What It's Like Being a Vampire

Many places were undergoing major construction work, focusing on infrastructure development, even the road leading to Chongyun Village was being repaired.

From when he left Tongshi Town a month ago to now, one side of the road has almost been paved.

And he was sure that these projects could not have been carried out in just a month.

Xiang Kun learned from Chu Xiuwen, Liu Caifu, and You Meng that after the Lunar New Year, Qi Haoguo had begun pouring large amounts of money into Tongshi Town, all for public investment such as road construction, school building donations, and donations to social welfare organizations.

The road to Chongyun Village, for instance, had a part of its costs covered by Qi Haoguo, then the bulk of it by local merchants like Chu Xiuwen, and the rest claimed by villagers like Liu Caifu from Chongyun Village, allowing construction to start quickly.

Then many affluent businesspeople from the provincial capital and surrounding counties and townships came to invest.

Those with connections dealt directly with the town leaders, and those without put their money into real estate, catering, and entertainment businesses. The local people were also starting to get involved. Many wealthy locals who had businesses outside of the town also started to return and invest in their hometown upon hearing the news.

Everyone heard that there were significant preferential policies coming from above, and that Tongshi Town was on the verge of a boom, making it an excellent time to invest.

Many businesses that were going to be closed were attracting attention as they hung on, and some who were considering doing business elsewhere began to contemplate if there were opportunities locally. The impact was chain-like, and Tongshi Town, which had been quiet for a long time, suddenly stirred up waves that affected the river and the sea.

Although the town leaders were all puzzled and claimed they had not received any related documents or any notifications, people’s enthusiasm was not dampened. Reports of provincial-level big shots and well-known affluent merchants from other cities and counties flocking to Tongshi Town to invest their money, even going as deep as to mountain villages like Chongyun Village, had spread.

And they were not investing small sums, but large amounts in the hundreds and thousands of millions. Who wouldn’t believe there are benefits involved? It was also said that more investments were to come and several business magnates were in talks, it was projected that there might be several hundred million-dollar projects in the future.

Especially Boss Qi from Haoguo Group, who was not a native of Tongshi Town. If he was not planning on doing big business, why would he donate so much money?

If you don’t ride this clearly about-to-take-off train, once Tongshi Town’s economy truly takes off, there will be no one to care about your crying.

Money is like water, it doesn’t matter much in small amounts, it evaporates before long, but when it reaches a certain scale, water turns into waves, money turns into capital, and it can bring about momentum.

And seeing this momentum, regardless of whether it was the Tongshi Town or Jianzhou City officials, even if they were sluggish, they knew to go with the flow. Some beneficial policies had started to leak out after the Lantern Festival, which also made some self-proclaimed “insiders” feel an “as expected” sentiment, which cheered them up and made them feel very sharp and accurate.

Chu Xiuwen, who had spoken privately with Xiang Kun a few days ago, also mentioned that the province might soon roll out some industry-specific preferential policies for Tongshi Town and several counties in the northern part of Jianzhou City, including catering, tourism, and husbandry sectors.

Xiang Kun knew that related policies would not come out so quickly, from proposal to discussion to decision to implementation, and even when implemented, they might not have much practical effect. But under the current trend of capital flow, these policy news could bring a great deal of confidence and positivity, further promoting the implementation of certain projects.

The most obvious was that after seeing the popularity of “Youlong Restaurant” these past few days, shops on the pedestrian street that originally had “transferring the thriving business” signs, and those that hadn’t been rented out for a long time, have all been successfully leased, and most of them plan to open catering-related businesses. This pedestrian street seems to have come alive again, even though there hasn’t been a significant increase in pedestrian traffic.

From what Chu Xiuwen revealed, according to the official idea, they want to take advantage of the situation to transform Tongshi Town into a small town with food as its tag, by intensifying the publicity of “Tongshi delicacies,” leveraging the “traffic” from the nearby 5A scenic area, Wushu Mountain, and attract tourists to “take a detour” to the nearby Tongshi Town to taste the food after appreciating the beautiful scenery of Wushu Mountain, thereby promoting the development of related industries.

