Sleepless Rainy Night (Part 1)

During his recent trip back to Tongshi Town Chongyun Village, Xiang Kun noticed many changes.

There is a lot of construction going on in many places, and even the road leading to Chongyun Village is under construction.

From the time he left Tongshi Town before the Lunar New Year until his arrival this time, only a month had passed, yet one side of the road had already been almost completely paved.

He was quite certain that these projects had not been underway for a month.

Xiang Kun learned from Chu Xiuwen, Liu Caifu, and You Meng that after the New Year, Qi Haoguo began to spend lavishly in Tongshi Town, and all of his investments were for public welfare, such as road construction, donating buildings to schools, and donating to social welfare organizations.

For example, the road in Chongyun Village was partially built by Qi Haoguo, with local merchants from Tongshi Town like Chu Xiuwen contributing the majority of the cost, and villagers from Chongyun Village, such as Liu Caifu, taking on the remaining portion. Construction began quickly.

Then many wealthy businessmen from the provincial capital and rich people from several surrounding counties and towns came to invest.

Those with connections directly contacted the town's leaders, while those without connections invested directly in real estate, catering, and entertainment. Locals followed suit, and many wealthy locals who had previously done business elsewhere also heard the news and began to return to invest in their hometown.

Everyone has heard that there are going to be some major favorable policies coming down from above, and Tongshi Town is about to take off. Now is the perfect time to get involved.

Many shops that were originally going to close down are now holding on and waiting to see what happens. Some businesses that were planning to expand to other places are starting to consider whether there are opportunities in the local area. The impact is chain-like. Tongshi Town, which had been quiet for a long time, has suddenly been stirred up with waves that connect to the rivers.

Although the town leaders were all bewildered, saying they had not received any relevant documents or notifications, the enthusiasm of the people was not dampened. Why else would so many bigwigs from the provincial capital and so many prominent businessmen from other cities and counties bother to come to Tongshi Town to invest money, let alone venture into a remote mountain village like Chongyun Village?

It's not a small investment, but tens of millions of dollars. Who would believe there's no profit involved? Moreover, I've heard there are many more investment intentions, and several big bosses are cooperating with them. There might be several projects worth hundreds of millions in the future.

Especially Mr. Qi, the head of Haoguo Group, who isn't even from Tongshi Town. If he wasn't planning to do big business, why would he donate so much money?

If we don't take advantage of this car that's clearly about to take off, then when Tongshi Town's economy really takes off, no one will care even if we cry.

Money is like water. When there's not much of it, it's nothing and evaporates quickly. But if it reaches a certain level, the water becomes waves, and the money becomes capital, which can create momentum.

Seeing this trend, even the slow-witted officials of Tongshi Town and Jianzhou City knew to follow the trend. As a result, some favorable policies began to leak out after the Lantern Festival, which in turn made some so-called "insiders" feel "as expected" and even more excited, thinking that they were really wise and had a very accurate judgment.

Chu Xiuwen, who had a private conversation with Xiang Kun a few days ago, also mentioned that the province might introduce some industry-specific preferential policies for Tongshi Town and several counties and towns in the northern part of Jianzhou City in the near future, including those for the catering, tourism, and aquaculture industries.

Xiang Kun knew that relevant policies take a long time to develop from proposal to discussion to decision to implementation, and even if they were implemented, they might not have much practical effect. However, given the current trend of capital flow, these policy announcements could bring great confidence and benefits, further promoting the implementation of some projects.

The most obvious sign is the recent success of "Youlong Restaurant." Shops that were previously advertised as "prime location for sale" on the pedestrian street, as well as those that hadn't been rented out for a long time, have all been successfully leased, mostly to restaurants. The pedestrian street seems to have come back to life, even though the actual foot traffic hasn't increased significantly.

According to Chu Xiuwen, the official plan is to take advantage of the situation and develop Tongshi Town into a town known for its food. By strengthening the promotion of "Copperstone cuisine," they aim to capitalize on the popularity of the nearby 5A-level scenic spot Wushu Mountain, and encourage tourists to "casually" visit Tongshi Town after enjoying the beautiful scenery of Wushu Mountain, thereby boosting the development of related industries.

