Xiang Kun had a clear idea of the cooking process and the time required, so once he decided on a time to start cooking, he knew exactly when to begin.
Today, Xiang Kun's plan is six dishes and one soup, two more dishes than before. These are from the same old recipes, but all have been adjusted to suit the three women's tastes.
At 4:40, Xiang Kun entered the kitchen, and by 6:03, he had already set all six dishes and one soup on the table.
He deliberately arranged several dishes according to the seating arrangement of Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, and Xia Libing, placing dishes tailored to their tastes closer to them.
"Wow! It smells so good!" Yang Zhen'er exclaimed after taking a deep breath, her eyes narrowed. She and Tang Baona immediately got up to take pictures of the entire table of food, seemingly preparing to post them on their WeChat Moments...
Xia Libing didn't take a picture with her two older sisters. Instead, she turned around and looked at Xiang Kun, who was untying his apron. "Are you really planning to go back to your hometown and open a restaurant?"
"Hmm?" Xiang Kun did mention it last time, but he thought they could all tell he was joking.
"Your cooking skills are getting better and better. You must have been practicing a lot lately, right? If it's really like you said, that you're just starting out, then you really have a talent," Xia Libing said. "If you go back to your hometown and open a restaurant, I think I'll definitely patronize it."
Yang Zhen'er had finished taking photos, came over, put her arm around Xia Libing's shoulder, and smiled at Xiang Kun, "This is the highest praise for Lao Xia. You know, she always eats at the nearest restaurant and rarely has any favorite dishes. If you put a big meal two meters to her left and a piece of bread one meter to her right, she'd probably choose the bread!"
Xiang Kun disagreed with Yang Zhen'er's statement. Judging from his private WeChat inquiry about Xia Libing's tastes, she wasn't someone who was indifferent to food. It was evident during meals that she was actually the most particular about food among the three. However, she probably had other things she was more interested in on weekdays, so she didn't seem to care too much about food and valued efficiency more, which Xiang Kun could understand.
It seems that although they are cousins and Yang Zhen'er has always taken good care of Xia Libing, she doesn't actually know her cousin very well.
However, Xiang Kun just smiled and didn't say anything more, since Xia Libing herself hadn't refuted it.
Yang Zhen'er continued, "Xiang Kun, if you're going to open a restaurant, just knowing these few dishes won't be enough. You'll have to keep developing new ones! The three of us will reluctantly help you with the tasting. Oh, wait, Lao Xia is going to Haixi Province soon, so he's kicked out of the tasting team, haha."
Xiang Kun laughed and said, "Don't worry, when I come up with new dishes, I'll definitely use you guys as guinea pigs." This wasn't just a casual remark. Liu Shiling and her daughter from apartment 706 had already moved out, so the only diners he could imagine for his dishes were Tang Baona and her two daughters.
"Come on, let's start eating! I'm so hungry! These dishes look so appetizing!" Tang Baona had already sat down and picked up her chopsticks, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the dishes.
Xiang Kun had just swallowed two connected pebbles. He had experimented before and found that the connection between the two pebbles greatly helped him suppress the urge to vomit. Although having two pebbles in his stomach at the same time made him feel even worse, like two brutes fighting in his stomach, his control over the urge was much better. He could even suppress the urge by eating small amounts of liquid food. In fact, eating a little food could alleviate the discomfort in his stomach to some extent.
So once he started eating, he was able to pick up some food and eat it with an unchanging expression.
Xiang Kun's attention was naturally not on the dishes he was making. For him, the quality of a dish and the experience of the target diners were the most important things. It's like for a developer: no matter how elegant your code is or how fast it is optimized, if users find it difficult to use, then it's a failure.
However, he was still quite confident about today's meal, after all, he had made targeted adjustments based on their performance last time they ate the food.
And that's indeed the case. Even Tang Baona, who is most concerned about her figure and deliberately controls her food intake, started eating without regard for her image.
Seeing her pick up a piece of dry-pot rabbit meat, Xiang Kun reached for a bottled drink and filled her cup.
After taking a bite of the dry-pot rabbit meat, Tang Baona was about to reach for her drink to pour herself a glass when Xiang Kun had already picked up the bottle, opened the cap, and filled her glass.
