What It's Like Being a Vampire

“Thank you, Shiling.” Taking the paper airplane that Liu Shiling had given her, Xiao Mei said happily, “I heard from my mom that you’ve adopted that big ginger cat that often appears around our residential area?”

Liu Shiling nodded, “Yes.”

“So cool! I tried feeding it ham sausage and small dried fish, but it wouldn’t even pay attention to me!” Xiao Mei said with a mixture of admiration and envy.

A short-haired girl who was obviously older than the other children and was likely in elementary school said, “It’s just an ugly and dirty fat cat. I don’t know what you guys are fussing about.”

Xiao Mei laughed, “Da Lu, didn’t you also try to feed it before?”

Another child chimed in immediately, “‘Da Lu’ was scared off by the cat the last time she tried to feed it. She almost fell over, I guess she has a score to settle with that cat!”

“I didn’t!” The short-haired girl, known as “Da Lu”, glared at him.

“I saw it…”

The short-haired girl walked up to the little chatterbox, and, towering over him with her height, intimidated, “I didn’t!”

“If you say so… why are you getting angry?” The small boy muttered and hid behind Xiao Mei, clearly a bit scared of “Da Lu”.

The short-haired girl said to Xiao Mei, “What’s the big deal about folding a paper airplane? Anybody can do that. I can fold one too, and I bet my airplanes will fly higher and further than hers!” She then turned to Liu Shiling, “Dare you compete against me?”

“No, I’m going to have dinner with my mom.” Liu Shiling shook her head.

For her, competing with others in paper folding, especially paper airplanes and seeing whose flies further? That was simply unfair – for the others.

“No, we must compete! If you lose, you’re not allowed to play here anymore!” The bossy short-haired girl commanded one of the kids to fetch two pieces of A4 paper.

She shoved one of the sheets into Liu Shiling’s hand and started folding without waiting for an answer.

“Shiling, it’s okay to compete with her. Even if you lose, you can still come over to play, or you can come to my house. I have a lot of dolls, and electric cars and airplanes,” Xiao Mei whispered to Liu Shiling.

Although she spoke quietly, “Da Lu” still heard her. She glared at Xiao Mei while continuing to fold her paper.

Xiao Mei glared back at her without backing down, “If you bully Shiling and me, I’ll tell Aunt Yang!”

Da Lu grunted, “Tattletale, traitor…”

Liu Shiling glanced back at her mom, who was still chatting with the other ladies, showing no signs of leaving anytime soon. Sighing helplessly, she started slowly folding her piece of A4 paper.

Xiao Mei squatted down in front of Shiling, then lowered her head so that Shiling could fold the paper on her back. This was more convenient.

Similarly, Da Lu called a little boy, who she had previously “intimidated”, to act as her “small table”. The little boy looked heartbroken but, in the end, he followed her orders quietly and served as a “small table”.

The fact that these peers of similar age in the complex always succumbed to “Da Lu’s” “intimidation” was not entirely because they were physically dominated and were scared of being beaten up. More than that, they had become accustomed to following “Da Lu” around and obeying her commands from a young age.

After finishing her paper airplane, Da Lu vigorously breathed on the plane’s nose, then threw it with all her might.

However, her plane veered off and plunged into the nearby flower bed, not flying far at all.

In contrast, Liu Shiling, who had been folding her paper airplane leisurely, pinched it between her fingers and casually launched it. Her plane, though slow, soared steadily and only landed after several seconds.

The boy who had just served as “Da Lu’s” “small table” went rushing out to pick up her paper airplane first, then went and fetched Liu Shiling’s. Raising Liu Shiling’s paper airplane high, he loudly announced, “Liu Shiling wins! Liu Shiling is the new Paper Airplane Queen!”

“Da Lu” snatched her paper airplane furiously, crumpled it into a waste paper-ball, and threw it into a nearby trash can. Her aim was pretty accurate.

Liu Shiling didn’t feel much joy. After all, she had known the outcome before she even started folding her paper airplane.

She could now exert a minor influence on the paper objects she folded, or other lighter objects, within a certain range. Although it was very weak and nowhere near as strong as her control over the coin or the A4 paper that Xiang Kun gave her, it was enough to help her paper airplane get a smoother “takeoff”.

