茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

With the increase in blood consumption, the number of meat rabbits needed per meal had increased to over ten. Consequently, Xiang Kun had to have a vehicle take him to the farm each time he went to purchase rabbits.

The vehicle he called for today was a small van, one he had booked several times before.

While the driver was chatty, had poor driving skills, and was not good with directions, he was otherwise pretty good: honest and cheap.

“Good morning, Brother Xiang.” The driver said, greeting Xiang Kun. When he saw Old Xia, who had followed him into the van, he paused momentarily before saying, “Hello, sister-in-law…”

Xiang Kun laughed helplessly, “Don’t mess around. She’s my friend. We’re going to choose some meat rabbits together.”

He had previously mentioned to this driver the reason for his need for a large number of meat rabbits, and he gave the same explanation to the security guard at his apartment complex – he was practicing for future rabbit meat restaurant endeavors.

Xiang Kun sat with Old Xia in the back of the van. Old Xia was holding a bag of meat buns and a bottle of milk. She quickly and steadily gobbled them up, taking a few bites of the warm meat buns and a sip of the hot milk.

“By the way, I have something to tell you.” Xiang Kun said to Old Xia all of a sudden, “Last night I checked on the ‘rabbit’ sent to the ‘Flash Space’. Besides the original ‘Backup Food’ next to it, there were three more ‘Backup Food’.”

Xia Libing was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized what Xiang Kun meant.

The “rabbit” should be the “rabbit wood carving” which he had told her about, that was left in the Qinling Uninhabited Area and later found and taken away by the members of “Divine Technology”. The “Flash Space” is most likely a reference to “Divine Technology”, and “Backup Food” refers to “mutants”, this was a simple phonetic code which they had not prearranged, but Xia Libing understood it immediately.

After all, Xiang Kun had been home last night. The “checking” method was either through invoking others’ dreams through the “Emotion-Infused Objects” or entering the “Super Sensory State” and coming to know through the “Emotion-Infused Objects”. And the “Emotion-Infused Object” related to the “rabbit” would naturally be that rabbit wood carving, so she immediately knew what “Flash Space” and “Backup Food” stood for.

“A total of four ‘Backup Foods’? Are they all of the same species?” Xia Libing asked.

“No, they’re all different.” Xiang Kun replied, “Keep eating. I’ll fill you in as we go. From my observations last night, there are a lot of electronic devices in that place. The only things I can recognize are some computers and lamps. I don’t know what the other devices are for. Also, those three ‘Backup Foods’, are in different spaces from the original ‘Backup Food’, separated and probably ‘stockpiled’ by it. I guess, that place is, most likely, the most important and core ‘breeding farm’ of the ‘Flash Space’.”

He was confident Old Xia would easily understand the coded narrative. However, other people who do not know the ins and outs of their predicament, such as the driver of the van, would not be able to guess what these codes actually referred to. They would only assume they were discussing a high-tech “breeding farm” for raising meat rabbits.

Last night, Xiang Kun really did find time to enter the “Super Sensory State” to sneak a peek at the situation around the rabbit wood carving. Recently, whenever he got the chance, he would try to sense the rabbit wood carving, trying to guide and perceive the dreams triggered by the carving. Since the wood carving was always next to the “mutant”, he could possibly trigger a dream when the “mutant” fell asleep.

However, until last night, Xiang Kun hadn’t been able to trigger any dreams. It had been almost a week since he discovered that the rabbit wood carving had been acquired by the “mutant”.

So Xiang Kun wanted to check in more detail through the “Super Sensory State”, to see whether the “mutant” hasn’t been drinking blood and sleeping, or even if it was asleep, he still couldn’t trigger any dreams.

However, this “sneak peek” during the “Super Sensory State” made Xiang Kun realize that there were three other “mutants” near where this “mutant” was. According to his understanding of the spatial structure, these three “mutants” were all “confined” in different enclosed spaces, a large part of which were made of metal.

So there’s a good chance that these three “mutants” were all captured and confined by the “mutant” of “Divine Technology”, the one holding Xiang Kun’s rabbit wood carving.

Xia Libing finished her meat buns and milk without commenting or responding to what Xiang Kun was saying. She knew that Xiang Kun was telling her all of this in a hurry just to alert her to the possible dangers of that “Divine Technology”. For now, she did not need to offer any opinions.

After purchasing the meat rabbit and taking it back to Xiang Kun’s house, the two set out again to buy some more things.

After drinking the blood, Xiang Kun was expected to sleep for at least 25 hours. Xia Libing, who had to stay at Xiang Kun’s house during this time, naturally needed to prepare some food for herself – Xiang Kun’s house only stocked raw food, it didn’t have any ready-to-eat products.

Apart from that, Xia Libing also bought a camera, since Xiang Kun had agreed to let her record a video while he was asleep. Although there was a computer camera at Xiang Kun’s house, she still wanted better equipment to capture more detailed and clear images, which would be helpful for observing subtle changes later on.

When they got home, Xia Libing began to discuss with Xiang Kun what observations and tests she needed to conduct after he went to sleep from drinking blood.

“Are you immune to the cold now? Will you catch a cold if you don’t wear clothes?” Xia Libing suddenly asked.

“Probably not, I feel like I can’t claim to be immune to all diseases, but a cold should be something that I wouldn’t catch…” Xiang Kun understood what Old Xia meant. She wanted to make it easier to observe him so she’d prefer him to wear less when he slept: “I’ll sleep in my shorts later, without covering the quilt.”

Xia Libing nodded, and asked again, “Can you drink blood from a larger animal, like a cow, pig, or sheep?”

“I suppose I could, but for the time being, apart from the blood of ‘mutants’, the blood of rabbits seems to be the best for me. This feeling is not about the taste, but the feedback to the body. It’s a bit hard to describe.” Xiang Kun said, aware that Old Xia asked this question to explore the possibility of taking small amounts of blood from multiple targets. If possible, this could eliminate issues like dealing with rabbit meat and could make blood drinking more convenient.

Xiang Kun thought about it and said: “Moreover, I suspect that if I only take blood from part of the target, it may reduce the efficiency of blood drinking. More blood would be needed to alleviate hunger. But this is just my speculation. After arriving at Tongshi Town, we can verify it with more experiments.”

“Have you ever dreamed after mutation?” Xia Libing asked again.

Xiang Kun knew she was asking if he dreamt during sleep, not if he could sense others’ dreams through “emotion-infused objects,” and said, “Normally I don’t, but if I drink the blood of other mutants, I’ll see confused fragments of their memories. I’m not sure if that counts as dreaming.”

At 11:43 in the morning, Xiang Kun began to feel hungry.

After Xia Libing performed some simple tests and Xiang Kun described his current sensations and answered some other questions, Xiang Kun started to drink blood in the way he always did.

After drinking blood, Xiang Kun processed the rabbit meat while describing to Xia Libing how his body reacted — refreshed and satisfied, followed by a strong desire to sleep.

After placing the prepared rabbit meat in the refrigerator for later use, Xiang Kun quickly washed up, stripped off his clothes, and lay down on his bed wearing only a pair of baggy shorts.

“Well, see you tomorrow.” Xiang Kun, lying in bed, said to Xia Libing.

While adjusting the camera on the tripod, Xia Libing nodded back at Xiang Kun.

After closing his eyes, Xiang Kun fell asleep in less than five seconds.

Once she was sure Xiang Kun had fallen asleep, Xia Libing stood by the bed. She reached out to feel his neck and then placed her fingers under his nose to check his breath. Then she went back to sit in the computer chair in the room, just like Xiang Kun had done the night before, except now the positions of the bed and the chair were switched.