茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Xia Libing knew that Xiang Kun definitely understood the motive behind her playing the “Coin Toss Game”.

If he didn’t want her to discover the peculiarities of the coin, he would purposefully answer incorrectly to the first two inquiries.

If, on the contrary, he wanted her to discover the peculiarities of the coin, then he would similarly be wrong on purpose after she had switched to a normal coin.

Based on Xiang Kun’s performance, it was evident that he was telling her this:

Regardless of whether it was that particular coin or not, he could guess it correctly.

It seemed as though he was reminding her that his peculiarities were not limited to just the coin.

Remembering what had transpired in the supermarket earlier, Xia Libing remembered Xiang Kun suddenly handing over the shopping cart to her, stepping out in haste from the store.

Through the conversation Xiang Kun had later with his former classmates, she learned that one of their children had almost made their way into the middle of the street if not for Xiang Kun being right there. He had saved the child just in the nick of time.

She knew, of course, that Xiang Kun being there was not a mere coincidence.

But how did he know about the situation?

When he was in the supermarket, he had had no view of the street outside.

Or could it be that Xiang Kun had stepped outside for an entirely different matter, only to “accidentally” come across his former classmate’s child in danger and saved them as a result?

Then Xia Libing remembered how, on the bus, she had received a video request from Yang Zhen’er. Her phone only vibrated, but Xiang Kun turned almost simultaneously with her to look at the pocket where she had kept her phone.

Under less noisy conditions or when standing close enough, it’s normal for the person next to her to hear the sound from the vibration of her phone. But they were on a bus at the time, and the numerous disturbing noises from the bus, the advertisements on the TV, conversations of other passengers, the phone sounds, as well as the high decibel noise outside, made it highly unlikely to hear minor sounds nearby. What’s more, she was seated while Xiang Kun was standing, and they had a distance between them.

So, did Xiang Kun possess auditory abilities beyond ordinary people, capable of catching subtle sounds? If that were the case, that could explain many of the anomalies she’d observed in the past.

She also deduced from her observations and memories of Xiang Kun that irrespective of whether it was yesterday’s coin guessing at the café or today’s activities at the supermarket and on the bus, Xiang Kun seemed to be subtly hinting at his peculiarities. His style of action was distinctly different from his past behaviors.

It looked like her direct approach after Tongshi Town had quite an effect.

However, what perplexed her was that if Xiang Kun wanted her to discover his peculiarities, why wouldn’t he just tell her?

Did he still not have enough trust in her?

No, that was not the reason.

If trust was the issue, given Xiang Kun’s consistent caution and insecurity, he would not have intentionally revealed so much information to her. Instead, he would have distanced himself from her, been on guard against her, and observed her in secret.

If not trust, what, then, could the reason be?

In this past year, were there people or occurrences that had caused such significant changes in Xiang Kun? Perhaps he feared for her safety and did not want her to be in danger should she learn the truth and get involved?

This possibility seemed highly probable and conformed more to her judgment of Xiang Kun.

So, now Xiang Kun intended for her to gradually discover the truth and his peculiarities, and understand the reasons behind these peculiarities. He wanted her to gradually realize the extent of the danger and decide for herself?

Or could it be, in this manner, he was “testing” her abilities, checking if she had the capability to confront such dangers?

However, based on what she knew about Xiang Kun, the information collected through various channels over the past months, these speculations seemed to be missing something and could not entirely explain Xiang Kun’s motivations for his behaviors.

Upon reflecting on the secret she was holding, she had a revelation. Perhaps Xiang Kun was, just like how she was devising strategies to probe into his situation, changing strategies to probe into hers.

As she looked at the picture on her phone of the young Xiang Kun crawling and giggling obliviously on the floor, Xia Libing squinted her eyes pensively, contemplating, and readjusting her strategies.

Her curiosity and the subsequent exploration and analysis of Xiang Kun’s demonstrated peculiarities were not driven solely by curiosity; a significant reason stemmed from herself.

She needed to evaluate whether she really needed to know all of Xiang Kun’s secrets, and whether it was necessary for her to participate in whatever he might be involved in. Would any of these be advantageous to her own circumstances?

In Jianzhou City, a villa in the vicinity of Wushu Mountain Scenic Area.

Although few residents lived in this villa complex, and the majority were rented to tourists here on vacation, and even fewer would use it as their primary residences. Besides being close to Wushu Mountain Scenic Area, there was not much else to offer, with living facilities in the vicinity being rather lacking. On New Year’s Eve, there were even fewer people around. Even property management and security were very sparse, resulting in the villa complex appearing rather deserted, bit eerie even.

