A New Name

"Greetings to you, Mother."

That's what the Autobots said.

Kang De and Xiaoman's smiles froze on their faces.

They do look like a couple.

A moment later, a strikingly similar look of shock and panic flashed across their faces.

"Hello!"

Kang De, shocked, exclaimed, "What did you say?!"

--A look that said, "I don't remember raising you into such a glib-tongued child."

Xiaoman hadn't expected Iron Son to be so straightforward, and instinctively retorted, "Wait! I didn't! You, you, you, you don't say that..."

The two subconsciously turned to look at each other, then turned back at the same time.

Iron Son tilted his head, his big purple eyes blinking innocently, looking bewildered and naive. "Isn't that right? Father mentions you the most, and he confides in you in his diary..."

Xiaoman's expression shifted, and she turned to look at Kang De: "Is that so? What about the diary?"

Kang De kept giving his Iron Son meaningful glances, but the boy's expression was extremely innocent, making Kang De almost want to laugh—no one knows a son better than his father, and he could see through his son's pretense at a glance!

What's even more infuriating is that he clearly copied his father's mannerisms!

If Xiaoman were calmer, she would definitely have noticed that the Transformers' innocent expression looked very familiar. However, she was not calm. The answer she received when she asked Kang De if he was someone she couldn't afford to offend in the Main God Space, along with the change in her state of mind, had already thrown her into a state of confusion. Not to mention, there was also Iron Son's help.

She was no longer as calm and collected as usual. Perhaps to change the subject, or perhaps because she genuinely cared, she even tugged at Kang De's sleeve and said, "I want to see."

While Kang De tried to intimidate his Iron Son with his eyes, threatening to double his homework if he kept talking nonsense, he also barely managed to deal with Xiaoman's Xiaoman questioning—he also felt a little instinctively panicked.

"Burn it, burn it."

This is his reply.

Xiaoman refused to believe it and even started to whine, "Let me see it, let me see it!"

Kang De pushed her face away. "Don't do that, it's disgusting..."

Just then, the Autobots's tone became blank and even bewildered. "Father, did I say something wrong?"

--Yeah, you little bastard, just shut up.

While Kang De gave her a threatening look, he said aloud, "It's very impolite to address an unmarried lady like that. Your glib tongue won't bring you any real benefit or meaningful praise; it will only embarrass both of us. You've said something you shouldn't have."

"Is that so, Father? Then I apologize. I'm sorry, I misunderstood."

Iron Son humbly accepted, but only verbally.

The moment its eyes met Kang De's, its gaze revealed denial, and its mouth quickly formed the words "Tina," its meaning crystal clear—I didn't say anything I shouldn't have.

It was less of a rebuttal and more of a threat.

--Pick that star!

At that moment, Kang De even wanted to lean back tactically—what exactly is artificial intelligence?

Xiaoman only saw the superficial interaction between the father and son, and did not notice what was hidden deep inside, unspeakable. She composed herself and did not bother to ask about the diary anymore.

"Alright, alright, why are you making such a big deal out of this? Haven't we been the subject of jokes countless times already?"

She playfully tapped Kang De, then looked at Iron Son with a beaming smile. Her gentle and affectionate attitude was not merely tolerance for a "child," nor simply a fondness for Transformers.

It's more of an appreciation, a "if you can talk, then talk more" attitude.

She smiled and said, "Hello, my name is Wang Xiaoman. I've been your father's friend since childhood. It's nice to meet you... What's your name?"

Kang De rolled his eyes.

--If you were to say something as utterly ridiculous and absurd as "Please, Mother, bestow a name upon me," then I would truly admire you.

However, no. The Autobots's steel body shuddered, and he glanced at Kang De, saying, "I don't have a name yet. The names my father gave me are all strange. I decided to choose one myself. I had already chosen one, but unfortunately, there was a war going on at the time, and my father couldn't be distracted, so I didn't tell him."

"Never mind him, he's terrible at naming things anyway, and with his twisted sense of humor, he'll probably suggest you call yourself Invincible Iron Bull." Xiaoman rolled her eyes at Kang De and said, "So what name did you give yourself?"

Iron Son's body trembled again, and he said aggrievedly, "Father did say that. You really know him."

Kang De thus earned another eye roll.

Kang De did remember this; Iron Son wanted to choose his own name, and he'd heard him mention it, but he was very busy at the time, and the Autobots never brought it up again...

--etc!

Are you waiting for me here?

Kang De sensed a premeditated act.

"My father had me read many books, such as myths. The first book I read was an Egypt myth, and the first story I randomly flipped through was the origin of my name, like a strange destiny... The protagonist of that story loved his father very much; he was a guardian and a god of law and order, so I wanted to use his name as my name..."

The Autobots paused for a moment, then said solemnly, "Horus is the name I have chosen."

Horus...

Xiaoman, being rather uneducated, pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Not bad, not bad."

Kang De was not very educated, but he still instinctively felt that something was off about the name.

Iron Son looked over and asked in a hesitant and inquiring tone, "Father... is it alright?"

--I don't think that'll work. You should still call yourself Invincible Iron Bull.

Of course, he wouldn't say such things to Xiaoman, which was probably within the Autobots' calculations. Xiaoman stepped forward and gently patted its big face. "You chose the name yourself, why ask your dad if it's okay? This name is fine, a name is just a code."

"No, it's better if Father agrees."

The Autobots said in a deep voice, "My father gave me birth, life, taught me principles, and raised me. He was very, very good to me. He made me learn new knowledge, constantly hone my skills, made me work hard day and night to make enchanted bullets, and also taught me how to squeeze as much as possible out of me..."

Xiaoman was initially delighted, but her expression gradually changed. She turned to look at Kang De and said, "This..."

Kang De gave an awkward but polite smile, "He's just a child..."

Xiaoman sighed silently.

Then she turned back, looking into the eyes of the Autobots so close to her, and said earnestly, "Horus, your father is a good man. He has his reasons for everything he does. He goes to dangerous places and does dangerous things. Sometimes, to survive, to protect some people, to protect you, he has to do things, he has to endure some hardship. What you're helping him with is this kind of hardship, because he's protecting you, and you have to protect him too. Sometimes it's tiring, but it will get better, right?"

The Autobots fell silent for a moment, their gaze passing over Xiaoman and looking at Kang De.

Kang De smacked his lips but remained silent.

Iron Son looked at Xiaoman earnestly and asked, "Are you really not considering being my mother?"

￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥

PS1: First update. Just testing whether shorter chapters can improve writing efficiency, since it's easy to get distracted and slack off when writing long chapters all at once... Let's see how it goes.

PS2: By the way, the setting is that there are no Warhammer games on the Earth where Kang De and Xiaoman live. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so unresponsive to seeing greenskins, muscular elves, and the like. But making those connections would be too complicated. This also illustrates one thing—the Earth in the story's background is a parallel world, not our own. All the people and events in the story are unrelated to the real world! Don't make any wild connections!

PS3: On another note, if there were no Warhammer games in this world, wouldn't Blizzard have nothing to copy in their early days...? Shut up! Okay, I still need to explain this. Only Warcraft 1 referenced a lot of Warhammer Fantasy in terms of game concept art. The others each had their own references. For example, concepts like the Zerg and the Space Marines were not invented by Warhammer 40k or StarCraft. It's fine to Blizzard, but you still need to have some reason to do it. For example, I don't have a mobile phone.