茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 180: Casual Chats at the Dinner Table

“And there’s the King Meow!” Yang Zhen’er carefully held the carved Lich King Alsace, squinting her eyes as she said, “But it is a bit small. It doesn’t quite compare to Nana’s Saber. If you put them together, it looks like it could be split in half by Saber’s sword…”

“Well then you can join this Eight-armed man and the dazzling golden, three on one!” Tang Baona giggled, clearly proud of the fact that the Saber wooden carving in her home was the largest and strongest in combat.

“Yo, look at you showing off. King Meow can summon helpers, you know, millions of zombies charging, oh! The dazzling golden is an air force, it can fly! And this one, it has eight arms, moves around freely, hehe…” Yang Zhen’er held the eight-armed wood carving, swinging it back and forth as she spoke.

“Tang Baoting watched the two of them and shook her head helplessly: “How old are you two? Stop acting like kindergarten kids, okay!!”

Hearing the playful banter between Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er, Xiang Kun almost choked with laughter. It was like watching two naughty kids playing with Ultraman and Transformer dolls.

Moreover, through the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving, he could sense Tang Baona’s and Yang Zhen’er’s admiration and joy. Through his super sensory contact with the Canary Wooden Carving and Alsace’s Wood Carving, he could pinpoint their positions in the living room. Coupled with other sounds and smells, even without turning his head, it felt as if he was “personally” watching them play.

Tang Baoting’s fiancé, Gao Yao, originally started playing on his phone by himself after greeting Xiang Kun when he came in. Now, seeing the wood carvings, he seemed to have suddenly become interested and joined in.

“Brother-in-law, don’t you also play Warcraft? What do you think of Brother Xiang’s carving?” Yang Zhen’er held up the Alsace wood carving in front of Gao Yao and asked.

“Wow! I haven’t even called him my brother-in-law yet, and you’re already ahead of me!” Tang Baona complained.

“I have a sweet mouth! Anyway, it’s only a matter of time, right, Sister Ting?” Yang Zhen’er smiled.

“Be careful not to damage Xiang Kun’s carving.” Tang Baoting glared at her.

“No problem, if I damage it, I’ll pay for it.” Saying this, Yang Zhen’er shouted to the kitchen: “Carpenter Xianz! Sell me the Kinz Meow carving! Name vour price! I promise I won’t bargain!”

“Not for sale!” Xiang Kun’s voice came out, accompanied by the sound of the exhaust hood.

“Wood carvings are works of art, carvers are not merely carpenters.” Gao Yao said quietly, then carefully took the Alsace wood carving from Yang Zhen’er and admired, “The carving is really good. It has detailed, very nice.”

“Brother-in-law, do you also carve wood?” Tang Baona asked curiously. Even though she had just scolded Yang Zhen’er, she now followed suit.

“No, but these are indeed well-carved.” Gao Yao replied.

Tang Baoting suddenly curiously asked: “Nana, why isn’t this birdcage closed? Isn’t Xiang Kun afraid of the bird flying away?”

Tang Baona immediately walked over to the birdcage like she was presenting a treasure and said, “Sister, this is not an ordinary bird. Let me introduce you. This is our psychic bird, His Highness ‘Golden Dazzler’! It understands human nature and can understand human speech!”

“Golden Dazzler? How did Xiang Kun come up with such a tacky name for this bird…” Tang Baoting commented casually.

Yang Zhen’er laughed so hard that she almost choked on her own saliva.

Tang Baona’s face darkened slightly, but she didn’t explain much. Instead, she spoke to the Golden Dazzler resting on the perch inside the birdcage, “Dazzler, do me a favor, sing a song for us. Come here and stand on sister’s hand.”

Tang Baona mimicked Xiang Kun’s previous motion when teasing the Golden Dazzler. However, the Golden Dazzler slowly moved toward the back of the perch, not even giving her a glance.

Yang Zhen’er suggested from the side, “Entice it with food! If there’s food, it will find it ‘delicious’!”

No matter how much the two of them tried to coax it, the Golden Dazzler refused to leave its cage, even moving to the furthest corner. It was only after a while that it twittered twice.

Xiang Kun brought out a dish, laughing as he asked Tang Baona, “Would you like me to translate what it’s saying?

“No! Need!” Having already experienced this once, Tang Baona knew exactly what Xiang Kun would say.

Once all the dishes were ready, the three girls instinctively took out their phones to start taking pictures, with Yang Zhen’er even running around to turn on a few more lights.

“The taste really is good! No wonder Zhen’er calls you ‘Chef Xiang’. She told me that your cooking is no worse than a restaurant’s, and it turns out she wasn’t exaggerating! It’s really good!” Tang Baoting tasted two pieces of dry pot rabbit meat and exclaimed in amazement.

From the various information and data Xiang Kun gathered, while her words were partially polite praise, they were mostly genuine. At least judging from her reaction, she found the food genuinely delicious. It seems that her tastes are similar to those of Yang Zhen’er – she prefers flavors that are a bit stronger.

Strange, isn’t she Tang Baona’s sister? Their family should have similar tastes, right?

Gao Yao, Tang Baoting’s boyfriend, is quite an introverted person. If someone asks him something, he’ll quickly answer, but he doesn’t usually bring up topics on his own. He’s similar to Xiang Kun, acting quite reserved with those he doesn’t know well. He tries to keep a low profile and doesn’t seek attention or, maybe better said, couldn’t be bothered seeking attention. But if attention is turned to him, he’ll be as friendly as possible, not wanting to spoil the mood.

