Mentor Xiang Kun
Before ending his call with Shiling's Mother, Xiang Kun learned from her that they were now preparing to go to the rabbit restaurant they had eaten at last time.
His main purpose in giving Liu Shiling the chopsticks was to use the emotional perception ability of objects to "Emotional Injection" into them, to feel the Little Chubby Girl's "love" for food, and to collect her emotions while eating.
Among the people Xiang Kun knows, if there were an award for "the person who eats the most delicious food," Liu Shiling would undoubtedly be number one, with a gap between her and others in the third tier.
Therefore, if you want to change someone's feelings about food, Liu Shiling is undoubtedly the best target.
Since sending the chopsticks to Liu Shiling, Xiang Kun has tried to collect them several times. Although he has successfully transformed his emotions a few times, he is still somewhat dissatisfied.
These emotions during eating would be very intense for others, but in Xiang Kun's view, it gave him the feeling that "if it were Liu Shiling, it would be more than this."
Firstly, Liu Shiling may not have eaten many delicious foods recently, so the intensity of her emotional responses was limited; secondly, Xiang Kun has been busy lately and hasn't been able to sense every meal on time to prepare for the transformation, so he may have missed many strong emotional responses during meals.
Now that he knew they were going to eat rabbit meat, and based on the real-time sensing from their last meal together in Star City, the emotional intensity of the feedback was quite good, Xiang Kun decided to properly sense and transform it.
As for the chopsticks, Liu Shiling brings them to kindergarten every day for meals. Now that Shiling's Mother is picking her up from kindergarten, she must have the chopsticks with her as well.
Liu Shiling and the others wanted to eat rabbit meat, Xiang Kun also prepared a plate of rabbit meat—anyway, there were still plenty of ingredients in the refrigerator.
The emotions perceived through "Emotional Injection" into objects need to be transformed into one's own first, allowing one to truly empathize and enter into the experience without being aware of it. Only then can one use "Emotional Assimilation" to influence others or "Emotional Injection" into objects.
The transformation method involves finding ways to simulate the target's behavior and state in real time.
Liu Shiling is eating rabbit meat, then he should eat rabbit meat too; that's the easiest way to get into the mood.
Xiang Kun kept sensing the pair of chopsticks he had given to Liu Shiling, receiving different feedback each time.
The Little Chubby Girl has always been a child with a lot of inner thoughts, and her emotions change very quickly and dramatically, especially when she's hungry. The fact that she received such clear emotional feedback proves that she's already holding and playing with the chopsticks.
Discomfort, anticipation, patience, anticipation, discomfort, hunger, patience— Liu Shiling's emotions kept shifting between these types. Xiang Kun could almost see the Little Chubby Girl sitting impatiently in the restaurant chair, fiddling with her chopsticks, and Shiling's Mother nagging her.
All these emotions combined form the intense appetite that precedes the desire to eat delicious food. However, this is an emotion that Xiang Kun is destined to find difficult to understand or empathize with.
The Little Chubby Girl's anticipation soared, Xiang Kun immediately realized that the food was being served.
He picked up his chopsticks, ready to dig into the rabbit meat in front of him.
Because he was home alone, he didn't swallow pebbles to suppress the urge to vomit. There was a bucket next to the dining table, where he planned to spit his food after chewing it.
Of course, if you get too caught up in the moment and swallow it, you can just spit it out to the side. Even if you accidentally spit it on the table, it's okay, since no one will see.
The Little Chubby Girl's mood changed from high anticipation to a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment, clearly indicating that she had started eating.
Based on past experience, this sense of satisfaction should continue to increase, followed by feelings of happiness. If it tastes good enough, there should be various further emotional responses.
Xiang Kun closed his eyes, chewing the rabbit meat in his mouth, savoring the various flavors, while sensing the Little Chubby Girl's emotions, linking those flavors to her emotions.
This emotional response was one of the stronger ones Xiang Kun had sensed during several mealtimes. Based on Xiang Kun's cognitive model of Liu Shiling, aside from the dishes he personally prepared, Liu Shiling should only elicit a stronger response when eating Chocolate Ice Cream and Chocolate waffles. Unfortunately, she doesn't know how to use chopsticks when eating Ice Cream and waffles, and Xiang Kun can't cook for her himself in the short term.
Xiang Kun chewed, he sensed the Little Chubby Girl's emotions. He was already feeling his mouth watering, and the transformation was going very smoothly.
But then, the Little Chubby Girl's satisfaction suddenly turned into disgust, and then disappointment.
Xiang Kun stopped chewing, somewhat puzzled. Why such a drastic change in his emotions?
