1.

The car worth a fortune slowly crawled to a stop and the driver at the front slowly said,"Young Master we are here, let me help you."

Drystan opened his eyes and glanced out of the tinted window of the car as he waited for the chauffeur to get out of the car. Beside him, Mrs. Lin spoke in a gentle whisper.

"A'Xiang must be tired. Let's go home, your dad, brothers and your sister are waiting for you. We have waited for this day for so long."

Drystan carefully nodded and got out of the car as the chauffeur opened the door. The driver cautiously supported him as he staggered prompting the original owner's mother to come to his side hastily.

"Careful A'Xiang!" The woman exclaimed. "You'll get hurt, don't exert your body too much. You are still weak."

Drystan nodded again, "Sorry mom."

The three people slowly walked to the huge mansion and the butler who'd been waiting quickly opened the door. The opened door revealed the sight of three men and a girl standing at the door anxiously awaiting their arrival.

"Sirs and Miss, Madam and Third Young Master have come."

Those words seemed to have triggered something in the standing people as their hasty steps approached the three new arrivals.

Father Lin said, "FenXiang."

"Xiao Xiang!" Came the anxious greeting of the two brothers.

"Gege!" The voice of the silently standing girl had just reached Drystan's ears before he barely had any time to prepare himself for the hug hurled at him by the little sister.

"Be careful, QingLan!" Mother Lin chided the girl. "Your brother has just returned, he's still weak."

"It's fine mom," Drystan (Lin FenXiang) interceded for her. "I can take as much."

"Don't be too confident, young man," Father Lin said. "The hospital has sent the reports to us."

"I'm glad you're safe Ge," QingLan's muffled voice sounded from the hug. "We were so scared when we got the news that you were shot. You looked so pale. I was so scared!"

The look in Father Lin's eyes became gentle as he agreed to his daughter.

"That's enough ah," The eldest son Lin ZhiHuang intervened in a cold voice. "Let Xiao Xiang go to his room and rest. He's discharged but he still needs to recuperate."

"Come with me Xiao Xiang, brother Yuan will take you to your room." The second eldest son, Lin FengYuan said whilst gently taking a hold of Drystan's arm afraid to use a lot of force.

He let himself be taken upstairs and laid in the bed by his elder brother, wondering how, he, an orphan, ended up in a family like this?

Lin FengYuan covered him with a lightweight quilt and said in a low voice, "Don't mind the commotion too much Xiao Xiang, you just rest and focus on getting better soon. I'll wake you up once the lunch's made. We'll take care of other things as well."

With that he poked Drystan's forehead finally and made his exit from Lin FenXiang's room.

His mind and heart still struggled to accept the fact that he'd not traversed through the time and space vortex but also reborn in another man's body.

Most important thing was that his beloved was most likely gone, he was dead as well.

That thought made tears well up in his eyes as Drystan proceeded to bury himself in the quilt and cry silently, despair clutching his heart.

Gone was he, whom Drystan loved so desperately.

Lin FenXiang (Drystan) woke up feeling bleary and staggered towards the bathroom of his room to take a bath and get a change of clothes.

He went to the closet and chose the simplest of the clothes hanging in there. He still had some difficulty in accepting his travel to the modern world but he would adapt slowly.

He grabbed a full sleeve white shirt and grey trouser to wear and went to the bathroom for a shower.

He'd have to admit that this modern world had many facilities and weird technologies including those wireless communication devices, what was it? Ah yes, smartphones.

Lin FenXiang entered the shower and turned the knob to get the lukewarm water for a bath he so badly needed.

The lukewarm water gently hit his tense body making him relax subconsciously as he let his thoughts free. Unknowingly, his tears flowed along with the water as he leaned his head against the cold wall of the shower.

Adrastus, Adrastus, Adrastus…

The name repeated in his mind over and over again as he trembled, shivering despite the warm vapours of the water. Stifled sobs poured from his throat as he cried, not for the loss of his life or his own death, but because of the pain of loss, loss of his beloved.

Adrastus Esmeray.

His lover, his muse and the source of his happiness, now his pain.

He didn't know how much time had passed since he entered the shower but he heard the sound of someone entering the room.

"Gege? Are you showering?" Lin QingLan asked. "Come down quickly, lunch is ready, let's eat together."

Oh god, he felt terrible. He felt like an imposter invading the private life of this family.

As the initial shock of traversing wore off he realised how fucked up this all was but what could he do?

He couldn't possibly go down and say that he wasn't Lin FenXiang; they'd take him for becoming muddle-headed or crazy.

He could only accept his fate and live his new life inspite of his loss.

He heard the sound of Lin QingLan leaving the room and minutes later he got out of the shower, wearing the grey trouser and bare torso while drying his hair using the soft towel.

Drystan– no, Lin FenXiang draped the towel on his shoulder and stood in front of the foggy mirror to examine his face. He gently swiped his hand against the mirror and cleaned off the vapour stuck on it.

