茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

By seven o’clock in the morning, Xia Libing was so worn out she could barely function. She had hit her forehead on the computer desk three times and couldn’t manage to write anything. The only thought in her brain was:

Sleep.

She had occasionally stayed up late to read or research, but she had never spent the whole night awake before.

Combined with the previous nights in Citong City, where she had spent several consecutive nights discussing anomalies and a variety of abilities with Xiang Kun until the early hours, and then had a dream and woke up, she had very little sleep. Her sleep deprivation made her more prone to tiredness and yawning, such that a moment’s spacing out could send her right to sleep.

However, according to Xiang Kun’s estimated average sleeping time of 25 hours after drinking blood, he would not wake up until at least one-thirty noon. She had a long time to wait.

Caffeinated beverages were useless at this point. Xia Libing washed her face with cold water again, then did a few high kicks and punched a few times in the living room.

After some movement and rejuvenation, Xia Libing returned to Xiang Kun’s bedroom. She didn’t sit in the computer chair again, but instead, idled around playing with and contemplating the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving.

She remembered that Xiang Kun had once mentioned how swallowing a stone following blood consumption could suppress the desire to vomit, consequently suppressing fatigue.

She naturally wouldn’t suppress her tiredness in the same way; after all, Xiang Kun’s stomach and digestive system must be quite different from those of a normal person. However, she wondered if there was a way to sense emotions of fear related to the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving directly in reality, without relying on Xiang Kun’s perception or entering the dreamland. She hoped to use these emotions to suppress her tiredness in return.

Because the fear caused by the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving was a result of the threat of death brought on by extreme hunger, she could alleviate her fear by co-manifesting food, just as she did in her dreams. And such fear, in turn, should be able to suppress her sleepiness.

As a few hours ago, Xia Libing still couldn’t sense any emotions or specific connections through the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving.

However, she was not discouraged. Through her conversation with the little fat girl last night, she learned that the girl could maintain a stronger focus through the chopsticks given to her by Xiang Kun, as the emotion embedded in them was precisely “focus”.

Since the Little Fatty Girl could do this, she should be able to as well, given that the woodcarving can trigger her dreams and resonate with her emotions.

Around ten in the morning, as Xia Libing, who was toying with the woodcarving, was about to doze off on her feet, Xiang Kun’s phone on the computer desk buzzed and woke her up.

She picked it up and saw a QQ message from Little Fatty Girl Liu Shiling.

There were three consecutive voice messages:

“Uncle Bald!”

“Grilled chicken wing sister!”

“Are you there? Are you there?”

Xia Libing pinched her face to stay alert and replied to Little Fatty Girl with a picture of grilled chicken wings—this picture had been saved as an emoji on Xiang Kun’s QQ.

“Grilled Chicken Wing Sister, I’ve gotten more powerful!” Little Fatty Girl nonchalantly declared in a voice message.

Xia Libing replied with a question mark emoji.

The little fat girl then sent a request for a video call. After Xia Libing accepted the call, she saw Little Fatty Girl, with her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide, staring at the camera.

Compared to her dream appearance, Little Fatty Girl on the screen seemed much livelier. Her face was rounder and chubbier, chubby and silly, which made people want to pinch her cheeks at the first sight. Moreover, there was a fat cat similarly craning its neck and curiously staring at the tablet screen from not far behind her.

However, on the other end of the screen was Xia Libing, who was 100% immune to cuteness. Her attention was completely focused on Little Fatty Girl’s “magic system” and her “development ability” towards Xiang Kun’s “super-sensory item system”.

“What exactly have you improved?” Xia Libing asked directly.

Seeing Xia Libing appear on the iPad, Little Fatty Girl whispered excitedly, “Grilled Chicken Wing Sister, it’s really you!” Apparently, she had identified Xia Libing with her dream image.

Little Fatty Girl stepped back a little and controlled two coins to hover beside her. The two coins floated in the air as though they were lively sprites, bobbing up and down and turning left and right. They even spun upside down in mid-air and moved fluidly. They could suddenly accelerate or come to an abrupt halt, appearing to be even more precisely controlled than Liu Shiling’s arms.

Xia Libing on the screen and a “Custard Pie” on the ground both widened their eyes, closely following the motion trails of the coins. Little Fatty Girl had been able to control the flight of the coins before, but she hadn’t been as seamless and precise as she was now.

After controlling the coins for a while, Little Fatty Girl pointed at a lamp in her room and said to Xia Libing on the screen, “Grilled Chicken Wing Sister, look at that lamp.”

As she spoke, she moved the front camera of the iPad to capture the light tube in her room.

Xia Libing then saw the originally lit lamp dim, then rapidly brighten again, and then dim once more, repeating this cycle.

During this process, Little Fatty Girl was staring hard at the lamp. It was obvious to Xia Libing that the fluctuations of the lamp’s brightness were controlled by her.

Xia Libing, of course, understood how difficult this was. Xiang Kun could probably do the same by using the “superconnected object” while in the “super-sensing state”. However, Little Fatty Girl could control it directly and seemed to maintain a high degree of precision.

After making the room’s light tube fluctuate more than a dozen times, Little Fatty Girl turned back, wiped the fine beads of sweat on her forehead, and excitedly said to Xia Libing, “Grilled Chicken Wing Sister, did you see it? My magic can control electricity now! And it doesn’t shut off the electricity of the whole neighborhood!”

While speaking, she also recounted to Xia Libing the incident that had occurred on her balcony after one in the morning last night.

