By the River

It's now late February, and the temperature in Star City has warmed up considerably. Even at 11 p. m., it's still around 10 degrees Celsius.

The wind wasn't strong by the river, and the four of them strolled around, wrapped in their coats, and didn't feel cold at all.

At first, Yang Zhen'er was chattering away about how cute and adorable the Little Chubby Girl's "Egg Pie" was, and discussing with Tang Baona whether they should also buy a cat to raise. Should they get a British Shorthair, American Shorthair, Garfield, Ragdoll, or a tabby, or even just adopt a stray cat?

However, as they chatted, after Xia Libing casually mentioned the moonlit river view a few times, Yang Zhen'er's attention also shifted to the river.

"The river view here is really nice. How come we didn't pay much attention to it during the day?" Yang Zhen'er exclaimed, looking at the moon reflected on the river.

"I remember the city where you went to university also had a Riverside Road with a nice view of the river," Xia Libing casually mentioned.

"Oh yeah... right, Nana, Lao Xia, do you remember when I graduated from university and I invited you guys over to hang out? The three of us, plus my three roommates, six of us in total, ate at a riverside food stall and then sang songs over the river. Sigh... except for Lao Xia, who's got a heart of stone, everyone else cried while singing, tears streaming down their faces. It was so embarrassing... no, so touching..."

Yang Zhen'er sniffed and said with a touch of nostalgia, "Nana, the song we sang back then, that one that was so moving, what was it called again? They must be so old now... Where are they now?"

Tang Baona laughed and said, "It's 'Those Flowers.' When I sang it with you guys back then, it reminded me of my graduation, which was quite sad. Sigh, it's been so long since I've had a get-together with my dorm sisters."

As she spoke, she began to hum softly. "That laughter reminds me of my Those Flowers, quietly blooming for me in every corner of my life. I once thought I would always stay by her side, but today we are separated in the vast sea of people."

Even Xia Libing hummed softly, glancing at Xiang Kun out of the corner of her eye as she did so.

Xiang Kun instantly understood Lao Xia's intention.

It must be because he had said before that listening to Tang Baona's songs was particularly easy to evoke emotions, so Lao Xia deliberately wanted to use the riverside environment to evoke Yang Zhen'er and Tang Baona's emotions, to make them recall the scene when they graduated, and then express their feelings, even humming the songs like they did back then, so that he could also be moved by the emotions, and then, due to the effect of "Emotional Assimilation," Lao Xia could also experience that feeling.

The three girls swayed left and right, shoulder to shoulder, and sang "Those Flowers" twice. Then they started singing "You Were Once Young." This song was released the year Tang Baona graduated, coinciding with graduation season, and it became incredibly popular. Later, when Yang Zhen'er graduated, they also sang it with their roommates by the river, and just like them, they cried their eyes out.

Of course, Lao Xia is an exception.

Yang Zhen'er suddenly noticed Xiang Kun, who was smiling as he looked at the river, and said, "Chef Xiang, when you graduated from university, did you hug and cry with Brother Bin and Zicheng? I think you guys in the dorm have a pretty good relationship!"

Xiang Kun noticed that Lao Xia glanced at his cousin. Although Lao Xia's gaze remained unchanged and showed no emotion, Xiang Kun understood that Lao Xia was probably secretly giving Yang Zhen'er a thumbs up in his heart.

Clearly, Lao Xia hoped that Yang Zhen'er's question would help him better immerse himself in the emotions and reminisce about his student days, to see if he could achieve "Emotional Assimilation."

Xiang Kun readily echoed Yang Zhen'er's words, recalling, "I remember the four of us in the dorm ate stir-fry together outside. Abin and another roommate drank four bottles of beer, while Zicheng and I drank Coke. We were all bragging. Oh right, at that time, Zicheng was certain he was going to study abroad and was bragged to us about finding a blonde beauty as a girlfriend, like Scarlett Johansson, hey... Anyway, I remember the atmosphere was quite cheerful. After dinner, Abin took the train that night and left first. The other roommate was going to be with his girlfriend, and Zicheng and I went back to the dorm and played games all night. When I woke up, packed my bags, and left, Zicheng was still asleep..."

Yang Zhen'er asked curiously, "You said you were all bragging while you were eating, so what kind of bragging were you doing, Chef Xiang?"

"Was I just bragging?" Xiang Kun recalled with a laugh, "I said that one day I would lead a team to develop software that everyone would rely on, and a game that everyone would want to play. Anyway, it was just bragging... Chang Bin also said that he wanted to buy an island, and then invite us to go fishing and hunting on the island when we had nothing to do."

"You know what, it seems like you're not far from achieving that goal you were talking about! Our game might actually become 'the game everyone wants to play' in the future!" Tang Baona said with a smile.

"Yes! Yes! There really is hope!" Yang Zhen'er nodded repeatedly, her eyes shining, as if she could see herself becoming a beautiful CEO as well.

Xiang Kun smiled and said, "Although I'm very confident in that game, we still need to face reality. Our game actually has quite a few limitations. At the very least, it can't be used by players in short bursts of free time. A single game takes at least half an hour, and it requires a relatively quiet voice environment, emphasizing immersion. However... this is just the beginning. We can develop more games or related applications in the future..."

As a result, the topic shifted from graduation reflections to the gaming world.

As we chatted, we arrived at the hotel.

Although Lao Xia's expression remained unchanged, Xiang Kun knew that she must be somewhat disappointed that she hadn't been able to experience the Emotional Assimilation of graduation and parting with friends.

In fact, after Xiang Kun figured out Lao Xia's intentions, he also thought about cooperating. However, on the one hand, he didn't feel any sadness or regret when he graduated from university or high school, and he had been seeing Chang Bin and Zi Cheng frequently recently, so it was difficult for him to empathize with them; on the other hand, most of his attention was actually on the river.

For some reason, ever since he started walking along the riverbank, the sound of the water had inexplicably drawn his attention, as if it contained a wealth of information.

He could actually obtain this information with his senses before, but apart from feeling the river water lapping against the riverbank or the boats sailing on the river, he didn't think it had any special significance.

But now this information made him vaguely feel that it conveyed more than he thought, and he speculated that it was because the consumption of the "Mutated Parasite" had resulted in sensory mutations.

So, as Xiang Kun walked, he "listened" to the surface of the river and secretly threw four "Super-Linked Object" beads into the river.

Through these four beads, Xiang Kun further expanded his magnetic field, and then used the feedback from the magnetic field to expand the scope of information he collected, extending the "tentacles" of his perception to the entire river surface and even into the river water.

It wasn't until they were almost at the hotel that Xiang Kun quietly retrieved the four "Super-Linked Object" beads.

Because he was distracted, even though he wanted to go along with Lao Xia, reminisce about his university days, and feel sad about graduation, he couldn't manage it.

Emotions... are not so easy to grasp.

When they arrived at the hotel, Xiang Kun originally planned to book another standard room for Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er, but the two of them refused and wanted to squeeze into a room with Lao Xia.

So Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, and Xia Libing slept in two beds, Xiang Kun himself.

After saying goodnight to the three girls, Xiang Kun returned to his room, went straight to the bathroom, filled the sink with water, and then submerged his head in it.

After a long while, Xiang Kun raised his head from the water, wiped the water off his face, looked at himself in the mirror, and frowned.

He glanced around and saw that the standard rooms only had shower rooms, not bathtubs. After thinking for a moment, he checked the map on his phone, recalled what he had observed by the river, removed his room key, and left the room.