While the construction company worked on the proposal and quote, Li Xiang was at home carving a tea table.

He was still working on the large, fine piece of stone he had dug out of the cave, and the tea table wasn’t finished yet. Previously, Li Xiang had tried carving various animals like dragons, phoenixes, and golden toads, along with scenes of trees, a small bridge over a stream, and an old man fishing. While the ideas were good, and his "tool"—the White Fang Dagger—was sharp enough and his grip strong enough, everything he carved just ended up looking hideous.

Mostly, it was because he’d never learned to draw as a kid and simply wasn’t good at it.

Carving such a large object was different from making a small hairpin. You could find design templates for hairpins online; they were small and had simple lines. Even the more complex ones weren’t all that intricate. As long as you refined them a few times to make them smooth, they would be fine. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

But creating a detailed, large-scale stone carving was far too complex.

How should he put it? He envisioned a grand scene of "A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix," but what he carved looked more like "Chicks Pecking at Rice."

This was different from playing the flute or singing. He was born in the Bamboo Village and had known how to play the flute since he was a child. Now, as an Extraordinary Being who practiced the Advanced Breathing Technique daily without fail, his breath control was exceptional. As a result, playing the flute and singing came to him as natural, added abilities.

As for calligraphy, he’d written countless characters growing up. Now that his control over the pen was stronger, his writing had naturally improved.

Fortunately, the previous carvings weren’t deep, so he shaved them all off to start over with a new design.

This time, he drew up a design first. He abandoned all the delicate, flashy elements and opted to use simple lines to outline Xiangyun, Lingzhi, and mountain ranges. These patterns were simpler and much more manageable for him.

The stone was a single, solid slab of raw Qing stone, two meters long and eighty centimeters wide. It had some natural, cloud-like veins, and certain parts had a yellow hue that could be used for the caps of the Lingzhi. After a moment’s thought, he also added a few patterns of ancient coins—round with a square hole in the center. The natural yellow color looked quite nice for those as well.

The tabletop section was about 20 to 40 centimeters thick, with two integral, sixty-centimeter-high legs at either end, also roughly hewn from the stone with his White Fang Dagger. They were thick and sturdy, with flowing, natural lines that gave the whole piece a primitive feel.

Although the carved patterns were simple, a closer look revealed a strange, majestic quality to them.

’The more primitive, the more sophisticated. Making it too detailed would actually detract from its beauty,’ Li Xiang could only console himself. The next steps were to sand the uneven spots on the "tea tray" smooth, drill a drainage hole, and finally, wash it with water.

As for tea pets, he could just buy a few later to place on top. He could even swap them out depending on his mood.

He was working on this when Yao Yao arrived.

It was the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, a beautiful, sunny day. The afternoon high rose to 25°C, giving it the feel of early summer. Still, it couldn’t compare to a 25°C day in actual summer. The mornings and evenings were still below 10°C, and the ambient temperature of the larger environment—like the ground and the walls—remained low. The body lost heat through thermal radiation, making one feel colder than the air temperature suggested.

Since the weather was warm, Yao Yao was dressed lightly. At twenty years old, she was in the prime of her youth and simply radiated vitality.

"Li Xiang, what are you busy with? Whoa, what a gorgeous stone bed!" Yao Yao exclaimed dramatically the moment she noticed the stone slab in front of him.

"What stone bed? This is a tea table! A tea table!" Li Xiang corrected her, exasperated.

’Are my carving skills really that bad? Does this look like a bed?’

"A tea table?" Yao Yao was suddenly embarrassed. Her mind had just gone to the wrong place, and she’d even been wondering why Li Xiang had such... interesting tastes.

But the awkwardness passed in a flash. She grinned, stroking the large tea table as she explained, "I really thought it was a bed! It’s so big, it would be so comfortable to lie on and cool off in the summer!"

"I’m not finished with it. I’m going to add more patterns and refine it a bit." Li Xiang looked it over. ’Did I carve it too square and blocky? So much so that people immediately think of a bed?’

He thought he should add some curves, or maybe cut more from the four corners to make it, for instance, boat-shaped. Then he could add some "rockery" and "plants" on top to create a miniature landscape.

"Li Xiang, don’t worry about it so much! It can be a tea table, and you can also lie on it to sleep. It’s dual-purpose, isn’t that great!" Yao Yao took two steps back, spun in a circle, and said, "Hey, do you think I look pretty in this outfit today?"

Li Xiang looked up and glanced at her. Today, Yao Yao was wearing a fluffy white sweater with a small, light-blue handbag slung over her shoulder. On the bottom, she wore a gray plaid skirt and a pair of camel-colored ankle boots, revealing her slender, fair calves.

Her overall style had indeed become much more innocent and sweet compared to when she’d first come home before the New Year.

"It’s nice. It just looks a bit familiar," Li Xiang said. Suddenly, it clicked. He remembered and exclaimed, "Why do you look a bit like Zhao Xueqing?"

"Huh?" Yao Yao was suddenly a little displeased. ’Li Xiang has such a sharp eye,’ she thought. ’He could already tell I’m imitating Zhao Xueqing?’

She had been spending more time with Zhao Xueqing lately and had been secretly competing with the innocent-looking girl. She felt that she, too, could dress up just like Zhao Xueqing—like a pure white lotus.

She figured Li Xiang probably liked the innocent type. She’d gathered as much from their blind date back then, when he had found an excuse to slip away after just a few sentences.

Little did she know that while her outfit looked innocent, it couldn’t hide the natural, foxy charm in her eyes.

Yao Yao wasn’t just imitating Zhao Xueqing’s fashion; she had started mimicking her every expression, too. It came across as restrained, forced, and painfully awkward.

Li Xiang thought for a moment before offering some advice. "You know, you should just be yourself. You’re a very unique girl as you are."