Son, “Mom” Will Back You

The little assistant laughed so hard he was having trouble breathing. Laughing hysterically, he asked with difficulty, "Brother Luo, hahahahaha. Could, could this be your mother's idea of funny?"

"No, it couldn't."

"How do you know that for sure? Perhaps you can give her a call and…"

"She passed away."

The little assistant stopped laughing abruptly.

A couple of seconds later, he looked up stiffly and saw the side profile of Luo Xiu as he calmly put the notebook back down.

The man's tone was tender as usual when he said that. The little assistant, however, felt a chill down his back. "Who was the one who called you last time?"

Luo Xiu, still maintaining his light smile, said, "That's the mother of my younger brother."

The little assistant, "……"

No wonder he had never seen him going home on holidays or new year after he had been working for Luo Xiu for two years nor has he ever met any of his friends or relatives. The one that he mentioned earlier was the only call from his family, ever.

Did that mean he had been alone for 20 some odd years even at his so-called home?

After he had filled in enough of the missing pieces with his imagination, the little assistant decided to remain silent.

Luo Xiu walked inside of the bathroom with his cellphone in hand.

Placing the cellphone on the vanity, he started unbuttoning his shirt with his long and slender fingers. His defined pectoral muscles slowly came into sight.

When he got to the third button and his pale and defined muscles were almost visible, his cellphone vibrated again.

Luo Xiu looked down at it nonchalantly.

It was the same series of numbers with no name.

[Good night, Mr. Luo Xiu.]

His fingers stopped in their action.

Just like when he heard her said the same thing earlier in the evening, this was the first time he had heard that said with a kind of tenderness that seemed to have come from the bottom of her heart.

She cares so much about your well-being and bid you goodnight. Do you think she's hinting at sexual favors from you?

Gu Nian…?

Throwing the shirt that he had just taken off into the hamper, Luo Xiu paused for two seconds before he finally picked up his cellphone and clicked on "save".

***

After she had returned, Gu Nian locked herself up in the room working on the screenplay and barely even saw the sun for the next two days.

Her ideas and the quickness of her thoughts had once put both Jiang Xiaoqing and Qin Yuanyuan to shame. Not being able to be of much help, the two of them took up the responsibilities of fetching Gu Nian her three meals a day and chatted about the character setting at night to offer their assistance.

On the afternoon of the third day and when Jiang Xiaoqing and Qin Yuanyuan returned to their room, the two of them put down the lunch box and exchanged a look. Finally, Qin Yuanyuan was the one who started talking. "Gu Nian, have you checked your cellphone?"

Gu Nian, who was typing away on her keyboard didn't even look up. "No. What's up?"

"……"

Gu Nian wrote a few more lines before she noticed that nobody had responded to her. She turned around and saw the difficult looks on both Jiang Xiaoqing and Qin Yuanyuan.

"Did something happen?" Gu Nian stopped, rubbed her knuckles that were starting to hurt as she looked round and realized that she had no idea where she had tossed her cellphone.

Jiang Xiaoqing sighed, pulled over a chair, and sat down. "The director's team had informed us that they no longer need us to write this role."

"--------?"

Gu Nian went stiff for a few seconds, then turned around.

Jiang Xiaoqing retracted her neck a little and said in softly, "Demons' screenwriter by name had already joined the production cast. The director's team said she had accepted the responsibilities of adding this new character and they no longer need our service."

Gu Nian, "Zhuo Yixuan?"

Jiang Xiaoqing was not happy. "Yeah, that Zhuo Yixuan. She had refused to come previously because of the filming condition but, for some odd reasons, she suddenly changed her mind and came over three days ago."

Gu Nian rubbed her sore wrist expressionlessly. "Is the director's team sure that they want her to write it?"

"The message was related to us by Assistant Director Lin," said Jiang Xiaoqing, disgruntledly. "I have no idea what they were thinking. It was your script and you are the one most familiar with it."

Qin Yuanyuan hesitated a little and chimed in. "Zhuo Yixuan is quite well known in the screenwriter's circle right now so I'm sure the director's team is happy to have her take over."

Jiang Xiaoqing, "Well know for what? What other work does she have?"

Qin Yuanyuan, "She has Enlighten Me and that is enough."

The mentioning of that ignited Jiang Xiaoqing. "OOOOOoooh, as Master Mengzhi's loyal fan for two years, let me say it for the umpteenth times that there is absolutely no way that Zhuo Yixuan is Mengzhi! There was no way that Master Mengzhi would prance around as some bullshit beauty screenwriter!"

Qin Yuanyuan wanted to say something but stopped herself.

Gu Nian closed up her tablet, stood up, and said in a languid voice, "It doesn't matter whether she is or isn't."

"?" Jiang Xiaoqing turned around angrily.

"The only thing that matters was that most of the fan think that she is and that she has enough draw."

"But…."

Jiang Xiaoqing wanted to rebut angrily but she got nothing.

She knew that was the truth. In the era of followers, that was the only thing that the capital cared about. Not anything else.

The more Jiang Xiaoqing think about it, the angrier she got. Slamming on the table in rage, she said, "Oooooooh, which deep forest with no internet is Master Mengzhi hiding in right now? How could she just sit around and watch this woman blatantly pretends that she was her and not jump out and smash the head of this so-called screenwriter beauty?"

Qin Yuanyuan tried to comfort her, "If Zhuo Yixuan is not Mengzhi, then perhaps Mengzhi had her reasons."

Jiang Xiaoqing, "She's not! Absolutely no way!"

Qin Yuanyuan, "Okay, she isn't. She isn't."

Jiang Xiaoqing was about to say something else when a shadow floating past her. Taken aback, she turned her head and asked, "Where are you going, Gu Nian?"

"The director's team."

"What for?"

Rubbing her numbing neck, Gu Nian was dispirited and her voice seemingly weightless. "To have a discussion with them about human decency."

"??"