Son, “Mom” Will Back You

Sunrise always tended to be later in the mountains.

Just the first light at the horizon and before it was even able to spread on the cloak of the darkness from the night before, the town was already beginning to wake up.

The little assistant carried the breakfast from the cleanest restaurant in town and swiped open his boss's room door with the backup key card.

The door opened up and he could see the blue and dark sky outside of the floor to ceiling window along with the first ray of sunlight in the sky.

In the corner next to the window, light from the floor lamp casted a long shadow of the man sitting in an armchair.

Satin casual indoor wear and his gold-rim glasses next to his elbow, his white knuckles flexed slightly, resting on the side of the book. They looked almost half translucent under the light.

Reading in the morning had been Luo Xiu's habit for years.

The little assistant wasn't surprised when he walked inside. He put down the breakfast and asked when the man looked up from the book. "You returned so late last night, how come you got up so early to read?"

"Aren't you up as well?"

Luo Xiu closed up the book in his hands.

"Well, this is my job. For sure I will be sleeping in if I didn't need to get up so early… eh?"

When he walked closer and saw the book that Luo Xiu was holding, the little assistant looked up in surprise.

"I was just wondering what you were reading. How come you are reading this notebook again? Is it really that good? You are making me curious about it."

Luo Xiu inserted the notebook into a stack of books that were arranged by their size and, without even looking up, said, "No, you can read it."

The little assistant, "?"

The little assistant looked up in distress. "You had never been like this to me before. You won't even share your fan's confession with me now?"

Luo Xiu looked at him nonchalantly. "Mmhmm. After all, I wasn't aware that you would 'sell out' my birthday information in just one afternoon."

The little assistant was speechless for a second, "… She even wrote that in there?"

Luo Xiu, "What do you think?"

The little assistant, "……"

The little assistant admitted fault docilely. "Brother Luo, I was inexperienced back then and didn't know better. I've only made that mistake once! I have never tell that to anyone else again!"

Luo Xiu, "Were you taught by this Mengzhi?"

The little assistant looked up in surprised, "How did you know that?"

"… …"

Luo Xiu felt a little speechless, which was unusual for him.

Mengzhi was certainly right on that: Having an assistant like that, he had been "in danger" the last two years.

Removing his hand from the notebook, Luo Xiu asked casually, "Have you met this Mengzhi before?"

"Oh, that, no. We have only chatted online." The little assistant paused and leaned down. "Brother Luo, are you tell me that you have developed interest toward this little big sister Mengzhi?"

"Instead of interest, I feel that she is in dire need of some education."

"Oh? In what area?"

"… …"

Recalling the last line – "My Angel" – that he read today, Luo Xiu snickered slightly.

"Atheism."

The little assistant, "? ?"

The little assistant, too, chuckled after he was done being baffled. "Well, that being said, if your loyal fan is trying Mengzhi, then she does sound somewhat superstitious. I still have no idea how she become your fan."

Luo Xiu, "She mentioned in her notebook that we have met."

"Eh? You have met Mengzhi in person before, Brother Luo?"

Luo Xiu, "Not that I can remember."

The little assistant, "… …"  I should have guessed.

Luo Xiu tried to recall the first entry. "She said we met on July 31, 2018."

The little assistant was taken aback a little. "July 31?"

"Mmhmm." Luo Xiu picked up his spectacles and looked up casually. "What is it?"

"The date sounds somewhat familiar but I can't really recall why."

Luo Xiu nodded and there was almost what seemed like tenderness in his brown eyes behind the lens. "Remember to have more walnuts."

The little assistant felt that he was being treated unfairly. "You forgot that you have met Mengzhi either, isn't that the case?"

"It's not the same."

"How's it not the same?"

"I couldn't be bother with people and incidents of little to no importance."

"… …"