Mm, My Real Dad

Lu Chuan had passed out, and then fragments of images surfaced in his mind.

From a baby's birth to his slow growth, all because he was intellectually disabled, he had been bullied and mocked by others since childhood...

In the end, he'd just been slapped by that middle-aged man, while a thin old man beside him had drawn a glowing talisman on him.

When he woke, he was already lying on a bed in a room decorated in an old-fashioned style.

He could faintly hear that the noise outside was still quite loud and lively. People were shouting, as if they'd had too much to drink.

Considering the festive courtyard he'd seen today, someone in this household must have been getting married.

"Lu Chuan..."

Lu Chuan lay on the bed and raised a slender hand to examine it closely. He murmured, "I'm... Lu Chuan?"

This wasn't his hand, but now it was.

It was a deeply contradictory statement.

If he had to explain it, perhaps only the legendary word "transmigration" could do the job.

But his situation now wasn't quite the same as "transmigration" or "rebirth."

Although he didn't know what had happened, he and this "idiot Lu Chuan" were indeed the same person.

It was because he had been asleep that Lu Chuan had been an idiot with no intelligence at all.

Today, he had been "awakened," and the original idiot was no longer an idiot.

"I'm Lu Chuan. Heh, I'm Lu Chuan. If this isn't a dream, then this really is a terrifying story."

He spoke to himself, but his voice was calm. Clearly, he had already accepted the truth.

No matter when or where, sleep was always a good thing. No matter how much pressure you were under, a good night's sleep and a pleasant dream could help you relax.

Of course, it could also help you accept all sorts of things that might have seemed impossible to accept while awake, or just plain outrageous and unbelievable. For example...

What was happening to him.

Besides, that middle-aged man who'd slapped him today seemed to be his father.

Thinking of this, Lu Chuan raised a hand and gently touched his swollen cheek, which stung like it was on fire.

"Mm, my real dad!"

Lu Chuan's voice was complicated.

"I wonder what kind of world this is."

Then he thought about the world he was in.

Judging by what he'd seen in the courtyard today and the furnishings in this room, this was definitely ancient times.

The frustrating and urgent thing was that he couldn't understand what people here were saying, and they couldn't understand him either.

They didn't speak Mandarin in ancient times, so how were they supposed to be on the same wavelength?

Though he had seen some scattered memories from the past sixteen years of his "own" life, could you learn English just by watching an English-language movie?

Besides, with idiot Lu Chuan's intelligence, he couldn't be expected to know many words or remember anything useful.

Wait, wasn't that insulting himself too...?

From his earlier memories, he couldn't find any useful information about this world.

Whether before or now, his understanding of this world was practically zero.

Suddenly, he heard the door being pushed open from outside.

Then the father of this life came in carefully, carrying a bowl of soup, and sat down by the bed.

Lu Chuan glanced at Lu Liang, his face expressionless and his gaze cold.

People said a daughter was her father's lover from a past life. He didn't know about that, but the saying that fathers and sons were enemies seemed to have some truth to it too.

Lu Liang didn't say anything either. He just kept looking at Lu Chuan, a happy smile on his face.

"Does it hurt?"

He suddenly asked, reaching out as if to touch Lu Chuan's swollen cheek.

Lu Chuan silently dodged his hand.

He didn't even dare touch it himself. Even a gentle touch or the slightest movement could make you feel a jolt of pain run through your body.

"Don't blame your father..."

A look of sorrow appeared on Lu Liang's face. He said softly, "We're servants. If you'd ruined the master's wedding feast, you would've been beaten to death..."

Lu Chuan looked at him in silence. Although he couldn't understand the words, his father seemed very sad now.

Words might not be understood, but expressions and gazes could sometimes become another way of communicating.

A deeply unpleasant feeling suddenly welled up inside him.

Looking at Lu Chuan's right cheek, swollen high and already turning a frightening purplish blue, Lu Liang sighed, set down the soup, and silently turned to leave.

Lu Chuan looked at the bowl of soup.

Going hungry was never pleasant. No matter the circumstances, the one person you should never mistreat was yourself.

Lu Chuan picked up the soup and drank it down without hesitation.

Creak!

Before long, someone else pushed the door open from outside.

This time, it wasn't his father. It was the maid who had looked after him before, with a few faint freckles on her face.

By then, night had fallen without him noticing.

The commotion outside had gradually died down, and it was beginning to grow quiet.

Lu Chuan saw the maid come in and first set a small bowl she was carrying on the table. Then she went to the head of his bed and lit an oil lamp.

The lamp's base gleamed a dim, bluish green in the faint light.

"An oil lamp?"

Lu Chuan stared at the lamp, momentarily stunned.

Was this world still using such backward oil lamps?

Then he saw the maid smile at him and say something, though he still couldn't understand her.

The maid carried the small bowl over and sat beside his bed. Lu Chuan glanced inside and saw that it held only half a bowl of clear water.

Lu Chuan stared at the maid in bewilderment. What was she going to do?

Clink!

The maid took out a small pill and dropped it into the bowl.

The pill was only about the size of a fingertip. It dissolved as soon as it hit the water, quickly melting away.

The maid didn't seem entirely reassured, though. She even dipped a finger into the water and stirred it before picking up the bowl and smiling at Lu Chuan.

"What are you trying to do?"

Lu Chuan instantly tensed all over and instinctively shrank back.

As he watched her smile blossom like a flower, another scene couldn't help but appear in his mind:

A beautiful woman brought a bowl of medicine to her ugly husband lying on a sickbed and called softly, "Darling..."

At the thought, Lu Chuan shook his head hard, hurriedly driving the image from his mind.

Still, he kept a wary eye on the maid.

To be honest, he didn't particularly like this backward world, but even ants clung to life, and a wretched life was still better than a good death.

Now that he'd been reborn here, being fussy and resentful about it would just be asking for trouble. The best choice was to accept things as they came.

At least he'd been reborn, not transmigrated.

He hadn't taken over someone else's body with his soul, so he wouldn't have to worry in the future about whether his children belonged to him or to someone else after he married and had them.

Since he was here, he would do his best to survive, all the way to the end of his life.

Seeing Lu Chuan's wary expression, the maid felt both annoyed and amused. She had worked so hard to come look after him, and he didn't need to show gratitude or anything.

But what was with that guarded look, like a little white rabbit watching a big bad wolf?