What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 619: Chapter 619: The World Has Changed Greatly (Part 1)

Liu Shiling groggily sat up from her bed, rubbed her eyes, and turned to look at her little digital clock on the bedside table—only to realize it wasn’t her own. It finally registered that she’s still on break, in Chongyun Village.

She turned her head to the other side, where Sister Xiao Pingguo was still asleep. The bed further away was empty with the blanket neatly folded, that was Sister Barbecue Chicken Wing’s bed.

Did Sister Barbecue Chicken Wing not sleep last night?

No, Sister Barbecue Chicken Wing did sleep.

Liu Shiling recalled the dream she had last night, a happy smile uncontrollably spread across her face. Chuckling to herself, she hopped off the bed and put on the Garfield slippers Yang Zhen’er had bought for her, walking towards the window.

She pulled open the curtain, golden sunlight filtered into the room. Little Fatty Girl instinctively closed her eyes. Her chubby face was basked in the warmth of the sun, so comfortable that she found herself motionless, merely enjoying the sun with her eyes shut by the window sill.

After a while, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes—Sister Xiao Pingguo was up and was standing next to her, eyes also closed, allowing the sunlight to caress her face. She softly exclaimed, “The sunrise is beautiful.”

Little Fatty Girl didn’t bother asking Sister Xiao Pingguo how she could appreciate the sunrise with her eyes closed. In her understanding, Sister Xiao Pingguo was a super powerful magician who could command Golden Flash and summon Barbie Warriors. For her, seeing things with her eyes shut seemed perfectly reasonable.

As for Sister Xiao Pingguo being blind? That was just a feature of hers, just like Uncle Bald’s bald head, Custard Pie’s yellow fur, Golden Flash’s golden fur, Pretty Sister’s singing voice, Sister Barbecue Chicken Wing’s barbecue chicken wing magic, and Old Fairy Sister’s joy.

Little Fatty Girl gazed at the distant sunrise, resembling a slowly ascending half-cooked egg yolk, and leaned against Sister Xiao Pingguo. “Sister Xiao Pingguo, did we win?” she asked.

Sister Xiao Pingguo knew exactly what she was referring to, and responded with a nod, “I think we did.”

“Sister Xiao Pingguo, did you see that big monster? Do you know what it looks like?” Little Fatty Girl asked again.

“Well…according to Sister Bing and Uncle Xiang’s descriptions, the monster’s form is beyond our normal cognition. We helped Uncle Bald and Alice identify the monster’s existence in the dream by pinpointing those unusual and distinct elements…erm, it’s Uncle Xiang.” Sister Xiao Pingguo scratched her head awkwardly. She found that spending time with Little Fatty Girl made it easy to adopt her way of perceiving things. She found herself catching on Little Fatty Girl’s nicknames, not just calling “Uncle Bald”, but also “Old Fairy Sister” and “Pretty Sister”.

“So…did we help?” Little Fatty Girl asked again.

“We probably did… I think,” Sister Xiao Pingguo pondered, then spoke with more certainty: “We definitely did.”

She knew that Xiang Kun would not have allowed them to take part in the “battle” unless it was necessary given his protective nature. Reflecting on last night’s dream, her feelings and discoveries, she believed her understanding was correct.

Hearing her response, Little Fatty Girl was thrilled. Even though the long-awaited “monster battle” did not feature terrifying, powerful monsters, and felt more like playing hide and seek in a dream, she awakened with a special feeling. She was convinced she had become more powerful, but couldn’t quite figure out how or in what way.

In Little Fatty Girl’s logic, becoming stronger through her dream journey indicated that she must have played a major role and made significant contributions—even though she had no idea what those contributions might have been.

She only had a vague notion of her own. She didn’t dare to settle it, however, with the confirmation from the trusted Sister Xiao Pingguo, she couldn’t deny it anymore.

Suddenly, a considerable mass of matter dropped from above, lightly gathered onto the windowsill in front of them.

Then, Little Fatty Girl saw the large cat face of Custard Pie looking at her through the window with a “I’m hungry” expression.

Even though the sudden descent of Custard Pie was abrupt, they weren’t scared at all. Xiao Pingguo could have always confirmed by sound what Goldie and Custard Pie were doing upstairs, and right before Custard Pie’s drop, Little Fatty Girl felt something abruptly, like a kind of precognition, hence, she wasn’t surprised at all.

