Chapter 1 – Crossed Over
Chapter 1 – Crossed Over
Chapter 1 – Crossed Over
TRANSLATOR: AHMAD SHAHZAD
EDITOR: DRAGNEEL
Early in the morning bright rays of the sun shone into the room making Wu Ming squint his eyes.
“Ah! Ouch…”
Leisurely sitting up halfway on the bed, he stretched out his waist with a satisfied smile hung on his face. As he looked at the rays of sunlight spilling into the room, and tiny particles of dust floating in the air; he noticed the exotic, antique furniture; the elaborately carved rosewood bed he lied on, and the damask* quilt embroidered with a couple of loving ducks playing in the water using divine needlework. Looking at all this, Wu Ming suddenly shook his head.
“I must be dreaming!”
It was the first thought Wu Ming had. His second thought was, “This ancient era dream is very realistic…”
As he thought all this, he pinched his face and tried to identify the painted landscapes on the surrounding walls and the words written over them. Suddenly, his face changed while his right hand fell unconsciously.
“Ah!”
A faint cry of pain sounded from the other side of the embroidered quilt. Under the quilt was a beauty with jet-black hair. Her hair had a silver sheen like that of clouds while her body had the unique fragrance of a young woman.
As the quilt shrugged away, it revealed a delicate, and melon-like face covered in tear stains. The face looked inexplicably innocent.
Wu Ming felt the cold sweat rush down his body like a waterfall.
Suddenly, a hard premonition hit his mind. Looking down for a moment, he thought about everything that he saw. After standing up and getting out of the bed calmly, Wu Ming picked up the scattered clothes from the ground. He then wore the trousers, put on the green shirt, and made his hair as he looked in the bronze mirror. Watching the 15 or 16 years old teenager’s face reflected in the mirror, Wu Ming maintained an indifferent expression and strode out the door.
From beginning to the end, the young girl on the bed remained indifferent to all of Wu Ming’s actions. Her face was expressionless. Her eyes were like a pool of stagnant water, just like those of the walking dead.
Lying on her back, she did not see anything that he did afterward. After Wu Ming exited the room, he could no longer maintain his indifferent expression and fled from the place as if trying to fly away.
“It’s not a dream!”
With his disorderly clothes, Wu Ming tried to find his way as he ran back and forth through a large courtyard. The servants tried their best to ignore his haggard appearance and saluted with Young Master as he passed them. The shock in their hearts was hard to explain.
“Is this truly the ancient time…? Did I truly crossover?”
As a pure liberal arts student in his previous life, Wu Ming had read countless works of fiction. He wasn’t unfamiliar with a scenario like this.
However, a work of fiction is just that, a work of fiction. But when it exactly happens to a person…, who could keep calm in such a situation?
“Young Master Ming? What happened? Are you perhaps unsatisfied with the young lady Yun’s ability to serve you last night?”
A voice filled with fawning sounded. As Wu Ming glanced towards the source of the sound, he saw a middle-aged fatty smirking and laughing as he bowed and greeted Wu Ming. The fatty’s big, oily face was flowing with the intent to flatter. Wearing clothes that were a grade higher than the other servants, he was probably a chamberlain of some sorts.
‘A standard lackey!’
Wu Ming thought in his heart after looking at him once. Looking at the fatty, Wu Ming felt a sense of familiarity. He unconsciously blurted, “Housekeeper Wu!”
“Yes, Young Master!”
The chubby housekeeper Wu instantly straightened his back and put on the same expression as a loyal dog, “Young Master, give your command!”
As for the disheveled appearance of the Young Master, housekeeper Wu overlooked it as if he never saw anything.
Who didn’t know that this Young Master Ming is the person most spoiled by the Big Missy? He had done many things far worse; what did dressing up a bit unconventional amount to? He had done a lot of stuff that was more shocking than this.
Looking at the Young Master’s pondering expression, housekeeper Wu reckoned that the little lady from last night didn’t attend to the Young Master well. In his heart, he felt a little bad for her but was prepared to help the young master deal with this matter.
