Xiao Wu gently lifted Tang Wutong into her arms and carried her over to a stone bench, sitting down and placing her on her lap.
She remembered that when she used to feel wronged, her mother would always hold her this way, gently comforting her.
So now, she comforted Tang Wutong in the same manner, waiting until the girl had poured out all her grievances.
Only then did Xiao Rou lean in close and ask, "Little girl, what's your name? Why did you call my daughter 'Mom' and me 'Grandma'?"
Tang Wutong hesitated for a moment after hearing Xiao Rou's question. Then, she softly muttered,
"Grandma, my name is Tang Wutong, my nickname is Xiaoqi. If I told you I came back from ten thousand years in the future, would you believe me?"
She then lifted her head and looked toward Xiao Wu with a probing expression. "Mom, if I say I'm your daughter, would you believe me? I'm not lying. I really am your daughter…"
Xiao Wu smiled gently and reached out to softly ruffle her hair before replying,
"I believe you, of course I do. Even though I don't know why, you give me a feeling of deep closeness. If you're not my daughter, then you must be a direct descendant of mine. Otherwise, I wouldn't feel such a strong urge to be near you."
Xiao Rou also nodded without hesitation and smiled at Tang Wutong.
"Xiaoqi, Grandma believes you too. I can sense that extraordinary feeling of kinship from you as well. When I look at you, it's like seeing Xiao Wu all over again."
As she spoke, Xiao Rou gently caressed Tang Wutong's face, her eyes becoming even softer.
Meanwhile, Ah Yin was carefully pondering the name "Tang Wutong." It seemed this child truly was her descendant. To be precise, she should be the granddaughter of herself and that Tang Hao.
But Ah Yin couldn't wrap her head around it. She was already married to Zhao Ling. There was no way she'd end up with Tang Hao to give birth to someone like Tang San—let alone have a granddaughter like Tang Wutong.
So why had this granddaughter traveled from ten thousand years in the future to this point in time? That was a huge mystery in itself.
Of course, Ah Yin had no concept of parallel timelines and couldn't possibly know that the system had plucked Tang Wutong from the original Douluo Dalu: Peerless Tang Sect timeline and thrown her into this world.
To her, something so contradictory to common sense was simply incomprehensible.
She thought about asking Zhao Ling, but realized such a matter likely touched on the contents of that diary. That damned system wouldn't allow her to ask such questions.
Besides, that child Tang Wutong looked at her like a total stranger, as if she had no idea who her grandmother was. Since that was the case, Ah Yin didn't feel any urge to acknowledge her.
With Xiao Rou and Xiao Wu both looking after her, there wasn't anything she needed to worry about.
Unless something arose that those two couldn't handle—something she could help with—she'd lend a hand when needed.
Ah Yin glanced at Zhao Ling and stepped closer to ask, "By the way, husband, what exactly did you give Xiao Wu to make her suddenly transform—and not only that, but jump straight to looking like she's sixteen or seventeen? It's incredible."
Zhao Ling chuckled and let his gaze linger on Xiao Wu's graceful, curvaceous figure before finally replying,
"It was a pill called a Transformation Pill. It helps spirit beasts that are on the verge of transformation to directly take human form—and also grants them a full thirty levels of innate spirit power."
"Wow… no wonder Xiao Wu had thirty levels of spirit power right after transforming. If she condenses three spirit rings, won't her spirit power shoot up to nearly level 40?"
Ah Yin's eyes sparkled with amazement. She couldn't help but envy Xiao Wu's good fortune. If she'd had a pill like that back in the day, wouldn't that have been a dream come true?
"It's great, of course. But I only just got my hands on that pill recently and gave it to Xiao Wu. There was only one. I have no idea if I'll ever come across another."
Zhao Ling nodded, trying to explain himself guiltily so that Ah Yin wouldn't see through his real reason—how much he'd been lusting after Xiao Wu's beauty.
But he didn't realize that his desire for Xiao Wu had long been exposed by the diary replica.
Ah Yin saw right through him. Even with his awkward explanation, it did nothing to repair his lecherous image in her mind.
The scene shifted back to Tang Wutong in Xiao Wu's embrace. She hadn't expected her mother and grandmother to accept the fact that she was from ten thousand years in the future so easily.
This puzzled her. Clearly, it was an extraordinary claim. After all, even in the Divine Realm of Douluo, no god she knew of could send someone into the past.
Her mother couldn't. Aunt Rongrong, Aunt Zhuyin, and Uncle Mubai couldn't either. Even the elder generation of gods had never shown such an ability.
Yet her mother and grandmother didn't seem the least bit surprised. Tang Wutong began to suspect—could it be that they also had that strange diary replica?
Maybe they had learned of her existence from that mysterious diary, and knew that she had traveled from ten thousand years in the future. That would explain everything.
She turned her gaze to Zhao Ling once more. This man was truly strange. Her mother, grandmother, and even that unknown grandmother she had no memory of all treated him with deep respect, calling him "Ling-ge" or "husband."
Could he be the diary's author—Zhao Ling?
Tang Wutong had never heard her mother mention him. Nor had Aunt Rongrong, Aunt Zhuyin, or Uncle Mubai.
Her mother never told her that she had left the Great Star Dou Forest with her own mother, either.
In her memories, her mother had said she lived in the forest alone with Grandma Xiao Rou when she was little. Later, Grandma went off to search for her missing husband and was killed by spirit beasts.
Her mother had also told her that after transforming and living alone for six years, she enrolled at Nuoding Elementary Spirit Master Academy and suffered greatly.
At age twelve, she transferred to Shrek Academy, where she met Aunt Rongrong, Aunt Zhuyin, Uncle Mubai, Uncle Hongjun, and Uncle Xiao Ao, and finally made real friends.
But now, her mother had transformed even earlier than that—and had directly appeared in the form of a sixteen-year-old girl.
Tang Wutong suddenly realized that everything she saw now was completely different from the childhood her mother had once described.
And the cause of this deviation… was likely this man named Zhao Ling. He had changed everything. He had brought her grandmother and mother out of the Great Star Dou Forest far earlier than before.
That meant her grandmother likely wouldn't die early, and her mother wouldn't have to live as an orphan.
At that thought, Tang Wutong looked at Zhao Ling with eyes full of gratitude…