茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

After confirming that there were no mutants in the hospital, Xiang Kun quietly left the hospital. He retrieved his hidden e-bike, put away the empty food containers, and prepared to go home.

But before getting on the e-bike, he sensed the pair of chopsticks he had given to Old Xia and unexpectedly became aware of a dreamland.

Had Old Xia just finished her late-night snack, returned to her duty room, locked the door, and gone to sleep?

Wondering if she would still hiccup after falling asleep…

Although Xiang Kun’s current brain processing capacity could handle biking and perceiving Old Xia’s dream at the same time, he had great expectations for her dream tonight and thus needed to concentrate on sensing it.

So, Xiang Kun parked his e-bike on the roadside, sat on the e-bike, and stared at his phone, pretending to be someone waiting and scrolling through his phone.

Once again sensing Old Xia’s dreamland, instead of seeing the sealed room that Xiang Kun was eager to observe, he found himself walking along the aisle of a restaurant.

Through Old Xia’s perspective in the dreamland, Xiang Kun noticed her short stature and the slender arm held by an adult next to her, indicating that this was a period from her early childhood, perhaps even before starting kindergarten.

The hand holding hers belonged to a stylishly-dressed and somewhat intellectual-looking young woman, and on her other side was a young man wearing glasses, who also seemed to be of academia or a technical profession. Xiang Kun speculated that this couple might be Old Xia’s parents.

It seemed that Old Xia was being taken out for a meal by her parents during her childhood.

Ahead, the restaurant server, also surprisingly short—even shorter than the young Xia by the looks of it, was leading the couple to their table.

Although he could only see her back, and through the sensation of an emotionally-infused projection, Xiang Kun recognised the girl dressed as a restaurant waitress: it was Liu Shiling, or rather, the projected image of the emotionally-infused chopsticks in the dreamland.

After sitting down at the table, dishes were quickly served—a rapidity which could only be attributed to being in a dream. “Waitress Liu Shiling” seemed to have teleportation abilities, serving two dishes at one moment and bringing two more the next second.

Most of the dishes on the table appeared blurry and were not easy to identify, except for one dish closest to Old Xia, which was a plate of crispy pig’s elbow and it was crystal clear to Xiang Kun.

“Here, Xiao Bing, try this ‘Golden Pig’s Knuckle’, it’s the signature dish of this restaurant, very tasty…”

Before the scholarly-looking lady could finish her words, Old Xia used no utensils and instead grabbed the pig’s knuckle with her hands and began to devour it.

In this dream, Old Xia’s emotions were intense, a prominent sense of hunger and desire for food.

“Slow down, Xiao Bing, have some soup…”

“Try some other dishes.”

“Eat slowly; there’s more.”

The two people who seemed to be Old Xia’s parents were advising her, but after finishing the crispy pig’s elbow in her hand, Old Xia stood up, picked another piece, and started devouring again.

As one could imagine, her eating manners were not so elegant, even somewhat frantic, just as during the previous dream where she was eating toast in the sealed room.

The voices of the two adults sitting next to her became blurred, and Old Xia’s attention in the dream was all on the food.

Just as Xiang Kun was wondering why Old Xia was so intensely fixated on food, all emotions retreated like a receding tide, replaced by calmness and rationality.

The next moment, Xiang Kun discovered that Old Xia’s perspective began to elevate. She stood and kept rising, evidently taller than the height of her child form who stood just now, and she wasn’t standing on a chair.

The following moment, all the previously blurry details now became clear to where her gaze fell, while the two young individuals sitting on her left and right aged significantly, looking almost like they were in their fifties or sixties, although their clothing seemed more modern and fashionable. Their eyes still held the same tender gaze towards Old Xia.

Xiang Kun knew that Old Xia had become “lucid” in her dream again, just as he had anticipated.

Right after she became “lucid”, she instantaneously transformed into an adult, and the two people believed to be her parents also aged significantly, which should correspond with her real-time memory in reality.

Of course, the “waitress Liu Shiling” not far from the table also changed into the appearance she had in Old Xia’s memory, identical to the previous dream appearance.

Xiang Kun’s spirit was uplifted, his attention highly focused, he was curious about Old Xia’s plan of action in this lucid dream after the previous experience.

He hoped that the dream would stay longer after she became “lucid” this time.

Old Xia looked down at the half-eaten crispy pork knuckle in her bowl, the next moment, the half-eaten crispy pork knuckle miraculously restored to its original state.