Normally, it would be impossible to do this. If it were, the town would have benefited from numerous official policies to facilitate its take-off. Tongshi Town had been wanting to ride on the popularity of Wushu Mountain for more than just a year or two.

However, this time with the aid of private capital, the government also wanted to push further with the momentum.

Of course, just like “beautiful scenery,” it’s not enough for “delicious food” to just have substance and quality. Most importantly, they need deep cultural essence, reputation, and “stories.”

Obviously, according to Chu Xiuwen’s idea, Xiang Kun and You Meng’s “Youlong Restaurant”, with the influence they’re creating online and the quality of the dishes themselves, is perfectly suited to be the headliner to promote “Tongshi delicacies.”

It doesn’t matter if Tongshi Town doesn’t have widely known delicacies or a tradition of eating rabbit meat. Stories are told by people, and in the internet age, everything is possible.

Xiang Kun thought of the picture he painted for Liu Caifu in the past. Unexpectedly, without realizing it, it started to move towards that direction. When he came to refine the plan with Liu Caifu at the beginning of the year, he had deliberately significantly downsized Liu Caifu’s expectations, but looking at the current results, it was developing towards the blueprint Liu Caifu originally had.

Xiang Kun figured, if the catering industry truly develops on a large scale with the help of the government and capital, the animal husbandry industry in Chongyun Village that is being strongly supported will inevitably follow suit, allowing him to hide his future moves, in step with the tide.

As for why this wave of private capital surged into Tongshi Town, both Chu Xiuwen and Liu Caifu had their own guesses and views. When talking about this topic in private, Xiang Kun also keenly felt their hesitant and cautious attempts to “probe” his thoughts.

So, after sorting through and analyzing some previous information and the experiences of everyone involved, including Qi Haoguo, Xiang Kun also had his own guess about the reason behind this wave of capital surging into Tongshi Town.

The most critical reason, or the wave itself, is Qi Haoguo.

It was his series of sudden capital actions, along with the unintentional “fuel to the flames” from people like Chu Xiuwen, Liu Feibao, Liu Caifu in Tongshi Town, that lead those who didn’t know the truth but controlled capital to form an illusion, resulting in a misjudgment.

However, when the number of people with illusions increased, the misjudgment turned into correct judgment. With the surge of momentum, the majority of people had unshakeable confidence in their judgment, eventually leading to today’s situation.

Of course, Xiang Kun was well aware that Qi Haoguo’s actions were not merely capitalistic. They were fundamentally influenced by the prolonged impact of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed wood carving” emotion projection he had encountered earlier in Tongshi Town.

Based on past experiments and observations, those influenced by the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed wood carving” emotion projection could overcome their fears and start reshaping their mental world after confronting the source of their fears.

Undoubtedly, what Qi Haoguo is doing now is part of his self-rebuilding process. It’s also his attempt to explore or even “please” Xiang Kun.

However, Qi Haoguo had not deployed anyone to investigate secretly, nor did he try to make contact through Liu Feibao or Chu Xiuwen. Instead, he returned to Tongshi Town in this manner, apparently still haunted by the warning from the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed wood carving” projection.

This Qi Haoguo, with his mental state, posed no threat to Xiang Kun. To some extent, he could even be of help.

Moreover, for Qi Haoguo himself, his current state is more beneficial than detrimental. And maybe, by spending money and doing good deeds in Tongshi Town, he would actually reap substantial benefits and a positive impression from the authorities, which is even more important.

Xiang Kun was not afraid of a change in Qi Haoguo’s attitude toward him in the future. The “super sensory item system” was evolving with him, becoming stronger and stronger. The emotion projection system under the “super sensory item system” was also becoming increasingly powerful.

If Qi Haoguo harbored ill will again, Xiang Kun would not mind letting him meet the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” to reminisce.

Of course, at present, the likelihood of such a scenario is practically zero.

