Super Alice (Part 1)

When Xia Tianhuo recounted his kidnapping and escape experience, Yang Zhen'er was naturally the most interested.

While listening, she took out her phone in the car and started jotting down keywords using the "Notes" app, occasionally asking questions based on her earlier thoughts.

Besides Yang the Third, Tang Baona and Li Yang were also listening intently.

After all, it was a case of a Chinese citizen being kidnapped overseas, which was rare to begin with. The whole process was quite dramatic with many twists and turns, and it was Xia Tianhuo, a witness and party involved, who was telling the story. It wasn't something you could hear just anywhere. Even Li Yang, an associate professor and intellectual from a university, turned his body halfway around in the passenger seat to listen, as if he were in gossip mode.

"... At that moment, I suddenly felt as if the boat was fixed in place, not stopped, and the feeling was different from when it was docked. I couldn't feel the boat moving, there was no undulation on the water. Then, I heard strange gnawing sounds, a creaking, spine-chilling friction sound, people shouting, and... gunshots."

Xia Tianhuo truthfully recounted his experiences on the ship, omitting only his psychological feelings and past memories, but also describing all his objective sensory experiences.

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhen'er immediately became excited and hurriedly asked, "You said you heard a gnawing sound? What exactly did it sound like? Was it 'crunch crunch crunch crunch,' 'hiss hiss hiss hiss,' or 'crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch'?"

Xia Tianhuo was taken aback, thought for a moment, and said, "It should be 'crunch crunch'... no, 'crunch crunch'... that doesn't seem right either. Anyway, it sounds like a bunch of insects gnawing on a biscuit at the same time."

Sitting on the other side, Tang Baona couldn't help but lean her head against the back of the seat in front of her and burst into laughter, her whole body shaking with laughter. "Oh my god, I can't take it anymore! You two siblings are too funny! You turned what was supposed to be a dangerous and tense kidnapping case into a comedy routine, 'In the capital, there is a skilled ventriloquist, clack clack clack...'"

Yang Zhen'er frowned, reached out and pinched Tang Baona's waist through the Little Apple: "Nana, be serious, I'm asking a serious question, okay? This is very important."

As she spoke, she turned to Xia Tianhuo in front of her and asked, "Why does it feel like the ship has stopped? Have you sailed onto some island or reef?"

"It's not a game... What do you mean by sailing onto an island? That's called running aground!... We didn't run aground, and we probably didn't hit anything either. It was just that something went wrong for a while." Xia Tianhuo recalled, "I asked the last surviving kidnapper, and he said that a 'sea monster' boarded the ship, with many hands and many eyes... But it was probably just a hallucination, because there wasn't a single trace left on the ship."

"So many hands! So many eyes?" Yang Zhen'er's spirits lifted again upon hearing this, and she almost jumped up. She quickly jotted down those six words in her phone's memo app, and then continued to press, "The sea monster he saw, it wouldn't be the same as the one that appeared in Montamira on the night of March 8th, would it?"

"I didn't ask him in detail while he was on the ship; he had passed out. But later, I heard from people at the embassy that the 'sea monster' he described to the police was indeed very similar to the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusion that appeared in Montamira. Moreover... after the 'sea monster' appeared, his feelings were the same as those of the people in Montamira who had seen the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusion. So we all guessed that the 'sea monster' seen by the kidnappers and other crew members on the ship and the 'Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant' in Montamira might essentially be the same thing," Xia Tianhuo said.

Yang Zhen'er looked at Lao Xia, who was sitting in front of Tang Baona and constantly scrolling through his phone. "Lao Xia, Lao Xia! What do you think?"

She didn't ask Xiang Kun, not only because Xiang Kun was driving and might not pay attention to her, but also because, based on their previous probing exchanges, she could guess with her own eyes that if she asked Xiang Kun, he would definitely answer, "Oh, didn't I tell you? Our secret organization's affairs must be kept secret!"

