Mental Fatigue
Xiang Kun, posing as a simple, homebody man who knows how to carve wood, chatted with the girl the whole way, ensuring she always had at least one Minion Wooden Carving in her hand, and deliberately guiding her to recall various funny and silly anime characters.
Finally, before the girl reached her stop, Xiang Kun did sense a hint of happiness in her. However, considering the entire conversation, he believed that these emotions were almost entirely due to his guidance and had nothing to do with the wood carvings. In terms of directly influencing the emotions of a conscious person, the twelve wood carvings were still utterly useless.
After the girl got off the bus, Xiang Kun approached another passenger who was also dozing off, trying to influence his dream with the wooden carving. However, he was probably not sleeping soundly enough, so he failed and was unable to perceive the dream until he woke up.
After waiting for half an hour, Xiang Kun finally sensed the dream in another passenger who was dozing off. He guided the passenger to a dream in which he was holding his phone and laughing uncontrollably. In the dream, a Minion was standing on his shoulder, laughing with him.
After he woke up, Xiang Kun created another opportunity for him to come into contact with wood carving.
Xiang Kun wanted to test whether people who had been influenced by dreams before were more likely to have their emotions affected by the wood carving in reality.
However, after testing, it still didn't work.
It was already past 3 p. m., Xiang Kun had been on the subway for more than five hours. He was quite tired and slumped down on the subway seat, staring blankly into space.
This kind of exhaustion is neither physical nor mental, but rather emotional—the "experiment" he had envisioned was wasted because of carelessness beforehand, and subsequent attempts yielded no useful results, leaving him feeling like he was wasting his time.
Even when he was daydreaming, his senses were still subconsciously gathering various kinds of information.
He "shared" all the sounds coming from the phones of the passengers in the carriage, including many short videos with loud background music and some news that interested him, such as:
"Shenxing Technology has obtained a drone aviation operation license and will begin implementing a drone-based property management system in pilot communities. This system will play a role in areas including security patrols, sanitation supervision, and the inspection and management of property facilities. It is understood that Shenxing Technology is deploying seven different models of drones for this project, each varying in size, performance, and specific purpose, making them significantly different from traditional drones..."
"... The search for the three missing backpackers has entered its third day, with more professional search and rescue teams joining the operation. There has been no further progress so far. The three backpackers entered the uninhabited area deep in the Qinling Mountains on the 15th of last month..."
Xiang Kun picked up his phone, preparing to search for news that interested him, when a commotion suddenly broke out nearby, seemingly indicating a conflict.
Xiang Kun turned his attention to the scene, his mind was flooded with various pieces of information he had subconsciously gathered about the situation inside the carriage. He knew that two men were arguing over seats and were now standing facing each other, and the argument seemed to be escalating into a physical fight.
When Xiang Kun first boarded the train, there weren't many passengers. However, as time went by and one stop after another, the number of people on the train increased considerably. There were no empty seats, and the number of people standing was almost equal to the number of people sitting.
The passengers around the two arguing people immediately distanced themselves, and about half of them took out their phones to secretly take pictures or record videos.
If these two really fight, it will probably become the talk of the town on many people's WeChat Moments and Weibo in no time.
Xiang Kun continued looking down at his phone, showing no interest in the matter and having no intention of interfering. Based on the sensory information he had gathered, he judged that these two guys were unlikely to fight; at most, they would just argue the whole way. In fact, by now, the core of their argument might no longer be about the seats, but rather about saving face.
A few seconds later, Xiang Kun suddenly looked up and glanced at the two arguing people over there. An idea popped into his head.
Xiang Kun didn't come away empty-handed today, taking the Twelve Yellow Men on the subway. At least when he was bored earlier, he held a Minion Wooden Carving in his hand and tried to sense it deeply. He found that when he relaxed his mind and put himself in a state with almost no emotional fluctuations while sensing the sculpture, he could vaguely feel the emotions he had when he "Emotional Injection" them into the sculpture.
It's as if Xiang Kun treated this wood carving as a "storage device," and the emotions were the data stored on it.
However, his emotional perception was very weak; he could only sense a little bit of the feeling at the time, but he couldn't directly enter that emotion.
In terms of the degree of influence on his emotions, nothing might be as strong as an old song that can evoke his feelings, or a piece of instrumental music with a high-energy rhythm.
However, this method of emotional guidance is more subtle than listening to songs or watching videos. Moreover, certain emotions, such as "happiness," are actually difficult to guide in the usual way. After all, many jokes, videos, and stand-up comedy routines that are very funny the first time are much less effective the second or third time they are watched.
The "happy" emotion "stored" on the Minions, though very faint, is enough for Xiang Kun to fully perceive, and then use it to guide him.
He held the little yellow man in his hand, watching the two men arguing not far away. He slowly began to find their voices increasingly comical, their faces flushed red from arguing, somewhat resembling monkey bottoms, and their movements equally laughable.
In his mind, he even imagined two Minions arguing loudly.
Without realizing it, Xiang Kun burst out laughing. A minute later, everyone in the private room watching the two arguing people couldn't help but smile. There was even a child who looked like he had just started kindergarten, who was pointing at the two of them and laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face.
The two people who were arguing slowly stopped, looking around at the passengers with utter bewilderment. Their expressions were first somewhat confused, then somewhat blank. Then they looked at each other, shook their heads with awkward smiles, and walked in opposite directions in the carriage, putting some distance between them, and stopped arguing.
A few minutes later, when the subway arrived at the station, Xiang Kun, having recovered from his emotional turmoil, got off the train. Now he was finally no longer "mentally exhausted," and even felt quite refreshed.
It wasn't because he actively entered a state of "Emotional Assimilation" to stop an argument, but because his seven- or eight-hour subway journey finally yielded a successful experiment, providing effective results and data.
Furthermore, he has gained more insights into the ability of "Emotional Assimilation" and has acquired more convenient ways to access and activate it.
Based on the unintentional "Emotional Assimilation" process triggered by the incident on the high-speed train targeting seat hoggers, Xiang Kun can basically conclude that:
During his process of "Emotional Assimilation," the people who become his emotional targets—the person who occupied the seat last time and the two passengers arguing this time—are not immediately affected.
However, judging from the subsequent reactions of those two passengers, it's possible that they were later influenced and found the other party ridiculous.
Following this line of reasoning, could "Mental Intimidation" and "Emotional Assimilation" perhaps be used simultaneously in certain specific circumstances?
Tomorrow is National Day, wishing everyone a happy holiday. I hope those who are out having fun have a great time, and those staying at home have a comfortable stay-at-home period. It seems that the comments section has been closed during the National Day holiday, and without the companionship of comments, I'm a little unaccustomed to it.