Yang the Third's Speculation

At Tang Baona's home.

The sofa and coffee table in the living room were covered with various printed documents. Tang Baona was sitting on the sofa, flipping through some of the documents while frowning and thinking about the notebook on her lap.

As for Yang Zhen'er, she unusually took the initiative to clean up the dishes and even took them to the kitchen to wash.

After tidying up the kitchen, Yang Zhen'er walked over, picked up a small sofa stool, sat down next to the coffee table, rested her chin on her hands, and frowned.

While busy, Tang Baona couldn't help but look up at her roommate, Yang Zhen'er. When Yang Zhen'er was around, she was always chattering away, which Tang Baona could easily ignore and continue doing what she was doing. It was abnormal for her to be quiet, and Tang Baona couldn't help but pay attention to her.

"What are you thinking about?" Tang Baona finally couldn't help but ask.

Yang Zhen'er seemed to have been waiting for her friend to ask a question, and immediately replied, "Something's not right!"

"What's wrong?" Tang Baona asked, puzzled.

"Chef Xiang, something's not right," Yang Zhen'er said. "I asked Chef Xiang on WeChat this afternoon, and he said he hasn't gone to Tongshi Town yet; he's still in Citong City."

"Hmm, and then what? What's wrong with that?" Tang Baona asked.

"Didn't he say he was going back to discuss the 'Youlong Restaurant'?" Yang Zhen'er said.

Tang Baona asked, puzzled, "He arrived in Citong last night, right? It's perfectly normal for him to stay home for two days before going to Tongshi Town, isn't it?"

Yang Zhen'er asked, "Nana, what day is it today?"

"What day is it?" Tang Baona took out her phone and glanced at it. "February 14th, the 21st day of the first lunar month, Friday. Oh, Valentine's Day?"

"Yes, it's Valentine's Day! If things in Tongshi Town weren't so urgent, why didn't Chef Xiang stay and celebrate Valentine's Day before going?" Yang Zhen'er said. "He should have taken this opportunity to ask you out and have dinner!"

Tang Baona's eyes widened. "Why... why would he ask me out?! I'm not his girlfriend..."

Yang Zhen'er squinted at her friend, giving her a "keep pretending" look. After a while, she continued, "Could it be that Chef Xiang knew about your ostrich personality? On such a special day, if he stayed, it wouldn't be appropriate not to invite you, but he was afraid you wouldn't agree, and that it would be awkward. So he simply used the excuse of things in Tongshi Town to run away first? Hey, looking at it this way, he's just like you, an ostrich!"

"You scoundrel!" Tang Baona couldn't hold back any longer and picked up a stack of documents next to her, throwing them at her friend.

Yang Zhen'er nimbly tilted her head, only to be hit squarely on the forehead. With a yelp, she clutched her head and rolled off the sofa to the floor.

Tang Baona was speechless. She had just casually tossed it to scare Yang Zhen'er, but she hadn't expected the girl to "dodge nimbly" and take the hit face-first.

Fortunately, it was all paper, and I didn't hit it hard, so it probably didn't hurt.

But Yang Zhen'er rubbed her forehead and sat up. Instead of pouncing on her and "fighting" as usual, she sat there in a daze, which made Tang Baona worry. She got up and reached out to touch her head. "What's wrong? Did you hit her too hard?"

Yang Zhen'er simply rested her forehead on Tang Baona's hand, letting her massage it, and then said thoughtfully, "Nana, have you noticed that Chef Xiang 'disappears' for a day or two every few days?"

Tang Baona realized that Yang Zhen'er's forehead was fine and that she had deliberately placed her forehead against her hand. Tang Baona then pushed her away, frowning, and said, "What do you mean by 'missing contact'? Xiang Kun is sometimes busy with his own things and can't eat or play together. That's normal."

"This isn't normal, Nana. When we met Chef Xiang, his company had just gone bankrupt, right? He wasn't working. Why would he have so many things to do?"

