Who got cucked? Was it Ergou’s dad or his mum?

Countless possibilities flashed through Chu Qiguang’s mind as he stared at the name on the bamboo slip.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, then looked up at Ergou's mother and asked, “Was I adopted?”

“Of course not, you silly boy!” Ergou's mother scoffed.

“In that case, shouldn’t my surname be Zhou?” Chu Qiguang asked.

“I don’t know the exact details, but your father did mention to me that the Zhou Clan was supposed to have the Chu surname for some reason,” Ergou’s mother replied.

“So Father wants me to change my name?” Chu Qiguang asked. “My name is still Zhou Ergou in the county’s official records, right? Do I have to go to the county office to change it?”

He would have to undergo identity verification if he wanted to take part in the imperial examination and enter the officialdom, so if he wanted the name Chu Qiguang to stick, he would have to make it official.

“Your father told me that he once bribed a scribe from the county office to create a fake household register for you in Wang Clan Village,” Ergou’s mother said. “Chu Qiguang is supposed to be the same age as you, and he’s the only one in that household, so you can just use that name from now on.”

Chu Qiguang was very surprised to hear this. There were four types of households in the Great Han Empire that were exempt from taxes and forced labor. These included households consisting solely of elderly men with no wives, elderly women with no husbands, young children with no parents or guardians, and elderly individuals with no sons or daughters.

This fake household created by Ergou’s father clearly fell into one of those four categories, as it was a household that consisted of only a single orphaned child. Somehow, Ergou’s father had arranged all of this over a decade ago.

Chu Qiguang had a very strange feeling about all of this.

He asked a few more questions, but he could tell that Ergou’s mother didn’t know much about the subject at all. It seemed that Ergou’s father had taken his secrets with him when he disappeared on that ill-fated trip into the mountains.

On the surface, Chu Qiguang’s expression remained unchanged, but inwardly, he was feeling very suspicious.

After leaving the house, he spotted Qiao Zhi outside, still instructing Fine Silk on how to get out of manual labor, so he began, “Master Qiao, do you know anything about—”

“You’re changing names, right?” Qiao Zhi interrupted before Chu Qiguang had a chance to finish. “Go ahead. Chu Qiguang is definitely a better-sounding name than Ergou, and it’ll also hide your connection to your mother and sister, so you won’t have to worry about them if you make any enemies in the future.”

Chu Qiguang gave Qiao Zhi a strange look, then pulled the bamboo slip out of the wooden box and showed it to him.

“I’m not the one who wants to change my name. It was my father.”

After hearing Chu Qiguang’s recount of events, an incredulous look appeared on Qiao Zhi’s face, and he began pacing back and forth.

How is this possible? This isn’t what’s meant to happen! Chu Qiguang was supposed to have his own name officially changed! How is his father behind the name change instead?

Chu Qiguang immediately picked up on the bewildered look on Qiao Zhi’s face, and he asked, “Is this different from the future that you know?”

Qiao Zhi hesitated for a moment, then nodded as he replied, “Your father definitely shouldn’t be aware of the name Chu Qiguang.”

The more Qiao Zhi thought about it, the more uneasy he became, and he hurriedly began grooming himself to regain his composure.

Meanwhile, Chu Qiguang revealed that he was planning to look into the disappearance of Ergou’s father and brother.

After hearing his plans, Qiao Zhi sighed, “There’s something that I haven’t told you because I was worried it would hinder your cultivation, but it looks like I have no choice now. Your clan was sent out by the Vajra Monastery to protect a certain scripture, and it once had the Chu surname. However, fifty years ago, the imperial court began stamping out the influence of Buddhism in the Great Han Empire.

“The three major Buddhist schools at the time, the Maha Religion, the Brahma Sect, and the Vajra Monastery, were all destroyed. In order to hide their identities, the ancestors of your clan changed their names, but the past clan leaders continued to protect that scripture from the Vajra Monastery for generation after generation. What happened to your father and brother is that they were attacked by nefarious individuals while checking on the condition of the scripture, which they had hidden in the mountains.

“Not only were they killed, the scripture was also taken. I’ve already buried their bodies, and I was worried that learning all of this would weigh too heavily on you and hinder your cultivation, so I intended to keep it from you.”

Chu Qiguang was overcome by a myriad of complex emotions.

Given that he was Chu Qiguang from Earth, he felt no emotional attachment to Ergou’s family, but Ergou's deep-rooted memories were affecting him in subtle ways, filling him with a sense of grief and anger.

“Who killed them?” Chu Qiguang asked.

“Do you want to avenge them?” Qiao Zhi sighed. “I didn’t want to tell you this before because I was worried that it would affect your mental state and hinder your cultivation. It’s extremely important to temper your mental state in the cultivation of both martial arts and Dao arts, and even the slightest discord in your mental state can become an obstacle to your progress.”

Chu Qiguang closed his eyes and took a deep breath, doing his best to suppress his emotions as he said, “Let me take a night to compose myself, and you can tell me tomorrow.”

That night, Chu Qiguang did his best to maintain a tranquil mental state while cultivating, trying to ward off the irrational influence of Ergou’s memories, but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to shake off the feeling that something was wrong.

Zhou Ergou’s memories kept surfacing in his mind. He tried to stay rational, telling himself that Zhou Ergou had nothing to do with him, but those deep-rooted memories were triggering all kinds of emotional responses.

The memories didn’t belong to him, yet they were affecting his emotions so deeply that it felt as if two people were at war inside his head. The agitation within him only grew stronger and stronger.

In the end, he awakened from his meditative state and began practicing his Heavenly Spirit Body Refinement Fist Techniques instead.

However, he found himself just as distracted, which negatively affected his progress.

This is affecting both my martial arts and Dao arts cultivation. The biggest concern is that my meditation has become less efficient, which means that I’ll have to spend more time resting every day, and that’s only going to further slow me down. It seems like it’s impossible for me to be unaffected unless I can somehow completely get rid of Ergou’s memories. If I can’t avoid the problem, then I’ll just have to do something about it.

With that in mind, he picked up Qiao Zhi and began petting him.

As he did so, he gradually began to calm down, and he asked, “The only way I’ll be able to restore peace to my mental state is by taking revenge, right?”

“Either that, or you continue to meditate and slowly make progress over time until you’re no longer affected by these emotions,” Qiao Zhi replied. “Life is always filled with much more hardship than joy, and everyone will inevitably have a few thorns in their heart. Most people can only continue to cultivate while carrying these burdens.

“The more life experience they accumulate, the more their heart becomes riddled with thorns, and the slower their cultivation becomes. That’s why some people go to secluded places to isolate themselves and cultivate in peace.”

Chu Qiguang nodded in response.

However, he knew that patience was not his forte, so he asked, “Who do I have to go after for revenge?”