I Had a Dream Last Night

Compared to his younger brother Liu Gaoshang, Liu Zhengyi felt a much stronger sense of awe towards Xiang Kun.

In fact, he hadn't actually seen what Xiang Kun was doing directly, but based on his observations from the sidelines, his opinion of how powerful people treated Xiang Kun, and his intuition at times, he drew some conclusions of his own.

At first, he just thought that Xiang Kun must be a very important and influential person. He must be someone who could make Liu Feibao bow down and fawn over him, someone who could be valued by Liu Caifu and Chu Xiuwen, and someone who could be avoided by "President Qi," who was several levels above Liu Feibao. He must be no ordinary person.

After Xiang Kun moved to Chongyun Village, the increasing flow of capital into Tongshi Town and Chongyun Village made him vaguely realize that Xiang Kun's social status was likely much higher than he had previously guessed.

Moreover, many things that happened later, along with occasional chats with Chu Xiuwen in the village, and the meanings he gleaned from Chu Xiuwen's words and attitudes, gave him another layer of understanding of Xiang Kun.

Whether it's the lightning striking the fugitive, the thick fog suddenly obscuring the entire village, the unidentified flying object in the fog, or the little girl in the white dress appearing outside the passenger plane, these "events" that occurred around Xiang Kun or those around Xiang Kun are all very unusual and must have a special connection. The central point of that connection should be Xiang Kun. Liu Zhengyi didn't have any concrete evidence; he just made this judgment based on intuition. But he had no doubt about his intuition.

To be honest, after working for Xiang Kun for only a few months, his and his brother's monthly income, including wages and subsidies, has already exceeded 8,000 yuan, which is considered an extremely high income in their area. Moreover, they are not doing manual labor; they have always been in management positions on the construction site. According to Mr. Xiang, in the future, they will be responsible for the property management and security of the Research Base, as well as liaison work with the village and its residents.

It's clear that Mr. Xiang has a certain level of trust in the two brothers.

Logically speaking, he has already achieved his initial goal and can be considered to have "made it big". Now, when he meets the elders in the village who used to look down on the two brothers and were too lazy to even scold them, they are willing to stop and chat. Some people even take the initiative to help them find marriage partners - something that was unthinkable a few years ago.

His younger brother Liu Gaoshang, is incredibly happy these days. As soon as he gets off work, he thinks about going to town to play with the girl he met in the game. If his father didn't keep a close eye on him, the kid would probably be late or leave early all the time and squander his salary.

As the eldest brother, he was like a father to his younger brother. According to his previous plans, he should be saving money now, helping his younger brother get married, then renovating the old house in the village, and then considering getting married himself. Although he wasn't rich yet, things should be stable and good in the long run. He thought that even if he followed the right person, it would take three to five years to get to this point, but he didn't expect everything to go so smoothly.

Recently, however, his thoughts have changed somewhat.

His plan for his younger brother remained unchanged. The kid was too reckless; if he was allowed to run wild, he wouldn't settle down until he got himself into serious trouble.

However, he made some changes to his own plans.

He was actually a little worried that he was letting Mr. Xiang down and felt a bit insecure, so he kept thinking about how to improve himself so that he could better perform the work that Mr. Xiang had assigned him.

Basically, his current and future main work is at the Research Base, so when some experimental equipment was delivered and installed and debugged some time ago, he wanted to follow along to learn about it, but naturally he couldn't understand anything.

He wasn't discouraged, so he asked the person who came to debug the equipment for advice. The person told him that using the equipment was the researchers' job, and maintenance was the responsibility of specialized technicians. He didn't need to do anything, and it was best not to mess with it. However, he still managed to get a lot of manuals for the use and maintenance of the equipment.

He hadn't even finished nine years of compulsory education, so naturally, it was like reading gibberish to him at first glance. Even the Chinese manuals were completely incomprehensible. So he looked up and asked around using keywords he could understand, and then found some popular science articles to read. He also looked for textbooks, much of which were actually content he had learned in junior high school. Back then, he could fall asleep while reading them, and now... he could still fall asleep while reading them, because he simply couldn't keep up with the basic calculations in math, physics, and chemistry, which required him to learn from scratch.

