What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 570: Chapter 570: I Had a Dream Last Night

Compared to his younger brother Liu Gaoshang, Liu Zhengyi harbored a much greater sense of awe toward Xiang Kun.

In truth, he had never directly observed Xiang Kun in action, yet through his observations and intuition, coupled with the reverence held by those whom he admired toward Xiang Kun, Liu Zhengyi came to some personal conclusions about the man.

Initially, he merely thought Xiang Kun was a highly esteemed figure of considerable status, someone who could persuade Liu Feibao to be humble and seek favor, someone who Liu Caifu and Chu Xiuwen took seriously, and someone who even the higher-ranking “Boss Qi” dared not to cross. That individual must be extraordinary.

When Xiang Kun moved to Chongyun Village, the continuous influx of funds coming from Tongshi Town and Chongyun Village hinted to Liu Zhengyi that Xiang Kun’s social standing was probably much higher than what he had initially imagined.

A number of subsequent events, on top of his casual chats with Chu Xiuwen in the village, allowed him to gain further insight into Xiang Kun’s true character from Chu’s words and attitudes.

No matter whether it was the lightning that struck the felons, the sudden mist that enveloped the entire village, the unidentified flying object in the mist, or the little girl in a white skirt seen outside the airliner, these “events” that occurred around Xiang Kun or those in his proximity were all far from ordinary and must have been connected. At the crux of these events was Xiang Kun, Liu Zhengyi thought, without any concrete evidence but based solely on his intuition, which he fully trusted.

Honestly, having worked for Xiang Kun for just a few months, Liu Zhengyi and his brother’s monthly income and allowances already exceeded 8K, which was a high amount for their area. Their work wasn’t physically demanding either; they were primarily in management on the construction site. According to Mr. Xiang, their future responsibilities would involve property management, security of the research base, and liaising with villagers, suggesting a level of trust toward the brothers.

Naturally, they had now achieved Liu Zhengyi’s initial aspiration and were considered to have “made something of themselves.” Those elders who previously looked down upon the brothers and wouldn’t even bother to scold them were now willing to stop for a chat. Some even actively suggested arranging marriages for them, an idea that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

His brother Liu Gaoshang was delighted every day. As soon as he finished work, he was itching to go to the town and spend time with a girl he had met in a game. If Liu Zhengyi hadn’t kept a close eye on him, the boy would likely often show up late, leave early, and squander all his salary.

As an older brother, it was now Liu Zhengyi’s responsibility to save money and help his brother get married, renovate the old house in the village, and then consider his own marriage. Although they hadn’t yet amassed significant wealth, they were on a steady upward trajectory. He thought it would take at least three to five years to reach these goals, yet everything had gone brilliantly.

However, his thoughts had begun to shift lately.

His plan for his brother remains the same. That boy was carefree and needed guidance; otherwise, he wouldn’t learn until he got severely hurt.

On the other hand, his plan for himself had altered a little.

He was slightly worried that he might not be worthy of his salary and responsibilities and had felt a crisis of inadequacy. Thus, he had been pondering on how to improve himself and become better at his job.

Given that his current and future responsibilities mostly revolve around the research base, when the experimental equipment began to arrive and be set up, he wanted to understand the process, but naturally, everything made no sense to him.

He wasn’t discouraged. He approached the staff members setting up the equipment for guidance. They assured him that using the equipment was the researchers’ job, maintaining it was the technicians’ job, and he didn’t have to do anything with it. But he insisted they provide him with many user manuals and maintenance guides.

He hadn’t even completed nine years of compulsory education and could barely make heads or tails of the manuals. Even though some of the guides were in Chinese, he didn’t understand what they were about. As such, he started to investigate the concepts he struggled with, asking questions, reading popular science articles, consulting textbooks, which were mostly about the content he studied in junior high school. He could still get drowsy as he attempted to get through the readings involving basic calculations in math, physics, or chemistry—because they were utterly new to him.

But during this process, when he checked the meanings of some words, he unintentionally came across some ancient texts that piqued his interest, prompting him to read the Analects, Doctrine of the Mean, The Great Learning, and Tao Te Ching. Of course, he barely understood most of the content and merely skimmed through them. Regardless, he found the reading so intriguing that he became absorbed in the texts.