As far as tastes go, he’s similar to Yang Zhen’er and Tang Baoting. Even when judged by the city’s general preference for bland food, Tang Baona’s taste is still on the blander side.

“Xiang Kun, weren’t you classmates with Chang Bin in university? You studied computer science, so why would you do woodcarving?” Mid-meal, Tang Baoting suddenly changed the topic and started asking about the woodcarving.

Xiang Kun somewhat guessed why Tang Baoting would ask him to have dinner together today. It’s mainly due to the events of today, Tang Baona’s grandfather and second uncle are slightly worried about the woodcarving, but they should understand Tang Baona’s temperament. They wouldn’t dare intervene directly, so they’ve sent her sister to “observe”.

“I learned it after started working. I’m a homebody, not into outdoor activities, I prefer things that I can tinker with on my own.” Xiang Kun said.

Tang Baoting laughed, “Tinkering? Your carvings look great! My grandfather praised your work! Speaking of which, Nana should have mentioned my second uncle’s issue to you today, right? My uncle… is actually pretty sensible usually, just a bit sensitive sometimes. He had had a few drinks and had a dream about your woodcarving the other day, so he thought it was related and showed it to some people…”

Xiang Kun quickly responded, “Oh no, the woodcarving I made indeed had some issues. Some designs were unreasonable and looked a bit strange. It was a shape that just came to me in a flash. So, I asked Nana to bring back that woodcarving. I plan to redo it, and I’ll first give the canary wooden carving to the old man for review.”

Gao Yao quietly said, “Actually, the design was very reasonable. You could see the skeletal structure and the points of attachment. It’s not easy making the eight arms connect to the torso this naturally…” On the way, he had also played with the wood carving for a while and was considering whether to try wood carving himself.

Tang Baoting glanced at her boyfriend, and then continued talking to Xiang Kun, “How did you come up with the idea to carve such an image? Have you seen similar images before?”

Xiang Kun knew she was probing, and it was clearly one of her main reasons for coming tonight. So, he looked a bit embarrassed, and said, “Actually, I originally thought of carving a monk with eight arms. I saw many Buddha statues and Guanyin statues with multiple arms in temples and thought a monk with many arms would be able to fight better. But when I was carving the scars, they didn’t turn out well, so I just went with it and made them into eyes.”

Yang Zhen’er couldn’t help but laugh, “It’s a good thing you didn’t say you were trying to carve a spider and ended up with this…”

After finishing the meal and chatting for a while, close to eight o’clock, the group of four prepared to leave. Naturally, Tang Baona left behind the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving, and took the canary wooden carving with her.

Before leaving, Yang Zhen’er insisted on buying Xiang Kun’s King Meow wooden carving. She impressively offered 8888 yuan, but Xiang Kun summarily refused her, stating that for that price, he could only give her the Sword of Frost Mourning.

On the way back, Yang Zhen’er drove while complaining, “Nana! Your family’s Carpenter Xiang is too biased. You helped your grandfather buy a carving for only 5000 yuan, but even when I offered more than 8000, he told me I could only buy a small wooden sword! The sword is too small! What would I use it for, to clean my ears?”

Tang Baona, who was playing with the “Shiny” carving, laughed, “Are your ear holes that big? Isn’t it obvious that he didn’t want to sell it? Didn’t he promise to make a customized birthday gift for you?”

Yang Zhen’er mumbled, “My birthday is still so far away!”

Sitting in the back seat fiddling with his phone, Gao Yao also whispered, “Over 8000 is really expensive. If it were around 2000, I’d also want to commission a carving. ”

Tang Baoting glanced at her boyfriend somewhat helplessly. Then she asked

Tang Baona, “Xiang Kun seems quite bulky, and I heard he works out often. How come he ate so little for dinner?”

“Oh, he’s always like that. He eats small meals frequently. I guess before we arrived, he had already eaten a nutritional meal beforehand,” Tang Baona explained for Xiang Kun.

“He hasn’t been working for a while now, how does he deal with the expenses?” Tang Baoting asked.

“He takes some software outsourcing jobs. Plus, he saved a lot during the years he was working. Remember that time he saved the Zhang family’s two kids?

They rewarded him with 200,000 yuan,” Tang Baona said.

In the back seat, Gao Yao whispered again, “It’s easy for a good programmer to find work, no need to worry.” Then he continued to play with his phone without lifting his head, seemingly not expecting any responses.

Tang Baoting didn’t know what to say in response to her boyfriend’s words, so she simply decided to ignore it and asked her sister in the driver’s seat:

“Hasn’t Xiang Kun moved to that house long ago? Why haven’t he added any furniture yet? At least get a sofa or a television or something?”

“Too lazy to bother, I guess. He rarely has guests anyway. Besides me and

Zhen’er, and old Xia before, he probably has no other guests,” Tang Baona said, “Sister, do you want to go to my place? Play a few rounds of Fight the Landlord with my brother-in-law! It’s boring to play with Xiang Kun, especially when Old Xia is there, it makes me and Zhen’er feel like we have IQ problems.”

Yang Zhen’er agreed, “Yes, yes, yes! Carpenter Xiang and Old Xia are both cheaters! ”

Tang Baoting shook her head and glanced at her boyfriend, who was on his mobile chatting in a QQgroup, “Recently Gao Yao has been playing that Warcraft classic game. He needs to go back at nine to do a raid..”