The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

Happy birthday, Xiaoxue!

Mom and Dad sat at the dining table, which was laden with a sumptuous meal prepared by their housekeeper, Aunt Liu, and a large birthday cake in the center.

The house was decorated with colorful ribbons and balloons by Mom and Dad, and a "Happy Birthday" banner was pasted on the wall, creating a wonderful atmosphere.

But... Xiaoxue always felt that something was missing.

What's missing?

people.

On my birthday, only my parents were there, no one else.

Although Grandpa would come sometimes, there was no one else besides family members.

Xiaoxue once saw her neighbor's child celebrating a birthday from the window. Many children would come to his house, making a ruckus, laughing and playing, carrying the cake and running back and forth in the yard.

But... I didn't have it.

Then why don't you make friends?

Xiaoxue had asked herself this question as well.

She wants to have friends, she really wants to.

She couldn't help but feel envious when she saw other children holding hands to go to school, sharing snacks, and playing together.

She also wants someone to talk to her, someone to remember her birthday, and someone to celebrate her birthday with her.

but……

No...

Given her current state, she shouldn't have any friends.

At least that's what she thinks.

Back when she was still in school, Xiaoxue also took the initiative to make friends.

She tried everything she could to make her classmates like her, including talking to them, sharing her snacks, helping them with their homework, carrying their bags.

But those friends either gradually disappeared, or were taken away by others and stopped paying attention to them.

Sometimes she would be playing happily with another child, and then one day, that child would suddenly stop talking to her.

Or more commonly, she might be playing with someone when she suddenly loses consciousness. When she wakes up, she finds herself with a complete stranger, while her original friends are long gone, looking at her like she's a monster.

It's not their fault, it really isn't their fault.

Xia Qing's assertiveness, Zhi Qiu's maturity, Xiao Nuan's rationality...

Each of them has their own personality and their own way of speaking.

You're perfectly fine on your end, and then suddenly the other person changes completely, acting like they don't even know you. Of course, you'd run away in fright.

Then her friends stopped talking to her.

Not to mention those who would actively seek out and bully you.

She hasn't left school since her father withdrew her from school.

The outside world is too dangerous; she dares not go out.

What would happen if someone found out that several people lived inside one person's body?

They'll be treated like monsters, sent for research, locked up...

So she gradually stopped making friends, since all those friends would eventually leave her anyway.

If you don't give in, you won't lose anything; if you don't give in, you won't be hurt; if you don't give in, you won't be exposed.

All I need to do is stay in my room and live my life alone.

Anyway, no one will like me, no one will care about me, and no one will... see me.

During her darkest period, she had doubts.

Do Mom and Dad... really love me?

Or rather, how long will my parents love me like this?

If this situation has continued for so long, my parents will eventually find me a burden.

Every day you have to deal with a child who changes parents at the drop of a hat, and in your current state, you can only stay in your room all day and can't even live a normal life. Who can stand that?

Mom and Dad just don't say it, but they must be annoyed inside.

Maybe I should do this before my parents completely hate me, before they really think I'm a burden...

Xiaoxue looked at the desk drawer.

She knew there was a pair of scissors in that drawer, the kind used for crafts, not very big, but enough...

She had opened that drawer and picked up that pair of scissors more than once.

She stared at her wrist, thinking about it over and over again.

Is that alright?

Does that mean I won't cause trouble for others?

Will this make things a little easier for Mom and Dad?

But in the end, he didn't go through with it.

Whether it was a coincidence or not, every time she picked up the scissors, there would be a knock on the door.

It's either Dad or Mom.

"Honey, Dad bought you a new bear today. It's huge! Open the door and see if you like it!"

"Xiaoxue, do you want to sleep with Mommy tonight? It looks like it's going to thunder tonight."

Xiaoxue's hands would tremble at these times.

She bit her lip, tears falling drop by drop onto her wrist, put the scissors back in their place, and closed the drawer.

Then she opened the door and ran into her parents' arms.

Later, Xiaoxue didn't know when, but the scissors in that drawer disappeared.

Xiaoxue didn't know who took it, nor did her parents ask, and they didn't say anything either.

It was as if the scissors had never been in that drawer; no one ever mentioned it.

But ever since then, every time Xiaoxue opens that drawer, she finds it stuffed with all sorts of snacks.

Sometimes Dad stuffs them in, sometimes Mom stuffs them in, and sometimes they both stuff them in together. After stuffing them in, they try to shift the blame onto each other, telling the other to buy less because eating too many snacks is bad, and then they secretly buy them themselves.

Xiaoxue went from picking up scissors and crying to picking up a bag of snacks and sitting on the bed eating them slowly.

Later on, Xiaoxue gradually realized that she wasn't alone, and that she had friends.

Because I still have that notebook.

At that time, they had just started writing in notebooks, simply to record what they experienced when they appeared.

For example, what did you do today, who did you meet, and what did you say? This way, when others wake up, they won't be completely confused.

But later, the contents of the notebook gradually changed.

Fewer and fewer people wrote on it at first. There were several at first, then five or six, and then it stabilized at four. One of them was Xiaoxue herself.

They started writing down whatever they wanted to say in addition to recording their daily lives.

Write down everything, like what you like, what you want to eat, what you hate.

Then, when I woke up again and opened my notebook, there would be a few more replies below the line I had left.

Xiaoxue talked to herself for a long time through that notebook.

He is a person, yet not quite a person.

One body, four souls.

They kept each other company and took care of each other, leaving behind words in their notebooks that outsiders wouldn't even consider chat logs.

But those were the only lights in Xiaoxue's loneliest days.