"Little Lao Xia"

Seeing Xia Libing rush back, Third Aunt, who had been standing at the door for a while, wasn't angry at all. After all, she hadn't informed Xia Libing before coming, and it was normal that Xia Libing had borrowed her car that afternoon and was still out.

She had only just gone to the hospital and stopped by this neighborhood not far from it to see her niece, but now she was more curious. "Where did you come from?"

"I went to the First Medical University Hospital to meet a friend," Xia Libing replied simply, handing her car keys to her aunt, "Thank you, Auntie."

"You can drive it, I'll drive your third uncle's car, he doesn't need it these days anyway," the aunt said. Although this niece had always had a rather eccentric personality, being polite yet distant to everyone, she still felt very good about her.

"We don't need it for now," Xia Libing said, having already opened the door and helped her third aunt carry the things inside.

As soon as she entered the house, Auntie San noticed the situation on the dining table in the living room.

While Xiang Kun and Xia Libing were having lunch, they received a call that their father had fallen and injured himself, so they rushed over without having time to pack up.

Later, after Xia Libing returned, she was busy organizing her documents and didn't bother to tidy up.

So when Auntie entered the door, she saw the same scene as when the two of them left at noon.

"You ate lunch at home? Was this... with a friend?" Auntie asked curiously. Judging from the situation on the table, there were clearly two people eating. But what was even stranger was that one set of chopsticks and bowls seemed untouched. Was one person eating while the other watched? Or were there originally two people, but one left later?

"Yes." Xia Libing nodded and then began tidying up the things on the table. "Did Third Aunt want to see me about something?"

"Oh, I checked the weather forecast, it's going to get really cold in the next couple of days, so I brought you a blanket. There's also some food, I'll just put it in the fridge, you can heat it up whenever you get hungry."

While helping Xia Libing tidy up, Auntie San checked the leftovers. After taking the tableware to the kitchen, she exclaimed in surprise, "You made lunch yourselves?" In her memory, Xia Libing shouldn't have cooked for herself.

"A friend made it," Xia Libing explained simply.

"Is it Mr. Xiang. Xiang who was with you the night before last?" Auntie asked tentatively.

During the time Xia Libing worked in Citong, she actually paid quite a bit of attention to her niece's social life. But from what she knew, Xia Libing was basically a loner, had only average relationships with her colleagues, and she hadn't heard of her knowing any local friends in Citong. The only exception was "Mr. Xiang," who helped her catch those two "bad guys" the night before last.

"Yes." Xia Libing didn't hide anything.

"You just went to the First Hospital, was it to see him? He didn't suddenly get hospitalized, did he?" Auntie San guessed again. In her opinion, Xia Libing wouldn't go to the First Hospital for no reason, and if it was business, she would definitely have told her.

"His father fell and got injured." Xia Libing's reply was still quite simple.

"Oh? Is it serious? What are the specific details?" Auntie asked with concern.

"He has a mild concussion; just to be on the safe side, he'll be hospitalized for observation for two days," Xia Libing briefly explained Xiang Kun's father's condition.

Third Aunt nodded thoughtfully, then said, "I just went to the yard and heard that someone brought you a late-night snack last night? Could the person who brought the snack also be Mr. Xiang. Xiang?"

"Yes," Xia Libing said.

Auntie smiled and said, "In the next few days, find some time to invite Mr. Xiang to have a meal with me and your third uncle. It'll be a good opportunity to thank him for his help the other night."

"No, he doesn't like eating with too many people," Xia Libing said, pausing slightly before adding, "He's withdrawn and shy."

Auntie thought for a moment and then said, "Then... let's find some time tomorrow, and I'll go with you to the First Hospital to visit Mr. Xiang's father. I have some old friends there, so we can ask them to look after him."

Xia Libing still refused, saying, "No need."

Third Aunt didn't seem offended. She chatted with Xia Libing for a while longer, and when she learned that Xia Libing hadn't had dinner yet, she heated up some of the food she had brought before leaving.

After getting into the car that Xia Libing had returned to her, Third Aunt took out her phone, scrolled through her contacts, searched for a name that started with Xia, and dialed it.

A moment later, the call connected, and a cheerful voice rang out. "Third Aunt? Why did you suddenly decide to call me... Oh, I know, it's because I didn't call to wish you a Happy New Year last night! I was so sorry, Third Aunt! Happy New Year! Wishing you prosperity and good fortune! May you eat well tonight... and be in great health!..."

"What nonsense!" Auntie San couldn't help but interrupt, "Tianhuo, do you have Yang Zhen'er's phone number? Send it to me."

