Chapter 1

At some point in the early hours of the morning, Zhou Xiao woke up. Facing the dark room, he pondered for a full five minutes, then muttered to himself, "Damn, it seems I really have traveled through time."

This was not a common scene for time travel.

In most cases, a time traveler would wake up like a normal person, or suddenly sit up after a violent death, then discover the strange environment they were in with a sense of literary flair. After confirming the time travel, they would shout out loud like a fool. This was the kind of time travel that people enjoyed. However, Zhou Xiao's situation was different.

The physique of a hikikomori (reclusive person) often tends toward two extremes: extremely fat or extremely thin. The fat ones become so due to lack of exercise and overeating, causing their bodies to deform. The thin ones, on the other hand, lose energy and fat due to irregular living habits and poor nutrition. However, what was strange was that these two extremes seemed to occur simultaneously. Whether a hikikomori was fat or thin seemed to have nothing to do with the reasons mentioned above but was entirely dependent on fate. Perhaps being fat or thin was just a random Boolean number in the "fate" program, 0 or 1, determined by fate.

Zhou Xiao was one of those hikikomoris who had been randomly assigned to the fat category.

As a hikikomori, a fat hikikomori, and a half-baked film worker living in Beijing, renting a place outside the sixth ring road, and earning 3000 yuan a month, Zhou Xiao had six devoted, beautiful wives who loved him deeply... Yeah, right! Ever since he became a hikikomori after attending a mediocre university, Zhou Xiao had completely said goodbye to women, hadn't he? Hadn't he? Hadn't he?

Getting off track, let's continue with why Zhou Xiao knew he had traveled through time. As a fat person, his body was very uncomfortable. Even a little exercise would make him ache all over, and the excess fat was not only unattractive but also put considerable pressure on his internal organs, making him feel as if his heart was never beating fast enough and his blood circulation was poor.

When Zhou Xiao woke up in shock, he immediately noticed that the oppressive feeling that had been weighing him down for years as a fat person had suddenly disappeared. This made him feel both surprised and curious, leading him to seriously consider his body and the environment he was in.

"Seems like I've lost a lot of weight overnight. Is this still my body?" He grabbed his right wrist with his left hand and found that his fingers overlapped by more than one joint.

"Normally, the thumb wouldn't touch the other fingers at all." He then touched his stomach. The flabby belly that should have been there was gone, replaced by a nearly sunken, flat stomach with no hair around the navel!

"Damn, did I really travel through time? Or did my soul travel? Should I start pretending to have amnesia? Is this a time travel to the Three Kingdoms, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, or the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China? This directly affects my starting point!"

Zhou Xiao began to pay attention to the external world. Through the dim light of the night, he vaguely saw the surroundings.

"Lying on the ground? Can't be that cheap, can't even afford a bed, right?" Zhou Xiao muttered to himself.

With the faint light from the window, he finally noticed a small ball hanging from the center of the room, about a meter high. Reaching out, he confirmed it was a light cord.

Click—

After adjusting to the sudden light, Zhou Xiao finally saw his surroundings clearly.

"Wh-What? Tatami mats!?"

Most Chinese people know about tatami mats, not from reality but from TV. From "Blood and Sand" and "Tokyo Love Story" to "Slam Dunk" and "EVA," Japan has exported a lot of culture to China over the decades, introducing many things, including tatami mats, which are commonly found in Japanese homes.

Zhou Xiao now confirmed his environment. The room he was in was small, and an old incandescent light bulb buzzed, illuminating the small space. A small TV cabinet held an old, bulky color TV. Around the room were piles of magazines and papers, and plastic bags that hadn't been cleaned in who knows how long, containing who knows what. A poster of a beautiful woman with Japanese writing was stuck on the wall. The wardrobe was open, with most of the clothes piled on the floor, and only a few pairs of underwear hanging where clothes should be. Even Zhou Xiao, who wasn't particularly clean, felt a buzz in his head at the sight of such a messy, dirty, and scary room.

At this moment, a question entered his mind: "Who am I?"

As this question arose, a flood of memories and a severe headache followed. Unable to bear it, Zhou Xiao quickly lay down again. In his mind, he was experiencing the life of a young man of Chinese descent named Zhou Xiao, born in Japan.

This young man named "Zhou Xiao" grew up in Tokyo and was a comedian.

In Japan, a comedian primarily refers to those who perform stage comedy, manzai (Japanese stand-up comedy), and make a living by talking. This is a free yet highly regulated industry that brings laughter but also has its dark side. It is a highly competitive field. It is free in the sense that there are no entry barriers; you don't need to be handsome or a good singer, just able to make people laugh. In this regard, being a bit ugly might even be an advantage. The regulations, however, are a reflection of the Japanese national character. The relationship between seniors and juniors is extremely strict, with senior comedians able to boss around their juniors. The dark side is well-known: the largest comedy agency in Japan, Yoshimoto Kogyo, has ties to the yakuza, a secret that is almost common knowledge.

Although he had Japanese citizenship, Zhou Xiao was 100% Chinese. His grandparents immigrated to Japan and had his father, who then married a Chinese mother and had him. What made this family slightly special was that, except for Zhou Xiao, everyone else was deeply nostalgic for their homeland. His grandparents returned to China in the early 1990s, and about half a year ago, his parents also chose the same path.

However, Zhou Xiao did not return. On one hand, he had just completed his high school education in March, and on the other, he was determined to become a comedian.

In China, "artist" is a broad term for those in the entertainment industry. In Japan, however, the term "artist" usually refers to comedians.

What Zhou Xiao truly wanted to be, however, was neither of these. He wanted to be a "タレント" (talent), a word that translates to "talent" in English, meaning a person with exceptional skills or abilities. In Japan, this term has been extended to mean a versatile entertainer, someone who does everything from comedy to singing and acting.

But the road must be taken step by step. Zhou Xiao, who had graduated just over half a year ago, was still a beginner comedian, far from his dream of becoming a versatile entertainer.

Zhou Xiao was a stubborn, almost 18-year-old boy. After graduating from high school, he chose to become a comedian from the bottom up. However, his parents, being of Chinese descent, though born in Japan, had inherited most Chinese values. They strongly opposed Zhou Xiao's decision to become a comedian instead of pursuing further education.

After a heated argument with his parents, who were about to return to China, Zhou Xiao left home in anger, with only 100,000 yen he had saved up from childhood.

Perhaps thinking that their child would eventually come to his senses and return, Zhou Xiao's parents did not stop him. They left their phone numbers and eagerly boarded a plane to return to the land they had dreamed of for 40 years, leaving Zhou Xiao alone in the vast maze of Tokyo.