What It's Like Being a Vampire

The person who posted that WeChat Moment, an ID named Xiang Kun didn’t recognize, must be one of the customers from the bar before.

However, he seems to have quite a number of friends, judging from the long list of replies under his post.

“Damn! I thought Huang Shao had found new heavenly voices… my ears!

Huang Shao, don’t your conscience hurt…”

“Just a couple of drinks and he ends up like this?”

‘What on earth is he singing? How come nobody in the bar went up to hit him?”

“Haha, you see the body of this guy, would you dare to confront him? It’s clear no one could take him on!”

“Can this be the pub owner? He runs the pub just to have a free audience?”

“Huang Shao, it’s fine if you’re suffering yourself, don’t make us suffer by posting this.”

“Why do I see the girl in the lower left corner of the video seeming so engrossed and focused? Is she the girlfriend of that bald guy?”

Then Huang Shao, who made the post, replied, “I felt the song was incredibly beautiful when I was listening to it there, as if I were at a concert… But the video seems to lack the same flavor. Now I think it was probably related to the atmosphere in the bar at the time. It was not only me, the whole bar applauded when he finished singing.”

Someone replied below, “Why are you all so obsequious, is his last name Ma (horse)…”

There were only a portion of the comments in the screenshot. Xiang Kun wasn’t that interested in the rest, he was more intrigued by the feelings that Huang Shao had when he watched the video later.

After Xiang Kun finished singing, the effect of “Emotional Assimilation” was no longer present. If the people in the bar recorded the video at that time, watching it again would reveal the actual situation without emotional interference.

It could be inferred that Huang Shao posted the video to his WeChat Moments not to mock the singer, but to seek validation of his judgment.

In other words, those who have experienced “Emotional Assimilation”, even after the direct effects have subsided, are still affected by it due to the experience and memory, which interferes with their judgment, cognitive perception may be misled by memory when they were watching the same video.

Xiang Kun speculated that those who have been influenced by “Emotional Assimilation” once, would likely become more susceptible to it.

Of course, Tang Baona had no idea that Xiang Kun thought so much from a few screenshots, and continued to text, “Your singing skills are really a mystery! The first time we played Dou Dizhu, your singing made us feel like we were being punished… But on my birthday, you sang ‘People Like Me’ so well. Then in this video, your level dropped back down, are you only good at that one?” “Indeed, I’m more familiar with that one.” Xiang Kun replied.

“When are you going to fulfill your promise for the rabbit meat feast?”

“In a few days, I’ve been out and about dealing with some stuff recently, I’ll contact you guys when I’m back.”

“OK, then we’ll wait for your summons.”

After finishing chatting with Tang Baona, Xiang Kun continued wandering around Yangcheng city.

Although it seems like aimless wandering, he had done a rough study of the map of Yangcheng before he came, so he had a rough idea of direction and routes in his mind.

First, starting from the vicinity of Guo Tianxiang’s home and clinic, he wouldn’t dare to approach these two places, but the area one kilometer away from them should not attract the attention of the surveilling police.

If Guo Tianxiang lived his life in Yangcheng, he would have left traces and memories in the areas around his home and workplace. Xiang Kun could use nearby scenes to attempt to search his memory.

Secondly, according to the background images in Guo Tianxiang’s memory and logical assumptions, he would determine areas that Guo Tianxiang might have visited.

Indeed, this method helped him tag a lot of memories, determining where those images and clips took place. However, they were basically shots like “walking down the street, then staring at the butt of a lady in front”, or “staring at the thighs or other parts of the girls on the street”, they were of little value to Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun couldn’t help but sigh again, this Guo Tianxiang is just like a teddy bear, besides thinking about how to make money and get blood, he only thinks about women.

Also, he had a vague feeling that Guo Tianxiang seemed to be deliberately indulging his desires. Did he want to numb himself, or was he trying to escape something?

