The Important Part

After leaving Lao Xia's house, it was late and difficult to hail a taxi, so Xiang Kun decided to walk back to the hospital, since it wasn't very far anyway.

Actually, after confirming in the afternoon that he could use his phone to photograph the "manifested objects" and that his sense of the ten "Super-Linked Object" on Lao Xia's body had slightly weakened, there was another issue he had been considering.

This weakening of the connection has occurred several times before, assuming the "Super-Sensory Link item" itself has not been physically damaged. In particular, it has happened with "Super-Linked Object" given to the Little Chubby Girl, including two Coin and an A4 sheet of paper.

Both had established a special connection with "Super-Linked Object," but Little Apple's "Super-Linked Object" did not exhibit this phenomenon, while Lao Xia's "Super-Linked Object" did not show any weakening of its connection before the "manifested object" was photographed and recorded this afternoon.

This afternoon, Lao Xia's "Super-Linked Object" sensing weakened because the "manifested object" was photographed and recorded. What, then, was the reason for the Little Chubby Girl's weakened "Super-Linked Object" sensing?

How does Little Chubby Girl's control over "Super-Linked Object" differ from Little Apple's and Lao Xia's?

Recalling the abilities that the Little Chubby Girl had "developed," Xiang Kun suddenly realized that the Little Chubby Girl's control and influence over "Super-Linked Object" and related electromagnetic fields were far stronger than those of Lao Xia and Little Apple.

Xiang Kun vaguely felt that, perhaps different from his previous judgment, the Little Chubby Girl's integration into his "Super-Sensing Item System" was, to some extent, deeper.

It's like developing on the same platform; some developers do lower-level development that's closer to the hardware, while others do application-level development. Little Chubby Girl is the former, while Little Apple and Lao Xia are the latter. There's no superior or inferior, strong or weak, between them; they're just different in their roles.

However, shouldn't I give the little girl a few more instructions later?

After all, she was still a child in kindergarten, while Xiang Kun could already foresee that her abilities would have an increasingly greater impact on the surrounding environment, and their objective power would become stronger and stronger.

Once the power reaches a certain level, without sufficient control, it could easily endanger others and oneself.

The next morning, Xiang Kun completed the discharge procedures for his father.

The doctor examined his father and confirmed there was no problem. Xiang Kun also observed his father's injuries in his own way and concluded that his father's injuries were mainly contusions on his buttocks, and that there were no other major issues.

After dropping his parents off at home, he went out again.

He booked a flight for the evening, but was going to attend a high school classmate's wedding at noon.

Given his current situation, he usually makes excuses not to attend things like weddings and class reunions, and only asks someone to bring him the gift money and monetary donations.

But like Chang Bin, the high school classmate who is getting married today has a close relationship with him. They were not only classmates for three years, but also deskmates for two semesters. After graduation, every time he came back for the Spring Festival or annual leave, he would get together with this old deskmate and several other classmates with whom he had a good relationship.

In addition, his old classmate had called more than half a month ago to tell Xiang Kun the specific wedding date and urged him to come. Since he is indeed in Citong now and can make time, it is only right for him to attend. After all, such relatively "normal" social activities will definitely become less and less common in the future.

This time, I deliberately timed my return to coincide with the blood-drinking period, which means I had pre-arranged to attend this wedding on the third day of the Lunar New Year.

At the hotel entrance, after Xiang Kun revealed his identity to the groom who was greeting guests, he was unsurprisingly met with a gasp of surprise.

"Wei Zhuo just came over and told me you've changed a lot. I asked what changes, but he wouldn't tell me, only saying it would definitely scare me. I was wondering, how much could you change in just one year to scare me? Did you go bald? I didn't expect it... Holy crap... it really scared me! Xiang Kun, not only your hairstyle... your body has changed a lot too!"

After being greeted with sighs of nostalgia by old classmates, former deskmates, and the groom at the entrance, I entered the wedding venue and met other high school classmates. With Wei Zhuo and Xiao Jie, whom I had met at the supermarket entrance on New Year's Eve, adding their own embellishments to the introduction, I was once again met with amazement and "onlookers".

He had naturally anticipated this situation. If it were the Xiang Kun of the past, he would have felt somewhat awkward, embarrassed, and even wanted to escape.

As for now... he seemed somewhat awkward and uneasy, with an embarrassed smile on his face, and his responses were a bit clumsy—but this was all a deliberate imitation of his past behavior, in order to avoid arousing everyone's curiosity and excessive, sustained attention.

He even made some deliberate changes to his posture and expression, such as avoiding eye contact, slightly slouching his shoulders, and hunching his chest, just like his previous closed-off demeanor in crowded places.

By guiding the pace of the conversation, Xiang Kun easily diverted everyone's attention from the changes in his physique and hairstyle to other people. Then he stopped participating in the topic and simply became an observer—just like his habit over the years.

The classmates chatted for a while about their recent lives. Wei Zhuo saw a burly man with slicked-back hair walking over and immediately smiled at him, saying, "Boss Li, you drove Camry when Xiao Yang got married in 2016, an A6 during the Spring Festival in 2017, and a Mercedes-Benz in 2018. We were just guessing what kind of car you would drive today?"

The burly man punched Wei Zhuo in the arm, laughing and cursing, "If you call me Boss Li again, I'll call you Eunuch Wei!"

This is also their classmate, named Li Peiye. He inherited his family's shoe factory, which seems to have developed very well in recent years. He has not only opened many branch factories, but also has customers all over the world. He is considered the most successful among their high school classmates.

