In the first month of year 1488, the Ming Dynasty had officially changed its name into The First Year of Hongzhi, which was the beginning of the famous “Resurgence of Hongzhi”.

It was also in this year that James IV of Scotland succeeded the throne and Dias of Portugal discovered the Cape of Good Hope. The whole world was in turmoil and change.

In comparison to this, the birth of a child in the Wang family was insignificant.

In fact, this Wang Family was no ordinary family. The head of the family was named Wang Hua, who placed first in palace examination in the seventeenth year of Chenghua.

Number One Scholar was hard to attain. How much luck would an ordinary person need to be able to place first?

Even if Wang Hua was still working as an editor in the Imperial Academy, the only difference between him and his colleagues was that his name would be written slightly in front of theirs in documents, but it was still something that could be boasted for a lifetime.

Wang Hua was 42 years old this year. He has had two sons, so this was not his first time becoming a father.

However, his first wife had passed away many years ago. His wife now, Lady Zhao, was married to him for only a few years, and this child was her first. Wang Hua used his rare time off to accompany Lady Zhao and their newborn son.

As if afraid that people would forget about his birthday, this fellow chose to be born on the first day of the first month.

The newborn child could not see the good looks of his father and the beauty of his mother. He was just a wrinkly tiny ball.

Wang Hua’s sons were born early, the eldest was already 17 years old. His name was Shouren and his younger brother was named after him. He looked at his wrinkly little son and said to Lady Zhao, “Let’s name him Shouwen.”

Lady Zhao had taken a short nap and was still very weak. After hearing this, she looked at her son who had fallen asleep after eating and nodded, “The name you chose must be a good one.”

Wang Hua talked with Lady Zhao for a bit, then went to discuss about naming his son with his father.

Old Man Wang was tending to the bamboos in the yard. When he saw his son coming, he sat down at the stone table, poured a cup of hot tea and drank it, then said to Wang Hua, “What’s the matter?”

Wang Hua told Old Man Hua about the name that he had come up with.

If Old Man Wang had no objection, then the name would be decided.

Old Man Wang listened quietly with not much emotion on his face.

He was already old, and now he only treasured two things.

The first one was his bamboos. He was good at growing bamboos, his living space was surrounded by young bamboos all-year round. People who knew him well called him “Old Bambooman”. When he arrived in the capital, he didn’t forget to transplant some good bamboos in his courtyard for entertainment.

The other one was his eldest grandson, Wang Shouren. The eldest grandson was raised by him and his wife, so of course his feelings toward him would be different compared to his other grandsons.

After Wang Hua had finished talking, Old Man Wang waved his hand and said, “You decide yourself, there’s no need to ask me.” He paused for a bit, then warned him, “I reckon Shouren would be back soon. Don’t criticize him too much, he’s still young. As a father, you have to educate him.”

Wang Hua agreed, but in his mind, he was thinking about how he should beat his eldest son.

His eldest son was smart, but he was too full of ideas and had caused a lot of trouble.

A few years ago, that brat had boasted about wanting to become a sage. He had thought that the kid did not actually mean it, so he didn’t take it to heart.

However, there was one time that that brat had left a letter saying that he wanted to learn about the situation in the border and the lives of the people there, then ran away from home to the north.

Was that something a teenager should be doing?!

For an immature child, never mind the border, even if he went to the prosperous Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, he still had to worry about the bandits he might encounter on the way!

Indeed, young people often had less fear.

This time too, he ran away without a trace on the pretext of going on a study tour. He didn’t even return during the New Year.

Wang Hua had even thought about where to start beating him and had placed his stick in a place easiest to reach.

Everything was ready, he was just waiting for his naughty son to come home!

Wang Hua waited and waited. Even until the beginning of the second month where the weather was getting warmer and the birds in the bamboo bushes had almost done building their nests, his eldest son was still missing.

On the other hand, his youngest son slept and ate every day, and he had quickly changed from wrinkly to round and plump, which looked very pleasing to the eye.

The swaddling clothes were all made in the twelfth month. The fabric chosen was red, which made the baby looked more white, tender, and cute.

Compared with other children, Young Master Wen was very well-behaved and rarely cried. He would only howl when he was hungry or it was time to change his diaper.

His second older brother, who was only two or three years older than him, was brought here to stay for a while to show brotherly love.

When Young Master Wen opened his eyes every day, he would see many strangers wandering in front of him, speaking words that he couldn’t quite understand.

Since his brain had not yet fully developed, he could only use his smooth and new brain (in fact, it was indeed brand new) to try to understand everything that was happening around him like an ordinary baby.

Of course, each day, there was not much time for a baby’s brain to actually be spent thinking.

Every day, he could manage to recall the questions of “who am I” and “where am I” for less than 30 minutes and forget about them the next day, so he had to think about it once again.

It was too difficult, really.

A baby, whose brain capacity was very small, had decided to give up on resisting and to abide by a baby’s instinct to just eat and sleep without worry.

Although he was not up much in a day, Young Master Wen slowly figured out his current situation–

He had just been born into an ancient family, and his grandparents and parents were still alive and well.

His father was a bit old, while his mother was younger.

