茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 35: Synergy of Hearing and Taste

Xiang Kun’s house only covers seventy square meters. It’s a two-room suite with a balcony that you might even say is quite narrow.

On the bright side, it offers a decent view and is quite distant from other tall buildings, so you can see distant mountains.

Xiang Kun didn’t bother with a chair but just lay down directly on the tiles of the balcony. Of course, he made sure to get the floor thoroughly cleaned first.

Under the night sky, Xiang Kun was in a particularly good state; his physical fitness was at its peak. His sensory abilities, after three recent blood-drinking sessions followed by targeted training, had undergone a mutation evolution and improved significantly.

However, due to equipment constraints, he could not carry out any accurate test and statistics. He’d downloaded a mobile application capable of delivering sound from 1-22000 Hz frequency, but this only tested his hearing range, not his overall auditory enhancement. He also tried using a fixed sound source as a reference and then lengthening the distance to determine the maximum distance at which he can hear sound. However, such judgment requires a relatively fixed and stable environment, and is easy to interference and also hard to test.

The same principle applies to smell, both may only be subjected to a more subjective rough test.

As Xiang Kun lay on the balcony tiles, he closed his eyes, relaxed his muscles, and focused all his attention on his senses of hearing and smell—primarily hearing, and secondarily smell.

In an instant, sounds surged in like a flood being released, interwoven with various noises. The same happened with smells.

The human brain has a very mature system for processing external information. It can be described as a protective mechanism or even a lazy one.

When the attention is not focused on sounds or smells, although the organs of hearing and smell are always collecting information, this information is weakened, filtered, or even blocked by the brain.

However, when attention is concentrated on sounds or smells, the brain can focus and enhance the delivery of information that the attention is centered on, while blocking other influences.

But hearing a sound, smelling a smell, locking down a sensory clue is one thing. How to make a judgment based on this sensory information is another matter entirely.

It’s like someone sitting at home, hearing a car whizzing by outside.

If his attention is drawn by that sound, an image of a car speeding down the road outside will subconsciously appear in his mind.

The reason this image appears is that he is quite familiar with the road outside and he has heard the sound of cars and seen cars speeding down the road outside his house.

If the person were even more familiar with the engine and exhaust sound of a car, he could even distinguish whether the car outside is a four-cylinder or six-cylinder engine, whether it’s a Ford or a Toyota, whether it’s a rickety diesel truck or a supercar. The image constructed in his mind would be more specific and rich.

Similarly, if the person sitting at home hears clip-clop sounds coming from the floors above, he can tell it’s the sound of high heels. If he hasn’t seen the person living above, he might imagine a young girl walking back and forth in high heels. However, if he knows the upstairs neighbor is a middle-aged woman, he would imagine a middle-aged woman walking in high heels when he hears the sound.

The brain uses its “database” , experience, logic, and instinct to do the necessary “brain-filling”.

Therefore, being able to collect sensory information is one thing; whether this information can be genuinely helpful for the brain to make judgments is another matter.

The reason why Xiang Kun chose to lie directly on the ground was not because there were no chairs to move out or blankets to spread on the ground. But because in this steel and concrete building, besides the air, the walls and the floor are the primary mediums for sound propagation. Therefore, lying on the ground and directly touching it makes it easier to hear the sounds of the entire building.

Among the cacophony of sounds, Xiang Kun distinguished and screened carefully, beginning with the nearest sounds. Initially, it was the unit just below his, 608, where a middle-aged couple seemed to be discussing their son who was going to university in the north, and the TV was running the news broadcast.

Beside them, the neighborhood was quiet with no footsteps, no sounds of electrical equipment in use, no spoken words, nor any sighs of breath. There was the sound of a curtain swaying, indicating an open window and the absence of its owner.

Then he heard the voice of the little fat girl Liu Shiling he had met during the day, and promptly located her at 706 – he knew the little fat girl’s house was 706.

Judeinq by the sounds, Little Fat Girl and her mom were at home. Her mom

was urging her to take a bath, while she was glued to the television, watching cartoons.

Having located 706, Xiang Kun continued to distinguish the sounds he heard to make judgments.

When hearing footsteps, he could, based on the layout of his own home and other reference sounds, such as the sound of turning on the tap, lighting the gas stove, picking up a cup, and other electrical equipment being opened, judge people’s positions in their homes, and even their moving trends.

Simultaneously, he could use smell as a helping tool for judgment. For instance, if he heard the sound of collision between a pot and a ladle, combined with the smell he smelled, he could tell what dish someone was cooking and even guess the predominant taste.

Beside, by cross-verifying smell and sound, he could determine the location more precisely.

As time ticked away, from an outsider’s perspective, the lights in the entire residential area gradually dimmed and the voices and sounds from each household slowly diminished.

It wasn’t until a little past one in the morning that Xiang Kun opened his eyes, sat up from the ground, and stretched lazily.

He had used sounds and scents to “tour” every household in the entire building.

