What It's Like Being a Vampire

After having visited “Master Niu” with the woodcarving on the 28th and, under the guidance of driver Old King, taken the wood carving to the Zhenfa Building for the consulting company to conduct the “ritual”, Feng Xiuye went alone to the City First Hospital to do a full body check-up the next morning. Of course, this included going to the dermatology department for a blood test.

Although some of the results would take a few days to come out, the overall situation seemed to be fine, which temporarily relieved him and made him feel much more relaxed.

However, what surprised him was that he found out from the house cleaner at his father’s house, after his check-up, that his father had also gone to the hospital for a check-up.

A question naturally arose in Feng Xiuye’s mind: Did his father also go for a check-up because he had a dream? What kind of dream did he have?

In any case, after the check-up, Feng Xiuye felt much more comfortable. On top of having severed ties with his mistresses, it felt as if the constant weight on his shoulders had been lifted.

When he got home and spent time with his wife and children, Feng Xiuye was in a rare mood for conversations. He talked about work and upcoming travel plans with his wife. Even his younger son, who usually ignored him, suddenly became more affectionate, although it turned out he wanted a new toy…

On the 31st, Feng Xiuye went to work early in the morning. While he was reviewing the materials for an upcoming meeting, his secretary told him that a strangely dressed man who claimed to be from a certain consulting company was there to see him with a box.

As soon as he heard the name of that consulting company, Feng Xiuye understood that it was the gentleman from Zhenfa Building. However, according to the agreed upon terms, shouldn’t they have sent the video first, and then he was to head over to the Zhenfa Building for the “verification”, once they were done with the ritual? Why did they suddenly show up at his door? They weren’t trying to upsell some sort of subscription package and ask for more money, were they??

Although puzzled, Feng Xiuye decided to let the front desk let them in.

What he did not expect, however, was that Tang Baona followed the handsome young man from the consulting company in. Feng Xiuye was taken aback: “Nana, why are you…”

Indeed, Tang Baona frowned at the young man and asked Feng Xiuye, her boss and uncle, “This wood carving… It wouldn’t happen to be the one from grandpa, would it? How did it end up in his hands?”

However, the young man shrugged off their questions. He put the box on the table and said to Feng Xiuye, “Mr. Feng, this thing… The ‘problem’ is too big. Our ‘master’ can’t handle it. We will refund you the money to your previous account.”

When he saw the young man wanted to leave after putting down the box, Tang Baona and Feng Xiuye stopped him simultaneously.

“What did you just say? What’s wrong with this wood carving?” Tang Baona asked.

“What do you mean your ‘master’ can’t handle it?” Feng Xiuye queried as well.

“I don’t know either. Our ‘master’ instructed me to deliver it this morning. He said there was a big problem with the woodcarving and he couldn’t fix it… anyway, his idea was not to take your money, return the woodcarving to you, and let you find someone else to handle it…” After saying this, regardless of their reactions, the young man left.

Actually, he did not quite understand it himself. Their “boss” was always greedy. The money was already pocketed, the ritual completed, but still ejected voluntarily. It was very unusual.

But remembering his boss’s bloodshot eyes and pale face from this morning, and his constant muttering about “it’s coming for me,” he couldn’t help but worry:

Did the “boss” go insane?

After the young man left, Tang Baona naturally continued to inquire about the wooden carving. Feng Xiuye did not hide anything, telling his niece about the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster he saw in a nightmare when he fell asleep on the 28th afternoon, in his father’s living room.

Next, he told her about the young man’s identity – he worked for a consulting company in Zhenfa Building that dealt with these kinds of “special issues”.

In conclusion, Feng Xiuye said to Tang Baona, very seriously, “Nana, it seems that there really is something wrong with this wood carving. Your grandfather must have had a similar dream. Now, even that ‘master’ couldn’t handle it. Shall we either return this carving, or just get rid of it? By the way, what’s the story with your friend? Could it be that he didn’t actually carve this himself, but got it from someone else and it’s not clean?”

This angered Tang Baona, who grabbed the wood carving and stormed off.

Only then did she realize what her uncle wanted to do when he called her on the 28th to ask about the wood carving.

How could the wood carving made by Xiang Kun be eerie? Having nightmares? She had the saber wood carving in her bedroom all along, why didn’t she have any nightmares? Opposite, they actually suspected that her friend’s wood carving was “unclean”?

This made Tang Baona angry with her grandfather too. If he thought there was something wrong with the wood carving, he could have contacted her first! Why would he let her uncle take it to some “consulting company”? They sounded like scammers! It was fine if her superstitious uncle was fooled, but how could her grandfather be so confused too?

Returning to her seat, Tang Baona took a photo of the wood carving and sent it to Xiang Kun, angrily relating her discovery to him.

