Chapter 425: Chapter 425: Sudden Appearance
Because Yang Zhenâerâs question is precise, Xia Libing doesnât evade or give a vague response. After thinking for a moment, she says, âXiang Kunâs mom is very cheerful, warm-hearted towards people, quick-thinking, and good at observing and associating things. Xiang Kunâs dad is more introverted in comparison and quite steady, but he is good at listening and capable of thinking from other peopleâs perspectives. They both are easy to get along with. If the two of you were to visit Xiang Kunâs house, his mom would likely get along better with you, Yang Zhenâer, but she would dress Nana more.â
Yang Zhenâer widens her eyes, asking in confusion, âWhy would she get along better with me but prefer Nana? That doesnât make sense.â
Tang Baona and Yang Zhenâer sitting on the same bed, hearing this, immediately leans over, resting her chin on her friendâs shoulder, and teasingly says in a falsetto, âItâs obviously because Iâm cuter!â
âGo away! Xia and I are seriously discussing things here, donât come and act cute!â Yang Zhenâer pushes Tang Baonaâs head to the side, pushing her glasses down to her chin, triggering her to fuss about fixing her glasses.
Xia Libing objectively says, âItâs because Xiang Kunâs mom will mentally apply the standard of âdaughter-in-lawâ to any single females Xiang Kun brings home.â
As soon as she finishes saying this, the room instantly falls quiet. Tang Baona, who has just adjusted her glasses looks blank and Yang Zhenâerâs mouth forms an âOâ.
Even Xiang Kun next door canât help but chuckle on hearing this.
Old Xia⊠still so⊠direct.
About ten seconds later, Yang Zhenâer coughs, then casually says, âThat I can understand. Nana does seem to carry more of a âdaughter-in-lawâ vibe. If I were a mother-in-law, I would pick Nana.â
Tang Baona was initially uncomfortable with the topic and didnât know what to say, her cheeks mysteriously heating up. But hearing Yang Zhenâerâs words, she canât help but burst out laughing, She playfully squeezes Yang Zhenâerâs waist: âWhat do you mean âdaughter-in-lawâ character⊠you better explain what that is. Also, a mother-in-law is the wifeâs mother, mothers-in-law are the manâs mother!â
âWow, Nana, youâre so experienced! You know so much! No wonder youâre more suited to be a daughter-in-law than I am!â Yang Zhenâer giggles wickedly.
âYouâre the one with the experience, Iâll kick you to death!â
âStop! Stop! Iâm falling off the bed! And a gentleman uses words, not kicks!â
After theyâve spent some time goofing around, Yang Zhenâer gets back onto the bed from the floor and turns to Xia Libing again. âBut we didnât finish our last point, Xia, what about Xiang Kun? Have you spotted any secrets about him? Have noticed that heâs changed quite a lot over the few months weâve known each other?â As she speaks, she repeats the analysis, she conducted with Tang Baona on Valentineâs Day.
When she finishes speaking, Xia Libing replies, âXiang Kunâs daily routine is indeed unusual; compared to most people, itâs significantly different. His eating habits,set himself according to his lifestyle and activities. He takes a keen interest in rare or unique organisms. His plan to build a breeding laboratory in Chongyun Village is also related to this. He likes to work out and train both his body and mind and enjoys thinking about novel problems.â
âNovel problems? Like what? Itâs not how to make rabbit meat taste like beef or chicken taste like rabbit, is it?â Yang Zhenâer asks, laughing.
Xia Libing replies, âFor example, the basic structure of matter, the connection between the world beneath the fundamental particles and four-dimensional space, the relationship between human perception and the magnetic field, movements of water molecules, the nature of dreamsâŠâ
Yang Zhenâer lissens with a stunned look on her face, she murmers, âNo wonder you and Brother Xiang have so much to talk about.â
Tang Baona adds, âHow does Xiang Kun think about so many issues? Itâs not his field. He still has to work on making games and studying the restaurant business, no wonder heâs stressed to the point of going bald.â And she canât help but start laughing at her own comment.
Xiang Kun, listening from the next room, scratches his head, helplessly. He canât help but marvel at how well Xia Libing knows her two sisters, understands their lines of thought and their focuses. She directly satisfies their curiosities so that theyâre content with her explanations and see them as self-evident.
As Xiang Kun stands by the window, listening to the conversation and laughter from the girls next door, he thinks about what the evolution of Little appleâs water-sensing ability would look like. And how it could affect the evolution of his super sensory item system.
Unconsciously, the breathing of the three girls from next door had gradually stabilized, and they were clearly asleep. Meanwhile, Xiang Kun too had slowly entered a highly peaceful and calm state.
Suddenly, Xiang Kun was startled out of his peaceful and stable state, realizing that something was off.
It wasnât that he had detected any danger or perceived any specific anomalies, but rather that, he seldom experienced such a state after his mutation.
Without sufficient control over his surroundings or potential variables, he couldnât possibly enter such a state of calm.
