What It's Like Being a Vampire

“Xiao Pingguo is a good kid, very understanding, extremely intelligent, and loves learning. Ah, if only… if only she could see… she should have had a promising future.”

Whenever he mentioned his niece, Li Sheng could not help sighing, even considering cursing the heavens. Such a good child, born blind, then lost her mother shortly after. Damn, the gods are indeed blind.

However, his female colleague Liu Ying said: “Honestly, if you hadn’t told me about Xiao Pingguo’s condition before, when I saw her this afternoon, I couldn’t tell she was blind at all. Moreover, in Professor Li’s house, the way she walks and does things, everything seems very natural. During our conversation, she could clearly judge where the speaker was. Even when pouring water or taking things, she doesn’t need anyone to help, her ability to act independently is quite strong.”

Li Sheng said: “Xiao Pingguo has lived in that house for over a decade, she’s very familiar with every nook and cranny. Sometimes she knows where something is better than my brother. What’s more, her hearing is outstanding. She can hear many details that we regular people can’t, so at home, there’s not much difference between her and someone with normal vision.”

Speaking of which, he laughed and said: “Technology is truly amazing nowadays. My brother told me that Xiao Pingguo can’t do anything without her computer and cell phone. She even posts her cover songs on a platform called something like bibulu.”

Liu Ying laughed and said, “What bibulu? You mean Bilibili, right? That’s the B-site young people use, it’s not bibulu, are you blowing bubbles?”

“Ha! I said it wrong on purpose, wasn’t that funny?” Li Sheng laughed.

Liu Ying then said: “Xiao Pingguo must have a lovely singing voice. Listening to her talk, it seems like she has a beautiful voice. If she’s interested, why not try sending her to a professional school? My aunt is a teacher at the music college…”

“That’s been tried when she was little, but Xiao Pingguo is clearly more interested in studying birds.” Li Sheng replied.

“That’s true. The canary Xiao Pingguo keeps, called ‘Shining Gold’, is indeed charming! Watching their interactions, it really seemed like it had a sense of consciousness.” Liu Ying exclaimed, “No wonder Xiao Pingguo calls ‘Shining Gold’ her ‘guide bird’. I remember you told me your niece speaks ‘bird language’ and can communicate with birds directly. But tonight, when she gave ‘Shining Gold’ instructions, she just spoke in Mandarin. It felt like the bird has learned human language…”

“That bird is indeed magical.” Li Sheng agreed, “But Xiao Pingguo is just looking after it for a friend who went home for the New Year. Speaking of this friend, he is quite the character. Hey, have I ever told you about the barefoot Bald Man we picked up when my brother, Xiao Pingguo, and I were coming back from the mountains?”

“No, you haven’t. Who’s the barefoot Bald Man?” Liu Ying asked curiously.

Li Sheng then vividly recounted to Liu Ying the incident from last year when he, his brother, and Xiao Pingguo gave Xiang Kun a lift on their way back from the mountains.

“This guy is quite a character. He ran up to the mountains on his own, completely barefooted, like an ascetic monk. I guess without us, he would have kept walking down the mountain and no one would have dared to pick him up. I only met him that once, but my brother and Xiao Pingguo are quite close to him. He’s been to my brother’s house several times. I hear this guy not only cooks well but is also good at woodcarving. He gave Xiao Pingguo a minion wood carving and even carved some computer components. I’ve seen them, they really are quite impressive…”

As the two of them were chatting about this, they reached the bureau.

Both of them worked at the city bureau but in different departments. Their presence there that night was required as Liu Ying was on duty and Li Sheng was accompanying her.

However, as soon as the two walked into the office, Li Sheng’s phone rang and it was his niece Xiao Pingguo, whom they had just said goodbye to.

“Xiao Pingguo, we just arrived at the office. Your dad drank quite a bit, he should be asleep, right?… What?! What did you say? Where’s your dad? What, you’re alone… Go back right now, find your dad, I’ll immediately inform colleagues nearby, you don’t need to worry about anything else… You’ve already called the police? That’s good then, make sure you stay safe, and go back home right now! Leave the rest to the police. I’ll rush over too!”

