What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 139: Experiment: Not Afraid of Embarrassment

After a friendly and intimate mental exchange with the rabbits, Xiang Kun went straight out the door.

After failing to establish fear projection attempts with the rabbits, Xiang Kun decided to try his Direct Eye Hypnosis ability again.

After leaving the residential complex, he went directly to a nearby convenience store, bought a bottle of water, and, while paying through WeChat, casually remarked, “Hey, bro, business must be good running a convenience store here, huh?”

The fortysomething shopkeeper gave a smile. “Yeah, it’s okay. It’s all thanks to everyone’s support. We’re just here to make life easier for everyone.”

Xiang Kun looked up and smiled at the shopkeeper. “I’m an old resident here, I come here often to buy stuff. You must’ve seen me before.”

“Haha, I think I have,” the shopkeeper responded.

“Hey, we’re kinda like neighbors, aren’t we? A neighbor comes to buy water, there should be some kind of discount, right? How about a buy one, get one free? Give me another bottle of water.” Xiang Kun looked at the shopkeeper, speaking with a reasonable tone, as if it was a given, similar to “I give you money, you give me water”.

However, the shopkeeper looked startled, then looked at Xiang Kun with surprise. He leaned back unconsciously.

There was surprise and a hint of fear in his eyes. Xiang Kun, having returned to the city he lived in, had stopped wearing his wig and hat, revealing his characteristic bald head. Despite wearing glasses, his robust, powerful physique still gave off a strong oppressive feeling.

Xiang Kun could see that he was both questioning whether he was an idiot while also worrying that he was a bully looking for trouble.

“Haha, bro, I was just joking! It’s only a few cents for a bottle of water. I can’t take advantage of that. I’m off now,” laughed Xiang Kun, and then quickly walked out of the convenience store.

When he came out, Xiang Kun was somewhat imposed by his ability to say such awkward things with a straight face.

If this were in the past, he would rather die – wait, no, if he were threatened with death, he would actually go through with it. But under normal circumstances, given his personality, he would never deliberately put himself in an awkwvard situation.

Just thinking about that feeling made his whole body uncomfortable.

Now, though, in order to test abilities, Xiang Kun has found that his tolerance for various situations has greatly increased, much like when he bought a canary, sensing the shopkeeper’s information while haggling, without feeling, or caring, the earlier discomforting sensa tion of negotiating with strangers.

From his brief interaction with the convenience store manager, it was evident that he failed. He had absolutely no hypnotic effect.

Xiang Kun was not disheartened. He headed to the area where the old men and women of his residential complex often hung out at.

It was shortly past three in the afternoon. The sun was pretty hot and the park was virtually empty. Xiang Kun looked around and focused on two old men playing chess under a tree. He strolled over.

Xiang Kun watched for a while. Both old men ignored him, completely engrossed in their game.

“Red’s chess pieces seem to be in a bad way. If that rook each other gets taken, it’s basically game over… But actually, there could still be a way out. Black does have a lot of flaws in his formation,” Xiang Kun muttered constantly, showing no signs of the “Chivalry is spectators keeping silent during chess games.”

The old man handling the red pieces was already at a disadvantage, looking worried. When someone suddenly popped up next to him, babbling incessantly, it basically made him even more irritated. He glared at Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun had been watching him attentively and immediately met his gaze with a gaze which gave the old man a start.

“Old man, listen to me. Although you’re at a disadvantage now, moving your pawn out on the side could change the game. It could reverse the situation, you move your side pawn, move…” Xiang Kun said, staring into the man’s eyes.

The old man’s facial expressions keep changing, then he said to the other old man, “Old Wu, let’s go, let’s go to my house. This round, I concede. Let’s go, come on…”

Watching the two old men hurriedly pack up their chess box and leave as if escaping, Xiang Kun couldn’t help frowning. What’s wrong? Where’s the problem?

He revisited the memory on how Guo Tianxiang hypnotized people.

Could it be because of the glasses?

Xiang Kun took off his glasses and continued to look for targets.

However, until eight in the evening, Xiang Kun had wandered around a shopping plaza, trying various excuses to strike up conversations with people. Despite trying to hypnotize them on minor things, all his attempts failed.

Xiang Kun also doubted whether he should first establish some form of trust and then influence them. Hence, he spent twenty minutes chatting with a beggar and gave him 20 yuan. Although the beggar was already addressing him as his own brother and was moved to tears, his final attempt to have the beggar buy him a KFC hamburger still fell flat.

During all this, Xiang Kun had to be careful not to accidentally use “mental deterrence” or “emotional assimilation”. It was indeed hard work.

“Do I not have the ability at all?” Xiang Kun stood on the overpass, scratching his bald head and muttering in irritation.

From Guo Tianxiang’s memories, performing hypnosis seemed simple. All he had to do was state some factual things first and then easily made the other party accept hypnotic words that seemed completely illogical. There was no process of establishing trust nor any of the techniques used by the various hypnotic schools online.

Xiang Kun felt he must not have found some keys to it yet. Like a switch, as long as he knew where it was, he just had to flip it open.

While he stood on the overpass, meticulously going over Guo Tianxiang’s memory footage, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He took it out and saw it was Chang Bin. He answered the call.

“Where are you?” Chang Bin sounded a bit down.

“I’m near Wanda on ** street, why?”

“You’re free tonight? Let’s go drinking. Well, actually, come with me to drink. I know you don’t drink. You don’t have to drink, just watch me drink.”

“Okay, where are we going? Should I come over, or are you picking me up?” Xiang Kun discerned from his tone that Chang Bin must’ve encountered some problem.

“I’m not far from Wanda. I’ll come to pick you up.”

Once he got in Chang Bin’s magotan, Xiang Kun took a couple of looks at his friend. From his heavy smell of smoke and sweat, Chang Bin hadn’t showered or changed clothes for at least two days. His mental state didn’t seem particularly great either. From the smell, he hadn’t returned home at all over the past 24 hours. When he was with Zi Cheng Yi last time, Xiang Kun had recorded Chang Bin’S scent and he knew the various sources of smell in his house – like the scent of a flower and a cat’s smell – Wang Han was raising a British short with him.

He must’ve had a quarrel with Wang Han – Xiang Kun made a preliminary judgment.

He just didn’t know what the reason was.

But judging from Chang Bin’s smell, he definitely hadn’t sought out any other women last night..