CH 1

“Daddy”

“What is it?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Bear with it.”

“…”

The morning breeze gently blew against the summer rustling leaves. The scent of food filled the air.

Xu Zhao expressionlessly answered a few words, then continued to sit on the mound under the shade of the tree located at the entrance of the village and stared into the distance in a daze. His name was Xu Zhao, meaning that he will have a limitless future.

However, when he had just graduated from university and was enlightened to the meaning of a limitless future at his job, God decided to play a huge joke on him.

When he went downstairs to get a package, he fell and inexplicably fell into the body of “Xu Zhao” of the ‘80s. There was no internet, no tv, and food and clothing were even lacking.  However, there was one thing that he thought he didn’t need, but actually existed.

And that was… He had a two-year-old son.

That’s correct. A son. A two-year-old son.

The son wasn’t born from the original Xu Zhao and a woman, but the original Xu Zhao gave birth himself.

How was he born? The original Xu Zhao either had an extraordinary ability to birth children, or the other party was gifted with the ability to make the original Xu Zhao pregnant. In any case, he gave birth to a son and named that son Xu Fan. Xu Fan was a very handsome child with a good appearance, but they had no idea who the other father was.

The original Xu Zhao went to school in the county town and slept with a man while he was muddleheaded. Afterwards, he got pregnant and had to quit school to return to South Bay Village to secretly give birth. Two years passed and he finally had a chance at a new life. However, who would have expected that the original Xu Zhao would quarrel with his mother and two sister-in-laws because of a trivial matter. Because of this fight, they spread word that Xu Fan was personally birthed by Xu Zhao. 

Suddenly, the whole village knew that Xu Zhao had given birth before, moreover, he gave birth out of wedlock. Regardless of where Xu Zhao went, people pointed at him behind his back and said that he relied on his looks to mess around outside and got pregnant instead of studying like a good student. They said he fooled around with numerous men and women, and that he was expelled by the school because of his actions, amongst other things.

The original Xu Zhao was from a poor family. He was already extremely sensitive from being constantly bullied and ignored by the wives of his two elder brothers. Filled with depression, he ran to the river to commit suicide. In the end, he cried, but didn’t have the courage to die. However, fate always liked to play tricks on people. The original Xu Zhao carelessly slipped, fell inside the water, and drowned to death.

He died.

Afterwards, Xu Zhao transmigrated over.

It had been three days since Xu Zhao transmigrated here, however, he still wasn’t used to the people, things, or the situation. He who had been single for twenty-two years, and was especially unaccustomed to the two-year-old son that suddenly appeared by his side. It would be weirder if he was used to it! 

“Daddy,” Xu Fan sat next to Xu Zhao and cried out again in a soft and milky voice.

“What is it?” Xu Zhao asked indifferently.

“I’m hungry.”

“Bear with it.”

“Daddy.”

“What now?” Xu Zhao had no patience with the child. Moreover, his heart was currently in turmoil. 

“My belly is hungry,” Xu Fan said while rubbing his stomach.

“Didn’t I tell you to bear with it—”

Xu Zhao turned his head and saw Xu Fan’s two black eyes staring back at him with an aggrieved face and timid appearance. He suddenly remembered when he was raised in an orphanage in his last life. Although that was during the 21st century, he still sometimes had to go hungry. The feeling of hunger was really hard to endure and little Xu Fan was probably very uncomfortable.

Xu Zhao’s heart softened. He couldn’t take his worries out on a two-year-old child. That would be too inhumane and shameless.

“Daddy,” Xu Fan called out again.

“Hmm?”

“Are you hungry?”

Xu Zhao said, “I’m hungry. Let’s go home.”

Xu Zhao stood up from the mound. He didn’t have experience in raising children, and didn’t know how to interact or talk with them. He especially didn’t know how to take care of them. He patted the dust off his butt,  patted the dust off his hands, then headed towards the village. When he heard Xu Fan’s shout behind him, he turned his head and saw Xu Fan’s tiny body wearing dusty old clothes full of patches. With a “thump,” his whole body fell on top of the mound, and he started sliding down. He used his short legs to hurriedly wobble over, and it seemed like he would fall over at any second.

A “plop” came, and Xu Fan really did fall down.

Xu Zhao: “…”

Xu Zhao pulled Xu Fan up from the ground, and they headed towards the Xu family’s home together. The Xu family’s home was located in the middle of South Bay Village, and had a fenced yard.

Located in the middle of the yard were three blue-bricked houses. The tiled house in the east housed the family of the eldest son of the Xu family, Xu Zuocheng. The tiled house to the west house the family of the second son of the Xu family, Xu Youcheng. The main hall in the middle contained a hall, long tables, and a large table. This is where they attended guests and had their meals. To the left of the tiled house were two thatched huts. One of them was the kitchen, and the other was where the Xu family’s parents lived. To the right of the tiled house was the pigsty. The pigsty was built attached to a tiny thatched hut.  

Moreover, this tiny hut is where Xu Zhao and Xu Fan lived.

When Xu Zhao and Xu Fan entered the yard, besides Father and Mother Xu, the rest of the Xu family were eating in the main hall. After being here for three days, Xu Zhao was already used to his two sister-in-laws’ dislike of him. He turned around and headed towards the kitchen, and just so happened to bump into the eldest son of the Xu family, Xu Zuocheng.

Xu Zuocheng’s mouth was dripping with oil as he rushed out of the kitchen carrying a large bowl of wheat noodles. When he saw Xu Zhao, his face turned unnatural.

“Oh, Xu Zhao, you’re back,” Xu Zuocheng said awkwardly.

“Mn,” Xu Zhao replied.

“Um, Mom and Dad aren’t home today. Your second sister-in-law was the one who cooked today. Your second brother called you to eat, but he couldn’t find you. Since you’re back, you should quickly eat.”

Once Xu Zuocheng finished speaking, he hugged the large bowl of noodles and rushed towards the main hall like he was afraid that Xu Zhao would steal his noodles.

Xu Zhao entered the kitchen, stood in front of the low kitchen stove, and lifted the lid of the pot. Out of the large iron pot, there was only a bit of soup left at the bottom of the pot, and in the soup, there were still four pieces—that’s not right—there were three pieces of noodles inside and a piece of long, thin green vegetable. 

Xu Zhao lowered his head and looked at Xu Fan.

Xu Fan couldn’t help but use his two tiny hands to cling on the stove. His cloth shoes covered feet trembled as he stood on tip toes and raised his tiny head to look inside the pot. However, he was too short and tiny, so he couldn’t see anything.

“Daddy, any noodles left?”

“…Yes”