What It's Like Being a Vampire

After setting up communication with “Mr. Liang,” Fang Pingfang asked Dr. Yang to leave the conference room.

Dr. Yang didn’t have any objections and cooperated, conscientiously leaving the conference room and closing the door behind him.

However, he didn’t go far, leaning against the wall and browsing on his phone, waiting for Fang Pingfang and Mr. Liang’s conversation to finish. He believed that regardless of what happened in “The Ninth Laboratory” last night, given his security clearance, Mr. Liang should allow him to participate in the resolution or investigation. Otherwise, if a tangible solution or follow-up research plan existed, Fang Pingfang alone wouldn’t be able to handle it at the research center in An Tie Town.

In the conference room, Fang Pingfang detailed her experiences in different D2 Laboratories for “Mr. Liang” from last night.

After listening, “Mr. Liang” didn’t respond for some time. Fang Pingfang remained patient and calmly waited for his response.

She knew that comparing her and other researchers hired by Divine Technology’s secret section for a high salary, “Mr. Liang” undoubtedly had more profound knowledge about the rabbit wood carving they brought back from Qinling Uninhabited Area.

Or it could be said that he already presumed the person or other beings who lived in the mountain cave at the cliffs in the Qinling Uninhabited Area, killed those flying creatures, carved this crude woodcarving, and left those footprints. Otherwise, there was no explanation for that tortuous journey they undertook.

Within the time after her return to the country to work for Divine Technology, although she had never met Mr. Liang in person, through plenty of exchanges and calls, she distinctly felt that “Mr. Liang” in fact knew quite well about what they were researching and pursuing. However, for reasons unknown, his dialogues with the researchers seemed restrained and incomplete, with various guidances instead.

It was like someone was paying them a lot of money to answer questions to which he already knew the answers.

It seemed like a deliberate exercise in their “problem-solving ability.”

“What’s your opinion?” Mr. Liang’s distinct voice echoed once again.

When faced with this question,Fang Pingfang didn’t feel surprised. He had always asked this question before, whether they were observing peculiar phenomena during lab experiments, or discovering strange objects or creatures during fieldwork.

Fang Pingfang had also prepared the answer for this question. Since encountering those strange events last night, she had been contemplating this question.

“After the first strange dreams in the Qinling Uninhabited Area that were affected, my guess was that the wood carving was causing these effects.

“It might have been influenced by some energy, carrying a magnetic field with specific characteristics.

“However, after coming here and carrying out numerous tests on the wood carving, regardless of its material composition or energy radiation, none showed any abnormality. Even dream tests were unsuccessful. I guess its certain characteristics ceased to function after departing from Qinling Uninhabited Area, or maybe they dissipated over time.

“Last night, it suddenly ‘awakened’ and directly inflicted illusory impacts on me. It might be that its characteristics had been restored after a period.

“But today, I have another hypothesis. The reason why Team Leader Li and I believed our strange dreams were related to the wooden carving back in Qinling was because in our dreams, elements related to ‘rabbit meat’ and ‘rabbits’ were displayed, and the wood carving happened to depict a rabbit, making it the most peculiar and unique object we carried. The fact that the strange dreams didn’t reappear after distancing ourselves from it strengthened this notion.

“But what if the real influence inducing our strange dreams wasn’t the rabbit wood carving in the first place?”

On the other side, Mr. Liang who was in the Qinling Uninhabited Area, after hearing these words, responded with approval: “You’re suggesting that the person who carved the wood, not the carving itself, was the one that influenced you? That person broke into our research center last night, causing your illusion?”

But Fang Pingfang said, “This is one possibility, but I’m actually inclined to another possibility: the ‘person’ who left the footprints and made that strange woodcarving in the cave of the cliff might have also been influenced like us, experienced similar dreams or hallucinations. They carved this rabbit-shaped woodcarving, perhaps out of a sense of worship, or thinking that the ‘rabbit meat’ in the dream or hallucination is a form of existence, making demands of him, and thus he created the rabbit wood carving as a response.

“The bird carcasses in the cave could likely be from that ‘person’, used as temporary substitutes for rabbit meat when they couldn’t find any.”

“It might have been existing in a way unknown to us within the other objects we brought back from the Qinling uninhabited area.”

Regarding Fang Pingfang’s hypothesis, Mr. Liang still encouraged, “Interesting thinking.”

“Do you agree with this guess?” Fang Pingfang pressed further.

