"Boss, I'm here!"
At seven sharp the next morning, Liu Shuo arrived downstairs at Xu Mu's home and shouted at the top of his lungs.
Xu Mu opened the window, speechless. "Stop yelling. Wait there!"
How had he never noticed how terrifyingly loud the little fatty was?
"Mom, I'm going away for a couple of days to compete in a small tournament."
Xu Mu could hardly tell her he was helping someone fight an underground deathmatch, so he called it a tournament.
To be fair, that was more or less true. The gathering held by several prominent families from the five northern provinces was meant to divide up their interests, and they would settle the division by having their chosen fighters battle.
Of course, any family with a strong fighter of its own could send them in instead.
It followed the format of an underground deathmatch, but strictly speaking, it really was a competition.
"All right. Be careful."
Xu Mu's mother had seen Liu Shuo downstairs and already understood. She said nothing more, only gave him a gentle smile.
Xu Mu nodded and left home with his bag on his back.
After he was gone, his mother sat down on the sofa and pouted. For a moment, she gave off an air utterly unlike that of the middle-aged woman she had seemed before!
The pout made her look almost girlish.
She was not that old to begin with. If she dressed up, people might even believe she was Xu Mu's older sister!
"That boy really has grown up. Now he's getting mixed up in the affairs of those little families."
"Oh, well. Let him go. A young eagle has to spread its wings someday..."
After murmuring to herself, she stood. That fleeting air of mystery vanished, and she became an