Chapter 29: Is This a Common Problem for First-Time Fathers?

Can’t call him Immortal Venerable Grandpa?

Meng Nangnang and Meng Wowo were both a little confused. “Then what should we call him?”

The tiny cub’s question threw Wen Tingshu into silence.

The word “Dad” was difficult to say aloud with his relationship with Meng Baixu. He could not, while Lanshe was not present, trick his child into calling him Dad.

The matter of the Renxu Secret Realm seemed to point toward Lanshe knowing he was easy to conceive and deliberately setting things up to succeed, but… what if?

What if Lanshe had gotten pregnant by accident?

Wen Tingshu had reflected countless times. In the secret realm, if not for being provoked into evil thoughts by that sentence, “I’ll find someone else,” would he really have been unable to take Lanshe away smoothly?

Situ Nangnang was proof of Wen Tingshu’s guilt.

He had thought cultivation was long, and faces did not change. There would always be a day when their grudges melted away. He could wait three years, ten years, twenty years.

But he alone had not expected that what he missed in this life had been missed forever.

He could no longer take care of Lanshe when Lanshe needed care the most. He could no longer hold the swaddled Meng Nangnang.

Wen Tingshu said, “Call me… Shifu.”

Not Shigong, but Shifu.

“Shi… fu?”

Meng Nangnang repeated it with some unfamiliarity. In the Fuguang Sect, everyone could teach the saint children, so naturally they could not call everyone Shifu. The saint babies had no Shifu, only grandpas, grandmas, uncles…

Because of the cub’s pause that seemed almost like doubt, Wen Tingshu’s expression tightened.

Meng Nangnang asked, “Is it polite?”

If it was not polite, there would be no little steamed buns to eat.

As expected of father and son of the same line, even the words they said left Wen Tingshu unable to parry.

Wen Tingshu said, “Mn.”

All things on Hengxue Mountain had revived. Green grass, green bamboo. Wen Tingshu’s snow-white satin-like hair was especially conspicuous among the lush emerald.

White hair was rare in the cultivation world, especially in the Hengxue Sect and Fuguang Sect, where young talents gathered. Everywhere one looked were youthful immortals.

Meng Nangnang found it rare and interesting. One hand tightly grabbed a bundle of white hair, as if it were some fun toy.

The little cub did not know his own strength. Wen Tingshu’s scalp hurt from being grabbed, but his expression did not change.

Wen Tingshu knew Meng Nangnang was hungry and said, “In a while, Uncle Zhongli will bring food up.”

There were still leftover ingredients in the kitchen, but they had been frozen for two years and were no longer suitable to use.

Meng Nangnang licked the corner of his mouth. “Shifu, Baby wants to eat big naan flatbread and little steamed buns.”

Wen Tingshu had expected that Meng Baixu’s son would have the same tastes as him, and he had already planned what to make.

“Nangnang, where is your daddy?”

Did Lanshe not come? What did he mean by sending Nangnang here alone? Was he asking Wen Tingshu to use all his life’s learning to teach him?

Meng Nangnang could not explain clearly. Meng Wowo prompted him with keywords, so he spat out keywords one by one.

“Hengxue Mountain, find Daddy, have fish and little steamed buns.”

Wen Tingshu fell silent. So Meng Nangnang had been sent by Lanshe to look for him?

He looked at the tiny cub in his arms and intuitively felt that, before long, Lanshe would come to demand him back.

A moment later, Zhongli Yun brought flour, fresh meat, red bean paste… and some fabric.

Wen Tingshu wanted ingredients. Most likely, his disciple had returned.

Tsk, tsk. What had he said before? Sooner or later, Wen Tingshu would even personally cut and sew his disciple’s clothes. As expected, after a long-awaited reunion, his affection had deepened another level.

He could have sent a disciple to deliver them, but he came up personally to watch the excitement. Yet after looking left and right, he did not see the demonic sect leader.

Looking again, Wen Tingshu was holding a cub in his arms!

Had Wen Tingshu become so lonely that he had started raising a child?

Many people had come for the recruitment assembly, and the age gaps were enormous. He did not know which little young master had received such an honor.

“This is…”

“Uncle, I’m Situ Nangnang!”

Zhongli Yun said, “Oh, hello. So you are from the Situ family. You must be related to Situ Nanchun.”

Wen Tingshu looked at Zhongli Yun calmly. “Look again.”

Related to whom?

Why did Meng Baixu make Nangnang’s surname Situ?

