After his transformation, Xiang Kun no longer needed to eat. Rather, he couldn’t eat.
Since only water and blood could stay in his stomach without being vomited out, there was naturally no need for him to cook at all.
In fact, he hardly cooked anything other than instant noodles even before his transformation.
But when he saw the owl’s memory, where it ransacked the rubbish bin searching for the dead rabbits that Xiang Kun had disposed of, he suddenly realized that his household garbage was very different from others’.
What did normal people have in their trash cans?
Kitchen waste, leftovers, used paper towels, tins, cans, plastic bags, and other litter.
But what about Xiang Kun?
Besides dead rabbits wrapped in layers of rubbish bags, there was hardly anything else. The rest consisted mainly of wrappers, plastic bags, rabbit poop, and leftover vegetable leaves.
He used very little paper towels too since he didn’t sweat much, nor did he snack or drink beverages. As a result, his trash can was empty most of the time.
Luckily, his city was quite lenient with waste sorting. Although there were four garbage bins for different kinds of household waste, most people still jumbled up everything in one single bag and threw into the bin for kitchen waste. Hence, no one would pay special attention to his rubbish. But it was still a potential issue.
Furthermore, he would definitely be seen by his neighbors when he brought rabbits home.
It wouldn’t be a big problem at the moment because he only bought rabbits once in a while. But things might look suspicious for him in the long run.
Therefore, he had to think of a reason for his “obsession” with rabbits.
Xiang Kun decided not to throw away the three dead rabbits after his feeding this time. Instead, he put them in the freezer after he briefly tidied them up.
Then he searched for a few recipes online about how to cook rabbits. He had even bought a complete set of kitchenware and some cooking ingredients on his way home today.
There were three rabbits, and he planned to cook them in three different ways.
Braised, stewed, and fried with hot and spicy sauce…
Xiang Kun didn’t bother to defrost them completely. He threw them into a pot of hot water immediately after he took them out of the fridge. After all, he was only practicing his cooking skills and wouldn’t eat them.
He cut the rabbit meat into cubes. At first, he was unfamiliar with the way to handle the knife, but he soon got the hang of it. Although he was certainly not as good as a master chef, he surely looked like someone with some cooking experience. A true fast learner.
That was all thanks to his superior ability in controlling his muscles and strength accurately, as well as the flexibility of his fingers and wrists.
It was already midnight. But to Xiang Kun, it was the optimal hour for him, and his body was in its prime state too.
He took out his phone and opened a music app. After clicking shuffle play, he put the phone beside the kitchen table.
He lowered the volume to the minimum, which was barely audible for normal people even without the noises from the stove or the chopping and sizzling sounds. Hence, the music wouldn’t disturb his neighbors.
To Xiang Kun, however, he could hear the music as clearly as if he were wearing headphones so long as he wanted to, even with all the cooking noises. This was not only because of his enhanced hearing, but also the result of his recent training.
Now he was able to capture the sounds or scents that he wanted from a jumble of noises and smells almost effortlessly.
Xiang Kun had never heard the songs in the shuffled playlist before, but he liked both their lyrics and melodies.
In the past, Xiang Kun would listen to music when he did repetitive work that did not require much thinking. But he had never really “enjoyed” music ever since his transformation, because every time he opened the app, he would only use the songs to test and practice his hearing.
The pace of his chopping started to increase with the strong rhythms.
“You cannot leave when you really wanna go,
“You know the road better than the show,
“And darkness makes you glow…”
With cubed chili and onions set aside, Xiang Kun poured oil into the pan and fried Chinese prickly ash, star anise, and dried chili till fragrant.
“…Hey~hey~hey~hey~it’s a brand new day, ah~ha~
“Hey~hey~hey~hey~it’s a brand new day…”
He stir-fried the rabbit meat.
The next song was ever more hyper. Xiang Kun could not help but start swaying to the rhythm, stomping the floor to the beats.
“In a world full of followers~
“I’ll be a leader!
“In a world full of doubters~
“I’ll be a believer!
“I’m stepping out without a hesitation~
“I ain’t got nothing left to be afraid…”
As he added soy sauce and cooking wine, he continued to stir the meat. With a jerk of his left wrist, the meat cubes were tossed into the air. Xiang Kun immediately hurled out the spatula, which rapidly turned 720 degrees, catching half of the cubes. But the other meat cubes all landed on the table…
Then Xiang Kun started singing along with his inaccurate English:
“Gonna be making it count~ I~am~ sold out (voice cracked here)~”
Sugar, salt added. Now ready to serve.
Xiang Kun took a bite, chewed for a while, and spat it out.
Well… it didn’t taste good.
His sense of taste hadn’t degenerated, though he didn’t have to eat now.
In fact, that allowed him to judge the taste of food more objectively without the bias from his appetite.
Xiang Kun dumped the plate of hot and spicy rabbit meat into the rubbish bin and started preparing for the second dish.
The next song had started. It was a song he knew, Demons by Imagine Dragons. As before, he shook his shoulders to the rhythm and sang along in his accented English as he cooked.
