Officer Zhao's Confession

All afternoon, until dinner, Xia Libing sat in front of her laptop, watching the funny videos in Xiang Kun's favorites folder, rewatching almost all of them.

She also asked Xiang Kun to find some other funny videos of similar genres to rule out the possibility that the previous videos had already been watched and thus affected the overall effect.

After listening to Xiang Kun's "analysis" and "advice," Xia Libing did not imitate her previous smile again, but only tried to evoke that emotional experience again.

However, Xia Libing didn't smile even once throughout the entire afternoon.

Without Xiang Kun's "Emotional Assimilation" to her, she really couldn't generate any "funny" or "joyful" emotions from these funny videos that ranged from a few seconds to a few minutes long.

Even those videos that made me laugh so hard when I watched them with Xiang Kun before, now when I watch them alone, I don't feel anything at all.

She kept recalling how she felt when she and Xiang Kun watched these videos.

But although I can recall those feelings and emotions, I can't reconnect them with the videos and evoke those emotions when I watch those scenes.

This feeling is very disjointed, like you clearly see a roasted chicken wing in front of you, but you can't reach it no matter what you do. Every time you reach out, the position is slightly off, as if you are not in the same spatial dimension.

This experience also made Xia Libing very tired from watching videos.

One moment she tried to match the previous emotions with the current video, the next she tried to find the funny parts in the new video, and then she compared the time Xiang Kun laughed in the recorded video to find the corresponding segments in the video, analyzed why those images and sounds made Xiang Kun laugh, and even seriously asked him why he laughed.

Xiang Kun knew that perceiving emotions was extremely important to Lao Xia, just as important as exploring the cause of the mutation. So when Lao Xia tried to find that joyful emotion again through various methods, he fully cooperated, answering every question and sharing all his knowledge.

Besides, he was also thinking about whether there were any other ways he could help Lao Xia.

Especially since he just devoured that "Mutated Parasite," he might be able to develop and derive some abilities to assist or guide the establishment of emotions.

However, these are matters for the future and require careful consideration.

In the short term, right now, there are other ways to "support" Lao Xia, such as... cooking dinner.

For dinner, Xiang Kun Lao Xia's favorite "crispy pork knuckle". After the second "Emotional Assimilation" in the afternoon, he ordered pork knuckle and other ingredients through the local supermarket's fresh food ordering app.

I didn't buy much, but it was all food that Lao Xia likes to eat.

In addition, there was still some rabbit meat that had been processed after the last blood-drinking ceremony in the refrigerator, so this dinner was quite sumptuous.

At seven o'clock in the evening, Xiang Kun the dishes to the table one by one, called Lao Xia to the table, and before she began to eat, he instructed her:

"When you eat, carefully experience the emotions that arise from the delicious food and the satisfaction of hunger, and compare them with the funny, particularly joyful emotions you feel when I 'Emotional Assimilation. What are the perceptual differences? While you eat, I will also enter a' Hyper-Sensory State's to carefully perceive any changes in your cognitive information."

Xia Libing nodded seriously, then washed her hands, sat back down at the table, and began to eat the delicious food.

When Xia Libing was under the influence of Xiang Kun's "Emotional Assimilation," she was unable to focus on comparing her own emotions while eating. Similarly, when Xiang Kun was immersed in his emotions, he was unable to enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" to perceive and recognize information.

Only when Lao Xia is in a spontaneous emotional state can the two of them conduct "checks" through their respective states.

So, from noon until late at night, from lunch to dinner and then to midnight snack, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia were focused on the "topic" of "emotional perception".

Although no breakthrough has been made, Lao Xia still hasn't found a way to perceive those emotions on his own without Xiang Kun's "Emotional Assimilation." However, he has formed a relatively clear concept of emotions such as "joy," "funny," and "so funny," which can be considered progress.

Around 1 a. m., Xia Libing washed up and went to bed.

However, this does not mean the end of their day, but only the beginning of another "project," only this "research site" has moved into a dream.

They wanted to try to "visit" Officer Zhao in a dream to find out why Mi Qiao was arrested and what happened afterward.

