茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Xiang Kun got up early in the morning and made a breakfast for his parents.

Although his parents complained about him coming home late and not getting enough sleep, their faces showed clear delight.

Through several cooking experiences for his parents, Xiang Kun had adjusted his cooking to better suit his parents’ tastes. Even though they were full of smiles, they still murmured things like “why bother making such a elaborate breakfast”, “no need for so many dishes, it’s a waste”, “You should rest more during your vacation”, “Are you fed up with your mother’s cooking?”, “Just buy some buns downstairs”.

Xiang Kun claimed that he had already eaten, but remained at the table chatting with his parents.

He knew that although his physical condition was still okay now, with no life-threatening problems in the short term, he would inevitably face more and more problems as his mutation progressed, judging from his previous encounters with mutants.

There might not be much time left in the future to spend with his parents, eating meals and chatting together.

Before his company went bankrupt, he had been focused on work for those few years. Even when he came home for the Spring Festival, he was so tired that he just wanted to seize every opportunity to rest and thought he would have plenty of time to accompany his parents in the future.

But in fact, there wasn’t much time at all.

Even if he hadn’t mutated.

All of a sudden, Mrs. Xiang seemed to remember something and asked, “Who were you with so late last night? Is it a friend that I know?”

Upon hearing this, Xiang Kun, observing the subtle changes in his mother’s expression and other perceptions, immediately knew that his cousin’s wife must have “tattled on him” to his mother.

“You don’t know her, she’s a friend’s sister. Remember the backpack I had when I left yesterday? I was delivering something to her for my friend,” Xiang Kun explained.

Mrs. Xiang asked with a smile, “A friend’s sister? How old is she? Where is she from? Where does she work? Is she pretty?”

Xiang Kun laughed and said, “Mom, did my cousin’s wife contact you last night?”

“Hehe, it just so happens that we chatted a bit on WeChat.” Mrs. Xiang didn’t hide it, “She said she ran into you at the coffee shop last night, and saw you with a very pretty young girl. It looked like you two were quite close.”

Xiang Kun said, “Mom, don’t think too much. She’s much younger than me. She’s just a friend’s sister, an ordinary friend.”

“Does she have a boyfriend?” Mrs. Xiang asked.

“No…”

“Hmm, I understand. All relationships start as ordinary friends. Just keep going.” Mrs. Xiang gave a knowing nod and said with a smile.

“Keep going my ass…” Xiang Kun couldn’t help but laugh and cry.

“So you were with her until you came home late last night?” Mrs. Xiang asked with a skeptical look.

Xiang Kun had made a call home last night when he went to help with the investigation at the local police station, saying that he was with a friend and would be back late.

After some consideration, Xiang Kun told his parents a simplified version of what happened last night, “I actually wanted to come back by ten last night, but on my way home after dropping my friend’s sister off, I noticed someone following her. So I helped her catch the stalker, called the police, and that’s why I didn’t get home until so late after assisting in the investigation at the station. I didn’t tell you last night because I didn’t want you to worry and lose sleep over it.”

He knew that his parents had wide networks in Citong City, and some of their relatives worked in the public security system. His involvement in what happened last night wasn’t a small matter, and once the news spread internally, his parents would hear about it soon, so he decided to confess beforehand.

Of course, the story he told downplayed the events of the previous night. He also didn’t mention having to tackle two guys on his own before the police arrived.

Mrs. Xiang was surprised and frightened by the story, “Thank goodness you noticed, how can people be so wicked…”

“My friend’s sister’s name is Xia Libing, she works at the Third Hospital. There was a case that required forensic identification…” Xiang Kun went on to describe the general details of the case to distract his mother.

Mrs. Xiang nodded and then said, “Poor Ms. Xia, working in Citong City alone, and encountering such a thing must be very frightening. I bet she didn’t get a good night’s sleep last night. Since you are a local and older than her, you should visit her to check on her. After all, your friend did ask you to look after his sister, right? By the way, since she’s working in Citong alone, why not invite her over for New Year’s Eve dinner? Even if she has to work, she’ll have to eat, right? She can eat before she goes to work…”

Xiang Kun laughed, “Mom, she rents her own apartment, but she’s not alone in Citong. Her third uncle’s family lives here too. Her third aunt is a leader at the Third Hospital. If she’s not on duty, she’ll be celebrating New Year’s at her third uncle’s house.”