Moreover, as soon as she saw the airplane Da Lu had folded, she knew it wouldn’t fly far. Even without using her “magic” help, she could easily come out on top.

“Your airplane’s wings should be larger, and its body smaller. And when you throw the airplane, you should throw it lightly and upward…” Liu Shiling kindly shared her techniques for folding and launching paper airplanes.

As a future great wizard with “huge dreams and ambitions”, Liu Shiling naturally wouldn’t keep such small skills as folding paper airplanes to herself.

But before she could finish her sentence, Da Lu suddenly exclaimed angrily, “What are you so proud of? Aren’t you just a child born from an infidelity?”

The remark was completely unexpected, and the smile that had been on Liu Shiling’s chubby face instantly faded.

The next moment, to the children surrounding her, the world seemed to be muted. All sounds disappeared, even the air stood still, and their thoughts seemed frozen.

Xiao Mei, Liu Shiling’s closest companion, could feel a strange tingling sensation on her scalp and on the skin facing Liu Shiling;

At the feet of Liu Shiling, a few clumps of grass close to her were uniformly slightly “bowing” towards her;

Near those blades of grass, several ants that were “marching” had come to a complete halt, their antennae all pointed in the direction of Liu Shiling;

The two coins that Liu Shiling always carried with her had, under her perception and control, quickly “jumped” out of the pockets inside her coat and fallen down her sleeves to her hands— one in each hand.

The incident that happened in September had a tremendous impact on Liu Shiling and her family. She and her mother had even moved out of their long-time home to live in Star City because of it.

It was then that she began her “Path of the Great Wizard”, starting with a “Magic Coin” she received from Uncle Bald.

She never asked her mother about that day after it happened. But it didn’t mean that she had forgotten about it.

On the contrary, many of the words spoken by the people who came to make trouble that day became slowly comprehensible to her over time, even though she didn’t understand those words at the time.

Upon hearing what the short-haired girl said, the memories of that day immediately flooded her mind.

In the past, Liu Shiling was indeed the kind-hearted pushover her mother always worried about, always assuming the best of people. So even when she faced conflict, disagreements, or bullying among different circles and circumstances, even when she burst into tears, she never once truly lost her temper or confronted others.

The only exception was that day last September; even then, her main emotions were fear and panic.

However, today’s Liu Shiling is not who she was, her heart holds no fear; only anger.

Others can insult her, they can insult the “Custard Pie”, but no one can speak ill of her mom – that’s her “inverted scale”.

The usual Liu Shiling is a HelloKitty; but once someone touches her “inverted scale”, she immediately transforms into an enraged tiger.

Uncle Bald brought her into the “Magic World” and gave her the power of a “tiger”.

In her two clenched fists were two coins. With these two coins, she felt as if she were connected with the land under her feet, the air around her, and all the nearby objects. She felt as if she could do many things she couldn’t do before and knew many things she didn’t know before. She felt an unparalleled power.

She glared at the short-haired girl, looking lost. She won’t let anyone speak ill of her mom!

She’s angry!

She wanted to vent her anger!

The coins in her hands were itching to move.

But as soon as she had that thought, she remembered who gave her the coins, who gave her the magic, and she remembered Uncle Bald and the things Uncle Bald had told her.

“Magic” stuff must be kept secret, not even her mom can be told…

“Magic” can’t be used arbitrarily on ordinary people…

Yes, she is no longer “ordinary kid” Liu Shiling now; she is “Great Wizard” Liu Shiling.

With her hands in her pockets, Liu Shiling turned around and walked towards where her mother was. She didn’t do anything.

After the fierce wind, thunder and lightning, it was now calm. The storm was over.

In fact, from the moment the short-haired girl “Da Lu” said those upsetting words to Liu Shiling until she suppressed her anger and turned away, it only lasted a few seconds.

But that sudden tranquility and strange atmosphere didn’t just affect the children in Liu Shiling’s vicinity, but also the faraway mothers chit-chatting, they all sensed something was off and turned to look.

However, by this time, Liu Shiling had already walked up to her mother, took her mother’s hand, looked up and said, “Mom, I’m hungry. Let’s go home and cook.”

“Oh, okay.” Shiling’s mom hesitated a little and then bid farewell to the other moms, holding her daughter’s hand, they left for home.