Xia Libing put down her phone and turned to look at Xia Tianhuo: "Were you locked in the cabin and restricted in your freedom?"

Xia Tianhuo nodded. "Yes, they tied me to a chair."

"Can you see? Is there light in the cabin?"

"I can't see, my eyes are covered."

"How long has it been since you were kidnapped? How are you feeling? Have you eaten anything?"

After Xia Tianhuo answered all his questions, Lao Xia said, "So, you were kidnapped for over thirty hours, transported by rough seas from Montamira to the ship, thirsty and hungry, and realizing that the kidnappers were extremely ruthless and highly likely to kill you, you were filled with anxiety. You were tied to a chair and blindfolded. Under such circumstances, if you heard a commotion and gunshots outside, it's perfectly normal to hear other strange sounds and have strange feelings."

Before Xia Tianhuo, Yang Zhen'er couldn't sit still any longer and immediately said, "He heard the crackling and gnawing sound first, and then he heard the gunshots and shouts!"

Xia Libing looked at her cousin. "Are you sure you heard the gnawing sound first?"

"This..." Xia Tianhuo hesitated.

Yang Zhen'er immediately added, "Even if 'Big Guy' was locked in the cabin, didn't the kidnapper say he saw a sea monster? A sea monster with many hands and many eyes! That can't be a coincidence!"

Xia Libing turned to Tang Baona, who was sitting behind her, and asked, "When you think of sea monsters, what's the first animal that comes to mind?"

Tang Baona paused for a second before subconsciously saying, "Octopus? Squid? Octopus?"

Xia Libing looked at Yang Zhen'er: "What are the characteristics of a squid?"

"Uh... squid do have a lot of tentacles, but... but they don't have many eyes, do they?" Yang Zhen'er argued.

"Really? How many eyes does a squid have?"

"There are... two... I guess?" Yang Zhen'er said uncertainly in response to Lao Xia's question.

Are you sure squid only have two eyes?

"Ah... do squid... have many eyes too?" Yang Zhen'er couldn't help but take out her phone to look up pictures of squid.

Sitting in the passenger seat, listening intently, Li Yang chuckled and said, "Squid have two eyes."

Xia Libing continued, "Squid only have two eyes, but if it crawls out of the water, what do the people on the boat see first? The suckers on its tentacles, don't they look like eyes? He only said many hands and many eyes, but he didn't say eight hands and eight eyes."

"But when the kidnapper later described it to the police, it was almost exactly like the illusion of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant in Montamira!" Yang Zhen'er added.

Xia Libing asked Xia Tianhuo, "Did the kidnapper reveal the details of the 'Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant' illusion on his own initiative, or did the police tell him what the 'Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant' illusion looked like, or even show him a hypothetical image before questioning him?"

"Uh... well, I'm not quite sure," Xia Tianhuo said.

"So, what Lao Xia means is that the surviving kidnapper deliberately imagined a 'sea monster' to explain what happened on the ship. Later, when the Myanmar police mentioned the 'Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant' illusion in Montamira, he just went along with it and combined the 'sea monster' he saw with that giant illusion?" Tang Baona said thoughtfully.

Yang Zhen'er still refused to believe this conclusion. "But why? What was his motive for doing this?"

"Only the kidnapper knows what really happened on the ship and why they killed each other. If the truth is against him and he can't come up with a completely reasonable and rigorous explanation, then introducing an unverifiable 'sea monster illusion' to explain all the phenomena might be an easier way to absolve himself of responsibility," Xia Libing said.

Tang Baona suddenly realized, "Reality is more terrifying than 'illusion,' so we use 'illusion' to explain reality! Zhen'er, just like in <Life of Pi>, the 'sea monster' is the tiger!"

Yang Zhen'er looked at Nana, then at Xia Tianhuo, then at Lao Xia, and hesitated before saying, "I still feel something's not right. Lao Xia, how can you be so sure there's no 'sea monster'...?"

