Spending New Year Together

Xia Libing knew that Xiang Kun definitely understood her purpose in playing the "Coin toss game".

If he didn't want her to discover the Coin's unusual nature, then Xiang Kun could have deliberately guessed wrong once in the first two attempts.

If he intentionally wanted her to discover the Coin's unusual feature, then when she switched to a regular Coin, Xiang Kun should have deliberately guessed wrong as well.

But Xiang Kun's behavior clearly told her:

Whether it was that Coin or not, he was confident he could guess.

Xiang Kun seemed to be reminding her that his peculiarity wasn't just about the Coin.

Xia Libing recalled the scene in the supermarket where Xiang Kun suddenly handed her the shopping cart and quickly left the supermarket.

Later, through a conversation Xiang Kun and the two old classmates, she learned that the two classmates' children had almost run into the middle of the road, but fortunately Xiang Kun happened to be passing by and brought the children back in time.

She knew, of course, that Xiang Kun hadn't "just happened" to be passing by.

But how did he know that?

When he was inside the supermarket, he couldn't see what was happening on the street outside.

Or perhaps Xiang Kun went out for other reasons, and it just so happened that he saw his old classmate's child in danger and rescued him.

Xia Libing recalled that on the bus, Yang Zhen'er sent a video request. Her phone only vibrated, but Xiang Kun looked at the pocket where she kept her phone almost at the same time as her.

In a less noisy place, it's normal for someone nearby to hear the sound of a phone vibrating if they're relatively close. But they were on a bus at the time, and the various tire noises, wind noises, advertisements on the in-bus TV, conversations among passengers, phone ringing, and high-decibel noise from outside made it difficult to hear the subtle sounds around them. Moreover, she was sitting while Xiang Kun was standing, so there was already a certain distance between them.

So, Xiang Kun's hearing might be different from ordinary people, allowing him to hear many subtle sounds? If so, it could also explain many of the strange phenomena she had discovered before.

Furthermore, through her memories of observing Xiang Kun, she discovered that whether it was the Coin -guessing game at the coffee shop last night, or his behavior at the supermarket and on the bus today, Xiang Kun seemed to be subtly and intentionally hinting at his uniqueness and that his behavior was noticeably different from his usual self.

It seems that her "straight-line strategy" worked well after Tongshi Town.

But she was puzzled: if Xiang Kun wanted her to discover his special abilities, why didn't he just tell her directly?

Don't you trust her enough?

No, that's not the reason.

If it weren't a lack of trust, given Xiang Kun's consistently cautious and insecure behavior, he wouldn't have deliberately revealed so much information to her. Instead, he would have distanced himself from her, been wary of her, and secretly observed her.

If it's not trust, then what is the reason?

The people or events that caused such a drastic change in Xiang Kun this year might be extremely dangerous. Xiang Kun worries that if she learns the truth and gets involved, she might also encounter danger.

This possibility is more likely, and it aligns better with her assessment of Xiang Kun.

So now Xiang Kun wants her to discover the truth little by little, to discover his special characteristics and the reasons for them, so that she can gradually realize the level of danger and weigh the pros and cons herself.

Or perhaps this is a way to "test" her abilities, to see if she has the capacity to "bear" that kind of danger?

However, based on Xia Libing's understanding of Xiang Kun and the information she has obtained through various channels and methods over the past few months, these speculations seem to be missing something and cannot fully explain Xiang Kun's motivations.

Then she thought of the secret she carried, and it dawned on her. Yes, perhaps just as she was changing her strategy to investigate Xiang Kun was also changing his strategy to investigate her.

Looking at the photo on her phone of little Xiang Kun, who was still learning to speak and crawling on the ground with a silly grin on his face, Xia Libing squinted her eyes, deep in thought, and began to formulate a new strategy.

Her observations, analysis, and exploration of the unusual qualities exhibited by Xiang Kun were not simply driven by curiosity; a large part of it stemmed from her own experience.

She also needed to weigh whether it was truly necessary for her to know all of Xiang Kun's secrets, whether it was necessary to get involved in what he might be doing, and whether these things would help her own situation.

In a villa area near Wushu Mountain Scenic Area, Jianzhou City.

There weren't many residents in this villa area to begin with; most were rented to tourists and vacationers. If someone wanted to live there, they generally wouldn't stay long-term. After all, apart from being close to the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area, the surrounding area was mostly mountains, with very few amenities nearby. Today, on Lunar New Year's Eve, there were even fewer people. There were far fewer property management and security personnel, making the entire villa area look very deserted, even a bit eerie.

