What It's Like Being a Vampire

He contacted Liu Caifu immediately, sent a WeChat message to Xiang Kun, then woke up his younger brother who was playing on his phone in the room to watch the construction site for him while he followed the direction the police cars had gone, on his electric scooter.

In a small village like Chongyun, most people knew each other, or even were relatives. It was certainly a big deal if the police were needed.

Liu Zhengyi, riding his electric scooter, found that the two police cars drove straight through the village and went outside the village, leaving him puzzled. Could it be that another fugitive had slipped into Chongyun Mountain, prompting the police to search overnight? But if that was the case, they wouldn’t send so few officers.

Soon, Liu Zhengyi realized he was wrong. The two police cars circled on the unpaved road outside the village and then turned back, heading towards a few construction sites in the southeast of the village.

He then realized that the police must have taken a wrong turn…

Seeing the police cars go into a pitch-black construction site, Liu Zhengyi was puzzled. He distinctly remembered that the site was where Zhu Lao Ba was developing a factory. Due to some issues with procedure, the project had stopped, and an old man had stayed behind to guard the construction materials. What could have possibly happened there?

By the time Liu Zhengyi reached the entrance of the construction site on his scooter, Liu Caifu had also arrive on his own scooter, asking in confusion, “What’s happening?”

“I have no idea…” Liu Zhengyi shook his head.

So the two of them sat on their scooters, puzzled, watching the officers getting out of the police cars and inspecting a small Wuling truck filled with various materials in the middle of the construction site.

Under the light of the officers’ flashlights and the headlights of the police cars, Liu Zhengyi and Liu Caifu were shocked to see that the small truck – from the windshield to the body – was covered with bird droppings. The bird droppings were concentrated on and around the truck, making for a shocking sight. And through the bird-dropping-covered windshield, they could see two people sitting in the car.

The two people, upon seeing the police, quickly jumped down from the car, “We called the police, it was us, we want to surrender.”

Liu Caifu was surprised, “What on earth are you two doing, Pig Tail and Liu Er Tong?” Before he could finish his words, he realized from the scene that they had come here to steal. Angrily he yelled, “You two rascals, you even steal from your own village?”

Liu Zhengyi also yelled, “You pieces of crap stealing from your own people, pathetic!”

The two men known as “Pig Tail” and “Liu Er Tong” couldn’t fight back, and under the police’s questioning, they confessed to their theft, and the reason they had decided to surrender.

Thus, dozens of minutes later, when the two suspects were taken back to town by the police, news of their encounter with “ghosts” at the construction site had spread throughout the village.

Many of the village’s young people, who were still awake and had noticed the police cars entering the village, immediately began to gossip about it in the village’s WeChat group, and went to watch the excitement. Some older people who had been awakened by the commotion also complained about the noise, but still got dressed to go see the “haunted” construction site for themselves.

So, in the middle of the night, what was once a quiet construction site on the outskirts of the village suddenly became bustling, with a large number of electric scooters parked around, and people holding flashlights and emergency lights inspecting the area and sharing their gossip excitedly.

Pictures of the bird-dropping-covered truck quickly spread around the WeChat Moment.

Meanwhile, Liu Zhengyi and Liu Caifu were at Xiang Kun’s house, discussing with him and others what they had seen at the construction site, along with a brief summary of the thieves’ confession to the police on the scene.

Of course, Xiang Kun was already well aware of this situation.

From the details of Alice and Jinshanshan using the “Super Sensory Item System” to deal with the two thieves, Xiang Kun was fully aware of what measures they had taken and what exactly they had done.

Xiang Kun had deliberately allowed Alice to formulate plans according to her own ideas within the controllable range of Chongyun Village, to see how she would handle the situation.

From the final result, Xiang Kun was quite satisfied with Alice’s methods. Clearly, she had learned from him, operating fully in line with his “guiding philosophy”.

The overall process was: stop the crime >> prevent the suspects from escaping >> notify the police >> hide your achievements and name.

Moreover, she accurately understood how to create a creepy atmosphere and how to scare people.