Xia Libing said, "I didn't say there's no 'sea monster.' I was just suggesting another possibility. You can decide for yourselves which possibility is true."

"What about Montamira's illusion of the 'Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant'? So many people have seen it, so it can't be that all those who saw it made it up or lied!" Yang Zhen'er quickly added.

"I don't know about that," Xia Libing said. "My guess just now only concerned what happened on that ship."

Xia Tianhuo seemed to suddenly remember something and quickly said, "That's right! Before I returned to China, I heard from people in Myanmar that the person behind the kidnapping of those domestic fugitives was a Myanmar Wu Lun in Montamira, a guy who ran a borderline business. On the night of March 8th, he was in a standoff with some other forces when that Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusion appeared. Suddenly, his men left on the periphery said they wanted to leave the organization, and a conflict broke out. Wu Lun was killed by his men. So I have a feeling... that the 'Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusion' appearing in Montamira, could it be... to avenge me?"

When he said the last sentence, his tone was a little uncertain, but his eyes glanced at Lao Xia, who had picked up his phone again and was scrolling through pictures of large experimental equipment.

Yang Zhen'er, who had been somewhat confused by Lao Xia's words, perked up again and said, "Could it be that the 'Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant' and the 'sea monster' are the guardian spirits of the 'Big Guy' or something? Hmm, 'Those who offend my Xia Tianhuo, though far away, shall be punished, an eye for an eye, and repaid double!'"

Tang Baona laughed and said, "What you said just now seemed plausible, but how did it suddenly turn into a fantasy story? This is even worse than the secret organization setting you made up last time!"

As she spoke, she noticed that "Little Apple," sitting between her and Yang Zhen'er, had her hands clasped together, her toes tapping rhythmically, biting her lower lip, and her eyes crinkling as if she was trying to suppress a laugh. She couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Yang the Third, look at the fantasy stories you're telling, even 'Little Apple' can't stand them anymore."

Upon hearing this, "Little Apple" quickly replied, "No, no! Actually, I quite agree with what Third Sister... uh, Sister Zhen'er said. I heard from the news that the Chinese tourists in Montamira said that the appearance of that 'giant' saved them and stopped the riot. So whether that 'giant' was an illusion or something else, it must be 'good,' and maybe it really is like Zhen'er said, a 'guardian spirit' of our people!"

She naturally knew the truth about Montamira's "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant" illusion; Xiang Kun had already secretly told her.

Knowing that Xiang Kun used the "eight arms and eight eyes" she was "familiar with" to stop the riots and save many Chinese people in Montamira, she felt "honored" as well. So for a while, she especially liked to listen to videos posted online by Chinese tourists who had experienced the Montamira mass hallucinations, to hear them thank the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant" for appearing, to hear them describe the grandeur and size of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant," and to hear their various speculations.

Although Xiang Kun hadn't told her about rescuing Xia Tianhuo, as soon as she heard Xia Tianhuo's description, she knew that the one who rescued him at sea must have been Xiang Kun again, the one with "eight arms and eight eyes".

So when Yang Zhen'er and the others were talking about that topic, she actually found it quite amusing and even wanted to join in the conversation several times, but she was afraid that if she got carried away and let something slip, she would reveal the secret, so she had to hold back.

"Sigh, 'Little Apple,' you're so good to your older sister. Nana's thinking is too rigid; she can't understand these supernatural phenomena," Yang Zhen'er sighed, putting her arm around "Little Apple's" shoulder.

Tang Baona was both amused and exasperated. "'Little Apple' just said a few words of comfort to you, and you're really getting cocky? Are you going to use this 'guardian spirit' theory to seek approval from Little Bell later?"