In this villa, the temporary team made up of Fang Pingfang, Mijoe, and others, were still in residence.

At this time, the main members of their team, the original six of them, were all gathered in the living room of the villa. They were waiting to commence a remote meeting with Mr. Liang.

Their previous investigation had hit a dead-end, hence they needed to report to Mr. Liang and seek his advice on possible new leads.

In the span of a few days, Zhou Rui, with the help of logistic support sent by Ye Chong, almost confirmed that there was a certain lack of ants on Wushu Mountain’s Main Peak. Near the mountain peak, they found several nests that evidently belonged to ants, suggesting a particular cause or a presence that had affected the ants’ existence.

Fang Pingfang initially judged that it was the doing of the “Invisible Insect” that could fly and disappear—one that potentially feeds on ants. Perhaps it annihilated the entire ant colony by consuming the Ant Queen, which explained the disappearance of the whole ant colony in this area.

However, what frustrated Zhou Rui and Fang Pingfang was the fact that while they could verify the situation of the ant colonies, they found no trace of the “Invisible Insect” and its likes. There were no signs of any activities, no nests, no waste, no counterparts; absolutely nothing at all.

Moreover, Wushu Mountain’s Main Peak being a primary scenic area, with a consistent number of tourists, it was impossible to conduct an exhaustive exploration and search.

Simultaneously, Fang Pingfang and Mijoe made no progress in their investigation of the small stone that startled the “Giant Raptor” that night.

The stone was simply too ordinary; nothing useful could be gleaned from it by just looking at it. Therefore, Fang Pingfang didn’t hang onto it for too long, directly sending it to a laboratory in Yangcheng that belonged to a secret division of Divine Technology for testing, following her instructions.

However, apart from that stone, the “giant raptor” and the “invisible insect” had created such a ruckus that night yet left no traces of their bodily tissues behind. The soil and trees that had clearly come into contact with the “giant raptor” also didn’t yield any substances that Fang Pingfang had hoped to find, which left her baffled.

The scene was eerily clean; even excessively so. If not for the numerous large pits on the ground that made it look like it had been ploughed over, the many crushed plants, and videos taken from multiple angles by different cameras and imaging modes, all of which bore witness to the events of that night, Fang Pingfang would have doubted whether what she saw was a mere illusion and whether the gigantic raptor was a tangible creature at all.

Fang Pingfang wanted to continue tracking the whereabouts of the “giant raptor” and the “invisible insect” and requested technical support, but Mr. Liang’s response was that the location had not been identified yet, asking them to conduct investigations in other areas first.

Other areas?

Fang Pingfang really didn’t know which other areas to investigate. Those two creatures were ghostly, completely beyond her existing knowledge and understanding.

Just like the cave they had found in the Qinling uninhabited area, the avian remains brought back from that cave, and the rabbit wood carving brought back.

While she was always excited and hopeful about encountering such beings that could widen her horizons and help her explore the unknown better, and carried immense passion about it, the many characteristics of these beings were simply beyond her grasp, baffling her.

What made matters worse was that Mr. Liang had designated her to lead the overall investigation, which left her feeling frustrated like she was holding a steering wheel without a clue of the road ahead or any navigation.

Although the investigation hadn’t made much progress, the members of their temporary team had to hustle about every day and were busy till midnight. They were very tiring indeed. It was during the Spring festival, while everyone else was going home to celebrate, they had to stay back and continue their investigation with no observable results, inevitably leading to low spirits.

So, when she saw Zhou Rui and others in the living room in a state of listlessness and fatigue, Fang Pingfang could understand why.

After about ten minutes, communication with Mr. Liang was established.

As before, Mr. Liang could see their video and hear their voices on his end, while they could only listen to his raspy, unpleasant voice.

As the group’s leader, Fang Pingfang reported their latest investigation findings to Mr. Liang. Actually, the truth was that there wasn’t any progress; the investigation was at a standstill.

However, Mr. Liang seemed neither surprised nor worried by this. He simply acknowledged it and then asked her to continue as per her plans.

Helplessly, Fang Pingfang asked straightaway, “Mr. Liang, do you have any suggestions? From what we see now, we can only wait for the lab results from Yangcheng and some equipment delivery. In the meantime, there’s nothing else we can do at Wushu Mountain.”

However, Mr. Liang’s answer remained the same, “You make the decision, let Ye Chong know what you need.”