“Oh, I see. Well, anyway…just pay a bit more attention to her then. Keep it up! Alright, alright, if you don’t like hearing ‘keep it up,’ how about that Japanese phrase…gan ta die?”

Mr. Xiang, who had been silent all along, couldn’t help but correct her, “You got the pronunciation wrong, that’s not a word of encouragement, that’s a curse! The correct phrase is ‘sa lang hei’, ‘sa lang hei’, get it right! You must not be reading the subtitles while watching those original sound series on your phone!”

Xiang Kun didn’t leave the house until around 8 o’clock. He left to buy some ingredients for the New Year’s Eve dinner while chatting and hanging out with his parents at home.

Of course, Mrs. Xiang had already bought a lot of ingredients in advance, the fridge was almost full. But if he was going to cook the dishes according to his own plan, he still needed to buy some additional ingredients and seasonings.

And considering that Xia Libing had to work and probably wouldn’t have time to buy ingredients, he thought he might as well prepare some for her too.

He was a bit worried that since it was New Year’s Eve, there might not be anything left in the supermarket or market. He had never done grocery shopping before, even on a normal day.

However, to his surprise, there was actually more produce, fruits, and fresh food in the supermarket than usual. Of course, there were also more customers, and the prices were higher.

Xiang Kun pushed his shopping cart, purchasing according to his plan. After he had bought almost everything he needed, he moved to the utensil section.

According to the menu he planned for the night, he needed larger bowls for some dishes. The ones at home were either too deep or too small, so he had to buy some suitable utensils.

However, after picking up a stainless steel soup basin, Xiang Kun reflexively began to feel its texture, weight, and various other metrics.

While he was shopping just now, he was also thinking in parallel. His thoughts were about the new power that Little Fatty Girl had “unlocked” during their train ride back: using multiple “super sensory contact” objects to create a special magnetic field environment that suits his application and utilisation.

He had a premonition that when his mutation and evolution had progressed to a certain extent, it might be the quantity of “super sensory contact” and “emotional infusion” items that he was related to that determined his power limit as and helped him break through that limit.

Of course, the prerequisite was that his brain power, computational capability, and thinking ability must be able to keep up. Otherwise, even if he had a lot of “super sensory contact” items, he would not be able to use them simultaneously.

However, it is still necessary to start establishing as many “super sensory contact” items as possible now.

After so many months, and so many “super sensory contact” items established, as well as so many times of mutation through blood drinking, Xiang Kun naturally had highly summarised experience on how to establish “super sensory contact” more efficiently.

For the same type of items, the building time will slightly decrease after repeatedly establishing “super sensory contact”.

For instance, he now established “super sensory contact” with one yuan coins, A4 paper, and ballpoint pen beads the fastest. But this wasn’t simply a case of “practice makes perfect”.

During the process of establishing “super sensory contact”, having a deeper understanding of these items and mastering more information about them is the key.

Sizes, dimensions, materials, origins, compositions, characteristics – these can explain why if he has more prior knowledge of a distinct item, making it easier for him to establish “super sensory contact” successfully.

However, so far, with his current ability, he could only establish “super sensory contact” with relatively simple objects of uniform property. Anything slightly composite, even a pair of shoes or clothes, wasn’t feasible, let alone cellphones or computers.

Currently, the object with which he establishes “super sensory contact” most efficiently, is still the tungsten steel bead of the ballpoint pen. He can establish “super sensory contact” with a bead in less than a minute now.

Establishing “super sensory contact” with a coin, a piece of paper, a piece of wood or a bead within Little Fatty Girl’s “super sensory object” magnetic field system is all the same; they each represent a unit of super sensory contact.

Thus, these inconspicuous beads that are of low cost, durable and allow for fast establishment of “super sensory contact” are naturally the best basic units of super sensory contact.