Or rather, it was not the same piece she had taken from the dining table previously, as there was a noticeable difference in shape and size.

Old Xia took a seat, and without using any utensils, she picked up the hunk of pork, opened her mouth wide, and took a slow bite, skin and all.

At first, there was no sensation in her mouth. She could neither taste nor feel the texture of the meat, as if she had bitten into thin air. But very quickly, the texture and flavor made their appearance.

And these were entirely different from what she had experienced in her dream when little Xia was munching on the crispy pork knuckle. The details were richer and more specific.

The texture, the taste, and even the appearance, Xiang Kun quickly realized that Old Xia’s “genuine crispy pork knuckle”, which was manifested in her co-manifested dream upon awakening, was his creation.

It appeared that Old Xia’s fondness for “crispy pork knuckle” had something to do with her experience of eating it in a special state when she was young. But for her now, it was apparent that her memory of the dish and its specific taste was derived from Xiang Kun’s “crispy pork knuckle”.

Moreover, when she started chewing the pork knuckle, her previously calm and rational state changed again and was filled with a satisfying and enjoyable feeling while eating. It was different from the “crazy food scramble” she felt in her previous dream.

Old Xia quickly devoured the “crispy pork knuckle”, then contentedly picked up a tissue from the side and wiped her mouth.

The next moment, she turned over her left hand, and three coins lay in her palm.

As soon as he saw those three coins, Xiang Kun immediately felt that he had a faint connection with them. He realized that the three coins in the dream were not merely conjured up from Old Xia’s memory. They seemed to have a tangible relationship with the three coins with a “super-sensory connection” that he had given to Old Xia.

In the dream, Old Xia held the three coins in her hand, continuously rubbing them together, letting them collide with each other. She then started to wander around the restaurant.

She observed the environment in the restaurant, just like last time, wherever her gaze landed, the details would fill in according to her memory.

Xiang Kun was somewhat worried that like last time, the dream would quickly collapse, and Old Xia would wake up.

But to his surprise, after Old Xia had made a round in the restaurant and returned to sit at the table, the dream persisted. Despite being in a “lucid” state, she had not woken up.

Next, all the different types of Chinese dishes on the table disappeared, then a Napoleon Cake appeared.

The Napoleon Cake was not large; it was just enough for one person.

Old Xia stared at the cake for a while, then it slowly inflated like a balloon, soon becoming as big as a computer casing.

The next moment, the cake shrank back to its original size.

Then the cake began to transform, turning into a rabbit, and then changing again into a goose.

Xiang Kun was moved at the sight of the ever-changing and shape-shifting cake. The three coins in Old Xia’s hand had disappeared, and the cake had taken their place, establishing a certain connection with him.

Xiang Kun realized that for some reason, Old Xia had conjured up the projection of the three coins in her dream. This projection was likely related to their “super-sensory connection” in reality, which was also linked to him.

The cake was those three coins.

Just like Liu Shiling and Xiao Pingguo, Old Xia was also “calling” upon his abilities through his “super-sensory connected” items – and this was occurring in the dream induced by his “emotion-infused” items!

The changes were not just limited to the cake. Xiang Kun soon found that his point of perception was no longer confined to Old Xia’s subjective vision. He could now switch to the viewpoint of the “Waiter Liu Shiling”, the projection who had been emotionally infused into the dream.

He immediately remembered the dream of Little Fatty Girl Liu Shiling that he had sensed on his way back to Citong, a dream he had interrupted halfway through “emotion-infused” items. In that dream, his point of view was from the “chopsticks” in Liu Shiling’s hand, which she used as a magic wand.

This suggested that both Liu Shiling’s dream at that time and Old Xia’s dream now were based not only on his “emotion-infused” items, so it was no longer necessary to maintain his synchronicity with the dreamer’s perception.

As to what underpins the integrity of the current dream, Xiang Kun also had a speculation. It was highly likely the three coins, or the abilities “called” upon by the three coins through their “super-sensory connection” with him.

Next, Xiang Kun saw Old Xia constantly changing the size and shape of the “Napoleon Cake” in the dream. She even turned it into a big piece of crispy pork knuckle, which then continued to change shape…but that was a bit wild.

Can you imagine a laptop made of crispy pork skin and meat, except for the screen, that can be used and eaten at the same time, and also emanates a delicious aroma?

Is this more cyberpunk, or more Lovecraftian?