But during this process, while looking up unfamiliar words, he inadvertently came across some excerpts of classical Chinese texts. Suddenly, he became interested and started reading books such as the Analects, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Great Learning, and the Tao Te Ching. Of course, even with explanations, he couldn't understand most of the content; he just skimmed through it. But even so, he was very interested and found himself gaining more and more insight as he read.

In particular, the saying "To learn, one gains daily; to practice the Way, one loses daily. Losing and losing again, until one reaches non-action" gave him a sense of enlightenment. Then, when he looked at the math, physics, and chemistry subjects that he couldn't understand before, he was able to gradually understand them and slowly began to learn from the most basic knowledge. Although he learned slowly, he was not impatient.

More importantly, he found himself no longer trying to quantify and understand the world with his meager knowledge, but rather viewing and perceiving it from a more holistic perspective.

Then he discovered that Chongyun Village, the place where he was born and raised, had some special characteristics that he had never noticed since childhood. Or perhaps these characteristics had not always existed, but had only recently appeared.

He discovered that Chongyun Village possessed a unique sense of tranquility unlike any other place, and the air seemed fresher than elsewhere. He was certain that this was not an illusion, but a genuine bodily response to his breathing.

Then he sensed that the mountains, rivers, land, trees, rocks, underground and surrounding areas of the village were all alive, as if they were a whole, a conscious and thinking entity, and as he walked among them, he could feel this entity gradually accepting him.

This is one of the reasons why he insists on running every morning – at this time, he feels that his "communication" with Chongyun Village is the purest and most undisturbed.

He had an idea that Mr. Xiang, as well as the current Chongyun Village and Chongyun Mountain, were like a magnificent architectural complex hidden in a thick fog, and he was guarding one of the passages leading into the complex.

He knew there was a cluster of buildings shrouded in thick fog, but he had never actually seen it and didn't know how big or what it looked like. He simply did his job diligently as a loyal road guardian, cleaning and protecting the path beneath his feet. He hoped that one day, the people in the buildings would accept him, and then he would be able to see what the buildings looked like beneath the fog, and even get closer to examine them.

Most importantly, the process was neither painful nor difficult; on the contrary, he had become somewhat addicted to it and enjoying it. His past hobbies and pursuits had become rather dull and tasteless these days.

In the distance, Xiang Kun, who was almost at his doorstep, knew Liu Zhengyi's general thoughts and state even without turning around.

He could have easily avoided Liu Zhengyi and prevented him from running into him, but he didn't. Instead, he exchanged a few casual pleasantries with him.

When Xiang Kun was in a "Hyper-Sensory State," he would often consciously or unconsciously perceive the cognitive information of the people around him. In particular, when he was clearing away the special cognitive information fragments of the "Ultimate Predator," he basically perceived all the people he knew.

Liu Zhengyi's cognitive information is somewhat special. Under certain conditions, his cognitive information has a slight connection with a large number of "Super-Linked Object" in Chongyun Village.

After discovering this, Xiang Kun instructed Alice to conduct focused observation and information gathering on Liu Zhengyi.

Unlike Liu Zhengyi, Qi Haoguo, Old Du, and others who were influenced by the emotions of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" or the Four Cat Wooden Carving of Youlong Restaurant and established a Level 2 Emotion-Infused Object link, he had never been affected by any "Emotion-Infused Object" nor did he have any exclusive "Super-Linked Object" given to him by Xiang Kun like Lao Xia and Little Chubby Girl. He had not even received Xiang Kun's "system recognition" or "will recognition." Therefore, normally, he would not be able to enter the "Super-Sensing Item System" or establish a special connection with "Super-Linked Object."

However, Liu Zhengyi's connection is completely different from that of everyone known in the "Super-Sensing Item System," including a cat, a bird, and a tree. He is not connected to a specific "Super-Linked Object," but rather to the Super-Linked Object in the entire region, or rather, to a "collection" of Super-Linked Object in the entire region.

It was as if he wasn't connected to Super-Linked Object, but rather to Chongyun Village.

This is somewhat similar to the feeling between Lao Xia and that GL8 – it doesn't focus on any specific "Super-Linked Object" or the detailed information operation and perception after that "Super-Linked Object" is specifically associated with it, but rather it aggregates all the Super-Linked Object effects in the entire "unit" of the GL8 into one, establishing connections and applying functions.

