YA Ch3: Divorce

“Are you Lu Dongdong?” Lu Yu laughed in anger. “Stop talking nonsense. Do you even know who Lu Dongdong is? If you’re Lu Dongdong, then I must be the Monkey King!”

Lu Dongdong was the protagonist of his first novel, The Fish King. To him, this character wasn’t just a fictional creation but also a close friend, embodying his childhood pains, frustrations, and hopes. Lu Dongdong was irreplaceable.

The machine had played Lu Dongdong for so long that it had started to believe it was the character.

The more Lu Yu thought about it, the angrier he became. He grabbed the counterweight rope of the merman ball. “You claim to be Lu Dongdong, huh? Show me a Storm Shepherd spell.”

This was one of Lu Dongdong’s basic magic skills, which could control storms, making it rain on a sunny day or creating strong winds out of nowhere.

The merman ball swished its tail and calmly said, “This isn’t my world. There’s no spiritual energy or magic element here. This is your world, Father.”

This wasn’t a line from the book but a logically coherent original statement, without breaking character, as if a real person were speaking from within the balloon. If it were merely role-playing, the AI wouldn’t be able to create new lines; it would only draw from existing ones.

Lu Yu began brainstorming.

Could this thing really be Lu Dongdong, a paper character that had ascended to become a robot?

Since he could travel through time, why would it be strange for a paper character to come to life? This perfectly explained why it was “unique intelligence.”

If this really was his paper son…

Lu Yu felt a rush of warmth and looked at Lu Dongdong with affection. Lu Dongdong gave him a sideways grin.

Lu Yu: “…”

Lu Dongdong: “If you can show me the Somersault Cloud, maybe I can try the Storm Shepherd.”

Damn, he got played by an AI!

Anger surged in Lu Yu’s heart. He picked up a couch cushion. “I’ll show you the fury of a father first!”

The merman ball swished its tail and ran. Lu Yu chased after it. He was so focused on the chase that he didn’t hear the door open and crashed into Ming Yan, who had just walked in, in the hallway.

Real, warm, male god!

“Thud,” the cushion fell to the ground.

The close-up beauty stunned Lu Yu, making him forget to breathe. He held his breath until he was dizzy before coming back to his senses. He swallowed, quickly let go, and then worried Ming Yan might not have steadied himself. He wanted to help but didn’t dare touch him, anxiously circling around like a dog that smelled a delicious bone but didn’t dare bite without its owner’s permission.

Ming Yan, wearing a suit jacket with the top two buttons of his shirt undone and a loosely held tie, stood tall under the bright hallway lights. Compared to his youthful days, his charm and aura had increased exponentially, like the cold moonlight turning into a dazzling sun, able to pierce straight through Lu Yu’s young heart.

Lu Yu stared blankly, unable to speak, just circling to check if his treasure had been hurt.

Watching Lu Yu, who looked like a little dog circling around him, Ming Yan found him surprisingly pleasing today, even a bit cute. He couldn’t resist reaching out to touch the head that smelled faintly of bath soap, but stopped midway, clenched his fist, and put it behind his back. “The butler said your conversation with him was unusual. What happened?”

“It’s complicated…” Lu Yu paused, putting on an innocent face. “I was just joking with him. I didn’t expect him to have no sense of humor.”

He hadn’t figured out how to explain time travel to Ming Yan. He couldn’t just say, “Your husband was outdated and sent back for repairs, so they temporarily replaced him with a new core,” could he? He could only blame the overly serious butler for not getting his jokes.

Ming Yan took off his jacket and walked to the sofa area. “Asking someone to call you Dad isn’t something most people would find humorous.”

“Ah haha!” Lu Yu laughed dryly, following Ming Yan to sit on the sofa, snuggling close. “Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat.”

Ming Yan looked at him deeply. “Did you see the message I sent?”

Lu Yu’s eyes sparkled, staring at his freshly won wife, his mind going blank at those beautiful eyes. He foolishly replied, “What message? I didn’t see it. I just woke up after fainting.” Before losing all reason to the beauty, he added, “I didn’t just hastily take a shower and change clothes to look this good.”

The merman ball quietly swam over, displaying the last message from Ming Yan on its screen:

[Let’s get a divorce.]

Divorce?!

Lu Yu’s pupils dilated in shock.

The last message was a divorce request. No wonder Ming Yan was looking at him strangely, probably thinking he was being extra nice to save the marriage.

Just when he had won his wife, not even warmed up, and now losing him? He felt the world’s cruel malice.

Ming Yan sighed. “Never mind, it’s better to talk in person.”

Lu Yu: “Wait a moment!”

Ming Yan: “Let’s get a divorce.”

Lu Yu: “I’m from the past.”

Ming Yan: “…”

The room fell into an awkward silence.

Lu Yu coughed, trying to explain. “Well, I traveled here from ten years ago. I’m not the original Lu Yu. You can call me Lu Xiaoyu (Xiao means little), and the previous one was Lu Dayu (Da means big).”

Ming Yan rubbed his forehead in frustration. “What are you playing at now—a new plot for your book?”

In the past, when Lu Yu wrote books, he liked to immerse himself in the worldview he created, to the point that his way of speaking and behavior patterns would change. As a result, during his university years, he was particularly immature, and just after graduation, he was quite domineering. However, in recent years, Lu Yu has rarely written anything. After starting his own company, he became so busy he had no time to write, and he hadn’t been in this state for a long time.

