Before Bed
After Xiang Kun's blood consumption increased significantly, and the number of rabbits he needed to purchase each time increased to more than ten, he had to call a car himself to go to the breeding farm to buy rabbits.
The van I called today was the same one I'd called a few times before.
Aside from being a talkative driver, having poor driving skills, and not knowing the way well, the van driver was otherwise quite nice; he was an honest man, and his fares were cheap.
"Good morning, Brother Xiang." When the driver greeted Xiang Kun, he paused for a moment when he saw Lao Xia getting into the car, and subconsciously said, "Hello, Sister-in-law..."
Xiang Kun was both amused and exasperated. "Don't call me that, this is my friend, he came with me to choose meat rabbits."
He had mentioned to the driver the reason for buying a large number of rabbits for meat, the same reason he gave to the community security guard: he was practicing for opening a rabbit meat restaurant in the future.
Xiang Kun and Lao Xia sat together in the back. The latter held a bag of meat buns and a bottle of milk. He ate quickly and steadily, taking a few bites of the hot meat buns and a sip of the warm milk.
"Oh, right, there's something I need to tell you," Xiang Kun suddenly said to Lao Xia. "Last night I checked on the 'rabbit' we gave to the 'Flash Space,' and besides the original 'spare food,' there are three more 'spare food' next to it."
Xia Libing was slightly taken aback, but two seconds later she realized what Xiang Kun meant.
The so-called "rabbit" should be the "Rabbit Woodcarving" that Xiang Kun had told her about before, which was left in the Qinling Uninhabited Zone and was later found and brought back by the people of "Shenxing Technology". The "Flash Space" probably refers to "Shenxing Technology", and the "spare food" is the "Mutated Creature". It is a very simple pinyin code. They had not agreed on it beforehand, but Xia Libing still understood it very quickly.
After all, Xiang Kun had been at home all night. The methods he "looked out" were either to induce other people's dreams through "Emotion-Infused Object" or to enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" and then use "Emotion-Infused Object" to descend into cognition. And the "Emotion-Infused Object" related to "rabbit" was naturally that Rabbit Woodcarving. From this, he could immediately know what "Flash Space" and "spare food" represented.
"A total of four 'spare food' items? Are they all the same type?" Xia Libing asked.
"It's different, completely different," Xiang Kun said. "Keep eating, I'll explain slowly. Based on my observation last night, there are a lot of electronic devices there. I can only recognize some computers and lights; I don't know what the other devices do. Moreover, those three 'backup foods' are in different spaces from the original 'backup foods,' isolated from each other. I guess they were 'stockpiled' there. I suspect that's the most important and core 'breeding base' of the 'Flash Space.'"
He believed that Lao Xia could easily understand these coded descriptions. However, for others who were unaware of the details, such as the driver, it would be impossible to guess the true meaning of these coded messages. They would simply assume that they were discussing a high-tech "breeding base" for raising meat rabbits.
Xiang Kun did indeed find some time last night to enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" and peek around the Rabbit Woodcarving. During this period, whenever he had space, he would sense the Rabbit Woodcarving and try to guide and perceive the dream triggered by the wood carving. Since the wood carving had been next to the "Mutated Creature," it might have a chance to trigger a dream after it entered a state of slumber.
But until last night, Xiang Kun was unable to trigger a dream. And it had been almost a week since he found out that the Rabbit Woodcarving had been obtained by the "Mutated Creature".
Therefore, Xiang Kun wanted to use his "Hyper-Sensory State" to confirm in detail whether the "Mutated Creature" had never drunk blood or gone into a deep sleep, or whether it could not be induced to dream even when it was asleep.
However, during this "spying" under "Hyper-Sensory State," Xiang Kun discovered that there were actually three other "Mutated Creature" near the location of the "Mutated Creature." Moreover, based on his analysis of spatial structure information, he judged that these three "Mutated Creature" were all "confined" in different enclosed spaces, a large part of which were constructed of metal.
