking at the takeout right in front of him, Chen An gritted his teeth and stopped hesitating.
He quickly walked over, tore open the bag, and casually grabbed two meal boxes.
He was wondering whether he should take another one when a loud shout startled him.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
Chen An turned around and saw the deliveryman in the yellow uniform rushing toward him with a bag of drinks and water.
The thirty-six stratagems say that running is the best strategy.
Chen An grabbed the two meal boxes and used every ounce of strength he had, sprinting away at a speed that barely qualified as running.
“Fuck! You bastard, stop!”
Stop?
Only an idiot would stop.
Chen An hadn’t even run a hundred meters before he could no longer move.
He dropped onto the ground.
As for whether anyone was chasing him…
That was entirely up to fate.
At that moment, Chen An deeply understood what it meant to be a stray dog, what it meant for a tiger to fall into the plains and be bullied by dogs, and what it meant to have no choice but to bow one’s head to reality.
After waiting for two minutes without seeing anyone come after him, Chen An actually felt relieved.
He was lucky this was the capital.
If this had been some tiny provincial city, there was no way he would have escaped a beating…
The honk of an electric scooter pulled Chen An out of his thoughts and startled him.
He turned around and realized that the place where he was sitting had blocked someone’s path.
A woman in her thirties was riding the scooter with a child sitting behind her.
She looked at him with obvious wariness and disgust.
Chen An instinctively felt annoyed.
For a moment, he even had the urge to hit someone.
But he restrained himself.
He struggled to get up and silently moved farther to the side.
Only then did the woman quickly speed past the spot where he had been sitting.
So this was what it meant to be hated by both people and dogs?
Chen An quickly adjusted his mindset.
So what?
Staying alive was the most important thing right now.
As for his dignity…
What the hell was it worth to him now?
He impatiently opened the meal boxes.
An irresistible aroma immediately filled his nose.
He had never thought chicken-leg rice could smell so delicious.
He grabbed a handful of rice mixed with chicken and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing fiercely before swallowing with difficulty.
Although it was a little hard to swallow, the feeling of his body slowly recovering was truly intoxicating.
If only he had a bowl of water, it would be perfect.
Chen An raised his head and looked around.
He couldn’t find any water source, but he spotted a small tree beside the road.
Using the wall for support, he struggled to stand up and walked over.
He snapped off a branch and quickly trimmed it into a simple pair of chopsticks.
As for damaging the tree or harming the environment…
What the hell did that have to do with him right now?
Hadn’t the famous comedian Luo said that when you’re desperate enough, nothing you eat is considered a crime?
He had merely broken off a branch.
You could even call it an emergency measure, right?
Finding ways to laugh through hardship was probably the best he could do.
After wolfing down the food, he quickly finished both portions of chicken-leg rice.
Yet he still felt like he hadn’t had enough.
All he could say was that the restaurant was ridiculously stingy.
There was so little food in one meal.
Rice was so cheap—couldn’t they at least give him a little more?
He burped.
The food was sitting heavily in his throat, making him extremely uncomfortable.
He stood up and began searching the surrounding area.
Soon, he found his target.
A hospital inpatient department.
After turning left and right several times, he finally found the restroom on the first floor.
He eagerly turned on the faucet and drank until his stomach was full of water.
He ignored the strange looks from the people around him, splashed some water on his face, and looked at himself in the mirror.
Chen An couldn’t help feeling pleasantly surprised.
Damn.
He hadn’t expected this body to belong to such a handsome young man.
With sharp eyebrows and bright, expressive eyes, he was even more handsome than Chen An had been in his previous life.
It really seemed like Heaven was favoring him.
In that case, even if he couldn’t find a proper job, perhaps relying on this face to make a living wouldn’t be too difficult…
He had just found a place to relieve himself when he suddenly felt someone slam into him.
He staggered.
Fortunately, after going hungry for so long, he hadn’t had much urine in his bladder.
Otherwise, he would have ruined the only pair of pants he owned.
He turned around angrily.
The curse that was about to leave his mouth instantly died.
A burly man was hurrying toward one of the stalls while clutching his stomach.
As he walked, he took off his suit and casually placed it on the windowsill beside the stall at the far end.
Then came a series of loud noises from inside.
Chen An silently cursed his luck.
There was no way he could beat someone with that kind of physique.
If he cursed at him, there was a chance he would get beaten.
Sure, there was also a chance he could get some compensation for medical expenses.
But in his current condition, he didn’t even have a place to stay.
Even catching a fever could potentially finish him off.
That wasn’t worth the risk.
And what if that bastard played dirty and went straight for his face?
Chen An pulled up his pants and looked at the stall.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
If this had been his previous life, he would have beaten the guy until he vomited out everything he had eaten the night before.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he looked at the clothes on the windowsill.
Damn it.
He was in a good mood today, so he would let the bastard off.
He could consider this suit a little offering from the guy.
He had been worrying about having nowhere to sleep tonight.
With this large suit, he could sleep anywhere—from a subway station to a park bench.
He would make do wherever he could.
Once he made up his mind, Chen An carefully walked over and quietly picked up the suit.
He happened to hear the sound of a mobile game coming from inside the stall.
“Albert’s ult!”
Holy crap.
The guy was actually having quite a good time playing.
Chen An took the suit and searched the pockets.
There were only two packs of tissues.
Fortunately, there were no valuables.
Otherwise, he really wouldn’t have dared take it.
He was just about to leave when he thought about it.
He took one pack of tissues from his own pocket and placed it on the windowsill.
Then he turned and left.
Chen An deliberately took several winding turns through the inpatient department.
After a while, he finally found a relatively quiet place.
That guy probably wouldn’t be able to find him here.
He casually found a bench and lay down.
It wasn’t as soft as an actual bed, but for Chen An in his current condition, this already felt like a luxury.
So what if the man found him?
At worst, he would take a couple of punches and get some money for medical expenses.
Even if they sent him to the police station, at least he would get a meal and a place to stay.
Either way, he wouldn’t be losing out.
Chen An pulled the suit over his head and settled down to rest.
Tomorrow, he would find a job.
As long as he could earn enough to put food in his stomach, that was all that mattered.
That was the true path to survival…
