茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

“Are you preparing for the New Year’s Eve dinner?” asked Xia Libing.

“Yes, but I bought quite a lot. In case you don’t have enough ingredients for your ‘treat’ in the next few days, I can share some with you.” Xiang Kun replied.

Xia Libing was not shy and nodded, “Okay.”

She then looked at Xiang Kun’s shopping cart and asked, “Did you buy pork ribs?”

“Yes, but not too many,” he replied.

“What about shrimp?”

“Yes, fresh ones. If you want them when your ‘treat’ is due, it would be better to buy them at last minute.”

“Chicken drumsticks?”

“Yes, we’ve got those.”

“What type of meat is that?” Xia Libing pointed to a bag in the shopping cart.

“That’s beef, for dumplings. We don’t usually eat dumplings for Chinese New Year here, but it’s nice to have some. I mentioned that I would bring you late-night snacks last night, I’ll bring some for you to try. Dumplings taste almost the same even after some time, given that they’re kept warm. However, for dishes like crispy pig knuckles which are usually fried or roasted, they won’t taste as good if not eaten shortly after preparation,” Xiang Kun said with a laugh.

Xia Libing nodded, before asking, “What dishes are you planning to cook tonight?”

“You can tell what the other dishes will be by looking at the ingredients. The main dishes that you haven’t tried before are egg yolk spring rolls, mushroom soup, fried oysters, cold pork ears salad, and, oh, the dumplings which you probably haven’t tasted yet. By ‘haven’t tried,’ I mean you haven’t tried the ones made by me.”

Old Xia’s focus today seemed a bit strange. Although she has moments when she suddenly becomes talkative, she rarely fixates on the dishes that Xiang Kun is preparing— it’s generally Yang Zhen’er who pays attention to such things. Old Xia and Nana usually eat whatever is made and at most they would discuss how a finished dish tastes.

However, Xiang Kun was not at all impatient and answered each question patiently. He knew that Xia Libing was not the type to act on whims or sudden impulses. When she did or said something, especially something that deviated from her usual behavior, there had to be a reason.

So while he chatted with her, Xiang Kun also paid attention to Xia Libing’s state and considered how to subtly probe her about the dream she had the previous night.

Unexpectedly, Xia Libing herself brought up the subject first:

“I had a dream last night.”

“Oh?” Xiang Kun pretended to be surprised. “I thought you said that you hardly ever dream? What kind of dream did you have last night? Was it related to those two… villains we encountered?”

Xia Libing said, “It was about eating again, I dreamt of eating at your place. The little girl who lived next to you before, in room 706, was also there. She was eating rabbit meat and I was eating pig’s knuckles, all prepared by you.”

“Oh? I didn’t expect you to dream about Liu Shiling. As far as I remember, you haven’t really spoken to her have you? You probably saw her no more than twice,” said Xiang Kun.

In fact, he was more interested in Xia Libing’s first dream in the sealed room, but Xia Libing didn’t bring it up, which is what he expected.

Xiang Kun noticed that when Xia Libing mentioned something related to dreams, her gaze was fixed on him and her attention was intense. It was evident that through their conversation, she was trying to determine something.

It quickly dawned on Xiang Kun that Xia thought the dream she had was odd and suspected that it had something to do with him.

He couldn’t fully understand Xia Libing’s thought process, but based on her usual way of thinking, it was normal for her to think that her dream was related to him. After all, just a few days ago in Tongshi Town, he had asked her about dreams. She said she hadn’t dreamt for a long, long time. It had been just a few days since then, and she had dreamt the night after seeing him again. In the dream, Xiang also appeared. It would be strange if she didn’t suspect him.

Xia Libing said, “I saw a video of that little girl flipping a coin in Tongshi Town.”

“Zhen’er must have shown it to you. I was really surprised when I saw that video and realized how good she was at flipping coins,” said Xiang Kun. He knew that the coin-flipping video Xia Libing was referring to was the one where Liu Shiling was flipping a coin, a video that Yang Zhen’er and Tang Baona accidentally found online.

Xia Libing continued, “That coin she was playing with… Did you give it to her?”

“I did give her a coin,” Xiang Kun quickly replied.