Of course, Liu Zhengyi's perception of the entire Chongyun Village was far inferior to Lao Xia's perception of the GL8. If Lao Xia's perception of the GL8 were quantified as 10,000, Liu Zhengyi's perception of Chongyun Village might be less than 0.0001, still in a vague and indistinct state.

So let alone using this perception for anything, normally, ordinary people wouldn't even notice this level of perception; they would just think it's a momentary sensory illusion. But Liu Zhengyi was clearly convinced of his vague perception and was trying to find and train ways to strengthen it.

Xiang Kun pondered that Liu Zhengyi's ability to perceive things was probably related to his long-term exposure to the environment of Chongyun Village, which was filled with a large number of "Super-Linked Object," especially the construction site of the Research Base. Xiang Kun had originally planned to use it as his main "base," and he had established connections with almost all the building materials that could establish "Super-Sensory Link." He had also pre-placed a large number of "Super-Linked Object tungsten steel beads" under the construction site.

However, with Xiang Kun already deploying Super-Linked Object and establishing Super-Sensory Link globally on a large scale, there are actually many places in the world with a higher density of Super-Linked Object than that construction site. But for the time being, there is no situation similar to Liu Zhengyi's. Of course, it is also possible that he just hasn't discovered it yet.

Based on past experience, Xiang Kun speculated that Liu Zhengyi's special perception of the Super-Linked Object in Chongyun Village as a whole should be related to his cognitive system.

It is very likely that Liu Zhengyi has developed a cognitive method that fits the "Super-Sensing Item System," or more precisely, the "Chongyun Village Super-Linked Object system."

At the same time, although Xiang Kun did not authorize or recognize him as a "Super-Linked Object," in Xiang Kun's subconscious perception within the entire system, Liu Zhengyi was a "familiar person" who was being protected. This may be a kind of "secondary authorization certificate" that Xiang Kun did not actively issue.

Of course, if Xiang Kun wanted, he could sever the extremely weak connection between Liu Zhengyi and the Chongyun Village Super-Linked Object at any time.

However, Xiang Kun is now eager to see how far Liu Zhengyi can go on his own. He will not set obstacles or give him any push, but simply observe—because in a sense, Liu Zhengyi is likely to reach the limit of interaction that an ordinary person can spontaneously achieve with the "Super-Sensing Item System" without Xiang Kun's active influence, without the intervention of "emotional projection," and without the authorization of "Super-Linked Object."

With the types of Super-Linked Object expanding infinitely, their deployment and associations spanning the globe, and their continued rapid growth under his and Alice's management, Super-Linked Object will be present almost wherever there are people. Without Xiang Kun's authorization or active intervention or influence, how ordinary people or other beings will interact with Super-Linked Object and the "Super-Sensing Item System" will be a key issue that needs to be focused on in the future.

When Xiang Kun returned home, Lao Xia had just finished washing up and came downstairs. She had obviously been notified by Alice that he was back.

Alice had already "reported" last night's battle to Lao Xia in a way that was half boasting and half showing off—because Alice knew that these were things she could only tell Lao Xia.

So Xiang Kun didn't need to tell her about what happened last night. After saying "Good morning," he went straight into the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Xia Libing followed Xiang Kun into the kitchen and began preparing the flour and kneading the dough as instructed.

"Still in the same place?" Xia Libing asked while kneading the dough.

Xiang Kun knew what she was asking and replied, "It's still there. It's in the ground over there, and Alice is guarding it. It's very safe."

The phone in my pocket chimed crisply. "Steady!"

Lao Xia nodded. She asked whether the "mutant bird" was "safe" if it wasn't brought back. Of course, this safety didn't refer to the safety of the "mutant bird" itself, but rather its safety as a "tool" in Xiang Kun's future plan. Would it be discovered and killed by the "Ultimate Predator" or other "Mutated Creature" or humans?

Xiang Kun's meaning was also very clear: with Alice guarding them, there would be no problem.

Although Lao Xia didn't ask any more questions, Xiang Kun still added, "With enough 'Super-Linked Object' and Alice's attention, the 'Ultimate Predator' can no longer exert influence at the microscopic level."

