Chapter 2 I am Zhou Xiao

  Regaining consciousness once again from a coma.

  This time, he thoroughly became that Zhou Xiao from 2014.

  Looking at the calendar hanging on the wall, Zhou Xiao was quite disheartened.

  May 7, 2000

  Zhou Xiao has been here since 2014, a whole 14 years have passed.

  And his age also changed from 20 years old at the end of the year to 17 years old in the rainy season.

  What a pity, in this rainy season, there are only shriveled bellies, but no flower-like girls.

  In Zhou Xiao's mind, there was not only the memories of Japan's Zhou Xiao, but also another pile of things.

  But this matter should be traced back to China Zhou Xiao's previous life.

  Zhou Xiao, a so-called half-film and television industry insider, actually can't compose music or sing songs, nor can he act. His job is mainly to do the initial editing and preliminary scoring for promotional videos of various TV dramas and TV stations. In this regard, he is neither the initiator nor the final decision-maker of these videos. His work lies between these two extremes. Usually, he does the most tedious and boring part of these jobs, such as finding and copying materials, selecting shots, and initial editing. This job requires low technical skills, but each task takes a long time, making it very dull and boring. Therefore, Zhou Xiao's monthly salary is barely enough to keep him alive.

  While Zhou Xiao had another identity outside of this, an identity that would have been unimportant if he hadn't crossed over to Japan. His crazy infatuation with AKB48 and other idols aside, he was... the owner and administrator of a website focused on the Japanese entertainment industry. In his rented house, there were two computers: one for personal use, and the other served as the server for the website.

  Because the website's traffic is not very large, this computer serving as a server does not have any surprisingly exaggerated configuration. The only thing that might be worth noting is perhaps the computer's hard drive, with four hard drives totaling 8TB of capacity storing various videos and materials. AKB48 and Morning Musume etc idol groups' concerts, Arashi and other Johnny's artists' videos and materials, many years' hit dramas, hundreds of Japanese artists' concerts, thousands of variety shows, nearly ten thousand songs... It can be said that these 8TB of things are a comprehensive encyclopedia of the Japanese entertainment industry in recent years.

  In the early 2014, on that night, Zhou Xiao was maintaining the normal operation of the website in front of the computer as usual. Because he had been doing it for several hours continuously, Zhou Xiao felt a bit tired and stretched his waist, but he didn't think that this move would accidentally knock over the water cup beside him.

  Computers are most afraid of water, in the chaos, Zhou Xiao actually attempted to stretch out his hand to block the water from spilling down, but he didn't notice that at a certain moment, the flowing water connected the computer and his hand together.

  In an instant, electric current coursed through his body in several circles. Finally, Zhou Xiao fell to the ground, along with the computer that was emitting a burst of smoke.

  When she woke up again, it was already in Japan. Zhou Xiao found that in her mind, apart from the memories of that Japanese boy, there were other things left behind. These things were exactly the 8TB worth of website data!

  Zhou Xiao was well aware that this was a fortune worth a city, especially in Japan. These things might be able to earn Zhou Xiao everything he wanted. Moreover, these things might even make his dreams come true!

  It's only just the year 2000, and there are still at least five and a half years to go before AKB is born. As he flips through the vast resources in his mind, Zhou Xiao thinks that perhaps the name of the father of AKB won't necessarily be placed on Yasushi Akimoto's head!

  And those goddesses who were once their heart's desire... Ma Yili, Yu Uncle, even Nagisa Kasumi, Kitagawa Keiko... Just thinking of a beginning, Zhou Xiao's moral integrity already has the ominous sign of being about to be deducted!

  But for Zhou Xiao, those things were all uncertain futures, and the only thing he could confirm now was that his stomach was very hungry...

  What Zhou Xiao didn't know was that in the history he hadn't crossed over from, after leaving his parents in 2000, Zhou Xiao stubbornly refused to ask his parents for even a single yuan. In this state, with 100,000 yuan in hand and having to spend 50,000 yuan every month on rent, Zhou Xiao ultimately died alone and stubbornly of starvation in the rental house.

  He got up from the tatami, and this room was only about ten square meters in size. The small kitchen in the corner was covered with dust everywhere. At a glance, the owner was completely unable to cook. Zhou Xiao flipped through it, and there were only a dozen grains of rice left in the rice bag. As for vegetables and meat, they were even more scarce, and the only thing with flavor was just a small bag of salt.