I need the location of those two creatures! Fang Pingfang sighed in her heart, but she knew that expressing this need would be futile as Mr. Liang had already made his stance clear — their locations couldn’t be identified for now.. but they would be, sooner or later.

Out of desperation, Fang Pingfang suggested, “In that case, while we wait for the expected results and equipment arrival, would it be okay if we allowed Zhou Rui, Miss Chen, and others to take leave for the Spring Festival?”

Mr. Liang’s response elicited such frustration in the typically calm and rational Fang Pingfang that she felt like pulling her hair out:

“You make the decision.”

The pointless remote meeting with Mr. Liang ended, and Fang Pingfang looked at her team members and announced, “Although today is New Year’s Eve, Ye Chong can arrange transportation and travel plans for everyone. At the latest, everyone should be able to get home by the evening of the first day of the year to spend the Spring Festival with their families. Once the investigation makes new progress, I’ll ask Ye Chong to arrange your return.”

After she finished speaking, the other five team members looked at each other but didn’t say anything.

After a while, Li Shibao, who had worked with Fang Pingfang earlier and had known her for a long time, laughed and said, “I’m not going back. My family has already made their arrangements. If I go back, I’ll just disrupt those plans. So, I won’t bother them anymore.”

Gao Shu, also in charge of security, mentioned, “I am content as long as I have enough to eat; it doesn’t matter where I celebrate the New Year.”

Mijoe added with a smile, “Me too. Spending the new year here with everyone is better than being back ‘home’ alone. If you give me a holiday to go ‘home’, I honestly wouldn’t know where to go.”

Ye Chong shook his head and simply said, “I don’t have a home to go back to.”

Fang Pingfang turned to Zhou Rui. In her view, out of their six-member team, the person who hoped most for a vacation and to go home for the New Year was undoubtedly Zhou Rui. While they were in QiCheng City previously, he would often express his desire for a long break to go home since it had been a long time since he saw his parents.

However, after a moment’s hesitation, Zhou Rui just said, “Dr. Fang, I’m not going back either.”

Fang Pingfang frowned and said, “Zhou Rui, don’t feel obligated to stay just because everyone else is. You heard what Mr. Liang said earlier. It’s me who makes the decisions for our team. So, if you want to go home for the new year, it’s my decision. It’s alright. And it’s not as though we’re not going home because we love our work so much, it’s just that we don’t have a need to.”

But Zhou Rui still shook his head insistently, refusing the opportunity to go home for a holiday.

While part of the reason was because everyone in the team was staying back, and it felt odd for him alone to go home. Despite receiving such a high salary and generous fieldwork allowances and bonuses, it felt somewhat unjust to go home for a holiday while the others didn’t. And although Mr. Liang had verbally delegated the decision-making to Dr. Fang, he couldn’t help but worry about the repercussions it could have on his future assignments, or even his employment status within the secret division.

However, the main reason why Zhou Rui didn’t want to go back had to do with the “giant raptor” and the “invisible insect” they were currently investigating.

The discovery of the “invisible insect” particularly excited him as he had been fascinated by insects and especially ants since he was young.

He didn’t want to miss any details of the investigation into this “invisible insect”. He wanted to be involved and didn’t wish to pass up this opportunity.

Seeing as no one was eager to go home for the New Year, Fang Pingfang didn’t press further. She said to Ye Chong, “Although we would naturally not care about the Spring Festival if we were in the middle of an important investigation, since that isn’t the case now, and since we have the good fortune of being able to spend New Year’s Eve together, we should at least properly prepare for the New Year’s Eve dinner…”

Ye Chong replied with a smile, “Don’t worry Dr. Fang. I’ve already arranged for our New Year’s Eve dinner. Someone will deliver it in the afternoon. There will be dumplings, noodles, pancakes, and a seafood hot pot worth thousands. It’s definitely going to be a lavish feast. Just that according to our field operations rules, we can’t drink alcohol, so I didn’t prepare any. I’ve made up for it with plenty of beverages.”

Fang Pingfang nodded, “In that case, everyone can do as they please till six in the evening. We’ll meet back here and have our New Year’s Eve dinner together.”

With that, she went upstairs, intending to return to her room to gather her thoughts. She didn’t believe that Mr. Liang would leave their team dangling here without a reason. He must have felt that there was still something here to be investigated. Although she didn’t understand why Mr. Liang couldn’t just give them a clear direction.

“Dr. Fang, I have something to discuss with you.” Mijoe followed Fang Pingfang upstairs, catching up to her just before she entered her room to say.