Is It an Illusion?

Xiang Kun's eyes didn't dodge; he met Lao Xia's gaze, carefully observing the subtle changes in her expression and eyes, while simultaneously gathering various sensory information from her body. He even sensed the "lyric calligraphy" and "Black Circle Graffiti" that should have been in her bag at that moment.

But he still couldn't sense any change in Lao Xia's emotions; he could only tell that she was also observing him.

The two only looked at each other for two seconds. After swallowing the biscuit she was chewing, Xia Libing said, "I almost never dream."

"You almost never dream, so that means, although it's rare, you still dream?" Xiang Kun asked with a curious expression, half-jokingly, "Lao Xia, then I'm a little curious, what are your dreams like? Can you tell me about them?"

He felt that the reason why his two "Emotional Injection" items could not trigger Lao Xia's dreams was probably because Lao Xia lacked certain emotions, so he could not be moved by the special ability of "Emotional Injection".

He wanted to find out what type of dreams Lao Xia had, in order to deduce the emotional type of her dreams and thus create targeted "Emotional Injection" items.

It's like sending a message to a "terminal" using QQ or WeChat, but receiving no response—it's like throwing a stone into the sea—because the "terminal" doesn't have these communication software installed. So, to successfully send messages and transmit instructions, besides trying each "communication software" one by one, you can only try to find out what "communication software" was installed on this "terminal."

Xia Libing didn't answer him immediately. Instead, she took a tissue from the side, wiped her mouth, took out her phone, pulled up a video, and showed it to him. "Is this you?"

Xiang Kun took the phone curiously and glanced at it, then paused in surprise. The video playing on Xia Libing's phone was a news video that she had saved.

The above report describes a recent multi-vehicle collision on a highway. After the accident, a passenger wearing a red cotton hat actively ran around the scene, helping injured passengers move to safety. There is also surveillance video from inside the bus, which shows that when the bus began to overturn, the passenger in the cotton hat seemed to instinctively hug a little boy who had been thrown from his seat, using his body as a cushion to protect him.

The video quality of the in-car surveillance camera was very poor, and due to the violent shaking after the accident, the footage was quickly lost. Therefore, even when the surveillance video was slowed down in the news video, only the initial moment Xiang Kun protected the little boy could be seen.

Next came interviews with survivors of the car accident, all praising the unnamed "hero."

"Why are you showing me this?" Xiang Kun asked, feigning ignorance, before even finishing reading it. His outward reaction was perfectly measured, appearing as if he were genuinely confused.

Xia Libing said directly, "You were the one who saved people, weren't you?"

How could you recognize that?!

The videos in the news were mostly taken by passengers in cars parked in the emergency lane. The distance was relatively far, it was nighttime, and the lighting was limited. In addition, Xiang Kun noticed the people filming him and deliberately avoided the camera. He was also wearing a cotton hat and his clothing style was different from usual, so he wasn't too worried about being recognized.

But unexpectedly, Xia Libing actually saw through it?

Xiang Kun's original plan was to deny it, since even if Lao Xia guessed that the person was him based on some speculation, there was no absolute evidence to prove the guess.

But Xiang Kun thought again. It wasn't really anything shameful. The reason he didn't want to be recognized was because he was worried that too many people would notice his unusual behavior during the car accident. But now that so much time had passed, even if they knew it was him, given Lao Xia's personality, he certainly wouldn't go around telling everyone.

Moreover, he suspected that even if he denied Lao Xia's guess, Lao Xia might not believe it, and might even think that he was deliberately hiding something or lying, which would not be conducive to his analysis of Lao Xia's emotional problems.

"It was indeed me." Although he had thought it over and weighed the options in his mind, he actually acted very quickly. At least on the surface, he answered almost immediately after Xia Libing raised the question.

"Look at that news report, it seems like they didn't capture my face. How did you recognize me in such a blurry image?" Xiang Kun asked curiously.

Xia Libing took the phone, scrolled through the video, and pointed to the clip playing Xiang Kun was carrying a little boy and walking quickly to the side of the road. She said, "His walking posture and the way he exerts force are very similar to yours, and his head-to-body ratio, limbs, and body proportions are also the same as yours."

Is this okay?

Xiang Kun was somewhat surprised. In fact, he could make the judgment instantly with his naked eye based on what Lao Xia said. If Tang Baona, Xia Libing, Chang Bin, or other people he knew were also in the video, and he could only see their bodies and movements without being able to see their faces, he could still recognize them quickly.

But that's him. What ordinary person's brain has his processing power and focus to constantly collect and process such large amounts of data?