He also had an older brother who came to care for his younger brother like he was clocking in every day.

He was only two months old and had no knowledge of ancient Chinese. This was all Young Master Wen could figure out.

In fact, he didn’t even know his own name. He only knew that everyone called him Young Master Wen, so his name must have the word ‘Wen’ in it.

He didn’t know the names of his grandparents and parents, but he had heard a lot about his older brother’s name, and it seemed to be Young Master Jian.

It sounded like a very traditional feudal family naming.

As for which dynasty and which ancient feudal family it was, Young Master Wen still hadn’t figured it out yet.

The weather was fine today. His young mother, Lady Zhao, took Young Master Wen to visit his grandparents.

The members of the Wang family were relatively simple that there were no greeting rules. The two elders of the Wang family liked to be quiet, so Lady Zhao had no chance to serve the two elders.

After Lady Zhao was out of confinement, she wanted her son to get closer to the two elders.

The two elders had many children and grandchildren, so how would they treasure this grandson? They only hugged him and took a look at him. They still cared the most about their oldest grandson who had not returned from his journey.

The first few times he had come here, Young Master Wen was so sleepy that he rarely opened his eyes.

It was different this time. This time, Young Master Wen was full and had slept well, so he was wide awake. He was about to recall his precious spiritual wealth (many memory fragments that were difficult to piece together) when he got taken by Lady Zhao to get close to the two elders.

Young Master Wen turned his eyes and looked at his grandmother, Lady Cen, who took him over.

The baby’s eyes had not fully developed yet, and he couldn’t move because he was wrapped in swaddling clothes. His field of vision was really limited. Young Master Wen looked over very hard to see clearly what kind of person the kind-hearted old lady in front of him looked like.

After all, he was her biological grandson, connected by blood. When Mrs. Cen saw Wen’s eyes turning towards her, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of affection towards those dark pupils.

She smiled and said to Old Man Wang who was next to her, “Look at how smart this kid is, his eyes can follow people.”

Old Man Wang actually wanted to say, “Whose child can’t turn his eyes?” but shut his mouth after glancing at Lady Zhao who was standing cautiously. He reluctantly followed up with a few compliments, still thinking that his eldest grandson was the smartest.

When Lady Zhao was leaving the courtyard while carrying Young Master Wen, she happened to hear Old Man Wang and his wife discussing about when their eldest grandson would be back.

She lowered her head to glance at her son who was sleeping soundly again, feeling very unsatisfied. Her husband’s eldest son was so naughty, but the two elders were still worried about him while being lukewarm towards their newborn grandson!

When Young Master Wen woke up again, he heard from Lady Zhao that he had an older brother.

This time, Lady Zhao spoke a lot, occasionally with a bit of dialect. Young Master Wen didn’t understand even after listening for a while. He only roughly learned that his eldest brother’s name was Wang Yun and he was very loved by the two elders.

It was said that his eldest brother did better during his birth. He gave a message through Mrs. Cen’s dream even before he was born, saying that an immortal would send a child to their home on the auspicious clouds!

That was too ridiculous. He appeared in her dream before he was born to win over the two elders’ love, who could compare to that?

Reject competition, opt out of the rat race.

Young Master Wen continued to eat and sleep carefreely. When he woke up occasionally, he would obediently act as his mother’s audience.

Although his mother seemed to have taken the role of the evil stepmother, they were still mother and son.

Of course, he would clench his little fists from time to time to echo his mother’s complaints.

The first principle of life is to help your family and not listen to reason!

Perhaps Lady Zhao had mentioned him too many times that his eldest brother, whose name he had only heard of, actually returned home.

It was raining heavily the day Wang Shouren returned.

Since the Awakening of Insects^[1]Awakening of Insects, the day marking the beginning of the third solar term of the Chinese lunar calendar had passed, there were more thunders, even a sleepy baby like Young Master Wen had been woken up several times.

There was also a thunderstorm when Wang Shouren returned. He was soaked in the rain and looked so pitiful.

The bad weather actually helped Wang Shouren, it made Wang Hua not able to use the stick that he had already prepared. He could only sigh and ask him to quickly change his clothes.

Wang Shouren came out after having changed into dry clothes. Wang Hua carried Young Master Wen, who had just been awakened by the thunder to show to him, saying, “Shouren, this is your little brother.”

Wang Shouren was not too shocked because Lady Zhao was already pregnant when he ran away. The only difference was whether he would have a younger brother or sister.

He leaned over to look at his new brother. He was surprised when met by the eyes that his new younger brother was trying to keep wide open.

They stared at each other.

Wang Shouren could see the shock in those small dark eyes.

Wang Shouren, “?”

What is this small child so shocked about?

Wen, “??????????”

Wait, wasn’t his brother named Wang Yun?!!

Why did it suddenly change to Wang Shouren?????

Wang Shouren!

Wang Yangming!

Lu-Wang’s Study of the Mind^[2]Lu-Wang’s Study of the Mind refers to academic school represented by Lu Jiuyuan (Lu Xiangshan) and Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming)’s teachings of philosophy!

A point that must be memorized for the college entrance examination!

His memory!! It had suddenly returned!!