Uncle Hikigaya is Forever Young [2]

But when she heard the word "Mama"—which should’ve been filled with warmth and care—the little girl kneeling beside him trembled slightly, as if it were some forbidden phrase. Her small body shivered, and her bright eyes immediately dimmed.

She quickly lowered her head, struggling hard to suppress her sobbing, desperately forcing herself to calm down.

But her tiny fingers grasped even harder onto her father's leg…

Something definitely happened here…! Lin Zhe thought.

Lin Zhe was actually quite calm about the whole "transmigration" thing. After all, he wasn’t some naive high school student. He was already a thirty-year-old corporate slave back home. No wife, no house—honestly, surviving at all in this new situation was already a net gain.

Besides, he'd spent years immersed in the so-called "Transmigrator Training Center," and knew all the standard routines by heart.

Wait, what did that boy just say?

You'll definitely find another job"

So, he'd lost his job? Wasn’t this starting point a bit too harsh…?

Forget it. Even if I still had a job, I’m probably not capable of working right now anyway, Lin Zhe thought glumly, but quickly brushed it off.

He retained all his memories and skills from his previous life, but knew nothing about this new body he found himself in.

Better hurry and figure out this new identity. Hell, he didn’t even know his new name yet!

...

Lin Zhe—citizen of China. Sure, the name was a little weird, but he was a good guy! After transmigration, he’d changed his map and nationality.

Thankfully his brain was still normal, not some indescribable existence. Otherwise, suicide would’ve been his only option.

After finishing yet another soul-crushing overtime shift, his vision had suddenly blacked out.

When he woke up again, he found himself in a dilapidated household of three, without even a female owner, having transformed into a greasy, unemployed, failed middle-aged man in his thirties named “Hikigaya Ryōhei.”

Honestly, this wasn’t that hard to accept—Lin Zhe wasn’t exactly a fresh-faced twenty-year-old himself.

Speaking of which, this era wasn’t some future timeline as he'd initially thought, but rather an entirely different dimension from his original world. For now, all he knew was that World Wars I and II had never happened here. Everything else remained unclear, as there hadn’t been enough time yet to gather information.

This man had just experienced the holy trifecta of misfortune—divorce, job loss, and sudden bankruptcy that had landed him in the hospital.

If divorce and unemployment were still barely manageable, then buying a two-story, two-hundred-square-meter house at the peak of the market had truly been the final straw.

The thick stack of paperwork beside his bed told Lin Zhe that the extravagant property that ultimately crushed this man had been purchased just a year ago. As a necessity-turned-investment, the shocking price tag alone made him—a freshly reincarnated soul—click his tongue.

But this man had been an experienced white-collar worker in the IT industry, even owning stock dividends. Under normal circumstances, with his high salary, selling off the previous smaller home and using savings accumulated over more than a decade, the hefty down payment and monthly mortgage payments (difficult for ordinary people) wouldn't have been a big deal, even leaving some surplus.

However, last month, his wife, Hikigaya Kazusa, suddenly divorced him, citing "emotional incompatibility." Immediately afterward, he was laid off during the internet industry's cold winter. Unable to find a comparable job due to a sharp drop in income and industry stagnation, his credit rating tanked, leaving him unable to cover the mortgage.

At this point, he still had the house—selling it should've solved everything.

But even more miserably, the economic downturn that followed the tech crash made it impossible to quickly liquidate the property.

He could only watch helplessly as the house depreciated day by day, unable even to pay the monthly mortgage.

Originally, he still had some savings—but for some unfathomable reason, this Hikigaya Ryōhei had given nearly all his cash to his ex-wife during the divorce settlement.

This was peak simping at its finest!!!

...

A string of such insane choices and historical circumstances followed:

The property's value nearly dropped below the initial down payment; debts to the bank didn't shrink at all. Even selling the house couldn’t cover his debts now.

Not to mention, in a falling market, finding a fool willing to buy it was nearly impossible.

From the news, he'd seen Tokyo Tower recently sealed off due to lines of people waiting their turn to jump off.

At least this Hikigaya hadn't jumped. However, on a sunny afternoon when the bank finally repossessed his house, he'd clutched his heart and felt genuine, piercing agony.

Then came the acute heart problem that landed him straight in the ICU, utterly exhausting his last remaining savings.

Thankfully, he had a tough constitution—just two or three days in the ICU, and he was out, avoiding more crushing debt.

But perhaps finding life meaningless, this Hikigaya Ryōhei had decided to take a leap of faith from the second floor of a cheap rented apartment. He ended up caught by a crooked tree branch—after which Lin Zhe arrived to inherit this mess.

Still, one had to admit this uncle was pretty impressive. He’d been an industry elite, his yearly income considered top-tier even in Tokyo. His only mistake was believing those damned media and immoral "experts" who claimed property prices would rise forever.

Now his former house had been confiscated by the evil banks through a stack of documents filled with professional jargon. Thankfully, the house covered the debts, sparing him jail time. Yet, more than a decade of toil was now ashes—back to poverty overnight.

That's why he'd woken up in this cheap, twenty-square-meter one-room apartment (with a tiny attached kitchen and bathroom).

Whether divorce, job loss, or the near-miss with an overpriced house, none of these felt very real to Lin Zhe. After all, he’d replaced the guy—the past could stay buried.

A teenage boy and a little girl were easy enough to fool; had his former wife, Hikigaya Kazusa, been here instead, she would’ve quickly spotted that her husband had been swapped out—or she'd just think he’d lost his mind.

The name "Hikigaya Kazusa" gave Lin Zhe an inexplicable feeling of déjà vu. Some clues floated vaguely in his head, but slipped away when he tried to grasp them.

But the most urgent issue now: he had two unlucky kids—one big, one small—to feed.

From now on, he’d have to live as "Hikigaya Ryōhei."

People have to look forward. Perhaps someday, the name "Lin Zhe" would fade quietly from memory.

...

Two days passed. The new "Hikigaya Ryōhei" had more or less grasped his situation.

Thanks largely to Hikigaya Komachi. Perhaps thoroughly frightened by her father's impulsive suicide attempt, lately she’d become like an adorable little cotton jacket, sticking close to his bedside all day long, chattering endlessly, trying to make her “father” happy.

The children of poor families really matured early.

"Komachi, how much money do we still have at home? Papa’s head hurts a bit—I can’t seem to remember," Hikigaya Ryōhei asked the increasingly obedient black-haired girl with a gentle smile that afternoon.

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This is a fan translation of 比企谷大叔永远年轻 by Stargazer All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!