Chapter 30: The Flaw in the Palm Thunder Video

"Dad, Mom, I'm back!"

Gu Zhao pushed open the front door and saw his father, Gu Qi, and his mother, Li Man, sitting together affectionately watching television.

Gu Zhao covered his eyes. "Did I come back at the wrong time?"

Gu Qi turned his head and said grumpily, "We're watching the News Broadcast!"

Li Man got up and looked behind Gu Zhao. "You really didn't bring a temporary girlfriend back?"

"Isn't that because I'm going to accompany you to Shu Province?" Gu Zhao replied. "I'm planning to find a girlfriend in Shu Province."

"That won't do!" Li Man immediately refused. "Misses from Yue Province are better; there's no need for you to go far when the answer is right here."

Gu Qi nodded in full agreement. "Ye..."

Having said just one character, he saw Li Man turn around, so he immediately asked, "Ahem, have you eaten?"

"If I say I haven't, is there any at home?" Gu Zhao asked.

Gu Qi looked at Li Man. Li Man slammed the table and stood up. "Do you look down on your mother? Say it, what do you want to eat?"

"Twice-cooked pork, shredded pork with garlic sauce, and boiled pork slices." Gu Zhao immediately chimed in.

Li Man clapped her hands and walked toward the kitchen, calling out to the housekeeper resting in the side room as she went. "Auntie Zhang, time to work!"

Li Man could keep Gu Qi completely under her thumb, and her excellent cooking skills were no small part of it. Gu Zhao had grown up eating Sichuan cuisine since childhood, honing his ability to handle spicy food.

On the other side, Gu Zhao put down his schoolbag, took off his jacket, and sat down beside Gu Qi.

"There's an exhibition fair in Lincheng this weekend; I have to go there personally." Gu Qi said.

"Mom told me." Gu Zhao lay on the sofa and asked casually, "What kind of exhibition fair is it, and why is it being held in Lincheng?"

Gu Qi runs a Chinese-style furniture business. Based around the port, he owns a furniture factory that imports various types of rosewood from abroad, hires skilled craftsmen, and produces and sells rosewood furniture.

However, the Gu family's several shops are all around Yangcheng, with the furthest being in Pengcheng. Even when participating in exhibition fairs, they are mostly in the Pearl River Delta. Lincheng is the capital of Wu Province, which is in the Yangtze River Delta.

"Intangible Cultural Heritage Art Furniture Exhibition Fair." Gu Qi said. "There are more wealthy people in the two provinces of Wu and Hai, so it was held in Lincheng."

"Beijing-style hardwood, Jin-style furniture, as well as Fujian Province's classical furniture and Hainan Province's Ming-style furniture are all going. That I could receive an invitation is a testament to our Yue Province's hardwood craftsmanship!" Gu Qi said with considerable pride.

Although the Gu family's business isn't large, their reputation in the industry is excellent. Moreover, Gu Qi had apprenticed under a master craftsman in his early years; besides being a businessman, he is also a skilled carpenter.

Back then, what attracted Li Man to Gu Qi was her excellent Sichuan cooking skills, but the key to Gu Qi winning Li Man over was carving a lifelike wooden statue of a beauty for her with his own hands.

"Dad is awesome." Gu Zhao gave his dad a thumbs-up.

But Gu Qi was clearly not satisfied and even felt a bit jealous. "You say it would be so much better if you learned wood carving and furniture making from me, yet you insist on learning Daoist arts from your grandfather. What, is your grandfather's inheritance an inheritance, but your father's isn't?"

"Now look, yours is still feudal superstition, while your father's craft has become a national intangible cultural heritage that is being vigorously promoted. If you had learned from me, you might even have appeared on the Spring Festival Gala. What a pity."

"The ones who can perform on stage are those with atmosphere or rare arts. I remember the last Spring Festival Gala showcased a large wooden carving that directly carved a miniature world out of a single tree. How shocking was that?"

Gu Zhao pointed around. "Our Ming and Qing furniture doesn't count as rare art. Strictly speaking, Mom's Sichuan cuisine is also an intangible cultural heritage."

Gu Zhao gave a thumbs-up to Li Man, who was poking her head out from the kitchen. "Mom is an artist too!"

Li Man returned a thumbs-up to Gu Zhao and raised an eyebrow at Gu Qi.

Gu Qi, "..."

"You have a point, but as someone from a carpenter's family, you should at least know some common sense. Yet you managed to get the wood in the background wrong while making special effects for a short video. Isn't that embarrassing?" Gu Qi shook his head. "It's like making Sichuan cuisine without chili peppers but with ketchup instead."

Gu Zhao was confused. "What short video special effects?"

"The one with your Palm Thunder." As Gu Qi spoke, he picked up his phone, opened Doukuai, and found Gu Zhao's video.

It was the very video where Gu Zhao had labeled 【Special Effects Production, For Entertainment Only】, but which actually depicted the genuine casting of Palm Thunder in another world.

"How did you get my Doukuai account? I never show my face!" Gu Zhao asked in shock.

As everyone knows, a child's social circle will definitely block their parents, and one's own Doukuai account is generally not let known to parents.

Mom knows my computer password, and Dad found my short video account. They aren't actually a cook and a carpenter; they must be undercover agents with hidden identities!

"Zhang Hang's father and I are good friends, so I saw Zhang Hang's video when scrolling. He did show his face." Gu Qi said indifferently. "Then I followed him to find you."

Alright, the logic holds, but...

"What's wrong with my special effects?" Gu Zhao couldn't help but ask.

Others might not know, but didn't I know exactly what was going on with this video?

It couldn't be more real!

"Your special effects are done quite well; whether it's the lightning strike, the fire, or the broken tree, the details all look very real." Gu Qi commented while asking, "How much did it cost, or was it made with AI?"

Gu Zhao rolled his eyes. "Just say the 'but' part!"

"Fine, but!" Gu Qi chuckled and emphasized, "The trees in this forest, where did you source the images? Whether you used pine trees, fir trees, or even birch trees or camphor trees, it would have been fine. But why did you specifically choose this kind?"

Gu Zhao looked at the small tree struck by lightning in the video, and the trees surrounding it.

Although he didn't recognize them, they felt like ordinary trees with nothing extraordinary about them, right?

"What's wrong with these trees?" Gu Zhao asked.

"What's wrong with these trees?" Gu Qi countered. "A whole forest of small-leaf red sandalwood, and you broke one as thick as a thigh in one strike. What do you think is wrong?"

Gu Zhao was dumbfounded. "What? Small-leaf red sandalwood?"

"Yes, small-leaf red sandalwood." Gu Qi nodded, glancing sideways at Gu Zhao. "Just the one you broke in your video is at least over a hundred years old, worth three or four hundred thousand."

Gu Zhao: Õ_Õ

Although his family ran a furniture factory, the wood delivered to the factory was already semi-processed raw material. Having grown up in the city, besides recognizing the most distinctive pine, willow, and ginkgo trees, how could he distinguish various types of trees?

In his view, the trees in the forest behind the village were neither thick nor tall, sparse and unremarkable, just the most common timber.

So it turned out to be the finest of woods?

Gu Qi made a final conclusion. "It's just that you don't have many fans. If there were an expert, they would expose you in minutes."