After mutation, regardless of how much he evolved his senses, how much information he gained about the outside world, or how confident he was in his own judgments, he would always seek more information, trying to control more variables.
Even after evolving a sixth sense, this instinct to continuously probe into perceptual information would still remain.
But his recent state, that recent feeling, was as if he had completely grasped the information in his environment, everything under control, thus he was so calm and stable.
This was unreasonable.
Just a moment ago, he wasnât consciously gathering information about his surroundings, he was mainly focused on pondering over Xiao Pingguoâs perception of water and the expansion of water-related abilities, and was partly attentive to the sleeping state of the three people in the next room. He instinctively collected and judged information about his surroundings.
Xiang Kun started to backtrack his recent state, analyzing detail by detail, trying to figure out the cause of his feelings.
Was it because of Old Xia, Nana, and Zhenâer from next door?
Indeed, the three girls next door were friends he met after his mutation and had a very special relationship with him. Old Xia was the only one who knew his secret about the mutation.
But the problem was, this situation of them sleeping next door had happened more than once. It happened in Tongshi Town before New Year and in Star City yesterday.
Or was it because there was something special about this place? frŃewebnoŃ”el.Æoàč
Xiang Kun then entered the âSuper Sensory Stateâ, and carefully discerned through cognitive information but found no anomalies.
Constantly retracing memories and continuously making conjectures, after about ten minutes, Xiang Kun finally found the reason:
Maybe it was because while he was consciously aware of the sleeping states of Old Xia and others from next door, his instinct was unconsciously gathering information about his surroundings. Unnoticeably, after collecting a certain amount of information, his perception and the surrounding environment merged into one, and the primary subject of his perception were the three girls next door, not Xiang Kun himself.
Although his perceptual ability greatly improved after ingesting the âMutated Parasiteâ, his understanding of the sixth sense became more and more clear. Particularly after gaining the ability to perceive and control water in Star City, he experienced a qualitative leap. But if his perception still revolved around himself, he would certainly not have this sense of calm and stability.
Because essentially speaking, in his subconscious, the biggest threat and uncertainty actually came from himself. He couldnât achieve a completely peaceful mentality without understanding the mechanism and cause of his mutation.
Thinking about it that way, it made perfect sense. It was his instinct protecting the three girls from next door, observing their environment. And because he was there, he felt that the environment the three girls were situated in was very safe, resulting in such a calm and peaceful mindset.
But as Xiang Kun analyzed this state of mind, he thought about the differences in difficulty levels of developing his own abilities and abilities of Old Xia, Little Fatty Girl, âXiao Pingguoâ based on the âSuper-sensory Item Systemâ.
Even for Old Xia, who among the three has the deepest understanding of the source of the abilities and the most curiosity about their principles, the difficulty of âdevelopingâ abilities is much, much less than Xiang Kunâs.
Because they donât need to, as Xiang Kun does, specifically ponder how to achieve a certain ability when âdevelopingâ a new one.
Xiang Kun then had an idea. What if, when studying his own abilities, he didnât take his own abilities as the main subject, but instead made a new capability âdesignedâ and derived from the original one the main subject? He could imagine it, then try to call upon his own capabilities to actualize it. Perhaps this could make it easier to develop and use abilities?
If it was before, even if he had this idea, it would be hard to realize. But now, under the application model of âParasite Everythingâ, he might be able to abstract the âSuper sensory Item Systemâ into a whole, allowing himself to âparasiteâ within, âparasitingâ himself to call upon capabilities, and thus expand them.
He acted on his thought immediately, and the one he tried first was Old Xiaâs âIllusion Realityâ ability.
Although all the abilities âdevelopedâ by Old Xia, Little Fatty Girl, and âAppleâ eventually pointed to Xiang Kun through the âSuper sensory Item Systemâ. Whatever they âdevelopedâ and could apply, Xiang Kun could also obtain in return.
But for now, anything that Old Xia could co-manifest, he could as well. However, if there was something Old Xia couldnât co-manifest, he couldnât develop it himself either. Thus everything had to depend on Old Xiaâs creation of projections in her dreams and their co-manifestation in reality. Only then could he acquire the ability of that relevant itemâs co-manifestation.
At this time, what Xiang Kun wanted to try was to âco-manifestâ something that Old Xia had never co-manifested before.
If someone else was watching Xiang Kun at this moment, they would find him standing in the hotel room with his hands hanging down, staring ahead, completely still as if petrified, not even blinking.
Time passed second by second, and Xiang Kun remained still. But around him, dozens of small objects began to float. If one looked closely, they would find that these small objects were either tungsten steel balls or one yuan coins.
At this moment, they seemed to be serving as escort machines for Xiang Kunâs âmothershipâ, âfloatingâ around him.
Suddenly, the light in the room dimmed. If someone took a closer look at each independent light source, they would find that none of the lights had changed. It seemed as if a veil had been put over the air in the room, obstructing the transmission of light.
