/
End
“Open up.”
“You open up first…”
To calm my nerves, I told myself, “Don’t worry. There’s nothing to be scared of. I’m an adult now. I’m no longer afraid of my mom… and… and… now that I think about it, I can’t think of anything that I did wrong… I just have another two. I can explain it. Mommy Vyvyan and Mommy Elizabeth can’t understand what I say, anyway. I just have to say they’re old classmates or old friends who came to hang out. That’ll work… I should be able to slip my way through this one…”
I shivered as I took my keys out. It took multiple attempts to insert the key into the hole. I thought I’d be welcomed with an aggressive scene, such as three mothers quietly sitting there, staring each other down and waiting to kill whoever dared to move… Or, Mommy Elizabeth and Mommy Vyvyan being unable to resist and attacking first… While I was cognizant Mommy Vyvyan and Mommy Elizabeth were sensitive about me, I didn’t think they’d kill someone in a place they didn’t understand… That was what I’d like to believe.
A part of me was concerned… If there was a third, I mean, a fourth mother, they wouldn’t hesitate to resort to hostility. I wouldn’t put it past them to try and kill my biological mom. Mommy Sylvanas was probably their bottom line. If more mothers continued to show up, the two of them wouldn’t be able to contain their frustration.
Opening the door was akin to opening Pandora’s Box or the door to hell… I looked inside, only to find the three more relaxed than I imagined. In fact, all of them had a can of beer in their hand and chatted merrily. It was harmonious beyond belief…
Thoughts began running through my head: “Why are the three so harmonious? Is my mom not worried about these two random women? Are Mommy Vyvyan and Mommy Elizabeth not suspicious of this fourth mom who randomly appeared?”
Sister Ning leaned her head over and curiously stole a glimpse. She quietly asked, “Something’s wrong… Why is it so quiet? Did nothing happen?”
“Mm… I agree that it’s unbelievably abnormal… but isn’t that something to celebrate?”
Upon entering, the three raised their heads in unison. Mommy Vyvyan smiled: “Welcome back, Son.”
Mommy Elizabeth folded her arms and nodded: “I’m glad you’re back, Son. What did you bring back?”
My attention wasn’t on Vyvyan and Elizabeth. Instead, I fearfully looked at my mom.  She had an upright posture. Not a strand of hair was out of place. Her expression made me instinctively feel that I did something wrong…
“You’re back,” Mom remarked.
What surprised me, though, was that Mom didn’t give me any flak. She, instead, calmly nodded as if I just went to buy salt. She looked at the pile of clothes I bought and Sister Ning, who followed behind me.
Mom regarded us with a smile: “Ning, you know these people, right? It sounds as though you know each other. Else, you wouldn’t have bought them clothes. I don’t blame you. Foreigners do have a different concept of aesthetics compared to us.”
Sister Ning and I froze. Mommy Vyvyan and Mommy Elizabeth, who were behind me, also froze. Mom looked left and right then revealed a look of revelation. She thundered, “These two women are related to you, after all, aren’t they?! Why do you have these two women with you?! What’s their relationship with you?! This has never happened in our family before! It’s not as though Mom can’t accept you having a girlfriend but not two!! Look at them! They may look pretty, but they’re around my age, aren’t they?! What is going through your head?! Come home! Come home, and just you wait!!”
Before I could reply, Mommy Vyvyan hugged Mom’s head from behind. Mom wanted to counter, but she instantly lost all of her energy. Then, she slowly fell onto Mommy Vyvyan’s chest. I spaced out for a brief moment and then leapt over. Mommy Vyvyan shook her head: “She’s fine, Son. Mommy didn’t kill. Mommy just felt that she needed to relieve herself.”
“Relieve… what?”
Mommy Vyvyan pursed her lips into a smile then placed Mom onto the sofa. She patted Mom’s face and softly laughed: “How pitiful. She’s putting herself through the wringer, yet she can’t put down her shield. Mommy sensed it. She panicked when she realised that there was a problem. She’s far from being as composed as she shows on the surface. Look, Mommy helped her relax a little.”
Mom slowly opened her eyes. She saw me and Mommy Vyvyan, who was smiling. I panicked as I watched Mom come to. As soon as I went to speak, she pulled me into her embrace and tightly hugged my head. She lashed out at the two women, braying, “This is my son, My biological son! I won’t hand him over to you! Never! He’s my son! I will never give him to a woman without a thought! At least not now! He’s my son! I will never hand him to you!”
Questions jumped into my mind: “What in the world is going on?! What the hell is this?! What’s going on?! No way! No Way! She’s not Mommy Elizabeth or Mommy Vyvyan. This is my biological mother, a soldier, a heroine who never frowns, a female soldier!! She’s never shown me any gentle expressions and even forced me to use my willpower to get through things when I was sick… Such a mother is hugging me, like this, and saying this sort of stuff?! This can’t be real! It can’t be real! Surely Mommy Vyvyan must’ve added something she shouldn’t have…”
“See? She’s the same kind as us.” Mommy Vyvyan folded her arms and chuckled in a soft voice.
Mom kissed my forehead with tears coursing down her face. She whimpered, “Mommy didn’t want to treat you that way, either… Mommy wanted to hug you and kiss you as other mothers did, too… Mommy also wanted to dote on you… but… but… Mommy can’t… Mommy… is too concerned with how others evaluate Mommy… Mommy… shouldn’t have behaved that way… Mommy loves you… really… Mommy… really loves you…”
It’s not really my place to tell you what happened after. After calming down, Mom fell asleep until night time. I couldn’t tell if it was her pent up feelings that she never let out or if Mommy Vyvyan messed with her mind. I couldn’t bear to leave when I watched her sleep. Regardless, I knew I didn’t belong in this world.
At night, I replenished Mommy Vyvyan’s mana. She enjoyed it to the absolute max. Afterwards, she drew up a magic formation at a tall building near our house.
I had mixed emotions. I kissed Zhu Liangzhe’s Mom on the cheek. Frankly, I couldn’t imagine how she dealt with the news of my death when she loved me so much. My initial assumption was wrong. Mom wasn’t the type of mother to be proud of me for sacrificing myself to save a child. She loved me. She wouldn’t feel proud. She must’ve bawled until she passed out in front of my grave.
I had the option of staying, but I couldn’t. I was dead. Zhu Liangzhe was dead. Mom’s Zhu Liangzhe was dead. Everything in this world was an illusion. It was all just a dream…
Knowing I had to return to the world I reincarnated into, I silently apologised: “Sorry, Mom… It truly wasn’t on purpose…”