The phone in his pocket chimed in, "No way! It won't cause any problems!"

Xiang Kun and Lao Xia were used to it and ignored her.

The "special extrasensory information fragments" that Xiang Kun eliminated could potentially be "infected" again by the "Ultimate Predator," but if Xiang Kun deploys enough "Super-Linked Object" around the target and puts Alice on alert, this possibility can be nipped in the bud.

Therefore, the "mutated bird" is now buried in the ground, wrapped in layers of the "Little Radish's " "substance" roots and stems, and surrounded by tens of thousands of "Super-Linked Object beads". It is almost impossible for the "Ultimate Predator" to directly infiltrate and decide the life or death of the "mutated bird" through its influence.

With external influences, Xiang Kun was even less afraid. With his preparations, he was more than capable of handling both the "Super-Sensing Item System" and Alice's control.

He doesn't believe the "Ultimate Predator" would dare to fight him to the death right now, as evidenced by its elaborate attempt to attack the passenger plane using a mutated giant bird.

Xia Libing asked, "The original plan?"

Xiang Kun shook his head. "No, the plan has changed. I might not be able to handle it on my own. Perhaps I'll need your help."

Xia Libing's reply was still very characteristic, "Very interested."

"I'm interested too!" came the cheerful voice from Xiang Kun's pocket.

"Whether you're interested or not, you can't escape it. Now, start kneading the dough," Xiang Kun said irritably, as he stuffed a freshly washed Coin into the dough that Lao Xia had prepared.

Xiang Kun had already sensed that Yang Zhen'er was stretching in bed after waking up, and Tang Baona was also turning over and about to wake up. Moreover, judging from Yang the Third's habits, she would definitely wake up Nana after she woke up. So even if he used warm water now, there was no time to let the dough rise. He had to use "Super-Linked Object" to have Alice help him cheat and let the dough rise.

So, within three minutes, thanks to Alice's hard work, the dough that Lao Xia had prepared had risen to a full bowl. Then, after taking out the Coin from Xiang Kun, she began to deftly roll out the dumpling wrappers, fill them with the freshly prepared filling, and work at an extremely fast pace, like a human dumpling machine.

Lao Xia set up the steamer and heated the water. Xiang Kun had already wrapped enough meat buns and put them into the steamer.

When Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er got up, dressed, washed up, and came downstairs, Xiang Kun had already prepared soy milk, fried egg pancakes, turned off the heat under the steamer, and was preparing breakfast.

"Good morning, Chef Xiang! Good morning Lao Xia! Oh my, finally I can have a fresh breakfast from Chef Xiang again!" Yang Zhen'er sat down at the table in high spirits, rubbing her hands together and squinting her eyes expectantly.

Tang Baona laughed and said, "You put the adjective in the wrong place. You should say you ate Chef Xiang's fresh breakfast, not Chef Xiang's fresh breakfast!"

"I don't mind, I don't mind, hehe." Yang Zhen'er said, first bending down to take a small sip of soy milk from the edge of the basin, then picking up a piece of egg pancake and eating it in two bites.

"Oh, right, I had a dream last night, it was so, so, so interesting!" Yang Zhen'er said eagerly while chewing on her egg pancake.

At the dining table, Lao Xia and Tang Baona silently ate their breakfast without responding to her, knowing that she would continue speaking on her own.

Xiang Kun brought over two plates of steaming hot buns and said with a smile, "What's wrong, Yang the Third? You didn't dream that your prince charming was coming to pick you up on a white horse riding a black pig, did you?"

"Bullshit, what Prince Charming did I dream of!" Yang Zhen'er said, already grabbing a meat bun and starting to eat, no longer bothering to talk about her "especially, especially, especially interesting" dream.

However, she scalded herself with just one bite and cried out in pain, making Tang Baona, who was standing next to her, both laugh and cry. She quickly went to get some cold water, feeling that Yang Zhen'er was like a giant Little Bell.

"Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you. Xiang Kun made so many, we definitely can't finish them all," Tang Baona said helplessly as she handed over the cup.

Yang Zhen'er waved her hand to indicate that she didn't need it, then breathed out a few times to cool down the bun in her mouth. After chewing a few times and swallowing, she drank some soy milk and chuckled, "I'm hungry. I think that dream I had last night used up a lot of my energy."

