Is It Tasty?

When Xiang Kun saw the Little Chubby Girl skillfully flipping the Coin, he already believed that she had a special connection with the Coin that established a "Super-Sensory Link". After hearing Shiling's Mother say that she lost ten times in a row playing Coin toss with the Little Chubby Girl, and that she later hid the Coin but it was easily found, he became even more certain of his judgment.

The Little Chubby Girl's "control" over that Coin was deeper than he had imagined.

After chatting with Shiling's Mother for a while, Xiang Kun learned about the Little Chubby Girl's other behaviors at home and kindergarten, as well as her concerns. Xiang Kun, "When I told Little Bell that the Coin was a magic Coin, it was mainly to express a sense of spiritual connection. It's nothing special in itself; it's just an ordinary Coin."

As he spoke, Xiang Kun casually took out a one-yuan Coin from his pocket, held it in his hand, put it behind his back, and then said to Shiling's Mother, "What do you think the odds are that you guessed which hand the Coin was in?"

"Half?" Shiling's Mother said hesitantly.

"Yes, generally speaking, with two choices, if you don't have any skills or methods of discernment, and you're just guessing, the chance is about 50%." Xiang Kun said, taking his clenched fists out from behind his back and placing them in front of Shiling's Mother: "Guess which side the Coin is on?"

Shiling's Mother looked at Xiang Kun's hand with some confusion, hesitated for a moment, and pointed to his right hand. "This way?"

Xiang Kun opened his right hand, and sure enough, the Coin lay in his palm. "This is what a 50% chance of hitting the target looks like."

As he spoke, he made the same gesture again, placing his fists in front of Shiling's Mother: "Guess again."

This time she guessed the left hand, and she was right again.

Xiang Kun said, "You've guessed correctly twice now. What do you think your chances are of guessing correctly next time?"

Shiling's Mother thought about it with some doubt, but before she could speak, Xiang Kun said confidently, "Still half, 50%."

Xiang Kun continued to patiently guide him, "So you see, the probability of guessing correctly each time is actually 50%, regardless of whether you guessed correctly or incorrectly the previous time. And a 50% probability is still quite high; it's not something incredibly unbelievable."

He cleverly broke down the probability of guessing correctly ten times in a row into the probability of guessing correctly once. Because from their previous interactions, he knew that Shiling's Mother was not a very good person with numbers and was not good at calculations or math-related problems, so he wasn't afraid of being exposed by this trick.

Moreover, when I gave her the Coin to guess earlier, I used a little trick. The hand holding the Coin gripped it a little tighter than the hand without the Coin, and although the two hands looked parallel, the hand without the Coin was actually closer to her side. When she looked at the hand holding the Coin, I made a very, very small clenching and pulling motion to induce her suspicion and make her guess the hand with the Coin.

If they play the game a few more times, Xiang Kun will be able to gain more confidence by observing the sensory data that Shiling's Mother gives him, and he will be able to provide more targeted guidance.

Of course, even if she doesn't guess correctly, it won't affect anything. It's just a 50% chance per attempt, so as long as she knows it's not difficult.

While Shiling's Mother seemed lost in thought, Xiang Kun continued to explain, "As for the Coin you hid, Little Bell has played with it for so long that she can recognize many details on the Coin, such as small scratches. These can all be used to distinguish it, so it's normal that she found out you switched the Coin. You usually keep your change and Coin in your handbag, so it's reasonable for her to immediately know where you put them and find them. There's nothing strange about it. It just shows that Little Bell is an observant and thoughtful child."

Finally Xiang Kun whispered a summary, "Shiling's Mother, don't let some feudal superstitious ideas influence you. Little Bell is probably just a little quiet because she's just moved to a new city and started a new kindergarten, and she's been through what happened before. She'll be fine after a while, once she's more comfortable in her new environment and with her new friends."

After Xiang Kun's words, Shiling's Mother realized that she might have been too sensitive. It was normal for her kindergarten-aged daughter to believe in magic and magical items. How could she, an adult, be influenced by such things?

"I'm a little worried that she'll just keep playing with Coin and origami and won't learn what the teacher teaches, which will cause problems when she starts elementary school."

"No, Little Bell is still young and has a long time before she starts elementary school. By then, she probably won't pay attention to Coin and origami anymore. I'll talk to her about it later and encourage her to have other hobbies."

"Then I'll leave it to her. She's very willing to listen to you. But it seems that just using treats as rewards to motivate her isn't as effective as it used to be."

"By the way, where is Little Bell's father?"

"Still dealing with things 'over there'."

It was just a casual mention, Shiling's Mother didn't say much. Xiang Kun didn't ask any further questions either. He just exchanged phone numbers with her and said that he would bring some gifts for Little Bell next time he went to "Star City" on a business trip.

Normally, Xiang Kun would try his best not to establish contact with others, but he can't help but pay close attention to the Little Chubby Girl's situation.

Seeing Liu Shiling eating with her mouth full of oil, standing up to pick up some food, Xiang Kun pushed the food in front of her and asked, "How is it? Do you think the rabbit meat here tastes good? How does it compare to what Uncle Baldy makes?"

While eating the meat in her mouth, Liu Shiling said somewhat indistinctly, "I ate too much of what Baldy Dudu made!"

Shiling's Mother quickly scolded, "Swallow what's in your mouth before you speak!" Then she wiped the corner of her mouth for her.

