What It's Like Being a Vampire

“The gift from Xiao Lingdang came yesterday, delivered by Liu Gaoshang. I was planning to show it to Old Xia after dinner, so it’s in the cabinet in the living room. It’s in a package from SF Express.” Xiang Kun replied to Yang Zhen’er’s prompt from the kitchen, laughing.

Yang Zhen Er immediately ran out, found the package in the cabinet, and showed it to Xia Libing, saying, “It should be this one! Should we open it?”

“Oh, Yang Lao San, it’s a birthday gift for Old Xia, not you. Why are you so excited?” Xia Tianhuo laughed.

“Old Xia and Xiao Lingdang won’t mind, right, Xiao Lingdang?” Yang Zhen’er spun the laptop she was using for video call to face her, and holding the package, she said with a chuckle, “Xiao Lingdang, can Fairy Sister help your sister unwrap your gift?”

Tang Baona was drinking tea and almost choked, laughing and scolding, “Zhen’er, you are really shameless! You even cheekily call yourself ‘Fairy Sister’…”

Having gotten the remote “permission” from Little Fat Girl, Yang Zhen Er began to unwrap the parcel, knowing full well that her dear cousin would certainly not object!

Once she stripped off the packaging, she quickly saw the gift from Little Fat Girl. It was a rolled-up, 4-fold size color pencil drawing. What was special was that the picture seemed to be drawn in two different styles. Besides the middle area, the surrounding elements like the forest below, clouds above, lightning on the side were all portrayed in a more realistic style. Upon closer examination, they seemed to be printed rather than directly drawn with color pencils.

But the central part of the picture was obviously done by Little Fat Girl.

On top of the forest, a very long female magician with a ponytail, wearing a robe, was raising her right hand, inserting her magic wand in the sky among the clouds. The surrounding lightning seemed to be conjured by her.

Next to the tall, impressive female magician with a ponytail was a flying creature with many wings. It was about 1/10th of her size, and carrying a small magician dressed in a robe. Because it was so tiny, its facial features under the hood were simplified to a smiley face ” :)”.

Although, judged by Little Fat Girl’s standards, the drawing should be considered quite good and elaborated, particularly the ponytail magician, an extraordinary masterpiece. However, as soon as Yang Zhen’er saw the content of the drawing, she started laughing so hard that tears almost sprang into her eyes, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, Xiao Lingdang, how did you make Old Xia look like the Statue of Liberty and there’s that thing which looks like a fly, oh not, a bee next to it, is it a custard pie? And it’s carrying you, right? Why is it drawn so small? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, it’s very well drawn, it’s so cute, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, you and the custard pie combined are still smaller than Old Xia’s eyeballs, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…”

The others initially didn’t have much of an emotional reaction to the drawing. But after Yang Zhen’er’s explanation, they all started laughing uproariously.

Only Xia Tianhuo, who was helping Yang Zhen’er with spreading out the drawing, gazed towards the giant creature with eight eyes and eight arms, underneath the feet of the ponytailed-witch in the picture, stunned. He looked surprised and asked Little Fat Girl, who was on the video call through the laptop, “Little girl, this…eight-eyed, eight-armed giant you drew, what is it?”

It was only then that Yang Zhen’er noticed the eight-eyed, eight-armed monster beneath Old Xia’s feet on the drawing. She didn’t have a strong reaction, simply assuming that Little Fat Girl must have seen Xiang Kun’s carving of a similar creature.

At Xia Tianhuo’s question, Little Fat Girl almost blurted out “Barbie Warrior” but quickly realized that, besides Xia Libing and Xiao Pingguo, who also belong to the magic world, on the other end of the video call there were many aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters other than them. Although they were all very kind people, according to Uncle Bald’s secrecy requirements, she couldn’t tell them.

So, Little Fat Girl blinked her eyes a couple of times and answered, “It’s the crab demon I saw on TV…”

Xia Tianhuo was puzzled and asked, “Crab demon? How could a crab have so many eyes?”

“Ah? Then…Spider spirit! Spiders have that many eyes….right?” Little Fatty Girl corrected herself.

