Happy New Year!!!

Little Apple proudly told Xiang Kun, "I think I can communicate with 'Gold Glitter' now, really communicate! It knows what I tell it to do." Then, she called to "Gold Glitter," "'Gold Glitter,' come to my shoulder."

The next moment, the canary "Gold Glitter" hopped out of its cage, flapped its wings, and landed on Little Apple's shoulder. Then, together with Little Apple, they posed for the camera with a slightly "smug" look.

Xiang Kun sensed something special about the Minion Wooden Carving on Little Apple's body and the Coin he had given her before. So he asked casually, "Little Apple, how's your 'Object-Sensing' progressed?"

Little Apple nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, I think I communicated with 'Gold Glitter' through the Coin you gave me. Uncle Xiang, come pick up 'Gold Glitter' later, okay? I think after a while, I can train 'Gold Glitter' to be a 'guide bird,' haha!"

As she spoke, she took out the Coin Xiang Kun had given her and flicked it into the air.

The next moment, Gold Glitter flapped its wings, soared several tens of centimeters into the air, and accurately "caught" the tumbling Coin. Then it put it back in Little Apple's hand, and continued to look at the phone "smugly," chirping twice at Xiang Kun's face on the phone screen.

Through his connection to the Coin, Xiang Kun vaguely sensed a link between the canary "Gold Glitter" and the Coin.

Then he immediately realized that this was not a direct connection between "Gold Glitter" and the Coin, but rather that "Gold Glitter" had been incorporated into Xiang Kun's Super-Sensing Item System.

In fact, a long time ago, Xiang Kun had specially made a horizontal bar for "Gold Glitter" to stand on in its cage, and established a "Super-Sensory Link" with the bar.

His idea at the time was to try and see if "Gold Glitter" could establish a special connection with his "Super-Sensory Link" items, just like Little Chubby Girl and Little Apple, and thus gain some special abilities.

However, "Gold Glitter" has never really sparked anything with that bar. Although Xiang Kun has gained a deeper understanding of "Gold Glitter" through his cognitive model and extensive observation and contact, it still looks like an ordinary canary, without any significant changes.

But now, Xiang Kun could clearly sense that "Gold Glitter" was obviously different, although he still couldn't determine exactly what it could do through its connection with "Super-Linked Object".

This connection was extremely weak, far less perceptible than the connection he had when Little Apple and Little Chubby Girl established it, which is why he only noticed it now.

Xiang Kun pondered that Little Apple must have played a part in enabling it to enter his Super-Sensing Item System.

In other words, although Xiang Kun had granted "Gold Glitter" a "network access license" early on, its terminal was too outdated to install systems and applications that could connect to the internet.

Little Apple first incorporated "Gold Glitter" into her system, assimilating it with a simpler system, and then, through her, connected it to Xiang Kun's entire Super-Sensing Item System.

He finally understood what "Gold Glitter" was showing off and being so smug about. This guy also knew that he had established a connection with Xiang Kun's "Super-Linked Object" and felt that he was pretty awesome.

After Liu Shiling surprised Xiang Kun by "developing" a new ability, Little Apple also gave him a "New Year's gift".

After learning more about "Gold Glitter's" situation, Xiang Kun said to Little Apple, "You can train 'Gold Glitter' according to your own ideas. I trust you. It just so happens that I won't be able to take care of 'Gold Glitter' for a while, so I'll have to trouble you to raise it for me for a bit longer."

"No trouble at all, no trouble at all. I will definitely take good care of Gold Glitter, Uncle Xiang, don't worry!" Little Apple said happily.

After ending the video call with Little Apple, Xiang Kun thought for a moment, then sent Shiling's Mother a Happy New Year emoji on WeChat, and asked her where she and Liu Shiling were spending New Year's Eve.

A while later, Shiling's Mother sent a video call request.

After the call connected, Xiang Kun immediately saw Liu Shiling holding her phone in both hands, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly open, looking at the front-facing camera.

Upon seeing Xiang Kun's image, Liu Shiling exclaimed "Ah!" and then quickly called out, "Uncle Bald! Happy New Year! Wishing you good health and boundless happiness..."

"No! This is for a birthday celebration! What's with the congratulations? You were reciting it so fluently just now!" Shiling's Mother's helpless voice came from off-camera.

Reminded, Liu Shiling quickly added, "Wishing you prosperity, red envelope... no, wishing you good fortune, that... um... study hard and make progress every day..." Her gaze shifted upwards to her mother behind the phone, waiting for a prompt.

Xiang Kun was grinning from ear to ear, while on the other end of the video, Shiling's Mother said helplessly, "Alright, say whatever you want. Happy New Year to your Uncle Xiang."

Liu Shiling then looked at her phone and said, "Happy New Year, Uncle Baldy! May you have delicious food and fun activities every day!"