The three girls in the third row were chatting and laughing when Li Yang, in the passenger seat, said, "Speaking of the giant illusion in Montamira, I've talked about it with some colleagues at our school before. Regardless of their discipline or research direction, everyone is very interested in it. It's definitely not a hoax; there must be some special reason causing this collective hallucination. This matter isn't just attracting attention from ordinary netizens; it's also caused quite a stir in academic and research circles. Just as far as I know, many universities and research institutions have sent people to Montamira."

As he spoke, he then described to the passengers his and some colleagues' interpretations of the Montamira mass hallucination event from their respective professional perspectives in a relatively straightforward and conversational manner.

Continuing from the previous topic, we chatted with Yang Zhen'er and Xia Tianhuo about some legends related to "sea monsters" that once existed in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

They chatted and joked along the way, and soon they returned to Tongshi Town.

Instead of taking everyone directly to their accommodation in Chongyun Village, Xiang Kun first went to the Youlong Restaurant in Tongshi Town for dinner.

Nowadays, "Youlong Restaurant" is a well-known restaurant not only on that pedestrian street, but also throughout Tongshi Town. It is even a very famous online celebrity restaurant. Many tourists who come to Wushu Mountain will make a special trip to Tongshi Town to eat the rabbit meat at "Youlong Restaurant", making it an important "food check-in point".

Today, in addition to "Youlong Restaurant", there are eight other rabbit meat restaurants of different sizes on this pedestrian street, and several others are under renovation and preparing to open.

The promotion of "Copperstone Meat" has begun to expand outwards through cooperation with local authorities and many businesses.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, there would definitely be a queue at "Youlong Restaurant" during mealtimes. However, as half the hosts, Xiang Kun and his group had reserved a private room in advance, and they sat down directly upon arrival.

Zi Cheng and his girlfriend Chu Xiaoting were already waiting in the private room. When they saw Yang Zhen'er carrying a birdcage as she walked in, Chu Xiaoting was quite surprised and got up to go over. "Wow! What kind of bird is that? Is it a parrot? It's so beautiful!"

"It's not a parrot, it's a canary! Miss Chu, you've failed biology!" Yang Zhen'er said, placing the birdcage on the corner table.

Chu Xiaoting was even more surprised, bending down to look at "Gold Glitter" in the birdcage. "Such a fat canary? I thought canaries were all small..."

Zi Cheng also asked in surprise, "Is this the 'Gold Glitter' that Xiang Kun used to raise? How come it's so fat? It's huge!"

Xiang Kun laughed and said, "It's all thanks to 'Little Apple.' She wasn't this fat when she was with me."

Chu Xiaoting lingered near the birdcage, playing with "Gold Glitter" for a while, then suddenly laughed, "Why do I feel like it's a little disgusted with me? Oh, oh, oh, it turned around and pooped..."

Zicheng quickly pulled his girlfriend away. "Canaries are very timid, don't scare it. Could this be a stress reaction?"

Yang Zhen'er laughed and said, "Don't worry, 'Gold Glitter' has flown on airplanes before, he's seen the world, and he's very brave. Right, 'Little Apple'?"

"Little Apple" took out a pre-portioned bag of birdseed from her small backpack, went over to feed "Gold Glitter," and said with a smile, "'Gold Glitter' has a bad temper, so it won't be scared, but it's quite petty. If you upset it, it might turn around and play tricks on you."

"Gold Glitter" ate a few bites of birdseed, then looked up and chirped twice, seemingly expressing its dissatisfaction.

Chu Xiaoting exclaimed in surprise, "This bird seems to understand human emotions! It's like it can understand what you're saying. Are canaries really that smart?" Then she said to Zicheng, "I want to keep one too."

"You should recover first," Zicheng said with a laugh, before being pinched hard on the waist.

Xia Tianhuo watched as "Little Apple" did everything herself, from getting the birdseed to feeding the birds, and she became increasingly amazed. Could she really do it all by just hearing? How could she so accurately pinpoint the location of the birdcage and the feeding trough without even needing to reach out and check?

