茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Yang Zhen’er, who actively video-called Xia Libing, would never have expected that Old Xia, who seemed somewhat unwilling to video chat with her before, not only recorded their video secretly but also kept replaying and scrutinizing it.

Initially, Xia Libing mainly watched the part where Xiang Kun sang “Meeting Again”, putting on her headphones and watching while listening, then she watched it a few more times with the sound off. During this process, she frequently paused, took screenshots, zoomed in, and observed.

Because Yang Zhen’er was laughing so hard while listening to Xiang Kun sing this song, and she wasn’t holding her phone firmly, causing the camera to sway and tilt wobblingly, it posed quite a challenge for Xia Libing’s observation.

However, Xia Libing’s decision to focus mainly on the video segment of Tang Baona singing “No Way to Fade” and replay it repeatedly wasn’t because the video was of superior quality. Instead, it was Xiang Kun’s reactions in this video that she found somewhat unusual.

Throughout her interaction with Xiang Kun, he had always maintained a composed demeanor, thinking reflectively, good at observing, and he seemed extraordinarily perceptive. She also noticed that Xiang Kun, like her, was always observing his surroundings and the people around him subconsciously, no matter the situation.

But in this video, Xiang Kun appeared to be completely immersed in the music, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, corners of the mouth turned downwards. His gaze was on Tang Baona’s guitar-playing hand, but his attention clearly wasn’t on the visual image, seemingly lost in some mood or emotion.

Such state was clearly abnormal for him.

Even when he was singing, he would never immerse so deeply, he would always maintain his observant attitude towards other people.

Was Nana’s song that good to hear?

Could it have resonated with him emotionally?

Or had he heard this song before and it invoked some strong emotions in him?

After Tang Baona finished singing, the living room was filled with people praising her and describing their feelings. This too was recorded as Yang Zhen’er had kept the video call on and pointed the phone towards anyone who was speaking, allowing Xia Libing to watch them through the video. Unfortunately, Xia Libing wished she could have seen Xiang Kun’s reaction after the song had finished.

Xia Libing turned off the sound again, and watched the video a few more times carefully. When there was no sound interference, many details in the video would stand out more, but she still found Xiang Kun’s behavior strange.

Given Xiang Kun’s usual behavior, even if he liked a song a lot, he shouldn’t have gotten that immersed.

In addition, from his posture, expression, and eyes when he was sitting, it seemed that when Tang Baona started singing, he had already prepared to devote himself completely.

If it were someone else, Xia Libing might believe him to be an ardent fan of the song, but this was Xiang Kun. According to Xia Libing’s judgment, Xiang Kun was an individual with an extremely strong sense of caution and insecurity. Even if he truly loved the song and adored Nana’s rendition and voice, he should have been unconsciously attracted and immersed during the process of listening to the song, not actively inclined from the beginning.

The act of Xiang Kun moving a chair for Tang Baona to sit on before she started singing, made Xia Libing confused as she watched the video frame by frame.

The intention behind Xiang Kun moving the chair was not to randomly place it at a spot; it seemed more like a calculated act of placing the chair at a specific position. Moreover, the chair’s position was a little bit off from the best angle compared to other people sitting on the sofa.

Did that position hold any special significance?

Although Xia Libing had many doubts, she could not come up with a logical explanation or thought process that could justify them. She even started questioning herself whether she was overthinking because of her excessive attention to Xiang Kun, eventually leading to her speculation.

However, upon self-reflection, Xia Libing was absolutely certain that she was right and Xiang Kun was definitely hiding something.

Xia Libing went on to search for the songs sung by Tang Baona and Xiang Kun on a music APP. She listened to the songs diligently with her headphones on, and then started humming along with the lyrics.

But obviously, despite Xia Libing being intelligent, she didn’t have much singing talent; her rendition barely held the tune, making it sound like a stack of bricks with clear corners, strong and clear.

If Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen’er, or anyone else who knew or was familiar with her were there, hearing this amusing yet strangely cute singing in comparison to her usual demeanor as well as her attentive and serious expression now, they would surely be laughing non-stop.

But now, Xia Libing was alone. She, of course, was oblivious to the humor in her singing.

After humming for a while and finding no leads from the song, she gave up. She stored the recorded video to a related document on her computer, leaving the matter aside temporarily as she began paging through some medical cases she was previously reading.

The medical cases, along with some special patients in the hospital, were the very reasons why she insisted on coming to work in Citong City at this hospital.

However, for the current Xia Libing, Xiang Kun had become her top priority. She had even considered returning to her original city. But then, knowing that Xiang Kun planned to open a farm here and had already started a restaurant business with old friends in Tongshi Town, she temporarily abandoned the idea, deciding to wait until after the new year to rethink it.

…

Xiang Kun lay in the grass, covered in mud with his clothes torn in several places, looking extremely bedraggled.

This was at the foot of the hill where he often worked out at night. He had just rolled down from the hill, which explained his sorry state.

Upon sensing an increase in humidity in the air indicating impending rain, Xiang Kun rushed over here.

Although he didn’t possess the spider’s auditory bristles, he managed to evolve a part of his sensory perception to cognize electric fields by continuously iterating his comprehension model of natural electrical fields of the universe.

Through the new cognitive model, he began to perceive the Atmospheric Electric Field.

He climbed up a tree and extended his hands, attempting to connect his consciousness with the surrounding magnetic field and see if he could establish a cognitive model for surrounding electric charges; this would allow him to charge himself with enough electricity and then imitate that mutated spider, achieving “Electric Mastery Flight”.

After several attempts, when Xiang Kun thought he had a feel for it, he came down from the tree and then found a steep slope. He rushed towards it, trying to use the speed and the moment of launching into the air to search for the feeling of the electric field.

However, although he managed to get some idea about the changes in the Atmospheric Electric Field through the cognitive model, he still couldn’t “blend into it” to borrow the force of the electric field to fly. So, he leapt forward, jumped a certain distance, and then was unmercifully pulled to the ground by gravity without any impediment. Following, he rolled down the steep hillside.

The good news is that Xiang Kun had foreseen this situation and chosen a direction that he used for regular hill rushing. He had even created a path there. By curling up with his hands on his head while rolling down, he avoided any serious injuries – of course, this is only applicable to him.

Lying in the grass, Xiang Kun was waiting for his body to recover while “savoring” the leap he had just made.

Although he couldn’t find the feeling of “Electric Mastery Flight”, his understanding of the electric field became clearer. It’s as if he was a PC user who had been offline since birth, now aware of the existence of the internet, had found the phone number for the internet service provider, and was in the process of applying for an account and looking for a suitable network card and modem.

A drop of rain fell on Xiang Kun’s face. He sat up, stretched his limbs, and then got up to go home, no longer trying to find the “feeling”.

He felt that tonight’s weather was not suitable enough, the atmospheric electric potential gradient was not strong enough. He needed to find a thunderstorm, then go to a high point near the low clouds for a try, believing there would be more harvest.

Xiang Kun believed that if he could successfully possess this power he wanted to understand and “evolve”, it would definitely not be just a simple imitation of a spider’s flight.

If he can sense the electric field and carry enough charge to fly utilizing electric field, he can certainly do more things.

Despite not daring to think that he could become a “Magneto”-like exaggerated comic character, in an era full of electronic devices, the ability to utilize electric field will undoubtedly greatly enhance his self-defense capabilities, and maybe even generate and develop more fun, powerful abilities.

When he got home, it was almost four in the morning, and Xiang Kun sensed the chibi wood carving he gave to Tang Baona.

From the feedback and perception he received, Xiang Kun immediately knew that Tang Baona had fallen asleep, and the wood carving had successfully triggered her emotions and started her dreaming.

The dreamland of Tang Baona was in her own living room, filled with friends. Yang Zhen’er, her sister Baoting, prospective brother-in-law Gao Yao, and others who appeared tonight were there, and their clothes were no different from tonight, looking like an extension of tonight’s scenario.

Tang Baona and her friends were sitting on the sofa, and on one side against the TV wall, a “person” was singing Wu Bai’s “Meeting Again”, dancing awkwardly in Taiwanese style.

The “person” sounded like Xiang Kun, imitating Wu Bai’s singing, but it didn’t look like Xiang Kun, but Saitama Sensei in “One Punch Man”, in a funny form.