While Xiang Kun was both amused and bemused by Old Xia’s dream world imagination, her “lucid dream”, which was noticeably longer than the last one, had come to an end.

Inside the on-call room, Xia Libing abruptly sat up from the hard bed.

First, she looked at her left hand, unclenching her fist that had even been tight in her dreams, where three one-yuan coins lay stacked together.

She recalled the scene in her dream, and then clenched her left hand again, closing her eyes.

Time ticked by with every passing second, the duty room was very quiet, with only the sound of the clock’s second hand ticking on the wall.

When she opened her eyes again and looked at her right hand that was not holding any coins, a small piece of Napoleon Cake now was magically sitting in it!

But she blinked once, and the cake “disappeared into thin air”, vanishing without a trace, as if it had never appeared, just an illusion.

But she knew she wasn’t hallucinating.

She raised her right hand to her nose and sniffed it – no smell of Napoleon Cake was left behind. She licked her hand and there was no taste left either.

Xia Libing rubbed the three coins in her left hand while sitting on the bed, deep in thought. After a while, she looked back at the small wooden box filled with chopsticks on the bedside table, seeming to have an epiphany and then got off the bed to put on her shoes.

With coins and cell phone in hand, Xia Libing walked to the desk, staring intently at a medical reference book. A few seconds later, a piece of Napoleon Cake suddenly materialized on top of it.

Xia Libing’s face showed no change. She quickly picked up her phone, turned on the camera, and clicked the video recording button.

But before she could press it, the piece of cake had disappeared, just as it had appeared out of nowhere, without a trace, as if it had been “edited” out.

Xia Libing reopened the camera’s video recording feature on her phone, adjusted the angle, and propped it up with a few books in the corner of her desk. Within its recording range, she attempted again to “create” that piece of Napoleon Cake.

Yet, despite trying for a few minutes in this winter night with a temperature of only 4 or 5 degrees Celsius, even as beads of sweat broke out on her forehead, she wasn’t able to make the cake reappear.

Xia Libing didn’t become discouraged, she picked up the phone and turned off the recording function.

She then continued to stare at a spot on the table, and a few seconds later, the Napoleon Cake reappeared.

Nodding thoughtfully, Xia Libing reached out to pick up the cake on the table. It had a substantial feel to it, yet compared to a real Napoleon Cake, its texture seemed a bit “ephemeral”, and its weight seemed slightly off.

She carefully brought the cake to her mouth, smelling the sweet scent of cream, and then slowly opened her mouth to take a bite…

But the moment she bit down, the cake disappeared.

Xia Libing seemed to anticipate this, she wasn’t surprised. She continued stroking the coins in her left hand and glanced at the clock on the wall.

Yup, it was almost time for the evening routine ward inspection.

With her cell phone, she put on her coat and then her white coat, left the on-call room, and made her way down the stairs.

Upon seeing Xia Libing appear at the entrance to the on-call room, the two nurses downstairs looked a bit puzzled. In the middle of the night, the timed ward rounds were usually conducted by the nurses, who would only notify the on-duty doctor to come over if necessary.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d join you for the ward round,” Xia Libing simply explained.

So, the three of them checked the patients’ rest conditions in their ward areas before returning to the on-call room.

“Are any of you hungry? My friend brought some late-night snacks earlier. There’s some leftovers. Would you like to have some?” Xia Libing suddenly suggested before leaving.

The two female nurses were both surprised and somewhat flattered. When Xia Libing first arrived at their hospital, she was very popular. Not only was she tall and beautiful, but she was also rumored to be related to the hospital’s leadership. Whether they had the same sex or opposite, everyone wanted to build a good relationship with her and often asked her out for meals. But they were politely yet firmly rejected. Gradually, everyone developed an unwarranted sense of awe towards her.

Inviting others to share food was a first for Xia Libing since she came to the hospital several months ago!

So the two nurses half-heartedly accompanied Xia Libing upstairs to her on-call room, and warmed up the late-night meals Xiang Kun had brought before in the microwave there.

As soon as one of the nurses was about to put the reheated dish on the table in the on-call room, she was surprised to see a piece of high-end looking cake had appeared on the table. It didn’t have any packaging or a plate, it was just sitting there on the table.

“Huh? There wasn’t this piece of cake just now, was there?” The nurse asked incredulously.

At that moment, another nurse who had also grabbed a heated dish turned around and said subconsciously, “What cake?”

