I'm Really Going to Become an Immortal

With the click of the key turning,

Chen Yun dragged his weary body back to his rented apartment in Shucheng.

Today is the eighteenth day of the first lunar month.

Although he could have spent more time in his hometown due to his freelance work, it was about time to return to his regular routine.

Having had a blast in his hometown of Jiangnan Province, he took the 4:30 pm flight back to Shucheng.

Including the time spent taking the subway after landing,

by the time he got home it was already 10 pm.

Touching his round little belly from feasting over the New Year and looking at his room that had developed a musty smell from being uninhabited for a month,

Chen Yun somewhat helplessly set down his luggage and took off his glasses.

Now that he was not at home, the job of cleaning would naturally not be done by his caring and diligent mother.

Out in the world, everything depended on himself,

even though he felt tired from the day's journey.

Next, he had to deal with the bedsheets and duvet cover that had been untouched for a month.

After simply stripping them off and throwing them into the washing machine, more than ten minutes had passed.

Already exhausted, Chen Yun now felt his entire being even wearier.

Too tired to even make the bed with new linens, a wave of sleepiness hit him like never before.

This drowsiness

made Chen Yun's eyelids feel extraordinarily heavy, every corner of his body became powerless.

The next moment,

the world before his eyes darkened.

Chen Yun's body fell straight onto the bed.

············

When the not-too-blinding sunshine spilled onto Chen Yun's face,

The eyelids underneath fluttered instinctively.

The next moment,

Chen Yun opened his eyes.

What first caught his sight

was the window he had opened for ventilation the night before.

As the dancing curtains allowed the fresh air to pour in, Chen Yun gradually woke up.

Climbing up from the bed that still lacked its sheets and duvet cover, he looked towards the sky outside the window with some confusion.

The colors of the clouds changed from blue to purple, from purple to red, from red to gold, appearing like layers of silk interweaving light and shadow, transitioning hues.

The last rays of the sun fell upon the clouds, coloring them with patches of fire as if burning with their last passion to light up the earth.

At this moment,

it seemed as if one could truly comprehend what the colors in the clouds meant.

However, Chen Yun's attention wasn't on the beautiful scenery.

But rather on a bird flying past under the afterglow.

It was a tired bird heading back to its nest,

soaring with wings that flapped at a fatigued, low frequency.

All of this, Chen Yun saw with full clarity.

He understood······

This kind of vision was definitely not normal!

At least, not normal for him.

Without his glasses, even seeing a black dot would have been noteworthy,

let alone making out the specific appearance of a distant bird.

The grogginess from just waking up dissipated in an instant.

Realizing something was amiss,

Chen Yun took several deep breaths of fresh air.

Fumbling, he found his crumpled cellphone in his clothes and turned it on.

Ignoring the warning of the battery at three percent,

he subconsciously noticed the time displayed in the center of the screen.

[Lunar January 19th, afternoon, 6:34]

The nineteenth day of the first lunar month???

Afternoon???

Chen Yun blinked.

He felt he might have seen wrongly.

But a second look gave the same result.

His newly bizarre vision surely couldn't have made a mistake.

It was indeed the afternoon of Lunar January 19th.

And even as he was feeling perplexed, the time reached 6:35.

This filled Chen Yun's heart with questions.

He hadn't drunk any alcohol, nor taken any medication.

Had he really slept for twenty hours?

Entirely spending nearly a whole day asleep?

Although he had traveled all day yesterday, was he really that exhausted?

Numerous questions swirled in Chen Yun's mind.

What's happening to me?

In silence,

Chen Yun went straight to the large mirror in the bathroom.

The face reflected was still his own, but clearly etched with anxiety and confusion.

"Perhaps… I'm sick?"

He murmured,

the thought flashing through his mind.

A Baidu search started him off with cancer.

Chen Yun felt increasingly

that he might have contracted some strange disease that would be named after him.

After pondering for a moment, reason told him that going to the hospital was the best choice.

So, he headed to the small clinic at the entrance of his community as the dusk set in.

······

Half an hour later,

sitting in the elevator going back up to his home,

Chen Yun held a bag of nurturing eye drops and a bunch of vegetables and meat he had just bought at the Vegetable Market not far from the building.

He recalled what the doctor had said.

[It's not unusual to sleep twenty hours after being overworked.]

[As for your improved vision, no illness was observed.]

[It's likely that after a night's rest, your ciliary muscles have recovered to a relatively unfatigued state, and so your vision has become temporarily better.]

[So the preliminary diagnosis is visual fatigue. Don't look at your phone for long periods of time. Use the Tropicamide eye drops before bed for the next few days.]

Chen Yun only asked the doctor for a simple examination.

He chose not to undergo any in-depth tests with the equipment.

Because he faintly felt that his condition might be somewhat special.

And the doctor's answer was that there were no problems.

Sleeping for twenty hours occasionally wasn't strange.

Nor was the change in vision anything serious.

At least, a simple examination revealed no issues. He was just advised to take care of his eyes and use some nurturing eye drops.

The changes in his body didn't seem strange to him.