Did he think Nangnang was Situ Nanchun’s child?

During the training trip, when he had been a puppet, he had not followed Meng Baixu at all times. Meng Baixu had indeed spent more time with Situ Nanchun.

As the steady and reliable former eldest shixiong, Situ Nanchun had run around before and after them, constantly mediating the conflicts between Meng Baixu and Xie Jing. He had a handsome face, refined speech, and courteous manners. He was the ideal man of many female cultivators.

Did Lanshe like Situ Nanchun?

Zhongli Yun looked carefully.

Damn. Where had Wen Tingshu picked up a biological son?

And a Golden Core son at that!

One look and he was clever and adorable. Their Hengxue Sect had a successor!

Zhongli Yun brought up exactly what should not be brought up. “Why is the little Sect Master surnamed Situ?”

Could it be that his mother was from the Situ family?

Wen Tingshu said, “He follows him.”

Zhongli Yun: “…”

Zhongli Yun vaguely felt that the little face looked a bit like that certain someone.

That certain someone who, when he had issued the rule forbidding master-disciple romances, loudly questioned whether he was trying to cut off the Sect Master’s descendants.

So it was you who gave birth to a child for the Sect Master!

No, how could a righteous path model like Wen Tingshu sleep with his disciple?

Uh, no, how could two men have a child?

Wen Tingshu did not answer Zhongli Yun’s doubts. Instead, using the fabric he had brought, he began skillfully sewing a… baby carrier.

Zhongli Yun stood there for a while, helping Wen Tingshu carry the little cub onto his back.

Meng Nangnang pressed his cheek against Wen Tingshu’s cool white hair. He had never been carried like this before and was a little dazed.

When Wen Tingshu started cooking with the cub on his back, Zhongli Yun left, unable to bear looking.

He could not even bear to put the child down while cooking.

Meng Nangnang happily fell asleep on Wen Tingshu’s back. When he woke, he directly saw a table full of wheat foods, and fish too.

Wen Tingshu put him down, held him on his lap, wrapped one arm around him, and held a spoon with the other.

“Eat fish soup.”

Tender boneless fish slices, very nutritious.

Meng Nangnang opened his mouth. Just as he was about to eat it, he tightly pursed his lips again and turned his face away.

Wowo had not eaten either, oh.

From birth until now, Meng Nangnang had never eaten a single meal apart from Wowo.

Wen Tingshu clearly saw drool at the corner of the little cub’s mouth, yet he refused to eat. He could not help feeling at a loss. Was this not how children were fed?

What should he do if the child would not eat?

Meng Wowo used his little brother’s sense of smell to smell the aroma of the fish soup. Shi Wumi-gege had said Wen Tingshu would bring Nangnang to find Daddy, so Nangnang had to behave well.

Elder Grandpa had said before that eating properly made one the most obedient child.

Meng Wowo quietly said to Meng Nangnang, “Nangnang eat. I’m not hungry.”

Meng Nangnang did not believe him. There was no baby who did not like eating.

Meng Wowo said solemnly, “I am doing bigu.”

“Bigu?”

Meng Nangnang voiced his confusion. As a poor-student baby, he did not know what bigu meant.

Wen Tingshu froze. Bigu? At one and a half years old, he had to do bigu?

So Lanshe had sent the child to the Hengxue Sect to learn bigu?

Wen Tingshu roughly guessed that when he had forced Lanshe to undergo bigu back then, he had truly made his disciple suffer for three days for nothing.

Because of that, Lanshe had thought him cold-blooded and heartless, so now he had sent Nangnang, who needed to undergo bigu, to him as revenge?

Wen Tingshu had indeed been revenged against. Facing a cub not even two years old, how could he bear it?

Meng Nangnang had asked what time they ate the moment he arrived, but when food reached his mouth, he refused to eat because of bigu. At barely over one year old, he already had such a steadfast temperament. This only made him more heartbreaking.

“Nangnang is still small. You don’t need to do bigu.”

Wen Tingshu gently coaxed the cub. “That is something for when you grow up. I will always protect you.”

Meng Nangnang scratched his cheek. Nangnang was still small, but was Wowo-gege not small?

He had it. He could pack the food away and, somewhere Wen Tingshu could not see, call Wowo out to eat.

Nangnang would eat his fill first, oh!

Wen Tingshu watched Meng Nangnang suddenly understand. His small body leaned forward, one hand grabbing a red bean bun and the other grabbing sesame naan, stuffing them into his mouth in turns.