Normally, upon seeing the video of Liu Shiling flipping a coin, one would ask if Xiang Kun was the one teaching her to flip the coin so skillfully. But Xia Libing asked directly about the coin itself, further confirming her suspicion that the coin Xiang Kun had given her was unique. It was easier to flip, or, in other words, easier to control.

When they were in Tongshi Town, Xia Libing had asked if the coin that Xiao Pingguo had was given by him and she had actively asked him for one. She had already realized this at that time.

It’s clear that she can now sense the special properties of the coin Xiang Kun gave her, and she’s connecting the appearance of the Little Fat Girl in her dream, with the coin he gave the little girl.

Though it doesn’t line up entirely with the actual events, she’s on the right track.

Xiang Kun didn’t worry about Xia Libing finding out something about the coin, instead, he was hoping she could find something out.

The two of them were chatting in a corner of the supermarket after pushing their cart there to avoid blocking the aisle, since there were many customers in the supermarket.

Xia Libing continued, “Is there anything special about the coins you gave to others?”

Xiang Kun laughed, “Didn’t I mention before that I have a ‘Lucky Coin’ and ‘Omnipotent Coin’? The one you have is a…”

But before he could finish, Xia Libing interrupted him, “I could sense this coin in my dream last night.”

Xiang Kun was stunned for a moment as he recalled Xia Libing’s second dream last night, especially the scene when she suddenly became lucid.

At that moment, she had looked at her hand and saw the coin Xiang Kun had given her appear between her fingers. The coin then started spinning rapidly, even floating into the air.

Naturally, Xiang Kun had also noticed that coin, but he hadn’t thought much about it. After all, his attention was on Xia Libing’s sudden change in emotion in the dream to an extremely rational and indifferent state.

“Feel it? How did you feel it?” asked Xiang Kun.

Xia Libing reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out that seemingly ordinary one-yuan coin. Skilfully clamping the coin between the second joint of her thumb and index finger, she flipped it to the back of her hand, allowing the coin to flip between her fingers.

She spoke to Xiang Kun, “I was lucid for a while in my dream, and the first thing I felt was a coin in my hand. The feeling that this coin gave me in my dream was different from everything else. No matter how realistic other things are in detail, they all feel as if they are separated from me by a layer, and I can tell they are part of the dream, but the coin felt different. I am not sure if this has anything to do with me holding a coin in my hand when I fell asleep.”

Xiang Kun frowned, trying to figure out the connection. Knowing Xia Libing’s personality and habits, if she stated something like this, he could be certain that her feelings about the coin in her dream were not illusions.

At the beginning, Xiang Kun knew that the properties of “Emotional Infusion” items and “Super-sensory Contact” items could not coexist.

However, over time, especially after Xiao Pingguo and Liu Shiling made certain connections with some “Super-sensory Contact” items and “Emotional Infusion” items and helped him develop numerous additional abilities, it became apparent that “Emotional Infusion” and “Super-sensory Contact” items could, in fact, be related and form connections.

He thought perhaps, fundamentally, the origins of “Super-sensory Contact” and “Emotional Infusion” are the same, just manifested differently.

He also thought back to the time on the train when he perceived Little Fat Girl Liu Shiling’s special dream- that dream was not triggered by his perception of “Emotional Infusion” items, but was a dream that Liu Shiling herself had “constructed”. He was involved “halfway” through it, and it was not through Liu Shiling’s subjective feelings that he experienced the dream, but through the perspective of the “Emotional Infusion” chopsticks in the dream.

Considering that Liu Shiling has a deeper connection with the “Super-sensory Contact” coins and paper, and the abilities “developed” before are also related to “Super-sensory Contact” items, he felt that the occurrence of this “active dream” might be related to her connection with “Super-connected Objects”.

Maybe, the perception of the coin Xia Libing had in her dream last night was similar?

Perhaps Xiang Kun didn’t fully comprehend her explanation, so Xia Libing continued, “…In a dream, even when you become lucid, knowing that you are dreaming, you still have a feeling of floating in the air, there’s a lack of groundedness. Yet the moment I was aware of the existence of the coin, it felt as if the coin was a piece of land connected to reality…”

Xiang Kun nodded, “I didn’t know the coin was so special. But you, old Xia, you can actually wake up in your dreams, which is quite impressive, how do you do it?”

