What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 402: Crying with Laughter

Xiang Kun quickly realized, the reason he couldn’t get in the mood was because of Old Xia’s presence.

Although Old Xia hadn’t uttered a word or made a sound, most of his attention was still on her, because he knew that getting in the mood was preparing for “Emotional Assimilation” with Old Xia, it was hard not to focus on Old Xia.

Even without looking at her, Xiang Kun’s current all-around powerful perception ability could clearly “tell” him – whether it was through smell, hearing or other senses – that Old Xia was right by his side.

Xiang Kun is indeed someone who is prone to emotional fluctuations and resonates easily. His emotions can easily be stirred whether it’s by watching movies, TV dramas, reading novels, listening to music, or even just simply watching mixed clips.

If he’s in a crowd and no one pays too much attention to him, he can also easily get in the mood.

Like that Christmas Eve night at Tang Baona’s house, while listening to Tang Baona sing “No Way to Fade” with everyone, he also got in the mood.

Even on a bustling street, amidst the flowing crowd, listening to the music playing from a distant store, he could get in the mood as well.

But now, it was just him and Old Xia. And he had a very clear intention to get in the mood, to “emotionally assimilate” Old Xia, to make Old Xia also experience these emotions.

Such an excessive deliberate thought instead made him lose his feeling. He was too focused on making Old Xia experience this, that it was hard for him to immerse himself in his own experience.

Unlike the time he was at the abandoned factory attempting to leap from the rooftop, relying on “Super-connected Objects” to disturb the magnetic field to assist in “Electric Mastery Flight,” he was solely focused on discovering and extending his new abilities, excitement and exuberance came naturally.

Nor was it like that day on Zi Huan Mountain, where external events that could stimulate his emotions and subjective will were present, and his heart was already “blazing”, the music was just “kindling,” making him light up instantly.

Now it was just… too peaceful and cozy.

This is why he couldn’t immerse himself in the videos or songs that he normally finds emotionally moving when he watches them alone in his spare time.

Xia Libing noticed the situation and realizing something, she offered to Xiang Kun, “How about I hide in the room first, and then sneak out after you get in the mood?”

But she also immediately realized that this suggestion was pointless because with Xiang Kun’s super sensing ability, her presence in the room would be as strongly felt as her sitting next to him.

Then she suggested, “Do you have any movies that easily evoke emotions?”

Indeed, watching a movie could prolong the time needed to cultivate emotional buildup, allowing Xiang Kun to ignore his surroundings and more easily immerse himself within his emotions.

So, Xiang Kun went on Douban to see what kind of movies he had seen in the past that had an emotional impact on him.

But Old Xia’s suggestion also reminded Xiang Kun that some emotions are more easily submerged in alone, they’re more “personal,” requiring a certain “self-hypnosis” ability.

However, some other emotions are actually suited to be experienced with others, and the more people the better.

So, Xiang Kun closed Douban, stopped looking for movies, and opened up Bilibili, logged into his account, prepared to search for funny videos.

Yes, happiness and joy are emotions that are naturally suited for everyone to experience together.

As the saying goes, “Shared joy is double joy.”

Most of the time when Xiang Kun was on Bilibili, he would watch Tang Baona’s videos, so he didn’t know any funny UP master, and would need to filter through the funny search results himself, most of them would not be up to his taste.

But he knew Tang Baona has a public collection called “Bursting with Laughter”, she stores all the funny videos she comes across there.

And he knew that if Tang Baona finds a video funny and interesting, he would also think it’s very funny. This was proven when he was making the minions and had Tang Baona recommend some funny fictions and animations to him.

After copying all the videos from Tang Baona’s “Bursting with Laughter” collection to a newly created collection of his own, Xiang Kun then searched for Yang Zhen Er’s Bilibili account.

Yang Lao San was also an UP (Upload) host, under the name “My Surname is Yang”. However, he only occasionally posted food videos and street photography, without showing his face or voice, so he did not have many fans – among them, Tang Baona and Xiang Kun. Yet, he collected quite a few funny videos, all in a collection called “Laugh Till You Split”.

After copying all the videos into his own collection, Xiang Kun chose to play all the videos in his collection, switched to full screen, then sat back with hands crossed on his chest next to Old Xia, ready to enjoy the show.

Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, and Yang Zhen’er indeed have similar tastes in humor. The funny videos collected by this duo soon had him laughing uncontrollably, even bursting out loud with laughter.

Within less than ten minutes, Xiang Kun was immersed in joy, the intensity of this emotion was so strong he even accidentally made a pig-squealing sound from laughing – the first few videos were just too hilarious.

As a result, the “Emotional Assimilation” also influenced Xia Libing nearby.

Xiang Kun didn’t wait until all the funny videos in the playlist had finished before he broke out of his emotional state. He disengaged when the tenth video was playing, because of the soft grumbling sound from Xia Libing’s stomach.

He knew that was a signal Old Xia was hungry. Then he suddenly realized it was already past one in the afternoon, and Old Xia hadn’t eaten lunch yet. From the morning when he picked him up till now, she had only eaten a box of ice cream.

He looked back at Old Xia, only to be shocked by the sight of her laughing and crying while looking at the laptop screen.

The smile she had now was more natural than any other time, the kind of smile you can’t help but show when you see something fun and funny, just like any ordinary girl.

However, along with the smile on her face, there were streaks of tears.

At this time, the current video on the laptop ended and switched to the next one in the playlist, Xia Libing also broke out from the emotional state. She turned to look at Xiang Kun, her lips still slightly curled, carrying the lingering smile.

“So this is what happiness feels like, it’s very unique,” Xia Libing nodded at Xiang Kun, her face returning to its usual expression. However, the tear streaks on her cheeks and the teardrops on her eyelashes remained, though she seemed not to be aware of it at all.

Xiang Kun pointed to his eyes and said, “Why are you crying?”

Upon hearing this, Xia Libing was indeed taken aback. She looked puzzled at first, but then when she realized what happened, she wiped the tears under her eyes, looked at her slightly wet fingers and frowned, “No wonder I thought the video got blurred all of a sudden when I was watching.”

Xiang Kun was astonished. Even if Old Xia was immersed in emotions, she wouldn’t cry without knowing it, right?

Moreover, why would she cry while watching a funny video, being infected with his happy and joyful emotions?

Was it too funny that she laughed till she cried?

This was possible, after all, it seemed that Old Xia had never experienced the emotion of “it’s too funny” from childhood to adulthood.

When she suddenly experienced this emotion and held onto it for such a long time, was the physiological feedback stimulated by the emotion too strong?

Nevertheless, despite having many questions, Xiang Kun suppressed them for the moment, let Xia Libing go to the bathroom to wash her face and take a break, while he went to the kitchen to prepare lunch for Old Xia.

Because he hadn’t prepared the ingredients in advance and had to use what he had in the fridge, Xiang Kun simply made a pot of egg soup noodles for Xia Libing.

Of course, he slightly adjusted this noodle soup to Old Xia’s taste.

It wasn’t until Xia Libing had eaten a few mouthfuls of noodles and slurped some hot soup, that Xiang Kun asked, “Do you remember crying in the past?”

Xia Libing lifted her head, thought for a moment, and said, “It seems I have cried, but I forgot.”

Xiang Kun asked again, “What were your exact feelings just now? Apart from… apart from finding it ‘funny’?”

This time Xia Libing took even longer to think, but finally she shook her head, “I can’t remember clearly now, let’s try again later, I’ll record the process this time.” Having said that, she lowered her head and quickly finished the bowl of noodle soup.