What It's Like Being a Vampire

The next day, Tang Baona visited her grandfather before work because she knew he would be up early for his morning walk.

Mr. Feng was very interested upon seeing the palm-sized boxwood carving that his granddaughter had brought him. He put on his reading glasses and examined it closely.

“Grandpa, how is it? Is the carving good?” Tang Baona asked with anticipation.

After observing for a while and gently stroking the head of the carving, Mr. Feng nodded and said, “A very interesting carving, it looks rather new? The details aren’t quite as fine as the one in your picture – looks a bit like a step backward. But the design of this carving is quite interesting. It has a bit of a Buddhist undertone and even a bit of a… animation vibe. The young man who made this really has some creative ideas.”

Tang Baona was surprised and asked, “Grandpa, when did I say that my friend is a guy? And even if he’s a guy, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s young. He could be around your age, you know?”

Mr. Feng chuckled and said, “We always say ‘the handwriting says a lot about the person.’ By looking at someone’s handwriting, you can figure out their personality and their mental state at the time of writing. The same goes for artwork and carvings, these can reveal a lot too. This carving focuses more on overall harmony rather than intricate details. The rugged lines imply strength. The junction of the eight arms and shoulders reflects more of structural rationality than aesthetics. This is obviously a more masculine piece. As for age, based on how you refer to him, he should be around your age.”

Tang Baona exclaimed, “Grandpa, you’re amazing! Can you see anything else?”

Mr. Feng placed the carving in his palm and chuckled, “In Buddhism, many abilities are often embodied as arms and eyes, indicating more capability to see, to understand, and to do. Your friend must be very capable and multitalented, and should be rather confident and outgoing, right?”

Very capable? Multitalented? Thinking of the many talents Xiang Kun had demonstrated in the short span of two months since they met, Tang Baona wholeheartedly agreed.

Each arm of this eight-armed caricature was like a skill mastered by Xiang

Kun.

But confident and outgoing? That didn’t seem to fit well.

Mr. Feng went on to say, “Look at this wood carving’s hands, they are all clenched in fists, showing that your friend is proactive and enthusiastic…”

Tang Baona couldn’t help but whisper, “Isn’t it just because it’s easier to carve fists…”

Mr. Feng was startled, but then pretended not to hear it and continued naturally. “Looking at the expression of this wooden figure, the deliberately exposed sharp teeth, you can see…”

After listening to her grandfather speak for a while, Tang Baona found an opportune time to interrupt, “Grandpa, my friend didn’t mention the price for this carving. What do you think would be a reasonable price?”

“Hmm, although it’s not the work of a famous carver and the wood quality is average, its design is unique, with a considerable level of difficulty, and good carving technique. Three to five thousand yuan would be a fair market price.” Mr. Feng said thoughtfully, looking at the carving in his hand.

Upon hearing this, Tang Baona immediately took out her phone and transferred five thousand yuan to Xiang Kun in front of her grandfather. Xiang Kun had previously given the pricing authority to her, and she knew the grandfather would probably inflate the price a bit, so she felt this would be fair to Xiang Kun.

“Grandpa, don’t forget to give me some more red envelopes for the New Year!” Tang Baona playfully brandished her phone.

“You cheeky girl…” Mr. Feng chuckled and shook his head. “When are you going to invite that young man over? I’m quite interested in meeting him and having a chat.’

“We’ll talk about that later. He just went home for a while. I’ve got to get to work, see you, grandpa.” Tang Baona left cheerfully.

Watching his granddaughter disappear around the corner of his yard, Mr. Feng placed the carving gently on the stone table next to him. He took out his phone, opened WeChat, found Tang Baoting’s avatar, and sent a message, “Baoting, it appears that the young man who made that ‘Sabal’ carving for Nana is indeed a young man. Perhaps he is the one you introduced to her. I suggested Nana to bring him over for a visit. Nana seemed protective of him, and they seem to get along well. You know my Brilliant Eyes are rarely off the mark. I’ll help Nana keep an eye on this…”

A few hours later, when the others in the office were busy and hadn’t noticed her, Yang Zhen Er picked up her phone and sent several WeChat messages to Xia Libing. “Old Xia!” “Xia Xia!!”

“My dearest cousin!!!”

Finally, Xia Libing replied with a bewildered emoji.

Yang Zhen Er: “Did you see the picture I sent you last night? That carving was made by Xiang Kun. How about it, did you notice anything?”

Xia Libing: “Xiang Kun is a good carver?”

Yang Zhen Er: “I’m not asking you about that! You’re not a craftsman! I’m wondering if you can figure out anything from this carving, psychologically speaking, from your professional standpoint. This mini eight-armed, eight-eyed figure is Xiang Kun’s original creation. Why do you think he chose to carve this?”

Xia Libing responded with a puzzled emoji: “How would I know?”

Yang Zhen Er sent an emoji with a furious red face: “Aren’t you a psychologist?”

Xia Libing: “Psychologists aren’t fortune tellers. Also, I’m not a psychologist; I’m a psychiatrist.”

Yang Zhen Er sent an emoji of a panda tearing its hair out, “Just tell me what you’ve figured out!”

Xia Libing responded with three thoughtful emojis: “There is too little to go on. I need to interact directly with Xiang Kun. Ask him what he was thinking when he made this. If he had seen similar imagery before, like a Buddha statue or a cartoon, what was his thought process when carving the eyes, why eight not six, is it deliberately symmetrical with the arms or for other reasons…”

Yang Zhen Er sent an emoji with a blackened, smoking face: “I think I need psychiatric help after continuing our conversation.”

Xia Libing: “The psychiatric clinic where I interned before is pretty good. If you decide to go, look for Dr. Liu.”

Yang Zhen Er: “You no longer have a cousin!!”

Haixi Province, Citong City, A certain hospital.

After the conversation with her cousin, Xia Libing was still in the chat screen. She scrolled up to see those photos. She didn’t realize that those carvings were made by Xiang Kun, so she hadn’t really looked at them last night.

Xia Libing opened the image, clicked “Save Original Image”, then zoomed in to look at the details, then zoomed out to look at the overall shape, deep in thought.

She remembered that last night in their group chat she had learned that Xiang Kun would be returning to Citong City today.

As soon as Xiang Kun boarded the train, he received a WeChat message from Tang Baona. Looking at the transfer of five-thousand yuan, he was fairly surprised. He didn’t expect the carving would sell for that much. This price honestly exceeded his expectations by quite a bit.

He’d only been studying carving for a short time. Moreover, the wood used this time was offcuts that did not have a super sensory connection, and when he first started roughing it out, he didn’t even think it would turn out.

However, for Xiang Kun, this “windfall” wasn’t a surprise because it took him a long time to create the carving. If he had spent the same amount of time on a programming project, he would have earned at least twenty thousand yuan. “Such things are better as gifts.” Deciding inwardly, Xiang Kun thought about the eight-armed, eight-eyed wooden figure and suddenly got a strange sense of connection..