RIRW – Chapter 173

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Zuo Dan never imagined that her dad would actually set his sights on naming Shen Youyou… and even tried to take a roundabout route by asking an elder to name the child.

Heh, so much for the upright and principled persona he always claimed to have.

As Shen Youyou’s mother, Zuo Dan naturally wasn’t going to handle this alone, so she said she needed to discuss it with Shen Yiming, the father.

Chen Zhisen, of course, agreed. As a good father, he would never put his daughter in a difficult position.

So that evening, while the family was having dinner together, Chen Zhisen brought it up with Shen Yiming.

“In some large families, it’s a tradition for male elders—especially those from the grandfather’s generation—to name boys. The name often carries their hopes and blessings for the child. This custom has been passed down for generations, so it must have its merits. Yiming, what do you think?”

Chen Zhisen smiled as he looked at Shen Yiming.

Shen Yiming also smiled. “Dad, you’re right. But this is a new era now. You just came back from overseas—don’t tell me you’re still clinging to such traditional ideas?”

“I am indeed still clinging to them,” Chen Zhisen replied frankly.

Zuo Dan: “……” This man really doesn’t play by the rules.

Shen Yiming chuckled and said, “China is undergoing reforms now. We’re embracing new ideas and new theories. We should keep up with the times.”

Chen Zhisen replied, “Reforms can’t change family matters. They can’t change an elder’s love for the young, nor the younger generation’s respect for their elders. Yiming, children imitate their elders—you are Youyou’s role model.”

Zuo Dan was happily eating her food while watching the two men spar back and forth. Then she looked over and saw Shen Youyou eating even more enthusiastically—completely unaware that his naming rights had triggered a full-blown tug-of-war.

Grandma was observing them all and started to sense something was going on.

“If you ask me,” she said, “the name should be chosen by Youyou himself. Here’s what we’ll do: write the names we’ve come up with on pieces of paper and let him pick one. Names are a matter of fate. He might not understand anything now, but whichever name he picks is the one he’s destined for.”

Shen Yiming considered the feasibility of that suggestion.

Chen Zhisen stared at Shen Youyou, lost in thought.

“I agree,” Zuo Dan raised her hand to vote. They couldn’t let a name spark a family war. It’d be one thing if one side was weaker than the other, but these two were clearly evenly matched, unwilling to give an inch.

Chen Zhisen nodded. “I agree too.”

Shen Yiming chuckled, “Sounds good.”

The family prepared paper, and Chen Zhisen wrote the name he had chosen for Shen Youyou: “Youlin” (佑霖).

“Dad, what does that mean?” Zuo Dan asked.

Chen Zhisen smiled and explained, “As your child, his future success is already assured. I’m not worried about that. What I hope for is a peaceful life, that he’ll be protected by heaven and won’t suffer the hardships we did. ‘Lin’ (霖) means grace and blessing. To me, a child is heaven’s blessing. And his nickname is Youyou (右右), right? The characters have a similar ring.”

Zuo Dan wholeheartedly agreed and was about to nod when she saw Shen Yiming smiling. So she said instead, “Mm, Dad, you’ve put a lot of thought into it.”

After speaking, she leaned closer to Shen Yiming and whispered, “Comrade Yiming, what if Shen Youyou doesn’t pick your name?”

Shen Yiming replied, “Names aren’t that big a deal. But the naming right—that, as his father, I absolutely can’t give up. If Shen Youyou ends up picking the other name, that’s fate—not because I conceded.”

Zuo Dan understood now. So one wanted the naming right, and the other wanted to protect his fatherly dignity.

Men sure are complicated. She decided not to interfere anymore. As a smart woman, she knew that at times like these, it was best not to take sides. Anyway, for her, the formal name was just for the outside world—no matter what, Shen Youyou would always be her little Youyou.

They wrote the two names on paper balls. When Zuo Dan saw Shen Yiming take out his prepared paper, she rubbed her forehead. He had actually folded the paper into a little tiger—Youyou’s favorite toy.

That’s cheating!

Chen Zhisen noticed too and gave a small laugh. That smile was full of meaning.

Zuo Dan decided to give her man a hand. “Actually, folding it into a little tiger is nice. He’s a boy—‘tigerish and mighty,’ as the saying goes.”

Chen Zhisen said, “Our generation values food as the foundation, the root of the people. I won’t follow your path.”

As he spoke, he took out his prepared paper ball—which turned out to be the color of a cupcake. Who knows where he found a red pen to draw little fruits on it?

Neither of them was easy to deal with.

Zuo Dan decided not to bother anymore and turned to pick up the child.

“Youyou, choose whichever one you like. This is a big decision for your whole life, so choose carefully,”

Shen Youyou looked at the two small toys on the table, eyes shining with joy.

He ran over, looked at this one, looked at that one, and then reached out both hands as if he wanted to take them all.

Zuo Dan quickly stopped him, “You can’t be greedy. You can only take one.” She held up one finger.

Shen Youyou immediately understood what that meant. Every time he was only allowed to choose one, his mother would do the same gesture.

He pouted pitifully and called out to his grandpa, “Sweet Grandpa~”

Chen Zhisen smiled kindly at him but didn’t budge. Youyou then turned to Shen Yiming, “Daddy, Daddy~”

Shen Yiming pointed at the table.