  "It's really... can't lift the lid anymore." Zhou Xiao couldn't help but think.

  In the kitchen, Zhou Xiao couldn't find anything to eat, so she shifted her attention to herself, clothes, pants, and every corner of her memory. She rummaged through all possible places and found a total of... thirty yuan. However, this chaotic search wasn't entirely fruitless, as Zhou Xiao unexpectedly found a girl's lace underwear outside the window.

  Zhou Xiao wiped that small piece of cloth on his face, which looked quite strange. His residence was on the first floor of a two-story building, so this little thing might belong to some girl from upstairs.

  In China in 2000, thirty yuan could last for a week if you were careful with your spending. However, in Japan in 2000, the same amount of money would be equivalent to only a few jiao (a small unit of currency) in Chinese renminbi.

  You know, if you go out to a restaurant, even the cheapest bowl of ramen will cost 300 yen.

  "This...this time I'm really going to starve to death." Zhou Xiao couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

  Ask parents for money? After seeing this situation, Zhou Xiao's first reaction was this, but it seemed to be because the previous soul of this body had not yet dispersed cleanly. As soon as Zhou Xiao thought of this possibility, he felt a hint of resistance from the deepest part of his soul.

  "But if I don't take the money, I'll really starve to death......" Zhou Xiao's rationality was also resisting the kind of rejection deep in her soul.

  "Ringing...ringing...ringing..." Just as Zhou Xiao was struggling, a phone call interrupted his thoughts.

  With great difficulty, Zhou Xiao managed to dig out her phone from the corner, and on its black and white screen, she saw the words "Mr. Ijou" written on it.

  "Inoue?" In Zhou Xiao's mind, a middle-aged man's figure quickly emerged.

  This slightly balding middle-aged man in memory is the manager of a theater called ōkawa Geinō Shōgekijō in Tokyo, and this theater is located in Nakano-ku, Tokyo, where Zhou Xiao currently rents a room. In the expensive land of Tokyo, Nakano-ku is also considered a good location, which is why the small house that Zhou Xiao lives in, with an estimated history of over 50 years, can collect 50,000 yuan in rent per month.

  "Mr. Inoue, hello." Zhou Xiao pressed the receive button and said in Japanese. As a Japanese, Zhou Xiao naturally speaks fluent Japanese, and 14 years ago, Chinese Zhou Xiao also spoke Japanese, after all, he was running a website related to Japan. However, Chinese Zhou Xiao's Japanese, especially his spoken language, wasn't very good. But now, after the two people's memories merged, this problem no longer existed.

  "Zhou Xiao ah, this afternoon's performance, don't forget to come, I've already reserved time for you, a full 20 minutes, prepare several more segments." said middle-aged manager Inoue.

  "Huh? But... oh, no, never mind, I... I understand, okay, I'll get ready to go over there, thank you." Zhou Xiao's initial reaction when he first heard that there would be a performance in the afternoon was to instinctively want to refuse. In his memory, Japanese Zhou Xiao had done a solo manzai performance at the theater, but switching to China, solo manzai was equivalent to single-person xiangsheng. It meant standing alone on stage telling jokes and funny stories to entertain the audience below. As a dead otaku boy, Chinese Zhou Xiao's greatest weakness in life was performing in front of people. How could he possibly be good at this kind of thing?

  But after hesitating for a moment, why didn't he refuse? Because that moment of hesitation made him think about the situation after the performance. You see, Zhou Xiao, who had just started out as a comedian, could hardly find any work at all. And this small theater job was almost the most anticipated thing in his daily life. Why is that? It's simple: because you can earn money by performing! For 20 minutes of performance, Zhou Xiao could earn 5,000 yen! Don't underestimate this 5,000 yen; if you can earn it every day, that means you can earn 150,000 yen in a month! The average monthly salary for a Japanese office worker is about 300,000 yen, but this amount isn't just for the office worker to spend themselves. Don't forget that most Japanese women are full-time housewives; 300,000 yen is enough to support an entire family's income. For someone like Zhou Xiao who is single and struggling to make ends meet, 150,000 yen would be more than enough to get by for a whole month!