Even though she could no longer use “emotionally charged objects” to project emotions from a distance, or create a projection of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Woodcarving” to intimidate targets without Xiao Pingguo’s help, she had her own ways of creating an atmosphere and impacting targets mentally and emotionally.

The bird dropping “air raid”, however, was not her arrangement, but was Jinshanshan’s unrestricted revenge, after hearing the two suspects plotting against it.

Of course, objectively speaking, Jinshanshan could be said to have greatly helped Alice, perfecting her plan and better concealing the various anomalies she had created.

Now in the courtyard, Liu Caifu and Liu Zhengyi firmly believed that the claim made by “Pig Tail” and “Liu Er Tong” that they saw a little girl ghost was all nonsense. They were most likely scared by a flock of birds that suddenly appeared and under the dim light, mistook the shadows of the birds for a little girl.

From the tone of the officers who questioned the two men on the site, the police probably had the same opinion.

As for why the birds acted this way, it could be that their roosting place was nearby and they were irritated by the noise the thieves made while stealing.

Xiang Kun knew from the auditory information he had collected that at this time, some older villagers believed in what the two suspects said they saw, reasoning that “if they hadn’t really seen something terrifying, why would they choose to stay and call the police instead of running away?”

But the younger generation scoffed at their claims, believing that “Pig Tail” and “Liu Er Tong” had merely been scared by the flock of birds, and were too embarrassed to tell the police that they were scared by birds, so they had to concoct the story of the “little girl ghost” to make themselves appear less cowardly.

After all, to the young generation of this era, the “ghost” is not something to be afraid of. If they really saw a ghost, they would consider it fortune — by filming a few paranormal short videos, they might go viral. If that happened, live streaming, short videos, and offline ghost sighting activities would be sure to make them money.

In fact, the little truck full of bird droppings has now become a “photo spot.”

Not to mention the lively and idle young people in the village, even Xia Tianhuo, Yang Zhen’er, Chu Xiaoting, Zi Cheng and others, after hearing Liu Zhengyi and Liu Caifu’s “first-hand reports,” were extremely curious and a large group of people soon went to the open space to watch the excitement.

Anyway, there are loads of people there now, with bright lights, it’s like a bustling market, not scary at all.

Even Xiao Pingguo, who knew the truth right away, when hearing them talk about the situation there and making all sorts of guesses, had a curious and interested expression on her face.

To her, Alice and the shiny one, both her good friends and helpers, it’s an honor whenever they make triumphs and fight crime.

Just like the logistics manager of the Justice League hearing that their hero has saved the world again.

…

After watching the various gifts that “Grilled Chicken Wings Sister” received and finishing the video, Liu Shiling came out of her room, first poured some cat food for Custard Pie, then sat down at the dining table.

She carefully removed the lid from a plate in front of her, revealing a warm plate of fried noodles that her mother had made before leaving.

Starting from last week, her mother began working at the convenience store on the edge of the neighborhood.

Although Liu Shiling didn’t quite understand why her mother, who had always been at home with her, suddenly started to work, during the times her mother fetched her from school and they had visited the convenience store several times, and they had had dinner and breakfast at the convenience store for several days, she thought it was interesting.

If she grows up, and together with Uncle Bald, Grilled Chicken Wings Sister and Sister Xiao Pingguo, beats all the monsters and baddies, and there are no more monsters to fight, she also wants to open a convenience store. Then she often invites Uncle Bald and others over for meals, the convenience store can stock a lot of ingredients, big fish, rabbit meat, pig’s foot, everything, and also cooking tools, to let Uncle Bald cook.

Fetching her own special chopsticks from her precious wooden box, Little Fatty Girl eating the lukewarm fried noodles, was imagining Uncle Bald cooking crispy pig’s elbow, grilled chicken wings, braised rabbit meat for her in the convenience store. Her eyes squinted in bliss, and the noodles tasted more and more delicious.

After finishing the fried noodles, Liu Shiling tiptoed to put the dish into the kitchen sink, then brought over a stool, climbed up, took the dish soap, and squeezed it onto the plate.

She’s not sure how much dish soap should be used for one plate, so she pressed hard and drew three circles.

After putting the dish soap, Liu Shiling blocked the sink, then starting to fill it with water.