Initially, the tungsten steel beads he obtained were all directly taken from cheap pens. This method proved to be bothersome and costly.

So, when he began to establish a large amount of “super sensory contact”, he bought 10,000 0.5mm tungsten steel beads online.

When purchasing such tungsten steel beads in large quantities, they’re quite cheap. A single bead only cost a few cents; exceptionally economical.

But on this trip, he only brought several dozens, all of which he had already established “super sensory contact” with.

Although Xiang Kun doesn’t have any tungsten steel beads that he hasn’t established “super sensory contact” with, he is still determined to establish “super sensory contact” with as many items as possible.

Apart from coins and paper, there are still many other items he could try to establish “super sensory contact” with.

Such as these… homogeneous stainless steel pots.

The stainless steel material used in cookware is generally 304 steel. Xiang Kun had some understanding of this type of steel, having gone through considerable research. Hence, it was easier for him to establish “super sensory contact”. Of course, even for 304 steel, the composition could have slight differences under different standards; the content of C and Ni could vary and so on. Still, the overall characteristic changes won’t be drastic, and he could quickly establish “super sensory contact”.

Xiang Kun held the steel pot in his hand, playing with its thickness, size, weight and craft, and trying to discern which steel factory the material likely came from.

Aside from looking long enough and understanding enough details, Xiang Kun had recently discovered a method to speed up the establishment of “super sensory contact”: to understand the cognitive information representing that item in the “super sensory state”. The more understanding he gained from such cognitive information corresponding to the characteristic of that item in reality, the faster he could establish “super sensory contact”.

Moreover, this efficiency improvement is permanent. Just as how he had raised the building time to within five minutes through constantly entering the “super sensory state” and performing real characteristic comparisons. Not only for this one steel pot, but he could also establish “super sensory contact” with similarly made steel pots within five minutes.

“Boss, C area, kitchenware shelf, stainless steel utensils side, there’s a guy acting a bit strange. He’s been holding a steel pot, sometimes staring at it, sometimes closing his eyes, he even looks intoxicated… He’s been there for almost twenty minutes.”

While Xiang Kun was engrossed in establishing super sensory contact with the stainless steel pot, his strange behaviour had attracted the attention of the supermarket security officer on patrol, who reported to the security chief in the surveillance room via walkie-talkie.

Just emerging once from the “super sensory state”, the alert Xiang Kun quickly caught the security officer’s words and remembered that he had lost track of time, staying here for too long, and acting weirdly.

So he put the stainless steel pot in his cart—where two identical pots already lay; both newly established “super sensory contact” with.

Seeing Xiang Kun push his cart and continue shopping in a leisurely manner, the security officer watched from a distance for a while. After asking the people in the surveillance room to keep an eye on him, he no longer stalked Xiang Kun and continued to patrol other areas.

Xiang Kun had almost finished his shopping by now, so he prepared to check out.

However, as he was pushing his shopping cart towards the checkout area, he suddenly sensed some familiar information. So he turned around and, sure enough, saw a tall figure roaming around the fresh goods area with a shopping cart. Sporty attire, wearing LeBron17 shoes, a high ponytail, and long legs. Who else could it be other than Xia Libing?

Why is she also grocery shopping at this time?

If it were another acquaintance, say a relative, Xiang Kun might’ve chosen not to greet them proactively, but Old Xia is of course a different story.

He wanted to test her, to see if Old Xia had become aware of or detected anything upon “waking up” within her dream last night.

So Xiang Kun rerouted his shopping cart and headed back towards the fresh goods section.

But until he reached Old Xia’s side, she hadn’t noticed him. This was out of character for her, usually being very aware of her surroundings and highly cautious. Moreover, considering the incident that just occurred last night, Old Xia should’ve been more wary.

Xiang Kun followed Old Xia’s gaze and found her carefully choosing a pig’s trotter, hovering over a few big ones as if undecided on which to take.

“The best ones are all here with me, so there’s no need for you to take any,” Xiang Kun said.

Xia Libing swallowed her saliva, turned around to look at him, then at his shopping cart, quickly focusing on the bagged ingredients inside.