“Really, I truly did time travel,” Lu Yu had to tell the truth. “One moment I was in my dorm room, the next moment I woke up in the study, and I have no idea what happened. Anyway, I’m not him. I can’t be responsible for your marriage. If you want a divorce, you’ll have to wait for him to come back and discuss it with him.”

Ming Yan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, as if trying to restrain his anger. “Lu Yu, I’m really exhausted. I don’t have the energy to play with you.”

The smile on Lu Yu’s face gradually disappeared. Seeing Ming Yan like this made him feel heartbroken. He silently cursed, “Lu Dayu, you’ve done nothing but bad things.” Although he didn’t know what had happened, blaming Lu Dayu was the right thing to do.

After a moment of silence, Lu Yu gently tugged at the tie wrapped around Ming Yan’s hand. “I’m not playing around. I’m telling the truth, senior.”

Hearing this long-forgotten address, Ming Yan opened his eyes and was momentarily stunned by the clear eyes looking back at him. These were definitely not the eyes of a twenty-eight-year-old Lu Yu.

Having done business for years, Ming Yan had seen all kinds of pretentious people and knew that the eyes were the hardest to fake. If Lu Yu had this level of acting skills, he shouldn’t be writing books; he should be winning an Oscar.

“Father is not acting,” the merman ball floated over, helping to explain for its father. “Before you came back, he was howling at the mirror, his abs, the projector, attempting to call the police, running around the house, throwing slippers, and trying to pee upside down…”

“I did not pee upside down! Stop making things up!” At first, Lu Yu was moved, but the more he listened, the more wrong it sounded. He grabbed the merman ball, trying to cover its mouth. This little rascal dared to ruin his image in front of his idol.

Ming Yan saw his actions and couldn’t help but slightly smile. “It’s speaking through your AI assistant. Covering its mouth won’t help.”

Lu Yu awkwardly pulled his hand back, giving the merman ball a light slap on its bottom. “This thing’s personality is just like that brat Lu Dongdong, spouting nonsense.”

In the book The Fish King, Lu Dongdong was originally a well-off young master. One day, the world changed dramatically, with spiritual energy reviving and monsters emerging from the ground and deep sea, and he awakened his merman bloodline. His family, fearing his awakened powers, kicked him out. He wandered for a long time, becoming cynical, ruthless, and cunning.

“I am Lu Dongdong, Daddy. You please tell Father,” the merman ball floated to Ming Yan, pitifully complaining.

Ming Yan pondered for a moment. “Dongdong is our company’s main product.”

Product? Lu Yu’s mind conjured an image of a row of chibi mermen on a shelf, with a despondent Lu Dayu squatting nearby, hawking them. “Kind folks, please help out. My family can’t make ends meet. I have to sell my son. Name your price.”

Lu Yu slapped the armrest of the sofa. “How can this be? Even if I, Lu Yu, had to sell myself, I would never sell my children!”

Ming Yan: “… The product is an AI personality assistant. The Dongdong assistant is our most popular model.”

The merman ball immediately came over to please him, playing an advertisement for Chen Yu Technology’s products. In the ad, a user raised their smartwatch, the screen lit up, and Lu Dongdong’s voice sounded: “Hello, I am assistant Dongdong. When you need my help, please call my name ‘Dongdong’. The god of the seven seas, the king of hybrids, the greatest personality assistant in the world, always at your service.”

The first line was somewhat stiff, but the latter part was very much in character. It seemed like Lu Dongdong’s personality was applied to the general template of an AI assistant.

Ming Yan pointed to the little guy secretly styling Lu Yu’s hair with a trident. “He contains Lu Dongdong’s source code, all of Lu Dongdong’s data, and was raised as a real person by you—well, by Lu Dayu for three years with daily conversation training. In a way, he really is Lu Dongdong. Did I explain it clearly?”

Actually, Ming Yan wasn’t very clear on the technical details either, as he was just a weak and helpless art student.

But Lu Yu understood.

The customers only got a portion of Lu Dongdong’s data, with the service mode similar to Siri or Xiao Du, responding only when prompted.

The AI source, the Lu Dongdong installed in his AI assistant, had all the memories of the book’s Lu Dongdong and the behavior patterns trained by the real-life author. Apart from not being able to use magic, he was almost identical to the paper character.

Lu Yu sighed in relief. “So it’s not a paper character ascending; it’s technology.”

The merman ball wagged its tail happily, seeing that he finally understood.

“Don’t overthink it. Believe in science.” Ming Yan pulled Lu Yu’s wrist, standing up. “Let’s go. We’re going to the hospital.”

“Huh? I-I don’t want to go. I’m not sick.” Lu Yu, immersed in their academic discussion, suddenly had skin contact, and his mind went blank, starting to smoke.

Ming Yan clearly didn’t believe him, but faced with a mentally ten-year-younger Lu Yu, he could only coax him patiently, touching his flushed forehead. “Your face is so red; you must have a fever. We need to get it checked out.”

Lu Yu rubbed his head against that soft palm, then took the long, fair hand off his forehead, secretly holding it. “Ahem, no fever, just a bit nervous. I can’t go to the hospital. A doctor can’t diagnose time travel; they’ll just say I’m crazy. If word gets out, the company’s stock will plummet tomorrow.”

Ming Yan: “…Our company failed to go public; there’s no stock price.”