Seeing the way Li Sheng flipped from casual to tense, worried, and rushed as he answered the call, Liu Ying, who rarely saw him this way, asked with concern: “What happened? Did something happen to Xiao Pingguo… or your brother?”

“I’ll go over and check it out, then I’ll let you know” Li Sheng left as he was speaking.

Over half an hour earlier.

After Uncle Li Sheng and his girlfriend had left, Xiao Pingguo chatted with her father for a while, sitting together on the living room sofa.

But, since Professor Li Yang had learned at dinner that Li Sheng and Liu Ying had decided to get married, he was overjoyed and had a few more drinks than usual. Since he wasn’t good at handling his liquor, he fell asleep while they were chatting on the sofa.

Xiao Pingguo then went to fetch a blanket to cover him, and then went back to her room to play with her phone. But tonight Sister Nana and Sister Zhen’er were having dinner with their families, and Sister Xiao Bing and Uncle Xiang might have been busy too, none of them were in the group chat.

“Jin Shanshan”, who somehow got out of its cage and perched on Xiao Pingguo’s shoulder, chirped twice.

Xiao Pingguo tilted her head slightly and laughed, “You want to go out and play? Hmm, I know you’re bored, but daddy is asleep now…”

Since Aunt Yang also went home for the Spring Festival, it has only been her and her father Li Yang at home. Her father has been busy and needs to prepare for the New Year’s Eve, basically, he doesn’t have much time to accompany her to the park outside the community. She hadn’t been out for three days.

Xiao Pingguo chatted quietly with “Jin Shanshan” for a while—to outsiders, it would seem as though she was talking to herself. Then they made a decision, grabbed the bird cage that was never locked, took her phone, Minion Wood Carving, and Lucky Coin, grabbed her keys, and left with Jin Shanshan.

Before, Xiao Pingguo would never leave the house by herself.

Even if she was very familiar with the community, the small park outside, and the environment around it, even if through Professor Xiang Kun’s “Object Sensing” training, she could now walk through a crowd without worrying about bumping into people, she would still never dare to venture out on her own.

Because she knew it would worry her father and Aunt Yang, and the people who cared about her would be frantic with worry. And if she were to fall or something happened to her, they would feel guilty and blame themselves.

She knew that raising a blind child like her wasn’t easy for her father. She didn’t want to add to his worries.

And previously, even though her “Object Sensing” abilities allowed her to use her hearing and smell to greatly assist her, allowing her to move around her own community and the nearby park quite freely, she would still feel a bit uneasy when she was alone.

But today she wasn’t alone, she had “Jin Shanshan” with her.

She recently noticed that through her “Object Sensing” ability, she has formed a unique communication channel with “Jin Shanshan”. It wasn’t just that she could understand the bird’s intentions and make it understand her, she was even able to hear certain sounds through “Jin Shanshan” to some extent.

For the time being, she isn’t sure if this is her own illusion or if it is really possible, so she also wants to find an opportunity to experiment and confirm it.

Anyway, with “Jin Shanshan” by her side, Xiao Pingguo was certain that there would be no problem just going to the park next to the community for a little walk and rest.

Previously, she told her future sister-in-law and police officer Liu Ying that “Sparkle”, her canary, was her “guide bird”, and she wasn’t joking.

When she went out, “Sparkle” immediately flew ahead and perched in a tree, chirping twice to guide Xiao Pingguo.

She didn’t use her white cane as she was very familiar with the surroundings. If anything new appeared in her path, “Sparkle” would alert her, enabling her to sense where the obstacle was.

Xiao Pingguo managed to reach her usual small park without difficulty, and sat down on her regular wooden bench.

She wasn’t wearing sunglasses, so if any strangers saw her on the way, they wouldn’t think this pretty girl was blind. Apart from her gaze appearing a bit vacant, everything seemed normal.

