茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 54 – Training at the café (Part 1)

Instead of running to the branch office as he usually did, Xiang Kun managed to arrive there around 10:30 am.

Officer Chen wasn’t there, so he arranged for a civilian colleague to guide Xiang Kun in signing the necessary documents.

The signing process was brisk, concluding in less than three minutes. The money was swiftly transferred; he confirmed its receipt in his online bank account. It was an exact sum of twenty thousand, tax-free.

However, prior to signing the documents, Xiang Kun had to wait in the branch office for over twenty minutes. But he did not find this mundane or tedious. Instead, he hoped Officer Chen’s colleague would remain busy so he could wait a while longer.

Because during these twenty or so minutes, Xiang Kun used his hearing and smell to “explore” the building.

Through conversations between the officers, he learned that a group of DU users had been apprehended the previous night, and he detected a distinct scent on them that differed from ordinary people.

Some emitted a unique burnt stench, while others carried a metallic odor tinged with sweat, apparently a characteristic smell of DU users.

Some seemed to be sick, their bodies exuding a peculiar human hormone scent.

And still others were apparently suffering from drug withdrawal. All their body odors intensified; they wept and spotted while babbling nonsense.

Collecting these scents would aid Xiang Kun in identifying people’s behavior and identity through their unique smells.

He even wanted to discern a unique smell particular to police officers, but he soon found it challenging. He could only discern a similar smell from some of their uniforms. However, if they were in plain clothes, it would be difficult to identify them.

He did recognize the distinct scent of a handgun, but most police officers, it seemed, did not carry guns. For instance, Li Sheng, who he had bumped into on the street, was a detective but had not been carrying his gun even though he was off-duty.

Xiang Kun thought about identifying them through the unique smell on handcuffs or identification cards. But first, he would need to get ahold of a pair of handcuffs or an identification card to serve as a source of smell and carefully collect the distinctive scent that could be used to distinguish features.

He also tried to eavesdrop on police interrogations, but the sound-proofing of the interrogation rooms made this effort futile. They seemed to have used soft materials to make the walls, which absorbed sound effectively. Unless he was right outside the interrogation room, hearing the content would be difficult.

If he could stay in the precinct for a few more hours, Xiang Kun felt confident he could gather even more odor and sound information. He could even possibly sneak off with a pair of handcuffs or ID card to sniff- -though he would never risk doing something so unnecessary. Besides, if someone caught him doing it, they would think he was a pervert…

As he exited the precinct, Xiang Kun turned around, squinted his eyes, and his gaze soared above the giant national emblem—above the words, “Justice, Integrity, Loyalty, Serving the People”—toward the “hidden” sun on the roof, its intense brightness impossible to look at directly.

Ever since the mutation, he instinctively repelled sunlight; his physical functions greatly diminished after sunrise. He had previously guessed it may be related to the increase in temperature after sunrise. But even when he was in an 180c air-conditioned room, though he felt significantly better, the suppression of bodily functions persisted. This led him to conclude that temperature might not be the main cause.

However, moments ago in the branch office, he overheard some policemen talking about a DU user who had suffered burn injuries during capture and had been sent to the hospital.

He suddenly remembered that his own healing speed from burns and fractures was much slower than a laceration.

It’s normal for bone injuries to heal slower than flesh wounds, but if the injured area from a burn and a cut was the same, there shouldn’t be a huge difference in the healing speed.

A sudden theory occurred to Xiang Kun that the slow burn healing might be due to the continuous rise of temperature in the areas injured by the high heat, thus suppressing the body’s recovery ability?

Could the approximately 20% reduction in healing speed match the suppression of knife wound healing after sunrise?

To prove this, he could simply run a test: after sustaining a burn, he could cut off all the burned flesh and see the speed of healing.

However, this experiment would have to wait until after sunset.

After leaving the sub-bureau, Xiang Kun did not immediately go home. He took out his phone, searched, and locked onto a comic café 3-7 kilometers away and walked there.

After ordering an Americano at Xiang Kun’s, he found a not so noticeable corner on the first floor with a good view and sat down.

He didn’t come here just because he had time to kill and drink coffee. Although black coffee only starts to bring a sense of fullness after about half an hour, it’s not his ideal drink either—his best drinks are water and, humorously, blood.

He came to this café to continue the unfinished business from the sub-bureau, using his sense of hearing and smell to observe and analyze people and glean userul mrormauon.

This was a targeted training, aimed at practising the practical usage of hearing and sense of smell.

It’s just like an athletically talented person who wants to become a professional player or a boxer, they too have to undergo a lot of training.

Xiang Kun’s vision, hearing, and sense of smell were now far superior to an ordinary person, but to fully utilize his abilities, various training was still necessary.

The training he did on the streets, in the mountains, and on his home balcony was all part of this; what he is now doing in the café is another part.

The reason for choosing the café was that it is a semi-closed space that is not easily affected by outside noise and smell. The smell and sound inside the café don’t easily dissipate and are more easily perceived.

Second, people who come to cafés generally stay for a certain period, giving him time to observe, perceive and analyze.

Currently, it was 11:33 AM. There weren’t many people in the café. Other than two male and one female waitstaff, there were only three people on the first floor – all female.

Initial training was targeted at judging their occupation.

Today was a Monday. Judging from what remained in the three women’s drinks and how much their ice had melted, they had all been there for at least 20 minutes. This meant these three probably engaged in occupations without fixed hours, or like Xiang Kun, were temporarily unemployed.

Two of the women were sitting together. It was obvious they knew each other.

The one sitting on the long sofa, codenamed Woman 1, the one on the independent sofa, Woman 2.

Woman 2 had her back to Xiang Kun and was holding her phone horizontally. He saw a corner of the screen and deduced she was playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

As for Woman 1 on the long sofa, she looked to be in her twenties, occasionally taking selfies and seemingly sending WeChat messages. Soon, sounds of TikTok videos came from her phone.

The smell of perfume on both women was strong, but there was a smell of body wash on Woman 2, whereas even through the perfume of Woman 1, you could still smell sweat. Judging by the sour smell, it appeared she had not bathed before going to bed the night before.

Although Woman 1 wore heavy makeup, it could not hide the fatigue on her face and the bloodshot eyes. She probably stayed up late often and had chaotic daily routines.

He heard Woman 2’s stomach make soft gurgling sounds every now and then. Hmm, she seemed to have a bad stomach.

Woman 1 yawned, showing yellowish teeth with several decayed molars. It was obvious that she did not pay much attention to oral hygiene. A few seconds later, Xiang Kun wrinkled his brows as he noticed the breath she exhaled while yawning. Hmm, vanilla latte, pancakes with cream, and it seemed like yogurt? Judging from her breath, it seemed like she didn’t have a good stomach either.

Both women were not in good health, especially their stomachs. They probably stay up late often with irregular eating and living habits.

However, they were likely not regulars at nightclubs, as he couldn’t smell any alcohol or cigarettes on them.

A few minutes later, Xiang Kun heard them discussing several streaming platform names and a few host names in their conversation. Woman 2 expressed admiration for the gifts Woman I’s wealthy fan had given her the previous night. Thus, he deduced that both Women 1 and 2 were hosts on a certain platform. Moreover, Woman 1 was more famous and successful than Woman 2.

Xiang Kun withdrew his attention from Women 1 and 2 and turned his focus to Woman 3.

He felt that his observation of Woman 1 and Woman 2 was somewhat excessive. There was too much redundant information collected and the efficiency was a bit low..