“Command?”
Wu Ming gathered himself together and calmed down.
One thing he was sure of was that he had crossed over to another world.
Not only had he crossed over; even his body wasn’t the original one. Though he had become younger, he wasn’t as handsome as before.
Of course, that wasn’t the main issue. The main issue was that if these people found out that their Young Master had been switched, what kind of fate would he have…
In Wu Ming’s heart, he had already thought of the various methods used in ancient times to deal with evil spirits. Splashing with dog blood, frying in boiling oil, drowning in excrement, and so on. Just thinking about those methods made his legs shiver.
‘I must conceal the truth about my crossing over. I must not let anyone find out.’
With these thoughts in mind, Wu Ming spoke nonsense that was common in all words, “I am hungry!”
It wasn’t a lie though. Who knows how many times the original owner of the body did it last night. He was really hungry.
“Oh! It is all this lowly one’s negligence. This lowly one is damned.”
Housekeeper Wu was fuming and slapping his face, “Today, Young Master woke up late, so the servant forgot to make your breakfast. He deserves to be hit, deserves to be hit.”
In fact, although he might wake up late, there was always a chummy meal prepared for him in this massive Family. It was Wu Ming who failed to notice that there was a maidservant standing outside to serve him food.
However, today he was walking all around the courtyard with that inexplicable expression. Who dares to stop and ask him?
After all, since the ancient times, it was always the servant who was at fault. Who has ever said that the master was at fault? So all housekeeper Wu could do was to turn over to another lackey and yell at him, “It is all this lowly one’s fault. Young Master, will you go to the top floor of the High Wind Building? That’s where you always have your meal, right?”
“Yeah, right! Let’s go there.”
How could the current Wu Ming know what he liked or not? However, right at this moment, Wu Ming felt his head get dizzy and light. A bunch of fragmented memories emerged and merged with his own. The memories fused with his own and made him feel as if he lived another life in someone else’s perspective.
Urgently looking for a place to digest those memories, Wu Ming had readily agreed to housekeeper Wu’s suggestion.
……….
After a while.
Wu Ming sat on the top floor of the High Wind Building and looked towards the breakfast before him.
The breakfast was crab roe steamed buns. The Wu Family’s chef probably tried his best to produce his signature dish. The steamed buns were wrapped in translucent and limpid wrapping while the yellow crab roe was faintly visible. It was an exquisite work of art.
There were also many other exquisite side dishes with great aromas and scents that assailed the nostrils, and causing the mouth to drool.
Even the accompanying soup appeared like rice-nectar, completely white. It appeared like a juice with a sweet and sour taste that whets one’s appetite.
In general, in Wu Ming’s previous life, if one wanted to have a breakfast like this, one would have to bleed their wallets quite a lot.
Wu Ming tried to appear natural and indifferent as he picked up one of the steamed buns.
Hu Hu!
The cold wind whistled. Instantly, Wu Ming felt like cursing at the wind.
This broken building had the wind blowing in from all directions. After the wind blew a couple of rounds, not only was Wu Ming feeling cold, even his food turned cold. Who the heck eats cold food!!!
“Bring the stove!”
The lackey housekeeper was already prepared, and soon, a charcoal-filled copper stove was offered to Wu Ming, saving his taste buds.
Otherwise, no matter how great the food was; if it was cold, it wasn’t worth eating. It will always be bland to the taste buds.
“Good. You all can leave now. I want to be alone during my meal.”
After barely eating and drinking something, Wu Ming waved towards the others.
Housekeeper Wu, together with the various maidservants, cleaned the plates and cups and then bowed towards Wu Ming. With their waists still bowed, all of them retreated quietly just like a cat walking past.
The rules in a big Family like theirs were very strict after all.
Wu Ming sat upright with his eyes closed. He appeared to be in meditation. Suddenly, he stood up and leaned against the fence, looking outwards.
