“Forget it! Why worry myself over such nonsense!” The actor took out his cell phone and sure enough, saw a number of missed calls. A number of them were from Alice.
But… How did he sleep through so many missed calls? He recalled that his cell phone had a loud ringtone. Besides, it was just sitting by the pillow. Was he sleeping so soundly? Did he really not hear such a loud ringtone going off? Could something really be wrong with him?
In the midst of his confusion, he suddenly realized, his phone had been switched to silent mode. He had no idea when this had happened.
…
He was all the more stunned. His phone had always been kept in the ringing plus vibration mode. How did it get switched to silent mode? No wonder he hadn’t been woken up by the many calls. Had someone been fiddling with his phone?
Hua Jin had no time to dwell on this, he dialed Alice’s number and headed for the back garden. The call was answered almost immediately.
At the other end, Alice sounded nervous. “Hua Jin?”
“It’s me.”
“Whew…” Alice was clearly relieved. “Why haven’t you answered any of my calls?”
“I fell asleep …” Hua Jin explained, “I accidentally muted my phone, so maybe that’s why I didn’t hear the calls coming in!”
Alice was taken aback and muttered, “A false alarm. Next time, don’t turn your phone to silent mode. Be careful about that. I’ll be worried if I can’t reach you.”
“Uh huh.”
“How is Natalia now?” Alice inquired, sounding rather worried.
The actor happened to walk out onto the terrace. From his vantage point, he could see Natalia swinging in the back garden. The child seemed to be enjoying herself. She could keep herself occupied even though she was alone.
He replied, “She’s fine. Now, she’s there alone, playing on the swing.”
“You… didn’t notice anything odd about her, did you?”
“Odd?” The actor shook his head. “Not really…”
After a pause, he suddenly changed the subject. “Anyway, does Natalia really have a split personality?”
“Uh huh. Why do you ask?”
“So far, no one, not even you, has witnessed her second personality?”
Alice sighed helplessly at that. “I haven’t known her for long, but her condition is different from Youyou’s. Her second personality was created by an outsider, not a creation of her own mental world.”
“How is that different from Youyou? Aside from the fact that one is self-induced and the other is induced by an external party, I don’t see a difference.”
“You’re wrong.” Alice answered, “A self-induced split personality has a strong sense of belonging to its own body. It’s independent. But what others create, you can’t rule out that it’s being controlled externally.”
“Being controlled?”
“Since Natalia’s personality was created by an external party, there already exists an element of manipulation in itself. I have to suspect, then, that her alter ego can be controlled. It’s not of the same nature.”
“I can’t say I understand completely…” After all, the actor was particularly unfamiliar with the field.
Alice groaned for a moment, then tried another explanation. “In the beginning, Professor Romanka created Natalia’s split personality by locking her up in a laboratory for research. I suspect he was trying to achieve a terrible vision he had from years ago.”