The pickup truck traveled smoothly on the road in Chongyun village, which had been paved for one lane. Xiang Kun glanced at Xia Libing, who was beside him in the passenger seat. She had fallen asleep shortly after they had left the pedestrian street parking lot.

Xiang Kun had been keeping his speed steady this entire time. With his current sensory abilities and brain computation abilities, he could naturally predict road conditions very well. There would basically be no sudden braking, and even when passing speed bumps, he could achieve the best combination of speed and suspension, minimizing the movements Libing had to endure. The frequency and degree of changes in the driving state were also minimal.

Of course, making Xia Libing comfortable was primarily the merit of the passenger seat.

When the pickup was bought and sent to the repair shop for refurbishing, most of the replaced parts were selected and approved by Xiang Kun, since he wanted to establish a connection.

What he put most thought into was the seats in the vehicle.

Knowing that Xia Libing would be the person in the car most frequently, Xiang Kun chose seats that would make her comfortable. The softness of the seat cushions, the material of the seat covers, the shape of the backrest, the position of the lumbar support, and the length of the seat cushion were all chosen based on what he knew Xia Libing would prefer.

Moreover, he had electrically adjustable seats added for the driver and passenger so Xia Libing could easily adjust the backrest angle to find a more comfortable position. This feature would be convenient for her when she needed to drive.

Looking at it now, all the money and energy spent was worthwhile. At least for these few times Xia Libing had been in the car, Xiang Kun could noticeably sense that her body was very relaxed. She had fallen asleep in the car three times.

The pickup truck entered Chongyun village, passed several narrow village roads, and stopped outside a single building yard. This was the house that he had rented in Chongyun village.

The original homeowner had gone to Jianzhou City to help their son and daughter-in-law take care of their grandchild and had not returned even for the Chinese New Year. Hence, this place was always vacant. Usually, no one would come to rent a house in Chongyun village, and the rent was not high. Consequently, it was quite cheap for Xiang Kun to rent. Of course, it wouldn’t have been that easy for other outsiders to rent here for short-term if not for Liu Caifu’s introduction and connections.

Liu Caifu had initially wanted Xiang Kun and Xia Libing to live at his place. After all, his house was now almost empty, very spacious, and could accommodate not only the two of them but also Tang Baona, Yang Zhen Er, Zi Cheng, and Zhang Qian comfortably.

However, Xiang Kun and Xia Libing had many “nondisclosure” experiments to conduct privately, so it was better for them to rent their own house. After their “research base” is set up, they could directly move in.

Xiang Kun got out of the vehicle, opened the yard door, parked the pickup in the yard, and then woke up Xia Libing up, asking her to go into the house and sleep.

He needed Xia Libing’s help with an experiment that night, and it would take a long time, so it would be best for her to rest now.

Xia Libing, who was neither ceremonious nor polite, was still half-asleep and drowsy. After getting out of the vehicle, she headed straight for the bedroom, kicked off her shoes, rolled up in a blanket, and immediately fell back asleep.

After closing the yard door, Xiang Kun went to another room to check on the condition of the “Zero-Zero-Two” ant queen. As for the “Zero-Zero-One” worker ant, it was set to “free-range” mode and was currently “teasing” a centipede in a corner of the yard.

After he had gotten used to manipulating the appearance of the two ants through the “super sense state”, Xiang Kun began trying to have the two ants “activate” the emotion projection ability of the emotion infused objects with his assistance – which was one of the main purposes of these experiments.

However, after a lot of attempt, he still couldn’t find a clue.

As for this, Xiang Kun was not discouraged. After all, “Golden Flash” could not autonomously “activate” the emotion projection of the Emotion infused object, but could only aid “Little Apple” in spreading the effect of the emotion projection.

Compared to this, the sensory influence ants could exert on humans are much less, and so should their emotion projection spreading ability.

Just as Xiang Kun was contemplating whether he could let “Zero-Zero-Two” produce a specific type of worker ants and form a cluster to produce sensory information to influence humans, thereby achieving the spread of emotion projection, he suddenly heard footsteps coming from outside the yard.