"We weren't familiar with each other back then, so of course we wouldn't play together often. Besides, he had a lot of things to do, like games. This game we have now, he actually started working on it a long time ago. Do you remember that voice reading system?" Tang Baona said.

Yang Zhen'er continued, "When we went to visit Chef Xiang later, he often said he was away on business trips, and his phone was either out of service or switched off. But later I talked to Zhang Qian, and during that time Chef Xiang was working on her company's project. She could hardly find Chef Xiang, and neither her company's staff nor the collaborating team had seen Chef Xiang. It was very strange..."

"It's possible he took on other jobs at the same time, and he's going to other places to work with people face-to-face," Tang Baona guessed.

"And another thing, when we message him on WeChat or call him, he often doesn't reply until noon or afternoon, and then says he overslept and didn't see it. But do you still remember when we went to Tongshi Town together? Chef Xiang is the kind of person who goes out for a run and exercise early in the morning when he's traveling or staying in a hotel. How come he often sleeps so late?" Yang Zhen'er got more and more excited as she spoke, recalling the past as she went.

"That's normal. Sometimes, to finish a job, or to watch a movie or play games, you stay up all night. What's so hard to understand... No, Zhen'er, what are you trying to say with all this guessing and speculation?" Tang Baona asked curiously.

"Have you seen the photo Liu Chuang posted in the game group, the one with Brother Bin and Chef Xiang university days? Don't you think Chef Xiang has changed a lot?"

"It's alright, after all, it's been so many years since I graduated from university. I've just lost my hair and gotten a bit more muscular, since I've been working out now," Tang Baona said.

"It's not just compared to the university... Brother Bin also said that Chef Xiang has changed drastically in just a few months." Yang Zhen'er shook her head and said, "I suspect that after Chef Xiang's company went bankrupt, he suddenly had a miraculous encounter, joined some special organization, and then changed so much. This organization might require its members to secretly carry out missions every now and then, so Chef Xiang often disappears and loses contact. After completing the mission, Chef Xiang can gain special abilities, such as cooking, wood carving... Sigh, could it be that Chef Xiang Citong this time wasn't for the restaurant, but to carry out a 'secret mission'?"

"Task my foot!" Tang Baona quickly flicked her forehead with her finger and scolded, "A secret organization that teaches people how to cook and carve wood? Instead of wasting your time imagining things, why don't you help me look at these documents? We have a meeting with Zhang Qian and Lawyer Liang tomorrow. We can't just be clueless. I already agreed with Xiang Kun that we would represent him and liaise with Zhang Qian on this matter."

Yang Zhen'er rubbed her forehead, looking at her innocently. "Didn't we agree before? I'd cook, I'd clean, I'd wash the dishes, and you'd look at all the documents. Then tomorrow, whatever we said or did, I'd just follow your lead, and all I had to do was say 'Me too'?"

"What are you cooking? Didn't you order takeout? Cleaning up is just packing up the takeout containers and throwing them in the trash, right? There are only two soup bowls, a spoon, and two pairs of chopsticks to wash, aren't there? Hey, you've got nothing to do anyway, so why don't you help me? You've worked in finance for so many years, after all," Tang Baona said.

"I'm not idle at all, I'm busy with a lot of things... I asked Chef Xiang to play games with me, and if he doesn't agree, then he might really be on some kind of 'secret mission.' By the way, do you think Chef Xiang might have a lover in Citong and is on a date with someone right now? Uh, that's probably impossible, Chef Xiang doesn't seem like the type to be a womanizer." As Yang Zhen'er spoke, she picked up her phone and sent WeChat to Xiang Kun.

A few minutes later, Yang Zhen'er received Xiang Kun's reply and became excited again. She held the phone screen up to Tang Baona and said, "Nana, look, I wasn't wrong! Chef Xiang said 'I have something to do tonight' again! Knowing his personality, if it were work-related or family-related, he would definitely say it directly. But he only said 'I have something to do' without saying what it is. There must be something fishy going on! He must be doing something he doesn't dare let us know!"

Tang Baona rolled her eyes at her and reached out to ruffle her hair. "If you're not going to help me, then don't bother me, okay? Go play in your room by yourself, okay?"

