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Chapter 104: Foreknowledge

Xiang Kun had a clear picture in his mind of the cooking process and time required for his dishes. Thus, once he decided what time to serve the meal, he knew exactly when to start cooking.

Today, Xiang Kun planned to prepare six dishes and a soup, two more dishes than he had presented before. Though these recipes were from before, all were adjusted to suit the tastes of the three women.

Xiang Kun entered the kitchen at 4:40 PM and by 6:03 PM, all six dishes and the soup were already on the table.

He had intentionally distributed the dishes according to the seating arrangements of Tang Baona, Yang Zhen’er, and Xia Libing, placing the dishes adjusted to their tastes closer to them.

“Wow! It smells amazing!” exclaimed Yang Zhen’er, narrowing her eyes and taking a deep breath before promptly standing up with Tang Baona to take photos of the entire spread of dishes, seemingly to post on their social circles…

Unlike the two women, Xia Libing didn’t try to take photos, but turned her gaze towards Xiang Kun, who was in the process of untangling his apron: “Are you really considering opening a restaurant back in your hometown?”

“Huh?” Xiang Kun had mentioned this idea before, but he thought everyone knew he was kidding.

“Your cooking skills have improved significantly over time, you must have been practicing a lot recently, right? If you really just started learning to cook, then you definitely have a knack for it,” Xia Libing said, “If you do open a restaurant in your hometown, I’ll probably be a customer.”

Having taken her pictures, Yang Zhen’er got closer, teasing Xiang Kun in a voice warm with sly amusement as she draped an arm around Xia Libing’s shoulder, “As far as Old Xia is concerned, this is the highest form of compliment. You should know, her eating habits are typically about convenience. She rarely has any favorite restaurants or dishes. If you place a banquet two meters to her left and a piece of bread a meter to her right, she’d probably pick the bread!”

Xiang Kun didn’t fully agree with Yang Zhen’er’s statement. He privately knew from Xia Libing’s responses to his WeChat survey about her taste preferences, she wasn’t someone without food preferences. In fact, compared to the other two, her emphasis on what she ate was the most pronounced. Although she seemed disinterested in food on regular days, possibly due to other interests, Xiang Kun could understand her preference for efficiency.

It appeared that despite being cousins and despite their frequent interactions, Yang Zhen’er’s understanding of Xia Libing wasn’t as profound as expected.

However, Xiang Kun said nothing of this, as Xia Libing herself hadn’t objected to Yang Zhen’er’s words, Xiang Kun simply laughed and let it go.

Yang Zhen’er spoke up again: “Xiang Kun, if you decide to open a restaurant, these few dishes won’t be enough. You will need to develop new recipes! We’ll reluctantly help you taste-test them. Oh, wait, since Old Xia is soon heading off to Haixi Province, she should be kicked out of the taste-test team, hahaha!”

Xiang Kun laughed and replied, “Don’t worry, when I come up with new recipes, you guys will definitely be my guinea pigs.” Liu Shiling and her mom from Room 706 had already moved out, so his target customers for test-tasting newly-developed recipes would, for the time being, be limited to Tang Baona, Yang Zhen’er, and Xia Libing.

“Alright, let’s start eating! I’m so hungry! All these dishes look absolutely appetizing!” With shining eyes, Tang Baona sat down and picked up her chopsticks.

Xiang Kun had just swallowed two stones linked with each other. Based on his previous experiments, these two stones significantly suppressed his urge to vomit when present together in his stomach. Despite feeling more uncomfortable, as if two muscular men were wrestling in his stomach, he gained better control over his reactions and could even ingest a small amount of liquid foodstuffs, which appeared to somewhat alleviate the discomfort in his stomach.

Therefore, as the meal started, Xiang Kun could eat some food without any changes in the color of his face.

For Xiang Kun, his focus wasn’t so much on the food he had prepared, but rather how his target diners would react—the most crucial aspect for him. Just like for developers, no matter how brilliantly the code is written or how optimized the speed, if users find it hard to use, it would still be considered a failure.

Today, however, he was quite confident about his offerings for the meal. After all, the dishes had been adjusted based on the ladies’ reactions in the past.