Little Fatty Girl was talking about her making paper airplanes to scout and send coins, her thoughts on folding paper planes, then she mentioned seeing “Da Lu,” “Da Lu” seeing her, then writing and drawing on the paper plane, tossing it back and forth. Then she talked about the grudges she had with “Da Lu” yesterday afternoon, her unhappiness, her anger. She then spoke about “Da Lu” being dragged into a room by her hair, something she herself feared, and then “ice cream” and “chocolate” somehow “flew” over there. Following that she mentioned controlling the electrical appliances in “Da Lu’s” home from afar, subsequently her “magic” upgraded, and then she fell asleep…

The way she tells stories is very sporadic, she would talk about each incident as soon as it came to her mind. Plus, her description of her abilities followed her understanding of “magic theory,” and any typical person would probably have a hard time understanding her “story.”

But Xia Libing listened to her attentively from beginning to end without interruption. She tried to comprehend the “magic system” created by Little Fatty Girl, as much as possible, by looking at them from Little Fatty Girl’s perspective and way of reasoning.

Only after Little Fatty Girl had finished did Xia Libing start to ask her, one by one, the questions she had noted down, all of which were based on Little Fatty Girl’s “magic system.”

The serious and attentive attitude of “Chicken Wing Sister” (Xia Libing) made “Great Wizard” Liu Shiling feel extremely validated. She did not hesitate in answering all questions asked—of course, she answered them according to her understanding of the “magic system.” Some answers were simple, others complicated, and there were even some that made people question if she’d made them up on the spot.

Regardless of the nature of the answer, Xia Libing listened and noted them down seriously, and stated she would tell Xiang Kun, who was still sleeping, about them after he woke up.

After more than half an hour, Liu Shiling concluded their video call as her tablet was running out of battery. She felt completely satisfied, her liking for “Chicken Wing Sister” increased to 99.99, just a tiny bit less than for Baldy Uncle.

She had originally contacted Xiang Kun and Xia Libing to show off her dramatic “magic” progress from last night, looking for some praise.

Although Xia Libing didn’t directly praise her, her displayed attitude made Shiling happier and more satisfied than actual praise.

“Chicken Wing Sister” must also be a really powerful “magician”! — Liu Shiling made this judgement very confidently.

She suddenly realized that her big ginger cat “Custard Pie” had somehow climbed onto the table and was preparing to jump, its eyes locked onto the two coins that were still floating behind her. Now, she just needed to think about it for the coins to stay suspended in mid-air, without needing to stare at them.

Liu Shiling let out a devilish grin and swiftly increased the height of the floating coins the moment “Custard Pie” attempted a jump, causing it to miss its leap.

The dissatisfied “Custard Pie” let out a meow after landing, but still closely watched the flying coins and swung its head left and right.

While Liu Shiling was amusedly controlling the coins and playing with her cat, the door was knocked upon, and then Shiling’s mom came in.

Liu Shiling was startled, and the two coins controlled by her, flew up to the top of the door, much like startled bugs.

Shiling’s mom, who had just entered, saw her daughter and the cat in the room both staring at her in surprise and astonishment.

She wondered, “I knocked on the door, didn’t I? What’s with your reactions?” On second thought, she found her question a bit odd as if she was also questioning the cat. But “Custard Pie’s” facial expression seemed quite out of the ordinary. Did she appear that scary?

Liu Shiling hurriedly made the two coins dash out from behind the back of Shiling’s mom and drop onto the sofa in the living room. Seeing this, “Custard Pie” promptly scampered after them.

After Shiling’s mom had let “Custard Pie” run out and was seated on Liu Shiling’s bed, she spoke to her daughter who was seated at the desk, “I called Xiao Mei’s mom just now. She said Zhou Lutong’s biological uncle arrived in Star City last midnight and came over to our residential area this morning to collect Zhou Lutong’s things. They have already left, and Zhou Lutong probably won’t be coming back to our area. However, according to Xiao Mei’s mom, Zhou Lutong isn’t injured, except for a small cut on her forehead.”

This morning when she woke up, her daughter had asked about the situation of the short-haired girl from the building opposite 803. Seeing her daughter voluntarily enquire about other children, she went off to find some information, thinking to take her daughter to visit the girl once she returns. Unfortunately now, it seems the child known as “Zhou Lutong” likely would be living with her uncle and leaving Star City.

But thinking of Zhou Lutong’s deadbeat dad who was still detained, Shiling’s mom felt that it would be better for the child to live with her uncle.

However, the fact that her biological mother hadn’t arrived puzzled Shiling’s mom. But then again, every family has its problems. Perhaps they had their special circumstances. Regardless, if it were her, she would never abandon her daughter no matter what the situation.

When Shiling’s mom initially told Liu Shiling about the situation, she assumed her daughter would be downcast. However, to her surprise, all Liu Shiling did was utter an “Oh.”

Sigh, it must be because the time they got to know each other was too short for a friendship to establish, reasoned Shiling’s mom.

At one forty-seven in the afternoon, Xiang Kun opened his eyes, sat up in the bed, took a deep breath, and stretched widely.

He experienced a sense similar to having heightened senses. But upon closer examination, he realized that it wasn’t an actual improvement in sight, hearing, or smell. This understanding led him to surmise that this was due to the sixth sense—his sixth sense had become more acute.

Besides that, he felt an unusual sensation, as if he had a remote connection with every electronic device in the area, he could even sense wires buried underground all thanks to the enhancement of his sixth sense.

As he turned to Xia Libing, intending to share about his feelings post waking up, he was taken aback. Standing in the bedroom facing him was Xia Libing clutching the base of the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving in her left hand, her right hand resting on its head. Her eyes were squinting, chin retracted, body slightly swaying back and forth. From her breathing, heartbeat, and other bodily indicators, it appeared…

Was she sleeping while standing up?!

But, why was she hugging that wood carving?

Xiang Kun was dumbfounded.

Recommendation for a novel with a refreshing take on suspense and horror called “I Have an Antique Shop.”