Gu Nian, completed indulged in the pain and guilt of an old mother, failed to notice that someone had approached her or the “Miss Gu” that he had said to her.
All the way until one of the times when she was lowering her forehead and it was met by something soft in midair along with a soft and cool touch…
BAM!
The sound of knuckles hitting the table with moderate force startled Gu Nian.
She almost sprang up straight and looked at Luo Xiu, standing next to her, dazed. “Mr. Luo Xiu, you…”
Gu Nian’s rationality returned to her and, suddenly recalling something, her face changed colors and she turned her head to look – Luo Xiu’s hand was still resting at the edge of the table.
Meaning that she had pressed her precious son’s hand down and smacked it against the table edge!
All of Gu Nian’s hair stood up. “I’m sor-sor-sor-sorry! I didn’t do that on purpose. Is your hand okay?!”
“I’m fi….”
Before he could finish saying “fine”, Luo Xiu’s wrist was grabbed by the girl. His extreme germophobic tendency diminished his smile and he wanted to take him hand back reflexively.
But he ended up not doing that—
Luo Xiu looked down. The girl’s forehead was red from the slamming but she didn’t seem to feel a thing. All she was doing was flipping his hand back and forth, examining it carefully, as though she was holding some fragile treasure that could shatter with just one touch.
Luo Xiu frowned slightly.
Was these all an act meant for him?
When Gu Nian finally confirmed with microscope accuracy that her precious son’s hand was not harmed, she finally let out a long sigh and looked up. “Oh, good, it is alright. If it swells up or bruises tomorrow, you must let me….”
Gu Nian stopped mid-sentence.
Looking into the pair of deep and pondering dark brown eyes, she asked, dazed, “What’s the matter?”
Luo Xiu did say anything but just looked down.
Gu Nian followed his look until she saw Luo Xiu’s wrist resting on top of both of her hands.
Gu Nian: “……”
Gu Nian: “ ! ! “
Gu Nian quickly carried Luo Xiu’s hand to the side of the table, made sure that it wouldn’t hit the table before she finally let go of it. “I’m so sorry. I just worried that I had hurt you so I wanted to make sure that you are okay.”
Luo Xiu gripped his long and slender knuckles and he seemed to still be able to detect a hint of unfamiliar temperature lingering on his fingers.
He looked up and smiled nonchalantly in a little while. “I know. Thank you.”
Gu Nian: Sniffles. Sniffles. My precious son is so tender.
Gu Nian still put up the front of being very serious. “It’s fine. It’s fine… Did you finish looking through the scene that I asked you to look at?”
“Mmm.”
Gu Nian asked quickly, “Can you repeat the scene back to me?”
Luo Xiu nodded. “After the reincarnation, Ding Qiao, the female lead, met Yun Tan for the first time at a bar. Ding Qiao had inadvertently fallen onto Yun Tan’s lap and when she was struggling to get back up, he held down her hand and…”
Gu Nian, “Stop.”
Luo Xiu lowered his eyes.
Gu Nian looked at him both nervously and seriously and said softly, “Repeat Yun Tan’s line here to me.”
“……”
There were a few seconds of quietness in the room.
“[Where are you trying to touch?]”
Luo Xiu said. He voice was steady, nonchalant, and monotonous.
It was supposed to be a very suggestive line with a strong tantalizing touch wrapped in a chilled tone. Coming out of Luo Xiu, he might as well have said, “Thank you for visiting.”
Gu Nian: Tears, had streamed down her cheeks.
Holding onto the last bit of hope regarding her precious son’s acting, Gu Nian made her final struggle. “Mr. Luo Xiu, how do you… interpret youtanhua’s personality after he was demonized?”
Luo Xiu didn’t say anything but looked at her almost tenderly.
After looking at each other for 10 seconds, Gu Nian finally gave up on waiting for him to come to his own conclusion. Instead, she was just going to spoon feed him the answer. “Why don’t I share my thoughts on it and see if you can grasp it.”
“Okay.”
“Youtanhua was a Buddhism monster that had been demonized during his transformation. His sacred Buddhism nature was not completely gone. In fact, one could say that it was still the core of his nature – but, as he was demonized, he was infused with completely opposite and conflicted tendencies.”
Gu Nian paused there, looked into Luo Xiu’s eyes, and carried on. “As such, there was a hint of seductiveness within the demonized youtanhua’s Buddhism nature.”
Luo Xiu nodded. “Okay.”
A shred of hope lit up withing Gu Nian. “So you get it now? Can we try it one more time?”
“Same line?”
“Yes, yes!”
“[Where are you trying to touch?]”
“……….…”
Gu Nian “lectured” him for another minute.
“Yep, exactly how you have comprehended it! Let’s give it one more try.”
“[Where are you trying to touch?]”
“………….”
Another 10 minutes later.
“Let’s, let’s try it one more time.”
“[Where are you trying to touch?]”
Half an hour later.
“Last try…”
“[Where are you trying to touch?]”
“…………”
Three hours later.
Gu Nian, eyes filled with tears, grabbed onto the hotel room door. “Tomorrow! I will be back tomorrow!”
“….Okay.”
Gu Nian left with tears in her eyes.
After the girl had turned around and left. An uncontrollable smile finally surfaced from underneath the fake emotions that Luo Xiu had put up. Half leaning against the door, he looked at the listless girl who had just took off.
All the way until she was completely out of his sight.
“Gu, Nian.”
He repeated slowly. Exactly the way that she had wanted, a hint of seductiveness wrapped in cold and level-headed Buddhism nature. A smile that wasn’t really a smile.
Unfortunately, nobody was there to listen to it.
Luo Xiu looked down and stood there for a long while looking at his own palm.
He then turned around and went back inside of his room.