One particular passage, “By learning, one profits daily; by practicing the Tao, one sustains daily loss,” gave him a moment of enlightenment. After reading this, he found he could better understand the math, physics, and chemistry concepts that he previously found unbearable. Although he proceeded slowly, he wasn’t impatient.

More importantly, he realized that unlike before, he wasn’t trying to quantify the world with his limited knowledge. Instead, he adopted a more holistic perspective to perceive and understand things.

Then he began to notice something special about Chongyun Village, the place where he was born and raised. Or perhaps those unique traits had just appeared recently.

He felt that Chongyun Village had a “tranquility” that no other place had. The air seemed fresher than anywhere else, a perception that he was sure wasn’t an illusion but an actual physical response from breathing.

Gradually, he sensed that the landscapes, land, trees, and rocks in the village, the land underneath and the surroundings, were all part of a unified entity—an entity with consciousness and thought. As he moved within this entity, he felt that it was gradually accepting him.

This was one of the reasons he persisted in running every morning, for he believed that it was during these moments that his “communication” with Chongyun Village was at its purest and undisturbed.

He had an idea that both Mr. Xiang and the current Chongyun Village, and Chongyun Mountain, seemed like a vast cluster of buildings hidden within a dense fog, and he stood guard over one of the entry passages leading into this architectonic ensemble.

He knew that such a group of buildings existed in the fog but he had never really seen it and did not know how large it was or what it looked like. He simply performed his duties as a loyal gatekeeper: he attended diligently to his own affairs, swept and guarded the paths beneath his feet, and waited. And hopefully, one day, the people in the buildings would acknowledge him and he would be able to catch a glimpse of the constructions hidden beneath the fog, even getting a closer look.

The most important thing was, this process was not painful, nor was it hard to endure. On the contrary, he was somewhat addicted to it and found pleasure in it. His past hobbies and pursuits began to taste bland during these days.

In the distance, Xiang Kun, who was almost at his doorstep, could guess at Liu Zhengyi’s ideas and status – even without turning back.

Actually, he could have avoided Liu Zhengyi completely, but he chose not to, and made some casual small talk with him instead.

When Xiang Kun was in a “Super Sensory State”, he would often intentionally or unintentionally perceive the cognitive information of those around him. This was particularly noticeable when he previously had to clear the special cognitive information fragments of the “Ultimate Predator”, and he basically perceived everyone he knew.

Liu Zhengyi’s cognitive information was somewhat special. In certain states, there would be a shallow connection between his cognitive information and the abundant “Super-connected Objects” in Chongyun Village.

After discovering this, Xiang Kun instructed Alice to focus on observing and collecting information from Liu Zhengyi.

Liu Zhengyi was different from people like Qi Haoguo, Old Man Du, and others who had established a second-level Emotion Infused Object link under the influence of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” or emotional impact of the wooden cat carvings at Youlong Restaurant. He had not been influenced by any “Emotion Infused Objects”, nor did he have exclusive “Super-connected Objects” given by Xiang Kun like Old Xia or Little Fatty Girl, nor had he received “System Recognition” or “Will Recognition” from Xiang Kun. So, normally, he couldn’t enter the “Super Sensory Item System”, let alone establish a special connection with “Super-connected Objects”.

However, Liu Zhengyi’s connection was unlike that of anyone known to be in the “Super Sensory Item System” right now, including beings like cats, birds, and trees. He wasn’t connected to a specific “Super-connected Object” or a few of them, but instead, he had a very faint connection with all Super-connected Objects in the area, or rather a “set” composed of all the Super-connected Objects in the area.

It was as if the one establishing the connection with him was not a Super-connected Object, but Chongyun Village itself.

This was somewhat similar to the feeling between Old Xia and that GL8. They didn’t focus on a specific “Super-connected Object” nor detailed information operation or perception related to that “Super-connected Object”. Instead, they integrated the effects of all the Super-connected Objects in the GL8 “unit” into one, and established the connection and function application from there.

