Wan Zhi looked back to see his mother had finished folding the clothes and were packing them away in one of the baskets he had brought with them. When she was finished she looked up and smiled at him, he looked away and then got up and went to pick out some clothes, a towel, and his bathing essentials. Though the hostel didn’t have private baths it had communal baths divided into men’s and women’s sections and though the women could bring their young sons he didn’t want to go in there since mentally he was already an adult.

As he left he heard his mother also getting ready but didn’t bother to wait on her, when he reached the bath area there were both men and young boys there. It seems that those that had just gotten off of work and school also wanted to freshen up, he quietly found an empty locker in the corner and put his things inside before stripping into his towel and going to the inner bath.

He wanted to find somewhere away from the crowd so he ended up in a corner away from the large groups of people that had clearly accompanied each other according to their relations ships. If you’d look around you could see that he was the only person that came alone, but he honestly preferred it this way. Because of the things that happened in that house he was less willing to be around people much less let them close enough to touch his back and since he didn’t like talking much it was even better.

He took his time to properly bathe and wash his hair before he rinsed off and left the room, he quickly dried off and changed into his clean clothes. When he was done he went across from the communal bath to the washing rooms and used his soap to wash out his uniform. When he was finished he took them outside and used a stool to hang it up before he went back up to his room.

When he got there his mother wasn’t present, he brushed it off and set aside his things before going to the bigger bag and retrieving some foodstuff. Just like the communal baths the hostel had a communal kitchen, you could either go and pay to use it to cook your own food or you could just directly buy some food but doing the latter was too expensive for them, so he would save by cooking for them and he could also cook a large amount so they had breakfast in the morning.

As he left the room and went down the hall he ran into his mother who was now returning, with a head full of wet hair, she looked at him lovingly and wanted to follow after him. He had to send her back to leave her things and dry her hair after which she could come and find him. Even though he had never cooked before in this life because of one incident he had to learn to cook for himself in his last life and he was quite proficient in it, so after he paid he was able to whip up a salivating meal with simple ingredients.

He made sure to clean up his mess and pack away his things before he returned to the room, his mother who was still trying to dry her hair, looked at him and then at the containers of food and felt puzzled. He could tell just what she was thinking about but didn’t care and set the food down, he dished out the rice for both of them and then poured out the one side dish into another two bowls and set the rest aside for breakfast.

They sat on the bed and ate in silence until his mother made a weird sound after eating his food.

“My Zhi’er is such a good chef, how come I didn’t know of it?”

His body stiffened in response to the question but when he looked and saw she was asking curiously and with no malicious intent he relaxed and continued to eat without a word. When the meal was finished he left the responsibility of washing the dishes to her and then sat down at his desk and began to study, he drowned out all the noise as he studied and seemed to observe all the information he read like a sponge.

It was until late into the night that he set his pen down and looked behind him, his mother was lying in the corner of the bed fast asleep. He packed away his things and then got up and went over, sighing when he saw his mother’s hair was still damp. He didn’t want to bother drying it but since he knew she might catch a cold if he didn’t and that when she did she would be no better than a petulant toddler, he took a towel and dried her hair before he climbed into bed and went to sleep.

The next day he woke up early, a shudder went through his body as he felt slender arms wrapped around him and caressed his skin, he almost screamed. But he quickly bit back the urge to push the person away when the memory of the last two days came to mind. He opened his eyes and looked at his mother’s sleeping face, she seemed to have taken him for a pillow as she held him tight even when the two of them had drowned in sweat.

The heat and the way his skin stuck to hers made him feel sick and with the memories of his past life flashing in his mind he shoved her off of him and scrambled from the bed. His mother didn’t seem too aroused by him as she just turned over and curled into a ball, he looked at her and calmed his racing heat before he went over to his desk and sat down.

Closing his eyes he took a few deep breaths as he tried to banish the memories from disturbing him, when they faded he opened his eyes and got up to prepare for school. By the time his mother woke up, he was sitting at the table finishing off the last few spoons of food. She yawned lazily and told him good morning and to have a great day at school before she once again flipped over and went back to sleep.