Tang Baona: “My second uncle may have some interest in Geomancy or something, but it doesn’t seem like him to be so ignorant and superstitious. And my grandfather, a staunch intellectual who doesn’t believe in ghosts and gods seemed to agree with my second uncle’s actions. Really can’t understand

Tang Baona: “A wood carving that induces nightmares? Blaming the nightmares on the wood carving?? I really can’t understand their logic!!”

Tang Baona: “Your wood carving may have eight arms and eight eyes, but it actually looks kind of cute! Why would they, two grown men, have nightmares? If anyone was going to have them, it would’ve been me since I came into contact with it first! Why didn’t I get nightmares?”

Tang Baona: “And that so-called ‘gentleman’, who sent someone to deliver the carving early in the morning saying ‘the problem is too big, he couldn’t handle it and needs a refund’? Isn’t this plainly just casting bait to catch a big fish? Waiting for my second uncle to hurriedly bring the wood carving back to him, politely adding more money for him to ‘resolve the problem’?”

Tang Baona: “Anyway, I’m not going to give them the wood carving. I originally liked it. If it weren’t for my grandpa seeing the saber you gave me and wanting a wood carving you made, I would have collected it myself!”

Tang Baona: “I’m really sorry for suddenly sending so many messages… Two of my closest relatives have unexpectedly become superstitious. I had to vent somewhere; I couldn’t hold it in anymore!”

Tang Baona: “Oh my… I’m just soooo mad!”

Xiang Kun, with a dumbfounded look, watched as messages popped up one after another. Through the screen and across the network, he could almost see Tang Baona’s furious expression.

Besides, he’d sensed a hint of anger from the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving.

Nevertheless, in his heart, he couldn’t help but defend Tang Baona’s second uncle and grandfather. It’s not their fault for the misunderstanding…

If it had been Xiang Kun who encountered such an incident without knowing anything, to be honest, he would have also thought about it in an irrational direction, regardless, the wood carving would initially stir things up.

“Nana, actually there’s a bit of a problem with my wood carving. I had many details to clarify, and recently, I had an idea. I was wondering how to ask you to help me get it back for some additional fine tuning. I have another wood carving here, you can give this one to your grandfather, and return the eight-armed wood carving to me.” Xiang Kun didn’t mention the refund, because if he did, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving back, Tang Baona wouldn’t let him give a refund no matter what.

“No way! I want this one too!” Tang Baona sent a serious emoji.

“Then I will send it to you again after I finish repairing it,” Xiang Kun texted back, worst case scenario, he would just create a new eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving.

After agreeing that she and Yang Zhen Er would come to Xiang Kun’s house for dinner and bring the wood carving, Xiang Kun ended the conversation and started searching online for the consulting company Tang Baona mentioned.

From his chat with Tang Baona, Xiang Kun was pretty sure that the dream scenes he saw through the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving first belonged to Tang Baona’s grandfather. The old man’s fear originated from his own physical pain; the second hotel room belonged to Tang Baona’s second uncle. His fear was probably the concern of his affairs being discovered and being abandoned by his family, as well as the diseases caused by related behavior; as for the third, it was likely someone from the consulting company.

But why would the person in the consulting company have such a “heavy taste” dream? What was his fear?

Xiang Kun had a suspicion, but he still wasn’t sure, so he used the keywords “Zhenfa Building” and consulting company, and found the full name of the company.

Then he looked up the company’s legal representative and shareholder information in the enterprise credit publicity system, checked their administrative penalty information, searched for the enforcement personnel information, and checked their involved lawsuits.

Then he searched their related information on various platforms. On the search engine, he found some questions apparently asking for the background of the consulting company, but when he clicked into the link he couldn’t find them. Judging from the snapshots of the search engine’s web page, the questioner seemed to have been “consulted”. After the fact, they felt the money was not worth it, as if they were scammed. Judging from the results, this post was obviously “public-relationsed”.

Xiang Kun probably knew the nature of this “consulting company”. It’s

basically a company that fools people and collects intelligence tax. The person in charge, before running this company, may have even used some “weird” ideas, doing some more excessive and unimaginable things. So the fear stimulated by the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving led to such horrifying dream scenes when you deceive people too much using these names, even if he clearly knew they were not real, he might easily plant some seeds in his subconscious mind.

Xiang Kun thought for a while, picked up his phone, found Officer Chen’s profile whom he hadn’t contacted for a long time, and sent a message over:

“Is Brother Chen there? I have a question to ask. A friend’s elder had nightmares and went to a consulting company in ** District ** Road Zhenfa Building. They paid more than 6000 yuan. Although the money was returned afterwards for some reasons, I still find it strange. Is that company’s business legal? Could they be fraudsters?”

By revealing this matter to Officer Chen, as long as the authorities become aware of it, they would look into the situation. If the people behind this indeed have a problem, and are dirty, they would certainly be exposed.

If not, then they wouldn’t unjustly accuse innocent people.

What he didn’t expect was that four or five minutes later, Officer Chen replied with a shocked emoji, followed by a message: “You’re not following me, are you?”