Wen Tingshu was afraid he would choke, so he found gaps to feed him spoonfuls of fish soup.

Meng Nangnang ate wildly. The little steamed buns Wen Tingshu made tasted exactly like the ones in Daddy’s qiankun pouch!

He happily narrowed his eyes. “It has Daddy’s taste, oh!”

Wen Tingshu’s breath lightened. For a moment, he almost thought Meng Nangnang had called him Daddy.

Meng Nangnang was probably saying that the steamed buns he made tasted the same as the steamed buns Meng Baixu made.

Meng Baixu had actually even learned how to make steamed buns.

If he had known earlier, he definitely would not have let Lanshe cook.

“Your daddy makes little steamed buns for you?”

Meng Nangnang shook his head. “No.”

Wen Tingshu: ?

Meng Nangnang pointed at his own pouch. “It’s the little steamed buns in Daddy’s pouch.”

“Little babies can’t eat them. Only adults can eat them.”

Meng Nangnang sounded like he was complaining as he took a bite of sesame naan. “Baby ate them. Delicious.”

Wen Tingshu could not uphold justice for his son.

“Mn. Little babies can’t eat them.”

He focused on serving the child he shared with Lanshe, afraid he would not eat enough. He carefully observed his preferences with every bite. Even when Meng Nangnang ate until his belly was round, Wen Tingshu still felt somewhat empty inside.

Was this a common problem for first-time fathers?

He kept feeling that the child had not eaten enough, and he was so worried he almost could not breathe.

“Nangnang, are you full?”

Meng Nangnang nodded heavily. “Full.”

Wen Tingshu asked, “Do you want to eat a little more?”

Meng Nangnang rubbed his belly. “Baby can’t eat anymore!”

Wen Tingshu asked, “What do you want to eat tonight?”

Meng Nangnang said, “Little steamed buns again!”

Meng Wowo used all the willpower in his cub body to resist the temptation of little steamed buns.

The steamed buns made by the Immortal Venerable tasted the same as the little steamed buns that dropped gold coins.

Wowo wanted to eat them too.

Meng Nangnang opened the qiankun pouch and carefully glanced at Wen Tingshu: Can Baby pack some?

Wen Tingshu’s heart ached. Just how long had he been hungry that he had learned to plan ahead?

“They are all yours.”

“Wu, thank you, Shifu!”

Meng Nangnang swiftly stuffed buns, cornmeal buns, and naan flatbreads into the qiankun pouch all at once, saving them for Wowo to eat.

Meng Wowo saw Nangnang take so much food and quickly reminded him to pay: “We brought gold coins and magic treasures. We can exchange them for buns!”

Right, oh!

Seeing that the qiankun pouch was almost too full, Meng Nangnang decisively cleared out some space-taking things.

He grabbed a handful of gold coins, a handful of Heavenly Thunder Pearls, and an East Wind Dance Divine Sword, then pushed them all toward Wen Tingshu at once. Obediently, he said, “Baby gives these to Shifu.”

Wen Tingshu: “…”

Several buns had earned such a grand meeting gift. The little cub did not know that just one Heavenly Thunder Pearl could be exchanged for ten thousand buns.

The things he had given Lanshe had now been transferred back to him by the little cub. This generous nature was just like Meng Baixu. Even when meeting someone for the first time, he was always very lavish.

Only then did Wen Tingshu remember that he had not yet given Meng Nangnang a meeting gift.

From Meng Nangnang’s birth until now, he had given him nothing.

What should he give…

Wen Tingshu suddenly felt embarrassed.

His best treasures had already been given to Lanshe, and they were precisely the pile the little cub had taken out in front of him.

The number one person in the cultivation world could not beat a child at gift-giving. Wen Tingshu was so ashamed that he wished he could disappear.

He could only take out a cicada-patterned jade pendant. This was the Wen family’s totem from five hundred years ago, which had long gone unused. Wen Tingshu had not passed it to his disciple, but he thought his children should at least recognize it.

“For Nangnang.”

Meng Nangnang took it and looked at it.

Oh. Wowo and Nangnang have this too, oh.

He casually put it into the qiankun pouch together with the rest, tied the pouch shut tightly, then lifted his head and looked at Shizun with a pair of clear, innocent black-and-white eyes.

Baby is full. Baby needs to go down the mountain for a bit!

Wowo could not come out to eat here.