However, nobody really doubted Little Fat Girl’s reply, even Xia Tianhuo thought that she might have unintentionally seen the illusion of the eight-eyed, eight-armed giant when the news about Myitkyina was broadcasted on TV a while back and mistook it for a cartoon image of a spider spirit or crab demon. After all, a lot of TV channels had been broadcasting 3D images made according to the descriptions of witnesses or sketches directly drawn by the people involved when they were covering the news.

Only Tang Baona, who was explaining the details on the picture to Xiao Pingguo beside her, felt vaguely that Little Fatty Girl seemed to be not telling the whole story. When they went to Star City and saw the drawing of the big cat with four pairs of wings at Little Fatty Girl’s house and started talking about why the wings were drawn in that way, this child was so enthusiastic. Unlike now, where just one sentence glossed over. She didn’t seem much willing to talk about it.

And like Yang Zhen’er, she also thought that the giant drawn by Little Fatty Girl may be influenced by Xiang Kun’s “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster woodcarving” that they had seen before. The carving itself was quite cartoonish.

“Xiao Lingdang, did your mom help you with these patterns on the paper, like the mountains, clouds, lightning, etc? Did she use a computer to draw them? They look really good!” Yang Zhen’er asked, holding the drawing.

“Xiao Luosi helped me,” Liu Shiling replied. Xiao Luosi was a nickname she gave, so it didn’t count as revealing any secrets.

Yang Zhen’er didn’t push further, assuming “Xiao Luosi” was a friend of Liu Shiling in Star City.

Xia Libing, on the other hand, knew this was probably Alice helping to create the environment map, then printing it out for the little Fatty Girl. As for the specific operations and how the Little Fatty Girl got the printed drawing paper in Star City, Xiang Kun should know. For instance, they could use Xiang Kun’s account online to find a merchant to print the completed image and then express it to Star City.

However, those mountains, clouds, and lightning environment patterns caught Xia Libing’s attention greatly. These patterns were not directly synthesized from real images or other pre-existing images online, but were clearly drawn by Alice. Although the patterns were detailed and looked much better than what Little Fatty Girl drew, like they were drawn by an art student, they still had many imperfections and rough parts. There were even some places that faintly showed the same “habits” and “style” as Little Fatty Girl’s.

But it was these features, with a clear human growth curve in the drawing style, that allowed Xia Libing to see Alice’s “emotional growth” very intuitively. For Alice, it was easy to draw realistically or beautifully. On the contrary, the authentic “flaws” and “clumsiness” are much harder.

Just like when Little Fatty Girl first taught Alice to draw in the dream, the drawing she made was incredibly simple, crooked, like a doodle. To Alice, this was already a groundbreaking breakthrough.

When Alice drew this picture for Little Fatty Girl, she had not completely integrated into the “Super Sensory Item System”. The day before yesterday, with Xiao Pingguo’s help to complete the final merge, Alice’s evolution would definitely speed up. Xia Libing was somewhat excited to see what Alice would grow into under this state.

“Old Xia, why are you zoning out? Xiao Lingdang’s drawing is pretty good, isn’t it!” Tang Baona saw that Old Xia’s eyes were fixed on the painting and she didn’t move a bit, causing the Little Fatty Girl to get a little nervous on the video. Baona couldn’t help but to call her softly, then said to the Little Fatty Girl. “Next time it’s my birthday, can you draw me a picture too?”

Liu Shiling quickly nodded and agreed, “Uh-huh!”

Xia Libing snapped back to reality and took the painting from Yang Zhen’er, Bai said to Liu Shiling: “You’ve drawn a really great picture. I’m very satisfied. Thank you Xiao Lingdang.”

Yang Zhen’er said: “Xiao Lingdang, me too! Draw one for me! But, make it prettier. I’ll give you some reference pictures at the time!”

Normally, gifts would be given after dinner and before cake. However, since they had already seen Little Fatty Girl’s gift, and there was nothing else to do for now everyone started to take their gifts out.

Yang Zhen’er’s gift was a pair of mountain climbing shoes, because she had noticed that Old Xia and Xiang Kun frequently needed to go to Chongyun Mountain for “research” and to check on the progress at the construction site. The shoes they had before were all dirty and worn out, so she prepared a pair of new and more durable shoes suitable for such situations. Anyway, she has been the sponsor for Old Xia’s clothes, shoes, and hats for a long time, so she had a good grasp of the size and styles.

