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Chu Xiaoting’s facial features weren’t particularly delicate or pretty, but they combined to create an overall sense of elegance. She was tall, only slightly shorter than Old Xia at over 1.7 meters. Her skin was relatively darker, her makeup was heavier, and her style leaned more towards the European and American fashion. At first glance, one might mistake her for being mixed race.

Despite only having stayed abroad slightly longer than Zi Cheng, the influence of Western culture on her seemed much more profound.

Overall, she left a pleasant impression, being an enthusiastic and outgoing girl.

When they entered the room, Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting were huddled together looking at the restaurant’s newly updated menu, discussing in whispers with their heads almost touch.

Seeing them in this state, Xiang Kun immediately understood that their relationship had drastically progressed in the last couple of days. Knowing Zi Cheng, he assumed that they’d progressed to at least hugging each other, otherwise they wouldn’t be so relaxed.

Xiang Kun glanced at Old Xia, knowing that he must’ve noticed it too.

However, neither of them reacted, but instead, they greeted Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting as they’d always done, and set about chatting after sitting down.

Just a few minutes after Xiang Kun arrived, ignoring the rush hour, You Meng personally brought a freshly made dish to their room. Upon seeing Xiang Kun, he chuckled and teased, “Ah, did Xiang Kexing come here? I heard that the police tip reward was claimed by someone in Chongyun Village. It wasn’t you, was it?”

“Wasn’t me,” Xiang Kun shook his head with a wry smile. Before leaving yesterday, he jokingly told You Meng that if the fugitives indeed fled to Chongyun Village, he’d change his name to “Xiang Kexing”. Unexpectedly, his words came true: the fugitives indeed fled to Chongyun Village and even stole clothes from the Liu Brothers.

This casual joke earned Xiang Kun a new nickname.

After greeting and horsing around with him, You Meng quickly left and hurried back to the kitchen, leaving Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting puzzled.

Xiang Kun then repeated his conversation with You Meng from yesterday and explained what happened in Chongyun Village last night – things he learned from his phone call with Liu Caifu earlier today.

Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting had naturally heard the news today. Upon finding out, their interest was piqued. Conversation started flowing thanks to Xiang Kun’s lead. After the dishes were served, Xiang Kun gradually steered the conversation back to the relationship between Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting, getting them caught up in the chat.

Aided by their conversations and behaviors, Xiang Kun was able to further estimate that their relationship was quite harmonious and synchronized, indicating that they might soon clear any ambiguities and establish a relationship.

In particular, Xiang Kun noticed that Zi Cheng’s overall state, pulse, breathing, and other physiological responses when interacting with Chu Xiaoting, were similar to those under normal conditions.

This was a stark contrast to the nervousness, excitement, and loss of control he felt when he first met Chu Xiaoting. Given the significant change since their first meeting, Xiang Kun deduced that Zi Cheng now felt extremely relaxed with Chu Xiaoting.

This increased Xiang Kun’s confidence in their progression. The relaxed state indicated either Zi Cheng had no feelings for Chu Xiaoting, or they were getting along incredibly well; and judging from their interactions, it was clear it was the latter. In a relaxed state, Zi Cheng’s mind worked more flexibly, his reactions were faster, he could communicate better with Chu Xiaoting and exhibit his charm effectively.

The dining lasted until after eight o’clock, then Xiang Kun and Xia Libing left first.

However, they did not head straight back to Chongyun Village but drove towards Wushu Mountain.

Their destination was a villa area near Wushu Mountain, where Mijoe, Zhou Rui, and other “Divine Technology” investigation team members lived. Tonight, Xiang Kun planned to place another “Black Circle Graffiti” related to Old Xia in Zhou Rui’s room, to ensure that they could guide his dreams tonight.

Although Xiang Kun had previously placed a “Black Circle Graffiti” near Mijoe in the “Divine Technology” team, it was mainly used to trigger Mijoe’s dreams as it was closest to her.

If it was just to understand the team’s current investigations or to subtly influence them, the existing “Black Circle Graffiti” would suffice.

However, following last night’s “Lightning Strike Fugitive” incident, it was expected that “Divine Technology” would conduct related investigations, which would probably be assigned to Zhou Rui and Mijoe as they were nearby. He then had a plan to direct their investigation, which had to be implemented through Zhou Rui—he was the ideal target.

Xiang Kun naturally wouldn’t drive all the way to the villa, or even the same road. He turned onto a different road at an intersection and headed towards a scenic area. He stopped at a more secluded spot by the roadside, asking Old Xia to wait in the car while he, Xiang Kun, took a shortcut and ran towards the villa.

Before this Blood-drinking Period, Xiang Kun had painted a dozen or so 5X5cm square Black Circle Graffitis to “deploy” when needed. Folded up, they were fairly discreet and not easily found.