After Custard Pie landed, Goldie was close behind, landing at the edge of the window.

Little Fatty Girl opened the window and took Custard Pie in, and then both she and Xiao Pingguo went downstairs to check if there was anything suitable for breakfast.

…

When Little Fatty Girl and Xiao Pingguo were heading downstairs, Tang Baona also sat up from her bed.

Just awoken, her face still held the smile from her dreams. She played all night, hosted an all-night “concert”, yet she was completely energetic and invigorated.

Since her childhood, she had countless fantasies about performing on a grand and gorgeous stage, with top-notch sound equipment and backup dancers, with mountains of audiences beneath the stage, and she herself would sing spectacularly, with all spectators cheering greatly. Particularly after recently gaining such ability to sense everything’s melody, the “Emotional Melody”, she had secretly fantasized quite a bit after “creating” many songs.

However, when it came to actually performing on stage, she was still a bit resistant. She wanted to enjoy the passing limelight and expressiveness on stage, yet she didn’t want to bear the annoyance and troubles of being famous.

Thus, such performances in her dreams, that were both real and illusory, satisfied her performance desires well.

Particularly, her plays and her created songs were not just for her own “self-admiration”, there were real-time audiences — Old Xia, Little Apple, Xiao Lingdang, Yang Lao San, even Xiang Kun and Alice could hear them.

Not only could they hear them, these songs also served extremely “critical” roles, they could “awaken” them from their dreams.

This made Tang Baona feel extremely achieved, and so she invested great effort into the concerts in her dreams.

After the dream ended, once she woke up, Tang Baona felt the relaxation and achievement similar to having finished all the summer/winter holiday assignments after toiling an entire night during her student times, followed by a good sleep.

Sitting on the bed, she stretched lazily. An idea struck her, she touched the bracelet on her wrist, without focusing too hard, she sensed an immense melody playing.

Everything around her, the blanket, mattress, bed, wooden floor, bedside table, chair, desk, walls, curtains, exterior buildings, birds, flora, soil, and the nascent sunlight shining upon them. Oh, also, Yang Lao San, who is still sleeping soundly beside her, everything, played a melody as if they were all instruments which then merged perfectly into a grand symphony that was truly thrilling.

Tang Baona loosened her right hand touching the bracelet, took a deep breath, looked at the walls in her room, and the symphony’s volume faded a bit. This type of sensation became increasingly natural and random, just like breathing. When you don’t pay attention, it’s always there, running in the background, and when you turn your attention to it, you can notice all types of details, detailed progress and conduct functional expansions, as well as actual operations.

Tang Baona couldn’t help but humming a cheerful melody, expressing her mood at the moment. She turned to look at Yang Zhen’er who was sleeping next to her in bed, leaned over and pinched her nose: “Old Three! Wake up!”

Yang Zhen’er frowned and grunted, raising her hand to flick away Tang Baona’s hand. Then she turned around and continued to sleep.

“Don’t sleep, get up, get up, don’t sleep anymore!” Tang Baona continued to lean over and disturb her, since she knew that Yang Lao San fell asleep with her at the same time, they had had the same sleeping time. Strictly speaking, she “sang” Yang Lao San to sleep, so Yang Lao San slept a little bit longer than her.

“Let me sleep a bit more Nana, so sleepy, so tired,” Yang Zhen’er muttered in a daze, clutching her quilt and groaning a few times.

“Huh?” Tang Baona curiously laid on Yang Lao San, pointing at the knot on her furrowed brow with curiosity, it seemed that Old Three was really tired.

Then she thought about Yang Lao San’s dream last night, it was indeed that Yang Lao San had much larger emotional ups and downs than Xiao Lingdang and Little Apple, as if she was dealing with more complex and troublesome situations.

Although she didn’t see it directly, she could sense the emotional and mood changes of Yang Lao San, Xiao Lingdang, and Little Apple in their dreams through the melody of emotions. So, when Yang Lao San was sad, despairing, and in low spirits, she would play the corresponding positive melody of emotions, prompting her to stand up with her voice.

While humming a soft lullaby, she gently rubbed open Yang Lao San’s furrowed brow. Tang Baona didn’t call her anymore, instead, she let her fall asleep again.

