茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

When boarding the plane, he noticed that this tall beauty, as she walked, had the subtle sound of metal striking and rubbing against each other, as if she were wearing a suit of armor.

This puzzled him even more and even left him a bit on edge.

Unfortunately, after boarding the plane, he found his seat was right next to the tall beauty.

In the past, with his character, being able to sit next to such a beautiful woman during the journey was a joyous occasion. He believed that, at the very least, he’d have gotten her phone number or WeChat by the time they landed.

However, now, he couldn’t seem to muster any joy at all.

The beautiful woman was in the window seat, he was in the middle, and he even felt like asking the guy beside the aisle if they could switch seats—from the way the other guy was occasionally sneaking glances at the ponytailed beauty, that proposal would certainly be accepted.

But the more he thought about it, the more reluctant he felt. The more he thought the more he felt like he’d been scared by a meaningless glare, and this was indeed quite embarrassing.

If word got out, he’d be a laughingstock.

Absolutely absurd.

Besides, whether it was during boarding or now, the young girl seemed perfectly fine, and she looked just like a delicate and harmless girl.

Although this girl was very tall, even in sneakers, she looked like she was 175 or 176 cm tall. But he himself was also tall and had no reason to be afraid of her!

There were also people next to him on the plane, what was there to be afraid of?

After psyching himself up for a while, he finally gathered his courage, turned his head to the tall, ponytailed beauty beside him and asked, “Um… Excuse me for intruding, but what are these patterns you’re drawing in this notebook?” This time he didn’t use any “abstract expressionism” terms. He had essentially discarded the words he’d used when making small talk in the waiting area and didn’t care about saving face anymore.

As Xia Libing had just boarded the plane and wasn’t yet engaging in “conscious world,” she turned her head to look at the man next to her upon hearing his question. Seeing his nervousness, she casually replied, “I don’t know.”

This was the truth. Regarding Xiang Kun’s black circle graffiti, she only knew that they were partial expressions of the cognitive insights of “Co-manifestation Napoleon Cake” during a “Super Sensory State”, but how to interpret them, she hadn’t quite figured out yet. However, her main reason for answering this way was that she didn’t want to chat too much.

The man who was making small talk wasn’t really interested in getting an answer. From his question and her reply, he thought that the beauty, apart from looking somewhat indifferent, was pretty normal. Just as he suspected earlier, she must have been an artist, hence her unique personality.

This realization helped him relax a bit. It seemed like he had scared himself in the waiting area earlier. His previous stuttering due to fear was truly embarrassing.

Regretting it increasingly, he then forced another topic to prove this point, and asked Xia Libing, “Um…sorry, I have another question, I’m really curious, when you boarded the plane just now, I heard a lot of metallic sounds from your body, can I ask what that was?”

Xia Libing looked at him again and said, “Don’t be afraid, it’s just coins.”

The man seemed to suddenly understand and had the urge to smack himself on the head. That sound was indeed like the clashing of many coins. This was a sound which should have been easy to recognize; why hadn’t he thought of it earlier? What on earth was he speculating about?

But then he instantly remembered the first part of what Xia Libing said, and felt compelled to explain, “You’ve misunderstood, I wasn’t afraid, haha, what’s there to be afraid of? Since you boarded the plane, you obviously passed security. You wouldn’t be carrying any weapons, right, haha…” After laughing twice, he felt like he was explaining himself a little too much and so stopped awkwardly.

The young man sitting to his right, who had sneaked glances at Xia Libing when boarding the plane, seized the opportunity to say, “It’s rare to see someone carrying coins these days, isn’t it?”

Xia Libing’s reply was still brief:”Personal habit.”

And then the conversation ended once again.

The young man smiled awkwardly and gave the handsome man on his side a discreet thumbs-up.

The man obviously knew what the guy meant-and admired his ability to come up with such an excuse to initiate a conversation.

However, his current mood was completely different from when he initially made his advance in the waiting hall; he simply wanted to prove that his previous perception was an illusion.

Looking at the level of my recent attempt at striking up a conversation, it can only be rated below par, cringingly so.

He didn’t continue to talk to Xia Libing, because she had again opened that tiny black leather notebook, reverting to her spaced-out state from before in the waiting hall, showing a clear “Strangers not allowed, don’t disturb me” attitude.

And he didn’t feel the usual desire to chat up a beautiful woman; his mind was inexplicably full of the phrase, “Don’t be afraid”.

Why did she say don’t be afraid? Where am I afraid? Did I show fear? How did she know I was afraid?

After the plane took off, he took out his iPad, put on his headphones, started watching a movie, trying to distract himself, but whenever he saw the ponytailed beauty through the corner of his eyes, those listless, unfocused, emotionless, soulless eyes would pop up in his mind, keeping him from fully immersing himself in the movie.

Images from the movie playing on the iPad flash by, but he didn’t even pay attention to what the story was about. This eerie feeling was making him uncomfortable.

He thought about going to the restroom to wash his face, to clear his mind, but as he lifted his head, he froze.

Everyone on the plane was gone?!

