Qing Transmigration: 4148

A transmigration story that brings together transmigrating bodily, the Inuyasha-style past-life-and-present-life trope, the Nobunaga Concerto trope, and an overabundance of classic melodrama.

Wei Yingsi is a modern university student who has just finished college and is about to start life as a wage slave. His knowledge of history comes from two TV dramas and his middle-school textbook, while his understanding of historical sites amounts to having visited and seen them. During a trip to the Tailing Mausoleum, he suddenly transmigrates bodily to the fifty-fifth year of the Kangxi era. In this world, Yinsi has been bedridden ever since he moved his residence. Wei Yingsi lands in the south and meets his fourteenth younger brother, Yinzhen, while he is on campaign. Wei Yingsi has not yet awakened his soul's memories, much like Kagome, and goes through all the usual transmigration-story antics while trying every possible way to return to the modern era. He concludes that perhaps he can go home only once the Tailing Mausoleum has been rebuilt. That face of his is so startling that it makes the Fourteenth Prince think he's a bug, and then the whole story turns into melodrama, so of course the two end up together. Along the way, there is a lethal dose of the "you remind me of him" trope, such as: Your tastes and habits are just like Eighth Brother's. Your ideas are so unconventional. Who are you, really?

As they spend time together, Wei Yingsi gradually grows close to Yinzhen. With a little help from the sort of chivalrous camaraderie you find in male-oriented stories, he improves their firearms, but not enough to make Yinsi give everything up and return to the modern world. The pitiful scraps of history in his head, together with what he sees firsthand in this era, tell him that the times are unlikely to move toward the rule of law, and that no one can change the course of history alone. He's also hopelessly ignorant of history: modern knowledge lets him improve weapons of war, but he has no idea what becomes of his good friend Yinzhen. Still, he needs to go to the Tailing Mausoleum to get home, so he has to stay with Yinzhen. The Fourteenth Prince isn't stupid. In their day-to-day interactions, he starts to vaguely suspect something, then decides the idea is too outrageous to be true. But this is a Nobunaga Concerto story wearing palace-drama clothes, so even though their crushing technological advantage lets them win the war early, various interruptions mean Yinzhen still returns to the capital on the original timeline.

The closer Wei Yingsi gets to the capital, the worse Prince Lian, who is bedridden there, becomes. The classic rule is that only one soul can exist in the same time and space. In the end, the Fourteenth Prince barges into the mourning hall. The night before, his memories had suddenly returned in full, as if he'd been given more than forty extra years of experience, and his mind was still reeling. But the younger brother with whom he'd made a pact in a past life, and the good friend he'd met during a bewildering time in this life, was there. When Yinzhen stubbornly refused to kneel and rushed forward, saying, "You should be the one kneeling," he silently dropped to his knees. The Fourth Prince saw his outfit and was stunned too. "Prince Lian died last night. Who are you?" With his memories overwhelming him, he fired back at the Fourth Prince. The Fourth Prince began to suspect he'd faked his death just to see the Fourteenth Prince. It could all be explained as melodrama, especially since the memories were real and the face was the same. So, at that moment, Wei Yingsi took the place of his former self and began following the historical timeline.

But the power of a middle-school history textbook, and the power of Yinsi's memories, were both too strong. Besides, with Yinzhen under arrest, Wei Yingsi couldn't keep himself from getting involved, even though he knew that those who understand the times are wise and that the dramas said Yinsi met a bad end. Drawing on the lessons of the late Qing, he tried to persuade the Fourth Prince whenever he could, even about things like the mosquito-bath torture. But he knew full well that the Fourth Prince didn't trust him and wouldn't take his advice. Disheartened, he began to follow the old historical path, while continuing to get caught up in all the melodrama. At last, Yinsi suddenly realized he couldn't go on like this: if he died before the Fourth Prince, he'd never return to the modern era. But it was already the third year of Yongzheng. Three years of relentless pressure and nine years of hard labor had been enough to turn a bright-eyed, naive college student into a ghost of feudal society. It was too late.

By then, forget bringing his younger brother back to the modern world with him; even his own life was in danger. So he became completely obedient, but everything in history still happened on schedule. In the end, at the Jiang family residence, he told the Fourth Prince, "Don't leave my body intact." The Fourth Prince replied, "Of course not. Prince Lian was already meant to be buried in secret at the Tailing Mausoleum." Then came more locked-room drama. Anyone who could become emperor wasn't a fool, and Yinzhen was especially formidable, so he figured out the relationship between Wei Yingsi and Yinsi in their past and present lives. His actions at the Tailing Mausoleum had caused Yinsi to transmigrate, and you could say he was fated to suffer through those ten years. At last, the fragile body of a recent graduate, even one belonging to a college student, couldn't take it any longer. He died on the original timeline. Wei Yingsi opened his eyes to see a security guard holding a flashlight. The guard grumbled, "Young man, how did you faint at the Tailing Mausoleum? Don't rush to get up. The ambulance will be here soon. You should go pray at a temple after this."

Since this is a gender-swapped palace drama, the Fourth Princess arrives in the twentieth year of Qianlong, and the Fourteenth Prince transmigrates there. After their historical mission is complete, the Tailing Mausoleum cracks open, just like in the Butterfly Lovers story. Then Wei Yingsi, back at work, runs into his awful boss, the Fourth Princess. I haven't figured out what happens next. I'll write it if I ever come up with something.

Theme: Be brave enough to be yourself