A fact which was apparent as even Tang Baona, who usually cares about her figure and tries not to overeat, ended up sacrificing her image to savor the dishes.

As she picked up a piece of dry pot rabbit meat, Xiang Kun extended his hand to fill her cup with a bottled beverage.

Just as Tang Baona took a bite of the rabbit meat and was about to reach for her drink, before she could even lift her hand, Xiang Kun had already opened a

bottle and filled her cup.

She paused momentarily, for a moment feeling like Xiang Kun could read her thoughts. She said nothing, simply took a sip, and continued eating—the food was simply too delicious!

Seeing her momentary confusion, Xiang Kun realized what she was thinking, which caused him to pause.

Why did he know that Tang Baona would want to drink something right when she picked up a piece of the dry pot rabbit meat?

The dry pot rabbit meat had a stronger flavor to suit Yang Zhen’er’s taste, while

Tang Baona preferred lighter dishes. Given the other dishes she had already consumed, she would surely want a drink after taking a bite of the rabbit meat.

She had a third of her drink left in her cup. From previous encounters, Tang Baona had a habit: when her cup was running low, she was likely to top it to 70% full before drinking again — unless the bottle was empty.

Her behavior of glancing at the drink bottle after eating the rabbit meat dry pot confirmed Xiang Kun’s judgment.

The reason for the surprise and slight confusion in her eyes next was easy to speculate on.

Xiang Kun mentally replayed his just-made judgment. He then looked at the three women eating and realized he could predict with high accuracy what they would pick with their chopsticks after a mouthful.

So he immediately began to try silently:

The success rate was highest with Yang Zhen Er – five accurate predictions out of five.

Next were Xia Libing and Tang Baona, both with four out of five.

Then he even began to predict how long it would take them to pick up their chopsticks again after finishing a morsel.

The accuracy rate dropped significantly this time, but was still close.

He was not just collecting real-time information about their eating process, but also speedily recalling their past habits, making comparisons and summaries.

Xiang Kun couldn’t help thinking, if he knew someone well enough — their background, experiences, habits, personality — couldn’t he, through repeated experimentation, nearly perfectly predict their behavior and even most of their thoughts? And wouldn’t this predictive process itself be an efficient way of understanding the person, in turn helping to increase the predictive success rate?

Uh, isn’t this a common Al machine learning method?

Through various samples and data, constantly calculating to produce a model that could output effective results.

Although current computers are superior in calculation speed to the human brain, they can only process data-formed information. When confronting the complex and volatile mass of real-life information, they often fail to comprehend and recognize it correctly. In terms of outputting results and making judgments, they are also not as flexible as the human brain.

This kind of predictive judgment exists in everyone.

For people we often interact with and are familiar with, even without actively noticing, we know many of their habits. Seeing these habits, we can subconsciously judge their mood, and to some extent, predict their subsequent behavior.

Compared to ordinary people, Xiang Kun can observe and receive much more information. For the same facial expression, most people might only notice drastic changes in the features, but Xiang Kun could simultaneously pay attention to and observe changes in the details of many facial muscles, even their degree of change, as well as other changes in heartbeat, respiration, and smell — as long as he wanted to observe and remember.

When other people know that someone is of a certain profession, a graduate of a certain school, they only gain this information. Xiang Kun, however, could combine this information with other known information, deduce further information, then use this to make certain inferences. In the process of testing these inferences, he would gain even more information.

Not only with people, it’s the same with all things. As long as you hold enough information, you can always see further than others, and to some extent, foresee the future!

“Xiang Kun, Xiang Kun? What are you daydreaming about? Why aren’t you eating?” Tang Baona’s voice drew Xiang Kun out of his brief daze.

He couldn’t help but smile bitterly to himself. His “condition” had acted up again. He’d let his mind wander too wildly…

To foresee the future… Did he wish to become a “Laplace’s Demon”?

Of course, he knew that foreseeing the future was impossible, unless he was larger than the universe.

However, if the subject was narrowed down to a specific person or creature, it should be possible to predict their behavior and thoughts within a limited variable range, and then influentially respond.

This was initially planned as part of the third phase of his sensory ability training..