No, not everyone. Apart from him, there was another person still there – the tall ponytailed beauty sitting by the window on his left. She still had the same distant, dazed look. But what she was staring at was no longer the black notebook, but a piece of cake!

A chill rushed from the soles of his feet up to his scalp, followed by a numbing sensation that enveloped his entire body, causing him to break out in cold sweat.

He frantically unbuckled his seat belt, stood up and shouted, “Hello? Is anyone there? Stewardess? Damn, anyone??”

What’s going on here? Where did everyone on the plane go? How the heck did everyone disappear while I was watching a movie?

Damn it, I knew there was something off about this woman! Something really off!

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, he sneaked another look at the ponytailed beauty, only to find that she was gone too!

In her place was only a lonely piece of cake!

He backtracked several steps, stood by the aisle, his body trembling uncontrollably. He looked towards the cockpit and the thought flashed across his mind – if everyone on the plane was gone then… who was flying the plane?

The moment that thought came up, the plane began shaking violently.

Before he could rush back to his seat and buckle up, he had to grab the handrail of the seat next to him and push his body against it.

The shaking and rocking became more and more intense, he didn’t know what to do, so he just held onto the handrail tightly.

Am I going to die?

The first things that popped into his mind were his ex-wife, his son, and his deceased parents.

Thinking about how when his wife was pregnant and when his child was born, he was still out partying, and when his child was hospitalized with a high fever, he used the excuse of a business trip to hook up with a girl he met at a bar. Afterwards, he was caught by his brother-in-law, and finally, in despair, his ex-wife took the child and left him.

When he had just divorced, he felt relieved, as if he could finally spread his wings and pursue his desires, he indulged more extravagantly.

But at this moment, when he knew he was about to die, what he blurted out reflexively was:

“Wife, I miss you…”

The sudden explosive sound of thunder from outside the plane made him more desperate, feeling it was Heaven’s retribution.

But for some reason, the incessant thunder sounded strange. Along with intense turbulence, it seemed like someone was bellowing:

“Sir, wake up…”

He opened his eyes, and what came into the view was a young man with an embarrassed face tinged with a hint of disgust.

Behind the young man was the aisle of the plane, and the passengers on the other side of the aisle were all looking at him in surprise and bewilderment.

Are all the people on the plane here?

Just now… Was I dreaming?

Then he noticed his current state, his head leaning on the young man’s shoulder next to him, his hands tightly grabbing the trousers on his thighs, which was very impolite.

He was startled, quickly released his hands, sat straight, and kept apologizing, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I actually fell asleep…”

The young man also forced a smile, “Sir, you were having a nightmare, weren’t you?”

“Pretty much, ha ha.” He embarrassingly responded, then found that the stewardess seemed to be attracted by the commotion here, had come to check and had already gone back. Other passengers were also looking back frequently, whispering to each other. Remembering something, he hurriedly asked, “By the way, did I… say anything when I fell asleep?”

The young man’s expression was a bit strange, “You expressed your longing for your wife.”

He was even more embarrassed, apologized profusely again, and darted his eyes at the ponytailed beauty sitting on his left- she was still looking down at the strange pattern on the notebook, seemingly not interested in what was happening next to her at all.

Although he knew that everything just now was a dream, probably a result of his brooding thoughts since he was in the waiting room, it was all self-inflicted, but the psychological impact this ponytailed beauty had on him in the dream still existed after he woke up, so much so that even though he felt embarrassed, his body unconsciously leaned towards the right side, the young man’s side, so he didn’t dare to look straight at the ponytailed beauty’s face.

During the rest of the flight, he was either daydreaming about various strange legends or ridiculing his own stupid thoughts and ridiculous ideas, constantly correcting his feelings with logic and science.

As soon as the plane landed safely and the seat belt was unbuckled, despite the caution of the flight attendant, he grabbed his luggage first and ran to the exit to wait.

The plane was too stuffy.

Before getting off the plane, he was still a bit resentful, feeling that he shouldn’t be so cowardly, so he turned his head to look at the passengers taking luggage from the cabin behind him, and for the first time looked squarely at the ponytailed beauty since he woke up from the nightmare.

But unexpectedly, the ponytailed beauty was also looking at him. The moment their eyes met, he felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart again. Not daring to linger, he quickly got off the plane and into the jet bridge.

Watching the disappearing figure of the man at the exit, Xia Libing retracted her gaze, scratched her head, and lowered her head to check the cell phone she had just turned on.

There was a message on WeChat from Xiang Kun, a black question mark face emoji.

Then came another message: “Whose dream?”

Looking at the time, it was exactly when the man sitting next to her was startled awake from his dream.

Xia Libing sent a cake emoji, followed by a right arrow, then a circle, another arrow, and a person with a Zzz sleeping emoji.

Xiang Kun on the other side immediately understood her meaning: she, through that book CAKE01, connected to a piece of black circle graffiti that Xiang Kun had sent her, then through that black circle graffiti, triggered someone’s dream. As for who the person was, considering the operation mode of “Emotion Infused Objects” triggering dreams, it was probably a sleeping passenger around Xia Libing on the plane.

