However, hearing the word "Mom," a word that should have been full of warmth, the young girl leaning on his knees trembled. Her eyes dimmed. She quickly lowered her head, forcing herself to stop sobbing, but her grip on her father's leg tightened.
Lin Zhe felt there must be a deep, hidden story here.
Lin Zhe remained calm about the "transmigration." He wasn't some high schooler; he was a thirty-year-old "corporate slave". In his original world, he couldn't afford a house and had no wife.
Just being alive was a win.
Having spent years immersed in the "Transmigrator Training Center" (webnovel tropes), he knew the patterns.
Wait, what did the boy say? "You'll definitely find another job"?
So, he was currently unemployed? This start was... rough.
"Whatever, even if I had a job, I couldn't do it in this state," Lin Zhe thought gloomily. He had his old memories and skills, but zero information about this body. He needed to figure out his new identity; he didn't even know his own name!
Lin Zhe, a citizen of the East Asian Republic. After a routine overtime shift, his vision went black.
He woke up in a dilapidated home as Hikigaya Ryohei, a mid-thirties, unemployed, "greasy" failed uncle.
This world was not the future Lin Zhe expected, but a completely different timeline.
In this reality, the two World Wars never happened.
The original Ryohei had just endured a divorce, job loss, and an emergency hospitalization due to sudden bankruptcy. The final straw was a "high-entry" investment in a luxury 200-square-meter house.
A year ago, as an IT senior white-collar worker with stock options, the mortgage wouldn't have been a problem.
But last month, his wife Hikigaya Kazusa (Touma Kazusa) divorced him for "emotional incompatibility." Then came the "Internet Winter" (layoffs). Credit ratings dropped, the housing market crashed, and he couldn't liquidate the asset.
To make matters worse, Ryohei had given almost all his cash to his ex-wife during the divorce.
What a legendary simp! Lin Zhe thought.
The bank seized the house, the debt remained, and Ryohei suffered a heart attack. After the ICU drained his last penny, he attempted a "Leap of Faith" from the second floor of a cheap apartment, only to be caught by a crooked tree. Now, Lin Zhe was stuck with the mess.
Rousseau once said, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." For Ryohei, the chains were financial.
"Komachi, how much money is left in the house? My head hurts... I can't quite remember," Ryohei asked the young girl that afternoon.
"Ah, I'm not sure. But Dad's wallet is in the drawer," Komachi chirped. She scurried to find it, trusting her father blindly. Ryohei noticed the room had been tidied by the eldest son, Hachiman.
Ryohei checked the news on the web.
This world's timeline diverged around 1900.
No World Wars meant Eurasian empires and kingdoms still existed. He saw a news clipping about a female soldier named Mashiro Souya. More surprisingly, there was no "Airplane" tech tree; only airships (zeppelins) existed.
His smile froze when he checked his finances. 100,000 Yen.
"Is that it? What's the rent this month?"
"It's... 60,000 Yen. Didn't you personally give it to the landlord?" Komachi whispered.
After rent, they would have almost nothing. "Tonight, we eat meat," Ryohei declared, patting her head.
"Dad will find a job tomorrow. Making money won't defeat me."
"Hooray! My Dad is the best!" Komachi cheered.
Ryohei stepped out to explore the neighborhood. He bought some pork and vegetables at a "Yaoya" (green grocer). He felt an instinctive closeness to Komachi, likely a remnant of the original Ryohei's soul.
As for the brother, Hachiman Hikigaya, they barely spoke.
Ryohei decided to bridge that gap later.
"Yo! Ryohei?! You're here!"