Chapter 1

"God knows how much I regret giving birth to you! God knows!"

A hoarse, rap-like voice of a woman harshly shattered Song Ya's peaceful dream. He sighed, sat up helplessly, and slowly fished a sweater from the bedside to put on.

It had been over ten days since he had crossed over, and whether he adapted or not, he could only endure it for now.

Of course, he was no longer called Song Ya, nor was he a Chinese person. His current full name was Alexander Song, a fifteen-year-old boy whose biological parents died in a car accident and who now lived with his aunt in Chicago.

The soundproofing was almost non-existent, and a barrage of vulgar words from downstairs burst into his ears. Aunt Susie was "educating" her seventeen-year-old daughter, Connie, who was Alexander Song's cousin.

"Biological," Song Ya sighed inwardly.

"Yeah, yeah! When it comes to bitches, I wonder who had two kids by seventeen!"

After years of being scolded, Connie had clearly developed a thick skin and immediately shot back, not showing any sign of weakness. Aunt Susie had her eldest son, Tony, at sixteen, then Connie the next year, and then the man who fathered them disappeared...

"Hey, hey, the point is that you didn't come home last night, right?" Song Ya thought to himself again.

On this issue, if it were in China, parents would never deviate from the main point, but Aunt Susie had completely forgotten about Connie's all-night absence as she continued to argue...

Dressed, Song Ya went out and turned into the nearby bathroom, turned on the tap, and started to wash up.

The sound of running water temporarily blocked out the argument downstairs. He looked at himself in the mirror, once again examining his new self in this life.

By Chinese standards for black people, he had a slightly childish but good-looking face. Due to his half-Chinese heritage, his skin was a bit lighter. He was already over 1.7 meters tall at fifteen, with a well-proportioned build... Of course, as a穿越者 (穿越者 means "穿越者" in Chinese, which can be translated as "穿越者" in English, but in this context, it means "a person who has traveled through time or dimensions"), his future success was a given, so the quality of this body didn't really matter. After all, this was America, a capitalist society where money could buy anything.

"But the problem is, if you let me cross over without giving me any special abilities, it's one thing, but not even letting me bring my past memories is too much!"

Over the past ten days, no matter how hard Song Ya tried, his memories of his previous life remained a blur. Apart from his sudden improvement in math, he couldn't recall any major historical events or books and games he had read or played in his past life. And that bit of math improvement didn't really mean much. The South Side of Chicago was mostly a black ghetto, and the community school's teaching quality was poor, with exam questions being relatively easy. If Song Ya didn't bring this bit of racial talent from China, he would really be in trouble.

"Hey, you lazy bum! Get down here for breakfast!"

With many children and limited energy to treat them differently, Aunt Susie treated Song Ya equally, neither abusing nor favoring him, of course, in words as well.

"Coming!"

Song Ya quickly tidied up and hurried downstairs.

The creaking of the stairs indicated that the house was quite old. This was a typical ghetto house, a single-story building with little space between it and the neighboring houses, almost entirely wooden. The second floor had two bedrooms, one large and one small, and a bathroom. The larger bedroom was divided into two, with Song Ya and his cousin Tony sharing one room, Connie and her ten-year-old sister Emily sharing the other, and Aunt Susie and her less than one-year-old brother Freddy living in the small bedroom.

The first floor was an open-plan living room, kitchen, and dining area, with only a small bathroom without a shower under the stairs.

Despite the loud arguments, everyone went about their business. Aunt Susie, holding a spatula in one hand and frying golden scrambled eggs, cradled little Freddy, who was staring with big blue eyes, in her other arm. Aunt Susie's latest boyfriend was white, so Freddy was mixed-race.

At the dining table, Connie and Emily were taking turns pouring bulk milk and oatmeal into their bowls.

Tony, meanwhile, tilted his head back and sprayed whipped cream into his mouth from a can.

"Open up."

He swallowed a mouthful of cream and then turned the can towards Song Ya.

"No thanks."

Song Ya shook his head in refusal. The soul in this body had changed, and with Aunt Susie and Tony's barrel-shaped figures and Connie's visible horizontal trend as warnings, obesity was definitely an enemy he had to be wary of in this life.

"You've changed a lot lately, Alex," Tony said.

"Have I?" Song Ya's heart tightened: "In what way?"

"Hmm..."

Tony started eating his milk-soaked oatmeal, "It's just... a feeling... you know."

"It's simple! It's for a girl!"

Connie teased Song Ya, "Who are you dating?" successfully diverting the topic again.

"I..."

Song Ya hadn't caught up with the flow of the conversation when Aunt Susie evenly divided the soft Western-style scrambled eggs among the four siblings, "Shut your damn mouth and finish eating, or you'll miss the school bus!" She was particularly displeased with Connie at the moment.

"I'll change my clothes! I'll be right down!" Connie didn't argue this time, jumping up and rushing upstairs.

American girls wearing yesterday's clothes usually meant they hadn't spent the night at home, so Connie's main purpose in coming home in the morning was to change clothes.

"Who brought her back this morning?" Aunt Susie asked in a low voice, taking the opportunity, as she hadn't forgotten this.

"I don't know, just heard the engine," Tony replied, secretly stepping on Song Ya's foot.

Song Ya shook his head; he really didn't know. Little Emily also shook her head.

Aunt Susie didn't pursue it further, returning to clean the kitchenware, "Ah! Black women..." she sighed softly.

Milk, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs, Song Ya finished them all in three minutes. It was 1990, and the welfare system in America wasn't as good as in his previous era, but for a single-parent family with five children, meeting the basic needs of clothing, food, shelter, and education seemed to be no problem, and even the food provided excess calories.

After Connie changed her clothes, the four siblings said goodbye to Aunt Susie and stepped out of the house together.

Unlike Song Ya's impression of America before he crossed over, there was no lush green grass in front of or behind the houses in this community, only withered weeds and randomly piled junk, dilapidated wooden fences, and various old cars. Including Aunt Susie, a few other households in the neighborhood had small Cameroonian flags hanging at their doors, indicating that they still remembered their roots in Africa.

"It's so cold!"

In February, Chicago was not only cold but also windy. Emily shivered and quickly hid behind Tony.

Tony turned around, picked up Emily, and used his hand to shield her face. Everyone huddled their necks and quickly walked to the bus stop a few hundred meters away.