As for Xiao Mei and “Da Lu” and the other children, they slowly snapped out of their daze after Liu Shiling turned and walked away.

“You made Shiling mad! You’re unreasonable! You’re a bully! I’m not going to play with you!” Xiao Mei gave the short-haired girl a shove and ran home with the paper airplane Liu Shiling gave her.

The other kids felt the same way; they thought that “Da Lu” had upset Liu Shiling with her words. They didn’t dwell too much on the strange sensation they earlier felt and admired Liu Shiling for being fearless even in front of “Da Lu”, who is taller than her.

“Da Lu”, the short-haired girl, bit her lower lip and looked at the departing backs of Liu Shiling and her mother, seemingly wanting to say something, but ultimately remained silent and, just like Xiao Mei, went home.

Being a mom, Shiling’s mom had a good sense of her daughter’s emotions. Even though Liu Shiling didn’t say anything, her mom could keenly sense something was off with her.

“Shiling, did you just have a quarrel with that first-grade girl?” Shiling’s mom tentatively asked. Though she claimed to be chatting with the other mothers, in reality, the majority of her attention was on her daughter. Even if she couldn’t hear what the children were saying to each other, she could still roughly guess from their demeanour. Her daughter had been competing with the short-haired girl from first grade to see who could throw paper airplanes better, and it seemed the competition was getting intense.

“She’s upset because the paper airplane she folded doesn’t fly as well as mine,” Liu Shiling answered, somewhat distracted.

Despite Uncle Bald’s advice, Liu Shiling held back and didn’t explode on the spot, but that doesn’t mean she was able to let it go.

On the contrary, the more she thought about it, the more frustrated and suffocated she felt.

She didn’t know that the girl nicknamed “Da Lu,” a first-grade girl whose father had business dealings with her own father in the past. That’s why, when her father had come to visit her and her mother during Lunar New Year, he had run into Da Lu’s father in the residential complex and they had a brief chat. Da Lu’s father had originally planned to take the opportunity to pay a visit to cement their relationship, but after figuring out the reason why Shiling’s mother had moved to Star City and mentioning it to his wife, Da Lu happened to overhear.

Liu Shiling only knew that what Da Lu had said really angered her.

Infuriated her.

Because of this, she couldn’t even taste her dinner, she ate half a bowl less of rice, and significantly less of the other dishes. When she got home and saw the “Custard Pie,” she didn’t feel as happy as before.

Liu Shiling felt like she simply had to vent.

Uncle Bald had once told her that if she encountered a bad person, she should first report to the police and let them apprehend the culprit.

If Da Lu slandered her mom, then she was definitely a bad person, so the police should be able to arrest her!

But if she reported it to the police, her mom would definitely find out. She would become aware of what Da Lu had said beforehand, and instinctively, Liu Shiling did not want her mom to hear those words, thinking it would make her mom sad.

So, she couldn’t report it to the police.

After dinner, Liu Shiling sat on the balcony holding “Custard Pie,” looking outside.

Shiling’s mom, who was watching TV in the living room, thought her daughter was just playing with the cat and didn’t think much of it.

But in reality, Liu Shiling was watching a few windows on the eighth floor of the building diagonally across, because, during the evening, she heard from Xiao Mei that Da Lu lived in Unit 803, Block 7.

She wanted to take revenge in a way that would not be discovered by others and her “magic” would not directly affect individuals.

She recalled her most frustrating experiences when she was not yet a “magical girl” – one was not being able to eat delicious food, and the other was not being able to watch cartoons.

No kid could resist good food and cartoons.

Preventing Da Lu from eating delicious food was likely impossible, but preventing her from watching cartoons was something she might be able to do.

Liu Shiling quietly turned to look at her mom, who was watching TV in the living room, through the sliding glass door. Seeing that her mom wasn’t paying attention to her, she took out her two coins and stared at the balcony of unit 803 on the 8th floor of Block 7, where she believed Da Lu lived.

During winter vacation, no matter if they were in kindergarten or had just started elementary school, eating dinner and then watching cartoons is the greatest pleasure for the kids.

Whether they’re watching it on a TV, a tablet, a cellphone or a computer, they all need electricity.

