The Reclusive Lao Xia?

During the twenty-odd hours that Xiang Kun slept after drinking the blood, besides a few missed calls from Zhang Qian and Director Lin, there were also many messages on WeChat.

You Meng's message told him that the version of the newly filmed video, edited and with music added by Tang Baona, was ready, and a link to a cloud drive was provided.

After the first video shoot turned out terribly, Xiang Kun redesigned and revised the script to accommodate You Meng's terrible acting skills. After briefly reviewing the re-rehearsed video, he let them prepare for the official filming.

Two weeks ago, You Meng sent the newly completed video to Xiang Kun. It was based on the storyboard Xiang Kun had created, and they had hired a video production team from Tongshi Town to film it. It took them three days to film and several more days to edit the video.

But after reviewing it, Xiang Kun was still not satisfied. The points and effects he designed were not well expressed in the final video.

This video alone might get some views and attention, but it falls far short of the effect he wanted and doesn't justify their investment at all.

If the first video doesn't make a splash, then it's completely meaningless.

Moreover, Xiang Kun felt that, no matter what, his shooting script shouldn't have only produced this kind of result.

So he sent the video to Tang Baona. After discussing it for a while, Tang Baona thought the problem was mainly in the editing and post-production. She Xiang Kun to send her the original video they had shot so she could try to re-edit it.

Because he's been busy with Director Lin's project and his own "AI Assistant Project" lately, he hasn't had much time to discuss and exchange ideas with Tang Baona online. After she finished, she sent it directly to You Meng and asked for his opinion.

Aside from shouting "666, "You Meng couldn't offer any other opinions, so he forwarded it to Xiang Kun.

After opening the cloud drive link, downloading the video, and watching it, Xiang Kun couldn't help but exclaim "666!"

Holy crap! The same footage, edited by different people, looks like completely different videos!

If Tang Baona's edited video is a 10 out of 10, then the finished video edited by the Tongshi Town filming team before her doesn't even get a 1 out of 10!

It's like the same person: one makeup artist transforms her into a stunning beauty, comparable to actresses like Liu Yifei and Dilraba Dilmurat, while another makeup artist makes her look like Sister Feng (a Chinese internet celebrity known for her unconventional looks). The first makeup artist is undoubtedly highly skilled, but the second makeup artist's skill level is truly appalling.

"I knew it! How could the result of my carefully designed script be so bad!" Xiang Kun was extremely dissatisfied with the team that You Meng had hired and absolutely could not work with them again. He even suspected that those people had deliberately edited the final cut to make You Meng pay more for post-production.

In contrast, Tang Baona's video clearly conveyed Xiang Kun's intended meaning and effect. The editing rhythm was excellent, and the background music was superb. The short three-minute video featured three different instrumental tracks, yet they didn't feel jarring at all; they perfectly complemented the visuals. The sound effects were also well-done, with several segments even achieving a comic-panel effect that created a tense and sharp feeling. It's evident that Tang Baona spent a lot of time and effort on this.

Xiang Kun already knew that Tang Baona liked editing videos. Under her Bilibili ID "Sugar Bean Princess," she not only paired her own songs with various mashups, but also sometimes made mashup videos of various themes such as movies and anime. Even without singing, she still got a lot of clicks, bullet comments, and coins.

I just didn't expect her editing to fit Xiang Kun's ideas so well. Of course, there was also the effect of "comparison with peers" - the finished product of the team in Tongshi Town was really too bad.

Moreover, as a well-known content creator, Tang Baona is very knowledgeable about current online trends and understands the tastes of netizens. Therefore, her control over the rhythm, background music, and sound effects is also very good.

Thinking that Tang Baona still had to go to work every day, and that she was sacrificing her leisure time to do these tasks after getting home from work, Xiang Kun felt both touched and a little guilty. He checked her Bilibili account and, sure enough, she hadn't updated any new videos for more than two weeks.

"I just watched the newly edited video, it's awesome!" Xiang Kun messaged Tang Baona, who should have just started work at this time.

"Hehe, now you know how to repay me?" Tang Baona sent a sly smile emoji.

Xiang Kun: "Of course! Ten meals! I guarantee you'll be satisfied!"

Xiang Kun: "Are you free tonight? Call Zhen'er and come over for dinner. Your sister and brother-in-law can come too if they're free."

Tang Baona gave an OK sign.

It's already past 2 a. m., and we need to entertain Tang Baona and the others tonight. We not only need to prepare the ingredients, but also tidy up the living room.

After "Alice" was officially "activated", Xiang Kun basically no longer needed to do a lot of coding work, so there was no need for such a spacious space. He could move the host and various peripherals into the room, even if it was a bit cramped.

Although it was connected to a UPS, Xiang Kun didn't dare disconnect the power when moving the computer. He wanted to avoid disconnecting the power as much as possible, otherwise, if something went wrong and "Alice" was killed, he would have nowhere to turn to cry.