The temporary team consisting of Fang Pingfang, Mi Qiao, and others is still living in that villa.

At this moment, the main members of their team, the original six people, were gathered in the living room on the first floor of the villa, waiting for Mr. Liang to connect for a remote meeting.

The previous investigation had reached a dead end. They needed to report to Mr. Liang and see if he could point them in a "new way".

Over the course of several days, with the assistance of the logistics personnel assigned by Ye Chong, Zhou Rui basically confirmed that there was indeed a missing ant colony on the main peak of Wushu Mountain. Several ant nests were also found in the surrounding mountain areas, indicating that there was clearly some reason or existence affecting the survival of the ants.

Fang Pingfang's initial assessment was that this was caused by the "invisible insect" that could fly and hide—it was very likely that it fed on ants and may have wiped them out completely by eating the queen ant, which caused the entire ant colony to disappear in this area.

What drove Zhou Rui and Fang Pingfang crazy was that while they were determining the situation of the ant colony, they were also searching for traces of the "invisible insect" and its kind, but they found nothing. They couldn't find a single trace, no nest, no signs of activity, no droppings, no other insects, nothing at all.

That area is the main scenic area of Wushu Mountain, where tourists are frequently active, so they simply cannot conduct a very detailed exploration and search.

On the other hand, Fang Pingfang and Mi Qiao's investigation into the small stone that startled the "giant raptor" that night also made no progress.

The pebble was so ordinary that it didn't reveal any useful information to the naked eye. So, after a short while, Fang Pingfang sent it directly to a laboratory in Yang City belonging to a secret department of "Shenxing Technology" for testing according to her requirements.

But apart from the pebble, the "giant raptor" and the "invisible insect" caused such a commotion that night, yet they left no trace of their bodies. No substances that Fang Pingfang thought she could obtain were detected on the soil or trees that had clearly come into contact with the "giant raptor," which she found somewhat perplexing.

The scene was almost too "clean." If it weren't for the countless large craters on the ground that looked like they had been plowed, the large number of plants that had been swept and broken, and the videos taken from multiple angles, multiple recording devices, and multiple imaging modes, all of which proved that something had actually happened that night, Fang Pingfang would have suspected that what she saw was a pure hallucination and that the huge bird of prey was not a real creature at all.

Fang Pingfang wanted to continue tracking down the "giant raptor" and the "invisible insect" and requested technical support, but Mr. Liang's reply was that their location had not yet been determined and that they should conduct other investigations first.

Other aspects?

Fang Pingfang really didn't know where to begin her investigation. The two creatures were like ghosts, completely beyond the knowledge and understanding she had previously acquired.

Just like the cave discovered in the Qinling Uninhabited Zone, and the remains of birds and the Rabbit Woodcarving brought back from that cave.

Although she is always very excited and expectant when she encounters something that can help her broaden her horizons and better explore the unknown, she is also full of passion.

However, many of these characteristics are completely beyond the scope of her systematic knowledge, which is giving her quite a headache.

Unfortunately, Mr. Liang assigned her to oversee the entire investigation, leaving her with a frustrating feeling of holding the steering wheel but not knowing the way or having a GPS.

Although the investigation hadn't made much progress, the entire temporary team had been running around every day and working until midnight every night, leaving them extremely exhausted. To make matters worse, it was during the Spring Festival, a time when everyone else was home celebrating the New Year, while they were stuck here doing ineffective research, making their low spirits understandable.

Therefore, Fang Pingfang could understand why Zhou Rui and the others in the living room all looked drowsy and listless.

A dozen minutes later, communication with Mr. Liang was established.

As before, Mr. Liang could see their videos and hear their voices, while they could only hear Mr. Liang's hoarse and unpleasant voice.

Fang Pingfang, as the team leader, reported their latest investigation results to Mr. Liang —in fact, the result was that there was no progress and the investigation had stalled.

But Mr. Liang seemed neither surprised nor worried about this situation; he simply said he understood and then let her continue according to her own plan.

Fang Pingfang had no choice but to say directly, "Mr. Liang, do you have any suggestions? For now, we can only wait for the laboratory test results from Yang City and for some equipment to arrive. For the time being, there's nothing else we can do in Wushu Mountain."