Of course, compared to Old Xia’s perception of the GL8, Liu Zhengyi’s perception of the entire Chongyun Village was deficient by leaps and bounds. If Old Xia’s perception of the GL8 was quantified as 10,000, then Liu Zhengyi’s perception of Chongyun Village might not even reach 0.0001, and still remained in a barely discernible and vague state.

So, let alone utilizing such perception for anything, under normal circumstances, this level of perception would be virtually imperceptible to a regular person. They would merely think it was a momentary sensory illusion. However, Liu Zhengyi was obviously firm in his vague perception and even tried to find and train methods to strengthen his perception.

Xiang Kun figured that the reason for Liu Zhengyi having this kind of perception probably had something to do with him spending a long time in Chongyun Village, an environment containing a large number of “Super-connected Objects” – especially the construction site of that research base. Xiang Kun had originally planned to use it as his main “base”. He had established a “Super Sensory Contact” with almost all the building materials that were capable of establishing such a contact, and had also preemptively placed a large number of “Super-connected Tungsten Steel Beads” under the construction site.

However, currently, with Xiang Kun mass-releasing Super-connected Objects and establishing Super Sensory Contact worldwide, there were actually many places worldwide with higher Super-connected Object density than that construction site, yet for the time being, there have been no similar cases like Liu Zhengyi. Of course, it might also be that he just hadn’t discovered them yet.

From Xiang Kun’s past experiences, he speculated that Liu Zhengyi’s unique perception of the overall Super-connected Objects in Chongyun Village was probably tied to his cognitive system.

It is very likely that Liu Zhengyi has formed a cognitive method that can be compatible with the “Super Sensory Item System” or, to be more precise, the “Chongyun Village Super-connected System”.

At the same time, although Xiang Kun has not granted him Super-connected Object “authorization recognition”, in Xiang Kun’s subconscious cognition, Liu Zhengyi is a “familiar face” who is under protection. This might be some sort of “secondary authorization certificate” issued non-actively by Xiang Kun.

Of course, if Xiang Kun wanted, he could cut off Liu Zhengyi’s extremely weak connection with Chongyun Village’s Super-connected Objects at any time.

But for now, Xiang Kun is eager to see how far Liu Zhengyi could go on his own. He didn’t hinder Liu Zhengyi, nor promote him. He was only observing. In some sense, Liu Zhengyi might be reaching the limit of how much unfacilitated interaction with the “Super Sensory Item System” a regular person can achieve without active influence from Xiang Kun, emotional projection intervention, or Super-connected Object authorization.

As the types of Super-connected Objects continued to increase indefinitely, and as their distribution and association areas covered the globe, and crazily continued to grow under his and Alice’s operation, anywhere there were people there would pretty much be Super-connected Objects. Under the premise of Xiang Kun not giving authorization, or actively intervening, or actively influencing, the mutual impact which ordinary people or other organisms could have with Super-connected Objects or the “Super Sensory Item System” will be a topic needing attention in the future.

…

When Xiang Kun returned home, Old Xia had just finished washing up and was coming downstairs. Evidently, she had been notified by Alice that he was back.

Alice also reported last night’s battle situation to Old Xia in a manner half boasting and half showing off, as Alice knew that she could only tell these things to Old Xia.

So, Xiang Kun didn’t need to tell her about last night’s situation. After greeting her with a ‘Good morning’, he went straight to the kitchen to start preparing breakfast.

Li Bing followed him into the kitchen and started sorting out flour and kneading dough as per Xiang Kun’s instructions.

“Is it still there?” Li Bing asked while kneading dough.

Xiang Kun knew what she was asking about and replied, “It’s still there, buried in the dirt, with Alice guarding it. It’s stable.”

The phone in his trousers pocket made a crisp sound, “Very stable!”

Old Xia nodded, her question about whether the “mutated big bird” which didn’t get brought back was “safe” was well understood. Of course, by “safe”, she was referring not to whether the “mutated big bird” was safe, but to if it would remain unhindered as a “tool” in Xiang Kun’s future plans. Could it be found and destroyed by the “Ultimate Predator”, other “mutants” or humans?

Xiang Kun’s reply was very clear: with Alice guarding it, there won’t be any problems.