Sat on the bench, Xiao Pingguo let “Sparkle” move freely. In one hand she held the “Lucky Coin” that Xiang Kun had given her to practice “object sensing”, and in her other, she held a “minion wood carving” that she had a magical connection with. She then started trying to establish a connection with “Sparkle”, in order to share its sense of hearing.

At first, the details of the surrounding sounds seemed richer. Then, all sounds suddenly disappeared, as though she was in a perfectly silent space. The next moment, all sorts of noises flooded her sense of hearing, as if a rock concert had started in her head.

Xiao Pingguo wrinkled her brow instinctively, but she soon became accustomed to the noises and started picking out various pieces of information.

That was the sound of cars.

That was the sound of a TV from someone’s home.

That was the sound of someone arguing, parents hitting their child.

That was the sound of someone drinking and playing finger-guessing game.

That was the sound of a mouse. No, wait… that was the sound of people kissing… Where on earth had “Sparkle” flown off to?

Although the sounds were chaotic and far from pleasant, Xiao Pingguo was delighted to hear them all and listened attentively. It was a different kind of pleasure than her usual delight in listening to the birds singing, it was like travelling across the sky through her sense of hearing.

It was exhilarating!

She was now almost certain that she could gain all sorts of auditory information through “Sparkle”. It was absolutely amazing!

She was now eager to share this with Uncle Xiang.

Just as she was about to recollect “Sparkle”, a certain sound made her furrow her brow deeply.

The sounds were somewhat unclear, but Xiao Pingguo quickly inferred from the information she gathered that several men were bullying a girl who had lost consciousness!

Xiao Pingguo immediately stood up and hurried towards the exit of the park. She summoned “Sparkle” back and asked it to lead her to the source of the sounds.

The sounds came from outside the park, in a remote area beside an artificial lake, which was pitch black and deserted due to the absence of street lights.

Guided by “Sparkle”, Xiao Pingguo stopped a several tens of meters away from the source. Thanks to her sense of hearing and the information relayed by “Sparkle”, she knew that the noises were coming from a small sedan where three men were assaulting an unconscious girl.

Xiao Pingguo quickly took her phone out and dialed 110 (emergency police number). She whispered her location using very simple phrases. She knew the addresses of her home and the park she just came from, could roughly judge the distance from these places, and could describe the buildings around her. She did this all so that the police could find the location as soon as possible.

After hanging up, she called her uncle, who was also a police officer.

The reason why she didn’t call her Uncle Li Sheng first was that he worked at the city police department, which was quite far away. Informing him would only result in him notifying his colleagues nearby.

After explaining the situation to her uncle, Xiao Pingguo had planned to wait at the scene for the police to arrive.

However, within a few seconds, she could not help but act. “Sparkle” flew to the car again and she heard the noises inside the car. She knew the bad guys had already started undressing the unconscious girl.

Clenching the minion in her hand, Xiao Pingguo hesitated for a moment before squatting down, picking up a small stone, and hurled it towards the car from distance of five or six meter.

With a sharp sound, the stone hit the windscreen, leaving only a small white mark.

The three young men inside the car who were molesting a girl were startled.

The man in the driver’s seat quickly turned around and switched on the car’s headlights.

Under the glare of the high beams, the people in the car saw a beautiful young girl in a blue down jacket, a short skirt, thick leg warmers, and short boots, standing about five or six meters away from them, staring straight at them.

Under the glaring high beams, the girl didn’t shield her eyes, and did not even squint. With wide, beautiful eyes, she stood there unblinkingly under the glare, looking straight at them.

“Am I the only one seeing this… or do you all see it too?” said the young man from the driver’s seat, baffled.

The two young men in the backseat, who had stopped their advances on the girl with disheveled clothes and without consciousness, looked at the lonely girl standing in front of the car and wondered, “She looks pretty good. She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”

“Look at you, scaredy-cat. Do you think you’re seeing a ghost?… What the hell?!”

Suddenly, an object struck the car hood, giving the three men inside another fright.

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