He had eaten at that restaurant before, although it wasn't as good as what he made to suit Liu Shiling's taste—after all, restaurants have to consider not only the taste of the dishes but also costs and production efficiency. But it was still of a basic standard, and Liu Shiling seemed to enjoy it quite a bit last time.
Or perhaps the mother and daughter ordered a different way of cooking rabbit this time, and the taste was nowhere near as good as last time?
According to Xiang Kun's perception, Liu Shiling's emotions were constantly changing, from disdain and disappointment to struggle and then to helplessness.
Xiang Kun naturally stopped chewing and spat the food residue in his mouth into the bucket.
But his connection to the chopsticks didn't stop; he became curious about little Liu Shiling's thought process during dinner.
It seems she encountered something unpalatable. Will the Little Chubby Girl become angry and dissatisfied? Will she start to throw a tantrum?
To Xiang Kun's surprise, the feeling of helplessness lasted for a long time and gradually turned into discomfort.
Even for the same person, the feeling of discomfort varies depending on their state of mind; the discomfort of hunger, the discomfort of being sick, and the discomfort of pain are all different.
Based on his past observations of Liu Shiling's emotions, Xiang Kun roughly deduced the root cause of her discomfort—it seemed she had overeaten?
So what's going on?
Although I didn't find the food very tasty or to my liking, I still ate until I was stuffed.
Liu Shiling's emotions... are really harder to understand than those of adults!
After having dinner at home, Xiang Kun went out to hail a taxi and went to a coffee shop near a university to meet Yang Zhuo.
Last month, they bumped into each other at a custom suit shop. After having dinner and drinks together and chatting, Yang Zhuo began to practice according to Xiang Kun's "guidance" and kept asking questions and communicating with Xiang Kun on WeChat.
Xiang Kun also continuously improved the observation and reasoning training model he had built for him based on his descriptions and feedback on his practice results, and then used that feedback to guide him in return.
During this exchange, Xiang Kun also discovered that Yang Zhuo was a student majoring in journalism and communication, and that he had been editing videos online for fun since middle school.
After starting university, he and his girlfriend created a film and television review program on Bilibili. He edited the videos and wrote the scripts, while his girlfriend provided the voice. Since it has only been a few months, they don't have many fans yet, but the number of views for each episode is steadily increasing. They have also filmed a few well-thought-out VLOGs, which have received a lot of positive reviews.
Xiang Kun had seen their videos and thought they were quite good, with well-written scripts. He had an idea to ask him to help You Meng and his wife make videos for "Youlong Teases Rabbits" and other related promotions in his spare time. Since winter vacation was coming up, he planned to invite him to Tongshi Town.
Of course, it wasn't that Xiang Kun wanted to save money by using free labor. On the contrary, it was precisely because Tang Baona had helped him so much that she didn't even have time to make her own videos, and Tang Baona certainly wouldn't accept his payment, that he wanted to find a trustworthy and capable helper.
Yang Zhuo offered him part-time pay, which he naturally wouldn't refuse. And given his admiration for Xiang Kun, he would be more willing to understand and implement Xiang Kun's ideas and thoughts.
Therefore, in his interactions with Yang Zhuo, Xiang Kun paid more attention to improving his image in Yang Zhuo's mind, and also helped him develop various training plans in detail so that his training could be effective quickly and have strong positive feedback.
We arranged to meet at the coffee shop today for two reasons: first, Yang Zhuo wanted to report to Xiang Kun on his training progress over the past period; second, Xiang Kun wanted to give him a brief overview of his ideas for the next few videos of "Playing with Dragons and Phoenixes" and discuss the related operational strategies.
When Xiang Kun arrived at the coffee shop, Yang Zhuo and his girlfriend Xiao Min had already been waiting for a while—not because he was late, but because the young couple had nothing to do after dinner and had arrived early to wait.
"Brother Xiang!" Upon seeing Xiang Kun, Yang Zhuo and his girlfriend Xiao Min immediately stood up and greeted him with broad smiles.
It's clear that these two young people genuinely admire and respect Xiang Kun, almost regarding him as an idol and mentor.
Xiang Kun gestured for them to sit down without having to stand up.
"Brother Xiang, I ordered you an Americano. I remember you drank this the other night too," Yang Zhuo said.
After nodding his thanks Xiang Kun praised, "It seems you had good observation skills all along." He picked up his coffee cup, took a casual sip, and then asked directly, "How many people are sitting behind you? How many are men and how many are women?"
Neither of them was surprised by this somewhat abrupt question, as they had been playing similar games frequently during this period.
"There are six people, four women and two men," Yang Zhuo said immediately.
Xiao Min thought for a moment and added, "Both men were wearing glasses, and of the four women, one was wearing a skirt."
Xiang Kun nodded. "You decide for yourselves."
