Fated Headbutt and Son Gohan's Death

"Poor little things. Where are your parents?" the man asked, his voice a little weathered but gentle, warming the heart.

"Oh, what am I thinking? How could such tiny babies talk?" The old man was none other than Son Gohan.

He had noticed something falling from the sky earlier and had followed it down to investigate.

To his surprise, he found two infants. One wouldn't stop crying, while the other babbled away, clearly unable to speak either.

"Were they abandoned?" He saw no one else around. His heart ached for the children, and after some effort, he carried them both out.

When he saw that they both had tails, his heart hurt even more. They must have been abandoned because of their tails.

He decided then to raise the two children himself.

"I'll give you names." After carrying the infants out of the valley, Son Gohan prepared to name them.

As he thought, his gaze drifted up to the sky, and inspiration struck.

"I'll call you Sun Wutian, and you Sun Wukong. How does that sound, little ones? Do you like those names?"

"From now on, I'll be your grandpa." As he spoke, Son Gohan headed home with them, officially "adopting" the two children.

Of course, neither child understood a word he said.

Looks like we brothers were abandoned and left out here in the wilderness. Being rescued by this old man is our good fortune.

Bu Wuchen had reached much the same conclusion as Son Gohan: the two brothers must have been abandoned.

Whatever Bu Wuchen thought of it, they had officially been adopted.

For Son Gohan, though, raising them was a formidable challenge.

He had spent his whole life pursuing martial arts. He had never married—or even dated—so naturally, he had no experience raising children. Fortunately, the brothers had already grown a good number of teeth, so Son Gohan didn't have to go looking for milk.

And although Bu Wuchen couldn't understand what people said, he wasn't really a newborn.

He was quiet and well-behaved, and cooperated when it was time to eat porridge. He even made a fuss ahead of time when he needed to relieve himself, so he was fairly easy to care for.

Wukong, on the other hand, was a terribly difficult child. Knocking over bowls and kicking tables was nothing; making a mess in his clothes was routine. The real trouble was when he rolled around and fell.

If Son Gohan let his guard down for even a moment, Wukong would start rolling about and smashing things. Several times, he even climbed right out the window. If Bu Wuchen hadn't made a noise to alert Son Gohan, Wukong might have crawled off into the woods.

At first, Bu Wuchen could at least calm his little brother a bit with a sound or a look.

But gradually, the wild side of his Saiyan nature took over. Even Son Gohan would get caught off guard and be kicked and punched by Wukong, ending up bruised or with bumps all over his head.

As a result, most of Son Gohan's energy went into looking after Wukong.

Once, Son Gohan needed to go out and buy essentials such as salt. He took the mischievous Wukong with him, leaving the well-behaved Bu Wuchen behind.

But when he returned, Wukong was in his arms, covered in blood and barely alive!

On the way, Son Gohan had let Wukong climb out of the carrying basket without noticing. The child had fallen into a ravine and slammed headfirst into a boulder!

Fortunately, Wukong survived thanks to the Saiyans' tenacious vitality. Afterward, he became much better behaved, which left both Bu Wuchen and Son Gohan relieved and heartbroken.

Thanks to memories from his previous life, Bu Wuchen quickly learned the language Son Gohan spoke. He also learned to walk soon after, when he had been with the family for about four or five months. This astonished Son Gohan, but it made him happy from the bottom of his heart.

After that, Bu Wuchen took on some responsibility himself, mainly by keeping an eye on Wukong.

One thing worth mentioning was that Bu Wuchen asked Son Gohan for a favor: to change his name.

Son Gohan had named him Sun Wutian, and Bu Wuchen had no objection.

However, although he had been given a second life, he couldn't completely cast aside everything from his previous one. So he asked to be renamed Sun Wuchen, and Son Gohan happily agreed.

Before long, Wukong had learned to walk and talk too.

The three generations lived a peaceful, warm, and happy life, far removed from the world.

Then, when the brothers were about six, Wukong woke one night needing to pee and dragged Wuchen along to relieve themselves in the woods.

It happened to be a full-moon night. As the two brothers went, they both lost consciousness. When they woke up again, Mount Paozu looked as though a typhoon had swept through: trees lay toppled, rocks were shattered, and enormous footprints were everywhere.

Similar incidents occurred several more times. For a while, Sun Wuchen thought there might be a monster's lair near Mount Paozu, and he began to worry. He hadn't grown up yet; he couldn't afford to die young.

So Wuchen suggested several times that they move.

Son Gohan firmly refused, without explaining why.

He only often reminded the brothers that a great monster came out on full-moon nights, and that they must never leave the house on those nights.

Once the brothers followed his instructions, the strange incidents stopped.

Whether Son Gohan feared that people would point fingers at the brothers because of their tails or had some other reason, he stocked up on plenty of necessities, such as salt.

After that, he stopped going down the mountain. The three of them farmed, hunted, and lived in seclusion in the mountains.

Three years later, a similar incident happened again. When the brothers came to, they weren't even wearing clothes—unlike before—and their grandfather wasn't with them.

They searched nearly all of Mount Paozu before finding their grandfather's corpse in one of the enormous footprints!

"Grandpa!"

"Grandpa!" The two brothers were devastated, and Wukong burst into tears.

Wuchen didn't cry, but his heart was bitter, and he felt as though he had lost his way.

For nine years, he had truly thought of Son Gohan as his grandfather, even though Son Gohan's actual age was less than a fraction of his own.

The word "grandfather" had always felt vague to him in his previous life. Even his parents had both died before he began his cultivation.

He had spent his life seeking the Dao. Though he had once loved someone, he had lost her while searching for immortality.

Even after he attained the Dao and achieved immortality, his cultivation reaching the heavens, all he could do was live with regret.

Later, he became the founding ancestor of a sect and protected a region. He had bonds, but no attachments. Reborn into this life, even now, he had never worried much about the sect's safety.

Family and affection had been the price he paid to pursue the Dao.

The warmth Son Gohan had given him was gentle and heartwarming, and it touched him deeply.

As he looked at the enormous footprints, he recalled what had happened before each appearance of the monster and his grandfather's warnings. Sun Wuchen felt heavyhearted.

Once he calmed down, the situation was easy to figure out. This time especially, the brothers had woken up without their clothes because their grandfather was gone.

"Wukong, Grandpa's gone. He's gone to another world."

"From now on... try not to go out at night, especially on full-moon nights!"

Like their grandfather used to, Wuchen warned Wukong.

Wuchen did his best to restore Son Gohan's appearance in death. After cleaning away the blood and dressing him in clean clothes, he called Wukong over. Together, they cut down some suitable trees and made a coffin.

They dug a grave not far from the little house, buried Son Gohan, and carved an inscription on a stele:

Our grandfather, Son Gohan, was kindhearted and benevolent... He found two tailed infants by the roadside and raised them with all his heart, loving them as his own... His virtue and blessings ran deep... Yet the two-tailed ones were an aberration, and blood kin could not be close to them. Our grandfather found them and loved them. He endured five calamities in six years, then, three years later, passed away. His unfilial grandsons, Sun Wuchen and Sun Wukong, mourn him and will never forget his teachings. We still cherish his voice and remember his face...

They didn't know when their grandfather Son Gohan had been born, what year or month it was now, or anything about his life. The inscription was hardly proper.

"Wukong, go get the ball Grandpa left behind. We'll place it beside him."

Wukong soon returned with the Four-Star Ball. Sun Wuchen placed it in the recess prepared on the stele.

With that, Son Gohan's funeral came to an end. From then on, the brothers would have to walk their own path.