2 Waking Up

Cheng Yan woke up gingerly, his last memories were of sitting in his office, slumped in his chair 'maybe someone found me and called an ambulance and I'm saved'. Cheng Yan lay there, relieved, he took a deep breath and savoured it, as the saying goes, 'you don't know how much something means to you until it's gone'. Cheng Yan had been terrified in his last wisps of memory and was overjoyed to find he was still alive. 'How will I ever pay for the operation if I'm dead eh?' he chided to himself. He could remember very little other than that he was saving for an operation for his Mother and that he had felt like he was dying at his workplace when he was working overtime.

He opened his eyes

'I was expecting a hospital ward or maybe even at my workplace, but I was not expecting this'. "Ehhhh" he exclaimed to himself as he sat up from the bed he was lying in and looked around. He lay on a large bed in a vast stone room, that had wonderful sheets and intricate design, the room was stone and there was a fireplace on the opposite side of the room from where he was lying as to keep the stone room warm.

'How did I get here? Why am I here?' Cheng yan thought to himself as he got up from the bed. As he was getting up, he realised something was wrong. 'my body movements feel weird, it's like I'm in someone else's body'. As he stood up he looked at his body and exhaled sharply. Previously he had been a Chinese man of about 175 centimetres tall with a thin frame. He wore glasses and could barely see without them. Yet when he stood up now, he saw pasty white hands, his belly was bulging and he was stiff in moving. He noticed he was significantly taller, about 185 centimetres tall, 'what's this about and why can I see without my glasses'

Cheng Yan saw a mirror on the other side of the room, he lumbered over in confusion as it took a lot of effort for him, which he was not expecting. Before Cheng Yan had not been exactly muscular or fit, but he was by no means overweight.

He looked in the mirror and almost fell over in shock.

The person looking back looked like a walrus, completely overweight.

The pasty skin was not just on his hands but all over his body, he was as white as a sheet of paper. He squinted at his faces as he realised it was young, about 18 years old, a face covered with acne and rather average considering.

Things then flashed into his head, information blurred in front of him and he tried to grasp and comprehend it in his mind. It came to him in broken pieces

'My name is Roland', he stumbled back to sit on the bed and think and recollect more information. 'My father is the count of this land'. 'I'm his failure of a son and am a laughing stock of the family'. 'My lifestyle is gluttonous and wasteful'. This was not what the previous Roland thought of himself, but as images of memories were passed to Cheng Yan's mind, this was how he perceived the memories that he was able to comprehend and process.

As Cheng Yan kept trying to process these memories, he found his head start to hurt, maybe it was too soon to be thinking so hard, he had almost died, or at least he thought he had until he turned up here.

Cheng Yan set some goals for himself. 'firstly I need to find out my situation here, who I am, because whilst I know certain facts such as that I am in a land where I am the son of the count, I have no idea where this land is, what language they speak. Next I need to find a way to return so I can get my mothers operation money.

As he wrinkled his forehead a bead of sweat started to form.

Suddenly he heard someone outside. They courteously knocked on the door and called inside.

At first Cheng Yan was extremely confused as he did not understand what was said, but as his brain recalled a memory, he realised that Roland knew this language and therefore he did. He realised the person had said "Young Master Roland may I enter the room". He called out loud enough so that the person outside could her "yes!" as he was sat on his bed and the door was thick, he raised his voice. He realised his voice sounded deep and guttural, common for people with great weight around their through muscles. He sighed inside 'I'm definitely going to have to lose this weight and it is going to be extremely annoying if I cannot'.

At this point Cheng Yan was overwhelmed and didn't know what to do, but from here on he would have to become Roland and control his fate from hereon.

Suddenly his mind became clear as he vowed 'I will definitely make it back, for my mothers sake, my sake and all the effort I put in for that operation.' Cheng Yan, who was flustered by his situation, rapidly changed his facial expression to one of concentration and focus.

It was at this moment of focus and concentration that he realised he was only wearing underwear which Roland had worn to bed and that he was practically naked as the person entered the room, he hurriedly got under the sheets as he looked to who entered.

A woman wearing a servants outfit slowly walked in the room with a bucket of water and a mop for cleaning floors. She said "normally I have to knock many times before you let me in in the morning to clean your room, how come you're up so early". This was clearly a servant with a certain amount of authority as otherwise they would dare not speak to a Count's son like that. As Cheng Yan looked at the face of the woman, it looked like she was weathered. Due to hard work she had grey hairs starting to form, but there was a hint of previous beauty that had been snatched away by a hard life. Cheng Yan, due to himself having an outsiders perspective realised that both the person he was and that woman had a similar resemblance. He quickly sifted through Roland's memories to see if he knew this woman was related to him, but it seemed he did not. But to Cheng Yan it was obvious, the servant was close family of his. 'But if she was related to Roland, why is she wearing a servants outfit?'.

Will refer to Cheng Yan as Roland from this point onwards.