Legend Management Bureau Chapter 406

[ … words ]

The wife took the fruit she had bought into the kitchen, then walked over with a sweet smile and said to the man, “Yi, the baby’s name hasn’t been finalized anyway. Since Dad has an idea, we might as well take it into consideration.”

The man called Yi smiled bitterly and shook his head, handing the slip of paper to his wife. “Nana, it’s not that I don’t want to consider it, but look at what Dad wrote. I don’t recognize this character at all…”

Nana took the paper, took a look, and also started laughing. The slip had two crooked wings drawn on it, which indeed made it very difficult to read.

“Could this be the character for ‘Yu’?” Nana asked carefully.

“Yu?” Yi took the paper back and looked at it again. After Nana mentioned it, the character truly looked more and more like ‘Yu’ the longer he stared.

“Yes, yes, yes! It’s Yu!” the old man exclaimed happily. “That’s exactly it! I remember now!”

Yi shook his head with a wry smile and said, “Sigh, forget it, this works too. Dad, that fortune-teller you recommended really scammed us. He said Nana and I would definitely have a girl, so we only picked out a girl’s name, ‘Xi’. Who knew we would end up with this smelly young kid?”

Hiding in the bedroom, Du Yu froze. Hearing the name ‘Xi’ seemed to trigger a memory.

‘And… that little boy is me?’

Originally, Du Yu had wanted to deeply thank the orphanage for everything they had done for him. However, he never expected the orphanage to use him as a promotional poster child. They had paraded his story for over two decades, singing praises of their own great achievements year after year.

Every year, people came to interview him, asking how he felt about being saved and whether he was filled with gratitude. Although Du Yu always agreed and said yes, the last remnants of gratitude in his heart had long since been ground to dust.

After all, he was just an infant when they saved him. How could he possibly understand the concept of gratitude back then?

But the scene unfolding before his eyes only deepened the doubts in Du Yu’s mind.

‘Was I not abandoned at three months old? Did I actually live at home until I was about a year old?’

‘No… there are far too many plot holes here!’ Du Yu shook his head, thinking to himself. ‘I have a dad, a mom, and a grandpa. Moreover, according to what the old man said, his name is Du Lao’er and he used to have a nephew. That means he has at least one big brother above him. No matter how you look at it… as long as even one relative is alive, there’s no way I would have ended up in an orphanage.’

What puzzled Du Yu even more was that he was clearly standing face-to-face with his past self, yet the dizzying sensation from the time paradox was gradually subsiding. He could barely feel it now. The old man beside him had also grown more energetic, staring at the scene before them with an equally bewildered expression.

‘Can you actually meet yourself… inside the legends?’

In the living room, the past version of the old man walked up to Yi and kicked him hard.

“You young kid, and here I thought you were a university student! Are the characters I write really that hard to read?”

Yi hurriedly shook his head. “Of course not… Dad, I just couldn’t make it out for a moment.”

The old man wanted to throw a bit of a temper tantrum, but realizing he really had no valid reason, he turned around to look at the tiny Du Yu on the sofa. The baby was waving his little hands around, making happy babbling sounds.

“Aww! My precious grandbaby!” The old man scooped Du Yu up lovingly, rocking him in his arms. “When you grow up, don’t learn from your dad! You have to become a cultured man!”

Yi offered a wry smile. “Dad, what are you talking about? I’ve already started his early education. Lately, I’ve been teaching the baby how to speak.”

“Oh? The baby can speak?!” The old man rejoiced. “What did you teach him? Was it ‘Grandpa’?”

Nana walked over at that moment, wearing a helpless smile. She said to the old man, “Dad, hurry up and talk some sense into Yi. When other people’s children learn to speak, the picture books they buy are filled with vegetables, fruits, and animals. But do you know what Yi bought?”

“What is it?”

Nana turned, walked to the table, and picked up a book to hand to the old man. “Look, Dad.”

The old man saw an illustration of an elder on the book’s cover, but he recognized barely any of the characters printed there.

“Zhong… something something something.” The old man tried to read for a moment before realizing it was completely hopeless. “Nana, I can’t read. What kind of book is this?”

“It’s the Chinese Gods Registry,” Nana said helplessly. “Who on earth makes their child study this right after they’re born?”

The old man rolled his eyes around as a thought struck him. “Nana, you can’t just say things like that! Immortal deities really do exist in this world, I’ve seen them! It’s good to learn this early!”

Nana shook her head helplessly, thoroughly defeated by this father-son duo. “Sigh… fine, then our little Yu can study the registry of gods during the day, and I’ll teach him everyday words at night…”

With that, she turned around and went back into the kitchen to wash the fruit.

“Hmph!” Yi curled his lip and snatched the Chinese Gods Registry right out of the old man’s hands, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Nana, don’t you look down on this! Our baby is doing amazing at learning about the gods!”

“Is that so?” Nana replied coolly from afar. “As a STEM university student, even you can’t pronounce their names correctly. How many can the baby actually recite?”

Yi’s expression turned a bit awkward. He then turned to the not-yet-one-year-old Du Yu and said, “Son! I’m counting on you to win some face for your dad today! Let your mom see the fruits of our labor as brothers!”

“Brothers! Brothers!” little Du Yu mimicked while clapping his hands.

Hearing this, the old man shook his head vigorously. “You smelly young kid, what kind of messed up family hierarchy is this? If you and my grandson are ‘brothers,’ then who am I?”

Ignoring the old man, Yi placed little Du Yu on the floor and began flipping through the book continuously. “Ah… which page were we on yesterday again?”

Hearing Yi’s muttering, Nana burst into a fit of giggles. “See, Dad? Didn’t I tell you he wouldn’t remember?”

“Nonsense!” Yi retorted. “Who says I don’t remember? The last god we learned about yesterday was called… called… the Heavenly Venerable of the Eighty-One Tribulations of Mathematics! Yes, that was the name!”

The old man also looked confused upon hearing this. “What’s that? Mathematics Heavenly Venerable? There’s even a god in charge of math… It seems I really need to properly brush up on my knowledge of immortal deities…”

Nana’s laughter grew even louder from the kitchen. “I say, Yi, if you can’t remember, just admit it. Don’t go making things up!”

She thought to herself that these three generations of grandfathers, fathers, and sons were simply three goofballs, filling the entire home with daily laughter.

Behind the crack of the door, hearing that sentence struck Du Yu like a bolt of lightning. It was as if a dormant memory was stirring within his mind, and he continuously mumbled to himself:

“Heavenly Venerable of the Eighty-One Tribulations of Mathematics…?”

“Ah! Found it!”

Yi finally turned to the page they had looked at yesterday and said to Du Yu, “Come on, son, let’s show your mom the results of our studying. You repeat after me!”

“Ah-mm!” One-year-old Du Yu nodded excitedly.

Yi pointed his finger at an illustration of an old man holding a gourd in the book, speaking with slow, deliberate emphasis on every single syllable:

“Son, read after me: Tai—Shang—Lao—Zun!”

Little Du Yu waved his small hands:

“Tai—Shang—Lao—Zun!”