However, Mr. Liang's answer remained unchanged, "You make the decision, and tell Ye Chong what you need."

"I need the whereabouts of those two creatures!" Fang Pingfang lamented inwardly, but she knew that saying it aloud would be useless, because Mr. Liang had already given her an answer—their location could not be located for the time being... but don't worry, it will be located sooner or later.

Fang Pingfang suggested, "In that case, before the expected test results come out and the latest batch of equipment arrives, could we simply let Zhou Rui and Ms. Chen take a holiday to go home for the Spring Festival?"

Mr. Liang's answer made her, who was usually calm and rational, want to grab her hair.

"You make the decision."

After concluding the rather pointless remote meeting with Mr. Liang, Fang Pingfang looked at her team members and said, "Although today is Lunar New Year's Eve, Ye Chong can arrange transportation and schedules, so you should all be home by the evening of Lunar New Year's Day at the latest to spend the Spring Festival with your families. Once there are new developments in the investigation, I will have Ye Chong arrange for you to come back."

However, after he finished speaking, the other five people looked at each other without saying a word.

After a while, Li Shiping, who had previously worked with Fang Pingfang for a long time, laughed and said, "I won't go back. My family has already made arrangements, and my going back would only disrupt their plans. I won't cause any trouble."

Gao Shu, who is also in charge of security, said, "I only need to feed myself, so it doesn't matter where I spend the New Year."

Mi Qiao laughed and said, "Me too. It's nice to spend the New Year with everyone here. If you really asked me to go 'home' and give me a holiday, I wouldn't even know where to go."

Ye Chong shook his head and said simply, "I don't have a home to go back to either."

Fang Pingfang then looked at Zhou Rui. In her opinion, among their six-person team, Zhou Rui was definitely the one who most wanted to take a holiday and go home for the Chinese New Year. Back when they were still in Qicheng City, he often talked about hoping to take a long holiday to go home, as he hadn't been home to see his parents for a long time.

But Zhou Rui hesitated for a moment, then said, "Dr. Fang, I'm not going back either."

Fang Pingfang frowned. "Zhou Rui, don't feel embarrassed if you're the only one going back. You heard what Mr. Liang said. I make all the decisions for the team, so your decision to go back for the New Year is also my decision. It's okay. It's not that we love our work so much, it's just that none of us have the need to go back."

However, Zhou Rui still firmly shook his head, refusing the perk of going home for a vacation.

Part of the reason was that the whole team didn't go back, and he felt strange being the only one to go. He received such a high salary and high field allowances and mission bonuses every year, and it felt a bit unfair to go back on vacation alone. Moreover, although Mr. Liang said it was Dr. Fang's decision, he couldn't help but feel resentful. If he wasn't assigned to the next mission, or if he found an opportunity to remove him from the secret department, that would be a huge loss.

But Zhou Rui was unwilling to go back, mainly because he was currently investigating the "giant raptor" and the "invisible insect."

The discovery of the "invisible insect" in particular excited him greatly, as he had loved insects and especially ants since childhood.

He didn't want to miss any details of the investigation into this "invisible insect"; he wanted to be involved and didn't want to miss this opportunity.

Seeing that no one wanted to go home for the New Year, Fang Pingfang didn't try to persuade them further. She said to Ye Chong, "If the investigation were at a critical moment, then of course it wouldn't matter whether it's the Spring Festival or not. But since there's nothing else to do now, and we're all fortunate enough to be together for New Year's Eve, we should still prepare a proper New Year's Eve dinner..."

Ye Chong laughed and said, "Don't worry, Dr. Fang, I've already arranged the New Year's Eve dinner. Someone will deliver it this afternoon. There will be dumplings, noodles, flatbread, and a seafood hot pot worth tens of thousands of yuan. It will be absolutely sumptuous. However, according to the regulations for field missions, we can't drink alcohol, so we can only prepare plenty of soft drinks."

Fang Pingfang nodded. "Then everyone is free to do as you please, but please be back before 6 p. m. so we can have New Year's Eve dinner together."

After saying that, she went upstairs, intending to return to her room to reorganize her thoughts. She didn't believe that Mr. Liang would deliberately leave their team hanging here; he must have thought there was still something to investigate. Although she didn't understand why Mr. Liang didn't just give them a direction.

"Dr. Fang, I have something I want to say to you." Mi Qiao followed Fang Pingfang upstairs and caught up with her before she went into her room.