As a child, Ning Mo was sold by his family to a village in the mountains.
The villagers locked him in a dark little room and gave him only one steamed bun a day.
By day, Ning Mo was so hungry he ate grass. At night, he was so cold he couldn't sleep.
One night, as he lay there, he thought he might already have frozen to death.
When he opened his eyes again, someone suddenly appeared before him. Without a word, the person slapped him, splitting his lip and drawing blood.
Ning Mo later learned that he had ended up in the home of a foreigner. The others thought he was a lazy servant sleeping on the job, so they had beaten him.
There were hundreds, even thousands of servants in that household, but only one master. Everyone called him "the head of the household."
Servant No. 1: Never try to play the victim in front of the master. He hates people like that most.
Later, the hand of the person who had slapped him was cut off, and their body was thrown over a cliff. The master picked up some ointment and applied it to Ning Mo's lip, his voice calm.
"Does it still hurt?"
Servant No. 2: Never make a mistake in front of the master. The last person who broke a plate in front of him was reduced to ashes.
Later, Ning Mo cut the master's clothes into pieces.
The master stared at the pile of scraps and mused, "Maybe I should cultivate his hobbies a little..."
After that, an extra sewing lesson was added to Ning Mo's afternoon schedule.
Ning Mo: ...
Ning Mo could only stay in the foreigner's home for two days at a time. When he woke up, he would be back in the cold, dark room. Every time, he had to wait many days before he could dream of the master again.
He grew more and more attached to the master, the only person who gave him warmth, and every night he fell asleep full of anticipation.
Until one day, the villagers dragged him out of the dark little room. His body was offered as a sacrifice to the mountain god...
One day, the master of the Summit of the Morning Sun discovered a black-haired, black-eyed boy in his home.
The last time he had seen someone with that appearance was three thousand years ago, when he first opened his eyes.
He could no longer remember what that person looked like.
He only knew that the boy had been lying in his arms then, his heart already stopped.
That was the first person he had ever seen, and the first dead person.
Blurb written on March 9, 2025
Theme: Perseverance
