This slap wasn’t naively meant to wake himself from a dream, but rather to clear his head so he could continue dreaming properly.

Since I’m here, I might as well settle in.

Brian Carter could only comfort himself this way.

“Knock knock knock... knock knock knock...”

The bathroom door was knocked on, accompanied by Mina’s concerned call:

“Karen gege, Karen gege, are you alright?”

Mina is his cousin, the daughter of his uncle Mason.

And the body Brian Carter now inhabits also has a name—Karen.

“I’m fine,” Brian Carter replied.

“Okay.” Outside the door, Mina let out a long sigh of relief, then asked, “In a bit, I’ll bring your breakfast to your room.”

“No need, Mina, I’ll come down to eat later.”

Mina outside the door sounded a bit surprised, but quickly said:

“Alright, gege.”

Brian Carter continued to stare at himself in the mirror, picked up a cold towel, and covered his flushed face.

He used to be a psychologist with his own private clinic in Jinling City, and also worked part-time as a psychological consultant for the police department.

During a hostage kidnapping case, he went as a negotiator to talk with the kidnapper, but something went wrong midway. The kidnapper tried to push the little girl hostage off the rooftop. He rushed forward and pulled the girl back, but ended up falling himself and immediately lost consciousness.

It felt like he had been having strange dreams for a long time.

When he finally woke up and opened his eyes, Brian Carter was shocked to find that he wasn’t lying in a hospital ICU, and the people around his bed weren’t doctors, but a group of... “foreign friends.”

The eldest among them was his grandfather—Dennis Ingram.

He was his eldest grandson. When he saw him wake up, there was relief in his eyes... but also an indescribable, ambiguous look.

An uncle over forty—Mason—looked happy.

Aunt Mary, Mason’s wife, smiled first, then her face darkened, and after that, she smiled again.

Another older woman was his aunt Winnie, who was so happy she cried.

There were also three children, the children of his uncle and aunt—his cousins—fourteen-year-old Mina and thirteen-year-old Grant, and another, his aunt Winnie’s daughter, thirteen-year-old Grace.

As for Brian Carter... no, as for Karen himself, his parents had both passed away a few years ago.

That’s the makeup of this family.

Brian Carter switched to a hot towel and covered his face again. After a long while, he tossed the towel aside.

For half a month since waking up, he had spent most of his time lying in bed. On one hand, his body was indeed very weak; on the other, he needed time to digest the memories of “Karen.”

Digesting memories was a strange thing. It didn’t cause any conflict or confusion between his own and the original owner’s memories. The original owner’s memories felt more like files stored in a bookshelf or a computer document to Brian Carter;

He was still Brian Carter, but when needed, he could search and quickly retrieve “Karen”’s memories.

In short,

Since things are like this,

He had to face life bravely.

Brian Carter had already prepared himself mentally, ready to face his second life with a positive attitude.

He pushed open the bathroom door. The family’s black cat, called “Paul,” was lazily sunbathing on the windowsill. When it saw Karen, it naturally turned its head toward the window again, its every movement full of feline pride.

Brian Carter paused,

Took a deep breath,

And murmured:

“From today on, I am Karen.”

...

Karen walked down the stairs, from his third-floor room to the second floor.

The Immerlaus family lived at 13 Mink Street, West District, Roja City, in a detached villa with a large garden.

By the standards of his previous life, even if Mink Street wasn’t in the very center of Roja City, it was definitely within the second ring.

Just imagine, in a second-tier city in the future, owning a detached villa not in the suburbs...

In his previous life, Karen only dared to dream of a townhouse, not even a semi-detached.

This was something he was quite grateful for now. After all, if you’re going to transmigrate... it’s much more comfortable to land in a family with good conditions;

If he had transmigrated into a little match-selling boy,

Oh, God, that would have been real suffering.

The Immerlaus family’s kitchen and dining room were on the second floor, while the first floor was the work area.

Yes, this was a “company,” or rather, a “family workshop.” This villa was both the family’s home and one of their means of production.

This family was in the “funeral” business, with a sign that read “Immerlaus Deceased Care Company.”

Grandfather was the boss. In both family life and company operations, his word was law. He also served as the priest at the small church at the end of Mink Street.

Uncle Mason originally worked at the stock exchange. Aunt Mary was once a fairly well-known makeup artist in the industry, specializing in doing makeup for celebrities, and had even played minor roles in a few small films.