What It's Like Being a Vampire

It was well past three o’clock in the morning. Outside, it was pitch-black, but Xiang Kun’s bedroom was still brightly lit as usual.

Under a desk lamp, Xiang Kun was carefully sanding a 20-centimeter tall woodcarving with fine-grain sandpaper.

It was a female figure carved from wood, dressed in a two-dimensional skirt armor, wielding a two-handed Great Sword, looking forward, with a strand of hair sticking up on her head. Judging from the overall image, it should be an anime character.

This was a figure that Xiang Kun had carved from start to finish by himself.

Today was the 3rd of October, and tomorrow, the 4th of October, would be Tang Baona’s birthday. This woodcarving was the birthday gift that Xiang Kun had prepared for her.

On September 13th, after accepting the “misunderstood birthday present,” a Compound Bow, from Tang Baona and the others, Xiang Kun began thinking about how he should return the favor.

Through some of their online information and some of the certificate information like driver’s licenses he had seen before, he obtained the birth dates of the three of them.

Yang Zhen’er was born on January 3rd, Xia Libing was born in April; these dates were quite far off. Only Tang Baona’s birthday on the 4th of October was fast approaching.

Originally, he wanted to give a gift priced around two or three thousand yuan. Based on his daily observations and the various online accounts of Tang Baona, he analyzed the gift that she might like.

The options he came up with are as follows: 1, Figurines or other anime merchandise that Tang Baona likes; 2, Audio recording equipment; 3, Design-oriented small accessories or decorations; 4, Music-related merchandise or her favorite out-of-print albums.

However, from what Xiang Kun knows, although Tang Baona is not the type to spend money recklessly, she never seems to lack money. If she liked the items from the first, second or fourth options, she would have bought them herself already- -and surely, the ones she chose herself would be even more to her liking.

Looking at it this way, it seems only a gift of a small accessory that matches her usual style of dress, or a particularly well-designed decoration, would be a safe choice.

He also asked Yang Zhen’er and Xia Libing privately. The former said that the thought was what mattered and that it didn’t matter what gift he chose; Nana lacked for nothing, so he could just cook a big meal for her.

Xia Libing’s response mirrored her previous one when he inquired about tastes: “Anything goes, she’s not picky.”

Indeed, Xiang Kun knew that regardless of what he gave, Tang Baona probably wouldn’t mind. Even if he gave her a figurine or piece of merchandise she already had or didn’t particularly like, she would still gladly accept it.

However, thinking about his feelings when he received the Compound Bow as a gift, this indifference made him slightly discontented. He was very clear that the value of a gift lay not only in its market price but also largely in the degree to which the recipient liked the gift.

So, after much thought, Xiang Kun decided to handcraft a woodcarving of Saber Altoria, Tang Baona’s favorite anime character that she even used as her avatar.

In addition, the process of creation itself was also a series of experimental trials for him, thus serving two purposes at once.

Of course, to avoid the risk of not completing the woodcarving by the 4th of October, he also prepared a Plan B. If worst comes to worst, he would give her a Swarovski crystal decoration that he thought Tang Baona would like as a gift.

Although Xiang Kun had a certain level of artistic skills, and could manage to

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But this was also why he wanted to experiment. He wanted to establish a super sensory contact with the carving tools to see if it could help him master the use of the tools more quickly.

Therefore, before the Blood-drinking Period on September 16, he bought five differently styled carving knives and three chisels, and established a connection with them.

In order to successfully make this connection, he deliberately dismantled the body and handle of each one of these tools, reassembling them once the connection was completed. He also discovered that once a connection is made with one item of a certain type and function, the time required to connect with other similar items would greatly decrease.

When he woke up on the evening of September 17, Xiang Kun first sped through various tutorials and videos for more than ten hours. Then, using a 3D model of Saber as his reference, he began to carve practice pieces of wood that he had prepared and roughly shaped beforehand.

Even with the chisels and carving knives connected to him, this connection enabled him to control them with the skill of an expert, smoothly applying the knowledge he acquired from the tutorials and videos. Still, the first four pieces of wood were accidentally ruined before he could start carving the details. Forget about carving the distinctive hair and the great sword held in her hands, even the arm was difficult enough; the slightest mistake could lead to a misshape or a snap.

With the fifth piece of wood, Xiang Kun managed to complete a rough half-finished prototype with the goal of identifying flaws in a finished product. Yet, when he looked upon his distorted and disproportionate wooden carving, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the “Evil God Saber” picture he found during his online image search…

Based on these results, merely establishing a connection with the tools allows him to control and master them well. However, when it comes to other application variables, he still needs to adjust and practice to utilize their full potential.

It can be inferred that if he is able to establish a connection with all the parts of a car in the future, he might have an intimate knowledge of the car’s condition and could command it as easily as his own limbs. Yet, if he were to compete in a car race, he would still need to familiarize himself with specific road conditions, the racecourse, the opponents, weather conditions during the race, and various other insights to fully utilize his driving skills.

Although he now handles the chisels and carving knives well, he still needs to familiarize himself with the texture of the wood and mastering its contours.

Xiang Kun knew that with abundant practice, he could progress quickly starting from simple and easy projects, given his skills with the chisels and carving knives. However, his goal was not to become a master woodcarver. Therefore, he temporarily halted his woodcarving progress because he had a lot to do each Blood-drinking Period, more than just learning carving for gift-making.

Before his Blood-drinking Period on September 22, Xiang Kun spent an hour establishing a connection with two pieces of boxwood that he had bought and had prepared into simple shapes.

Before starting the connection, he first took small samples from the two pieces of wood. He softened, sliced, stained, and mounted them for observation under a microscope in order to understand the macroscopic structure of the wood.

From his prior experiments with tissues, paper, and other materials, he found that aside from improving the speed of establishing connections with information such as weight, size, and composition, observing the macroscopic structure of the target also greatly increased the speed and success rate of establishing connections.

Xiang Kun decided that if he failed again with these two connected boxwood pieces, he would have to resort to Plan B and gift a purchased crystal decoration instead. If he continued to research deeply, he would really become a carver…

Fortunately, on the morning of September 23, after wasting more than ten hours on a useless piece of wood, his second piece of wood finally achieved his expectations and gradually approached the finished product.

The carving knife, with which he had established a super sensory connection, performed more freely and steadily on the wood to which he was also connected. It was as if they were communicating as old friends, their “cooperation” being skillful.

Actually, he had already finished the woodcarving on September 27.

Today, he simply picked it up again to give it a once-over. He did some minor sanding and oiling to present the woodcarving in its best condition.

Although from his slightly obsessive-compulsive perspective, there were still many areas for improvement and numerous flaws in this woodcarving, as a first piece, it was basically passable.

Without noticing, dawn arrived. Xiang Kun picked up his beaten-up mobile with a cracked screen. On their four-person group chat, Tang Baona said that she was already at the airport and would arrive in the city after 10 p.m.

Xiang Kun’s original plan was to invite Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er over for dinner this evening. He would personally cook a few newly developed dishes and give Tang Baona her gift. However, Tang Baona and her family went overseas to attend a relative’s wedding in the previous days and she wouldn’t be back until tonight, so he would have to find another chance to give her the gift tomorrow..