She was slightly taken aback, and for a moment she felt that Xiang Kun knew what she was thinking, but she didn't say anything, picked up her cup, took a sip, and continued eating—it was really delicious!
When Xiang Kun saw her slightly stunned expression, he instantly guessed what she was thinking, and then he himself was also stunned for a moment.
How did I know Tang Baona was going to pour a drink the moment she picked up the dry-pot rabbit meat?
The dry pot rabbit meat was seasoned slightly stronger to suit Yang Zhen'er's taste, while Tang Baona prefers a milder flavor. Combined with the dishes she had eaten before, she would definitely want a drink after tasting this dry pot rabbit meat.
There was still about a third of her drink left in her cup. Based on previous interactions, Tang Baona has a habit of refilling her cup to about 70% full before drinking, unless there's no more liquid left in the bottle.
Her behavior of glancing towards the beverage bottle after eating the dry-pot rabbit meat confirms that Xiang Kun's judgment was correct.
The reason for the surprise and slight bewilderment in her eyes was then easy to guess.
Xiang Kun quickly reviewed his judgment process in his mind, then turned his gaze to the three women who were eating. He suddenly realized that he could predict with a high success rate what dish they would pick up next after finishing one bite.
So he immediately began to try it silently:
Yang Zhen'er had the highest success rate, making all five predictions correctly.
Next are Xia Libing and Tang Baona, both of whom scored 4 out of 5.
He even started trying to predict how long it would be between when they took one serving of food and when they took another.
The accuracy dropped significantly this time, but it's still very close.
He was not only collecting information about their meal in real time, but his brain was also rapidly recalling their past habits, then summarizing and comparing them.
Xiang Kun couldn't help but wonder, if he knew a person well enough, and was very familiar with their background, experience, habits, personality, etc., could he, through repeated attempts, almost completely predict that person's behavior, and even most of their thoughts? And this process of prediction would itself be a highly efficient process of understanding that person, which in turn would help to further increase the success rate of prediction.
Well, isn't this just a very common AI machine learning method?
By continuously performing calculations using various samples and data, a model that can output valid results is derived.
However, while modern computers are faster than the human brain, they can only process quantifiable information. They often cannot correctly understand or perceive the complex and ever-changing massive amounts of information in reality. When it comes to outputting results and making judgments, they are not as flexible and adaptable as the human brain.
In fact, this kind of precognitive judgment exists in everyone.
Even without consciously paying attention, you'll know many of the little habits of people you frequently interact with and are familiar with. When you see these little habits appear, you can subconsciously judge their emotions and predict their next behavior to some extent.
Compared to ordinary people, Xiang Kun can observe and receive far more information. With the same expression, an average person might only notice the more significant changes in facial features, but Xiang Kun can simultaneously notice and observe the changes in the details of different muscles in multiple areas of the face, even the magnitude of these changes, as well as other changes in heartbeat, breathing, and smell—as long as he wants to observe and remember them.
Others may know someone's profession or school, but that's all they get. Xiang Kun, however, can combine this information with other known information to deduce more details, make inferences, and then obtain even more information while verifying those inferences.
This applies not only to people, but to everything. As long as you have enough information, you can always see further than others, and even indirectly predict the future!
"Xiang Kun, Xiang Kun? What are you daydreaming about? Why aren't you eating? The food's getting cold!"
Tang Baona's voice snapped Xiang Kun out of his brief daze.
He couldn't help but smile wryly to himself; he'd "relapsed" again, his mind had wandered too far and he was overthinking things once more...
And the ability to foresee the future... Do you want to become the "Demon of Laplace"?
He knew, of course, that predicting the future was impossible, unless he were bigger than the universe.
However, if the target is limited to a specific person or organism, then it should be possible to predict behavior and interpret thoughts within a limited range of variables, and in turn, exert effective influence.
That was originally part of the third phase of his sensory ability training plan.
Thanks to book friends, book friends 20180426224056220, I am Ye Yunyuan, Ying Xunming, I blame me, there are oranges in the north, book friends 20190716210206298, there are oranges in the north, book friends 20170202162504795, watch the world quietly, and reward the rewards.