Although Old Xia didn’t ask again, Xiang Kun still added, “With enough ‘super-connected objects’ and Alice’s attention, the ‘Ultimate Predator’ will have no way of influencing it on a microscopic level.”

The phone in his trouser pocket followed up: “No way! No influence!”

Xiang Kun and Old Xia were used to it and didn’t respond to her.

The “special super sensory information fragment” erased by Xiang Kun could potentially be “infected” by the “Ultimate Predator” again, but if Xiang Kun placed enough “super connected objects” around the target and had Alice on high alert, it would kill this possibility in advance.

Thus, the “mutated big bird”, which is now buried in the ground, wrapped in layers by the root stalks of “Xiao Luobo’s” “offspring plants”, and surrounded by tens of thousands of “super-connected spheres”, could not be directly influenced by the “Ultimate Predator” to determine the mutant bird’s fate. It’s nearly impossible.

Xiang Kun would be even less afraid of external influences. With his preparation, whether it’s the “super sensory item system” or Alice’s control, both are adequate for coping.

He did not believe that the “Ultimate Predator” would dare to fight him to the death now. This can be seen from its strenuous attempts to attack the passenger plane through the mutated big bird.

Li Bing then asked, “The original plan?”

Xiang Kun shook his head: “No, the plan has changed. I may not be able to handle it alone, I might need your help.”

Li Bing’s answer was still extremely in-character, “Very interested.”

“I’m interested too!” Xiang Kun’s phone in his pocket chimed.

“Whether you’re interested or not, you can’t escape from it. Make the dough now.” Xiang Kun said irritably, and at the same time shoved a newly washed coin into the dough that Old Xia had just finished kneading.

Xiang Kun had already sensed that Yang Zhen’er was stretching after waking up in bed. Tang Baona was tossing and turning, also about to wake up soon. According to Yang Lao San’s habit, she would definitely wake up Nana when she woke up. Therefore, even if he used warm water, there was not enough time for the dough to rise. He needed to use the “super-connected object” to let Alice help him cheat.

So, within three minutes, under Alice’s hard work, the dough that Old Xia had kneaded had risen into a full bowl. After Xiang Kun removed the coin, he quickly rolled out the dough, filled it with the freshly made filling, fast as though he were a human dumpling machine.

Old Xia prepared the steamer and heated the water. Xiang Kun had already made the right amount of meat buns and placed them in the steamer.

By the time Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er woke up, got dressed, washed up, and came downstairs, Xiang Kun had already made the soy milk, fried the egg pancakes, turned off the fire under the steamer, and was ready to serve breakfast.

“Good morning Chef Xiang! Good morning Old Xia! Oh yea, I get to eat fresh breakfast by Chef Xiang again!” Yang Zhen’er, energetic, sat down next to the dining table, rubbing her hands together and narrowing her eyes in anticipation.

Tang Baona laughed and said, “You misplaced the adjective, you should say you are eating Chef Xiang’s fresh breakfast, not a fresh Chef Xiang!”

“Don’t worry about it, hehe,” said Yang Zhen Er as she leaned down to take a small sip of soy milk from the rim of the basin, then picked up a piece of egg pancake and finished it in two bites.

“By the way, I had a dream last night that was super, super, super interesting!” Yang Zhen Er said, chewing on her egg pancake, eager to get started.

Old Xia and Tang Baona at the table just silently ate their own breakfast, not responding, knowing that she would continue on her own.

Xiang Kun brought over two plates of steaming buns and smiled: “What, Yang Lao San, did you dream about a white knight riding a black pig coming to get you?”

“Nonsense, I don’t dream about white knights!” Yang Zhen Er said, already reaching for a steamed bun and eating it, not caring about the “super, super, super interesting” dream she was going to tell.

However, after just one bite, she scalded her mouth and screamed out, causing Tang Baona, who was watching from the side, to both laugh and cry. She quickly went to get some cold water, always feeling that Yang Zhen Er and Xiao Lingdang were similar.

“Slow down, no one is rushing you. Xiang Kun made so many, we definitely can’t finish all of them,” Tang Baona helplessly handed over the glass as she said this.

