"Did you find a job?"
Just back home after wandering outside, Lynch looked at his girlfriend who was cooking and shook his head apologetically.
His girlfriend was neither disappointed nor overly emotional, as if... not being able to find a job was very normal.
Lynch tried to avoid verbal communication, afraid that the woman sleeping beside him every day would notice his abnormality.
His girlfriend walked with a slightly deformed frying pan to the shaky paint-stripped wooden table, placed a fried egg on a plate of minced meat, and then sat down.
"Don't think too much, I still have some money here. Maybe you'll find a job tomorrow. Let's eat first!"
Lynch nodded and began to enjoy the not-so-delicious dinner.
The fork pierced the slightly solid layer of the egg, with the yolk thickly flowing over the chunks of minced meat, like a natural seasoning or some kind of sauce, making the meat more appealing.
He ate mechanically, while thinking about other things.
He had traveled through time. He didn't know the scientific principle or any reasons, but he had traveled through time.
Before the time travel, he did many jobs—a courier, insurance salesman, waiter, part-time cook... .
He did many inconspicuous small jobs over thirty years before a huge change occurred after he turned thirty.
He later said that he spent the first thirty years accumulating experience, and then with passion and eloquence persuaded the Judge successfully...
Then, when he first slept in that cramped room, planning to publish a memoir recalling his legendary life, he gradually drifted into sleep and traveled through time.
Once he traveled, he appeared in this home. The owner of this body just happened to be named Lynch as well, but this was a different world with no relation to the "past life".
He had nothing except a girlfriend.
He currently resembled the most failed sort of societal trash—living off his girlfriend, relying on his girlfriend, and besides helping his girlfriend with some troubles at night, he was like a parasite.
These days, he always used the excuse of going out to look for a job to roam around. This world gave him an indescribable sense of novelty.
It felt like the forties or fifties, or the fifties or sixties—technology wasn't too advanced, yet simultaneously in a period of technological explosion.
Many products constantly appeared in front of the public, dazzling people. On the street, he saw the slogan on a promotional poster—"Airei's Generation, a touch of Anudai".
To him, this world, this society, money was everywhere, just waiting for him to bend down and pick it up.
His blood was subtly boiling, his heart becoming strong and vigorous, with a deep-seated yearning within him. He was convinced that there was a reason for his travel.
Perhaps, something brought him here so he could leave behind his own Legend!
"Go put the hot water, we'll bathe tonight...", his girlfriend said while cleaning up the dishes.
Lynch nodded, stood up, and walked towards the bathroom not far away, casually asking, "We just bathed yesterday...".
During the time since he traveled, he discovered that he and his girlfriend had very clear life plans, not completely chaotic.
The current weather wasn't hot or cold, and if there was no intense exercise, it wouldn't be easy to sweat, so bathing daily wasn't necessary.
It's not that people were unwilling to clean themselves every day; it's just that washing clothes and heating water required payment.
Wealthy people didn't mind such little money; they'd even install a boiler in their home for heating and potentially buy a washing machine for convenient laundry.
But for poor people, these were unnecessary and burdensome expenses, thus their lives had to be scheduled.
Calculating every expense meticulously and observing a monk-like routine to save every penny—that's their life.
It's not that they wanted a routine, but more because of poverty.
His girlfriend turned to the sink, opened the valve, and rinsed the dishes. "After midnight, our hot water stops; wait until we pay the bill next week, this way we can save some."
Lynch shrugged and walked into the bathroom, turning on the valve. After draining the initial cold water, steaming hot water flowed through the pipes.
After bathing, the two lay on the cramped bed and soon drifted into sleep.
Lynch's girlfriend worked at the Supermarket as a cashier, working ten hours a day, including an hour of break.
She frequently brought home soon-to-expire or expired foods from the supermarket, or cheap living supplies, which is why they could manage even though only one of them was working.
Both attended the same high school but didn't get into college. Lynch worked temporarily as a worker but later quit due to the job's exhaustion.
Catherine, hence his girlfriend, later found the supermarket job and kept it.
This was a typical family of failures. Neither Lynch nor Catherine knew how much longer their lives could be sustained.
Perhaps they could last until the day they walked into the marriage hall, then barely maintain throughout their lives.
But they could also end this fragile relationship and bond at any moment due to an emotional burst.
Early the next morning, Lynch freshened up briefly, Catherine had left, leaving a box of cereal rings and a bottle of milk on the table.
He walked to the cabinet, poured the milk into a pot to heat it, and casually checked the expiration date, unsurprisingly finding it was two days expired.
Such milk in the supermarket would directly be disposed of, tossed into the trash bin, yet many supermarket employees would gladly endure long hours and low wages just to work there.
What they valued were these free items.
The rich fragrance of milk was somewhat intoxicating, Lynch was used to soaking things in hot milk, while Catherine and others preferred directly soaking, which felt unpleasant.
After breakfast, he tidied up his appearance and stopped at a corner not far from where they rented.
He hadn't exactly done nothing these days, not referring to job searching here, rather contemplating from where to procure his first amount of money.
Though this world was completely different from another world, some developments were still traceable.
For example, knowing that land underfoot would be worth gold in a hundred years, knowing the annual inflation of art prices, knowing...
Standing in Lynch's position made everyone feel a sense of ambition, for most could grasp the pulse of the future.
But despite that, most ambitions remained just ambitions. They wouldn't be realized because now isn't the future, nor does anything come without capital.
Where does capital come from?
This thing doesn't fall from the sky, nor float from floods. In truth, even with a chance to return to the past, many wouldn't change their lives at all.
Some might, but it would be limited, maybe buying one or two more houses and then staring at double the assets than in their past life when old, which wasn't what they initially imagined.
Some are destined to dictate fate; for others, even with opportunity, they are powerless.
Clearly, Lynch was the former. He possessed all necessary qualities. He had been successful, which was the decisive key.
He stood there, watching a laundromat across the street for the whole morning, scribbling in a notebook. He was earning his first bucket of gold.
Nearing noon, as street traffic waned, two trench-coated men blocked their way, one with his hand inside his coat, seemingly gripping something.
"Mr. Fox wants to see you, friend!"
These two were clearly not good people. Of course, Lynch might have thought too much. At that moment, he showed no fear, instead smiling, "I've been waiting for you several days, so why wait? Lead the way!"