Chapter 1499: The Matter of Naming

Another cold winter had arrived, and the Winter Solstice festival had passed. All of the people from Huaxia who had been away had returned, and this year, the Western Development Group had one extra person, Wuzhong, returning with them. The other two could not leave for the time being, so they had not been able to return home for two years.

However, they were not anxious; after all, they were striving for their own careers and futures. As long as they stabilized the work of the Western Development Group, they would rise in the world in the future. There would be no problem with their advancement, and Huaxia would not keep them in the Western Development Group forever unless they were willing to stay there themselves.

Xuanxiao, the ambassador from the Xuanyuan Tribe to Huaxia, had also returned, for he had to tell his father everything he had seen and heard over the past year. However, everything he wanted to see and hear this year was what Huaxia was willing to let him know; otherwise, on Huaxia's territory, he would naturally not be allowed to know anything.

Baoxi had also moved into his palace. He was the Fire Emperor, so his residence could be called a palace. The scale and furnishings inside completely eclipsed his residence in the Suiren Clan. It would take a few days just to become thoroughly familiar with it. However, he had one major trouble: he could no longer recognize all of his own children.

It was not just that the changes Huaxia had brought to them were too great—each one dressed brightly and beautifully, raised plump and fair, and behaved with confidence and grace—but also that Baoxi had not known many of them to begin with. These were children he had gathered from everywhere, and it was possible that some were not his own biological children, or that he still had biological children wandering outside, but that no longer mattered.

After settling in, Baoxi really felt a bit reluctant to leave Huaxia City. Huaxia provided such good benefits and treatment; apart from having no power, he had everything else he should have. What was he striving for?

Wasn't it just to gain more territory, to ensure his tribesmen were well-fed and clothed, and to make his own life better? Now that Huaxia could already do these things, he could just enjoy it; why bother with so much?

But after all, power was not something one could just put down once they decided to. If he put it down now and grew bored of this good life later, it would be difficult to pick up his power again. Therefore, Baoxi was still hesitating and weighing his options.

Regarding his palace, Baifeng's public explanation was that it was for the Prince to live in, for Yulong and Changle to live in. Because such a large courtyard could not be hidden, as long as those people from the Xuanyuan Tribe were not blind, they would be able to see it. If there were no reasonable explanation, it would naturally arouse their suspicion. It was enough that they knew what it was for, because they could not get close to those areas. The central area where the King lived was not a place for ordinary people to wander, not even Xuanxiao.

Yulong had become a father again, and Changle's child had already passed the hundred-day mark, surviving successfully. The probability of infant mortality in this era was truly very high, not to mention that Ayuduo had given birth to two at once.

The matter of naming them worried Changle. He thought this way was not good, and that way was not good. Originally, he had thought about following his eldest brother's method of naming and giving his son a fierce name like "Tiger Rider."

He knew that the divine beast corresponding to the dragon was the phoenix, and he wanted to name his two sons something like "Phoenix Rider" or "Phoenix Mount," but Baifeng proposed a new rule: "Naming Taboos."

This meant that when choosing a name, one could not use the same name, character, or pronunciation as one's elders. This rule had been used throughout Huaxia's history and had no problems. Apart from the Emperor being a bit troublesome, it had no impact on ordinary people.

Furthermore, there was a special point: everyone would subconsciously avoid the names of historical figures, or choose something similar. If you chose an identical one, you would lose your own characteristics under the brilliance of your predecessors. For example, if you were named Wang Wei or Wang Bo—many people actually chose these names—you would basically never achieve anything, because could you compare to your predecessors?

Even if the surname was the same but the name was different, they would still label you as the "Great Li-Du" or "Little Li-Du." Foreigners were different; they were loyal to taking the names of predecessors and sages, even using the names of their fathers and grandfathers, and would even feel it was an honor, effectively losing their own characteristics.

Names could be similar, but not identical. Similar ones also had to use characters with good meanings. What were people choosing now? Zi, Han, Xuan, Yu—are the meanings really good? Why not look at the explanations in the Dictionary? Do you want your child to be a carriage or a carpenter? The Xuanyuan Clan had this surname because they created the carriage (Xuanyuan). His son took the surname Zhang because he was good at making bows. Every character had an origin.

Yu was the light of a candle. Li Yu's original name was Li Congjia. He became Emperor at a young age, which was fine, but after taking the throne, he changed it to Yu. Sure enough, just like a candle, the light was emitted, but it did not last long, and his final days were miserable.

After learning this, Changle started from himself, intending to name his children according to his own true thoughts. Just as he was thinking, the Magnet appeared, and his father had also made a Compass. Thus, he named his two children Zhinan (Point South) and Zhibei (Point North).

Besides having meaning, it also represented Changle's ambition. He wanted his two children to expand Huaxia's territory to the south and north for the sake of Huaxia, while also fitting his own career and the contributions he made to Science.

After hearing Changle's explanation, Baifeng agreed to the names. Although they were a bit of a mouthful, the meaning was good, and it happened to coincide with the appearance of the Magnet. If their names had appeared before the Magnet, Baifeng might even have thought they were two great lucky stars.

The children were still young, and Baifeng would not let Changle put any pressure on them. In any case, in their own home, influenced by what they saw and heard, they would certainly grow up to be excellent children. They were all talented and would not be vulgar or stupid.

Ayuduo had also finished her postpartum recovery and began to continue her work. She took over the compilation and review of Changle's Plant Records. Although her ability was far inferior to Changle's by comparison, she was smart enough; she only needed to continue learning to be equally competent in this work.

During her pregnancy and postpartum period, she had already thoroughly learned the characters of Huaxia. After all, the number of Huaxia characters was not particularly large yet, because only the commonly used characters had been written down. When he had not encountered them, Baifeng could not think of what characters he had not written down for the time being.

Only when everyone was writing and discovered they did not know how to write a certain character, and could not find it by checking the Dictionary (the Huaxia Dictionary had already been compiled, as the number of characters was small and the annotations were simple), and confirmed that the character did not exist, would they go to find the King to see if the King knew how to write it. If Baifeng remembered it, he would add it; if he did not remember it, he would create a new one on the spot according to the rules of character creation.