Chapter 068: Lazy Naming
“Your Excellency is far-sighted. Being by your side, I can always learn many useful principles,” Marian said with admiration as she placed Chen Ran’s lunch.
Chen Ran looked at the group of children scrambling for food and shook his head. “By the way, I have some important things to do these next few days and may not have time to manage them. I’ll have to trouble you.”
“No problem.”
Just as Chen Ran was about to eat, a hand gently tugged at the corner of his clothes. It was the boy from before…
After a bath, the boy was fair and clean. In new clothes, he looked much more refreshed. The only thing that surprised Chen Ran was that he was wearing a girl’s clothes…
“Um, I admit you look very much like a pretty boy, but why are you wearing a girl’s clothes…”
“What!” The boy crossed his arms, pouted, and looked annoyed.
Marian, on the side, chuckled. “Your Excellency High Priest, to be honest, she’s actually a girl. She was so boisterous and unrestrained before that I also thought she was a boy. Who knew that during bath time…”
“I’m dizzy…” Chen Ran sighed at his own misjudgment. Looking at her now, this little one was indeed a genuine little girl. No wonder her voice had always seemed a little soft, and she looked a bit girlish. It just wasn’t obvious at the time. And because she had a haircut shorter than a boy’s and was wearing dirty boy’s clothes, Chen Ran had preconceived that she was a boy.
Looking at her with the standards of a girl, this little one was actually quite pleasing to the eye. After all, children who were hard to distinguish between lolis and pretty boys were always more likable. Moreover, this little girl had black hair and black eyes, and her skin type was also close to Chen Ran’s authentic Eastern type, which made her feel somewhat familiar.
“This dress is so troublesome to wear,” the little girl said, pulling at the hem of her skirt with a disgruntled expression. “Can you change it for boy’s clothes for me?”
“Why change to boy’s clothes?” Chen Ran blinked. “You’re a girl. Why do you want to look like a boy so much?”
The little girl answered truthfully, “Because I’m more of a boy than a boy. I’m the bravest, the fastest, and the cleverest, which is why I can be the leader of this group!” As she said this, the little girl looked somewhat proud.
“I like the sound of that,” Chen Ran said, quite appreciating this strong-willed little girl. He speared a sausage from his plate with a fork and handed it to her. “This is your reward.”
As Chen Ran had said, Marian hadn’t given the children very good food. If they wanted to eat well, they had to perform well in their upcoming work. Just this cheap sausage made the little girl’s mouth water, and she immediately swallowed the whole thing.
“So good,” the little girl said, chewing on the sausage, oil dripping from her mouth. She was clearly enjoying it.
Chen Ran said, “I don’t want you to be a girl who is more of a boy than a boy. Your first task is to grow your hair long and then be a girl who is more of a girl than a girl.”
“That sounds like a mouthful…” the little girl said, her eyes wide as she wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth with her hand.
“I just want you to learn to be a lady. Just do as I say. That way, you’ll get to eat good food and wear nice clothes. Understand?”
“If there’s good food, I can try,” the little girl said, scratching her head. “But I don’t know how to be your ‘lady’…”
Chen Ran really didn’t know how to describe it for a moment. He said casually, “From now on, when you speak, you can add a prefix like ‘Dear…’ and a suffix like ‘…la,’ ‘…lala,’ ‘…ma,’ or ‘…ne.’ Can you do that?”
The little girl thought for a moment, then said, “Dear, I’ll go wash the dishes later, would that be okay?”
“Not bad,” Chen Ran said, surprised at how quickly the little girl learned and applied it. Seeing her eyes fixed on the other sausage on his plate, he unceremoniously speared it and handed it to her, praising her lightly. “Very good, just like that.” Then he patted the little girl’s head and said in praise, “Keep up the good work next time!”
“You’re the worst!” This time, she even added a girl’s characteristic coy gesture.
The little girl was clearly much cleverer than Chen Ran had imagined, not just in her actions, but also in her words. Seeing her practical application and her expectant gaze on his plate, Chen Ran generously pushed the entire plate in front of her.
“If you listen in the future, there will be great rewards!”
It was true that great rewards brought out brave people. Seeing how adept the little girl was at this, a so-called loli-raising manual seemed to gradually form in Chen Ran’s mind. Such talent would be a waste if not nurtured!
When everyone had finished lunch, the children lined up, waiting for Chen Ran’s orders. Chen Ran looked them over and was quite satisfied. He suddenly realized that he didn’t know the names of these children.
“What are your names?”
The children answered one after another, “My name is Bread!” “My name is Potato!” “My name is Sausage!” “My name is Apple!”…
A black line appeared on Chen Ran’s forehead. This group of kids didn’t have real names; they had all taken the names of food as their titles. Chen Ran looked at the little girl standing beside him with a headache and said, “And what’s your name?”
The little girl blinked and said truthfully, “Well, as the leader of this group, of course my name is Boss!”
“I’m dizzy…” Chen Ran felt that he really needed to give these children proper names. But while one or two names were easy to come up with, a whole bunch was a bit of a problem.
Chen Ran had always been a simple person and immediately thought of the easiest, laziest way to name them.
He walked to the sturdiest-looking little boy at the front of the line and said, “You have the strongest limbs. I bestow upon you the name ‘Sven.’ Remember?”
“I know! Thank you, Your Excellency High Priest, for the name,” the child answered.
Then Chen Ran said to the second boy, “You have a naturally taunting face. From now on, your name will be ‘Nevermore,’ you got it…”
“As for you, you have a face full of suffering and deep hatred. I’ll call you ‘Nessaj,’ remember…”
And so, Chen Ran actually managed to name all the children. The names came from the various heroes of a popular battle game he used to play, “Dota.” The names were easy to remember. Chen Ran looked back at the children and found that he had remembered all their names in one go.
“What about me, what about me!” The others all had new names, and the last child king looked expectant.
“You?” Chen Ran couldn’t help but look at the little girl again. Seeing her bright, gemstone-like eyes, he couldn’t help but smile. “You, from now on, will be called Dongfang.”
***
T/N:
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啦 (la) / 了啦 (le la)
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Function: A combination of the particles 了 (le) and 啊 (a). It’s used to soften a statement, express excitement, or sometimes to sound a bit impatient or whiny in a cute way.
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Example: Instead of “不要” (Don’t), saying “不要啦!” (Don’t wanna!) sounds much more coquettish and less like a harsh rejection.
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嘛 (ma)
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Function: This particle is used to state something that the speaker feels should be obvious, or to persuade someone gently.
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Effect: It creates a soft, persuasive, and sometimes slightly pouty tone. It’s like adding “…you know?” or “…right?” but in a much cuter way. The little girl’s example is perfect:
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“好不好嘛?” (hǎo bu hǎo ma?) – Instead of a simple “Is it okay?”, this translates more like, “Is it okay, pretty please?” It’s a wheedling, endearing way to ask for something.
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呢 (ne)
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Function: While often used to form questions (e.g., “你呢?” – “And you?”), it’s also used at the end of statements to soften them, add a sense of continuation, or make the tone more contemplative and gentle.
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Well, these suffixes can only be understood through context, or rather, it’s something cultural since in Asian languages there are often many forms of formality and informality. Just by changing the suffix or prefix, in some cases, the meaning changes.
It’s like Japanese, the ‘desu’, ‘desu ne’, etc and those that are added at the end.
Since English doesn’t have direct equivalents, I’ll convey their function through tone. I’ll use English phrasing that naturally implies the same softness, persuasion, or playful whining. Think of it similarly to how Japanese particles like ne, desu, desu ne or yo affect a sentence’s feeling—the meaning is in the nuance, not the literal words.