“Your eyes, they shine so bright~
“I wanna save that light~
“I can’t escape this now~~
“Unless you show me how (voice cracked twice)~~”
Xiang Kun’s spatula was flying in the air. He was almost wielding it like a sword. Soon, the music faded into the next song, a Hokkien song called Price of Being a Hero. However, he was out of tune as usual:
“Hey (voice cracked x3) ~~~ You’ll face the world alone~
“Hey (voice cracked x4) ~ One mistake and the hope is gone”
Two minutes later, he began singing in Cantonese to Beyond’s songs:
“I’m loaded with sorrow and regrets~~~
“And tears are welling up in your eyes~~
“This world is filled with emptiness (voice cracked x5)~~
“Ooohhhh~~ Don’t leave me too~”
When the braised rabbit was done, Xiang Kun cast the spatula towards the ceiling. The ten-yuan spatula spiraled swiftly up and fell just when it was about to hit the ceiling. After Xiang Kun poured the dish into a plate, he was just in time to catch the spatula with a lift of his wrist.
The music continued. This time, it was Jacky Cheung. Xiang Kun proudly sang on, despite his inability to keep to the right key.
“Against the world~~~ I command the storms~
“All those against me are my foes~
“The mountain is as tall as the autumn sky~~
“Yet the maples show their spirits high!”
At this moment, he was suddenly interrupted by knocking on his door. Frowning, Xiang Kun looked in the direction of the door. He could hear that there were two people outside, and the strong smell of sweat and cigarettes signaled that both of them were men.
He glanced at his phone. It was already 3:00 AM. Who could they be?
Besides, all the blocks in his estate were equipped with an entrance guard on the ground floor, which meant it was impossible for them to enter the building without ringing his doorbell first[1]. So how had they managed to get to his door directly?
Puzzled, Xiang Kun switched off the stove and walked towards the door.
He wasn’t worried about his personal safety. After the death match with the giant owl, he was confident that he could put down two normal people easily as long as they were not armed with guns.
Moreover, his remarkable regenerative powers granted him a higher chance at survival too.
However, he still grabbed a screwdriver backhandedly as he walked past the living room.
He looked outside from the peephole. To his astonishment, there stood two security guards of his estate outside his door. He had met them before, so he was sure that it was not someone else dressing as security officers.
After he put the screwdriver away, Xiang Kun opened the door, confused.
“Mr. Xiang, we are sorry to disturb you. You didn’t answer your doorbell, so we had no choice but to knock,” the senior security guard said once the door was opened.
Xiang Kun asked, perplexed, “You rang my doorbell?” Surprisingly, he hadn’t heard it at all. Maybe it was because he had been too focused on cooking and his hearing was concentrated on the music.
“Oh, probably because I was coding and didn’t hear it. Anything I can do for you?” Xiang Kun asked casually.
“Mr. Xiang, if you like to sing at home, could you please quiet down a little bit? It’s very late now, and our walls are not perfectly sound-proof. Many residents have called to complain that you were singing too loudly…” the senior security guard said with an awkward expression on his face.
Xiang Kun was dumbfounded. He felt as if a lightning bolt had just struck him.
‘WHAT?! What have I been doing?’
He had purposely lowered the volume of his music to the minimum so that he wouldn’t disturb his neighbors. So what was on his mind when he was singing so loud?
In fact, he hadn’t realized it at all.
“Mr. Xiang? Mr. Xiang?”
The security guard was shocked by Xiang Kun’s reaction. He called him a few times.
Xiang Kun recovered from his astonishment and apologized sincerely with his palms put together. “I’m really sorry, really very sorry. I was too caught up with writing my code and sang out loud while wearing earbuds, so I didn’t know how loud I was.”
“Alright. Thank you for your cooperation.” The security guard was convinced by Xiang Kun’s explanation. In fact, they had thought that Xiang Kun was drunk. But when they realized that he was absolutely sober and there was no alcohol smell at all, they believed Xiang Kun was probably too absorbed in the music and hadn’t even noticed the noise he was making.
However, Xiang Kun’s loud, off-key singing and cracking voice was truly a huge public nuisance in the middle of the night.
After the two security guards left, Xiang Kun closed the door. A stern look emerged on his face.
A moment ago, the entirety of his hearing was focused on the music. Hence, to some extent, it was equivalent to wearing earbuds, as other sounds were filtered and blocked. This was also the very ability he needed to capture a specific sound from background noise.
Hence, in this state, he would be unaware of the volume of his voice.
However, Xiang Kun didn’t think it was the fundamental reason for his misbehavior. He found it abnormal that he was trapped inside his own bubble, completely excluded from the outside world.
Ever since his transformation, Xiang Kun had been doing his utmost to keep his composure. He was even able to resist the thirst for blood with his own will.
As for his first feeding, he was almost acting on his inner instincts when he bought the chicken from the wet market and slaughtered it at home. Even so, he was certain that he was still in full control of his body and mind.
Nevertheless, there had been a thought lurking in his mind that it was not his brain nor his free will that was making the decision. Rather, it came from deeper within. It was an innate desire for the pleasure and satisfaction from sucking blood, which was also what made him anxious whenever he was hungry.
However, the state he was in earlier was clearly not due to that bloodthirst of his. He had done it out of his own will.
That’s because he knew that his consciousness was in charge of every decision he had made.
That was even more worrying because Xiang Kun suddenly realized that he had neglected his mental changes while he was too engrossed with the physical ones.
[1] In China, there is a keypad beside the entrance guard for the visitor to ring the host’s doorbell remotely. The visitors will only be able to enter if the host unlocks the entrance guard from their apartment