So he immediately knew that Lao Xia must have observed him extensively on a regular basis, and had a very clear and systematic understanding of his movements, postures, body proportions, and way of exerting force. Therefore, when he saw this news video, he felt a sense of familiarity and further observed and compared it, and naturally the more he compared, the more similar it became.

Xia Libing didn't need the video to catch criminals or use it as evidence in court, so it was enough for her to confirm it herself.

Xiang Kun silently revised his cognitive model of Xia Libing — Lao Xia's level of attention to him was clearly higher than he had previously thought.

"Lao Xia, you really have sharp eyes! I thought no one would recognize me!" Xiang Kun laughed.

"The media is looking for you, why don't you contact them? It seems there's a bonus involved," Xia Libing asked.

"I wasn't seriously injured at the time, so I got off the ambulance after it entered the city. Since I didn't give any interviews then, there's no need for me to show my face now. You know, I'm a rather low-key person."

Seeing that Xia Libing had almost finished her breakfast, Xiang Kun asked, "It's your turn to answer, Lao Xia. What kind of dreams have you had before?"

"I won't tell you," Xia Libing said calmly.

"Huh?!" Xiang Kun was taken aback. This wasn't right. Just now, when he asked Lao Xia about his dream, Lao Xia immediately brought up the issue of his identity in the news video. Normally, shouldn't the answer to that question be exchanged for the answer to this one?

Lao Xia, how could you do this...?

Xiang Kun was somewhat amused and exasperated. Among the many people he had come into contact with after the mutation, Xiang Kun had a fairly high accuracy rate in predicting behavior after establishing a cognitive model. But Xia Libing was an exception. Many times, just when he thought he understood her and guessed her intentions, he was always fooled.

However, after pausing for a moment, Xia Libing added, "Actually, I don't remember very clearly, but it was related to eating."

Is it related to eating?

Xiang Kun nodded slightly, recalling the various scenes since he met Lao Xia, and vaguely understood what to do. He felt that he had found the "communication application" installed on Lao Xia's "terminal".

Just then, his phone vibrated a few times. Xiang Kun picked it up, glanced at it, and smiled at Xia Libing, "Nana and Zhen'er have woken up and asked me to take breakfast to their room. Zicheng is also saying he's hungry and can't sleep. I'll bring the breakfast over while it's still warm so they can eat it quickly."

He stood up, picked up the bags of breakfast that Xia Libing hadn't touched, and walked towards the door, saying, "Get ready, okay? We're going to the scenic area today. I'll go wake them up now, and we'll leave around nine o'clock."

Watching the door close again, Xia Libing pulled over the backpack on the table, took out a black leather notebook, flipped it over, and started from the last page. She then wrote three words in two lines on the paper:

"Dream".

"Hide".

Then I drew a few circles on the word "dream".

Xia Libing twirled the ballpoint pen in her hand with nimble fingers, staring intently at the word on the notebook.

Why was Xiang Kun so concerned about whether she had dreams and what kind of dreams she had?

But Xiang Kun's attention to this point precisely shows that he has noticed her problem, because she hasn't dreamed for many years. Perhaps Xiang Kun's perspective on her problem is different from her own, since she hadn't really taken dreaming seriously before.

Then Xia Libing lightly touched the word "hidden" with the tip of her pen.

It was actually by chance that she discovered the person in the news video was Xiang Kun.

She had once come across a video online of a man in a red cotton hat rescuing someone, and her first thought was that he possessed incredible core strength. She naturally thought of Xiang Kun, because among all the people she had met and known, Xiang Kun displayed the strongest core muscle strength. After watching the video a few more times, she immediately noticed many similarities between the man and Xiang Kun. Then, by comparing and observing the photos and videos of Xiang Kun she had collected, she concluded that the man in the news was very likely Xiang Kun.

Although Xiang Kun had just given her a positive response to her question, she clearly remembered that when she first showed Xiang Kun the video, his expression was one of confusion and doubt, an attitude that said, "This video has nothing to do with me."

Clearly, Xiang Kun's first reaction to what happened was to "conceal" it.

Why hide something you're doing as a good deed?

Xia Libing speculated that Xiang Kun wanted to hide was either his itinerary at the time or certain behaviors he exhibited, in order to prevent others from associating it with him.

Xia Libing thought for a moment, then wrote down two more words:

"Trust".

Although Xiang Kun's first reaction was to conceal it, when Xiang Kun directly asked if the person in the video was him, he immediately gave an affirmative answer, which shows that he has a certain level of trust in Xiang Kun that is different from others.

Perhaps my strategy could be more direct and frank?

Xia Libing took out a Coin and unconsciously rolled it on the back of her hand. Then she suddenly frowned and looked at the Coin in her hand.

Is it just my imagination? Why does Nana's seem easier to flip?