Mr. Liang did not directly answer, but instead said, “Your handling is also very correct, last night’s situation was indeed very dangerous, since it can make you see rabbit meat, naturally it could make you see other things as well. Not everyone possesses your cool judgment, if they were influenced, it might lead to unpredictable consequences. You did right to temporarily block D1 and D2. I’ll handle the situation there myself; you all don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

Fang Pingfang was stunned, she initially thought that Mr. Liang would have subsequent handling suggestions, even if he was to handle it personally, they should act as his assistants. But from his words, it seems that they won’t be involved in what follows?

As expected, Mr. Liang continued, “I will have a formal notice sent out, the researchers will all be relocated to QiCheng City.”

“But…” Fang Pingfang frowned, wanting to say something.

But as soon as she started speaking, she was interrupted by Mr. Liang, “You’re not going to QiCheng City, you’re going to West Sea Province. There’s an unusual situation, it’s a good time for you to go and understand it.”

“Only me? Dr. Yang…”

“He will lead the team to QiCheng City, don’t worry, you’re not alone, other team members will join you, and you will meet some familiar faces.”

After Mr. Liang finished speaking, he asked Fang Pingfang to call Dr. Yang over and personally explained to him the plan to relocate the research team from An Tie Town to QiCheng City.

After ending the call with Dr. Yang and Fang Pingfang, Mr. Liang made a light wave of his hand, and the drone’s power system started working again, flying into the air accompanied by a faint noise.

If anyone saw Mr. Liang at this moment, they would surely be stunned by his appearance.

After all, the special material with spider web patterns adhering to his body was too strange, completely covering every inch of his body from head to toe, making him look not as if he were wearing a tight-fitting suit of unique characteristics, but as if it were his “skin”.

His facial features were also different from ordinary people. His two eyes had no eyelids, like two big eye-balls embedded on his face. His big pupils had very little white, and his nostrils were flat and wide, quite different from normal people.

Mr. Liang surveyed the traces around him. His eyes were markedly different from ordinary people’s, having multiple detection imaging modes, capable of detecting electromagnetic waves of different frequencies and wavelengths. Some of these abilities were his own, while most were acquired through the “invisible glasses” replacing his corneas.

Through these “invisible glasses,” he could even receive more recorded images and other detection information through the drones flying around, as well as browse past record information, such as the footage shot by drones when Fang Pingfang, Team Leader Li, and others were exploring this area.

After comparison and analysis, he preliminarily judged that “blood-eating creatures” did indeed appear here, and it’s very likely that there is more than one.

The footprints Fang Pingfang and the others found, the wood carving in the cave, might belong to a “blood-eating creature” transformed from a human. It came to this uninhabited area of Qinling, presumably after watching the videos of Host Xue and his team, discovering the blood-eating creatures possibly residing within the Qinling uninhabited area, and thus came for a “hunt”.

If he really was a human transformed into a “blood-eating creature”, then he should be a “predator”.

Mr. Liang squatted on the ground, picked up a handful of soil, examined it carefully, and then put it directly in his mouth, starting to chew.

After a series of squeaky chewing sounds that made one’s scalp prickle, he spat out the muddy remnants, wiped his mouth, and once again confirmed the presence of a “blood-eating creature” here, and the deduction that it had been injured.

The body tissues of the “blood-eating creatures” would quickly transform into another substance after they left the body and “decayed”. He had his special “detection” method for that kind of substance.

He could even estimate the time when those tissues left the body through this “detection”.

But whether this “hunt” had a result, and whether the original “blood-eating creatures” living in this area were captured by an alien human “predator”, he still couldn’t make a definite deduction.

“A new ‘predator’?” Mr. Liang’s voice seemed even raspier, and it was even more difficult to understand. But he wasn’t speaking for anyone to hear now, but was just talking to himself: “I hope I won’t be disappointed this time.”

After saying this, the corners of his lipless mouth cracked a smile, splitting open all the way to the roots of his ears.

When Xiang Kun received Liu Caifu’s WeChat message, it was already half past ten in the evening.

Today, after having lunch in Chongyun Village, playing all afternoon, and having a rich dinner, they left the village and returned to the town.

At this moment, Xiang Kun was playing the Werewolf Kill game with a group of friends, including the You Meng couple who had just returned from Liang Yulong’s hometown, a total of eleven people, in “Youlong Restaurant”.

Playing this game, Xiang Kun was obviously relaxed, it was no different than having a cheat code.

But he didn’t pursue victory too much, but guided everyone to enhance their enthusiasm and make the game more fun. Sometimes, to make everyone happy, he would even “sacrifice himself”.

Of course, Xia Libing was also a “killer” in this game. She could easily see the true identities of others, and could also give very logical speeches to mislead others “seriously”.