"Hey? Third Aunt, what do you want with Yang the Third? Has she gotten into trouble again?" Xia Tianhuo, who was overseas at the time, asked in surprise on the phone. "Tell me, what trouble has she gotten into? I'll help you scold her later!"

"I didn't cause any trouble. I was just asking her about someone, a friend who's very close to both her and Xiao Bing," Auntie said.

"Xiao Bing? Huh? Right, Lao Xia is also in Citong now, and she's someone who's on good terms with Lao Xia? Who is she? I don't know her. Wait, Auntie, you're not talking about a bald guy, are you?"

"You know Xiang Kun too?" Auntie asked curiously.

"Oh, I've met him once. Why are you asking about him, Auntie?"

Do you know anything about this person?

"I certainly don't know him very well, but based on my initial impression from our one meeting, he seems like a pretty good person."

"How exactly does it mean 'not bad'?"

"Well, I can't really put it into words, it's just a feeling..."

"I feel... Stop talking nonsense with me. Send me Yang Zhen'er's number, then go do whatever you need to do." Auntie said irritably. "By the way, you're not allowed to call you 'Lao Xia' anymore, Xiao Bing. Is it appropriate for a pretty girl like you to be called 'Lao Xia' so often, even though you're only a teenager? Only an older brother shouldn't call you that. If I hear you call me that again, I'll tell your dad."

Meanwhile, Xia Libing, after quickly finishing her dinner, sat at her desk, placing the six Coin Xiang Kun had given her that afternoon, plus the three she had received earlier, making a total of nine Coin on the table. Her brows were slightly furrowed as she pondered something.

A moment later, a Napoleon cake appeared on the table, but quickly disappeared, and then a crispy pork knuckle appeared in its place, looking very realistic and emitting a fragrant aroma that made one's mouth water.

Xia Libing stared at the two kinds of food that she had "manifested," her brows furrowing deeper, as if she had encountered some problem.

She opened her laptop, created a new Excel spreadsheet, and began to perform some data analysis.

Xiang Kun previously instructed her not to leave too many obvious, traceable records, so when she made the spreadsheets, she used all sorts of special symbols that only she could understand, and the meaning of the data was completely incomprehensible to anyone other than her.

After a while, she seemed to understand something, her brows relaxed, and she picked up her phone, found Xiang Kun's WeChat picture, and sent him a message.

After parting ways with Lao Xia, Xiang Kun didn't immediately return to his father's ward. Instead, he found a stone bench in the hospital and sat down to check the message notification that "Alice" had just sent him.

The information that "Alice" was asked to investigate regarding the "vampire" mental patients at the Third Hospital has yielded some results that match the description.

He asked "Alice" to send over the information, and then he took a look at it.

In March of last year, in a small town under the Citong City, a 27-year-old woman who claimed to be the "Vampire Ancestor" kidnapped a passerby on the street in the middle of the night with three young men who had been bewitched by her, intending to suck his blood.

Fortunately, they were discovered by nearby residents while they were kidnapping the person, and the police were notified in time. The police arrived before the innocent passerby was harmed and arrested the "Vampire Ancestor" and three young men.

Later, after a forensic psychiatric evaluation, the woman who claimed to be the "Vampire Ancestor" was found to be mentally ill. Therefore, after the trial, she was arranged to undergo compulsory medical treatment at the Third Hospital of Citong.

It must be the patient that Lao Xia mentioned last night, the one who calls himself a "vampire" and only eats "red" things.

Alice found the original judgment and also the various outrageous statements made online by the woman who called herself the "Vampire Ancestor".

The statements she made were basically based on various vampire settings from movies and TV shows, and did not have the characteristics of a real "Mutated Creature" or "vampire".

Frankly, if it were Xiang Kun himself looking for someone like him, he would automatically skip over this information when searching online. Even if he saw it, he wouldn't consider the person to be like him or related to him in any way.

However, now, because of the special intuition he had after conducting a "Hyper-Sensory State" probe at the Third Hospital, he felt that there must be something wrong with this person.

Of course, the investigation into this person no longer needs to rely entirely on him. Now that Lao Xia already knows about his situation, if he wants to investigate the patient, he can just tell Lao Xia directly later—we have someone in the know!

It has to be said that after revealing this secret that he had kept for more than half a year to another person, Xiang Kun felt that he suddenly felt much more relaxed psychologically. Moreover, with Lao Xia as his helper, he could be much more relaxed when making plans for many things in the future.

It's not just about investigating that "vampire" mental patient; other things, such as the arrangements for the blood-drinking period, can have more options and more ways of implementation.

As Xiang Kun was pondering how to rearrange some of the plans made before returning to Citong after Lao Xia, this "insider," joined the discussion, Xiang Kun received WeChat message from Lao Xia:

"I'm going to sleep now."

