Entering a Split Personality — Chapter 23

Thanks to Mo and Lulith for brightening up my day! 🌸

***

When he woke from his dream, there was a thin layer of sweat on Xiao He’s forehead.

He turned and looked at Fan Shen, who was still deeply asleep, and slowly calmed down, but his heart felt as empty as before.

Xiao He sat up and lifted his hand to look at the time. He’d already made a decision in his heart.

If it were possible, he wanted to hurry up and treat Fan Shen. 

And...he wanted to see him, see a version of him that wasn’t in such despair.

It seemed it was only in this way that he could truly find inner peace.

He’d spent two whole months in the dream, but only around two days had passed in reality.

Xiao He made a few quick calculations. His little sister shouldn’t return from the research institute this early, and his parents wouldn’t go so far as to call him after only two days, so...he should still be able to disappear for another day or two.

Due to the lingering fear and panic in his heart, Xiao He didn’t want to wait any longer.

He pressed the call button, and Qin Su’s voice soon came through. “Do you need anything?”

Xiao He said, “I want to continue the treatment.”

Qin Su was startled, but he soon replied, “Alright, please wait for a moment, I’ll be right over.”

Almost as soon as his words had finished, Qin Su appeared before him. “You can rest for a while longer, we’re not that tight on time…”

Xiao He interrupted him. “It’s fine, let’s get started.” 

Qin Su closed his mouth, looked at him seriously, and said in a low voice, “Alright, thanks for your cooperation.”

“Yeah.” Xiao He made a noise in response, but his gaze never left Fan Shen. 

This wasn’t his first time linking up, so Xiao He had ample experience.

He felt a bit dizzy at first, but he soon slowly got used to it. If he had to describe this feeling, it would be like waking up in bed after sleeping for a long time. He wasn’t tired, but he felt a trace of hazy sleepiness that he had to slowly wake up from.

But he soon got used to it.

Xiao He opened his eyes. A glaring light suddenly swept over him, and he couldn’t help but squint.

The sunlight was strong, shining through curtains that weren’t that thick, and landing right on his face.

Xiao He sat up, looked around, and was a little confused.

Compared to last time, the scene he saw upon waking up was really too commonplace…

An ordinary single-person apartment, with a bed, table, chair and computer.

Xiao He put on clothes, got out of bed, flipped through everything, and got a general understanding of his current situation.

This time he seemed to have come to a parallel world that, at the moment, looked to be almost the same as reality. But he couldn’t be sure of whether there was any difference in the details. 

Just as he was pondering where to start, the door of the room opened wide. A huge figure stood there, her back against the sunlight.

Xiao He looked over, but before he could understand why, an earth-shattering, tremendous voice like the roar of a lion had already come through.

“Xiao He! I'm telling you that the final deadline is in three days. If you still can’t pay the rent by then,  hurry up and beat it! My place isn’t a welfare agency. If you don’t have money then sleep in the street, don’t stay here wasting space. There’s still a bunch of people lining up outside, wanting to rent a room!” 

Xiao He: ...The script was coming on too fast, he couldn’t respond in time!

“Idiot! Moron! Fool!” The voice at the door whose face he couldn’t see clearly was still shouting on. “You youngsters, besides staring at your computer all day, what can you do? You live like a parasite, you’re weak and flabby, and even if you starve yourself to death no one will come collect your corpse! Don’t stand there stupidly, hurry up and go raise money. Six hundred yuan, not a bit less! If it’s less then you can beat it!”

Xiao He: “...”

The loud landlady seemed to already be used to this. After cursing at him for a while, she threw down an ultimatum while venting at him, and then turned and left, never giving Xiao He a chance to speak.

But Xiao He was glad. If she’d really let him speak, he...wouldn’t know what to say.

This time, his circumstances looked rather miserable!

From the landlady’s loud bellowing, he could guess the general situation he was in.

It looked like this time, he was a poor devil who couldn’t even pay 600 yuan for the rent?

In three days’ time...it shouldn’t be difficult to rustle up 600 yuan.