When the sink was filled with water, the top layer full of foam, Liu Shiling, standing on the stool, put on the hood of her sweater, pulled the strings, opened her hands, and said in a serious, yet babyish voice, “Chocolate! Ice Cream! Lemon Tea! Mung Bean Cake! Sachima! Come out, it’s your time to shine!”

As her words fell, one coin after another flew out of her pocket and jumped into the sink.

Next, the sudsy water in the sink began to churn, surging up and down, left and right, before slowly starting to whirl.

Liu Shiling watched the little vortex form in the sink with intense concentration, controlling her “Five Little Elf Guardians” to swim around inside the water. They did not collide with one another, nor did they hit the sides of the sink or any of the dishes. Instead, she maneuvered them around the plates, using them to influence the surrounding water currents for a careful wash.

Unbeknownst to her, as her focus reached its zenith, the room lights started to dim. The Custard Pie, crunching on cat food, lifted its head to look at its young owner, who was on the kitchen stool with arms wide open. With a meow, it sprang onto the top of the fridge in a few leaps, from where it kept a watchful eye over Liu Shiling.

A few minutes later, the water in the sink calmed down. Shiling withdrew the three coin spirits named “Sachima,” “Lemon Tea,” and “Mung Bean Cake,” then controlled “Chocolate” and “Ice Cream” to remove the sink stopper. She let the water drain before turning on the tap to rinse off the coins, plates, and chopsticks. Once clean, she wiped and put the plates on the dish rack, returned the chopsticks to their box, then hopped off the stool satisfactorily. After wiping the stool, she headed back to her room.

She knew that with Alice’s help, Sister Apple had grown even more powerful, and her sense of urgency intensified.

She needed to grab every chance to practice magic while keeping it a secret, and prepare for learning more advanced magic.

So, once back in her room, Liu Shiling placed her iPad on a stand, switched on her desk lamp, pulled out a book from a stack, and started reciting the words and phrases. Anytime she encountered a character she didn’t recognize, she held the book up to the iPad’s camera. Alice would then respond by searching for relevant online course videos to teach her how to recognize it.

The book in her hands was not an extracurricular one or an ABC book that her mother bought or kindergarten issued. Rather, it was a first-grade Chinese language textbook gifted by Da Lu—he had moved to a different school and received new textbooks, so he gave her his old ones.

Liu Shiling had known before that she needs to learn, especially mathematics and physics, to be as powerful as Sister Grilled Chicken Wings, Bald Uncle, and Sister Apple, become a real Great Wizard, and use real Super Magic. Only then will she be able to help Bald Uncle with big missions.

However, her learning method was chaotically dispersed; she had no systematic approach. Despite the appearance of giving it her all, aside from recognizing a few more characters, drawing better, and singing slightly better, she made no significant progress.

Though Bald Uncle considered her progress excellent, and her mother continuously complimented her—as did her kindergarten teachers and classmates—she was not satisfied. Time was of the essence as she approached primary school age.

Therefore, after getting to know Alice and being able to communicate through the iPad, she frequently asked Alice a variety of questions.

Compared to Old Xia, Alice was better at answering questions and could find answers to anything online, regardless of the depth of the question. However, Shiling could not understand 99.99% of the answers. Upon sharing this with Old Xia, Xia suggested she begin with a first-grade curriculum, and let Alice assist her based on that knowledge framework.

Following this, she contacted Da Lu, who mailed her his old textbooks. After half a month of studying, Liu Shiling felt a noticeable improvement and was much more eager to learn.

Under Old Xia’s arrangement, Liu Shiling received language coaching from Alice and Xiang Kun, art and music lessons from Tang Baona, and mathematics lessons from Yang Zhen’er. Sometimes Da Lu could instruct her in drawing, and Xiao Pingguo could teach her music and other knowledge.

Thus, Alice, who was in Chongyun Village catching thieves, was also assisting a young girl who aspired to become a Great Wizard with her first-grade language studies via the iPad.

Custard Pie jumped onto the windowsill, hiding outside the curtain in a curled-up position and bored, watching a few stray dogs fighting outside the window.