What It’s Like Being a Vampire - Chapter 623 - Chapter 623: Chapter 623: The World Has Changed Greatly (Part 2)

Chapter 623: Chapter 623: The World Has Changed Greatly (Part 2)

Not far from the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area, in a certain villa area.

After receiving Mr. Liang’s orders, Fang Pingfang’s investigation team had been “secluded” in the villa for quite some time.

Although the living conditions and food here were pretty good–each day Ye Chong would have someone deliver takeout from Tongshi Town or a nearby restaurant, all ordered according to their preferences. Even a single meal could be ordered from several different restaurants, because their current budget had increased significantly.

But as time went on, the team inevitably had to ponder why they had to suspend all their investigations, disconnect from all their target contacts, and stay put in the villa.

Suspending the investigation and disconnecting from the targets made sense; it could have been due to their target being extremely dangerous and these measures were meant to protect them.

The order to stay put in the villa made sense initially if there were subsequent tasks assigned, but after such a long time with no following tasks, yet the requirement to remain on standby still persisted, this left them somewhat puzzled.

Fang Pingfang and Mijoe had indeed tried to reach out to Mr. Liang several times, but all they got in return were orders to stay put.

So for their investigation team, this was quite torturous. Especially since their previous research had resulted in significant discoveries and they thought they were about to uncover the truth, but then suddenly the light-switch was turned off.

Especially for Zhao Feng and Wang De’an, who had been beckoned to stop halfway through their investigation and had no knowledge of what the end results were. This left them feeling extremely uncomfortable and, over the course of several days, they had already speculated and hypothesized hundreds of possibilities.

Early one morning, Zhou Rui descended the stairs yawning. He heard Zhao Feng and Wang De’an locked in an intense discussion in the living room, while Mijoe was drinking coffee at the bar, seemingly accustomed to the commotion.

Zhou Rui took one portion of a Golden Arches breakfast from the open-style kitchen’s microwave. After testing the temperature and finding it cold, he put it back in the microwave to heat it again. He then turned to Mijoe and said, “Hua Hua, why are you wearing a down jacket? It’s only a few months into the year.”

“If it’s cold, I wear more; if it’s hot, I wear less. What does it have to do with the month?” Mijoe glanced at him and casually replied.

“Cold…” Only then did Zhou Rui suddenly realize, today did seem a bit cold. He was only wearing a long-sleeve shirt he slept in, so he shrunk his neck and looked at the open window in the living room, “Aw crap, it really is cold! Has there been a drop in temperature today?”

Even after putting on a sweatshirt upstairs and returning, Zhou Rui still felt a bit cold, so he went to close the window. He wanted to turn the central heating on but was stopped by Li Shibao who was sitting by the window, “Breathing some fresh air feels good. Being constantly shut up in the house is too suffocating. If you are afraid of the cold, do not sit across from the window, sit closer to the edge.”

Seeing Li Shibao only wearing a short-sleeve shirt, Zhou Rui curiously asked, “Old Li, aren’t you cold?”

Zhao Feng, who was engaged in discussion with Wang De’an, turned around and laughed, “Old Li had been doing jumping jacks for quite some time and was sweating profusely. He must be cooling down now, haha.”

“Damn, you brute.” Zhou Rui cursed with laughter as he dodged the tissue box thrown in his direction by Li Shibao.

Zhou Rui pulled up his collar, massaged his shoulders, walked back to the bar, and while eating his warmed up breakfast, took Mijoe’s tablet from the side and opened the weather application, “12 degrees? Is it really 12 degrees now? It feels like it’s only 5 or 6 degrees.”

Although the temperature near Wushu Mountain fluctuated widely between day and night, and it was usually quite chilly in the early morning, it never dropped this much suddenly. Moreover, the sun was already up quite high; it shouldn’t be this cold.

Zhou Rui went to check their field equipment again, devices for measuring environmental humidity and temperature, and found that the indoor temperature now was indeed 11.4℃, not much different from 12℃. But, it felt a lot colder than 12℃.