“Isn’t it on the table…” The first nurse stared at the vacant space on her left, stunned for a second, then reached over to the spot where she had just seen the cake, saying puzzledly, “Strange… It was right there, how come it disappeared in an instant…”

Behind her, Xia Libing who came over with disposable bowls and chopsticks, indifferently asked, “Do you guys want cake?”

“Oh, no no, I guess I was seeing things.” The nurse who saw the “cake” laughed and shook her head. She thought she must have been hallucinating, just like when she heard the sound of a rolling bead earlier. Perhaps she was just too tired from working night shifts recently?

The dishes that Xiang Kun had prepared, although they were all adjusted to Xia Libing’s taste, were fundamentally delicious. Even reheated, the taste remained delightful.

The two nurses couldn’t stop praising it, thinking that these dishes must have been bought from a restaurant by Dr. Xia’s friend.

After eating quite a portion, one nurse wanted to check the time on the phone on the table. She was still holding disposable chopsticks in her right hand, so she lifted her left hand which had been resting on her thigh.

But as she lifted her hand, she was shocked to find that she was “holding” a piece of crispy golden fried pig knuckle in her hand!

Startled, she shook her left hand subconsciously, but nothing fell from her hand.

The strange movement caught the attention of the other nurse and Xia Libing: “What’s wrong?”

She looked carefully at her left hand under the room light. It was clean without any strange residue. She looked down at the floor but found nothing unusual either.

“Nothing, I just seemed to… I seemed to see a piece of meat in my hand …?” She said uncertainly, “I must be seeing things.”

“What kind of meat?” Xia Libing asked calmly.

“Err, nothing. I must have made a mistake.” She shook her head.

The other nurse exclaimed in surprise, “No way, are you hallucinating too? I just saw a piece of cake, and it disappeared in the blink of an eye!”

“I think I saw… a pig’s knuckle? It seemed to be either fried or roasted.”

“There’s something off about our building tonight, Dr. Xia, did you hear the sound of a bead rolling earlier?”

Xia Libing said, “The sound of a bead rolling should be due to the thermal expansion and contraction of the building’s steel and concrete structure.” Then she asked the nurse who saw the pig’s knuckle, “You said you were holding it, did you feel anything in your hand?”

“In my hand? It seemed… not. No, it seemed there was, like cotton… um, maybe not, I’m not quite sure.” The nurse frowned as she recalled.

“The light in my office does have some issues. Did you notice that most of this room is covered in shadow because of the placement of a cabinet, which causes visual interference. Sister Lu, while you were heating the dishes, were you staring at the microwave the whole time? When your eyes suddenly shifted to the table, the afterimages may have deceived you to think you saw something, such as a cake, under the influence of environmental lighting.”

She turned to the other nurse: “Sister Chen, you’re sitting in a place where half of the body is in the shadow of the cabinet. Try raising your hand quickly. See? When your hand is raised above the waist, it will enter the shadow. If you raise your hand very fast, the contrast between shadow and light might make you feel like you’re holding something. And because I mentioned earlier that my friend is very good at making crispy pig’s knuckle, you were influenced and imagined the shape of the ‘crispy pig’s knuckle’.”

“Can you recall if ‘crispy pig’s knuckle’ was what you saw?”

Xia Libing’s voice was gentle and her pace was steady, speaking in a very convincing way.

Nurse Chen subconsciously nodded: “Indeed, I think that I did see a piece of crispy pig knuckle.”

With their hallucinations explained, the two nurses felt somewhat relieved. After finishing their food, they helped Xia Libing clean up before heading downstairs to their own offices.

However, in the downstairs corridor, Nurse Lu couldn’t help but confide in her companion, “I feel like… something’s off about tonight.”

Nurse Chen also inexplicably felt a chill. She looked back at the tightly closed patient rooms, tightened her collar, and whispered, “Don’t scare yourself, it’s just Chinese New Year.”

Upstairs, in the closed office.

Xia Libing sat at the table, her elbow on the table, her left hand holding three coins, and her right hand holding her left fist. Both hands were resting under her chin as she stared at the Napoleon Cake on the table, contemplating the information she had received.

In front of her eyes, the cake vanished after a few seconds and turned into a crispy pig’s knuckle. One second later, it disappeared and turned back into a cake.

After this repeated a few times, Xia Libing suddenly slumped forward, her face landing on the table, she passed out.