Though he had only truly encountered and got to know Little Fat Girl Liu Shiling from flat 706, through the course of the night, by using sounds and scents, he had almost recognized everyone and even discovered a number of “secrets”.

Of course, Xiang Kun didn’t do this to pry into other people’s privacy, but to train.

Just as after improving his muscular circumference, he began training for stamina and agility, his sensory abilities rapidly improved and he needed to train his brain to process the sensory information he was receiving.

It is like two professional athletes with the same body weight and muscle content, because they engage in different sports, their training and strength exertion methods will be different, and the outcomes naturally varied. A professional boxer’s punches will naturally be heavier than a professional basketball player’s, while a professional basketball player’s ability to execute basketball moves under the same level of opposition will certainly be greater than a professional boxer’s.

So, Xiang Kun understood that it was useless if only his sensory abilities became stronger, he also needed to practice how to utilize these powerful sensory abilities.

The first phase, which was about collecting previously unavailable information about sounds and scents to create a “database” as an instinct for smell and hearing, was already mostly completed.

The second phase was what he was doing now, figuring out how sounds and scents could help Xiang Kun assess his surrounding environment and conditions, serving as his “super eye”.

Although it takes him five to six hours to “tour” a whole building now, once he becomes familiar with it, he might be able to swiftly locate any person in the building using sounds and scents in just a second or two. He might even be able to create a real-time holographic image of the entire building in his mind.

Xiang Kun had already found that as his sensory abilities evolved, his brain was also evolving. At least now, even when immersed in various sounds, he no longer felt the initial nausea and dizziness.

At seven-thirty the next morning, Xiang Kun stepped out with his sports bag, ready to head to the gym – even though his previous gym was far away and required a subway and a bus transfer, taking at least forty to fifty minutes, he didn’t intend to switch gyms. After all, he had already paid for his membership and couldn’t get a refund.

And he did not intend to ride there either. Instead, he planned to run the whole way, the running process itself was part of his training.

As he was leaving, he happened to see Liu Shiling from flat 706 also leaving her flat. Behind her was a slightly plump lady who bore a strong resemblance to her. It must be her mother.

“Uncle Bald!” Upon seeing Xiang Kun, Liu Shiling ran over to greet him.

Hearing this greeting, her mother immediately felt embarrassed and quickly followed, saying, “Ah, I’m sorry. Children can be rude. You’re the new tenant from 708, aren’t you? We’ll be neighbors from now on. If you need any help, just say the word.”

Little Fatty Girl hurried off to press the elevator button, Xiang Kun, on the other hand, chatted with Shiling’s Mom for a while, finding out that they had moved into 706 just this year and had bought the place. Liu Shiling’s father works in construction and is often away from home, while Shiling’s Mom is a full-time housewife, taking care of their only daughter.

Xiang Kun also gave a brief self-introduction, mentioning that he was a programmer and had been working for seven years. However, he did not reveal to her that he was currently unemployed.

They didn’t have to wait too long, as there were two elevators for this unit. Soon enough, a downstairs elevator arrived.

With a ding sound, the elevator doors opened, revealing a dog’s head poking out, making a move as if to jump. Seeing this, Liu Shiling, who had been standing right by the elevator door preparing to enter, got a fright and stepped back, almost falling over. Xiang Kun quickly reached out to steady her.

Looking back, it was a young woman in her twenties in the elevator, holding onto a fully grown Husky. The Husky was obviously excited and tried to jump out as soon as the elevator door opened. The woman, who had been playing with her phone with one hand, almost lost her hold on the dog.

“PINKIE! PINKIE! STOP! Stay still!” The woman had to use both hands to control the dog while shouting at it.

But the Husky kept trying to break away, and Little Fatty Girl, who was outside the elevator, was clearly scared, clinging to Xiang Kun’s leg and didn’t dare to speak.

Shiling’s Mom seemed to recognize this woman with the dog and frowned, saying, “Miss Yang, you need to control your dog. There isn’t much space in the elevator and your dog is big, my child is small. What if she gets bitten or knocked over…”

Miss Yang, holding onto her dog, responded without even looking up, “It’s okay, Pinkie just wants to play with the children, she won’t bite, I’m holding onto her….Pinkie! STOP! SIT! SIT NOW!!”

It was clear to Shiling’s Mom that this wasn’t the first time she had complained to Miss Yang about this issue, and she knew it was to no avail, she pressed the elevator button and told Xiang Kun, “You go ahead, we’ll wait for the next one.”

On the contrary, Xiang Kun took Little Fatty Girl by the hand and entered the elevator with her.

Initially, Little Fatty Girl was still a bit scared and reluctant to enter, but noticed that the Husky, who had been eager to jump and couldn’t be controlled by Miss Yang, was now suddenly cowering behind Miss Yang, its head against the elevator wall, seemingly shaking.

Xiang Kun turned back to Shiling’s Mom and said, “It’s okay, come on in..”