Speculation on the Trait

Chapter 6: Speculations on Traits

After ordering takeout, Shen Xing returned to his workbench and stared at the wooden carving for a while longer.

He soon discovered that the intensity of the Mental Antibody was beginning to increase slowly once again.

Although the rate of increase seemed a bit slow, if it kept growing like this, it felt as if this nameless cheat had no bottom line at all!

After staring at the wooden carving for a while, Shen Xing found that he became drowsy very easily during the process. If he wasn't careful, he would fall asleep quickly, as if gazing at this wooden carving was also strenuous work that required maintaining a high level of mental focus at all times.

However, once he realized this, he could still push through if he fought off the sleepiness when it arrived.

With this focused gaze, Shen Xing's Mental Antibody continued to increase steadily. Soon, the light white progress bar filled up, and the antibody level was displayed as Level 1.

Immediately, the color at the very front of the progress bar turned white again, beginning to overlay the light white that had just filled it; the antibody level was still increasing.

At this moment, Shen Xing felt truly exhausted and could no longer maintain his focus. He let out a heavy yawn and shifted his gaze away.

Just then, a knock at the door sounded—his takeout had arrived.

He got up to open the door, retrieved the char siu rice, and sat in the living room to finish it quickly.

As he was clearing away the tableware, his phone rang. He picked it up and saw it was Hong Anjie calling.

"Hey, Anjie, how are things on your end?" Shen Xing asked while tidying up the disposable cutlery and tossing it into the trash bin.

Hong Anjie's voice sounded like he was in a good mood: "Yeah, just letting you know, my dad was discharged today. The doctor said his fainting spell last night was likely due to low blood sugar; he hasn't been eating regularly these past two days."

"Is he still exhibiting any strange behavior?" Shen Xing asked.

"No, and he even took a shower on his own as soon as he got home." At this, Hong Anjie lowered his voice: "My dad said that for a while now, he's felt constantly muddled, as if his body had been hollowed out, but he doesn't feel that way anymore. His mental state is actually pretty good."

Shen Xing nodded: "It seems like he's really fine now. If there are any more abnormalities, let me know."

Hanging up the phone, he looked up at the wooden bust, lost in thought.

Perhaps, once the Hong Bin inside the wooden carving was locked away, the real Uncle Hong began to wake up. Following this line of reasoning, it seemed the trapped Hong Bin had indirectly controlled the real Hong Bin, causing his bizarre behavior.

As soon as this thought crossed his mind, the line of silver-white text that had appeared in his mind suddenly flashed again.

[Hong Bin, current trait understanding: 35%.]

What the hell? The trait understanding level increased?! Shen Xing looked inward at the text prompt in his mind, surprised.

He remembered that when the text first appeared, the prompt was "trait understanding 20%," which meant his understanding of the Hong Bin trapped in the wooden carving was 20%.

That 20% likely appeared because he had discovered the existence of two Hong Bins back then.

Now, because he knew that Hong Anjie's real father was recovering, Shen Xing had just formed that speculation about the Fake Hong Bin, and he hadn't expected this deduction to directly increase his understanding of the entity's traits by 15%.

Shen Xing now understood: the deeper his insight into the Fake Hong Bin's traits, the higher this value would climb.

As for what would happen once it reached 100%, he had no way of knowing for now.

After thinking it over, he called Hong Anjie back and asked him to find out where Hong Bin had gone in the past few days, what he had done, and who he had encountered during that time.

If he could understand the root cause of the incident, it might be of even greater help in mastering the traits of the Fake Hong Bin inside the wooden carving.

Hong Anjie said: "I've been pressing my dad about it these past few days, and I did find out some things. Hold on, let me have him take the phone and tell you directly."

A moment later, Hong Bin's voice came through the other end of the line: "Hello, Little Shen."

Shen Xing said: "Sorry to bother you, Uncle Hong, but could you tell me if you encountered anything strange recently?"

Hong Bin nodded: "Alright. Well, that day I felt inexplicably irritable, so I went for a stroll near the rapeseed fields outside our home. You know how well the rapeseed has been growing in the suburbs these past two days. Once I was out there and the wind hit me, I felt clear-headed, the irritability vanished, and I felt much better. Later, I saw someone squatting in the field. Having nothing better to do, I walked over and asked what he was doing, but he didn't say anything."

"Did he turn around to look at you?" Shen Xing asked.

"No, I never saw his face," Hong Bin shook his head. "After he didn't speak, I felt this person was suspicious, so I took two more steps forward and asked again what he was doing. But the person kept his back to me, squatting and busy with something. Finally, he answered me, saying he was counting rapeseed seeds."

"I was puzzled at the time. I didn't know why someone would be counting rapeseed seeds for no reason, and those things are so dense—how could you count them?" Hong Bin continued: "I patted him on the shoulder, intending to see what he was actually doing. He still didn't turn around, but instead said, 'I count one, you count two, I count three, you count four, I count five...'"

"Was he talking to you?" Shen Xing frowned.

Hong Bin's tone became somewhat terrified: "I don't know if he was talking to himself or to me. In any case, the only thing I remember is that I immediately blurted out 'six,' and then I don't remember anything else."

Shen Xing was shocked: "So you mean you followed his lead and counted?"

"Yes, I was completely caught off guard," Hong Bin affirmed. "I didn't even remember that I had counted along; it was only because my son Anjie kept asking me these past two days that I slowly started to recall it."

"Where were you after you regained consciousness?" Shen Xing asked.

"I was in the hospital. They said I had fainted, and a neighbor had called the ambulance for me," Hong Bin answered truthfully.

The phone seemed to be on speaker, and Hong Anjie's voice came through: "That was when I was at your rental place; my dad had fainted at home and was sent to the hospital."

Shen Xing nodded. At this moment, he was finally certain: it was only after his wooden carving had captured the Fake Hong Bin that the real Hong Bin had fully recovered.

In other words, the person Hong Bin had encountered squatting in the rapeseed field was not a living human. This person had used a bizarre counting method to find a substitute for himself, leaving the real Hong Bin muddled and devoid of consciousness.

Meanwhile, that person seemed to have copied Hong Bin's memories and walked the streets as an exact replica of him.

As Shen Xing was pondering this, the silver-white text in his mind suddenly appeared once more.

[Hong Bin, current trait understanding: 60%.]

At this moment, he hadn't expected the trait understanding level to rise again.

It seemed that the ghost had indeed used this method to replicate the real Hong Bin, then disguised itself as an identical copy of him.

Perhaps, after the ghost had replicated itself into Hong Bin, it had originally intended to take over his life and drive away the unconscious real Hong Bin, but for some unknown reason, it had not done so.

After weighing these speculations in his mind, Shen Xing waited quietly for any movement.

But this time, after a while, nothing happened.

Shen Xing continued to speculate.

Perhaps the fake Hong Bin did not want to replace the real Hong Bin, but was simply using replication or a body-double method to make itself become the same as Hong Bin.

As soon as this thought arose, the silver text in his mind shifted once again.

[Hong Bin, current understanding of characteristics: 85%.]