“There are unusual changes in the temperature today.” Dr. Fang Pingfang, who had just descended from upstairs, noticed that Zhou Rui was messing with the device and said, “Have a look at the weather news.”

Zhou Rui proceeded to pick up Mijoe’s tablet and checked out CCTV’s morning weather forecast. Indeed, there was talk about abnormal temperature changes, affecting the entire eastern hemisphere. Furthermore, it wasn’t a gradual and step-by-step influence by the cold air, it was sudden and immediate, affecting the entire range. The temperature within the entire region had dropped all at once, regardless of whether it was the mountains or plains, inland or coastal areas, the temperature had dropped indiscriminately.

Of course, the western hemisphere and other areas where there wasn’t a uniform temperature drop also experienced certain events. Scrolling through international social media, Zhou Rui noticed that the areas that did not experience such temperature drops were experiencing even stranger weather changes. As of now, these changes had only just begun, and there was no telling what they would turn into.

Some people were even saying, “Has the 2012 end of the world apocalypse been delayed, and now it’s coming in 2020?”

Some also suspected Uncle Sam of messing with some kind of climate weapon and causing these changes.

After checking international social media, Zhou Rui couldn’t help but once again stand up to go to the window and look up at the blue sky and white clouds. Apart from the temperature being a bit low, and feeling even colder than the actual temperature, there seemed to be nothing unusual about it. How had discussions about the end of the world begun abroad? Was it really that serious?

Whatever, forget about it. After all, he wasn’t a meteorologist, if it was cold, he would just put on another layer.

By the time he came back downstairs having put on an extra layer, he found that everyone was gathered around the bar, listening to Zhao Feng. So, he quickly joined them.

“… I believe that the source of danger Mr. Liang identified is Xiang Kun. He may have some direct correlation with the hallucination of the eight-armed, eight-eyed giant. That illusion could be his avatar, or something he created using some method. Additionally, considering the evidence we have and logical deduction, the ‘giant raptors’, ‘invisible insects’, ‘ghost beard ants’, and abnormal thunderstorms appearing on Wushu Mountain are likely to be directly or indirectly related to him. According to our analysis, the source of these anomalies should be Chongyun Village!

“This may explain why Xiang Kun spent so much effort and money on creating the so-called Internet Breeding Research Center in Chongyun Village. He doesn’t have the necessary research staff or qualifications. The equipment he bought doesn’t seem to be for breeding according to our investigation, many pieces are even human-use equipment.”

At this point, Zhao Feng paused, looked at the people around him and continued, “Mr. Liang doesn’t want us to participate in the investigation, possibly due to the fear of threats from Xiang Kun. But based on the information we have and Xiang Kun’s attitude towards others, there is no need for an antagonistic confrontation. We can interact openly and tactfully.”

Talking about it, Zhao Feng presented several schemes he had discussed with Wang De’an, then turned to Fang Pingfang, “Dr. Fang, what do you think of the plans we proposed, can you ask Mr. Liang to let us join the investigation? With him behind us and us in front, it leaves us more room. If need be, De’an and I can sign a safety agreement, we’ll be responsible for any dangerous situations and won’t cause trouble for the company.”

Mijoe, who had been resting her chin on her hand, glanced at Fang Pingfang, who was deep in thought. She didn’t think much of Zhao Feng and Wang De’an’s proposal because she knew they had blind spots in their understanding of “blood-eating creatures”. Mr. Liang was clearly limiting the depth of researchers and investigators’ understanding of “blood-eating creatures”, and not letting them investigate or directly contact Xiang Kun, who might be a potentially formidable human “blood-eating creature”. This was likely due to not only wanting to keep them away from danger but also not wanting them to know too much about the depth of “blood-eating creatures”. After all, while other types of “blood-eating creatures” couldn’t communicate, human “blood-eating creatures” could.