Under normal circumstances, there's no way this would work. Otherwise, the government would have already rolled out a bunch of policies to make Tongshi Town take off. Tongshi Town has been trying to ride on Wushu Mountain's popularity for more than just a year or two.

However, this time, with the help of private capital, the government is also looking to take advantage of the situation to push it up again.

Of course, just like beautiful scenery, "delicious food" isn't enough; it needs to be of high quality and have substance. The most important thing is that it has depth, a reputation, and a "story."

Clearly, according to Chu Xiuwen's idea, the online buzz Xiang Kun and You Meng's "Youlong Restaurant," along with the quality of its dishes and the unique features it presents, are all very suitable to be the main promotional tool for the "Copperstone Cuisine" brand.

It doesn't matter if Tongshi Town doesn't have any widely known delicacies or a tradition of eating rabbit meat; stories are told by people, and in the internet age, anything is possible.

Xiang Kun thought back to the pie he had promised Liu Caifu. Unexpectedly, it had started to come true without him even realizing it. When he came to Liu Caifu before the New Year to plan the "Pie 2.0" project, he had deliberately reduced Liu Caifu's expectations significantly. But judging from the current results, it was developing in the direction of the blueprint from "Pie 1.0".

Xiang Kun pondered that if the catering industry, with the support of the government and capital, truly developed on a large scale, the aquaculture industry, which Chongyun Village was vigorously supporting, would inevitably follow suit, and he could then subtly conceal his subsequent actions within this context.

Chu Xiuwen and Liu Caifu both had their own guesses and opinions about why this wave of private capital was flowing into Tongshi Town. Moreover, when they talked about this topic in private, Xiang Kun keenly sensed their hesitant and cautious attempts to "test" his intentions.

After reviewing and analyzing previous information and the experiences of everyone, including Qi Haoguo, Xiang Kun also had his own guesses about the reasons why this wave of capital was flowing into Tongshi Town.

The most crucial reason, or rather, the driving force behind it, was Qi Haoguo.

It was precisely because of his series of abrupt capital actions, coupled with the unintentional "fueling" by Chu Xiuwen, Liu Feibao, Liu Caifu and others in Tongshi Town, that many "insiders" who were unaware of the truth and controlled capital had a misconception and made a misjudgment.

However, when the number of people with misconceptions increases, misjudgment becomes correct judgment. Once the momentum starts, most people become convinced of their judgment, ultimately leading to the situation we see today.

Of course, Xiang Kun was well aware that Qi Haoguo's behavior was not simply a matter of capitalism; in essence, it was still the lingering influence of the emotional projection he had received earlier in Tongshi Town from the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving."

Based on past experiments and observations, people affected by the emotional projection of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" are able to overcome their fears and begin to reshape their mental world after confronting the source of their fears.

Undoubtedly, what Qi Haoguo is doing now is part of his process of self-reconstruction, and also an attempt to explore or even "please" Xiang Kun.

However, Qi Haoguo neither secretly sent people to investigate nor made contact with Liu Feibao, Chu Xiuwen and others in private. Instead, he returned to Tongshi Town in this way, which was obviously still intimidated by what the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" projection had said to him.

Qi Haoguo, with this kind of mentality, poses no threat to Xiang Kun; in fact, to some extent, he could even become an asset to him.

Moreover, for Qi Haoguo himself, the current situation is more advantageous than disadvantageous. In fact, he might end up gaining substantial benefits and a good impression from the authorities by spending money to do good deeds in Tongshi Town, the latter being even more important.

Xiang Kun wasn't afraid that Qi Haoguo would change his attitude towards him in the future. The "Super-Sensing Item System" was constantly evolving and becoming stronger with him, and the "Emotion-Infused Object Projection System" under the "Super-Sensing Item System" was naturally also getting stronger.

If Qi Haoguo harbors any ill intentions again, Xiang Kun wouldn't mind letting him meet with the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster" again to catch up.

Of course, at present, this possibility is almost zero.

