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For most children, their understanding of their parents pales in comparison to their parents’ understanding of them. Once parents have a child, the majority of their attention is placed on the child. Meanwhile, during a child’s growth, there are too many things to learn and pay attention to. By the time they consciously turn their attention to their parents, they are usually either adults with jobs or they are facing major changes in their lives.

During Xiang Kun’s rebellious phase in high school, he often viewed his parents’ ideas as antiquated and utilitarian. However, after he entered the workplace, he gradually understood that their ideas might indeed be antiquated and utilitarian, and clashed with the passion and ideals of young individuals. Yet, their goal was to prevent their children from making the same detours and experiencing the same setbacks that they had faced.

Sadly, a lot of wisdom cannot be conveyed simply through telling; only through personal experience can one truly understand and appreciate it.

While planning the menu in the kitchen, Xiang Kun realized that despite having shared thousands of meals with his parents since childhood significantly more than the mere four meals he had eaten with Tang Baona his understanding of his parents’ tastes was far less precise than his comprehension of Tang Baona’s preferences.

This was partly due to the fact that his sensory abilities and brain’s computational power had significantly enhanced following his series of targeted, training-induced mutations when dining with Tang Baona. On these occasions, his attention was largely focused on her and continuously collecting feedback on the dishes. This was in contrast to the times he dined with his parents in the past, as his attention was typically fixed on the food or his own affairs.

Therefore, when he now wished to tailor the food to his parents’ tastes, he realized his judgements were merely observations like: his mother’s dishes were usually salty but she disliked spicy and sweet foods; she had a preference for fish and lean meat over fatty meat. His father’s tastes generally followed his mother’s, favoring salty foods. However, due to his poor dental health, he preferred soft-boiled meats and large chunks of pork belly, and detested dishes with lots of bones and thorns…

Because he had not prepared in advance, there weren’t many ingredients at home and mostly consisted of vegetables, which were not Xiang Kun’s cooking forte. The only meat he had was a plate of leftovers in the refrigerator. Remembering the meals he used to have when he lived at home, he realized that his parents were not inclined to spend much on food when he was away.

Clearly, the prospect of preparing an exquisite dinner for his parents that evening was unlikely. However, he was not discouraged. He decided to start by preparing a few dishes to calibrate his understanding of his parents’ tastes. He believed that after a meal or two, he could update his judgement data and surpass his understanding of Tang Baona’s tastes, given that he had shared thousands of meals with his parents.

Just as Xiang Kun was planning the menu and starting his preparations, he overheard his parents’ whispered conversation in the living room.

“Aren’t you going to help?” It was his father’s voice.

“Our son won’t let me. He says his cooking has greatly improved.” His mother replied, her tone thick with doubt.

“Should we order a couple of dishes just in case?” His father suggested with some concern.

“I don’t think we need to. He can definitely handle the rice and, worst case scenario, we can heat up some leftovers and add some pickles and peanuts… it’ll be sufficient. We shouldn’t unnecessarily damage our son’s confidence. Nowadays, men who can cook are quite popular with girls…” His mother answered shrewdly.

Xiang Kun, listening to his parents’ conversation while preparing the three dishes and a soup, couldn’t help but be amused.

Due to the limited ingredients, the dinner did not look particularly plentiful. However, his parents were quite pleased as soon as they found the dishes edible and free from problems like being burnt or undercooked. They couldn’t stop praising him.

His father even excitedly poured himself a glass of the liquor Xiang Kun had bought, sipping it slowly. His mother continuously encouraged Xiang Kun to experiment more with cooking. She didn’t point out a single flaw or anything negative, instead, she just kept showering him with praise.

This situation made it challenging for Xiang Kun to receive any candid feedback or accurately judge his parents’ opinions about the dishes. In order to make these determinations, he had to rely solely on his own sensory information collection.

As they dined, Xiang Kun shared a few interesting and mundane events from the past six months. Of course, he did not mention that his workplace had shut down and that he was temporarily unemployed.

Then, he mentioned nonchalantly that a colleague had been hospitalized due to an illness at the beginning of the year, only to later discover it was a hereditary disease. Six or seven of their relatives had the same disease.

Both the colleague and the disease were made up. His goal was to inspire his mother to start a conversation.

Indeed, his mother, who loved to gossip, was quick to discuss her known or heard of cases related to hereditary diseases. She then mentioned the knowledge passed on to her by a relative who worked at a maternity and child care hospital. She stated that many children nowadays were subject to genetic testing for common hereditary diseases, facilitating early preventative measures or treatments.

Xiang Kun knew that if there had been obvious hereditary diseases on either his father’s or mother’s side of the family, his mother, with her ability to gather news, would most likely know about it.

