One morning in the late 1990s, the Xie family estate welcomed a momentous occasion.
The family was about to welcome a new little master.
This was the first child born to Lu Qiwu and Xie Yanxun after their marriage, so both the Lu and Xie families regarded him with the utmost importance.
Lu Huaiyu was born into a world of eager anticipation. Even before he came into the world, he had already been showered with all the love his family could give.
As his parents’ first child, he was raised strictly by the book until he turned two.
Then, after learning how to get into mischief, young Lu Huaiyu successfully transitioned to a much more free-range lifestyle.
He would often spend a week at the old family home with his great-grandfather, then get taken away by his maternal grandparents for a few days, before finally wandering over to his paternal grandparents’ place.
“Oh, heavens! Lu Huaiyu, where did you get yourself into this state?”
Chen Linmei stared helplessly at the filthy child in front of her. He looked like a snow-glutinous-rice dessert that had been transformed into a grimy bread roll!
His whole body was covered in dirt, several dried blades of grass were stuck in his hair, there was a hole torn in the knee of his pants, and one of his shoes had vanished without a trace.
Young Lu Huaiyu “timidly” rubbed his little hands together, two pools of tears shimmering in his eyes.
“Grandma~ I didn’t do it on purpose~”
“It was Wangcai’s fault. I was doing my letters properly, but then he insisted on chasing me around and playing! If I didn’t play with him, he scratched me!”
“So I had no choice but to run, and I even lost my shoe while I was at it~ Boo-hoo-hoo~”
Wangcai was the beautiful orange cat owned by Grandpa Niu next door. He often came over to visit.
The cat was a good cat, but the child was no good at all. Young Lu Huaiyu was constantly itching to tug on Wangcai’s fur.
Wangcai would often respond by giving him a thorough beating. Fortunately, the cat was a good cat and knew how to control his strength. Otherwise, that cheeky little boy would have been scratched to tears by now.
Chen Linmei rubbed her aching temple.
“Don’t pretend. Did the cat really chase you because he wanted to play?”
Young Lu Huaiyu nodded with an adorable, innocent expression. He was a round little ball of a child, and even covered in grime, he was still too cute to stay angry with.
Unfortunately, the person standing opposite him was Chen Linmei. After enduring this little menace for so long, every last trace of her rose-tinted filter had already shattered.
“Are you sure it wasn’t because you hid the cat’s food bowl and buried his little fur ball in the garden, so Wangcai got angry and chased you?”
Perhaps he had picked up this habit from some television drama he had seen the adults watching. The little boy immediately raised two fingers and began to swear an oath.
“I swear on four fingers, this time Wangcai started it! He chased me the whole time, and I only escaped by crawling through the doggy door!”
The little ball of glutinous rice had not even learned to pronounce his words properly, yet he had already mastered the art of making things up.
After returning the cat’s bowl and little fur ball—which Lu Huaiyu had hidden—to Grandpa Niu next door, Xie Heng'an walked over to the boy with a stern expression.
“Lying isn’t something good children do.”
Chen Linmei crouched down so they were eye to eye.
“Your grandpa is right. You can be mischievous, but you can’t deliberately lie. Do you understand?”
Young Lu Huaiyu was only a little over two years old, so he did not really understand the principles his grandparents were talking about. Still, he nodded as if he understood.
He also made it clear that in the future, when he played pranks on the little cat, he would be more careful and absolutely make sure Wangcai didn’t catch him.
Chen Linmei and Xie Heng'an fell silent.
A child’s train of thought really was wonderfully bizarre. He was exactly like Xie Yanxun had been as a child—if anything, even worse!
Chen Linmei was a fashionista and, more or less, had a bit of a cleanliness obsession.
Looking at the limited-edition “filthy bread roll” version of Lu Huaiyu in front of her, she really didn’t feel like picking him up. So she decisively turned to Xie Heng'an.
“Honey, I got a new hairstyle today, so it’s not really suitable for carrying a child. You do it!”
Without a word, Xie Heng'an picked up the filthy Lu Huaiyu and took him to have a bath. He had never intended to let Chen Linmei carry the boy anyway.
He was simply too dirty. After sweating so much, he smelled awful, too.
The moment young Lu Huaiyu was lifted into the air, he began to protest.
“Grandpa, I don’t want to take a bath! I don’t want to take a bath!”
Young Lu Huaiyu was nothing like the refined person he would grow up to be. At this age, he was just like all the other children—a stinky little boy who hated bathing.
Xie Heng'an gave him a smack on the backside.
“If you don’t take a bath, go sleep with the pigs! You’re both stinky anyway!”
“Grandpa will raise two pigs in the garden so you can have some company!”
The old man had only been joking, but young Lu Huaiyu took him completely seriously.
“Really, Grandpa? We can really raise pigs in the garden?”
“Then I want to raise a miniature pig and a wild boar with tusks!”
The child chattered away, happily imagining his future life raising pigs, while Chen Linmei and Xie Heng'an fell silent once again.
As it turned out, they really did raise two little pigs for him in the garden later on.
When Lu Huaiyu was a little over four, he did something else that shook the heavens and earth.
By then, he had started kindergarten and had already become the leader of all the children there.
His rebellious middle-schooler spirit was beginning to show. Being the little boss of his own class was no longer enough for him. He wanted to become the boss of the entire kindergarten.
So he led a group of children from the middle class to challenge the children in the senior class. That was also how he met Shen Lin for the first time—the friend who would later become his partner in crime.
Little Shen Lin was no less troublesome. The moment he heard that Lu Huaiyu wanted to become the boss of the entire kindergarten, he was the first to declare that he refused to accept it and challenged him.
The two boys’ battle was ready to erupt at any moment. In the end, they agreed that whoever could successfully make every child in the kindergarten cry would become the kindergarten’s boss.
And so, over the course of a single day, the kindergarten teachers experienced what was probably the most miserable day of their lives.
In the morning, thanks to the presence of the genius contestant Lu Huaiyu, the entire kindergarten rang with the deafening sound of children crying.
In the afternoon, thanks to little Shen Lin’s outstanding performance, the kindergarten was once again flooded by the children’s tears.
Both boys succeeded, but in the end, neither of them became boss.
Because both of them got their parents called in.
When Lu Qiwu and Xie Yanxun heard what had happened, they first failed to hold back their laughter in front of all the teachers and parents and laughed for a full five minutes.
Only then did they begin apologizing one by one—especially to all the teachers.
The teachers had certainly suffered enough after being saddled with a little devil like Lu Huaiyu.
That evening, young Lu Huaiyu did not get punished right away. Instead, his mother and father coaxed and cajoled him into recounting the entire glorious story of his deeds.
Lu Qiwu pinched the round little ball’s cheek before speaking in an especially gentle voice.
“Big Yu, sweetheart, come tell Mommy—how did you manage to make more than a hundred children in the entire kindergarten cry?”
The nickname Da Yu had nothing to do with the birth of Xie Changyu. It was simply because Lu Huaiyu himself felt that being called “Xiao Yu” was not imposing enough.
So he demanded that everyone in the family call him Da Yu. At the time, little Lu Huaiyu thought the nickname sounded incredibly powerful!
The members of the Xie family had always respected his wishes, so Da Yu became his nickname.
Xie Yanxun, meanwhile, crouched in front of young Lu Huaiyu like a suspicious uncle trying to lure away someone else’s child and began coaxing him into talking.
“Our Da Yu is just too impressive. So, could you tell Dad how you and Shen Lin—the boy from the senior class—pulled off your little ‘crime’?”