Therefore, it is highly likely that these three "Mutated Creature" were captured and imprisoned by the "Mutated Creature" from "Shenxing Technology" who was carrying Xiang Kun's Rabbit Woodcarving.
Xia Libing finished her meat bun and milk, without commenting on or responding to what Xiang Kun had said. She knew that Xiang Kun was only telling her these things in a hurry to remind her of the potential dangers of "Shenxing Technology," and that she didn't need to offer any opinions at the moment.
After buying the rabbit and delivering it to Xiang Kun's house, the two went out again to buy some other things.
Next, after Xiang Kun drinks the blood, he is expected to have a slumber period of at least 25 hours. Xia Libing will have to stay at Xiang Kun's house the whole time, so she naturally needs to prepare some dry food. Previously, Xiang Kun's house only kept ingredients, not ready-to-eat food.
In addition, Xia Libing went and bought a video camera because Xiang Kun had promised to allow her to record videos of him while he was in a deep sleep. Although Xiang Kun's family had a webcam for computers, she still wanted to use better equipment to capture more detailed and clearer images so she could observe subtle changes later.
After returning home, Xia Libing began to check with Xiang Kun the observation and testing items that needed to be done after the blood-drinking slumber.
"Aren't you cold right now? Won't you catch a cold if you don't wear clothes?" Xia Libing suddenly asked.
"Probably not. I wouldn't say I'm immune to all diseases now, but I shouldn't catch a cold or anything like that..." Xiang Kun knew what Lao Xia meant; she probably wanted to make it easier to observe her, so she wanted to wear less clothing while she was asleep. "From now on, I'll just wear a pair of athletic shorts to bed and won't use a blanket."
Xia Libing nodded, then asked, "Can we take blood from larger creatures? Like cows, pigs, or sheep?"
"It's possible, but for now, apart from the blood of 'Mutated Creature,' rabbit blood feels the best to me. This feeling isn't about the texture or taste, but rather the feedback it gives to the body; it's a bit hard to describe," Xiang Kun said. He knew that Lao Xia was asking this question to explore the possibility of multi-target, low-volume blood collection. If possible, it might eliminate the problem of processing rabbit meat and increase the convenience of drinking blood.
Xiang Kun thought for a moment and then said, "Furthermore, I suspect that if we only take blood from the target area, it might reduce the efficiency of blood drinking, requiring a larger amount of blood to alleviate the hunger. However, this is just my guess; we can verify it through experiments after we arrive in Tongshi Town."
"After the mutation occurred, did you have any dreams?" Xia Libing asked again.
Xiang Kun knew she was asking about dreams during the dormant period, not about perceiving other people's dreams through "Emotion-Infused Object," so he said, "Normally, no, but if you drink the blood of other 'Mutated Creature,' you'll see fragmented memories of them. I don't know if that counts as a dream."
At 11:43 a. m., Xiang Kun began to feel hungry.
After having Lao Xia perform some simple tests and answer some specific questions about his feelings, Xiang Kun began to drink blood in his usual way.
After drinking the blood, Xiang Kun processed the rabbit meat while describing his current physical reaction to Xia Libing —a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction, followed by intense drowsiness.
After processing the rabbit meat and storing it in the refrigerator, Xiang Kun quickly washed up, took off his clothes, and lay down on the bed wearing only a pair of loose basketball shorts.
"See you tomorrow," Xiang Kun said to Xia Libing as he lay on the bed.
Xia Libing nodded to him as she adjusted the camera on the tripod.
After closing his eyes, Xiang Kun fell into a deep sleep in less than five seconds.
After sensing that Xiang Kun was probably asleep, Xia Libing stood by the bed, reached out and touched his neck, then put her fingers under his nose to feel it. She then turned around and sat down in the computer chair in the room, just like Xiang Kun the night before, except that the people on the bed and in the chair had switched places.