Xiang Kun wasn't surprised by this answer. Although the rabbit meat here was already very well made and had a unique flavor, his rabbit dishes were more targeted at individual diners and more "pleasing" to their tastes.

As neighbors, Xiang Kun often used Liu Shiling and her mother as hypothetical diners when researching new recipes, and frequently gave them samples of the dishes he made. Therefore, he was quite familiar with their tastes. However, since he didn't eat with them, he missed the opportunity to observe their eating habits, resulting in less information each time. His understanding of their tastes and preferences wasn't yet as comprehensive as Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, and Xia Libing's. But he could still easily convince them that his food was better than the typical restaurant dishes.

Although the Little Chubby Girl was greedy, she was still young and her stomach was only so big, so she could only eat so much. Xiang Kun barely touched his chopsticks, so there was still a lot of food left over.

When it came time to pay the bill, Xiang Kun and Shiling's Mother had a slight argument. Shiling's Mother felt that since he was a guest in Star City, they were the hosts and should pay. However, Xiang Kun resolved the issue perfectly with just one sentence:

"I can get reimbursed for meals I eat when I go on business trips."

Xiang Kun knew that Shiling's Mother was a little disappointed that there was so much food left, so he asked the waiter to pack it up. He would carry it first, and when he was about to leave, he would just let the Little Chubby Girl take it from him.

After paying the bill and while the waiter was packing the leftovers, Shiling's Mother went to the restroom. Suddenly, the Little Chubby Girl tugged at Xiang Kun's hand and whispered, "Uncle Baldy, Mom seems to have been scared by my magic."

Xiang Kun had noticed before that although he and Shiling's Mother deliberately kept their voices down while eating, the Little Chubby Girl seemed to have heard some of it, judging from her reaction. However, she didn't say anything at the time, so Xiang Kun assumed that she was focused on her food and didn't pay attention to or try to understand the two adults' conversation.

Now it seems she deliberately didn't say anything? And it looks like Shiling's Mother's usual behavior must have made her aware of it as well.

Xiang Kun squatted down and said to her, "After all, the others don't have magic, they can't understand these things. Don't tell anyone else that you have magic, except your mother."

Liu Shiling nodded vigorously. "Mm."

Xiang Kun gently patted her head and said, "Also, if you want to use 'magic' well in the future, you not only need to build a good relationship with our 'magical items,' but you also need to learn a lot of knowledge. For example, the paper airplanes you fold now definitely fly more steadily and higher than others, right? You can always find the best angle to throw them and control their final landing point, right? Do you know the specific reasons why? These are things that require learning math and physics, and you need a lot, a lot, a lot of knowledge to understand. And learning this knowledge requires learning English and Chinese. Just like when you used to watch cartoons on your iPad, you first had to learn how to use an iPad, right?"

Liu Shiling only vaguely understood what Xiang Kun was saying, but now in her mind, Xiang Kun was no longer just a bald uncle next door who could cook delicious food, but a great being who could teach her magic and give her magical items.

So whatever knowledge Uncle Baldy told her to learn, she would learn it, even though she didn't know the specific relationship between that knowledge and magic or magical items, or what that knowledge specifically referred to.

Xiang Kun was very pleased with the Little Chubby Girl's well-behaved manner. He then took out the Coin he had shown to Shiling's Mother earlier and said to her, "Try it, can you flip this Coin too?"

After the Little Chubby Girl took it, she quickly flipped it through her fingers, from left to right and from right to left, making a little boy and his parents who were passing by stare wide-eyed.

After the passersby had gone, Xiang Kun nodded in satisfaction. "This 'magic Coin's is for you too. I'll give you a task: teach your mother the magic of flipping Coin. But this is a secret between the two of us, so don't tell anyone else."

"Mmm!" The Little Chubby Girl gripped the Coin and nodded vigorously again.

From the Little Chubby Girl was able to immediately handle the Coin with which he had established a "Super-Sensory Link," Xiang Kun concluded that the permissions for "Super-Sensory Link" items were likely "universal." In other words, after she obtained permissions through Coin 1, she didn't need to acquire them again when she came into contact with Coin 2 and could directly use it.

However, judging from previous conversations with Little Chubby Girl and Shiling's Mother, and the fact that her sensitivity to Coin and A4 paper gradually increased, it seems that Little Chubby Girl acquired this "permission" little by little, like gradually increasing by 10% or 20%, rather than gaining recognition all at once.

He wanted to test what other necessary conditions were needed to obtain this "privilege" by having the Little Chubby Girl teach her mother how to flip Coin.

"Uncle Baldy, what's in this box?" The Little Chubby Girl touched the huge bow case that Xiang Kun had placed beside him and asked curiously.

Xiang Kun whispered, "It's a bow and arrow. Uncle Baldy's business trip was actually to hunt monsters."

Upon hearing this, the Little Chubby Girl's eyes lit up, and she stared at the bow case, seemingly lost in thought.

Xiang Kun immediately added, "This is our secret, you can't tell anyone else."

The Little Chubby Girl nodded vigorously.

Where is that monster?

"Uncle Baldy ate it."

"Is it tasty?"

"..."

After saying goodbye to Liu Shiling and her daughter, Xiang Kun did not stay in Star City and booked the next available flight.

After all, according to the timeline, his blood-drinking period will begin the day after tomorrow morning, and he needs to go back early to prepare.