Tang Baona had the same thought as Yang Zhen’er, she gave an outdoor watch as a gift, the features and brand of which were, of course, much superior to Old Xia’s original G-SHOCK.

In addition, after hearing of Old Xia’s birthday, Zhang Qian had also sent a gift over and asked Tang Baona to give it to Old Xia – a luxury sports brand backpack. The reason she chose this was that she had noticed when Xiang Kun and the others went to Peng City that Old Xia was carrying a rather large men’s backpack that looked somewhat old. She believed that it must have been used for quite a long time.

Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting had only found out yesterday that Xiao Pingguo and the others had come to Chongyun Mountain for Old Xia’s birthday. Hence, they were quite rushed and opted for a small local handicraft from Tongshi Town.

Noticing that Xia Tianhuo had remained seated without opening any gift, Yang Zhen’er asked him: “Big lug, what gift are you giving Old Xia?”

“I, heh heh, must confess that it’s quite embarrassing. It wasn’t until the 20th, on the road when I heard you guys talking, that I realized it was Old Xia’s birthday. We have all been staying in the village for these past few days and didn’t have a chance to go out, so I hadn’t had time to prepare a gift. Heh heh, I will owe her this gift for now and make it up to her later when we return. I have many things from Africa and Southeast Asia back home, Old Xia can pick whatever she likes.” Xia Tianhuo confessed without shame. He was quite sure that Old Xia did not really care about whether or not he got her a birthday gift.

“Wow! The way you act as a cousin… tsk tsk tsk!” Yang Zhen’er shook her head in displeasure.

“Hey, hey, Yang Lao San, you never gave me a birthday gift on my birthday! Oh right, I remember now, on my 18th birthday, you even blew out my candles!” Xia Tianhuo glared at his cousin.

Yang Zhen’er glared back at him, “I was just a kid then! You’re actually picking a fight with an elementary school student?”

“A kid my ass! You were already in junior high!”

Although they knew these siblings were joking, Professor Li Yang still interrupted to let Xiao Pingguo bring out the gift she prepared – he knew his daughter had spent a lot of effort on this gift.

Xiao Pingguo’s gift was special. She didn’t bring out any physical thing, but asked Tang Baona to open her email and play an audio file.

As the audio file played, everyone in the living room fell quiet, their faces showing wonder as they listened.

The audio file was filled with bird calls, but these calls were not disorderly. In the pleasant chirps, there was a melody, and upon close listening, this melody was “Happy Birthday Song”!

It was noticeable that one calling voice was particularly loud and clear, while other bird calls were more like choruses or accompaniments.

At the end, Xiao Pingguo’s humming voice joined in, surprisingly harmonious. After the song, Xiao Pingguo gently said, “Happy birthday, Bing Jie.”

Chu Xiaoting, who had been stunned by the audio, couldn’t help clapping, “That’s awesome! I never knew bird calls could sound this nice. It’s really amazing. Was this edited? No, the call was too continuous, it doesn’t sound like it was edited. Was it synthesized using AI?”

The group’s bird song, barely a minute long, felt like a performance to everyone.

Even Tang Baona, who had participated in making the audio, couldn’t help but exclaim when she heard it again.

Xiao Pingguo just said that “Gold Glitter” contributed to the main call, but didn’t elaborate on whether it was synthesized, edited, or how it was made.

Of course, she couldn’t tell anyone other than Old Xia that the bird chirps in the audio that followed the call were all intimidated by “Gold Glitter” to join in the singing, and all she had to do was teach “Gold Glitter”.

When the audio was playing, Xia Libing was listening carefully. From this audio, she could somewhat see “Gold Glitter”‘s learning and comprehension abilities. With the comparison of the other bird calls in the same video, she could clearly sense “Gold Glitter”‘s differences.

“It’s a great gift, thank you Xiao Pingguo,” said Xia Libing.

“As long as Bing Jie likes it,” Xiao Pingguo said happily, and “Gold Glitter” at the window slightly puffed out its chest.

Yang Zhen’er looked around the living room and found that everyone had displayed their gifts. Suddenly, she sprang up from her chair, “That’s right, there’s Brother Xiang, Brother Xiang must have prepared a gift!”