If someone else saw this message, they might find it a bit puzzling. It's only seven o'clock, why send WeChat so early? What does it mean? If they knew that Lao Xia hadn't slept much last night, they might guess that she was catching up on sleep and wanted him not to disturb her.

But as soon as Xiang Kun saw the message, he immediately understood what Lao Xia meant—she wanted to enter his dream again and asked Xiang Kun to make arrangements.

Could it be that after returning home, Lao Xia suddenly thought of something related to "the Fantasy Manifestation" and needed to verify it in that special dream?

Without thinking much, Xiang Kun closed his eyes and began to sense the pair of chopsticks he had given to Lao Xia.

Knowing that the dream was guided by chopsticks, Lao Xia would definitely keep those chopsticks by his side before going to sleep; he didn't need to be reminded of that.

More than six minutes later, Xiang Kun perceived some changing images, successfully triggering Lao Xia's dream.

This time, the dream immediately showed the scene of the two of them having lunch. However, sitting opposite Lao Xia in his original seat was Liu Shiling, Little Chubby Girl who was happily eating with chopsticks in hand—this was the emotional projection of the chopsticks.

In the dream, Lao Xia was also eating and drinking, but this time, he only ate a few bites before stopping. Then, he took out five Coin from his pocket with his left hand and slapped them on the table. Next, he took out four Coin from his pocket with his right hand and slapped them on the table as well.

The woman sitting opposite her, "Liu Shiling," paused, stopped eating, stared blankly at the nine Coin on the table, and asked softly, "Sister Lao Xia, can you eat Coin?"

Lao Xia didn't answer, but Xiang Kun could already sense that extreme rationality and clarity had appeared. Lao Xia had "woke up" in his dream, and this time the speed was much faster than the previous two times.

After entering a "lucid dream" state, Lao Xia got up and walked around the room, and the nine Coin seemed to be revolving around her like nine satellites.

"Xiang Kun, are you there?" Lao Xia suddenly called out.

At this point, Xiang Kun's perspective and perception could shift freely throughout the dream, no longer limited to Lao Xia.

The problem is that this dream wasn't caused by the Black Circle Graffiti. He can't enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" in this dream, so he can't directly edit it and therefore can't interact with Lao Xia in the dream, and doesn't know how to "agree" to her.

However, he quickly came up with a solution. He cut off the access of one of the nine Coin to Lao Xia's abilities. As a result, in the dream, the nine Coin surrounding Lao Xia suddenly became eight, and the dream projection of one of the Coin disappeared.

But the Coin reappeared the next moment.

Lao Xia clearly understood that Xiang Kun was "greeting" her, so she didn't ask any further questions and instead began manipulating the nine Coin.

The nine Coin vanished instantly, and at the same time, a little girl appeared in the dream.

The little girl wasn't the Little Chubby Girl, but rather the Little Lao Xia from the photo Xiang Kun had seen in the PDF file Lao Xia had made that afternoon.

The little girl held a scalpel in her hand, wore a gorgeous princess dress, black leather shoes, and cute accessories in her hair. Her features were delicate, but her face was expressionless and her eyes showed no emotion.

Uh... did Lao Xia's dream bring back her childhood self?

When I wake up, in reality, what if...?

As Xiang Kun thought this, Lao Xia's dream collapsed instantly, and all his senses disappeared.

He immediately picked up his phone and dialed Lao Xia's number.

Two seconds later, the call was answered, and Lao Xia said, "Are you free right now? Come over for a second."

"Good."

After hanging up the phone, Xiang Kun first ran back to his father's ward to check on his condition, then told his mother before taking a taxi to Xia Libing's rented place.

As soon as Xia Libing opened the door and Xiang Kun entered the room, she couldn't help but ask, "Can you recreate your childhood self?"

To be honest, his original thought was that since Lao Xia could conjure cakes and pork knuckles, it would be possible for her to conjure tables, chairs, and even cars and airplanes next. He envisioned gradually increasing complexity, and then trying to conjure plants or something. He never expected Lao Xia to conjure a person directly? And her own childhood? What would it be like if this were "conjured" in reality?

Xiang Kun was filled with anticipation and curiosity.

However, Xia Libing shook her head. "No."

"Oh, right." Xiang Kun wasn't exactly disappointed. If Lao Xia had actually revealed a "Little Lao Xia," he would have been quite horrified.

"What's the difference between them?" Xiang Kun asked again.

He knew that there must be a reason why Lao Xia called him over after waking up; it couldn't just be to tell him that he couldn't recreate the "Little Lao Xia" in his dream.