Uncle Wei suddenly spoke up again. "Wanrong, about that thing I mentioned a few days ago—how's your thinking coming along?"
"You mean pretending to be someone else's son?" Lin Wanrong blinked, then caught on and asked.
A few days back, Uncle Wei had brought it up—something about Lin Wanrong posing as the son of some big-shot family. He'd shot it down flat then, and now the old man was dragging it up again. What the hell was he playing at?
Uncle Wei clearly thought he was still on the fence. He jumped in quick, "Wanrong, this ain't just any household. Their power's so big you can't even wrap your head around it. If you ever get to that point, you'll see what I mean."
"So big I can't imagine? What, are they the emperor or something?" Lin Wanrong snorted with a cold laugh.
Uncle Wei "swept" those empty eye sockets over him, not saying a word. The look on his face was unreadable, leaving Lin Wanrong stumped.
"Pretending to be someone's kid—you think they wouldn't see through it? Let's not treat everyone like idiots," Lin Wanrong said, trying to talk some sense into Uncle Wei and kill this idea dead.
"You're not wrong—nobody's a fool. But I can tell you this: this lord absolutely won't have a son. He knows it damn well himself, but he's still desperate to find one," Uncle Wei replied.
"Oh?" Now that piqued his interest. Knowing full well it's not his own flesh and blood, yet still playing the doting dad? That's a twist.
Lin Wanrong couldn't resist a little gossip. "Why's that? Is there really some guy out there who gets off on being a cheap daddy to someone else's kid?"
Uncle Wei gave him a long, loaded look. "The world's a big place—how many things go the way you want? Even roy—nobles and kin of the crown have their own unspoken struggles, let alone regular folks."
"So why me?" Lin Wanrong grinned, feeling more and more like he'd fit right in at a tabloid rag.
"Because you've got guts, you're sharp, your takes are fresh, your skin's thick as hell, and—" Uncle Wei "stared" at him with a sly, mysterious smirk. "And you're shameless enough!"
Fuck! I take back that last question—this old bastard's just roasting me now. Lin Wanrong fumed inside but could only shake his head with a bitter laugh. The heavens screwing with him like this—being shameless wasn't his fault.
Done with the gossip, he put on a righteous front. "Of all virtues, filial piety's tops. This body, this skin—it's all from my parents. Blood ties are born, not made; nothing can change that. If I, Lin Wanrong, went and called someone else my folks, where'd that leave the ones who birthed and raised me? How's that any different from a beast?"
Uncle Wei mulled it over for a bit, then nodded. "Didn't peg you for having such a backbone. Alright, let's drop it for now. Wanrong, I'm heading out tomorrow. Today's chat—who knows when we'll cross paths again."
"What?!" Lin Wanrong jolted, stunned. Uncle Wei was the first person he'd met in this world—damn near the only family he had here. How could he just up and leave?
You bail, and who's gonna feed me, huh? Lin Wanrong thought, his mind dipping into the gutter.
Uncle Wei chuckled. "I'm pushing eighty this year. Been parked in Jinling City for a decade now—figure it's time to move on."
Eighty? He didn't look it one bit. This old geezer knew how to stay spry.
"Where you headed, Uncle Wei?" After all this time together, Lin Wanrong genuinely didn't want him to go. Sure, the past month the old man had leaned on his "disabled" status to make Lin Wanrong cook and wash for him, but there was no denying the bond they'd built. Imagine it: in the whole damn world, knowing just one person. How pathetic was that?
Uncle Wei dodged the question, just smiling faintly. "Might head back to the old hometown first. I'm getting up there—gotta return to my roots eventually."
He gave Lin Wanrong another deep, meaningful "look." "Wanrong, the world shifts like clouds and dogs. Next time we meet, you might be dead-set on killing me for all I know." He smiled, but a heavy loneliness lingered on his face.
Lin Wanrong figured the old man was just losing it and brushed off the comment.
"Uncle Wei, where's your hometown? Got family there? Kids and grandkids waiting?" In the month they'd been together, Uncle Wei rarely mentioned his personal life. All Lin Wanrong knew was he'd been a senior servant for the wealthy Xiao family in Jinling—beyond that, nada.
"Kids?" A bitter smile crept onto Uncle Wei's face as he looked at Lin Wanrong. "Wanrong, maybe you'll find out about me someday. Let's skip that for now. Since we've crossed paths, I'll leave you a little gift."
He sneakily fished a thin, ancient-looking colored booklet out of his robe and handed it over.
Lin Wanrong took it and flipped through a few pages. It was packed with detailed drawings of men and women going at it—dragon thrusts, tiger leaps, leopard pounces, cicada clings—over a hundred positions, every angle covered. The characters' expressions were lifelike, movements crystal clear, even the climax faces popping off the page.
Lin Wanrong's eyes lit up. This blew Playboy, Men's Health, and Penthouse out of the water.
He'd seen his share of Japanese AV and Western flicks, racked up countless rounds with old girlfriends, and figured he'd mastered the art East and West, ancient and modern. But this little booklet? It showed him he was a frog in a well. The ancestors had been rowing through the sea of lust with their dicks as oars, studying this shit down to a science. Compared to these dedicated pioneers, Lin Wanrong felt like a punk kid who oughta be ashamed.
Uncle Wei "watched" him, grinning. "Well? Spot anything interesting?"
Lin Wanrong flipped through a few more pages, soaking in the finesse, critiquing the flaws in his own past moves. With a sleazy laugh, he said, "Heh, Uncle Wei, got any more goodies stashed away? Let me take a peek. Oh—any illustrated editions of Jin Ping Mei, Yu Pu Tuan, or The Lustful Monk of Lamp Grass?"
"What's Jin Ping Mei, Yu Pu Tuan, or The Lustful Monk of Lamp Grass?" Uncle Wei asked, genuinely baffled.
Lin Wanrong realized those classics didn't exist here. Pity for Uncle Wei—he let out a dry chuckle and didn't bother answering.
Uncle Wei didn't get it, but seeing Lin Wanrong's pervy grin, he could guess most of it.
He "glanced" at him, let out a few dry laughs, and a weird, tangled mix of emotions crossed his face. After a long pause, he muttered, "Man, being a guy's the best."
No way—Lin Wanrong sucked in a sharp breath. This eighty-year-old geezer wasn't gay, was he?
The thought made him break out in a cold sweat. Sure, his old world was pretty open-minded, but if he'd really been shacking up with an old queer for a month, how the hell would he face anyone after?
Uncle Wei sighed again, speaking slowly. "Don't let those dirty tricks blind you. Take a closer look at the red lines on those figures."
At that, Lin Wanrong noticed the faint, vein-like red lines crisscrossing the little people in the drawings. Could this be the legendary meridian map?
"Back before I went blind, I snuck into the imperial library and found this in some dusty corner. It's old as hell, no clue who made it or if it even works—nobody's tested it. I thought it looked kinda neat, so I kept it all this time," Uncle Wei said casually.
Holy shit—a "three-no product"! No wonder he's gifting it so generously. Lin Wanrong snickered, tempted to ask why the old man hadn't tried it himself.
Uncle Wei seemed to read his mind, hesitating before saying, "I—uh, can't practice it due to personal health issues. But I'm damn sure nobody's better suited for this technique than you.
"Fuck—was that a compliment or a dig?