What It’s Like Being a Vampire

earlier.

It's past six o'clock in the evening on New Year's Eve.

On a certain main road in Pengcheng, a black GMC RV was driving smoothly.

The interior of the caravan has been greatly remodeled. There is only one seat left, and it is obviously custom-made. It is different from the original one and is much larger.

Various devices are installed in other spaces. There are two side-by-side screens on the front partition layer, and there are many controllable buttons and joysticks below the screen.

In the rear space, there are more equipment, and a rack of miniature and small drones are placed in fixed positions.

The "skin" covered with cobweb-like golden luster, sitting in the only seat, watching some data through the screen, is Mr. Liang.

After reading the data, Mr. Liang pressed the call button with the cab: "Old Xie, after sending me to the place, I will give you a day off."

After hearing the harsh and hoarse voice, the driver was silent for a while, and then said: "Mr. Liang, I don't have to take a vacation. I'm on vacation...I don't know what to do."

Mr. Liang said, "I can give you two more days off to visit your family."

The driver replied: "No need, Mr. Liang, they can't recognize me now. Since there is no way to recognize each other, there is no need to appear on the side. It is meaningless. Anyway, I can always pass the surveillance video you arranged Just seeing them and knowing they're doing well."

Mr. Liang turned his head and thought for a while, then asked, "Old Xie, how long have you been with me?"

"Counting today, it is 2093 days." Lao Xie replied without any hesitation.

"It's been more than five years, do you feel tired?" Mr. Liang asked.

Lao Xie was silent for a while before he opened his mouth and said, "You gave me a new life. If it weren't for you, I would still be paralyzed in bed. I would have to be served by someone else when I ate, drank and slacked. I stand up again, and help me take care of my family, the only meaning of the rest of my life is to do things for you."

Mr. Liang released the call button, but directly opened a small window on the partition floor leading to the driver's cab. He leaned back on the large and comfortable seat, and the sound of metal rubbing was transmitted directly through the small window. Past: "Have you ever wondered why I am like this and what I am doing?"

This time, without any hesitation, Lao Xie replied immediately: "I don't read much, I don't have much culture, and I don't understand too advanced principles, but so many doctors, graduate students, and even professors are helping you. I want you to do something. Of course it is a big deal, since I don't understand, just do what you say."

Mr. Liang laughed silently, the corners of his mouth stretched to the base of his ears.

Not long after, the black RV drove into the underground parking lot of a building, and the car drove directly to the separate and closed parking lot on the bottom floor, which belonged exclusively to Mr. Liang.

However, there is no one guarding the entrance of the parking lot on this floor. It is an automatic gate. After the camera in front of the gate scanned the license plate, Lao Xie lowered the window of the car to let a metal arm attached to the gate scan it. Yi scanned his face, and a second later, the scanner retracted, and the heavy gate was raised at a constant speed.

At first glance, the parking lot on the bottom floor looks much smaller than the upper floors. Various modified vehicles, drones and other equipment are parked, as well as a few workers who are maintaining the drones. However, it can be seen from the structure next to it that there are still a lot of closed spaces separated on this floor.

The RV stopped in front of the exclusive elevator. Lao Xie got out of the car, opened the door of the RV, walked to the elevator with a box and waited.

Lao Xie is a middle-aged man with a big face, a broad body, and a thick back.

Just looking at his face covered with earthworm scars, he could feel a sense of ferocity, but his walking posture seemed to have a weird sense of incongruity.

After a while, the elevator next to Lao Xie made a beeping sound, the elevator door opened, and there were light footsteps.

Lao Xia put the box in the elevator, then walked out, bowing slightly in front of the elevator door.

The elevator door closed slowly and began to descend—it turned out that this was still not the bottom floor of the building.

From the beginning to the end, Lao Xie did not see Mr. Liang getting off the car, but he knew very well that Mr. Liang had already boarded the elevator—only Mr. Liang could enter this elevator.

And he also knows that in most cases, Mr. Liang is "invisible".

After the elevator went down, Lao Xie got in the car and tidied up, then went to a room in the basement—this was one of his exclusive rooms. Before Mr. Liang came here, he basically waited in this room.

