Xiang Kun carefully placed the wood carving into a wooden box he had made himself and secured it so it wouldn't wobble inside. If that single hair broke, the wood carving would be ruined.
At eight o'clock in the morning, he sat down at his computer, opened QQ, and sent a message to a friend. "It's finished. Please check it later." He was not referring to the wood carving, but to a software outsourcing job.
For the past two weeks, he has not only been thinking about the wood carving gift for Tang Baona, but also took on an outsourced job on the 15th of last month.
Xiang Kun didn't like participating in social activities in real life, but online, he was considered a well-known and active veteran member in certain sections of several purely technical forums.
Many programmers are like him; they tend to be rather solitary offline, but prefer to socialize online.
Xiang Kun often helps answer technical questions and frequently shares his views and experiences on new technologies, as well as analyses of examples and problem-solving processes, writing lengthy tutorials or summary articles.
It's not because he's particularly selfless and enjoys helping others or showing off, but because in the process, he uses more colloquial language to express the logic behind things. This process is a test and summary of his learning, which can deepen his impression, consolidate his knowledge, organize his thoughts, find some things he hadn't noticed before, or gain some new ideas.
Many people know him online, or rather, they know his skills and his approximate level.
He also knows many people's reputations, their jobs, the projects they've worked on, and their work habits, which makes communication easier.
Therefore, Xiang Kun wants to take on jobs, he doesn't directly look for them on platforms like Zhubajie, CSTO, or sxsoft, nor does he look for clients who post their needs on forums or QQ groups. Instead, he takes jobs from his peers with whom he has connections on various forums and knows well.
These are usually secondhand jobs, or part of a project, so the income is relatively lower, but communication is much easier. The needs are clearer, and the client is familiar with the market, so you don't have to waste energy arguing with potential inexperienced clients.
He didn't want to take this kind of job before, firstly because he had just mutated and was still in the process of exploring his body, so he needed to consider life and death issues more. Secondly, he still had some savings and wouldn't immediately face the situation of not being able to repay loans or pay electricity bills.
Secondly, this kind of work is too time-consuming, and he needs a lot of time to conduct various experiments and training on his own body, so he has neither the energy nor the interest to do it.
However, now, the direction of his body's mutation has slowly moved in the direction he guided, and the cycle of drinking blood has become relatively fixed. It seems that life and death are no longer a concern. He is also preparing to carry out that "AI assistant" project that seems like a castle in the air. He can take advantage of the outsourced work to let his brain find a more efficient way of thinking that is adapted to programming.
Also, he's starting to run out of money...
To launch an "AI assistant" project, you need a new computer with an i9 9900X processor, dual 2080TI graphics cards, more terminal devices, and more expensive cloud services.
If I want to open a farm in the countryside in the future, I will need a certain amount of capital, and I will also need to build a suitable residence, not just a farm building. I will need to build a small gym, a small machine room, and a small laboratory. As for the money from selling the house, most of it will have to be left for my parents' retirement.
Ever since he bought the microscope, he couldn't resist cutting up everything he saw to see if he could observe it. The various biology books he had read before also gave him the urge to do more experiments, to the point that he would often go to "Experiment Shop" to look at various equipment... only to be deterred by the prices.
Where there is demand, there is motivation.
However, this job, including the final payment, only amounted to 25,000 yuan, equivalent to 1.25 times the price of a wanted criminal with blond hair.
Of course, he also spent less time on it, finishing it in less than fifteen hours over two days.
If it were him in the past, even without a full-time job, if he focused on doing it, it would probably take him at least 15-20 days to finish, and his efficiency would be completely different.
However, he did not deliver the work immediately, but waited for more than ten days.
He only sent all the files, including the source code, today. He believes that with his code readability and commenting habits, the other party will definitely be satisfied. Even if modifications, extensions, and maintenance are needed in the future, it shouldn't be too difficult even if they don't contact him.
As for whether the other party would take the goods and not pay the balance, Xiang Kun was not worried. They were all people he knew well, and they would not cheat him for more than 20,000 yuan.
Just then, a fluttering sound came from behind Xiang Kun, and then the canary landed on the table and chirped a few times at him.
Xiang Kun glanced at it, tapped the table in front of it twice with his index finger, and it chirped twice before flapping its wings and flying back to its cage in the living room.
This is another achievement of Xiang Kun this period. Through a lot of observation and interaction, he can now say that he knows this canary very well.
Xiang Kun can not only discern its intentions from its calls, but also judge its emotions and physical condition by its body movements, heartbeat, breathing, and scent when it is not making a sound.
To put it bluntly, you can tell what kind of poop it wants to poop just by looking at its rear end, and you can tell what kind of dream it's having just by looking at its sleeping posture.
Moreover, Xiang Kun also found a way to communicate with it, making it understand what he wanted it to do by personally feeding it and simulating the "Giant Owl's " memory images through "Mental Intimidation".
This also allowed it to develop the habit of defecating only in a fixed place and greeting Xiang Kun every morning after waking up.
Now, Xiang Kun has to do is stretch out his arm in front of it and call out "Come," and it will obediently come over and stand on his arm, being very well-behaved.
Just tap the phone screen twice and it will start chirping. Xiang Kun had previously used the phone to play the chirping sound to make it understand his intention to make it chirp.
Not only that, Xiang Kun has even started searching online for the songs of other canaries so that it can learn them...
Of course, Xiang Kun also put in a lot of effort to learn as much as possible about this bird.
I searched online for a lot of information and training tutorials on canaries and hibiscus, and spent a lot of time observing the various bodily responses it gave when doing various things and in various states. I personally bought various foods suitable for it to eat and made nutritionally balanced bird food, and carefully observed its state when eating various foods to analyze its favorite flavors.
Xiang Kun also went to the bird dealer who sold him the bird, claiming that his friend also liked the canary and wanted to buy a few more. He then went to check on the other birds of the same species that the canary had been with, and to see how the older birds that the canary had been learning to sing were doing. He also secretly found the breeder who had sold the canary to the bird dealer.
Before checking these situations, Xiang Kun didn't expect to get any useful information, but after looking at them, he found that they were indeed somewhat useful.
By examining the canary's previous living conditions and environment, many details can be discovered, from which the possible origins of some of the canary's habits can be deduced, the reasons for its personality formation can be inferred, and more effective communication and training methods can be found.
Although birds think very differently from humans, and their "bird language" can only express a very limited range of meanings, making detailed communication impossible, Xiang Kun felt that his communication with it was now no worse than that with other canaries. In fact, many times, Xiang Kun could immediately understand what it was trying to express, even if other canaries might not.
Basically, after more than half a month, he had essentially completed his "strategy" to win over the canary—he could observe its emotions, desires, and physical condition, and predict its behavior with a high probability.
These experiences can also help him "conquer" other animals and even humans in the future.
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