When he initially started to consider the reasons for his mutation, he speculated that it might be due to a hereditary disease. He even contemplated taking his parents, or perhaps even himself, for a full gene sequencing. However, he quickly dismissed this idea because the analysis reports from gene sequencing companies typically focused on known diseases and tumors. Xiang Kun was sure that even if he looked at the raw data and report himself, he probably wouldn’t be able to make sense of it. If it turned out that his genes were dramatically and conspicuously different from normal people’s, this might draw unwanted attention.

Moreover, he soon discovered that his body tissues would dramatically change and turn to ashes only ten minutes after they were detached from his body. How would he be able to conduct any testing? Surely, it would take more time than this to just process the DNA samples.

After discovering the Giant Owl, a mutant creature, Xiang Kun virtually ruled out the possibility of a hereditary disease. Following his encounter with Guo Tianxiang, he completely dismissed the idea of letting any strangers or organizations conduct any tests on him.

He brought up this topic only to fortify his understanding, as there always existed the “what if” possibility.

Then Xiang Kun leads the conversation, prompting both his father and mother to recall all kinds of talented and peculiar people in their ancestral home or relatives who were eccentric, hermits, or had mysteriously disappeared.

His parents also mentioned some ancestors they had heard about from their elders, but after Xiang Kun evaluated these, he felt it was unlikely they were vampires like himself.

After finishing their meal and a bit more of conversation, Xiang Kun volunteered to clear the table and wash the dishes before returning to his room.

“Our son has changed quite a bit this time!” After Xiang Kun’s room door was closed, Mrs. Xiang whispered to Mr. Xiang.

Mr. Xiang thought for a moment and nodded, “Indeed, quite a bit.”

Mrs. Xiang continued, “Not only has he shaved his head, but he has also started cooking and doing housework since he’s been home. He’s also more talkative. In the past, I had to pry any work or life updates from him, but now he tells us willingly. ”

Mr. Xiang nodded again, “It’s a good thing. He mentioned he has started exercising again, and overall, he seems much more energetic than when he came home for the New Year. It’s important for a man to be physically fit in order for him to excel at work. Plus, the dishes he cooked tonight tasted quite good, so he’s becoming self-sufficient.”

“Ah, you’re missing the point. What I mean is…there has to be a reason behind our son’s drastic changes. Considering the fact that his company is so busy that they work weekends and through national holidays, do you think he’d have the time to learn cooking or exercise? If I was not home, would you, on your own, think about cooking?”

Mr. Xiang paused, thought for a moment, and slowly said with a furrowed brow, “It does seem a bit strange.”

He of course knew his son’s habits well. When he’s busy at work, he’d usually grab something quick to eat, order takeout, have some bread or instant noodles. He would never spend time learning to cook, which would involve shopping for groceries, prepping the food, cooking, and then cleaning up and taking out the trash after. This would consume a lot more time.

Gauging from his son’s usual demeanor, without any special reason, there would indeed be no reason for him to learn cooking.

Mrs. Xiang confidently said, “After the new year, when he went back to his company, he definitely fell in love!”

“Huh?” Mr. Xiang was taken aback, then slowly said, “Well, that would be a good thing!”

But Mrs. Xiang quickly added, “But he must have been dumped!”

“What??” Mr. Xiang was taken aback again.

Mrs. Xiang analyzed, “If he was not in love, would our son spend so much time exercising and learning to cook? Would he become more outgoing?”

Mr. Xiang thought about it and it seemed to make sense. The only things that could make a man go against nature, overcome laziness, squeeze out time to do things considered a waste, were his desires for the opposite sex and the foolishness that love brings.

“Then why do you say he got dumped?”

“Isn’t it obvious? If he was already dating someone, then when I previously suggested setting him up on a blind date, he could have just told me he already had a girlfriend! Plus, the fact that he shaved his head… isn’t that a clear sign of a gesture like ‘cutting hair to show determination’? Your son likes to do such childish things! Maybe he didn’t even have a chance to date her and was rejected from the start…”

Mr. Xiang, after listening to his wife’s words, nodded in agreement, “You have a point. It does seem quite likely. But it doesn’t seem like he’s disheartened at all. A little setback can actually help a man grow.”

Mrs. Xiang gleamed with joy, “This is the perfect time to set him up on a blind date. He just mentioned that he will be home for three days…”

In his room, Xiang Kun, sitting at his desk, listened to his parents’ conversation in the living room with a blank expression.

My mom’s imagination really is something else!

Yet, the problem was, Xiang Kun felt that his mom’s analysis made so much sense that he couldn’t argue against it.

Unless he tells them everything: that he’s become a vampire, he’s exercising to guide his mutation, he’s learning to cook to deal with eating rabbit meat, and he has more time due to unemployment…

However, he presumed, those excuses probably would not be as convincing as his mother’s speculations just now.

Xiang Kun shook his head, continued to eavesdrop on his parents’ conversation while entertaining his thoughts and revisiting the insights on his special abilities, all triggered by the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving..