茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Mijoe was tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep.

She got up, put on her clothes, and walked onto the balcony for a breath of chilly fresh air, hoping to clear her head.

Having a dream featuring Guo Tianxiang was not so surprising; she had often thought about where he might be lately.

There had been three turning points in her life, each corresponding to a particular person.

One was her uncle who took her out of the country and taught her many things after her parents passed away. He led her down a gray path;

One was Guo Tianxiang. After discovering his secret and learning that vampires truly existed, she once believed she had found hope in combating death;

And one was “Mr. Liang”. He pulled her out of a “quagmire” and introduced her to a completely different field and a mysterious new world. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he had given her a new lease on life.

In her dream just now, not only did Guo Tianxiang appear, but also “Mr. Liang”, warning her to “Beware of Mr. Liang”. This was unusual and did not align with her feelings.

She thought back to last night when she heard descriptions about rabbit woodcarvings and incidents happening in Qinling Uninhabited Area from Dr. Fang while learning about the odd occurrences at the D2 research center in An Tie Town.

Could her dream have been influenced by these external factors?

But that didn’t fit. According to Dr. Fang, one would only be affected by the rabbit woodcarving if in close proximity to it, and the dreams induced by its influence would inevitably involve rabbit meat as an eerie factor.

The rabbit woodcarving was not here and no peculiar element such as rabbit meat appeared in her dream.

So, this dream should have been just a normal dream of hers.

Could it be…that she, subconsciously, was doubtful about “Mr. Liang”?

Once she asked herself this question, Mijoe realized that she indeed felt a slight wavering.

Admittedly, after being accepted by “Mr. Liang” and welcomed into the secret department of “Divine Technology”, though she had learned a lot of information, she had even more questions.

Some of these mysteries were solved through various “internships” in the secretive division of “Divine Technology” and by communicating with “Mr. Liang”. However, it only made her more puzzled. It was clear that those simple questions could have been answered directly by “Mr. Liang”. So why did he take the time and resources to let her discover them on her own?

Why did “Mr. Liang” help her change her identity and integrate into “Divine Technology”?

Her expertise, her hacking skills, were trivial and useless in the face of a corporation like “Divine Technology”.

What made her special to “Mr. Liang”?

She wasn’t one of those naive girls who still fantasized about Mary Sue novels. Neither did she believe her looks could make someone fall in love at first sight.

And most importantly, she hadn’t actually met “Mr. Liang” face to face yet. All her interactions with “Mr. Liang” had been through voice communication. According to the inadvertently revealed information from Dr. Fang and other high-security-level personnel in the secret division of “Divine Technology”, it seemed they hadn’t met “Mr. Liang” either?

Forget about face-to-face encounters, they probably hadn’t even seen him on video.

And what about “Mr. Liang’s” voice? Why did it have this peculiar tone?

Did he have some special secret?

Could he be a vampire just like Guo Tianxiang?

Mijoe wouldn’t know that, right now, in the shadow next to a deserted villa dozens of meters away, a bald man was watching her expressionlessly.

From such a distance, in the dead of the night, most people would only see a vague figure of a woman standing on the balcony, at most discerning that she was a woman with short hair.

However, with Xiang Kun’s enhanced vision in night vision mode, he could clearly see the changes in her facial expressions just by utilizing the dim moonlight and the light from her back, even from this distance.

He could tell Mijoe was going through obvious waves of confliction, worry, confusion, and bewilderment.

He also knew why Mijoe was feeling this way because he was the one who caused it.

After guiding Mijoe’s dream with the “black circle graffiti”, Xiang Kun saw the “researcher” who told her about the strange occurrences at the An Tie Town research center and in the Qinling Uninhabited Area. He confirmed that it was Dr. Fang Pingfang, who Alice had identified for him. Moreover, he tried to “modify” and “edit” her dream by entering a “super-sensory-like state” in the dream.

Last time, when he tried to modify Mijoe’s dream, he simply stretched the screen of her laptop in the dream, which was very simple.

But this time, what he tried to do was much more complicated.

He substituted Guo Tianxiang’s image for Fang Pingfang.

In Xiang Kun’s opinion, both he and Mijoe had seen Guo Tianxiang, so it should not be too difficult for his image to appear in Mijoe’s dream.

However, when he actually did it, he found that there were many gaps and differences when the image in his memory was converted into super-sensory markers and then into Mijoe’s visual image. Fortunately, Mijoe had a strong impression of Guo Tianxiang’s appearance, and the details in her dream were not highly demanded. She easily accepted the Guo Tianxiang that Xiang Kun “edited” in.

The voice also had discrepancies. Xiang Kun originally wanted to use Guo Tianxiang’s original voice, but the final result was quite disappointing. Surprisingly, it was somewhat similar to “Mr. Liang,” which could be considered a happy accident.

Having Mijoe see Guo Tianxiang saying such a thing in the dream was not just a simple prank.

Besides experimenting with editing and modifying dreams, guiding the sensory information changes of the dream master, Xiang Kun also wanted to influence Mijoe’s thinking and lead her to contemplate in the direction he needed.