As far as the eye could see, all the houses were connected to each other. Tall and thick walls were connecting to each other forming a small city fortress around all those houses.
High Wind Building, where Wu Ming lived, was probably the main watchtower of this city fortress.
Looking ahead, he could see the farmers and the cattle working over the fields. Smoke could be seen rising in certain places from time to time. Many servants, maidservants, and other dependants appeared like worker ants in an ant nest. All of them moved in an orderly manner.
From Wu Ming’s perspective, you could only see black dots that appeared like ants. Vivid and more interesting.
At this time, Wu Ming’s sleeves fluttered and had an appearance like those of feathers that a bird would have.
Wu Ming understood why the previous owner of his new body loved to be at this location. It was to pretend to be great. For the sake of enjoying this loftiness and omnipotence. It was like a God looking down on these ants that tread the realm.
Thinking till here, Wu Ming couldn’t help but raise his middle finger towards the person who exists no more.
“Sure enough… It is a different world.”
After a long while, Wu Ming turned his vision and sorted out the memories that he had just digested. After that, he just sighed.
This world wasn’t the same as his past world, nor was it the ancient era.
Even though the previous owner of this body was a foolish playboy, Wu Ming still extracted a bit useful information from his memories. From these memories, Wu Ming knew that this world was special and had mysterious powers.
Coincidentally, this body’s original owner was also named Wu Ming and lived with an elder sister who loved him very much. The two depended on each other and only had a few distant relatives. This family’s only heir was him, an embarrassment. But the incredible thing was, no one dared say anything against that.
From his memory, all this had to do with the prodigious talent of his awesome sister who got admitted to a Taoist School at a young age.
Strangely though, even though his sister doted on him immensely, all the memories he had of her also contained a faint fear for her.
“Oh… Fortunately, she is immersed in her studies in the Taoist School and I don’t need to come into contact with her for the moment. As for the others; who dares question or doubt their master?”
Wu Ming gathered all his spirit, strengthened himself and went downstairs. There, he saw housekeeper Wu waiting for him outside.
“What’s up?”
“Well… er, that young lady in Young Master’s room…”
Housekeeper Wu said while hesitating,
“She…”
Wu Ming rubbed his temple and couldn’t help but feel depressed.
In his memories, the old Wu Ming was a local tyrant who had done a lot of bad things.
And that young lady Yun…, she was the one whom he had snatched last night, and it seems she also had a childhood friend.
In reality, ‘snatch’ wasn’t the correct term to use for her. After all, the girl was delivered to his room by her parents in high spirits after they received gold from him. They didn’t even care what her position would be in the household in the future.
‘I won’t be responsible for that bastard’s blunder.’
Black lines appeared on Wu Ming’s forehead as he said in a stern tone just like the one in his memories, “That young lady? This lord will show her mercy. Send her back, give her some gold, silk, and whatever, and might as well let her marry that guy called Lin Qi.”
“Uh?”
Housekeeper Wu looked guilty and said, “Young Master, you had ordered to kill that Lin Qi guy. Do you want him alive now?”
“Ah! Then go and call Old Ghost Six to return immediately.”
Wu Ming smacked his head. There were too many memories that he had ignored this matter.
This Old Ghost Six was the courtyard guard that worked for the old Wu Ming. He had done a lot of atrocities for Wu Ming. Though it would be too much to say that he had taken hundreds of lives, he had taken at least 10 of them…
“Reporting!”
A sturdy man came running with an astonished expression on his face, “Young Master, that Lin Qi guy beat Old Ghost Six to death.”
“What the heck happened? Isn’t that guy a legendary trash? How could he beat Old Ghost Six to death?” Housekeeper Wu wrinkled his brows.
However, Wu Ming felt a loud bang on his head. As if a lighting bolt descended from Heavens onto him. A very bad premonition took root in his heart.
“Don’t tell me I am going to be the villain in this story! A villain who is there to bully the male lead and provide him with experience! No, no, no. Wrong! Oh my god! This script is so damn wrong!”