So she rushed into the kitchen, then rushed back out a few seconds later and ran into Xiang Kun’s room on the first floor. Half a minute later, she returned to the living room with a small wooden box, handed it to Old Xia and said breathlessly, “This is Brother Xiang’s gift.”

Xia Libing took the small wooden box under everyone’s gaze, prompting exclamations of “huh”.

But it wasn’t amazement, but confusion, because at first, most people couldn’t tell what it was.

Yang Zhen’er picked it up and took a look before frowning, “Is this… for wearing on the wrist?”

In the wooden box was a black leather strap, embedded with many small metal plates, giving it a somewhat punk, gothic vibe.

Yang Zhen’er tried it on her own wrist and said doubtfully, “It really is a wristband, huh? This can’t be made by Brother Xiang himself, right? This is simply… grotesque! Ah, how could Brother Xiang make such a wristband? It’s totally not Old Xia’s style! Old Xia, you need to reject this gift, send it back, and have Brother Xiang make a couple of wooden carvings instead. They would look much better than this ugly wristband!”

Tang Baona also couldn’t help but nod in agreement, then began to describe the “grotesque” wristband to Xiao Pingguo beside her.

Zi Cheng also had an expression of mixed laughter and tears, “Ah Tu’s taste is really ‘Ah Tu’! Super local guy style! Too unrefined!”

However, Xia Libing asked for the wristband back and put it on herself, saying in a calm manner, “I think it’s okay.”

What others didn’t know was that this wristband was actually made by Xiang Kun and Old Xia together. Xiang Kun had previously thought about how to make it more convenient for Old Xia to carry more “super-connected objects.” The nine coins she used to carry were heavy, and if placed in the pocket without being secured, they would often jingle when she walked. And while the “tungsten carbide beads” were small, a large quantity of them would also be inconvenient to carry. After some consideration, they thought it was more appropriate to make a “modular wearable equipment” that could be easily added or reduced. So the idea of this wristband came about.

The small, uniformly sized metal pieces embedded on it were naturally Xiang Kun’s “super-connected objects.” When these metal pieces are removed in a special way, the wristband has a lot of narrow space inside that can hold the tungsten carbide beads, supporting up to a hundred or more.

Moreover, with this type of ornament, regardless of the material or structure, no one would suspect it. It wouldn’t cause any trouble going through security checks, etc. You could just remove it, and no one would inspect it.

The interior functions and craftsmanship of the wristband were handled by Xiang Kun, whereas the exterior design was mostly according to Xia Libing’s suggestions.

“Dinner is ready! Dinner is ready!” Xiang Kun, carrying a dish out of the kitchen, then asked Zicheng and Yang Zhen’er to help bring the dishes and set the table, “By the way, Brother Fu knew that Old Xia loves crispy pork hock, so he went to the slaughterhouse today to get the freshest, best quality pork hocks. Everyone, eat as much as you want, guaranteed to be enough!”

Hearing this, Liu Shiling, who was still on the video call, lengthened her neck as if trying to stick her head out of the video. Unfortunately, the camera angle didn’t cover the dining table, and she could only see everyone else’s excited expressions, which made her imagine the delicious food made by “Uncle Bald”.

Just before dinner started, You Meng’s wife, Liang Yulong, rushed over from Tongshi Town and brought some dishes made by You Meng.

Liu Caifu also had someone send over several jars of local specialty fruit wine.

Everyone enjoyed the generous dinner very much, not only because Xiang Kun had made a lot of dishes and had good wine to go with them, but also because it was Old Xia’s birthday, and all her friends were gathered together.

Just as Xiang Kun and Tang Baona started to prepare the cake when everyone was almost done eating, Xia Libing felt her phone vibrate. She picked it up and saw a system notification, “Come to the door.”

She immediately understood that this was from Alice.

Xia Libing looked up at Xiang Kun. Xiang Kun, who was unwrapping the birthday cake packaging, looked back at her and then continued doing her thing. Xia Libing immediately understood that Alice was looking for her not because of Xiang Kun’s orders, but Xiang Kun was aware of it.

So Xia Libing first went to the washroom, then casually walked through the yard, opened the gate, and walked out.

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