The furnishing in the room is very simple, only one bed, one table, one chair and one cabinet, but it looks very textured. The table can be lifted and lowered by electric, multi-angle adjustment, and the chair is also ergonomic, because there is a good exhaust facility. The air is also good.

He sat in the chair, woke up the dormant computer, opened a software on the desktop, and then saw a Jiugongge page like the main control screen of the monitor.

He clicked on one of the screens, and there was a video of two teenagers playing XBOX on TV. Judging from the conversation, it should be the two brothers, and the indoor environment they were in could be seen, the decoration and electrical appliances were very high-end , living conditions should be good.

Lao Xie watched the two teenagers play games, and watched them being called to the dining table by a middle-aged woman to start eating. After switching to another scene, after changing another angle, he could see three old people sitting at the dining table. Those are the child's grandfather and grandparents.

Seeing the whole family having reunion dinner and New Year's Eve dinner together, Lao Xie's mouth unconsciously smiled, and the ferocity on his face was washed away a lot.

...

After taking the exclusive elevator to the bottom floor, when the elevator door opened, Mr. Liang's figure reappeared.

Compared with the previous parking lot, this place is wider now, and the whole area is almost half the size of a football field. The ceiling is covered with white light grids that look like huge square bricks. When it is opened, all kinds of equipment are displayed in front of the eyes, which looks very technological, like the base of a superhero in a movie.

But there is no one here except Mr. Liang, which makes people feel cold and lonely.

Mr. Liang carried the box, walked to the middle operating table and sat down, opened the box, took out the "scarred" rabbit wooden sculpture inside, and placed it on the edge of the platform, like an ornament.

At the same time, several surrounding screens descended from the ceiling, all of which were images sent back by drones working in different parts of the country or surveillance images inside the building.

The pictures show the specific situation of each team that is still working, including Fang Pingfang's team who spent New Year's Eve in the villa near Wushu Mountain, but the picture sent back is the drone above the villa, not the interior of the building.

But after switching to the infrared thermal imaging mode, the position of the people near the window can be seen when they are active.

He could even turn on the microphones on the devices carried by the team members inside and monitor the sound directly if he wanted to, but he didn't do that.

The monitoring screen on one of the screens suddenly disappeared and turned into a video request. This is his internal communication system, like Fang Pingfang, Mi Qiao, and other leaders and important R\u0026D personnel of the research team of the secret department of "Shenxing Technology" , When you want to contact him, you always use this system, and you need to have exclusive hardware equipment.

But now the person who applied for the video was not any of his subordinates in the secret department, but the big boss of "Shenxing Technology" - Lu Cheng'an.

Mr. Liang hesitated for a moment, but still connected to the video.

Of course, just like when he communicated with Fang Pingfang and others, he could see the other party's screen, but the other party could not see him.

On the screen, an old man with dyed black hair, combed properly, and a majestic face appeared. He looked at the camera and frowned: "Ah Liang, let's start your video too."

Mr. Liang's ugly voice sounded: "No need, you should know what I look like now."

On the screen, the founder of "Shenxing Technology" was silent for a moment, and then said: "Ah Liang, tonight is New Year's Eve."

"I know." Mr. Liang said.

The two sides fell silent again.

Half a minute later, Lu Chengan sighed: "Ah Liang, come back and live together."

Mr. Liang's gaze shifted from Lu Cheng'an's video, and his eyelidless eyes looked at a black screen with no picture. Because of the light, it reflected his appearance at this time, and his voice became a little low. It sounds even uglier:

"It's too late to go back."

Lu Chengan's expression became a little complicated, and he said after a while: "Occasionally... come back and visit your mother together."

"I have her picture." Mr. Liang said.

"you know what I mean……"

"The ashes are the same as the photos. They are just a consignment to miss her. There is not much difference." Mr. Liang's figure on the seat suddenly disappeared and entered an invisible state. Although he did not turn on the camera facing him, Lu Chengan couldn't see him.

Lu Cheng'an frowned slightly, and asked, "Ah Liang, you're not still thinking...to bring her back to life, are you?"

"Dead people cannot be resurrected, I know. Even if a person is recreated through gene cloning technology, she will no longer be her." Mr. Liang paused for a moment, and then said: "I just want to control my own destiny." .”

