Four Split Personalities

"Ger, sir..."

Motan suddenly turned to look at Ger, pulling a somewhat forced smile, "I’ll go rest in the back for a bit and come back later."

The latter was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "No problem, I’ll keep watch here."

"Thank you for that. Don’t worry, it won’t take too long."

Motan looked back at the increasingly fierce fire in the city, briefly thanked Ger, and then quickly turned and walked toward the rear.

Two minutes later

In front of the city, rear of the temporary base of the allied forces, Alchemy Workshop

"Are you sure you’re alright?"

Luna, while preparing some emergency medicine at the Alchemy Table, turned to look at Motan with a dazed expression and asked in an ethereal tone, "Is it really just... ordinary fatigue?"

"Yes, just a bit tired, planning to take a short nap"

Motan sat down next to a cushion in a corner of the workshop floor, slowly closing his eyes, "So I came to bother you for a while."

Luna nodded, first gently shook the test tube in her hand containing a pale red liquid in a counterclockwise motion, then pointed toward the spiral staircase next to the entrance, "There’s a bed upstairs, you can go sleep well there."

"It’s okay, I can’t afford to sleep too comfortably at a time like this."

Motan absent-mindedly smiled and leaned on the cushion Luna usually used for reading, shrugged and said, "Don’t call me, and no need to do any weird inspections, I’ll be up soon."

Luna tilted her head, put the test tube, now bright yellow, back on the Alchemy Table, and then leisurely headed upstairs, leaving Motan, who had just prepared to disconnect in front of her, slightly startled.

Half a minute later

"Here, cover yourself."

The girl who had come back down to the first floor casually tossed Motan a blanket, seemingly woven from some kind of light grey bristles, warm and comfortable to the touch, and even bearing a faint fragrance.

However, Motan didn’t notice many details; he just nodded appreciatively, simply placed the blanket over his legs, closed his eyes again, and quickly logged off before Luna’s gaze left him.

Luna carefully watched Motan’s miraculously seamless falling asleep for a few seconds, then continued back to the Alchemy Table to fiddle with the increasingly badly colored and tasting bottles and jars.

...

Real-time AM 02:21

Motan woke up disoriented from the Game Cabin, paused for two seconds, then immediately opened the cabin lid, hurriedly climbed out, and without even wearing his slippers, rushed to his phone placed on the nearby table, then deftly found "A Yuchen" in the contacts.

After giving himself a brief five-second pep talk, he gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, making the second call in his life to Yuchen.

Incidentally, the first call was when he had gotten lost while visiting a mall with Yuchen during the new year.

As expected, the call connected...

Unexpected but somewhat sensibly, no one answered...

"Just as I thought?"

Motan frowned deeply, redialed the number, and murmured in a low voice amidst the unbearably irritating busy tone, "Or her phone isn’t with her? Or maybe she’s showering? Or perhaps..."

"Hello?"

Just as he was lost in his wild guesses, the call was answered by a voice that sounded very ’calm’.

"Yuchen! Fantastic, you really did listen to me and got off... uh... what... who are you?"

Motan felt as if a weight had been lifted off his chest, first expressed some panic, then suddenly realized the voice seemed different from someone gentle and cute, instantly feeling as though the ’weight’ had almost burst through his stomach, becoming incoherent as cold sweat poured out.

The woman on the other side of the call was silent for what felt like three years (to Motan), then said emotionlessly, "Hmm, Motan... (she seemed to glance at the caller ID) is it? Sorry, my daughter isn’t available to take the call right now, should I call her for you?"

"Gulp...cough...chuckle..."

Motan first made a few noises that hardly resembled human speech, then shivered violently and vigorously shook his head, saying, "Ah, hello, auntie! No need, it’s nothing serious, don’t trouble yourself."

He finally realized...

The person who answered the phone was Yuchen’s mom!

It was Yuchen’s mom!

Yuchen’s mom!

Her mom!

Mom!

[Mommy!]

This rather poor-nerved guy felt everything go dark before his eyes, his whole body stiffening.

"Ok, I understand."

The calm voice, or rather Yuchen’s seemingly calm mom, said nonchalantly, then after a pause of about two years, gently laughed, "Heh, speaking of which, my daughter rarely has male friends who call at this time~"

For some reason, Motan suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

Fortunately, the mom didn’t dwell too much on the matter and politely indicated she would pass the message that Motan called to Yuchen before hanging up.

Meanwhile, since that ’~’, our friend Motan had mechanically responded with "Hmm", "Oh, oh", "Okay, okay", "Yes, yes", "Mm-hm", and "Good night, auntie", which objectively speaking, could be considered a very inadequate performance.