I Am A Prodigy

279 An Unorthodox Three Kingdoms

That was huge news!

Y, from who knows when, became a symbol of mystery. One by one they appeared out of nowhere, all of them amazing on their own right, yet none of them showed their faces.

At that moment, the Y-God that was hidden within the darkness finally decided to turn on the lights?

That news took over at full force, like a storm washing through the entire stream, attracting countless viewers.

Finally, with a “click”, Y-God’s stream turned bright!

In front of the screen, was a person wearing Superman Y’s mask…

[F*ck! I’ve got my pants off, and this is what you show me?]

[Damn it! You beast, cheating my feelings!]

[Woe is me. I came here excited, yet return home sad.]

[Please don’t be depressed guys. At least we gained something. We got to see Y-God’s slender fingers, his strong broad shoulders, that sexy adam’s apple, and those eyes filled with emotions…]

[Bootlicker, you’re disgusting!]

[It seems like Y-God is not that old. I guess he is quite the handsome one. Regardless, this is better than a black screen.]

…

Comments flew everywhere. Ye Lingchen coughed lightly, saying “Since we’re all called Y, it’s fated. I’ll be borrowing this Superman Y mask for a while. I hope that Superman Y won’t get offended.”

[Superman Y: I take offense! Take it down immediately!]

[I beg for Superman Y to appear and take that mask off Y-God!]

The entire stream turned extra lively. It would seem that Ye Lingchen had achieved his desired effect.

He had already guessed that his changing of the streaming content would cause him to lose several viewers. That was unavoidable, hence the skit he came up with. The effect was better than he had anticipated. At least the viewers in the stream were increasing rather than decreasing. Next up was to keep them there using the stream content!

[It was a time where heroes rose up in droves, of confusing historical records. It’s an interesting topic. Historical records, wild myths, romanticization, and TV adaptations. Each era had its focal points, and each composition described the scene differently. Fact and fiction were indistinguishable, success and failures were similarly doubtful. Telling a story with the characters, with the characters we relive history, with history we talk about culture, and with culture we study human nature. Next, I present to all of you—Study of the Three Kingdoms by Y-God!]

The charming voice slowly went on, stirring the hearts of the viewers watching the stream, indicating the start of the show.

Listening to the intro, they felt that it might be somewhat interesting. Everyone felt a sense of historical majesty coming their way.

‘This seems different from the average history lessons. Perhaps I should give it a try?’

Some of the viewers that wanted to leave hesitated and chose to stay back and listen instead.

Meanwhile, somewhere out there, an elderly man was frowning as he watched his grandson in the room, letting out a heavy sigh.

Grandparents would always spoil the kids. He felt a little regret for spoiling his grandson so much. At that point, he could not bear to hit, nor scold him.

Every time the grandson came home, he would hide in the room, either gaming or watching some live stream. As such activities wasted lots of time, his results had gradually deteriorated. That caused the elderly man to feel helpless.

As a history professor, his grandson did not have a shred of interest in history. Furthermore, he was failing all his history exams. That hurt the elderly man’s heart and smeared his reputation, to the extent that many of his colleagues would make fun of him for it.

After a moment’s consideration, he finally gritted his teeth as he steeled his heart and entered his grandson’s room.

“Little Feng, are you watching that supernatural live stream again?” asked the elderly man, testing the waters. “You should spend less time on those things and use them to study instead.”

Little Feng quickly turned over to look at him. “Gramps, the previous supernatural live stream has ended. I’m now learning history.”

“Learning history?” The elderly man was caught off guard, approaching with disbelief.

All he could hear was Ye Lingchen’s voice drifting over. [When it comes to the Three Kingdoms, we will remember the famed Battle of the Red Cliffs. As for the Battle of the Red Cliffs, we will be reminded of Su Dongbo’s famous poem, Memories of the Red Cliffs[1]—The great river with piling waves flows Eastward, carrying along the gallant souls of the remote bygone days…Life is just a dream. Allow me to libate a drink to the moonwake.[2]

From the magnificence of this poem, it showed us the heroic spirit and romance during the times of the Three Kingdoms. With that, we can imagine the glory of that era.]

From the sound of it, it did sound like the Three Kingdoms.

The elderly man felt a shiver run through him and immediately took a seat.

He lacked confidence in the live stream and needed to confirm the authenticity of its contents. He must not let his grandson be misled. However, looking at his grandson overflowing with excitement, he could not help but feel slightly comforted.

That was a good starting point!

‘This history narrator is quite interesting.’

Unlike other history narrators, Ye Lingchen did not narrate it according to the timeline and development. Instead, he cut in straight from the Memories of the Red Cliffs, grabbing onto the interest of his audience before he started his narration.

[After reading this poem, I can’t help but tie it to Mr. Zhou in the poem. The Mr. Zhou that turned boats and ships into ashes was none other than Zhou Yu!]

The elderly man’s eyes brightened. To cut into this point from the poem was a good call.

He could not help but grow more interested as he listened.

[I believe that Zhou Yu is no stranger to everyone. When we talk about him, most would think of him as a petty person, therefore leading to an overwhelming number of scandals. For example—”Zhou Yu’s three defeats”, “Why would the heavens conceive of Zhuge Liang when I, Zhou Yu is here”, “Zhou Yu’s foiled plans, losing the wife and the battle”. These phrases turned into proverbs and are used in our daily lives. However, in truth…that was not the case!]

‘Scandals?’

Some viewers could not help but laugh. ‘Can history be taught this way?’

However, following that, a frown appeared on their faces. They have heard of the proverbs that Ye Lingchen mentioned, but all the things they have known all these while were just upended by Y-God in an instant? What was going on?

They wanted to continue listening.

The elderly man made a frown as well and was met with his grandson’s question. “Grandpa, I’ve heard of these phrases before. Are they really like that?”

“Let’s continue listening first,” answered the elderly man, not refuting Ye Lingchen on the spot as he watched the hunger for knowledge shown on his grandson’s face.

Ignoring the doubtful comments, Ye Lingchen continued to narrate with a calm voice.

[Zhou Yu was elected as a military officer of Jianwei by Sun Ce at age 24. Within the Wu army, he was known as Zhou Lang. Everyone in that region called him Zhou Lang at that time. “Lang” also meant kid. During that time, addressing someone in that fashion was meant as a praise for his appearance, resulting in the name to mean Handsome Zhou.]

‘Handsome Zhou?’

Many viewers laughed in front of their computers. This history lesson was just too interesting. It was filled with a modern twist in every aspect!

Casual with a hint of mischief.

With an amazing opening, interesting style, and unorthodox approach, he managed to grab hold of the viewer’s hearts, cultivating their interest to continue listening…

[1] 赤壁怀古 (Sentiments of the Red Cliffs / Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff) – If you are interested in the full translation of this poem, please visit this site for the complete translation. Do note that our translation may be different. https://28utscprojects.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AD%AF-%E8%98%87%E8%BB%BE-%E5%BF%B5%E5%A5%B4%E5%AC%8C%EF%BC%88%E8%B5%A4%E5%A3%81%E6%87%B7%E5%8F%A4%EF%BC%89/

[2] 江月 (river moon / the moon’s reflection on the river) – We have decided to go poetic and make use of the term moonwake (synonym moonglade, but that might be confused with the World of Warcraft location). Taken from Wiktionary.