Palm Thunder Video's Flaw

"Dad, Mom, I'm home!"

Gu Zhao pushed open the front door and saw his father, Gu Qi, and mother, Li Man, sitting together watching TV, engrossed in each other.

Gu Zhao covered his eyes. "Is this a bad time?"

Gu Qi turned his head and said grumpily, "We're watching the evening news!"

Li Man got up and looked behind Gu Zhao. "You really didn't bring back a temporary girlfriend?"

"Aren't I accompanying you to Shu Province?" Gu Zhao replied. "I plan to find a girlfriend in Shu Province."

"That won't do!" Li Man immediately refused. "Girls from Yue Province are better. There's no need for you to go far for what's near."

Gu Qi nodded in agreement. "Of..."

He'd only said one word when he saw Li Man turn around, so he quickly asked, "Ahem, have you eaten?"

"I haven't. Do you have anything at home?" Gu Zhao asked.

Gu Qi looked at Li Man. Li Man slammed the table and stood up. "You look down on your mom? Tell me, what do you want to eat?"

"Twice-cooked pork, shredded pork with garlic sauce, and boiled sliced pork," Gu Zhao replied immediately.

Li Man clapped her hands and walked towards the kitchen, calling out to the nanny who was resting in the side room, "Auntie Zhang, time to work!"

Li Man's excellent cooking was a major reason she had Gu Qi wrapped around her finger. Gu Zhao had also grown up eating Sichuan cuisine, developing a high tolerance for spice.

Meanwhile, Gu Zhao put down his schoolbag, took off his coat, and sat next to Gu Qi.

"There's an exhibition in Lincheng this weekend, I have to go in person," Gu Qi said.

"Mom told me," Gu Zhao said, lying on the sofa. "What kind of exhibition is it, and why is it being held in Lincheng?"

Gu Qi was in the Chinese furniture business, based around the port, and owned a furniture factory. He imported various types of rosewood from abroad and hired skilled craftsmen to produce and sell rosewood furniture.

However, the Gu family's shops were all located around Yangcheng, with the furthest being Pengcheng. Even their participation in exhibitions was mostly in the Pearl River Delta. Lincheng, the capital of Wu Province, was in the Yangtze River Delta region.

"Intangible Cultural Heritage Art Furniture Exhibition," Gu Qi said. "There are more wealthy people in Wu and Hai Provinces, so they opened it in Lincheng."

"Beijing-style Hardwood Furniture, Shanxi-style Furniture, as well as classical furniture from Fujian Province and Ming-style furniture from Hainan Province will all be there. I received an invitation. That's a representation of our Yue Province hardwood craftsmanship!" Gu Qi said proudly.

Although the Gu family's business wasn't huge, they had an excellent reputation within the industry. Furthermore, Gu Qi had apprenticed under a master craftsman in his early years, and besides being a businessman, he was also a skilled carpenter.

Li Man had been attracted to Gu Qi by his excellent Sichuan cooking skills back then, and Gu Qi's key to winning Li Man over was personally carving a lifelike wooden statue of a beautiful woman for her.

"Dad's awesome," Gu Zhao gave his father a thumbs-up.

But Gu Qi was clearly not satisfied and even a little jealous. "It would be great if you learned wood carving and furniture making from me. Why do you have to learn Daoist magic from your grandfather? What, is your grandfather's legacy a legacy, but your dad's isn't? Now, your pursuit is considered feudal superstition, while your dad's craft has become an Intangible Cultural Heritage that the country is vigorously promoting. If you learned from me, you might even get on the Spring Festival Gala. What a shame."

"The performers on stage are usually those with unique or rarely seen arts. I remember last year's Spring Festival Gala featured a large wood carving where a miniature world was carved directly onto a tree. That was so impressive."

Gu Zhao gestured around. "Our Ming and Qing furniture isn't exactly rare art. Strictly speaking, Mom's Sichuan cuisine can also be considered Intangible Cultural Heritage."

Gu Zhao gave Li Man, who had poked her head out from the kitchen, a thumbs-up. "Mom is also an artist!"

Li Man returned the thumbs-up to Gu Zhao and raised an eyebrow at Gu Qi.

Gu Qi: "..."

"You have a point, but as someone from a carpenter family, you should at least know some common sense. Yet, when doing short video special effects, you even got the wood in the background wrong. Aren't you embarrassed?" Gu Qi shook his head. "It's like making Sichuan cuisine without chili peppers and using tomato sauce instead."

Gu Zhao was confused. "What short video special effects?"

"Your Palm Thunder video," Gu Qi said, picking up his phone, opening Doukuai, and finding Gu Zhao's video. It was the one Gu Zhao had labeled "[Special Effects Production, For Entertainment Purposes Only]," but which was actually a real display of Palm Thunder in another world.

"How do you have my Doukuai account? I never showed my face!" Gu Zhao asked in surprise. It was common knowledge that children would block their parents from their social media, and they usually wouldn't let their parents know their Doukuai account either. His mom knew his computer password, and his dad found his short video account. They weren't a chef and a carpenter; they were secretly undercover agents!

"Zhang Hang's dad and I are good friends, so I saw Zhang Hang's video. He showed his face," Gu Qi said nonchalantly. "Then I found you through him."

Okay, the logic made sense, but...

"What's wrong with my special effects?" Gu Zhao couldn't help but ask. Others might not know, but he knew exactly what was going on with this video. It couldn't be more real!

"Your special effects are quite good. The details of the lightning strike, the fire, and the broken tree all look very real," Gu Qi commented while asking, "How much did it cost? Or did you use AI?"

Gu Zhao rolled his eyes. "Just tell me what the 'but' is!"

"Alright, but!" Gu Qi chuckled and emphasized, "The trees in this forest, where did you get the images from? If you had used pine trees, fir trees, or even birch or camphor trees, it would have been fine. Why did you specifically choose this type?"

Gu Zhao looked at the small tree struck by lightning in the video, and the trees around it. Although he didn't recognize them, they looked like ordinary trees, nothing special.

"What's wrong with these trees?" Gu Zhao asked.

"What's wrong with these trees?" Gu Qi retorted. "An entire forest of Small-leaf Sandalwood, and you managed to break a tree as thick as your thigh with one strike. What's wrong, you ask?"

Gu Zhao was stunned. "What? Small-leaf sandalwood?"

"Mhm, small-leaf sandalwood," Gu Qi nodded, glancing sideways at Gu Zhao. "The one you broke in your video. It's at least a hundred years old and worth three to four hundred thousand."

Gu Zhao: _

Although his family owned a furniture factory, the timber sent to the plant was already roughly processed raw material. He grew up in the city and, apart from recognizing the most distinctive pine, willow, and ginkgo trees, had no idea how to distinguish other types of trees.

In his opinion, the trees on the mountain behind the village were neither thick nor tall, sparse and unremarkable, just the most common forest trees.

So, it turned out to be a top-grade timber?

Gu Qi concluded, "It's just that you don't have many fans. If there were an expert among them, they would have called you out in minutes."