You Can Even Call Me Dad

As it neared ten in the evening, there was a click and the door opened.

Seeing Cai Xiaomei and Yu Dongming walk into the house together, Yu Shao, who was sitting on the sofa watching a movie, immediately called out, "Dad, Mom, you're back?"

"Mhm."

While changing her shoes, Cai Xiaomei asked, "Your principal called me today, saying you're going to participate in the Go league. What's going on?"

Yu Dongming also looked puzzled. He placed his shoes on the rack and then asked, "I thought it was a wrong number, but your principal said it was you. You can play Go? We didn't know!"

He always thought he knew his son quite well, but he was genuinely bewildered when he received the call from the principal.

Where did his son learn to play Go, let alone represent the school in a competition?

He had thought about enrolling Yu Shao in some extracurricular classes before, like music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but Yu Shao had been so stubbornly resistant that he had given up.

"I read a few Go books out of boredom before and found them quite interesting, so I taught myself Go," Yu Shao, who had already prepared an explanation, said immediately.

"Taught yourself?"

Yu Dongming and Cai Xiaomei immediately exchanged glances.

As parents, they certainly wouldn't think their son was stupid. If he wanted to learn Go, he could definitely learn it.

But they really couldn't imagine their son having the patience to sit and play Go for half a day.

"Even if you taught yourself Go, with your self-taught level, can you really represent the school in the high school Go league?" Yu Dongming asked, finding it a bit unbelievable.

"Maybe I'm just naturally talented, haha."

Yu Shao chuckled and brushed it off, saying, "The principal thought I played pretty well, so he let me participate."

"Look at you."

Cai Xiaomei rolled her eyes and said, "Even if you have talent, you can't be arrogant. You need to be humble and avoid pride and impatience. There are plenty of talented people in this world. If you think you're talented and stop working hard, you'll eventually be left behind by others."

"Mom's right!"

Yu Shao immediately nodded vigorously.

"This is actually a good thing."

Yu Dongming stroked his chin and asked, "If you're really interested in Go, do you want to enroll in an extracurricular class?"

"Let's skip that..."

Yu Shao froze awkwardly. Forcing him to go to a Go class would be worse than going to jail; it would be torture.

The teacher on the podium spouting saliva about an outdated opening, and he would have to pretend to be an ostrich or point out that the opening was problematic?

Just thinking about that scene made Yu Shao's scalp tingle.

"See? Just now you said you needed to work hard even if you had talent, and now you've forgotten."

Cai Xiaomei said with some displeasure, "I think it's great! If you have talent, you should explore it. Maybe you can really make a name for yourself in the future?"

"Mom, I just play Go for fun. And as a student, isn't the most important thing to study hard?"

Yu Shao smiled and said, "I only have two days off a week. It's good to rest well so I can study better when school starts. It's about balancing work and rest."

"You always have so many twisted reasons."

Cai Xiaomei shot Yu Shao a look, then seemed to suddenly think of something and said, "Don't we need a Go board at home? I'll buy you one."

"In the future, when you have nothing to do, you can watch how skilled players play online, and then set up the pieces yourself to see why they made those moves."

"This way, you won't spend your days playing games with your bad friends. Can't you hang out with kids who have good grades? Don't you know the saying 'near vermilion, one becomes red; near ink, one becomes black'?"

"It's not that you can't play games, but everything needs moderation. Computers also have radiation. Don't let your grades drop and your eyes get ruined..."

Cai Xiaomei went on a tangent, but Yu Shao didn't interrupt, just listened quietly.

In the end, it was Yu Dongming who couldn't stand it anymore. He nudged his wife's shoulder and said, "Alright, honey, it's so late, and the kid has school tomorrow."

Hearing this, Cai Xiaomei finally stopped talking. She glanced at Yu Shao and said, "Aren't you going to take a bath and go to bed?"

"I'm going now."

Yu Shao smiled, picked up the remote to turn off the TV, and then headed towards the bathroom.

Soon after, having finished his bath, Yu Shao went into his bedroom and turned off the light, preparing to sleep.

"Did I... forget something?"

Lying in bed, Yu Shao felt like he had forgotten something.

After thinking for a while, Yu Shao finally remembered.

He hadn't accepted Wu Zhixuan's WeChat friend request yet!

Thinking of this, Yu Shao took his phone out from under his pillow, opened WeChat, slid to his contacts, and clicked the red notification to accept Wu Zhixuan's friend request.

After adding her, Yu Shao was about to put his phone down to sleep when it vibrated twice.

[Yahu: Yay! Hahaha, you finally accepted so late. I thought you weren't going to!]

Yu Shao immediately typed a reply.

[Fish Out of Water: Shouldn't you be touched? It's this late, and I'm still thinking about adding you as a friend.]

[Yahu: Huh? I guess so.]

[Fish Out of Water: What do you mean "I guess so"? It's a fact.]

[Yahu: Okay, okay, then thank you for remembering to add me as a friend. I misunderstood!]

Yu Shao felt that Wu Zhixuan was genuinely quite cute and couldn't help but type:

[Fish Out of Water: Then don't you owe me some compensation?]

[Yahu: I'm super poor!!! (opens wallet, then painfully closes eyes.jpg)]

[Fish Out of Water: I don't want money.]

[Yahu: Then what do you want?]

Yu Shao thought for a moment and typed:

[Fish Out of Water: You're definitely going to become the strongest female Go player in the future anyway. So, every time you get promoted a dan, send me an autographed photo. That way, I can show it off for a long time.]

[Yahu: I can do that! Quick, send me your address!]

Yu Shao immediately sent his home address and contact information to Wu Zhixuan.

[Yahu: OKOK! You'll get an autographed photo from this Go Saint in a few days! It's past ten, why aren't you asleep yet?]

[Fish Out of Water: Wasn't it to add you as a friend?]

[Fish Out of Water: Sorry!!!]

[Fish Out of Water: Besides, aren't you not asleep either?]

[Yahu: I'm older than you, so I naturally sleep later. Only little brothers like you go to bed early.]

[Fish Out of Water: ? How old are you?]

[Yahu: Seventeen, but I'll be eighteen in a few months, so you should call me 'big sister'.]

[Fish Out of Water: But I think your mental age might be around seven. You can even call me 'dad'.]

Wu Zhixuan immediately sent over an angry-looking sticker.

Yu Shao chuckled and typed:

[Fish Out of Water: Alright, I'm going to sleep. I have class tomorrow, so you should sleep early too.]

[Wu Zhixuan: Goodnight, goodnight! Sweet dreams!]

Dear readers, please support me with your follow-ups. Compared to other urban novels of the same period, my results aren't ideal. Although I was mentally prepared for writing this niche genre, I still hope that readers who can get through it will offer their support. If the read-through rate increases, even a little, this little author bows deeply, again and again.