But...he wasn’t here to eke out an existence, but to find someone!

It looked like this strange new world was set in the background of 21st century society. Exactly where should he go to find Fan Shen?!

He heard a rumbling sound…

Alright, the top priority was that he was really hungry.

Xiao He got up and flipped through his surroundings, and felt quite frustrated.

He was actually so poor he only had a few dozen yuan. Didn’t this really give you the feeling that his host had starved to death in bed, and then he’d transmigrated into this body?

He was a damned otaku in reality as well, but he had really never gotten along this miserably, okay! 

Forget it...it was better to not think about anything else, and take care of the problem of survival first. 

Xiao He was an otaku, but if you didn’t compare him to his little sister, among his peers, he was getting along pretty well.

And his employable skills were also in an otaku’s area of expertise.

He couldn’t be called a top-notch artist, nor a top-notch writer.

But once you added the two together, one month of hard work could earn him about 20,000 yuan. For an otaku like him, eating, drinking, playing around and supporting his parents was enough.

This was also the reason his father and mother hadn’t really bothered to manage him.

After all, their son wasn’t that unpromising…

Xiao He pondered the situation he was in, and felt he had better take up his old trade.

Writing novels paid steady money, but it took a long time, and couldn’t resolve his current problems.

But staying up and putting out a few drawings shouldn’t be a big problem.

But this was an unfamiliar world, after all, and he didn’t have the reputation or the means that he did before. He couldn’t get large orders that quickly.

But in every profession, one would learn from experience after doing it for a long time. After searching for a bit, it was easy for him to take a few small orders.

It was fortunate that this world, despite being a little strange, was in general very similar to the real world, so Xiao He found quite a number of things he was familiar with.

And it was fortunate that his host, despite being a loser who almost starved to death, still had some necessary equipment, so Xiao He didn’t need to worry about the lack of a drawing tablet.

It took a while, but he finally got a job.

It was to produce an illustration, a fantasy one with a male character, the more handsome the better.

He was a new user, so he didn’t have the qualifications to make any requests. He could only produce the picture first, and if the other party liked it, they’d give him money, and if they didn’t like it then they’d drop it.

But Xiao He was still confident. After all, he wasn’t truly a new hand at this.

He rolled up his sleeves and started working, and slowly got absorbed in it.

He’d just woken up from that dreamlike world, so his mind was full of source material.

At first he’d wanted to sketch a handsome, elegant male character dressed in splendid clothes, but as he drew, he started to lose control of his hands.

A harp floated in the air, and soft feathers fluttered to the floor. In the middle of a magnificent main hall, a silver-haired elf looked back slowly. His figure was graceful, his features were perfect, and his azure eyes sparkled with brilliance that the stars paled beside…

When Xiao He returned to his senses, it was already one o’clock in the morning.

Looking at the work of art in his hands, the corner of his mouth turned up in a bitter smile.

He couldn’t sell this drawing.

He’d squandered seven whole hours, and it all came...to nothing.

Xiao He got up from his computer and decided to go out for a walk. It’d be best if he could find a supermarket, so he could buy some instant coffee and charge up his brain.

But he didn’t expect that as soon as he walked out the door, he’d trigger an incident.

The sound of a gun firing broke through the air. Startled, Xiao He instinctively started to run back, but he hadn’t moved a few steps before he crashed head-on into someone. 

The air filled with a fresh, clean fragrance, and a sweet, soft but worried voice sounded by his ear. “Please take him. Please, you have to take good care of him!”

Xiao He was just about to say something when he looked down, and saw the little baby in his arms.

This was a very beautiful little fellow, sleeping quietly, just like an angel fallen out of the sky.

And what really made Xiao He unable to move his eyes away was that...these features…

Even if they were several times smaller, he could still recognize them.

Fan Shen, this...was Fan Shen?!

***

2 hours and 40 minutes for 1,680 words, or 9.5 minutes for every 100 words. A reduction in rate by 1.5 minutes 👍

The first chapter of a new arc!

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