So many times, even if Xiang Kun and Old Xia were on the same team, he had to subtly guide and limit Old Xia’s performance.

But because he himself had a strong ability in everyone’s eyes, he couldn’t make it too obvious, otherwise, everyone would easily feel that he was deliberately underperforming, which would reduce the fun of the game.

So he could only rely on his increasingly detailed and perfect knowledge model of everyone, to guide everyone as a whole through subtle and chain reactions, so that everyone could have more fun in the game and could counter Old Xia, the “killer”.

For example, if Xiang Kun wanted Zi Cheng to react D, he needed to give information C. So he made Yang Jie react B, which could make Zi Cheng judge C. So Xiang Kun influenced Zhang Qian with an unintentional performance to make her react A, which would trigger Yang Jie’s B reaction.

The same line, spoken by different people, has different effects on different people.

Even for Xiang Kun, this was a complicated task, requiring careful thought and specific reactions.

The result was that after a night of playing Werewolf Kill, everyone deeply realized that Old Xia was much more terrifying than Xiang Kun. Her eyes were too sharp! Too devious! She was too good at acting! She was a devil! No doubt she was the “guru” who taught Xiang Kun psychology.

At the end of a round, Xiang Kun was a little puzzled while looking at Liu Caifu’s message on Wechat. Liu Caifu said that he was now with Liu Feibao. Because of the incidents this morning and yesterday afternoon, Liu Feibao felt sorry and wanted to reconcile with Xiang Kun. He asked if Xiang Kun was free to come for a late-night snack?

As for what happened on the road in Chongyun Village this morning, apart from the people in their two cars and Liu Caifu who came to help, only the two clowns who tried to defraud them knew.

Neither they nor Liu Caifu would spread this casually, and Liu Feibao found out so quickly. Could it be that the two fools told Liu Feibao themselves?

Xiang Kun felt that he had to revise the preliminary cognitive model he established for those two fools again…

He didn’t care about Liu Feibao at all, but he had to give some face to Liu Caifu there. So he replied, “I’m with friends and can’t get away for a while. If you haven’t left after I’ve sent them back to the hotel, I’ll come over.”

Liu Caifu sent back an OK gesture.

Xiang Kun knew that since Liu Feibao had asked Liu Caifu to invite him, he would definitely wait for him.

When it was eleven o’clock, everyone was a little hungry, so Xiang Kun and You Meng went to the restaurant kitchen to make late-night snacks—when they came over, Xiang Kun had already reserved to make soup noodles for everyone for the late-night snack, so preparations had been made in advance, and all the ingredients were ready.

You Meng was in charge of the soup base, and Xiang Kun was responsible for controlling the degree of each person’s noodles, whether they wanted more meat or vegetables, what side dishes to add, as well as individualizing each person’s different seasonings.

“Zi Cheng may look meaty, but he actually prefers soy products to meat. Give him more tofu skin and some tofu sticks…”

“Nana’s taste is light, she can’t eat spicy food and doesn’t like it too salty. But she loves meat, and she prefers the meat of the rabbit leg compared to the rabbit breast. Vegetables, Kangkong and broccoli are her favorites, but mung bean sprouts are better for soup noodles…”

“Zhen’er’s taste is heavier, she loves spicy food, although she can’t really eat spicy, medium spicy is just right. What is moderate spicy? Look at the flavor I adjusted, she loves it…”

“Old Xia’s taste is quite inclusive, she can eat anything, but compared to other flavors, she loves sweet food. Of course, you can’t add sugar to this noodles, but you can give her more seafood, give her a third of those shrimp, give her all the meat without bones, doesn’t mind whether it’s fat or lean…”

“Yang Zhuo also loves meat, but hates fatty meat, loves lean meat, doesn’t like the skin of any animal, but doesn’t mind if it’s fried and crispy, add some fried peanuts to his…”

“Xiao Min especially loves vermicelli, she will definitely like the vermicelli of Tongshi Town…”

Before every bowl of noodles was served, Xiang Kun would tell You Meng the reasons accordingly—because he knew that he would often bring these friends to play in the future. Sometimes when he was busy, You Meng could help him entertain, so he tried his best to describe their tastes clearly.

The last two bowls, one had cilantro on top, the other didn’t have cilantro but added garlic, Xiang Kun said to You Meng: “You should know who these two bowls are tailored to.”

Of course, You Meng knew. He had mentioned to Xiang Kun before that his wife, Liang Yulong, loved cilantro, while he hated cilantro.

You Meng took a sip of the noodle soup, and after he stood up, he shook his head and sighed: “It’s really fucking lucky to be your friend.”