Xiang Kun didn't immediately induce a dream through "Emotion-Infused Object." Firstly, he wanted Lao Xia to get some sleep, and secondly, he wasn't sure if their "dream target," Officer Zhao, was asleep at this time. After all, they had caught Mi Qiao today, and if they were to conduct a surprise interrogation overnight, he might still be working.

It wasn't until after 3 a. m. that Xiang Kun entered Lao Xia's dream. After Lao Xia "woke up" in the dream, he triggered a "Dream Within a Dream" by leaving Black Circle Graffiti on the upper edge of Officer Zhao's dormitory window.

To be honest, Xiang Kun was initially a little worried, fearing that Officer Zhao might not have gone back to his dormitory to sleep, or that someone else might have gone to his dormitory to sleep, thus failing to "send a message" to the target.

But as it turns out, his luck... or rather, Lao Xia's luck, was quite good, and the "Dream Within a Dream" that he triggered came from Officer Zhao.

Even more fortunately, the "original dream" triggered in Officer Zhao was the scene of him and his partner interrogating Mi Qiao —clearly, before going to sleep, the thing he was most concerned about and focused on most was Mi Qiao's case.

Of course, Xiang Kun was also well aware that the scenes and dialogues shown in the dream were merely Officer Zhao's subconscious perceptions, containing many subjective judgments from the subconscious, and not necessarily the reality he actually saw and heard.

However, with Lao Xia, this "psychological 'engineer'" and "dream 'editor'," around, these are naturally not problems.

With Lao Xia's various guidances in the dream and Xiang Kun's full "technical support," the "long" dream finally came to an end.

Xiang Kun opened his eyes, and after breaking free from the dream's perception, he couldn't help but let out a long breath.

Guided by Lao Xia in the "Dream Within a Dream," Xiang Kun learned a great deal of crucial information about Mi Qiao, and from this he came up with many conjectures and speculations.

These conjectures and speculations can help him further determine the secrets of "Shenxing Technology," "Mr. Liang," and their behavioral patterns.

But at this moment, Xiang Kun, who had just finished perceiving the dream, was most impressed by Officer Zhao's dream at the very end, when Lao Xia made Officer Zhao recall and reproduce "the funniest thing he had ever experienced" in order to help him forget the dream that had led him to his real memories.

Xiang Kun guessed that Lao Xia's dream guidance was largely due to the fact that he hadn't felt anything after watching so many funny videos in the afternoon and evening, and wanted to see what other people's experiences and feelings were like.

To Xiang Kun's surprise, the funniest thing Officer Zhao had ever experienced was actually the scene when he confessed his feelings to the girl he liked in high school.

Officer Zhao and a girl in a dream, whose face was blurry but who was very tall and wearing a school uniform, stood alone on the edge of the green belt by the school playground.

Officer Zhao was nervously reciting his confession.

The confession was simple, unoriginal, and even a bit cheesy. It was something like, "When did I first see you? Why did I start liking you? Can we be together?"

After he finished reading, the noise from the distant playground seemed very far away in the dream, and the whole environment fell into silence.

Although Xiang Kun had little experience in dating and hadn't studied much theory, he could tell from his understanding of human nature and normal psychology that since the girl stood quietly without leaving while the high school student Xiao Zhao read out his cheesy, minute-long confession, it proved that she at least didn't dislike Xiao Zhao.

This is clearly an atmosphere of ambiguity, the stench of love, the smell of PDA, and sweet memories!

Could it be that Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream" hypnosis and memory guidance had some flaws?

But the next moment, a long and melodious fart sound suddenly rang out in the dream.

It seemed that because he had been holding it in for a while, and Officer Zhao had deliberately kept his breath clenched, the fart sound was surprisingly long, persistent, and even varied in pitch.

It turns out that the long fart after the confession was the core of this dream memory.

Even after the dream perception ended, Xiang Kun couldn't help but laugh so hard his shoulders twitched when he recalled the dream.

He didn't know how Officer Zhao's unique confession would end; the dream didn't reveal the outcome.

However, the vivid details of the farting sound in the dream reveal the key aspects of Officer Zhao's memory of the confession.

Xiang Kun, who experienced all of this through the means of perception of dreams, also laughed uncontrollably after the dream ended. "Officer Zhao's tragic confession" was funnier than all the funny videos he had watched that day.