It was past three in the morning, and it was pitch black outside, but the light in Xiang Kun's bedroom was still on as usual.
Under a desk lamp, Xiang Kun was slowly and carefully sanding a wooden carving that was more than 20 centimeters tall with fine sandpaper.
It was a female wooden sculpture, wearing a skirt armor with an anime style, holding a two-handed greatsword, looking ahead, and with a single tuft of hair sticking up on her head. Judging from the overall image, it should be an anime character.
This is a wooden figure sculpture that Xiang Kun carved himself from start to finish.
Today is October 3rd, and tomorrow, October 4th, is Tang Baona's birthday. This wood carving is the birthday gift that Xiang Kun is preparing to give her.
On September 13th, after accepting the composite bow as a "birthday gift due to a misunderstanding" from Tang Baona and her friends, Xiang Kun began to think about how to reciprocate.
He then obtained their birthdates through their online information and documents such as driver's licenses that he had seen by chance before.
Yang Zhen'er is January 3rd, Xia Libing's is in April, both still quite early. Only Tang Baona's birthday is October 4th, which is coming soon.
His original idea was to give her a gift with a budget of around two or three thousand yuan. So, based on his usual observations and the information left by Tang Baona on various online accounts, he analyzed and speculated on the gifts she might like.
The final options were: 1. Figurines or other anime merchandise that Tang Baona likes; 2. Audio recording equipment; 3. Some well-designed trinkets or ornaments; 4. Music-related merchandise or her favorite rare albums.
The problem is that, based on Xiang Kun's understanding, although Tang Baona is not the kind of person who spends money extravagantly, she has never been short of money. If the items in options 1, 2, and 4 were things she liked, she would have basically already bought them. Moreover, the ones she chooses herself are definitely the ones she likes more.
From this perspective, buying a small accessory that matches her usual style of dress, or a small decorative item with a unique design, seems to be the safest option.
He also asked Yang Zhen'er and Xia Libing privately. The former said that as long as it was a token of affection, it didn't matter what they gave. Nana didn't need anything, so they could just cook a big meal for her.
Xia Libing gave a similar reply to the previous survey on her tastes, "Anything is fine with me, I'm not picky."
Indeed, Xiang Kun knew that no matter what he gave Tang Baona, she probably wouldn't mind. Even if he gave her a figurine or merchandise that she already owned or didn't particularly like, she would probably accept it gladly.
However, thinking back to how he felt when he received that compound bow as a gift, this "casualness" made him feel a little uneasy. He knew very well that the value of a gift was not just its market price, but more importantly, how much the recipient liked it.
After some thought, Xiang Kun decided to make a wooden carving of Saber Artoria, the anime character that Tang Baona liked the most and used as her portrait.
Furthermore, the process of making this product was also a process of him conducting several trials and experiments, achieving the best of both worlds.
Of course, in order to avoid not being able to finish the wood carving by October 4th, he also prepared a backup plan: if all else fails, he would give Tang Baona a Swarovski crystal ornament as a gift.
Xiang Kun has a certain level of artistic skill; he can draw a bottle or a human face sketch without much trouble, but that doesn't mean he knows how to sculpt.
However, it was precisely for this reason that he wanted to try and see if establishing Super-Sensory Link with the tools could help him master the ability to use them more quickly.
So before drinking blood on September 16, he bought five carving knives of different shapes and three chisels and made connections between them.
To successfully link the tools, he disassembled the tools by their bodies and handles, linked them, and then reassembled them. He also discovered that for items of the same type and function, linking one item significantly reduced the linking time for the others.
After waking up on the evening of September 17, Xiang Kun first quickly watched various tutorials and videos for more than ten hours, then found a 3D image of Saber as a reference, and began to carve several pieces of practice wood that he had prepared in advance and roughly shaped.
Although he had established a connection with the chisels and carving knives, he controlled them with a near-expert skill, able to consistently apply what he had learned from tutorials and videos, his hands moving as he pleased.
However, the first four pieces of wood were still damaged before they even entered the roughing process. Not to mention the tuft of hair on the top and the two-handed greatsword that was stuck on the base, even the arms were difficult to make well, and they would easily bend or break.
With the fifth piece of wood, Xiang Kun aimed to create a finished product first to check for flaws, resulting in a rough, semi-finished piece. However, looking at the distorted face and disproportionate features of the wood carving, he couldn't help but think of the "Evil God Saber" image he had seen online while searching for reference materials...
The experimental results show that simply practicing with the tool can only lead to proficiency in its control and mastery. However, when other application variables are involved, adaptation and practice are still required to fully utilize its capabilities.
This also suggests that if he can establish a complete connection with all the parts of a car in the future, he might have a very good understanding of the car's condition and be able to drive it with ease. However, if he were to race against others, he would still need to understand the specific road conditions, the track route, the opponents' situation, the weather conditions during the race, and other information in order to fully unleash his driving skills.
Now, although he is very skilled at controlling the chisel and wielding the knife, he still has problems with his familiarity with the wood material and his grasp of the outline carving.
Xiang Kun knew that if he practiced a lot and became proficient in operating several chisels and carving knives, he should be able to improve quickly by starting with simple and easy-to-work pieces.
However, his goal was not to become a master woodcarver, so he temporarily stopped making woodcarvings. After all, he had many things to do during each Blood Drinking period, not just learning carving and preparing gifts.
Before the blood-drinking ceremony on September 22, Xiang Kun spent an hour establishing contact with two pieces of boxwood that he had bought and which had already been roughly cut into pieces.
Before establishing the connection, he took small samples from the two pieces of wood, then softened, sliced, stained, and mounted them for observation under a microscope to understand the microscopic structure of the two pieces of wood.
He had previously conducted experiments using tissues, A4 paper, and other materials. He found that in addition to understanding information such as weight, size, and composition, which could improve the speed of establishing connections, observing the surrounding structure of the target object could also significantly increase the speed and success rate.
If Xiang Kun's plan to work on these two pieces of boxwood, which he had already connected with, fails, he'll have to resort to Plan B: buying a crystal ornament as a gift. Otherwise, if he continues to delve deeper into the craft, he might really become a sculptor...
Fortunately, when he woke up on September 23, after spending more than ten hours ruining one piece of wood, the second piece of wood finally basically met his expectations, and he gradually improved the finished product.
The carving knife, which had established Super-Sensory Link with him, operated more freely and steadily on the wood with which he had also established Super-Sensory Link, just like the communication between two old friends, their "cooperation" was skillful.
In fact, he had already finished the wood carving on September 27th.
Today, he simply took it out again, inspected it once more, did some minor sanding and then applied oil to bring the entire wood carving to its best condition.
Although, from his slightly obsessive-compulsive perspective, the wood carving still had many areas for improvement and quite a few flaws, it was basically acceptable as his first piece.
Before he knew it, it was already dawn. Xiang Kun picked up his phone, which was covered in dents and had a cracked screen. He saw in the group chat with Tang Baona and the others that Tang Baona said she was already at the airport and would arrive in the city around 10 p. m. tonight.
Xiang Kun had originally planned to invite Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er over for dinner tonight, personally cook some of his newly developed dishes, and then give her the gift. However, Tang Baona's family had gone abroad for a relative's wedding and wouldn't be back until tonight, so he would have to find an opportunity to give it to her tomorrow.
Thanks to book friends for living up to joy, saildragon12, I am Ye Yunyuan, feet of time, breathing freely, lmuyanl, dawn of the sky, book friends 20170616230727783, angshanximi, bamboo TT, 6772426, stardust zetcoy for the reward