“I don’t know, but once I realise I’m dreaming, I wake up soon.” Xia Libing replied.

“I see… Well, next time you dream, and you see the coin in the dream again and realise you’re dreaming, try to do more before you wake up. For example, create a few more coins in the dream to see if there’s any difference, or try making the coin larger,” Xiang Kun suggested.

Xia Libing said, “Give me a few more.”

“Okay, I’ll give you two more later.” Xiang Kun agreed without hesitation, eager to find out more about the specific characteristics of the coin in a dream through Old Xia’s experience.

Xia Libing then asked, “How many do you have in total?”

“Well, I won’t tell you. It’s not a lot, and each one wasn’t easy to come by…” Xiang Kun replied with a chuckle.

“What did you use to make them?” Xia Libing asked.

Xiang Kun pointed to his forehead with his index finger, and jokingly said, “With mental energy.”

“Can you help me change these coins into ‘Omnipotent Coins’ then?” Xia Libing asked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a few coins to show Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun glanced at the various coins in her hand: there were 50 cents coin, American coins, and even what appeared to be a steel penny for arcade games.

Xiang Kun couldn’t help laughing. Xia Libing clearly prepared these in advance, probably from her uncle and aunt’s collection.

Old Xia… are you deliberately trying to make things difficult for me…

It appears that even if they hadn’t run into each other in the supermarket, he would’ve faced a similar problem when going to Xia Libing’s to bring her a late-night snack. The discussion they just had must have been part of Xia Libing’s premeditated “plan”. Well, the food questions probably weren’t.

“It’s not possible.” Xiang Kun gave her a straightforward refusal.

“Oh,” Xia Libing replied without showing any sign of disappointment, nor did she persist. Instead, she calmly put the coins back into her pocket.

“Did you buy any enoki mushrooms?” Xia Libing changed the subject abruptly.

“No, do you want to have some?”

So, the two of them continued shopping based on Xia Libing’s suggestions, adding a few more ingredients to their cart.

When they had almost everything they needed, Xiang Kun checked the time on his phone and asked casually, “You don’t start your hospital shift until the afternoon, right? If you’re free at noon, how about coming to my place for lunch?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Libing agreed with, “Okay.”

Xiang Kun was taken aback. Seeing Xia Libing’s expression, he quickly realised why she agreed so quickly – she wanted to observe his living environment in an attempt to uncover his secrets, and also to meet his parents.

Compared to Xiang Kun, his parents would surely be easier to “extract” information from.

Xiang Kun couldn’t help but laugh inwardly. However, Xia Libing’s expectations were destined to be dashed, as neither his home nor his parents had any direct connection with his current special circumstances, so there wouldn’t be much for her to find out.

Actually, if he were in her shoes, he would’ve had the same idea. He wanted to find an opportunity to meet Xia Libing’s parents too. If Xia Libing’s secrets originated from her childhood, then her parents certainly would have plenty of useful information.

Just as they were about to pay, Xiang Kun suddenly frowned, pulled Xia Libing’s hand onto the handles of the shopping cart, and quickly walked towards the supermarket entrance, soon disappearing at the exit.

Inside the supermarket, Xia Libing squinted at Xiang Kun’s retreating figure. Instead of following him, she calmly pushed their cart and joined the checkout queue. After paying, she exited the supermarket and saw Xiang Kun talking to a young couple holding a child.

She parked the shopping cart beside her and stood a short distance away.

Then through Xiang Kun’s conversation with the young couple, she found out that Xiang Kun knew them – they seemed to be his classmates? And they were thanking Xiang Kun for something, though she didn’t know why.

Despite the distance, Xia Libing’s tall and stunning appearance was too conspicuous. The fact that she was watching intently aroused the curiosity of the young couple, who then turned and looked at her.

Xiang Kun gestured towards Xia Libing and told the couple, “This is my friend, we were shopping together just now at the supermarket.”

And then he told Xia Libing, “They are my high school classmates.”