It’s a pity he couldn’t go to his clinic and living place, otherwise, these private places would certainly help Xiang Kun find more valuable fragments of memories.

He had thought about sorting out and systemizing all the chaotic and complex memory fragments of Guo Tianxiang in order to extract the information he wanted, to find the cause of his mutation, the process, and the method of obtaining various abilities. Analyzing these memories bit by bit, slowly, and filtering them with his own cognitive abilities is not realistic. Although his brain’s computational capabilities and thinking abilities have become much stronger than before, the time required to complete the task is still too long.

His idea, therefore, through various methods, was to analyze Guo Tianxiang’s personality and way of thinking in reverse, and to associate the real scene with his memory fragments, ultimately obtaining a memory system that could be easily retrieved at any time.

But the appearance of the police disrupted his plans, forcing him to rethink his ideas. Or, he had to postpone his plan — if the police couldn’t find any clues, say after a year or two, they obviously wouldn’t keep such a high level of focus and input. And then he could revisit the old places.

While contemplating, Xiang Kun realized that he had unknowingly walked onto a large bridge over the river.

Guo Tianxiang would never walk onto the bridge on foot, without a second tnougnt lilang KUn plannea to turn arouna, Dut ne enaea up pausing arter a few steps, looking out over the river scenery beside the bridge.

He suddenly realized that he could use the current scene to find corresponding memories inside Guo Tianxiang’s mind.

Did that guy also walk up on the bridge to enjoy the scenery in his spare time?

Xiang Kun stood by the railing, his gaze moving from the pitch-black river surface to the moon in the sky.

Today is the fourteenth of the ninth lunar month, the moon was almost full, and the corresponding memory fragment from Guo Tianxiang also featured a full moon.

Xiang Kun frowned slightly; he rarely saw such simple “scenery viewing” scenes in Guo Tianxiang’s memory fragments, and following this image, he saw the scene of a man and a woman lying in a pool of blood.

Those last images could only have emerged when Xiang Kun used the current scene to search Guo Tianxiang’s memory because when Guo Tianxiang was watching the moon and enjoying the scenery here, he constantly repeated those past images in his mind, thus establishing the association.

When searching his memory, Xiang Kun had previously seen the clip of a man and a woman lying in a pool of blood several times, but he didn’t pay too much attention to it at the time. After all, the number of people that guy killed was indeed quite a few, so any bloody scene would seem normal.

But now he detected something unusual.

The memory fragments that Xiang Kun could obtain from the blood were basically those that Guo Tianxiang remembered quite well or happened recently.

Yet, this memory seemed to have a connection with several other memory fragments and was easily “activated”. It clearly held a peculiar significance for Guo Tianxiang.

Xiang Kun immediately thought of a question asked by “Kasumi of August” during their online probing:

“Who was your first meal?”

Clearly, this question was posed by Guo Tianxiang through the hacker Mijoe.

This question must hold a significant meaning, either to help with identifying Xiang Kun’s identity or his abilities.

Could the man and woman in this memory fragment be the first two victims to fall by Guo Tianxiang’s hand? Could this scene be when Guo Tianxiang first drank blood?

Xiang Kun revisited the image in his mind of the man and woman lying in puddles of blood and noticed that there was a knife beside each of them, a fruit knife and a vegetable knife. Could they have killed each other?

In the retrieved memory, Guo Tianxiang was feeding on the blood from their wounds without any other actions, only the sound of his low breathing could be heard.

Did Guo Tianxiang know the man and woman? What was his relationship with them?

Maybe during this time, Guo Tianxiang had just started his transformation?

If so, then this memory fragment was of significant importance.

After leaving the over-sea bridge, Xiang Kun thought he wouldn’t gain any useful information anymore. But when he accidentally walked into a bar, Guo Tianxiang’s memory segments started to feedback again

From the feedback, it seems that Guo Tianxiang had visited here before, looking for companions for the night.