But...

He covered his chest with his hand, feeling a burning pulse.

Chen Yun always felt as if he were different from the inside out.

Perhaps the change in his vision wasn't temporary.

Perhaps he would experience more changes in the future.

He was deep in thought when,

"Ding dong!" a sound echoed.

The elevator stopped at the fifth floor.

A slightly overweight middle-aged man deftly squeezed in.

He was carrying a bottle of red wine.

He wore a British-style hat, which looked quite mismatched with the tight shirt he had on.

Chen Yun recognized this person.

He called himself Bai Shi.

He lived on the top floor of the building, on the sixth floor, and was Chen Yun's neighbor across the hall.

Because they often exchanged vegetables and fruits with each other,

Chen Yun had come to understand this peculiar fellow quite well.

One could say they were good friends.

Bai Shi would always make the trip to the fifth floor on foot before taking the elevator up to the sixth.

According to him,

Climbing stairs was to prevent the people on the first five floors from knowing which floor he lived on to protect his privacy.

Taking the elevator was because he paid the related fee and had the right to use it.

Besides that,

Bai Shi liked to quote famous sayings, loved to chatter, and enjoyed discussing conspiracy theories...

Overall,

In Chen Yun's eyes,

This guy was surely a peculiar character.

Chen Yun would occasionally engage in brief chats with him when they bumped into each other.

But today, because of the abnormality in his body,

Chen Yun didn't chat with this acquaintance and simply nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Then he silently waited for the elevator to ascend.

Within a few seconds, the elevator reached the sixth floor.

Just as the introspective Chen Yun stepped out of the elevator and arrived at his front door, he heard Bai Shi's voice from behind.

"Carl Heinrich once said, 'a persistent spirit can simplify things.'"

"Chen Yun, you went home for the New Year and came back with an even better figure. Such rational self-discipline is a rare quality to have."

Bai Shi gently lifted the front brim of his hat, revealing his forehead.

He started with a famous quote and then expressed his surprise with a touch of admiration.

Looking at Bai Shi's standard hat-tipping gesture,

And the words tinged with respect,

Chen Yun was stunned and subconsciously looked down at his belly.

He could see the outlines of muscles faintly visible through his clothes, where his previously round belly from back home should have been.

Huh?

That's not right.

Where did my little potbelly go?

Wasn't it there when I came home last night?

That was the evidence of my overeating during the New Year's feast!

Chen Yun's gaze also caught sight of strong lines on his arms and legs.

The abnormality left Chen Yun frozen in place.

Just half an hour ago, when he had just woken up, he rushed to the small clinic on the ground floor, claimed to be run by the sixth generation of a family of Chinese medicine practitioners, to seek medical advice.

Indeed, he hadn't paid attention to the changes in his body.

This change,

Also made Chen Yun stop dead.

If waking up from a twenty-hour sleep with improved vision could still be explained,

Then waking up without extra fat and turning into a handsome man was hardly normal.

The situation...

Seemed to be progressing in an unpredictable and peculiar direction.

His body,

Most likely underwent some incomprehensible changes.

Upon realizing this, Chen Yun's emotions became complex.

Almost at the moment he realized he was undergoing significant changes,

Chen Yun immediately began to recall and think about whether the changes in his body would be discovered.

He had only reached home at ten o'clock last night.

There were more people on the subway and at the airport.

But those who had really seen him with a potbelly were just strangers he met on his way home.

It probably didn't matter.

People from his hometown in Jiangnan Province did not know about his changes.

In Shucheng, those familiar people who had seen both his potbelly and handsome states didn't exist at all.

The time he spent going home for the New Year successfully paved the way for his changes,

Allowing Chen Yun not to worry about sudden transformations being suspected by acquaintances here in Shucheng.

Therefore,

Chen Yun breathed a sigh of relief.

After a brief pause,

His innate calmness brought him back to his senses.

Looking at Bai Shi, who had just finished tipping his hat and was slowly putting it back on his head,

Chen Yun responded, "Exercise is the foundation of life."

This phrase was taken as an acknowledgment of his fitness activities over the New Year's period.

After all, he couldn't say that he had transformed overnight.

Apart from how ridiculous that would sound, even if he did say it, others might not believe him.

"Goethe's words."

"You make me want to start working out now."

Bai Shi smiled faintly, habitually citing the origin of Chen Yun's quote.

This was a common scenario in the neighbors' exchanges.

They spiced up life by quoting famous sayings to each other.

Chen Yun would respect and even indulge Bai Shi's peculiar way of speaking.

After all, this was his wealthy neighbor who would occasionally bring him something.

With that,

They exchanged smiles and nodded at each other.

Then, Chen Yun quickly turned and opened his door, entering his apartment.

After confirming that the changes in his body would not be noticed,

He only wanted to go home to thoroughly investigate what other changes had occurred to him.

Meanwhile, Bai Shi frowned slightly while holding the bottle of red wine as he opened his door.

"Wine from Barolo should not be wasted."

"Let's drink today, and postpone the exercise for another day."

Licking his lips, Bai Shi stepped into his room.