Getting no help, he went looking for his great-grandmother, only to find she had already gone to the kitchen.

He withdrew his gaze and looked at the table with grievance. He glanced at one toy, then the other, and finally reached out his chubby little fair hand and picked up Sweet.

Chen Zhisen smiled and walked over to pick him up, “Youlin, Shen Youlin.”

Shen Youyou stuffed the paper ball into his mouth. Realizing it was fake, he immediately burst into loud wails. He wanted to choose again.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry, Grandpa will get you something tasty,” Chen Zhisen coaxed gently.

Zuo Dan ran to Shen Yiming’s side, who laughed and said, “It’s good for this little guy to suffer a bit. We’ll have to tell him about this often in the future—his formal name was decided over a fake cake. Let it be a lesson for him not to judge things by appearances. He’ll suffer less in the future.”

Vengeful much? This was clearly meant to embarrass Shen Youyou in the future. And yet he was speaking so righteously and nobly. Zuo Dan pinched him, “You’re just like a child.” Then whispered, “Let’s have another one. You can choose the name next time. I’ll make the decision.”

Shen Yiming tapped her nose and smiled without answering. If he made his wife suffer just for the sake of picking a name, then he wouldn’t be a real man.

Whatever Shen Youyou thought, his formal name was now set. When Grandma heard it, she also quite approved of the name Chen Zhisen had picked. For elders, they had no other wish for a child except for him to grow up safely and live a smooth life. If she had named him, it probably would have been something like Jiabao or Jiakang. But ultimately, she had a more traditional mindset and felt that it wasn’t proper for female elders to name children, so she didn’t interfere. Everyone in this family was highly educated, so the name wouldn’t be bad either way.

To celebrate Shen Youyou’s formal name, Chen Zhisen had Xiao Qiu go buy some pastries. Although it wasn’t cream cake, it was still quite good. After all, the provincial capital didn’t have much variety.

Shen Youyou wasn’t picky either and happily ate two pieces. The rest of the pastries were distributed by Grandma and Shen Youyou to the neighbors, telling everyone that Shen Youyou’s formal name was Shen Youlin.

When Chen Pingping heard the name, she looked at Zuo Dan strangely and whispered, “Did my fifth uncle pick the name?”

“How did you know?” Zuo Dan asked curiously.

“In our family, everyone in Youyou’s generation has the generational name You.”

“…”

That night, when they were in bed, Zuo Dan remarked how cunning her biological father was.

Shen Yiming was reading. Now that Shen Youyou was sleeping with Chen Zhisen, the couple could finally enjoy some peace and quiet. Hearing her words, he smiled and said, “There’s a lot of discrimination against Chinese people overseas. In Western countries, Chinese people aren’t highly regarded. Life there is actually very difficult. But your dad managed to become a representative in the business association and built such a big business empire in the U.S. This time, many of the import-export matters were handled by him. Do you think he could have done that without being shrewd? What he’s doing here is nothing compared to what he’s done over there. If he really wanted to stir things up… hehe…”

Zuo Dan yawned, “Anyway, you’re all the same. When you reach his age, you’ll probably be just as bad.”

Then she thought of everything Chen Zhisen had been through in his life and sighed, “Even smart people have hard times.” She added, puzzled, “Tell me, what exactly happened to that letter back then? Why did it just happen to be that one letter that disappeared?”

“Losing letters was pretty common back then,” Shen Yiming replied as he flipped another page. “Could’ve been taken by mistake, lost in transit… there are many possibilities.”

Zuo Dan said, “If I ever get the chance, I want to go to the post office and see if there’s any way to find records from twenty years ago. But I can’t let my parents find out. They’ve already moved on. Don’t be fooled by how indifferent they seem. That one lost letter caused a misunderstanding that lasted twenty years. It’s a thorn in their hearts. They just choose not to dwell on it, but it must hurt.”

Shen Yiming put down his book and slipped under the covers. “I bet someone’s already looked into it. It’d be a miracle if you found anything. So many things happened in between, and records from that era aren’t easy to dig up.”

Zuo Dan was still deep in thought, but when she saw him lie down, she followed suit and got into bed. “Shen Yiming, what do you think of my proposal from earlier? Let’s have another kid. Look at my dad, he’s hogging Shen Youyou all day. I’m worried Grandma’s going to feel left out with nothing to do.”

Shen Yiming hugged her and said, “Hmm, we can consider it.” Then rolled over on top of her.

A long while later, Zuo Dan pushed at the head still resting on her chest. “… Shen Yiming, you big liar…”

Winter break was ending, and Zuo Dan and Shen Yiming were preparing to return to Beijing.

Shen Yiming spent a day inviting some old friends out for dinner. In this past year, most of the guys had found partners. Xu Dapeng’s wife was even pregnant.

Knowing that Shen Yiming was leaving for real this time and no one knew when he’d be back again, the group couldn’t help getting teary-eyed. They pulled him into a hearty drinking session.

Before they left, Chen Zhisen took Shen Yiming’s whole family to visit the Li family again. After all, who knew when they’d meet again.