Liu Shiling planned to use her “magic” to cut off the electricity supply of #7, unit 803.

She hasn’t successfully tried anything like this before, but she thought it should be doable.

Before she officially started “casting her spell,” she waved to the big ginger cat beside her: “Custard Pie, go sit over there, squat in the corner.”

However, “Custard Pie” just glanced at her and went back to licking its paws, showing no intention of moving.

Little Fatty Girl sighed, got up and carried the chubby ginger cat to squat in the corner, then returned to her previous seat. She looked at the two coins in her hand:

“‘Chocolate’ and ‘Ice cream’, I’m counting on you.”

A few minutes later, the entire complex lost power for two seconds, including Liu Shiling’s house.

After the power was restored, Shiling’s mom naturally looked first at her daughter sitting on the balcony and was stunned to see Little Fatty Girl sprawled out on the floor, fast asleep.

“Eh? Eh, eh! Shiling, Liu Shiling! How did you fall asleep on the balcony in this cold weather? My heavens…”

Shiling’s mom, of course, quickly stood up and went to the balcony to pick up her daughter. The big ginger cat also followed them in, it actually didn’t want to be on the balcony in the first place.

Liu Shiling didn’t sleep much, waking up in less than three minutes. But now that her mom had noticed, she naturally couldn’t continue to secretly “cast spells” on the balcony. Moreover, from her last attempt, it seems she can’t specifically target a single room or house – once she makes the power go out, the entire area is affected.

In her own room, Liu Shiling held her tablet and logged into her QQ account, sending a voice message to Uncle Bald’s QQ: “Uncle Bald, are you awake? Chicken Wing Sister, are you there?”

A few seconds later, an image of a grilled chicken wing was sent back.

Liu Shiling understood, the one now chatting with her was “Barbecue Wings Sister” – Uncle Bald could really sleep!

Liu Shiling thought a bit, then sent an audio message about the problem she encountered.

“Barbecue Wings Sister, I want to make the power go out in one of our neighborhood’s houses, but my ‘magic’ can only cut off the entire neighborhood’s electricity, is there any way to only cut off one house’s?”

Xia Libing, on the other side, also sent an audio message over: “Tell me how you did it before?”

Liu Shiling began to softly communicate her thought process via audio messages, and under Xia Libing’s questioning, explained some parts of her “magic system”.

Xia Libing didn’t dismiss Liu Shiling’s words as childish or trifling, despite the fact she was communicating with a little girl who was still in kindergarten. Xiang Kun had told her that Little Fatty Girl was the first “Developer” to have established a connection with the “Super-connected Objects” and developed her own “System”. She also knew that Little Fatty Girl had “developed” many abilities that even astonished Xiang Kun. At least in Xiang Kun’s Super sensory Item System, Little Fatty Girl was absolutely a “Strong One” and a “Senior”.

So Xia Libing didn’t just directly guide Liu Shiling according to her traditional understanding of some knowledge, but first carefully asked and tried to understand Liu Shiling’s “Magic System” established on the basis of Xiang Kun’s various abilities. Using the “Magic System”‘s way of thinking, she applied it to her knowledge of other things, and then explained it to Liu Shiling.

The two of them chatted for over three hours via QQ audio messages, Liu Shiling even continued communicating with Xia Libing using her tablet even after her mother urged her to go to bed, hiding under the quilt.

Xia Libing proposed several ideas and solutions, Liu Shiling contemplated and thought them over, and found the most feasible was to have “Chocolate” or “Ice-cream”, one of the two Coin Guardians, placed at the target location, and then “cast a spell” with her new understanding of “magic” to stop the electricity of only one house.

“Barbeque Wings Sister” said she might not be able to implement this method now, but the other methods were not things that could be accomplished in a short term either. She had to vent… no, it was get mad, so she needed to achieve this as quickly as possible, so this method at least had the potential to be realized soon.

After organising her thoughts with the help of “Barbecue Wings Sister”, Liu Shiling now had to solve one problem, and that was how to put the coin in the target location.

If she herself directly went to Building 7, Room 803 to secretly place it at the front door, whether it be placing the coin, recovering the coin or casting the spell, all may be witnessed by others. The best thing would be if she could directly place it on the balcony or window sill of 7#803 that faces their side. In that way, she could ‘cast the spell’ from her own balcony.

