Chapter 0

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Mantian (瞒天) – To deceive the heavens, to cover the sky.

The current head of the Sima Family, Sima Bu, looked up at the dark sky, where thick clouds blocked the sun even though it was midday, and rubbed his chin with a complicated expression.

“Sigh… Why must such a strange thing happen on such a joyous day…?”

If it had rained, he could have dismissed it as a natural phenomenon, but no rain fell. Only dark clouds covered the sky, casting a shadow over the world.

Today was the day when, after a long and arduous wait, Sima Bu’s second child was to be born.

For the health of the mother and child, he had spent a fortune hiring skilled midwives and doctors and made all necessary preparations. But now, with the heavens acting so strangely, Sima Bu’s heart was filled with unease.

As he paced anxiously outside, gazing at the gloomy sky and wondering if he should call a Taoist priest to buy talismans, the loud cry of a newborn baby echoed from the room.

“Waaah~ Waaah~! Waaah~ Waaah~ Waaah!!”

That cry was so powerful. It must be a boy.

When Sima Bu entered the room to see his wife and the child, the doctor and midwife bowed their heads with troubled expressions.

“It seems both the mother and child are safe. Why do you look so worried?”

“Well… The second young master was born with a limp.”

No wonder the sky was so strange… It wasn’t a good omen after all.

The child, who should have been born healthy and loved by his mother, was born with a congenital disability. Sima Bu could only swallow his grief.

He wanted to blame the heavens, but he knew his wife would be the most heartbroken. She was kind and gentle, and during her pregnancy, she had worried that she might have done something wrong to cause the child’s disability.

So, Sima Bu deliberately put on a bright face and picked up his swaddled son.

“So what if he has a limp? He’s still my child, and I wouldn’t trade him for anything. Look how handsome he is.”

The child was chubby, like a little toad, and he wriggled his fingers and mouth, sniffing and looking around.

Somehow, he looked incredibly clever.

Is this what parental love is like? No matter how clever a newborn looks, parents always think they’re the smartest.

Sima Bu held the child and looked up at the strange sky, where dark clouds blocked the sun even at midday.

Yes, how can humans understand the will of the heavens? No one knows whether today’s phenomenon is a good omen or a bad one. Nothing is decided yet.

“Mantian.”

Sima Bu looked up at the strange sky and muttered to himself, naming the child.

“To deceive (瞒). Heaven (天). Mantian (瞒天). Sima Mantian (司马瞒天).”

“Waaah~ Waaah~!”

As if the child understood his name, Sima Bu smiled and soothed the loudly crying baby.

“That’s right. That’s right. Yes, I am your father, Mantian.”

A strange child born on a strange day when the sky was covered. As a person before a parent, Sima Bu wondered how this child would grow up.

But Sima Bu would never know that, due to the strange flow of the heavens, his child was a reincarnated soul with memories of a past life.

Thanks to the heavens’ prank, the reincarnated soul named Sima Mantian cried even louder due to his physiological needs, and Sima Bu soothed him with love.

***

~10 YEARS LATER~

A lot of time has passed, and ten years later.

The second son of the Sima Family is a cripple. And he has a peculiar personality.

“Yut – Dog. First, move from Jjiyut to Jjimo, then turn with Yut to Mogae and eat the horse. Then, since you’ve eaten, throw again.”

While the child whose horse was eaten sulked, Sima Mantian, with an excited face, rubbed his palms together and picked up the four Yut sticks.

With a flick of his wrist, he threw the Yut sticks.

Clatter~ Clatter~

The sticks danced, making pleasant sounds as they bounced, collided, and spun, deciding the winner and loser, the one who laughs and the one who cries.

‘Do! Do! Do!’

The child, with only one horse left, tightly gripped the bag of candy he had bet, sweating profusely as he shouted in his heart. He had even taken out the candy his mother had hidden. If he lost here, it wouldn’t just end with a scolding.

How nice it would be if strong will could decide the outcome. But the outcome is always decided by the player’s hand and the heavens’ will.

“Mo.”

The heavens chose Sima Mantian.

The child, shocked by the result, collapsed to the floor as his knees gave out, but Sima Mantian had no mercy when it came to Yut.

“Great. Mo, so I go again.”

With Sima Mantian’s merciless, evil laugh, the Yut sticks danced again. This time, it was Dog. An ordinary result. But it didn’t matter. The game was already over when Mo came out.

“From Mogae to Mo, then Do, Dog, Geol, Yut, Mo.”

Sima Mantian’s last horse passed the child’s horse, which was one space away from the finish line, and entered the back Mo. With this, all of Mantian’s horses entered the back Mo. The game was over.

“Let’s see~ The bet was that the first place gets to eat all the candy from second and third place. Sigh~ Today’s my lucky day.”

Of course, he remembered, but he deliberately took his time. This was Sima Mantian’s way of toying with the loser.

“I, I can’t give this. Ma… Mantian… We’re friends, right? Just once… just once…”

The child stammered, tears welling up. But Sima Mantian, prepared for this, gave a nod to the chubby little shoulders he always kept around.

“If you didn’t want to lose it, you shouldn’t have bet it. Why make me the bad guy?”

With hands like Doraemon’s ham fists, the chubby little shoulders easily snatched the candy bag from the child’s arms. When it came to taking things from resisting people, they were already pros.

“No… No. Stop! Don’t take it!”

The child curled up and resisted, but in a kids’ fight, size matters. The slender child couldn’t protect his candy from the two chunks of meat and burst into tears.

“Unrok is crying. Mantian, what do we do?”

As Unrok cried from the frustration of losing his candy and the hardships ahead, the chubby little shoulders panicked and looked at Mantian.

“Hey. Losing is part of betting. Why are you crying? I’ll give the candy bag back, so stop crying.”

He handed the candy bag back to the tiny hands, but the tears didn’t stop, so Mantian took drastic measures.

“Get some yakgwa from my snack bag.”

He took out yakgwa from a luxurious silk bag and stuffed it into the crying mouth.

“There, there. Stop crying. Eat. It’s expensive and delicious.”

“Sniff… Sniff… Thank you… It’s delicious. Munch munch… Sniff…”

Fortunately, the tears stopped, but as Unrok happily ate the yakgwa, the other kids started causing a ruckus.

“Why only Unrok gets it back! Give me my candy back too!”

“Give me one yakgwa too!”

If he left them like this, chaos would break out. He couldn’t stand kids crying.

“Alright, alright, there’s plenty here. Share it. I’ll give the candy back too.”

“Yay~ Mantian is the best.”

This was how Sima Mantian usually played with the neighborhood kids. He introduced them to various fun games, and once they got used to it, he bet snacks.

Sometimes, to teach them the harshness of society, he really took their candy, but most of the time, like today, he returned the candy he won and even shared his own snacks.

“But Mantian, if you’re going to give it back anyway, why take the candy?”

As the chubby little shoulder chewed on the yakgwa and asked curiously, Sima Mantian looked at the children clutching their returned candy bags and smiled.

“I don’t take the candy because I want to eat it. It’s fun to take candy from kids with snotty noses.”

It didn’t make sense. Why was it fun to take candy he wouldn’t even eat?

Sima Mantian scratched his head as if he didn’t understand, then turned away from the puzzled chunk and limped home with his cane.

“Done playing. I’m going home to take a nap. You guys shouldn’t play too late either. Go home when it’s time.”

Before he knew it, ten years had passed since he woke up in this martial arts world.

Born as a cripple in a world that valued martial arts, he had many worries at first, but he was enjoying his second life well enough.