Noise from outside the room, or the sound of the roomâs air conditioning vents and the bathroom ventilation system, seemed to have been muted all of a sudden, and disappeared completely.
In the next moment, the dozens of âSuper-connected Objectsâ around Xiang Kun exploded outward. But just before they were about to hit obstacles, they abruptly stopped. Then they contracted rapidly towards Xiang Kun and began to orbit around him.
Xiang Kun abruptly extended his right hand, palm up. A coin, as if summoned by him, suddenly appeared in his palm.
The coin looked no different from a regular coin, but Xiang Kun knew it wasnât a regular coin â this was a coin he had conjured through âIllusion Realityâ.
Moreover, this coin was very different from the items Old Xia had co-manifested â Old Xia had never co-manifested a coin.
This âco-manifested objectâ⊠was unusual.
But its existence was brief. Less than a second, in fact. Xiang Kun didnât even have time to flip it before it disappeared from his palm.
However, the moment it disappeared, Xia Libing, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen Er in the next room, and all the guests and staff in the entire hotel, woke up from their dreams. They seemed to have heard a loud noise, but when they opened their eyes, the sound seemed very illusory.
Even the front desk and security staff on duty in the hotel lobby, as well as guests in some rooms who were not yet asleep, were now looking around in confusion, trying to locate the source of the sound. But after a while, they could only assume that they were hallucinating, shook their heads, and stopped paying attention.
Being suppressed by Yang Zhenâerâs arm and leg, Tang Baona, half-awake, nudged her best friend and asked: âIs there a thunderstorm?â
âAh?â Yang Zhenâer rubbed her eyes, turned around to look at Xia Libing on the other bed who also opened her eyes: âOld Xia, is there thunder?â
Old Xia looked at her: âNo, go back to sleep.â
âOhâŠâ Yang Zhenâer turned back, cuddled Tang Baona tighter, tucked her head into her chest and mumbled: âOld Xia is not reliable.â
Tang Baona didnât respond, because she had fallen asleep again when Yang Zhenâer turned around.
Xia Libing, though, didnât fall asleep immediately. She looked at the wall of the room as if lost in thought.
Separated by a wall, Xiang Kun, looking down at the balls and coins scattered on the hotel carpet, corrected his glasses, and his eyes squinted. The gains from this successful attempt were somewhat unexpected.
âŠ
Two weeks later, on March 4th, it was raining in most parts of the country. The northern part of Jianzhou, Tongshi Town, and Wushu Mountain were no exception.
Tomorrow will be âJingzheâ, one of the 24 solar terms, which signifies a rise in temperature and increase in rainfall. This rain might continue for some time.
Such weather, with spring thunderstorms and bountiful moisture, naturally was someoneâs favorite.
In a villa area near Wushu Mountain, Zhou Rui, who had just returned a few days ago, was lying on the first-floor sofa of their teamâs villa, leisurely scrolling through videos on his tablet.
After a while, he suddenly jumped up from the sofa, leaned over the coffee table by the window, and suggested to Mijoe, who was sipping coffee while looking at her laptop, âThis YouTuber seems to have a good review of a restaurant. It looks delicious, and I checked it out, itâs not far from here, in Tongshi Town. Itâs just a few dozen minutes by car. How about we go there for lunch? Weâre half holiday right now, with nothing to do anyway.â
Mijoe glanced at the tablet Zhou Rui handed over. A food blogger was currently showcasing a restaurant in a video.
It looked like a recorded video, not a live stream.
She wasnât interested in these internet celebrities or YouTubers, shook her head and said, âSuch videos are probably sponsored by the restaurants themselves. It might not taste as good as it appears. Besides, itâs raining, and I donât feel like going out.â
âWith Lao Gao driving, what are you afraid of with the rain? I donât know if the YouTuber was contacted by the restaurant, but looking at his expressions, it seems really delicious. If this is an act, he deserves an award. Why would he be a YouTuber? Iâm getting hungry just watching him eat. Look at this partâŠâ Zhou Rui said as he rewound the video.
ââŠThis time Iâm at Tongshi Town, Jianzhou City, Haixi Province. Tongshi Town might not be well known to many, but itâs not far from the national 5A-level scenic area, Wushu Mountain! Actually, the main purpose of this trip is to tour around, but also to explore some food spots. This âYoulong Restaurantâ is opened by the âYoulong Play Rabbitâ from our B-site. As for this UP master, all of you should know. He specializes in teaching how to cook rabbit meat. Not only is the food delicious, but the video also is on par with action movies. I had some contact with him before through WeChat, and he told me his restaurant just opened after a renovation and invited me to try out the food. Ah~! So, here I am today. But today, I didnât tell him I was coming. Letâs sneak in and eat as regular customers to see how good it actually is âŠâ The somewhat chubby male host with a wide smile was introducing as he walked towards a restaurant on the street.
Seeing this, Mijoe shook her head: âThis is definitely staged with the restaurant.â
âI skipped too far ahead⊠keep watching. Watch how he eats.â Zhou Rui hurriedly suggested.