1: Chapter 1: The Eagle Transmigrates to 1882 and Obtains a System!
Parallel world, Blue Star.
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Lin Tian felt freezing, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
He felt like he was suffocating.
In his daze, someone was shouting nearby.
"There's movement! The young master is awake!"
"Heaven be praised, he's finally pulled through!"
"Dr. Smith, is my son truly saved?"
"Mr. Lin, set your mind at ease. I am a top graduate from a prestigious medical school, after all; my skills are excellent."
"Lin Tian... can you hear your father speaking?"
Lin Tian struggled to open his eyes. A circle of people surrounded the bed, their chatter in various languages giving him a headache.
Looking around, he realized he was lying in an old wooden cabin.
Several people stood nearby.
The middle-aged man leading them was chubby, wearing a melon-skin cap and a black mandarin jacket—the spitting image of a rural landlord.
Beside the landlord was a teenage girl with braided hair, fair skin, and eyes filled with tears.
Standing next to the girl was a yellow-haired Westerner wearing an old jacket.
At the very back was a weather-beaten man, his clothes completely soaked, with a long queue braided at the back of his head.
Lin Tian muttered to himself: "What kind of weirdos are these? Is this a fantasy period drama shoot?"
He had clearly been a backpacker traveling in the country, so how did everything change in the blink of an eye?
However, he didn't sense any danger.
The concern in the eyes of the chubby man and the girl couldn't be faked.
He figured he must have had an accident while traveling and been rescued by a film crew.
Just as he opened his mouth to thank them, a sharp pain struck his brain, and he blacked out again.
In his unconscious state, a stream of unfamiliar memories flooded his mind.
...
The original owner was also named Lin Tian.
He was a Chinese-American boy living in the USA in the late 19th century.
He was only ten years old this year, the biological son of the chubby landlord just now.
His cheap father had quite an eventful history.
In his early years, Lin Tian's grandfather had fought alongside the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, serving as a general and enjoying a period of glory.
Later, when Tianjing fell and the cause failed, Lin Tian's father saw that things were going south. Fearing he would be captured and beheaded, he bought a ticket on a merchant ship to the USA and escaped across the ocean.
Twenty years had passed in the blink of an eye.
Now, his father was doing quite well in San Francisco's Chinatown.
...
The next morning.
Sunlight shone into the room, and Lin Tian opened his eyes again.
He had sorted out all the memories and understood why he was lying in a hospital bed.
The previous night, the original owner had gone for a stroll by the river after eating, slipped, and fallen into the water.
Thanks to two passing Chinese laborers who pulled him out.
Unfortunately, he didn't hold on and had already breathed his last.
The person alive now was a modern person from the 21st century who had transmigrated here.
Just as he clarified the situation, a stiff voice suddenly rang in his head.
"Ding... Host's consciousness detected. Sign-in system activated."
"Ding... System initialized. A novice gift package has been issued."
"Ding... You have not signed in today. Would you like to sign in?"
He had a cheat code!
Lin Tian was ecstatic. If his body hadn't been so weak, he would have jumped up in excitement.
"System, open the gift package!"
"Ding... Congratulations on obtaining the full blueprints for a safety razor and disposable blades!"
A safety razor?
Lin Tian was stunned for a moment.
As the system transferred the blueprints into his mind, he understood everything.
Although electric shavers were everywhere in the modern era, many places still retained manual razors that held blades.
In fact, humans had started shaving hair long ago.
From ancient times to Ancient Rome, there had been various tools for shaving.
Initially, they made do with stones and bronze, which later slowly evolved into the folding razors used in barbershops.
However, the razors of the past were unreliable; a moment of carelessness could slice one's neck and cause bleeding.
It wasn't until 1901 that an inventor in the USA cobbled together a truly safe double-edged razor.
Looking at the blueprints, Lin Tian immediately had an idea for making money.
It was currently the spring of 1882 in the USA.
After merging with the memories, his mind was exceptionally sharp.
He immediately recalled a major event that would happen this year.
The USA was about to introduce a discriminatory act against Chinese people.
It was the historically famous Chinese Exclusion Act.
If this thing didn't exist, the Chinese-American population would definitely be quite large by the 21st century.
History books stated clearly that since the 1830s, Chinese people had been coming over to work hard.
By this time, the number had already risen to 300,000.
Seeing that there were more and more Chinese people, once the act was announced, it caused his compatriots here to suffer for half a century.
According to the memories in his mind, the act would likely pass in Congress on May 6th of this year.
It was already March, leaving only two months.
The idea of him trying to influence the US Congress to change its mind was simply a pipe dream.
Let alone the fact that he was a ten-year-old child now, even an adult couldn't pull that off.
...
Lin Tian continued to try to communicate with the system.
"System, sign in!"
"Ding... Today's sign-in complete... Reward issued: A roll of 21st-century toilet paper. It has been stored in the system space. Would you like to retrieve it?"
Hearing this voice, Lin Tian nearly lost his breath.
"Why only a roll of toilet paper?"
However, the system quickly provided an explanation.
This item wasn't tied to him alone but was linked to the entire family.
Then, a virtual panel popped up:
[Family: Lin Family]
[Level: 0]
[Introduction: An unknown small family settled in the USA. Host, please raise the family level as soon as possible.]
[Upgrade Condition: Total family assets reach 10,000 USD]
Looking at the description on the panel, Lin Tian was speechless.
According to the system, he could indeed draw good things every day.
But the rarity of these items depended entirely on the family level.
The higher the family level, the more valuable the treasures given.
Conversely, the worse they were.
The current Lin family couldn't even scrape together 10,000 USD if they counted all their assets.
This amount of wealth was considered decent in the Chinese community.
But in the eyes of the truly wealthy white people in the USA, they didn't even count as a small bug.
Of course.
In this era, 10,000 USD was definitely a huge sum.
According to current purchasing power, one USD could be exchanged for about 0.8 taels of silver.
If placed in the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, one mu of good paddy field cost only ten taels of silver, and a seventh-rank county magistrate's annual salary was only thirty-six taels.
Whereas in the USA, an ordinary worker could earn about thirty USD a month.
Two months of wages were equivalent to a year's work for a Qing Dynasty county magistrate.
But even with this high wage, it would take a worker over twenty years of saving without eating or drinking to reach 10,000 USD.
Converted to the 21st century, it was at least equivalent to three million RMB.
"As long as I can manufacture the safety razor and disposable blades and operate it well, earning 10,000 should not be difficult!"
Lin Tian calculated inwardly.
Just as he wanted to lift the quilt to get out of bed, his peripheral vision caught someone.
A teenage girl was sleeping on the edge of the bed, her brows furrowed even in her sleep.
Her name was Jiang Meier.
Years ago, she followed her father, a Chinese laborer, to the USA to build the railroad.
Later, there was a landslide, and her father didn't escape, dying at the construction site.
The little girl, only eight at the time, became an orphan. In a foreign land where she had no relatives, she couldn't survive and almost ended up begging on the streets.
In the end, Lin Tian's father had a soft heart and brought her home.
He wanted her to keep the then three-year-old Lin Tian company and become his adopted daughter.
But eight-year-old Jiang Meier refused, insisting on staying as a maid to work and repay the kindness.
Seeing her firm attitude, his father let her be.
Lin Tian knew very well that Sister Meier was kind-hearted and felt that his father giving her a meal was already a great kindness.
She didn't dare to dream of living the life of a young lady, feeling that would be too ungrateful.
The morning sun shone on Meier's profile, her skin fair and translucent.
"Sister Meier is truly growing more beautiful."
Lin Tian sighed in his heart.