Yang Zhen'er lay sprawled on the sofa next to her, holding her phone and propping her legs up on the backrest. As she typed, she muttered to herself, "No, I have to tell Lao Xia about this and have him keep an eye on Chef Xiang."

After sending a few WeChat messages to her cousin, Yang Zhen'er instructed, "Lao Xia, you absolutely must find a way to get Chef Xiang out for a late-night snack tonight. This intelligence-gathering mission is entrusted to you!"

A moment later, Xia Libing replied with a panda sleeping Zzz emoji.

"Wake up! I've raised you for a thousand days, and now it's your turn to repay your dear cousin! Go find out Chef Xiang is!"

A moment later, the reply was still a panda Zzz emoji.

"This is a matter of great importance concerning your sister Nana's happiness, wake up and listen to me, be good!"

The reply remains the same, still PandaZzz.

Yang Zhen'er was naturally unaware that at that moment in Citong City, in the house Xia Libing was renting, the one replying to her using Xia Libing's phone was Xiang Kun.

According to the previous cycle, Xiang Kun's next blood-drinking time should be February 15th, which is tomorrow.

The rabbits needed for the blood-drinking exercise were purchased today by him and Lao Xia from a pre-arranged farm, and delivered by a small truck. They are currently in Lao Xia's kitchen.

Yes, the location for this blood-drinking event is planned to be Xia Libing's house. Since I had already told my parents that it was a "business trip," I won't be going home that night and won't need to pretend to be asleep; I'll just stay at Lao Xia's house.

Because he got home very late last night and woke up very early this morning to drive to Purple Huan Mountain to Xiang Kun, Lao Xia wasn't very energetic today and started feeling sleepy after dinner.

Xiang Kun told her to go to sleep first, and catch up on her sleep tonight so she would have the energy to stay up all night tomorrow.

Although Lao Xia now has a way to enter the "world of consciousness" to stay awake and reduce drowsiness, it is still very necessary to conserve energy and get enough sleep beforehand.

Just as Xiang Kun entrusted his phone to Lao Xia for safekeeping after drinking blood and falling into a deep sleep to deal with possible accidents, Xia Libing also handed her phone to Xiang Kun before going to sleep, in case something unexpected happened, such as her third aunt suddenly coming to the door again, so that he could handle it for her by sending a WeChat saying that she was not at home or was outside.

Xiang Kun hadn't expected that instead of receiving a message from his third aunt, he would first receive a series of speculations from Yang Zhen'er about his "secret organization" and "secret mission."

Xiang Kun couldn't help but find it a little funny; he hadn't expected that Yang Zhen'er, who was usually a bit absent-minded, would suddenly be so perceptive.

To be honest, although the conjectures about the so-called "secret organization" and "secret mission" did not match the facts, her line of thinking and direction of suspicion were indeed correct.

After using Lao Xia's phone to deal with Yang Zhen'er in the same way as Lao Xia, Xiang Kun used his own phone to browse through the information Alice had sent him for a while. Around 2 a. m., he began to sense the chopsticks next to Lao Xia's pillow and guide his dream.

This was something he had discussed with Lao Xia beforehand; in the middle of the night, he would begin to dream, with Lao Xia triggering a "Dream Within a Dream."

As for whose dream it triggered, to be honest, neither he nor Lao Xia knew yet. In any case, the intermediary that triggered the dream was on the upper edge of a windowsill on a certain floor of the branch office dormitory, and the person whose dream was triggered was definitely someone in the dormitory.

In the afternoon, Xiang Kun sneaked to the vicinity of the branch office, wrapped a "Super-Linked Object" ball with a "Black Circle Graffiti" and launched it with a slingshot onto the windowsill of a window in the branch office dormitory.

He wanted to use this method to "send a message to the police in a dream."

Prompt the police to go to Purple Huan Mountain and find the bodies of those victims of the "Mutated Parasite," and let their families and friends know their information so that they will no longer be left in that remote mountain cave.