"Okay, thank you, Little Bell. I also wish you lots of good food and fun activities, and that your studies get better and better!" Xiang Kun said with a smile.

Liu Shiling nodded happily; she clearly understood the implication of "getting more and more powerful."

"By the way, Uncle Baldy, I have a question I don't understand, and my mom doesn't know either. She told me to ask the teacher after school starts, but kindergarten doesn't start for a long time. I wanted to ask you."

"What's the question? Go ahead and ask," Xiang Kun said.

Then Liu Shiling launched into a long, enthusiastic question, "Uncle Baldy, what is an electric field? What is a magnetic field? What is electrical energy? What is magnetic energy? What is an electron? What is a neutron? What is a proton? What's the difference between lightning and the electricity in a light bulb? Why is static electricity called static electricity? Is magnetism magic?"

Liu Shiling's Shiling's Mother opposite her, quickly said, "Hey? Didn't I tell you to say auspicious words and wish your uncle a Happy New Year? Why are you suddenly asking so many questions? It's the New Year..."

Although Xiang Kun was taken aback by the barrage of questions, he quickly stopped Shiling's Mother and said that he could answer Liu Shiling's questions.

He learned from Shiling's Mother that Liu Shiling had asked so many questions because of the children's encyclopedia he had sent her, which actually made him quite gratified and... hopeful.

He can basically understand Liu Shiling's thought process and thinking patterns, so he has a way to explain this knowledge according to Liu Shiling's understanding.

The aim is not to explain things from the most fundamental principles or in the most accurate and rigorous way, but simply to simplify and even magicalize those knowledge and concepts so that Liu Shiling can understand the general operating logic behind these things in her own way. As for more detailed and in-depth knowledge, that will have to wait until she grows up, learns to read, and starts school, and then she can systematically learn the relevant knowledge.

So in just over twenty minutes, Xiang Kun had basically made Liu Shiling understand the questions she had asked, and her eyes were getting brighter and brighter. Shiling's Mother, who was standing next to her, was also stunned. She never thought that "education" for a child could be done in this way. Although it was impossible to make Liu Shiling truly understand the real principles and concepts of those things, the basic logic and direction were correct.

After finishing her explanation, and with her Shiling's Mother's phone indicating low battery, Liu Shiling quickly asked, "Uncle Baldy, have you been trying to eliminate... any particularly delicious... strange... things lately?"

Xiang Kun immediately understood what she meant; the Little Chubby Girl was asking if he had gone "hunting" monsters. After killing the "mutated spider" in the Qinling Uninhabited Zone, he had passed through Star City on his way back and had eaten with Liu Shiling. At that time, he patted his bow case and told her the "truth": "Uncle Baldy took that bow and arrow to hunt monsters."

Clearly, the Little Chubby Girl was asking him if he had any new achievements recently, but she couldn't ask directly because her mother was there.

Xiang Kun laughed and said, "I encountered a 'strangely delicious thing' a few days ago, but I didn't get to eat it. Little Bell, your grades have been great lately, Uncle Baldy knows about it. Keep up the good work, practice more, keep striving, study hard, and improve every day. Next time we meet, Uncle Baldy will cook something delicious for you!"

The Little Chubby Girl immediately understood what Xiang Kun meant by "studying and practicing." She nodded vigorously and said very seriously, "Okay, Uncle Baldy, I will practice hard and study well!"

Although she was completely confused, puzzled by Liu Shiling's description of "something particularly delicious," and somewhat bewildered by Xiang Kun's praise of Liu Shiling's grades, Shiling's Mother didn't say much, assuming it was just a new dish Xiang Kun had made. However, seeing that her phone battery was almost dead, she quickly reminded her, "Shiling, you've troubled Uncle Xiang long enough. Quickly say goodbye to him so Mom can say a few words."

"Oh..." Liu Shiling was about to return the phone to her mother when she remembered something and continued, "Uncle Baldy, you said you'd cook something delicious for me, what delicious food will you make?"

However, before Xiang Kun could reply, the video call ended, clearly Shiling's Mother's phone had finally run out of battery.

"This little girl is quite cute, who is she?" Just then, his mother, who had been passing by his door, came in and asked.

Xiang Kun smiled and said, "I gave my neighbor's child a copy of the encyclopedia when I lived there before. She's asking me questions now. She's a very studious and adorable child."

He had just overheard his dad watching him video chat with a little girl for several minutes and then secretly discussing it with his mom.

After Dad, with a wild imagination, speculated, "Could this chubby little girl be our son's secret child?", he immediately received a light flick on the forehead from Mom. However, Mom seemed to be influenced as well, because as soon as he ended the video call, she rushed over to confirm...

Xiang Kun prepared a very lavish dinner, having already planned several dishes and made a very detailed menu. In the afternoon, after Mom prepared a bunch of seafood ingredients, she added a seafood hot pot, which could be eaten by dipping the ingredients in the broth.