After such a dream, there were several possible reactions when Mijoe woke up:

1, Thinking it was just an ordinary dream, and then going back to sleep— but judging from the cognitive model Xiang Kun had established for her, this possibility was quite small. Even if it happened, after influencing her a few more times and letting her have similar dreams a few more times, it would inevitably catch her attention;

2, Thinking this dream was influenced by some objects or Guo Tianxiang because the “Divine Technology” knew the “rabbit wood carving” could induce strange dreams. In that case, Xiang Kun could know, based on her behavior after waking up, what kind of investigating method she would use, how to mobilize the resources of “Divine Technology,” if she directly contacts “Mr. Liang,” he could also know Mr. Liang’s view on this and whether he knew something about similar phenomena;

3, Taking this dream as her subconscious and thereby raising some questions. Xiang Kun thought this was the most likely because he felt that the biggest use of Mijoe for “Divine Technology” and “Mr. Liang” was to find out where Guo Tianxiang was.

But according to what he had overheard from the conversation between Mijoe and “Mr. Liang,” as well as the tasks that “Divine Technology” had arranged for Mijoe, Mr. Liang did not seem to want to use Mijoe to find Guo Tianxiang. Even whether they could find Guo Tianxiang or not didn’t seem to matter much to him.

In that case, why did “Mr. Liang” and “Divine Technology” risk accepting Mijoe, helping her change her identity, and letting her understand so many secret departments and information of “Divine Technology”?

Unless “Mr. Liang” had given her a reasonable explanation before, this doubt should exist not only for Xiang Kun but also for Mijoe herself.

From Mijoe’s previous conversation with “Mr. Liang,” she seemed to have strong respect, admiration, and trust for him. Xiang Kun naturally could not completely destroy her feelings with just a dream and a few words. But as long as he could cause her to have a little doubt, a little confusion, a little curiosity, it would be enough.

As long as she started trying to understand and investigate the secrets behind “Mr. Liang” and “Divine Technology,” Xiang Kun, who kept a “Super Sensory Contact” item and an “Emotional Infusion” item by her side, could also get a lot of information from it.

She would surely be better off doing these things than Xiang Kun.

In the grand scheme of things, Xiang Kun also wanted to “hitch a ride” with “Divine Technology” to discover more mutants and the secrets, principles, and methods of application hidden behind these mutations.

After confirming that the dream had an impact on Mijoe, Xiang Kun quietly left the villa area, returned to the car, and drove back.

It was only a little past four in the morning when he returned to the town, but their room only had one room card. Xiang Kun naturally couldn’t go and knock on the door to wake Zi Cheng up now. He had no choice but to wait until six or seven o’clock, like yesterday, before bringing breakfast back and claiming he had gone for a run early in the morning.

Xiang Kun parked the car in a secluded, unmonitored place, sensing the “Black Circle Graffiti” he gave to Xia Libing two days ago when he picked her up.

He was quite sure that Xia Libing had always kept the “Black Circle Graffiti” on her, even in her bag, and within the room at the hotel. She was within the range of influence, and at this time, she was likely to be deep asleep.

But unfortunately, whether it was the previous lyrical calligraphy or the current black circle graffiti, Xiang Kun’s emotion-infused objects could not induce Xia Libing’s dreams.

Xiang Kun sighed and shook his head: Old Xia is truly… very special!

Around seven in the morning, Xiang Kun returned to the hotel with breakfast he had bought outside, phoned Zi Cheng to wake him up and open the door.

After muzzily saying a few words and getting up, the door of the room three doors down was already open. Xia Libing, who was already washed up and dressed neatly, peeked out half of her body to look at him.

“Good morning.” Xiang Kun greeted with a smile, then raised the breakfast, “Come and eat some specialty breakfast from Tongshi Town? I’ll send Nana and the others a message to see if they’re awake.”

By this time, the drowsy Zi Cheng had gotten up and opened the door for him. Without saying anything, he went back to sleep in his room without bothering to get out of bed.

Xia Libing pointed to her own room: “Eat in here?”

Realizing she didn’t want to disturb Zi Cheng, Xiang Kun closed the door that had just been opened, and then entered Xia Libing’s room.

“You’re up so early?” Xiang Kun carries breakfast asked as he stepped inside.

Xia Libing closed the door behind him: “I’m used to it. You went running again?”

“Yes, I’m also used to it.” Xiang Kun placed the breakfast he bought on the table, unpacked it and suggested, “Eat it while it’s still hot. Yesterday morning I saw that you liked this kind of cake, so I bought a few different flavors, you can try them.”

Without standing on ceremony, Xia Libing sat down at the table, took a sip of hot soy milk, and seeing Xiang Kun sitting at the corner of the bed, she asked, “What about you?”

“I’ve already eaten when I was buying breakfast.” Xiang Kun smiled.

“Oh.”

“How did you sleep last night?” Xiang Kun asked seemingly casually.

“Pretty good.”

“I find that exercising does improve the quality of sleep,” Xiang Kun said while sending a message in the group. “Before I was unemployed, I often had dreams when I slept. After being unemployed, I exercised every day, and the frequency of dreaming decreased, my sleep quality improved a lot. I sleep very little, but I’m very energetic.”

“I remember a very special dream I had before, where I was being chased by a bunch of dinosaurs in the city, and hiding everywhere…” Xiang Kun was describing in detail a dream he had once had. After finishing, he asked seemingly casually, “Old Xia, have you ever had a deeply memorable dream?”

While munching on her cake at her side of the table, Xia Libing turned to look at him, seemingly in deep thought.