Du Yu pointed at the tree trunk not far away and roared at the old man on the ground, "First it was 'Du,' and now it's 'Yu'! Are you messing with me?! You knew who I was all along, didn't you?!"
"Wh-what?!" The old man looked terrified. "What's all this about Du and fish? Why're you yelling at me? I don't understand..."
"Still playing dumb?!" Du Yu stood up, grabbed the old man by the collar, and hauled him straight off the ground. "Come on, explain this!"
Du Yu dragged the old man over to the peach tree, pointed at the character "Yu" on its trunk, and said viciously, "When I saw 'Du' earlier, I thought you'd carved your own surname. Now tell me what this character means!"
The old man stared at it for a long time, then muttered to himself, "That's right. What does it mean?"
"What did you say?!" Du Yu's brows knitted tightly. "You carved it yourself, and you don't know what it means?"
"What're you talking about!" The old man shoved Du Yu's hand away and protested aggrievedly, "I don't even know how to read that character. How could I have carved it? All I did was draw a circle on each trunk. That 'Du' you mentioned wasn't my doing either!"
"I-it wasn't you?" The questions in Du Yu's mind only multiplied.
The old man shook his head helplessly. "Why would I lie to you? Apart from 'one to ten,' 'hundred, thousand, ten thousand,' and 'year, month, day,' I know fewer than twenty characters altogether. I can't even write any of 'em properly. Why would I go to all that trouble carving 'em on trees? Drawing circles is faster, of course."
Du Yu froze.
He knew the old man had no reason to lie.
After