Should she directly throw it from her balcony?

Although she could now control the coin to levitate and fly to a certain extent, it could still only be kept within a certain distance. The balcony diagonally across was a bit too far, she could not control it at such a long distance and make the coin land accurately at a specific location.

As Liu Shiling was lying in bed, hugging her tablet and rolling about while thinking, she suddenly sat up, looked at “Custard Pie” drowsing on the sofa cushion and was struck by a thought: Maybe she could let “Custard Pie” bring a coin over?

She remembered how “Custard Pie” had climbed onto the windowsill of her room before. It was absolutely capable of climbing and completing this task.

The problem was, would “Custard Pie” understand her instructions?

According to Little Fatty Girl’s beliefs, normally speaking, the cat should be able to understand her. But there might be exceptions, for example, “Custard Pie” might be rather stupid.

Dressed in her pajamas and barefoot, Little Fatty Girl first opened the door a crack and sneakily peeped out, finding that her mother had gone back to her room to sleep, she went back and picked up “Custard Pie” — or should say dragged “Custard Pie” – and tiptoed out of the room, going to the balcony.

Liu Shiling took a coin and placed it in her palm, held it in front of “Custard Pie”, and then pointed to the balcony of 7#803 across the way, saying, “Custard Pie, you take this coin and put it on the edge of the balcony over there, when you come back I’ll give you something tasty.”

The big ginger cat simply raised its paw and flicked the coin in his palm to the ground, then meowed.

Liu Shiling understood “Custard Pie’s” meaning, and shaking her head said, “It’s not about playing a game. I want you to put the coin over there.”

However, after several attempts, “Custard Pie” showed not the slightest intent to share its master’s burden, which made Liu Shiling quite dejected, it seemed this plan was not feasible.

Liu Shiling crouched on the balcony, playing with a coin held by the chopsticks that Xiang Kun had given her. She was coming up with a new plan.

Although her mother always forbid her from playing with chopsticks when not eating, she had previously discovered that holding these chopsticks, no matter the time, allowed her to concentrate better, her memory improved, like she was smarter. So, when she was thinking or “practicing magic”, she especially liked to hold these chopsticks.

After five minutes, Liu Shiling stopped her chopstick movements, she suddenly came up with an idea.

—After all, she would have to use paper planes!

As Liu Shiling’s floor was lower than 803 diagonally across, so to shoot a paper plane upwards and for it to stop near there, the difficulty was quite high. Moreover, adding a coin to a paper plane influences both the centre of mass and the total weight and has a significant impact.

So, Liu Shiling ran back to the living room, secretly tore a few pages from the calendar to use as materials – materials such as A4 paper were too soft and couldn’t support the weight of a coin.

Then, Liu Shiling started to design the origami of the A4 size paper that Xiang Kun had given her, the process of folding this paper allowed her to perceive a lot more, such as How would the size of a crease bring about what kind of flight variations, deviations, load, she could sense it all in order to optimize it, finally achieving what she wanted and a paper airplane that could fulfill her flight plan.

By one in the morning, Liu Shiling finally completed the design of the paper airplane, she happily ran to the balcony, ready to experiment with it.

She was going to place the coin in the specially created “Coin Compartment” on the paper airplane, then throw the plane out, relying on her initial guidance of the coin to manipulate the plane, giving it a stronger initial velocity, and to fly in the direction and trajectory she intended, the ultimate goal being to land on the edge of the balcony of 7#803.

As for the recovery, it should be easy to manage, she could knock it down from the balcony edge with another paper plane, or have “Custard Pie” retrieve it – getting “Custard Pie” to bring the coin to a specific location was a little difficult, “Custard Pie” couldn’t understand it, but to bring back the coin or paper plane from a pre-determined location, that was something “Custard Pie” could definitely do.

It was so late now, she obviously could not interfere with “Da Lu” watching animations, but Liu Shiling was still going to experiment in advance to make sure there was no problem with the paper plane’s “operation”. Tomorrow during the “golden time” for watching animations, she could then immediately implement her plan for the spell to cut the power.

However, what she didn’t expect was that, when Liu Shiling took the completed paper airplane out to the balcony, she saw what looked like someone standing out on the balcony of 803.