He sat by the window in the private room, noticing the customers waiting in line outside with their numbers, and exclaimed, "Your restaurant is amazing! So many people are queuing up..."

Li Yang laughed and said, "Mr. Xia, if you follow their 'Youlong Teases Rabbits' video account on Bilibili, you'll see how popular they are. Not to mention the locals, there are probably quite a few diners from all over the country who come specifically to try their food every day."

Xia Tianhuo initially thought they were just good at marketing, but after eating several of the restaurant's classic signature rabbit dishes, his perception changed, and he realized that the restaurant had become popular "on its own merit."

"How is it? Is it delicious?" Yang Zhen'er asked her cousin with a smile.

Xia Tianhuo nodded. "It really is delicious. Could it be related to the quality of the rabbit meat here? I've eaten rabbit meat before, but it didn't taste as tender as this. Could it be that the breeding Research Base that Lao Xia and Xiang Kun set up in Chongyun Village is specifically for researching how to raise these kinds of meat rabbits?"

"What you've eaten is already a castrated version. You'll only know what 'delicious' means once you've tasted Chef Xiang's rabbit meat!" Yang Zhen'er said smugly, as if she were the one who made the rabbit meat.

"A castrated version?" Xia Tianhuo glanced at the piece of rabbit meat he had picked up and frowned. "I've never heard of casting up rabbits for meat. Isn't casting up more troublesome?"

Yang Zhen'er was taken aback, then glared at him. "You mean the incomplete version! The half-finished version! Not that the rabbit was castrated! Your comprehension..."

Xia Tianhuo, disregarding his argument with his cousin about the definition of "castration," exclaimed in surprise, "Does Chef Xiang mean Xiang Kun? Can Xiang Kun's cooking be much better than this?" He had actually heard that Xiang Kun was a great cook before he met Xiang Kun at the beginning of the year, but at that time he just thought that Xiang Kun was an amateur who could cook well.

The rabbit meat at "Youlong Restaurant" tonight was arguably the best he had ever eaten. The seasoning was a unique flavor he had never tasted before, which amazed him. But judging from Yang Zhen'er's words, it seemed that the rabbit dishes at this restaurant were developed by Xiang Kun, and that Xiang Kun himself could make them even better than the restaurant's? Wouldn't that mean he was a professional chef? A real master chef? Wasn't he just a very skilled programmer?

"Of course! After you taste Chef Xiang's cooking tomorrow, you'll know what 'truly delicious' means!" Yang Zhen'er said confidently.

Xiang Kun laughed and said, "Yang the Third, stop bragging. Don't assume everyone is as gluttonous as you!"

Although Xiang Kun said this, Xia Tianhuo noticed that everyone else in the private room, except for Xiang Kun, including Lao Xia, Tang Baona, Li Yang, and even "Little Apple," all had an expression of agreement with what Yang Zhen'er said.

After finishing their meal, Xiang Kun and the You Meng, said goodbye to Zi Cheng, and then drove the MPV to Chongyun Village.

The road leading to Chongyun Village has been repaired, and the roads in the village have also undergone some renovation and planning. Many streetlights have been added, and surveillance cameras have been installed at several intersections. These were recently donated to Chongyun Village by Xiang Kun in the name of "Universe Technology" for the safety of the village, and the village has been connected to the "Skynet Project".

So even though it was past 10 p. m. when we arrived at the village, the road was still well-lit, and the surveillance cameras at the intersections gave even first-time visitors a greater sense of security.

Xiang Kun deliberately drove past the Research Base construction site, which was still brightly lit and had several workers on the job. A short, stocky, dark-skinned young man who had been smoking at the entrance of the construction site immediately stubbed out his cigarette and ran over to wait by the roadside when he saw their car.

"Mr. Xiang, have you returned with the person you picked up?" the young man asked, leaning close to the window after the MPV stopped.

I haven't even gotten to the title yet... so it seems a bit off-topic...