Damn It, Keep Your Eyes Off My Mom!

[Sister Complex | Loser Boys | Everyone's Favorite | Male Rivalry | Love Rivals]

"Cherish your family, protect Anaxhid" was the principle I lived by after differentiating as a Sentinel.

I wanted to protect my mother. A Guide with a shattered spirit form.

After my father died, the Alliance took her health into consideration and didn't assign her any mental-calming duties. Trapped at home, she sank into hopeless longing, like a flower on the verge of wilting.

I wasn't an adult yet, so she couldn't look for a new match. I both hoped my eighteenth birthday would come quickly, so someone could help her emerge from the shadows, and dreaded seeing another Sentinel by my mother's side.

Amid these conflicting feelings, my coming-of-age ceremony arrived as scheduled. But I wasn't the star of the party.

Far too many powerful and influential figures showed up uninvited, and my mother had no choice but to handle them on my behalf.

The banquet hall blazed with light, and guests mingled over wine. I watched my mother, her smile weary, move among the top Sentinels with a glass in hand. I noticed every one of them eyeing her hungrily.

They were like a storm about to break, while my mother was a flower trembling in the cold wind and rain.

She had to find a Sentinel with a high compatibility rating. The law required it, and I couldn't object.

But whoever her match was, he could never, ever, ever measure up to my father or take his place in my mother's heart...

That is, if I hadn't run into a group of Sentinels outside our house on a rainy night, after my mother came home from completing a mission.

They stood in a torrential downpour tainted by corruption, their eyes sharp and their expressions wild, like a pack of wolves gathered together.

An old comrade of my father's, his eyes bloodshot, said to me, "Landon, I hope you'll accept me as your stepfather."

My mentor grabbed my hand so hard it felt as if he meant to break it. "Landon, don't believe him. Your mother likes me more..."

He couldn't finish, because the head of the Seventh Bureau had already punched him.

As I watched them brawl, my military academy roommate skirted around the crowd and came up to me. In a hoarse voice, he asked, "Landon, where is your sister... no, your mother?"

At the same time, countless familiar black roses climbed over the fence, peering into the courtyard.

The last thread in my mind snapped.

...I thought of you as uncles, mentors, and friends, but you want to be my stepfather?

Damn it, all of you stay away from my mother!

[Reading Guide]

1. The main story is told from the heroine's perspective. She is 39 from the start, loved her late husband, and her son is her biological child. She is a strong, universally adored heroine with a very motherly feel, and the strongest person in the story.

2. The heroine is not a virgin; all the men are. There are romances at different stages, love rivalries, and a harem-like battlefield. The final male lead is her son's military academy classmate.

3. Post-apocalyptic setting. Ordinary survivors have an average lifespan of 150 years, while Sentinels and Guides live longer.

4. My own take on the Sentinel-Guide setting, with lots of original details. This is essentially self-indulgent comfort writing, so please don't nitpick too much.

[Comments on individual chapters are open, with no restrictions.]

[I won't delete comments, but I'll get upset if you say Su isn't good :( Then we'll argue about it.]

[Blurb screenshotted and archived on 2024.12.04.]

★ Please add my soon-to-be-completed novel, My Interstellar Fox Wife Is So Clingy, to your favorites~

★ You're welcome to read my friend's novel: the modern romance sweet treat The Poor Darling Cross-Dresses for Online Dating with a Big Shot, by Shihe Shangshang, book number 8940358. It's complete, so feel free to give it a try if you're interested~

Blurb for the upcoming novel: But She Wants Me to Bear Her Child [GB]

[Nonhuman sweet girl & love-struck male nanny]

August 13, Sunny

/Sloppy handwriting, page crumpled/

Yesterday's torrential rain caused a mudslide and the bridge collapsed. Luckily, Old Yu had already gone down the mountain and wasn't hurt.

The fever gave me nightmares. My head hurts, but... I got together with her.

She was right. I'm an idiot.

I won't write more. The Snake Maiden's ritual has been moved up. Today, we have to put snake puppets outside the door.

August 14, Sunny

/Written in a hurry/

The day we hang the banners. The New Year colors are red and blue.

Men and women started staying in separate rooms yesterday. I can only come out once a day, so I can't see her. It's depressing.

...Ever since that day I had a high fever, I keep feeling like there's something on the ceiling. Am I imagining it?

August 15, Sunny

/Just a few lines/

I brought up the hallucinations to her again and got scolded for not resting properly. I guess I deserved it.

Today we scatter salt and burn candles. As A Xin said, it really is sunny every day before the ritual.

Tomorrow is the most important part of the project. I need to take good photos and write the report.

August 17, Cloudy

/Neat handwriting/

The ritual is over, and she's back to staying here. I can't help wanting to cling to her, but I need to write the report outline.

She borrowed a coiled-snake statue from A Xin and brought it back. One more research item.

The sky is gloomy. It feels like rain is coming.

August 19, Sunny

/Handwriting slightly messy, strokes pressed hard into the page/

She disappeared on a stormy night.

After my fever went down, I asked the villagers. They said no one by that name lived here and urged me to see the ghost medium.

I ran into a Daoist from the Xuanmen school, who told me I didn't need to search for someone I was fated to meet but not destined to keep.

The ghost medium also said she wouldn't come back and advised me to let go as soon as possible.

I don't believe them.

August 22, Cloudy

/Unusually neat handwriting, with the last three characters slightly wavering/

Going into the mountains with the ghost medium and the Daoist.

To find her.

Month? Day?

/Two small lines in a different hand/

Found him. He's adorable, and the baby is adorable.

It's just a hassle going out, so I'll swallow him first, then we can go home together.

Month? Day?

/Flourished handwriting/

Xiao Chu says I can't tell what [she] feels for me.

But she wants me to bear her children. Isn't that love?

[Blurb screenshotted and saved on 2024.05.24.]

Before You Read:

1. [Important: I wrote this from the male lead's perspective because the heroine's point of view wouldn't be scary at all anymore. It would be very boring.]

2. Mild horror with a small amount of Lovecraftian elements. All folklore, religion, geography, and history mentioned in the story are fictional.

3. The male lead is love-struck and trusts the heroine unconditionally, so he'll overlook certain details.

4. Includes an unconventional male-pregnancy plot. The child is born as a snake, and it will be a long time before it takes human form.

Theme: Live well and keep striving.