The alarm clock rang punctually at 6:30 a.m., like a dull blade slicing through the thin veil of sleep.
With his eyes still closed, Lin Yuan reached out and precisely pressed the button to silence it—this was a motion he had repeated for five years and seven months.
Twenty-eight years old. Single. An administrative specialist at a trading company. A monthly salary of 6,500 yuan. After deducting rent, utilities, commuting, and food, he could save about one thousand yuan each month—assuming no colleagues got married or friends had birthdays that month.
He sat up and rubbed his aching temples.
Inside the seven-square-meter rented room, the instant noodle bowl he had eaten during last night's overtime work still sat on the bedside table. The soup had already congealed into a thin layer of oil. Outside the window was the city's eternally gray sky, and on the balcony of the building across the street hung rows of nearly identical clothes.
"Another Tuesday," Lin Yuan said to the empty room.
He washed up, got dressed, and reheated last night's leftovers for breakfast.
The man in the mirror had ordinary facial features, ordinary dark circles, and an ordinary degree of receding hairline. He tied a dark blue tie—bought three years ago during a mall discount sale, now slightly faded.
The subway was like a can of sardines.
Lin Yuan squeezed into the crowd, his nose almost pressed against the backpack of the person in front of him. The train swayed as he gripped the handrail, staring blankly at the advertisements flashing past outside the window.
One real estate ad read: "Build Your Dream Home."
He tugged at the corner of his mouth in a faint smile. In this city, he couldn't even afford a bathroom.
At exactly nine o'clock, the attendance machine beeped.
"Morning, Lin Yuan," his colleague Xiao Zhang greeted without looking up, eyes fixed on the stock chart on his computer screen.
"Morning," Lin Yuan replied as he sat down at his desk and turned on the computer.
There were already twelve unread emails in his inbox—eight mass announcements, three tasks that required handling, and one reminder about collecting AA payment for the department dinner.
Administrative work was like a precise yet boring machine: organizing reports, scheduling meeting rooms, ordering office supplies, processing reimbursement forms.
Lin Yuan's fingers flew across the keyboard, but his thoughts drifted far away.
In college, he had studied Chinese literature. He once dreamed of becoming a writer, someone who could write things that moved people. Now the thing he wrote most often was "Notice Regarding the Frequency of Restroom Tissue Replacement."
During lunch break, he walked alone to the rooftop of the building.
Pedestrians on the street below moved like ants, bustling back and forth. He lit a cigarette—he had tried to quit three times and failed—and watched the smoke dissipate into the air.
"My life is just like this smoke," he thought."Slowly burning away, leaving nothing behind."
His phone vibrated.
A message from his mother appeared on WeChat.
"Son, are you coming home this weekend? Aunt Wang introduced a girl to you. She seems pretty nice..."
Lin Yuan sighed and replied:
"I have to work overtime this weekend, Mom. Maybe next time."
In truth, there was no overtime.
He simply didn't know how to face another blind date—another moment of explaining his "ordinary but stable" life to a stranger, only to watch the light in their eyes gradually dim.
Five o'clock in the afternoon.Time to get off work.
"Lin Yuan, Mr. Li needs this report tomorrow morning. Could you stay and finish it tonight?" The department manager placed a stack of documents on his desk and patted his shoulder. "The capable should bear more responsibility."
So it was eight o'clock at night again.
The office was empty except for him. The fluorescent lights hummed faintly above.
When he finally finished the work, Lin Yuan felt a wave of dizziness. Probably low blood sugar, he thought. He had only eaten a piece of bread for lunch.
The subway had already passed the rush hour.
The carriage was nearly empty.
Lin Yuan found a seat and closed his eyes.
He was too tired.
This kind of exhaustion wasn't the sort that sleep could fix. It seeped into the bones themselves.
When he exited the subway station, it had started raining.
He hadn't brought an umbrella, so he jogged across the street. The light was red, and he stopped to wait.
Raindrops struck his face, cool and sharp.
Across the street, a convenience store was still brightly lit. Through the glass he could see neatly arranged rice balls and bento boxes on the shelves.
Lin Yuan suddenly remembered that his refrigerator was empty. Maybe he should buy some instant noodles.
The traffic light turned green.
He stepped forward, his leather shoes landing on the wet pavement.
At that moment, a sharp screech of brakes tore through the rainy night—
Lin Yuan turned his head and saw blinding headlights rushing toward him.
Time seemed to slow.
He remembered many things.
The girl he had secretly liked in middle school, with her ponytail swaying.The joy when his university thesis was approved.The smiles of his parents when he bought them gifts with his first salary.And the novel he had started writing, only three pages long before he abandoned it…
The impact didn't hurt as much as he expected. It felt more like a heavy punch.
He was thrown into the air. His briefcase burst open, papers scattering like white birds.
Then he hit the ground hard.
Rainwater quickly turned dark red.
"Ah…"
He tried to speak, but only blood bubbles came out.
His vision began to blur.
He saw people gathering around him. He heard distant screams and someone calling for help.
The rain continued to fall, hitting his face, growing colder and colder.
"So this is how it ends?" Lin Yuan's final thought drifted through his fading consciousness.
"How… ordinary."
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then—there was light.
Not the blinding kind, but soft and warm.
Lin Yuan felt a strange sense of floating, as if he were immersed in warm water. He tried to open his eyes, but realized he didn't have eyes—at least not the ones he was familiar with.
There were voices.
Blurred and distant, as if coming through a layer of water.
"Push! Almost there!" a woman's voice cried out, full of pain and anticipation.
"Come on, just a little more!" another voice said, steadier.
Lin Yuan felt immense pressure closing in from all sides, pushing and squeezing him.
He tried to struggle but discovered he couldn't control any limbs—assuming he even had limbs right now.
After a violent squeeze, he suddenly passed through a narrow passage and entered a space filled with air.
Cold!
That was the first clear sensation he felt, completely different from the warmth before.
"Waaah—!"
A loud cry echoed through the room.
No… it wasn't just a cry.
It was him crying.
Lin Yuan realized with shock that the sound was coming from himself—or rather, from the body he now possessed.
"It's a healthy boy!" the steady voice announced.
Lin Yuan felt himself lifted by a pair of warm hands and placed onto something soft.
He tried to open his eyes.
His vision was blurry—only colors and shadows.
But he could make out a human face, tearful yet smiling, looking down at him.
"My child…" the woman whispered weakly, gently touching his cheek.
Lin Yuan's mind was in complete chaos.
Hadn't he died?On that rainy street, struck by a car?
He should be dead.
But now…
Now he had become a baby?
How was this possible?
"Did the isekai reincarnation from Japanese light novels actually happen to me?!"
Lin Yuan shouted in disbelief.
But the only thing that came out was the cry of an infant.
Not long after, Lin Yuan stopped crying.
With newly opened blue eyes, he stared blankly at this unfamiliar world.
The room was not the white hospital walls and machines he expected.
Instead, it had stone walls decorated with magnificent tapestries. A real fire burned inside a fireplace.
Outside the window, there were no towering skyscrapers of the city.
Instead, there were rolling green hills stretching into the distance.
And hanging in the sky was a moon—rounder and larger than the one on Earth.
Would Lin Yuan's life in this new world still remain ordinary?