Given their understanding of this viewpoint, Mijoe felt that the duo’s request would be rejected. But she didn’t plan on saying anything, not because she wanted to watch Zhao Feng and Wang De’an exert futile effort, but she was curious. Why did Mr. Liang ask them to investigate “blood-eating creatures,” but remained silent on key information about them? She hoped the team and even others from Divine Technology’s secret departments would raise more questions, forcing Mr. Liang to respond.

After thinking for a while, Dr. Fang finally decided to help Zhao Feng and Wang De’an apply to Mr. Liang. She also mentioned that she would join their application in hopes of participating in direct investigations or communications with Xiang Kun.

But despite coming up with a handful of justifications to persuade Mr. Liang, when Dr. Fang finally contacted him on her special communicator, she received no response.

Clearly, Mr. Liang was either busy or was aware of Fang Pingfang’s intentions, and didn’t want to communicate. It was very likely that he had reached a critical point in his investigation of Xiang Kun or was about to wrap it up.

Their initial enthusiasm deflated, the team settled down in the living room sofa and chatted leisurely. Topics ranged from Xiang Kun, the illusion of the eight-armed, eight-eyed giant, giant raptors, ghost beard ants, Old Man Du, to what they should eat for lunch, what they should eat for dinner, if there were any games to play, or any new TV shows to watch. They had already exhausted all their professional topics over the past days.

In a lull of conversation, Li Shibao, who had been relatively silent the entire time, suddenly said, “Do you… have any specific feelings today?”

“What special feeling?” Zhao Feng asked.

Zhou Rui nodded immediately: “Yes, there is! When I woke up, I was chilled to death!”

Mijoe also nodded: “Hmm, it’s extraordinarily cold today.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Li Shibao slightly furrowed his brows, as if pondering how to express himself. After a brief pause, he said, “It’s the feeling towards our environment. For example, if there’s the sound of a car passing by outside, you’d roughly know there’s a car over there. If there’s a steady wind coming from one side, you’d know there’s an electric fan. If Xiao Zhou is talking on Xiao Chen’s left side, Xiao Zhou will know Xiao Chen is to her left. And this morning, there was a time when I had a kind of feeling, that…I could detach myself from vision, hearing, and smell, detached from my original senses. Even without looking, I knew where the newly bought oven is. Not ‘know’, but ‘feel’. I also had a vague feeling about the drone outside our villa. It’s as if I knew where it is, neither by sound nor by looking out the window.”

Zhou Rui thoughtfully nodded: “Old Li, you’ve started cultivating. This is ‘Cultivation: Starting From Unmanned Aircraft and Oven’.”

With that said, he chuckled a few times by himself. But when he didn’t see anyone joining him in his laughter, and even receives a glare from old Li while old Gao seemed puzzled, while Xiao Ye, Hua Hua, Dr. Fang, Zhao Feng, and Wang De’an all looked thoughtful as if they were actually contemplating what old Li said.

“What, you guys actually think old Li can sense the oven and the drone? He’s not the Terminator…” Zhou Rui was somewhat speechless.

“No, I do feel that there’s something different about my surroundings after getting up this morning. Many things seem to carry more information than usual; it’s not easy to explain, but the feeling is indeed very real. It’s likely related to the sudden change in temperature.” Fang Pingfang said.

Right when Mijoe was about to share her feelings on the subject, the unique alert tone of Divine Technology’s secret department communication device rang.

Fang Pingfang, Mijoe, and Ye Chong instinctively looked at their own devices, which they were the most frequent users among them all. They can all directly communicate with Mr. Liang or other functional teams within Divine Technology’s secret department.

But strangely, the device that rang wasn’t any of theirs, but Zhao Feng’s.

Zhao Feng himself looked rather surprised, and after reluctantly connecting the call, he found that the person on the other end of the video was Old He, He Haomin, whom they hadn’t heard from in a long time.

They had tried to contact Old He before through text messages via the communicator, hoping he could help persuade Mr. Liang to allow them to participate in the investigation and contact with Xiang Kun. However, they were categorically rejected, the reason being “all specific investigations are arranged by Mr. Liang”.