So the two looked back, and after confirming that they hadn't said anything wrong, they looked at each other with delight and gave each other a high five in celebration.
"It's your turn," Xiang Kun said.
Yang Zhuo asked in a low voice, "Can I ask anything? If I ask anything too difficult, Brother Xiang, you won't beat me up, will you?"
"Don't worry," Xiang Kun said confidently.
After whispering a few words to Xiao Min, Yang Zhuo asked, "What's the name of the restaurant next to this coffee shop?"
"Xiaoxiang Beauty," Xiang Kun replied quickly.
"What's the phone number on their sign?" Yang Zhuo asked again.
Xiang Kun quickly recited another string of numbers.
Yang Zhuo and Xiao Min stared in disbelief, tilting their heads to look through the floor-to-ceiling window at the billboard of the restaurant next door that protruded into the street. The phone number under the four characters "Xiaoxiang Beauty" was exactly the same as the number Xiang Kun had given them.
"Brother Xiang, you actually went to memorize the restaurant's sign and number before you went in?" Yang Zhuo asked incredulously.
"I didn't remember," Xiang Kun said, pointing to the French windows next to him. "I saw it through the reflection." At night, French windows have become somewhat like mirrors, but Yang Zhuo and Xiao Min didn't notice them from their positions.
Yang Zhuo and his girlfriend exchanged a speechless glance and said, "Then that question doesn't count. Let's try another one! Brother Xiang, when you entered the coffee shop just now, did you notice the billboard at the entrance? It advertised the promotion the shop was running and the deadline."
Xiang Kun said, "The promotion is: recharge 500 and get 300 free, recharge 1000 and get 700 free. The deadline is January 15th."
Yang Zhuo's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, Brother Xiang! You remembered that! I remember you didn't even stop when you entered the store!"
Just then, the waitress from the coffee shop brought over the snacks they had ordered. After she left, Yang Zhuo asked again, "Brother Xiang, what was the number on the girl's shirt when she brought us the things?"
"Number 005," Xiang Kun said immediately.
"I'm impressed!" Yang Zhuo exclaimed, shaking his head in amazement. He had just carefully observed the area from all sides and there was nothing reflective that would allow Xiang Kun to see the event advertisement at the entrance. And when the waitress brought the food, Xiang Kun didn't seem to look up at all.
Xiao Min asked curiously, "Brother Xiang, do you observe every single detail in every place you go? Isn't that too tiring?"
Xiang Kun said, "Of course not, but I knew that I would be playing this game with you guys today. And from our chats on WeChat these past few days, I know that Yang Zhuo's favorite thing to do is to focus on various real-world symbols, such as numbers and words, and he thinks that memorizing these is the most difficult. So I predicted that if he asked a question, it would definitely be in a similar direction, so I consciously started memorizing these symbols when I entered the coffee shop."
Xiao Min looked at her boyfriend and exclaimed, "It's true! You seem to have a particular fondness for tangible symbols; you always seem to ask similar questions."
Yang Zhuo recalled that he seemed to have really said what Xiang Kun had said.
Xiang Kun continued, "This is what I told you before: observation is just a means to an end. Human attention is limited, so different purposes require different focuses of observation. You have to learn to be flexible and not stick to one thing. Sometimes we observe things to observe people, sometimes we observe people to observe things, and sometimes we observe things and people for some underlying event. Different purposes lead to different directions."
"I understand now. Just like you told me before, to understand Xiao Min's mood, you don't necessarily have to rely entirely on her expressions, tone of voice, and actions. You can also analyze her clothes, appearance, and makeup the next day," Yang Zhuo said, seemingly enlightened.
Xiao Min also seemed to be deep in thought.
Xiang Kun picked up his coffee cup, took another symbolic sip, and gave him an expression that said, "I'll give you some time to think about it."
In fact, he memorized everything directly and indiscriminately, from the signs and telephones next to the coffee shop to the advertisements at the entrance and the waiters' name tags. Even the information he "recorded" included a large amount of smells, sounds, and feedback information derived from various cognitive patterns that Yang Zhuo and Xiao Min could not perceive.
But he knew that he couldn't teach Yang Zhuo by using him as a model. The observation and reasoning training model he had created for Yang Zhuo was based on the abilities of ordinary people. Therefore, all methods had to be explained in a way that they could understand and do.
The exercises he's having them do now are very simple and may not have much practical use, but they provide enough positive feedback to keep them going and allow them to take on more difficult and systematic training.
Yang Zhuo and Xiao Min reported their observations and analyses over the past period, and then Xiang Kun analyzed and explained them to them, and recommended books for them to study. Time passed quickly.
These two college students were much more attentive when communicating with Xiang Kun than they were in class, completely focused and afraid of missing a single word.