After Yang Lao San fell asleep, Tang Baona got up to wash and change clothes before leaving the room.

She first went to the room where Xia, Niu, and Guo were staying, but found it empty. Everyone was gone.

Then she heard the sound of a car, and Little Fatty Girl’s cheers.

Tang Baona had an idea and touched the beads in her hand to sense, then she felt six “hunger” emotional melodies and several “fragrant” object melodies.

Tang Baona went downstairs and saw Custard Pie eating cat food in the corner of the living room. Jinshanshan was also cheerfully eating Apple’s specially formulated bird meal in its cage. Little Fatty Girl and Little Apple, who were still in their pajamas, were standing at the door of the yard, helping Old Xia, who had gotten off the GL8, with his bags.

Needless to say, those bags must contain delicious breakfast – she already knew about it through the melody!

“Good morning, pretty sister!” Little Fatty Girl, who was carrying a bag, entered the house first and greeted cheerfully.

“Beautiful… Good morning, Sister Nana!” Right behind her, Little Apple, who was carrying two bags, also greeted her with a smile.

“Xiao Lingdang, Little Apple, you guys are up this early too?” Tang Baona said, and when she saw Old Xia coming in with several bags, she was even more surprised: “Old Xia, why did you get breakfast? I remember that last night… You also came over to listen to my concert under the stage, didn’t you? We should have ended the dream at the same time, right?”

While taking the food out of the bag and placing it on the dining table, Old Xia explained, “After the dream ended, you guys didn’t wake up right away. I woke up earlier.”

Tang Baona instinctively asked when she saw Little Apple holding a fried bread stick and Little Fatty Girl holding a meat bun, about to take a bite, “Have you two brushed your teeth yet?”

Thus, the two small mouths both stopped in front of the food. After a moment of pause, the food in their hands was taken away by Old Xia, still in the plastic bag. Then, he pointed his chin at the stairs. The two girls understood and quickly went upstairs to brush their teeth.

Tang Baona noticed that Old Xia’s gaze fell on her again, and quickly said, “I brushed my teeth! I brushed them as soon as I woke up!”

Old Xia nodded, “Sister Nana, do you want soy milk or milk? I also bought some millet porridge, do you want to drink a bit?”

“Ah? Oh, yes, yes, give me some.”

After gulping down a bite of hot porridge and exhaling a breath of hot air, Tang Baona looked very satisfied and content. Then, she looked at Old Xia again, “Old Xia, has Xiang Kun taken care of that guy?”

“The plan went very well, Sister Nana did a great job,” said Old Xia, “For the detailed situation, you can ask Alice later on.”

Hearing Old Xia’s praise, Tang Baona was a bit embarrassed, “I don’t seem to have helped much, I just sang in the dream…Speaking of which, your cousin is still sleeping, should we wake her up to eat something first?”

Old Xia looked at his watch – it was a gift from Tang Baona on her birthday, and said, “Let her sleep for another hour, we can heat up the breakfast then. She expended too much energy last night and she’s quite tired.”

“Yes, I was thinking the same,” Tang Baona said, pausing for half a second over a meat bun, then taking a steamed roll to eat.

Old Xia also poured some soy milk to drink, and then looked up at Tang Baona, suddenly asking, “Sister Nana, when you woke up today, did you notice anything different?”

Tang Baona was taken aback, and then immediately thought of her feelings when she woke up. She nodded and said, “Yes, I do feel different. I seem to perceive the melody… how should I put it, it’s more smooth and natural. It feels like it’s an ability I’ve always had, just like breathing, talking, lifting hands, and walking. It’s very easy to use, I can sense emotions when I want to, and sense objects when I want to. And… And the melodies I sense can be naturally combined, as if every melody has its specific position, they can be nicely combined. Eh, it’s hard to describe, I’ll sing a few parts for you later, you’ll understand.”

Saying that, Tang Baona thought of something and also observed Old Xia a few times. Even though she didn’t see anything, she still asked, “Old Xia, do you feel any different? Is it… after last night, we’re all not the same, have we all ‘leveled up’?”

Old Xia said, “Hmm, we have changed, but the one that has changed more, is the world.”

“The world?”

“The world is now vastly different than before we fell asleep.”

At that moment, Little Fatty Girl and Little Apple came bouncing down the stairs from upstairs, shouting:

“So hungry, so hungry, so hungry!”