Unexpectedly, he was reaching out to them now.

“Old He, is there a new assignment?” Zhao Feng asked excitedly. He thought that He Haomin contacting him at this time, particularly by video call, must mean there was an important matter and there might be a shortage of manpower in other task forces, requiring their assistance. If so, although they couldn’t join the investigation into Xiang Kun, they could at least leave their fat-accumulating lifestyle behind and do something.

“Is Dr. Fang with you?” Old He asked.

Zhao Feng immediately stepped aside, allowing Fang Pingfang to sit in front of the camera.

“I’m here,” Fang Pingfang, who didn’t know He Haomin, said. But from “Old He” being able to use the “Divine Technology” exclusive communication device, she could somewhat guess the implications.

Old He said: “Dr. Fang, I am He Haomin, the director of the ‘National Abnormal Biology Research Center’ under the ‘Biotechnology Development Center’ of the Technology Division. The relevant research and investigation of the ‘Divine Technology’ secret department has always been under our leadership. Now, the related research has made significant breakthroughs. You will gain greater investigative power and set up a new investigation and research department. Mr. Liang is currently busy and can’t get away, so I’m here to give the orders. The mission code will be sent to your communication device and you can confirm it there. Now, write down what I’m saying. Before 10 o’clock noon, arrive at the Intelligent Breeding Research Base in Chongyang Village, Tongshi Town, Jianzhou City, Haixi Province. It’s still under construction, but it’s easy to find and I’ll send the exact location to your communication devices. After you get there, meet a lady named Xia Libing. Follow her arrangements; she’ll tell you what you want to know. As for us here, you’re in charge. You’ll lead the team. I should arrive at the earliest tonight or latest tomorrow morning to meet with you.”

After finishing speaking, Old He just checked whether Fang Pingfang understood his meaning and without giving her the chance to ask other questions, ended the video call.

Old He’s sudden contact and the news he brought was like a bombshell. Naturally, everyone had left Li Shibao’s topic of “waking up feeling like the world is different” aside — including Li Shibao himself.

“Chongyang Village? Xia Libing? Isn’t that the person close to Xiang Kun that we were investigating? ”

“Not just a close companion, but it seems like she’s his girlfriend?”

“Holy shit! The Technology Department? The Non-Human Research Center? Holy shit! We’re indeed part of the national institution, I knew it …”

“It’s the ‘Abnormal Biology Research Center’, not the ‘Non-Human Research Center’!”

“At least he didn’t hear that as ‘Perverted Research Center’, that’s quite good, hahaha …”

“What’s going on? We’ve been on standby for half a month and the target we were supposed to investigate became our leader, became one of us?”

“Maybe we were all part of this ‘Abnormal Research Center’ and didn’t realize it and since Mr. Liang discovered the others, we were merged.”

“Then why do we need to go and accept their leadership?”

“Because they’re ranked higher.”

“What rank? I’ve seen Xia Libing’s profile, she only has a master’s degree. Dr. Fang has a Ph.D.!”

“Rank isn’t determined by education level… Anyway, I don’t get it either, why didn’t you ask Old He just now?”

After the call ended, the whole living room exploded with chatter, discussing non-stop.

The amount of information in Old He’s words was too much, and a lot of it related to their doubts over this period and even dug out new issues and brought up new questions, so naturally, everyone couldn’t hold back their words.

Fang Pingfang let them babble for a while before she gathered her thoughts, clapped her hands, and asked everyone to quiet down.

“There’s no point in discussing this now, let’s go to Chongyang Village. When we meet Miss Xia, we will know.” Fang Pingfang said.

“Let’s go, let’s go. Finally, we can leave this house,” Zhou Rui was the first to get up and head outside, but halfway there, he turned back, “I should put on another piece of clothing… damn it, this is definitely not 12 degrees.”

However, by the time they reached Chongyang Village, the temperature had risen drastically, and the heat had him sweating profusely.