Even though the villa where Mijoe and the others were staying was heavily guarded and monitored, Xiang Kun wouldn’t be without methods should he decide to infiltrate it.

Nevertheless, as a precaution, he thought of a new method: using his newly controlled ant colony, especially the large worker ant “Zero Zero One”.

It, together with several flying worker ants coming from “Zero Zero Two”, carried the “Black Circle Graffiti” inside the villa, and quietly placed it under Zhou Rui’s bed.

As for the worker ants produced by the “Zero Zero Two” ant queen, Xiang Kun could only instruct them to perform some very, very simple tasks, because they can’t comprehend anything too complex. In contrast, “Zero Zero One”, who was in direct contact with him, was capable of understanding more information.

“Zero Zero One” couldn’t understand visual information accurately. Xiang Kun couldn’t directly tell it, “Put the paper under the bed in the third room on the second floor, stuff it into a crack and hide it well.” This information was too complex for it to understand on its own.

But to “Zero Zero One”, Xiang Kun could guide it by scent to act according to information it could understand, and the other “Flying Worker Ants” could simply follow along.

Xiang Kun hid near the villa, and by sound and smell, he could determine the positions of everyone inside the house. He also used his “Super Sensory State” to check all surveillance angles, located the air vent in the bathroom of Zhou Rui’s room, and sent “Zero Zero One” and six “Flying Worker Ants” carrying the “Black Circle Graffiti” inside.

The whole process lasted nearly three minutes. Xiang Kun successfully directed the ant squad to deploy the “Black Circle Graffiti” under Zhou Rui’s bed and exit smoothly. Since Zhou Rui, Mijoe, and Gao Shu were all on the first floor at the time, the ant squad’s operation was highly successful.

Looking at the seven ants—one large, six small—that flew out of the vent, veered off course under his “command” to avoid the camera’s shooting angle outside the villa before landing on his hand, Xiang Kun nodded in satisfaction, and a thought popped into his head:

Could these ants somehow be developed to function like “Emotion Infused Objects”? If so, he could just dispatch an army of flying ants to deploy Dream in A Dream nodes in the future, which would be flexible and easy.

But after a brief thought, he realized that this was essentially the same problem he had encountered trying to get Jinshan to directly draw upon the “Emotion Infused Objects” ability.

…

In one of the private rooms on the second floor of Youlong Restaurant on the pedestrian street.

After Xiang Kun and Old Xia had left, Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting didn’t leave. They stayed in the room, eating fruit and chatting.

“What kind of relationship do ‘Old Xia’ and ‘Baldy’ have? It feels like they understand each other just by looking at each other. Even if they don’t say a word, it seems like they’ve exchanged a lot of information…” Chu Xiaoting wondered curiously.

“You’re imagining things. What, do you think they can communicate telepathically? As for Old Xia and Ah Tu…for now, I think they’re just friends. Ah Tu mentioned that ‘Old Xia’ is helping him with a research and biology related base in Chongyun Village lately so she’s been staying here,” said Zi Cheng, laughing.

“I prefer Nana. She’s a great singer and made many interesting videos. Zhen’er is also fun, very humorous. Old Xia always seems icy cold, a bit creepy; like she’s always watching everyone from the corner. I don’t like Zhang Qian much either. She’s too aloof, as if she’s on a different level from others; even her speech seems always to have an ulterior motive,” Chu Xiaoting continued while eating.

Zi Cheng stroked his chin, saying, “In my opinion, since you don’t know Old Xia, Xiang Kun, or others well, it’s probably best not to pass judgment. And you’re not that close to Xiang Kun, so don’t call him ‘Baldy’. With his and my longstanding relationship, he can call me Fatty and I can call him Baldy. But you’re not really close to him yet.”

Chu Xiaoting didn’t get angry or annoyed at Zi Cheng’s “educational” words. Instead, she thought for a moment and said, “You’re right. But I only talk this way to you in private. I would call him Xiang Kun to his face. I mean, it should be okay to call her ‘Old Xia’ right? It would be weird if I called her ‘Miss Xia’ when you guys call her ‘Old Xia’. And I don’t feel comfortable calling her ‘Sister Xia’ either.”

“Yes, calling her ‘Old Xia’ shouldn’t be a problem,” Zi Cheng nodded.

Chu Xiaoting continued, “As for not passing judgment… Wasn’t I discussing this with you just now? I may not know them well enough, but you do. You can discuss them with me! You don’t mean to tell me that you and Xiang Kun, and the rest of the gang, don’t gossip about other girls or friends in private? You guys must have had late night discussions about which girl in school was prettier when you lived in the same dorm! You didn’t know those girls well then, did you?”

Zi Cheng scratched his chin, looked at the ceiling in the room, thought for a while, and said with some embarrassment, “Come to think of it…it seems like…we…never really…talked about that.”