I checked the progress of "Alice" and thought that Task 1 should be almost finished, but after "inquiring," I learned that Task 1 was only 3% complete.

This is ridiculous!

More than thirty hours have passed. At this rate, it will take a month and a half to complete just Task 1. It would be better for Xiang Kun to do it manually.

Xiang Kun had Alice send out the "requirements" she had submitted to several functional modules in Chinese logic. After looking at them for a while, he knew where the problem lay— Alice's "ideas" were too complex, expanding his description of Task 1 by too much and pursuing comprehensiveness and perfection in functionality. For Xiang Kun, the most important thing now was to make it "usable".

So he changed the requirements and had Alice reassign tasks according to the new requirements.

The first step is to recognize his speech and convert it into text. This isn't a very complex function, and many existing open-source frameworks can do it. "Alice" just needs to optimize based on her "understanding." As for other issues and functions, they can be adjusted and expanded gradually based on the data obtained during use.

So after revising the requirements, "Alice" asked Xiang Kun to input some voice messages to help with the judgment. He then recited some of the dialogue lines displayed on the screen in a normal speaking tone, changing his tone according to different dialogue contexts.

After recording more than an hour of audio, Xiang Kun estimated that "Alice" should be finished soon.

Only Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er came over for dinner that evening; Tang Baoting and her fiancé Gao Yao went home to have dinner with Gao Yao's parents.

"One, two, three, four, five... Chef Xiang, wait a minute! We agreed on seven dishes and a soup! How come you only have five dishes? And these four plates of meat, are they all rabbit meat? Can't you come up with something different? Where is your creativity?"

After Xiang Kun served the dishes, Yang Zhen'er leaned over the table and complained.

"Oh my, Yang the Third, you've really developed a keen eye! You can tell it's all rabbit meat without even tasting it?" Xiang Kun said with a smile. "If you don't want rabbit meat, you can have that vegetable dish. Wasn't it prepared especially for you?" Actually, he had originally planned to cook a few other dishes, but after recording the audio needed for "Task 1," he didn't have much time left to buy groceries. And now he had a whole refrigerator full of rabbit meat, so he had to process some of it.

Yang Zhen'er rolled her eyes at him and said, "How many times have you eaten these four dishes? I don't even need to look, I can smell them all! Hey? Wait, what did you just call me? Hey hey hey~?? You actually called me Yang the Third?? Baldy, are you asking for a beating...? Believe me or not... I'll beat up Nana!"

Tang Baona, who was watching with amusement, paused for a moment, then pinched her friend's arm and scolded, "You can't beat him, so you come and beat me up? Do you think I'm easy to bully? I'll scratch you to death!"

Although Yang Zhen'er complained that it was all rabbit meat, she still ate with great relish once the meal was served.

Xiang Kun knew their tastes better than anyone else, and since he was making these same familiar dishes, there was naturally no problem.

During the meal, Xiang Kun deliberately steered the conversation toward Xia Libing.

"Sigh, I always thought Lao Xia didn't care much about the taste of food, and always chose the most convenient and quickest options. But after eating at Chef Xiang's house a few times, I realized that this girl can talk more about the taste of the dishes than Nana and I! She clearly cares a lot about the flavors!" Yang Zhen'er said with great admiration. "Chef Xiang, you are truly a born chef!"

Xiang Kun laughed, "I'll take that as a compliment." Then he added, "By the way, I always felt that Lao Xia seemed a bit aloof. Has she always been like this since she was a child?"

"I heard my mom mention before that Lao Xia had some kind of illness when she was little and was even hospitalized. Maybe she had autism or something, but it wasn't a big problem and didn't affect her schooling much. Besides, she never caused any trouble at school. She was much better behaved than me and all our relatives. She just spent all her time reading and had a very scholarly demeanor. That's why we call her 'Lao Xia' (Lao Xia). She just doesn't know how to socialize and doesn't like interacting with people. To be honest, I was quite surprised that she wanted to become a doctor."

As Yang Zhen'er spoke, she looked at Xiang Kun with a touch of wistfulness and said, "It's strange, but my Lao Xia seems to treat you, Chef Xiang, with special favor. Before, all my classmates and friends who tried to get close to her, become her friends, or even pursue her, were completely ignored. But after meeting you, every time we ask her to come visit you, she agrees. You know, before, if I asked her out, she might not come three out of ten times. And I'm her cousin, whom she's watched grow up!"

Tang Baona laughed from the side, "At first, Zhen'er told me that Lao Xia probably thought you were a 'research subject'."

Yang Zhen'er said, "Hehe, just kidding. But because of her personality, and the fact that my Lao Xia, studied both psychiatry and psychology, she's really good at judging people. When I bring my friends to hang out with her, she can usually tell pretty much about their personality after just one meeting."