Of course, most of the seafood ingredients were supposed to be used later to make a late-night snack for Lao Xia, as his mother insisted.

During the New Year's Eve dinner, my mother kept nagging about how best to prepare the ingredients, but when Xiang Kun offered to cook, she refused. "I'm just giving my opinion! You do it, you do it!"

After throwing a pebble with which he had Super-Sensory Link to the giant bird, Xiang Kun established Super-Sensory Link with several more pebbles before his last blood-drinking experience. Therefore, he had no shortage of tools to suppress his stomach when eating. Moreover, he was very skillful when eating with his parents, able to make them think he had eaten a lot with only a small amount of food, especially when there were so many dishes.

After finishing their New Year's Eve dinner, at 8:00 PM, the Spring Festival Gala started playing on TV. Xiang Kun accompanied his parents, chatting and watching TV together.

I remember when I was very young, every New Year's Eve I would sit in front of the TV with my parents and watch the Spring Festival Gala with great interest.

Later, when computers became available, even on New Year's Eve, he would always be switching between the TV and the computer, playing games, browsing forums, and then watching TV again, focusing mainly on comedy sketches and crosstalk performances.

After university and starting work, with a mobile phone, even when sitting in front of the TV, I'm always on my phone scrolling through various platforms, sending and receiving red envelopes in WeChat and QQ groups. My attention isn't on the TV, nor on my parents beside me—of course, my parents are also very engrossed in grabbing red envelopes...

But this year felt a little different. Under Xiang Kun's deliberate guidance, he didn't look at his phone, and his parents naturally didn't use their phones much either. They were watching the gala, discussing the programs on the show, and then extrapolating from that to themselves.

"These two chubby boys did a pretty good job with their crosstalk," Mom Xiang nodded in approval at Yue Yunpeng and Sun Yue, who were the first to come out.

However, Dad Xiang disagreed. "I still prefer Feng Gong and Niu Qun's generation."

Mom Xiang then turned to Xiang Kun and complained, "Your dad is such an old-fashioned person, his thinking is so outdated."

Xiang Kun laughed and said, "Mom, you're keeping up with the times, while Dad is reminiscing about the classics. Both make sense."

Mom Xiang also sighed, "But there were indeed many classics from the past. Every year I looked forward to Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao's skits, they were really good. Later there was Zhao Benshan..."

Although Dad Xiang said that the old-fashioned crosstalk was better and was somewhat dismissive of the current crosstalk, when Yue Yunpeng started the song "Where is the Road Ahead?" with the lyrics "You carry the load, I lead the horse...", he still slapped his thigh and sang along: "... welcoming the sunrise, seeing off the sunset...", and then sang "The Song of the Peony" with his eyes squinted, singing with great intoxication and immersion.

Mom Xiang whispered to her son, "Your dad's drunk!"

Dad Xiang turned around and glared at her. "No!" Then he continued slapping his thigh, "Ah~~~~ Peonies, the most magnificent in the land of fragrances!~~"

Next, when Jia Ling and Zhang Xiaofei performed their crosstalk routine, "Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law," Mom Xiang watched with great interest. While eating the pistachios that Xiang Kun had peeled for her, she chuckled and said, "Kun, if you ever get married, I promise I won't argue with your wife. If you bully her, I'll stand by her side and beat you up together."

Xiang Kun laughed, "What if the wife I marry has a particularly bad temper and a terrible personality?"

Mom Xiang waved her hand. "No, that won't happen... I think Xia has a pretty good personality."

Xiang Kun almost choked on his own saliva, and said with a wry smile, "Mom, don't talk nonsense... How can you say you're treating Xia as your wife? We're just ordinary friends. Don't go spreading rumors outside, or you'll ruin Dr. Xia's reputation!"

"Don't worry, don't worry! I know they're just ordinary friends. They just see Xia likes him and say a few flirty things to each other at home. They won't tell anyone else. Your mom isn't stupid!" Mom Xiang rolled her eyes at him.

Although Dad Xiang overheard their conversation, he didn't participate. Before long, he was singing "The Great Wall Will Never Fall" with Jackie Chan, quite enthusiastically.

Xiang Kun could clearly sense that his parents' emotions were significantly higher than in previous years on New Year's Eve this year. Besides his deliberate guidance, a large part of the reason was probably due to Lao Xia's visit at noon.

Xiang Kun knew that his parents' high spirits stemmed from their expectations and hopes for the future.

He knew his parents had misunderstood, but he couldn't bring himself to forcefully dispel the misunderstanding. He knew that it was very likely he would never be able to truly fulfill his parents' wishes in his lifetime.

So let's make them happy for as long as possible.

The Year of the Pig has ended, and the Year of the Rat has arrived.

Wishing everyone good health and happiness in the new year!

When you're out and about, please take good care of yourself and stay safe!

At last...

Stay strong, Wuhan!