While Xiang Kun was analyzing the memory fragment of the man and woman lying in puddles of blood, he planned to ignore the memories of seeking women. But some of the images caught his attention and made him notice something unusual.

To confirm his thoughts, Xiang Kun walked into a small bar and went straight to the counter. As the bartender asked him what he’d like to drink, the memories of Guo Tianxiang. drinking and conversing at the bar emerged in his mind.

“Red wine,” resDonded Xianz Kun.

“We have several types of red wine, which one do you want …” The bartender slid over a menu.

Xiang Kun subconsciously wanted to choose the same red wine that Guo Tianxiang had chosen in his memory. But just when he was going to order it, he noted the price and hastily changed: “Just give me a glass of water for now, I will order when my friend arrives.”

Without questioning, the bartender poured him a glass of water and took 20 yuan.

Xiang Kun glanced at the glass of water in front of him while his mind was filled with shock. Because he had seen Guo Tianxiang in the memory fragment, sipping red wine and casually conversing with the lady sitting next to him.

This guy can drink red wine?!

Xiang Kun was shocked, as this was his first time seeing Guo Tianxiang eating or drinking anything other than blood in the memory fragment. After his investigation at the restaurant on Pedestrian Street, he had assumed that Guo Tianxiang, like him, could only drink water and no other substance.

Why could he drink red wine?

Xiang Kun hadn’t tried red wine during his experiment to determine what he could consume. According to his theory, everything besides fresh blood would be vomited out sooner or later after being ingested.

Normally, even if red wine took some time before it induced vomiting, it would be unlikely for Guo Tianxiang to purposely come to a bar to drink just to vomit later, right?

He wasn’t the type to need alcohol to approach women, and from his actions in the memory, Guo Tianxiang seemed to be genuinely enjoying his drink. A bit puzzled, Xiang Kun got up and headed to the restroom shortly after he settled.

He wanted to see if he could access any memory of Guo Tianxiang vomiting in the restroom.

But after reaching the restroom and trying to find a memory from Guo Tianxiang using the surroundings, he came up empty.

Is there something unique about red wine and vampires, or is Guo Tianxiang just unusual?

Xiang Kun didn’t stay in the bar for much longer. He had seen all of the noticeable and retrievable memories from Guo Tianxiang in this environment. There was no point in staying.

Despite wanting to try drinking red wine, he wouldn’t do it here.

After all, he had found out about his mutation when he got drunk. He wasn’t sure if drinking wine, even if he didn’t vomit, would have other effects.

After leaving the bar, Xiang Kun kept walking along the roadside, continuously searching for Guo Tianxiang’s memories in the environment around him.

Sometimes wandering into small shops to order mineral water, exploring a little before moving on.

To Xiang Kun’s surprise, he found a memory fragment of Guo Tianxiang urinating in a corner next to an alleyway.

Seeing this memory in the first person was a bit absurd.

Theoretically, after becoming a vampire, Guo Tianxiang should have had fewer instances of needing to use the restroom. In fact, he should have gained more control over it. There were plenty of bars and restaurants nearby that he could have used instead of resorting to such unknown behavior. Was he drunk?

After walking through the entire bar street, without lingering, Xiang Kun decided to track the Ballpen bead to which he had established a connection.

From his perception, the bead has moved and was no longer near Guo Tianxiang’s clinic.

After about an hour, Xiang Kun looked at the Yangcheng’s bureau building from a distance. “I knew it,” he thought.

The bead was inside Yangcheng’s bureau, proving that the undercover cops were indeed tailing Guo Tianxiang’s clinic.

A thought popped up in Xiang Kun’s head: Should he try to find an excuse to go

in? He could report a robbery and claim that his money was stolen, thus being able to use his hearing to locate the undercover cops while giving his statement.

But he was startled by his own thought and quickly tried to calm himself down:

“Don’t do anything reckless. It doesn’t make sense to risk your own life.

Moreover, it’s exhausting and has nothing to do with me…. Let it be.. ‘