"Dreaming can consume energy? You're not sleepwalking," Tang Baona laughed.

Upon hearing this, Xia Libing, while munching on her steamed bun, glanced thoughtfully at her cousin.

After quickly devouring a meat bun, Yang Zhen'er reached for a second one while recounting her dream. "Last night I dreamt that I was at home researching how to generate electricity using Coin..."

Tang Baona asked curiously, "How can you generate electricity with Coin?"

"It's like it's generating electricity with a 'zzzz' sound. Never mind, that's not important. Anyway, I was researching Coin power generation when Little Bell suddenly ran home and pitifully told me she was beaten at kindergarten and couldn't fight back. I immediately flew into a rage. Oh my god, my precious Bell can't be beaten? I immediately grabbed Little Bell and rushed over, determined to get an explanation..." Yang Zhen'er said, pointing her fingers like a sword, striking a pose like a female knight-errant going into battle.

"Isn't Little Bell already in elementary school?" Tang Baona asked again.

"That's not important!" Yang Zhen'er waved her hand and continued, "I immediately grabbed Little Bell and rushed over, but when we got to the kindergarten, holy crap! Little Bell couldn't beat a turkey that looked like Ultraman, it was huge, probably about the same size as the 'Soaring Dragon Interactive Entertainment' office building! If that thing stomped down with one paw, Little Bell and I would be done for, what was the point of fighting! Then I yelled, 'Get on the cat!' and Little Bell and I jumped onto the back of a huge fat cat bigger than a tiger, and rode around and around. By the way, that cat was Egg Pie, and you know what, riding on its back was actually quite comfortable... Anyway, we ran and ran, I slapped Egg Pie's butt hard to make it speed up, and Little Bell threw Coin at the turkey. But that turkey, it could actually fly! It flew right in front of us and landed, and it could breathe fire, can you believe it! And then..."

When she said "then," Yang Zhen'er suddenly couldn't help but laugh, laughing so hard she couldn't continue. She buried her head in her arms, trying hard to control herself, her shoulders shaking.

Xia Libing, Tang Baona, Xiang Kun exchanged bewildered glances, wondering what Yang the Third had suddenly thought of that made him laugh so hard.

Almost half a minute later, Yang Zhen'er finally let out a long sigh, groaned, and stopped her sudden burst of laughter. She then temporarily placed the steamed bun she was holding on the plate and said, "Just when Little Bell and I thought we were doomed, thunder suddenly roared and lightning flashed, crackling and popping. Then a person fell from the clouds—a big bald head! He flew right over and kicked that turkey's head off! He kicked it off! Hahahaha, that turkey's head, eyes wide open, mouth agape, it was hilarious! Hahahaha..."

Yang Zhen'er couldn't help but start laughing again. Tang Baona, who had a low threshold for laughter, was also caught up in Yang Zhen'er's laughter and couldn't help but laugh as well.

Yang Zhen'er laughed as she said, "That bald guy is Chef Xiang, but Chef Xiang naked, not even wearing glasses, just shorts made of leaves, looking like a wild man, but still bald, hahaha! In my dream, I actually thought Chef Xiang looked pretty handsome dressed like that, with a great physique. I jumped off Egg Pie's back, just about to greet Chef Xiang, and then guess what? Little Bell ran over and grabbed Chef Xiang, saying, 'Uncle Bald, let's roast a turkey!' Hahahaha..."

At this point, Yang Zhen'er laughed until tears streamed down her face, "I'm dying of laughter... Oh, my little foodie."

Yang Zhen'er and Tang Baona laughed until their stomachs hurt, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia just smiled and chuckled, but they both seemed to be deep in thought.

It wasn't that Xiang Kun had a high threshold for laughter, but rather that he realized Yang the Third's dream was probably not a pure dream she had on her own. He was thinking and couldn't find the time to laugh. As for Lao Xia, he wasn't affected by Xiang Kun's emotions and didn't find the joke funny either, but like him, he realized that the dream might be related to the "Super-Sensing Item System".

After laughing for a while, Tang Baona wiped away her tears and said, "By the way, I also had a dream last night."