The pickup truck drove smoothly on the village road of Chongyun Village, which had already been paved. Xiang Kun glanced at Xia Libing in the passenger seat. She had fallen asleep not long after the pickup truck left the pedestrian street parking lot.

Throughout the journey, Xiang Kun maintained a very stable speed. With his current sensory abilities and brain calculation capabilities, he was able to anticipate road conditions very well, rarely having to brake suddenly. Even when going over speed bumps, he could pass through at the optimal speed that the car and suspension coordinated, minimizing the bumps that Lao Xia experienced and reducing the frequency and magnitude of changes in driving conditions.

Of course, the most important factor in ensuring Lao Xia's comfort is the passenger seat.

When the pickup truck was taken to the repair shop after it was bought, most of the replacement parts were selected and inspected by Xiang Kun, since he wanted to try to establish connections.

What he put the most effort into was the car seats.

Knowing that Xia Libing would be the most frequent passenger in the car, Xiang Kun chose seats with the goal of ensuring Lao Xia's comfort, and other modifications to the car's interior followed the same principle.

Xiang Kun Lao Xia the seat based entirely on his preferences, considering factors such as the firmness of the foam filling, the material of the seat upholstery, the shape of the backrest, the position of the lumbar support, and the length of the seat cushion.

He also had power-adjustable driver and passenger seats added, so that Lao Xia could easily adjust the backrest angle and find a more comfortable position. Sometimes when she needed to drive, the driver's seat could also be adjusted easily.

Looking back now, the money and effort spent were worthwhile. At least in the last few times Lao Xia rode in the car, Xiang Kun could clearly sense that she was very relaxed, and she even fell asleep in the car three times.

The pickup truck drove into Chongyun Village and, after passing through several narrow village roads, stopped outside a detached courtyard house, which was the self-built house he had rented from a villager in Chongyun Village.

The original owner went to Jianzhou City to help his son and daughter-in-law take care of their grandson and didn't even come back for the Spring Festival. So the place has been vacant all this time, and generally no one comes to Chongyun Village to rent houses, so the rent is not high. Therefore, Xiang Kun rented it for a very cheap price. Of course, if it weren't for Liu Caifu's introduction, it wouldn't be so easy for other out-of-towners to rent it for a short period of time.

Liu Caifu originally wanted Xiang Kun and Lao Xia to stay at his house. Anyway, there were hardly any people at his house now, it was very empty and spacious. Not to mention the two of them, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, Zicheng, Zhang Qian and others could also stay there without any problem.

However, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia have many "shady" experiments that need to be done privately, so it's better for them to rent a house themselves. Once the "Research Base" is ready, they can move in directly there.

Xiang Kun got out of the car, opened the gate, drove the pickup truck into the yard and parked it before waking Lao Xia and telling her to go inside and sleep.

Xiang Kun has an experiment tonight that requires Lao Xia's help, which will definitely be very late. It would be better for him to get a good night's sleep now.

Lao Xia wasn't being coy. With his eyes still half-closed, he got out of the car in a daze and went straight to the bedroom. Once inside, he kicked off his shoes, rolled himself up in the blanket, and fell asleep instantly.

After closing the courtyard gate, Xiang Kun went to another room to check on the condition of the queen ant "Zero Zero Two," while the worker ant "Zero Zero One" was in a "free-range" state and was currently "teasing" a centipede in the corner of the yard.

After becoming familiar with how to influence the appearance of two ants through "Hyper-Sensory State," Xiang Kun began to try to enable the two ants to "invoke" the emotional projection of "Emotion-Infused Object" with his assistance—which was one of the main purposes of his experiments.

However, after trying for a long time, I still couldn't find a clue.

Xiang Kun wasn't particularly frustrated by this, since "Gold Glitter" couldn't independently "call upon" the emotional projection of "Emotion-Infused Object," and could only help "Little Apple" spread the effects of emotional projection.

In comparison, ants have far fewer ways to influence humans through their senses, and the ability to spread this emotional projection is likely much smaller.

As Xiang Kun was pondering whether he could make "Zero Zero Two" produce a specific type of worker ants, and the colony could generate sensory information in a specific way to influence humans and thus spread emotional projection, he suddenly heard footsteps outside the yard.