Li Chang'an, a forty-year-old modern office worker, dies suddenly after another all-nighter. When he opens his eyes again, he has become a ten-year-old boy with the same name in the first year of Zhenguan. Even more absurdly, every man, woman, and child in the village trembles and calls him “Great-Granduncle”!
That’s because the boy’s grandfather is the most senior member of the village by generation, and the boy himself was born to parents who had him late in life, two generations in a row, elevating his place in the family hierarchy even further. Even the village’s oldest resident has to call him “Uncle.”
Faced with a crowd of great-grandsons, a bunch of rowdy kids kneeling and begging him for a story, Li Chang'an says in a world-weary voice, “Today’s story is Investiture of the Gods. Nezha, the Third Lotus Prince, does a sliding tackle...”
The kids: Great-grandpa, what kind of martial art is a sliding tackle?
What Li Chang'an doesn’t know is that Li Yuan dreamed his own grandfather, Li Hu, had told him to find and treat kindly the descendants of his youngest son, Li Hao. Li Shimin, who received Li Yuan’s request, has disguised himself and entered the village, only to see a group of burly men kowtowing to a ten-year-old toddler. Li Shimin can’t help being stunned.
Li Shimin: “Could this child have the bearing of an emperor?”
What shocks Li Shimin even more is that the child he believes has the bearing of an emperor is actually his grandfather’s nephew!
Li Chang'an sucks on a malt candy and says in a babyish voice, “Big Nephew, does your father know you call me Uncle?”
