Your Highness, the kingdom cannot go even a single day without its sovereign.

"The prince is awake!"

In a hospital room, several people gathered around a young man lying on the bed, asking with great concern, "Prince Tarek, are you feeling any better?"

Li Daniu awoke from a drunken stupor to find himself surrounded by several white men. He was instantly bewildered, especially since these men were speaking to him non-stop.

"I don't speak English," was Li Daniu's immediate thought, wanting to tell these white men he couldn't understand them. Yet before he could speak, he realized, to his astonishment, that he could actually comprehend everything they were saying.

What was going on? Li Daniu could clearly hear that the language spoken was definitely not Chinese. Drawing on his experience with hundreds of Hollywood films, he was sure they were speaking English. But why could he understand?

As a native-born Chinese, Li Daniu's only exposure to English was reading a few texts in school and memorizing some forgotten vocabulary for exams. Though a university graduate, he had never managed to pass the CET-4 English exam.

Before he could think further about why he could suddenly understand English, Li Daniu noticed the men all referring to him as "Prince," specifically "Prince Tarek."

"Could it be that my long-lost parents have finally found me? My real name is Tarek? I'm actually a prince?" Li Daniu nearly burst into tears. "My hardships are finally over! Who cares about being a second-generation rich kid? I'm royal!"

As visions of luxury cars, beautiful women, private yachts, and other scenes he once only dreamed of flashed through his mind, Li Daniu couldn't help but give himself a hard slap.

It hurt!

Thinking through the pain, Li Daniu was elated: "This isn't a dream, it's real! Haha... I'm returning as a king. Cuihua, you have no idea what you've missed!"

The white men were startled by Li Daniu's sudden act of self-harm and fell silent.

"Prince Tarek, are you all right?" an older man asked cautiously. "We all know that the passing of His Majesty the King and the Queen has brought you great sorrow. But it is precisely for this reason that you must pull yourself together and proceed quickly with the coronation. The country cannot go a day without a ruler."

Li Daniu's fantasies were abruptly shattered by these words.

"The King and Queen have died? And I must ascend the throne?" Just moments ago, he had been worried about meeting parents he'd never known; now things were moving so fast he could barely keep up.

"Your Highness, we've already arranged for you to take a leave of absence from university. Though Harvard is one of the world's greatest institutions, our nation truly needs you," another added.

Li Daniu, trying to look suitably mournful, was stunned by this latest revelation.

"Leave of absence? Harvard University?"

He hadn't even noticed that he was now speaking English himself. His mind was full of question marks.

Had he graduated years ago? Did his little-known Chinese university have a nickname like Harvard? Was he just deluding himself?

Li Daniu looked around blankly. It was clearly a private hospital room, somewhat luxurious, with facilities nothing like those back home. Outside the window, several tall buildings bore large English signs.

Taking a deep breath, Li Daniu tried to recall last night’s events.

Because Cuihua, the woman he liked, was getting married—and not to him—he had bought a bottle of Erguotou and a packet of peanuts, returned to his rented room, and drank alone in sorrow.

Though his name sounded masculine, Li Daniu was in fact a homebody of less-than-average constitution, with a low tolerance for alcohol. He had no idea whether he'd even finished the bottle.

So, the question remained.

How had he ended up abroad after getting drunk? He had never handled a visa or passport in his life. How could he understand English? He certainly didn't buy the idea that watching Hollywood movies had miraculously taught him the language—if learning worked like that, he ought to be fluent in Japanese.

Raising his hands, Li Daniu looked them over carefully. They were not his own.

It was a contradictory thought, but it was the truest thing he felt.

Had he crossed over into another body?

Just a moment ago, he had been disappointed that his long-lost royal parents hadn't appeared. Now the excitement was overwhelming.

Ignoring the men beside the bed, Li Daniu threw off the covers, got out of bed barefoot, and rushed into the bathroom.

Staring at the unfamiliar face in the mirror, he slapped himself again. The mirror perfectly reflected his dramatic gesture.

Smack!

He grew even more excited—this time, the pain was sharper.

What could be luckier than transmigrating? Li Daniu could answer with certainty: transmigrating to become a soon-to-be-crowned king!

And what could be luckier than that? Li Daniu peeked into his pants, and after a glance, was sure: there was, but he wouldn’t tell anyone.

After letting his nerves run wild in the bathroom for a while, Li Daniu began to wonder why this body had been hospitalized, and whether he could use the classic amnesia trope to avoid awkwardness with people he didn’t recognize.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t recall any memories belonging to this body. If not for the unfamiliar face in the mirror and his newfound fluency in English, he would have doubted anything had changed at all.

Where were the promised residual memories?

Just as Li Daniu hesitated over how to face the people outside, he heard a knock at the door.

"Your Highness, are you all right? Would you like me to call the doctor?"

A doctor? Certainly not necessary—he felt perfectly well.

"I'm fine," Li Daniu said, resigning himself to the situation and opening the bathroom door. So what if he didn’t recognize anyone? So what if he had amnesia?

"Your Highness, are you truly all right?" Burns looked at the fresh handprint on Li Daniu's cheek and worried for his future. The king was dead, the prince seemed addled—what hope was there for a prime minister?

Li Daniu noticed the odd look in the white man's eyes and grew nervous—had he been found out?

"And you are...?" Realizing he could hesitate no longer, Li Daniu feigned confusion and asked.

"My apologies, Your Highness. I haven't introduced myself. My name is Burns; your father appointed me as Prime Minister. This is Hal, head of our security services, and Scanlon, head of foreign affairs."

What was going on? He hadn’t even claimed amnesia, yet they were introducing themselves.

"Your Highness, if you really are well, I would like to brief you on our nation’s situation. After all, you've been living and studying in America for years and are unfamiliar with many aspects of home."

This was perfect! Li Daniu, relieved that he didn’t have to pretend amnesia for now, suppressed his excitement out of respect for the king's recent passing.

"I'm truly fine. You can begin whenever you like," Li Daniu said eagerly, curious to learn about his new privileges.

After the four of them settled on the room's sofas, Burns began his introduction to the country Li Daniu was now destined to rule.

"Your Highness, the latest data shows that the sea level in our country has risen by 9.15 centimeters over the past nineteen years since 1993. If global warming continues unchecked, in fifty years, our sea levels will rise by about 37.6 centimeters..."

Burns paused.

Nineteen years after 1993—so was it now 2012 or 2013? Li Daniu hadn't even finished calculating what year he'd landed in before being confounded by Burns' report. Wasn’t this supposed to be a national briefing? Why was the Prime Minister so obsessed with sea levels?

If he weren’t new to this unfamiliar world, Li Daniu would have fired Burns on the spot.

Burns, seeing that Li Daniu had no reaction to the data, sighed inwardly and continued, "At that point, sixty percent of our territory will be completely submerged!"

What? Was this still Earth? Li Daniu couldn’t help but ask, "How much land will we have left then?"

Burns gave Li Daniu an odd look. Was the prince’s Harvard degree something money could buy? Such simple math and he was confused...

Little did Burns know that Li Daniu had no idea how large his country was.

"Your Highness, by then our nation will have only 10.4 square kilometers remaining, with a population of eleven thousand. And not all of that land will be habitable..."

Li Daniu stopped listening. A country of just eleven thousand people and less land than a small Chinese county—soon to be mostly underwater.

"Transmigration is a trap!" In his agitation, Li Daniu accidentally shouted this in Chinese, then fainted.

"Your Highness?"

"Quick, call the doctor!"

"Oh God, is this the end of Tuvalu?"