Yang Zhen Er waved her off, not needing it, then puffed out a breath to cool down the bun in her mouth. After swallowing, she took a big gulp of soy milk and giggled, “I’m hungry. I think that dream I had last night took up a lot of my energy.”

“Dreams taking up energy? You weren’t sleepwalking,” Tang Baona laughed.

Hearing this, Xia Libing, while biting his bun, gave Yang Zhen Er a thoughtful look.

Yang Zhen Er quickly finished one bun and started on the second, starting to tell her dream, “So last night, I dreamed I was at home trying to generate electricity with a coin…”

Tang Baona asked, “How can you generate electricity with a coin?”

“It’s generating electricity like ‘zzzz, anyway, it’s not important. I was just doing that when Xiao Lingdang suddenly ran home. She looked so pitiful and told me she got beaten up at kindergarten and couldn’t fight back. I was furious, who beat up my Xiao Lingdang? I immediately grabbed Xiao Lingdang and rushed over there to demand an explanation…” Yang Zhen Er said, pointing like a sword, an image of a heroine on an expedition.

“Isn’t Xiao Lingdang in primary school now?” Tang Baona asked.

“That’s not important!” Yang Zhen Er waved her hand dismissively and continued, “So I grabbed Xiao Lingdang and rushed over, and when I got to the kindergarten, my god! The one who beat Xiao Lingdang was a turkey, really big, like the size of a Tengjiao Entertainment building! That guy stepped down with just one claw, and Xiao Lingdang and I would have been done for, no fight against him!

Then I yelled, ‘Get on the cat!’, and Xiao Lingdang and I jumped onto a fat cat bigger than a tiger and rode on it, running and running. By the way, the cat was a Custard Pie, and you know what, it was actually quite comfortable riding on a cat. Anyway, we just kept running, I was furiously patting Custard Pie’s bottom for it to speed up, and Xiao Lingdang kept throwing coins to hit the turkey. But that turkey, it could actually fly! It suddenly landed in front of us, and it spat fire from its mouth, can you believe it! Then…”

Talking about the word “then,” Yang Zhen Er suddenly burst into laughter so that she couldn’t go on. She sank her head into her crook and tried to control her laughter. Her shoulders were shaking with laughter.

Xia Libing, Tang Baona, and Xiang Kun all looked at each other, wondering what had made Yang Lao San suddenly so amused.

After nearly half a minute, Yang Zhen Er finally took a deep breath and stopped giggling abruptly. She put the bun she was holding down on the plate and said, “When Xiao Lingdang and I thought we were done for, thunder suddenly rang out from the sky, and lightning, and then a guy fell out of the clouds, a big baldy, he flew over and kicked the head off that turkey with one kick. One kick, hahaha, the turkey’s head, eyes wide, mouth open, it was so funny, hahaha….”

Yang Zhen Er burst into laughter again. Tang Baona, who was usually easily amused, couldn’t help but join in.

Yang Zhen Er continued laughing and said, “That big bald guy turned out to be Brother Xiang, the chef, who was bare, not even wearing glasses, just wearing shorts made of leaves. He looked like a savage, but still bald, hahaha! In the dream, I actually thought Brother Xiang, dressed like this, looked pretty cool, with a great figure. I jumped down from Custard Pie and was about to greet Brother Xiang when, guess what, Xiao Lingdang went running up to him, holding him, and said: ‘Let’s roast the turkey!’ Hahahaha….”

At this point, Yang Zhen Er’s tears from laughter were already flowing out: “I’m dying of laughter… oh, my little foodie.”

Yang Zhen Er and Tang Baona were both laughing so hard their bellies hurt. Xiang Kun and Old Xia just had smiles on their faces, chuckling a few times, but both were deep in thought.

It wasn’t that Xiang Kun had a high comedic threshold, but rather he realised that Yang Lao San’s dream was probably not a purely self-induced dream. He was thinking and didn’t have time to laugh. As for Old Xia, he hadn’t caught the humor because he wasn’t affected by the mood, but he was the same as him, realising that the dream might be related to the “Super sensory item system”.

After laughing for a while, Tang Baona wiped her tears and said, “By the way, I had a dream last night too.”