Just now, Xiang Kun suddenly had a feeling and then, following his instinct, he subconsciously sensed the piece of black circle graffiti he had sent to Xia Libing previously, but unexpectedly entered a dream.

But that dream, obviously, was not triggered by him, but already existed. He half-entered it and perceived it, just like he had perceived Liu Shiling’s dream on the high-speed train before.

That is to say, this dream did not need him to support it. Through his perception, he found the origin of this dream came from several “super-connected objects”-coins on Xia Libing.

Could it be that Xia Libing had also gained the ability to perceive other people’s dreams through “emotion-infused objects”?

However, the next message Old Xia sent over negated his guess.

“Can you see dreams? I can’t. In the ‘conscious world,’ I know dreams take place, but I can’t find the ‘entrance’.”

Xiang Kun then realized that Old Xia did not establish a special connection directly with the black circle graffiti for resonance, like him. Rather, he first entered the “conscious world” through the already connected “CAKE01”, and then contacted the black circle graffiti in the “conscious world”, similar to how “Xiao Pingguo” used minions to contact the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving”.

Old Xia can trigger the dream of a nearby sleeper through the black circle graffiti but can’t perceive the specific content of that dream. Apparently, this “function” hasn’t been fully acquired yet.

It’s a bit like controlling a computer on a local network and then commanding the printer connected to that computer to start working, but she has no control over what it prints and has no idea at all.

Xiang Kun told Old Xia about the dream he had sensed, done by the passenger. He curiously asked, “The guy seems to be very scared in his dream, off the charts with fear. At first, I even wondered if the dream was triggered by the Eight-armed Wood Carving. Did you do something to scare him?” He questioned whether Old Xia had used some psychological tactics. Otherwise, if he had given the black circle graffiti as a dream-inducing object to Old Xia, the emotional type should be focused.

However, Old Xia denied it with a panda shaking head emoji.

Xiang Kun didn’t ask any further. Knowing Old Xia was reasonable, he messaged her, “Have you landed? Have you called a car? Take a good rest for these two days and catch up on your sleep.”

Old Xia responded with a panda nodding head emoji.

About ten minutes later, Old Xia suddenly sent a photo over. The photo was clearly of an airport outdoor parking lot, and several people could be vaguely seen standing beside a GL8, seemingly loading luggage.

Then Old Xia sent another message, “Can you make the car unable to start for a while?”

Xiang Kun was baffled, this distance is over a thousand kilometers, asking me to control a car to stop, is she treating me like a god?

However, he knew that Old Xia wouldn’t make unreasonable requests, and strictly speaking, he indeed could manage it. But it required Old Xia’s assistance – using the “emotion-infused objects” on her body for positioning, descending in a “super sensory state,” then using the influence of “super-connected objects” to disturb the electronic system of the car and make it unable to start, just like what he did to the three car thieves in the abandoned factory back then.

So Xiang Kun asked, “Are you going to take that car?” If she was going to take the car, but didn’t want it to start, then what was she up to? Could there be something wrong with those people?

Taking another look at the picture, Xiang Kun suddenly realized something.

At this point, Old Xia replied, “I’m staying away, they’re in a flashy space.”

“Flashy space”? This is the code name he and Old Xia use for “Divine Technology”, he instantly understood the situation and recognized the identities of the blurry figures in the photo.

One of them was Mijoe, one was Zhou Rui, and there was also the “Assistant High” that had been with Mijoe since Qicheng City.

Xiang Kun immediately sensed a small piece of paper that had “super sensory contact” and was tucked into Mijoe’s soft-cover notebook. The location was indeed at the airport in Citong City.

It seems that Old Xia had a chance encounter with Mijoe and Zhou Rui at the airport.

Previously, Xiang Kun had told Old Xia about the “Divine Technology” related matters and had shown her the pictures collected by Alice of Zhou Rui, Fang Pingfang, and others. Although there were no photos of Mijoe, he has described in detail the appearance of Mijoe after his makeover. Old Xia probably recognized Zhou Rui first, and then inferred the identities of Mijoe and the others.

He couldn’t help but wonder, what were Mijoe and the others doing in Citong City? Weren’t they always investigating the “mutated ant” and the “mutated big bird” near Wushu Mountain before?

Could it be that related clues were in Citong City, or had traces of a new “mutant” creature appeared in Citong City, and they came over to investigate?

Although he was somewhat interested in their intentions, Xiang Kun still did not want Old Xia to get in touch with them.

But upon further thought, he realized that Old Xia was surely aware, very clear, about the situation he was worried about. She was not a reckless person and there must be a rationale behind her decisions.

Moreover, Old Xia claimed “I’m staying away,” so she might not directly contact them.

Judging by the poses of Mijoe, Zhou Rui, and others in the photo, they were about to get in the car and leave. If he waited for the car to start before interfering, it would be more troublesome, and it might even cause a car accident, which could potentially harm bystanders. He wasn’t capable of precise remote control of a car through “super-connected objects” right now.

So Xiang Kun, who was still in Tang Baona’s living room, made an excuse to go to the restroom, flipped down the toilet lid, sat on it, closed his eyes, and entered the “super sensory state”.