With the vapour gone, he could now check his face in peace.

The face sullenly staring at the mirror 70% matched his original appearance while the remaining 30% was oriental enough for others to not feel strange. The combination was outstanding.

The Lin family genes were something else, really. In his previous life, he thought he looked handsome enough. But his current face was really good.

It had a mixed race feeling.

He himself was a mixed race person in his previous life, his mother was of Russian-Japanese descent while his father was of British descent, so he, although inherited most of his looks from his paternal descent, had faint asian touch to his face.

The face in the mirror wasn't pretty or beautiful, it was very handsome, leaning more towards the depth in facial features of Europeans than towards the softness of Asians.

His skin was fair and smooth which honestly was strange as the body he inhibited was of a soldier and he could at least be tanned a little, right?

Sure the body built was tall and was lined with toned muscles. It wasn't buff or anything but was more like the body of martial artists he'd seen in his previous life. But it wasn't tanned, maybe it was the body constitution.

He shrugged and wore his shirt as he walked out of the bathroom.

He glanced at the dressing table in the corner but made no move towards it. He might have gotten the memories of the original owner but he wasn't used to this modern world and wasn't about to take any risk using its technology.

Lin FenXiang picked up his watch from the nightstand, put it on and exited the room.

The dining room was strangely silent, completely unlike the abuzz state of the house just this morning.

The people sitting at the table were silent and looked tense as if waiting for a calamity.

Lin FenXiang cocked an eyebrow and took the empty chair beside Lin ZhiHuang. He glanced at the chopsticks before directing his gaze towards the family.

He could tell at a glance that they wanted to tell him something.

Remembering the taciturn and cold personality of the original owner, he said nothing at first and just stared at Lin FengYuan until the man broke out in sweat.

"So?" He asked.

Lin ZhiHuang cleared his throat to garner his attention as the others already had their's on him.

"Right, Xiao Xiang, we are glad you're back safe and sound," Lin ZhiHuang said. "We plan to host a banquet to celebrate your return…"

"But before that we've something we want you to know," Lin FengYuan continued. "Xiao Xiang, as you know that you were in vegetative state for sometime, half a year to be exact, in the past, the government officials and the doctors had no hope for your awakening. So they–"

"So those bastards wanted to replace you!" Lin QingLan cut in. "So they gave us an alternative that either you resign or your position will be forcibly given to someone else, of course you couldn't resign while unconscious! They took advantage of that and planned to demote your post to something of lesser importance but we didn't agree. Instead of them taking your hard work, we had them acquiesce to your early retirement and relieve you of your duty with honour!"

"So now you no longer need to report to the military headquarters as the Captain of your team," Father Lin added smoothly, cutting short QingLan's passionate rant.

Mother Lin started, "A'Xiang we know you love your duty and worked hard to reach that position but try to understand, we did this for you. We are sorry for taking away your duty from you..."

"I understand mom," Lin FenXiang interjected.

Rather than depressing, it was more of a relief for him, an artist, that the original owner wasn't a military personnel any longer. He didn't have a lick of qualities necessary to lead a team, much less a whole fleet.

He was an artist not a general. He was a good fighter, hand-to-hand combat was his suit and he knew how to use swords and blades but he wasn't a good leader for the battlefield.

And so, he was more than grateful to hear that he didn't need to take up the original owner's duty.

"A'Xiang don't be discouraged, with your qualifications you can do anything else or directly join the company!" Mother Lin wrangled her hands anxiously, taking his silence as his sadness.

"Don't worry mom, it's fine I don't mind." Lin FenXiang answered calmly. "I don't want to enter the company for now. I want to take a break for a while then start anew."

All the Lin family members looked at each other worriedly before nodding.

"Alright Xiao Xiang, as you wish," Lin ZhiHuang took a deep breath. "If you need anything ask your brothers, we'll give you whatever you want."

"You are really good, Lin ZhiHuang," Father Lin scoffed. "You think I cannot provide him?"

"No, it's not that father," Lin ZhiHuang waved his hands. "I didn't mean it like that!*

"Oh."

"Calm down two of you," Lin FengYuan spoke up. "Don't you see how Xiao Xiang is looking at you?"

Lin FenXiang, who didn't do anything, "..."

"Ah yes!" Mother Lin started. "A'Xiang should eat a lot all these dishes are your favourite. Look at you all skin and bones you've become!"

Saying so, Mother Lin quickly filled his bowl and urged him to eat. Lin FenXiang could only stop her before she could pile up the food in the plate and eat slowly, savouring the taste.

In the end, he only ate a little bit because the body wasn't used to eating after being in vegetative state for half a year.

"Xiao Xiang, decide what you want to do in future, we will unconditionally support you in whatever you do." Lin FengYuan looked at him as he spoke.

Lin FenXiang felt his heart warm up at his words and the family’s concern. He nodded, "Mn."

Maybe, maybe he could try for the sake of this family.

Are you happy now, love. I got the family you always said I deserved.