As he spoke, he took out a key, flashed it in front of everyone, and then put it back in his pocket. "I brought my electric scooter today."

"An electric car? A Tesla?" Wei Zhuo guessed.

His wife, Xiao Jie, asked curiously, "Isn't a Tesla a 300,000 yuan car? Peipei used to drive a Mercedes worth over a million yuan. Are you going to go back to driving like that?"

"The one that costs over 300,000 is a domestically produced Model 3. Tesla also has high-end models, some costing over 800,000 or 900,000. But given Peipei's extravagant style and flamboyant personality, I guess he switched to something like an electric sports car, the i8..." another classmate guessed.

"Could it be that Porsche Taycan?"

"That thing isn't available in China yet, I think."

After everyone had been guessing for a while, Li Peiye smiled and took the key out of her pocket again, slapping it on the table. "The answer is revealed... Yadi!"

Wei Zhuo picked up the key, glanced at it, and laughed, "You idiot, you did this on purpose! If you're going to ride an electric scooter, then ride an electric scooter, not an electric one!"

The others laughed and said, "Pepe, did you do something bad that your wife found out about, so your Mercedes got confiscated?"

Someone immediately chimed in, "Hey! How could someone as macho as Peipei let his wife ride on his head? His Mercedes must have broken down due to an oil leak, forcing him to drive his electric scooter, right, Peipei?"

"Then we need to go and protect our rights right away, Peipei! Go to the 4S store! Get the hood on!"

"Holy crap, with Peipei's big butt, every person who sits on it will get a dent. The dealership is probably going to have to complain to him about this!"

Despite being teased by everyone, Li Peiye wasn't bothered and laughed, "With the traffic in Citong, riding an electric scooter is much more comfortable than driving. You don't have to worry about traffic jams, and parking is easy. Now, whenever I'm in the city, I basically ride an electric scooter. Tsk tsk, it's great in every way, and it's even environmentally friendly! It's just that there are so many electric scooter thieves in Citong. I've had two stolen this year alone. Damn those scooter thieves!"

When this topic came up, many students resonated with it. Those who rode electric bikes had all had the painful experience of being robbed; some had their entire bikes stolen, while others had parts removed.

"It seems like there's a special operation to crack down on stolen electric bikes lately? Hopefully, this crackdown will quiet down those 'Che Guevaras'," Wei Zhuo remarked with a sigh.

Li Peiye suddenly remembered something and laughed, "Oh, right, I heard something funny from a friend at the Yungang District Subbureau today. Last night, two car thieves turned themselves in, and we even took them to an abandoned factory in the suburbs where they found dozens of electric bikes and a small truck used in the crimes."

"Oh? They were driven to desperation by the police's special operation?" someone asked curiously.

Li Peiye shook his head and said, "It's really not because they were desperate. The reasons these two turned themselves in are... quite bizarre. One said he felt his health was deteriorating and believed it was due to this kind of work, which he thought was shortening his lifespan. He thought that going to prison would help him maintain a regular schedule, lose weight, and improve his health. The other said he hadn't been home for a long time and wanted to go back to see his father, but he wanted to serve his sentence, atone for his sins, and go back 'clean'."

Wei Zhuo exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like this before! There are actually people who want to go to jail to recuperate?"

Xiao Jie exclaimed in surprise, "Were these two car thieves enlightened by some high monk? Did they suddenly have a change of heart?"

"I don't know if they had a change of heart, but what's even more interesting is... Last night, in the middle of the night, a guy ran to the Yungang Sub-bureau police station with a kitchen knife, claiming that hundreds of people were trying to murder him, to sell his kidneys, to sell his liver," Li Peiye said with a laugh. "The people at the branch were really nervous, thinking it was a patient from the Third Hospital who had escaped. After subduing him and questioning him, they were even more certain that he had mental problems. This guy said that the hundreds of people who wanted to harm him basically included restaurant owners and waiters, to shop assistants at convenience stores, to motorcycle taxi drivers on the street, to strangers he didn't even know—he thought they were all people who had conspired to harm him..."

Wei Zhuo asked, "Is this delusional?"

Li Peiye waved her hand at him. "Don't interrupt, I haven't gotten to the main point yet."

"Damn it, Peipei, hurry up and get to the point! You've been rambling on for so long and still haven't gotten to the main point!" another classmate laughed and cursed.

"We're almost there! Here comes the important part! Do you know what the important part is? The important part is... when the police investigated this guy's identity, they found out that this guy is actually the organizer and leader confessed to by the two car thieves who surrendered a few hours earlier!" Li Peiye slapped his thigh as if he were striking a gavel.

Wei Zhuo blinked and said, "Wait a minute, let me sort this out. Two car thieves turned themselves in first, then a lunatic came to call the police, and it turns out they were the ringleaders of the two car thieves? So their whole car theft gang just walked right into the trap and was wiped out?"

Li Peiye lowered his voice, his tone becoming mysterious. "It's not just that he walked right into a trap. According to the guy who went to the police station with a kitchen knife, his two accomplices conspired to steal his goods, took him to an abandoned factory, and tried to harm him by pretending to be ghosts to scare him."

"I get it. It's like those two migrant workers who stole electric bikes discovered their boss had gone insane, realized there was no future in their line of work, and, feeling utterly hopeless, decided to turn themselves in, repent, and become good people," one student summarized.

Li Peiye waved his hand and said, "Don't interrupt, we're not done yet! There's still important stuff to say!"

"Holy crap! Mr. Pei! How many key points are there in this whole thing?!"