A two-dimensional anime figure appearing in a three-dimensional scenario was already abrupt and funny. Coupled with Saitama’s funny look, humorous actions, and Xiang Kun’s singing, Tang Baona and the others on the sofa couldn’t stop laughing.

Even Xiang Kun, who was observing the dreamland, couldn’t help but grin at the scene. But, he was not surprised to see Saitama Sensei, because when he was carving the chibi wood carving for Tang Baona and delivering the “happy” “Emotional Infusion”, he was thinking about the funny, hilarious contents in “One Punch Man”, so it was logical for the emotional projection to be Saitama Sensei.

After Tang Baona’s dreamland faded away, Xiang Kun waited for a while, sensing the wood carving again when he felt its “cool down time” should be over— he knew from past experience that the items influenced by “Emotional Infusion” can affect multiple targets in the vicinity in succession on the same night.

Since he had already made Tang Baona have a “happy” dream, making Yang Zhen’er “happy” too was just a small effort for Xiang Kun.

Moreover, he was curious about what a “happy” dream of Yang Zhen’er would look like.

After a while, the wood carving gave feedback, and Xiang Kun saw the dreamland situation from a first-person perspective.

At first glance, he saw the dream projection of Saitama Sensei. However, this time, Saitama Sensei was not singing and dancing, but cooking in an open kitchen, and Yang Zhen’er was sitting at the dining table next to her, also sitting beside the table were Tang Baona and Xia Libing.

A moment later, Saitama Sensei brought a dish and placed it on the table. Xiang Kun immediately recognized it. It was the dried pot rabbit meat that he had repeatedly adjusted for Yang Zhen’er’s taste. It is one of her favorite dishes.

Then, Xiang Kun heard a crisp “clink!” sound. Yang Zhen’er abruptly stood up and pulled out a knife…uhhh…chopsticks?! from her waist.

At the same time, Xia Libing pulled out a soup spoon the size of a shovel, and Tang Baona took out a giant fork.

The three of them were sitting across the table, as if they were knights in a standoff and then… started to go clockwise around the table?

After a while, Yang Zhen’er suddenly picked up her chopsticks, knocked Xia Libing’s soup spoon off, swept back, and knocked Tang Baona’s fork away.

Xia Libing and Tang Baona reluctantly retreated while biting their teeth and cursing: “Damn!”

Yang Zhen’er then put her hands on her waist, and laughed heartily for a while, then began to feast on the rabbit meat on the table.

Xiang Kun could feel that the more she ate, the happier, the jollier, and the more triumphant she became.

After the dreamland faded away, Xiang Kun’s smirking didn’t stop. He didn’t expect Yang Lao San’s dreams to be so amusing, so absurd, and so childish!

What a pity, if the pictures in this dreamland could be “recorded” and made into a GIF emoji.

When dawn came, Xiang Kun went to the bus station and bought a ticket to the city where Xiao Pingguo was located. He was planning to go and get “Golden Shiny” back.

Before going to Qinling Uninhabited Area, he had entrusted “Golden Shiny” to Xiao Pingguo. Although it had been a long time since the agreed time, Xiao Pingguo obviously would not mind that Xiang Kun hadn’t come to get “Golden Shiny”, but was probably secretly hoping that he would go later.

On the coach, Xiang Kun was flipping through his phone while thinking about the information that “Alice” had found last night.

Although “Divine Technology” is usually very low-key, the related information found online is still very abundant. Even when “Alice” helped him remove a large amount of repetitive content, he had to look for a long time. Regarding the relevant information of Lu Cheng’an, the boss of “Divine Technology”, it was almost the same as the results of his previous manual search, without much substantive content.

About Lu Cheng’an’s family, only his place of origin and some early experiences were mentioned. But there was no accurate, detailed information about his wife and children.

There were some random guesses like “I heard that his wife is dead long time ago”, “I heard his son is abroad”, “His son seems to be the boyfriend of that female star”, “Isn’t so and so dating the son of the boss of Divine Technology”, but not even a specific name was found.

There wasn’t more content on English web pages either.

Obviously, someone must have been deliberately controlling this kind of information from long ago, resulting in this situation.

Looking at the only few photos of Lu Cheng’an found, Xiang Kun became more suspicious of this founder of “Divine Technology”.