Lu Chengan sighed, and after a long time, he asked, "Ah Liang...are you still my son?"

After waiting for a long time without answering, Lu Chengan finally ended the communication in disappointment.

The figure of Mr. Liang slowly appeared on the seat, and all the pictures on the screen disappeared at the same time, and the screen rose and retracted into the ceiling.

Then he looked towards the center of the empty room, where a naked-eye 3D holographic projection made from old video images appeared.

It was a video taken by a young couple on the birthday of their son who is just learning to speak. The little boy in it looks lively and cute. Although the young couple is not very handsome or beautiful, they both look very temperamental. And he is very affectionate, teasing his son affectionately.

Looking at these pictures, Mr. Liang's ugly voice sounded like rubbing metal particles:

"I will always be your son."

...

Star City, Liu Shiling's home.

After accompanying her daughter to finish the New Year's Eve dinner with only mother and daughter, Shiling's mother couldn't help wiping her tears while washing the dishes, and then kept telling herself not to cry.

She quarreled with Shi Ling's father on the phone again today. She thinks that the family of three can stay together now. Their house has been sold before, so they can buy a house in Star City. Compared to the previous city, the housing prices in Star City are more reasonable.

And as long as she has a house, everything else is easy. After Liu Shiling enters elementary school, she can also start to work and make money together.

But Shiling's father still has a little fondness for his previous company, and wants to "fight" a little more, and wants to continue his previous career, so that he can't come back to spend the New Year's Eve as a family of three.

Because of this matter, they have quarreled more than once, and once even scared their daughter to "run away from home".

Fortunately, my daughter is more sensible now. She asked "Isn't Dad coming back" once at night, and after she didn't answer, she didn't ask this question again.

After washing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen, Shiling's mother was taken aback when she returned to the living room, because she saw a small bench in the middle of the living room, with a can of melon seeds and a bottle of Coke on the side of the bench, and her daughter was Lie on the edge of the shoe cabinet.

"Liu Shiling, what are you doing lying on the ground?" Shiling's mother hurriedly asked.

Liu Shiling pointed to the small bench in the middle of the living room: "Mom, that's your seat, so please take a seat! Before the Spring Festival Gala starts, I'm going to give you a show, so sit down quickly! Eat melon seeds and drink Coca-Cola!"

Shiling's mother sat down on the small bench that her daughter usually sat on in a daze. Because the bench was too low, she almost fell when she sat down, so she quickly put her hands on the ground to keep her balance.

"Is mom ready? I'm going to start now!" Liu Shiling asked loudly after getting behind the shoe cabinet.

"Okay, okay, what are you going to perform?" Shi Ling's mother asked in a daze.

"I'm going to perform magic... um... magic paper figurine battle! Mom, you are the first to see it!" Liu Shiling said with a bit of pride and complacency.

Shi Ling's mother smiled, feeling a little warm in her heart. She knew that it was her daughter who knew she was in a bad mood and deliberately came to please her.

No matter how well her daughter performs, she will be very happy if she has this heart.

"I'm starting!"

As Liu Shiling said, she took a paper crane in her chubby little hand and put it on the shoe cabinet, then let go of her hand and said in a "serious" tone:

"A long time ago, there was a lovely and beautiful crane, her name was Wangzai, and she lived happily in Happy Valley!"

That origami crane looks a little different from ordinary origami cranes. It looks fatter. One joint of the two wings rests on the shoe cabinet to help support it.

Following Liu Shiling's explanation, the paper crane on the shoe cabinet actually began to move its two wings left and right, and slowly moved on the shoe cabinet.

"Hey?! Oops..." Shiling's mother was startled, subconsciously wanted to stand up, but because the bench was too short, she almost fell down when she couldn't stand up. .

"Mom, I'm performing, you have to sit down and watch!" Liu Shiling's dissatisfied voice came from behind the shoe cabinet.

"Okay, I'll take a good look." Shi Ling's mother had no choice but to sit down again, and then stared at the fat paper crane on the shoe cabinet with wide eyes, her mentality has changed from being tolerant to her daughter to being curious.