Standing and Seated Statue Part 1

"Don't talk nonsense, this might really be some kind of hand seal," Tan Xiao interrupted Lin Yang's mocking of the child attendant's cuteness.

Lin Yang was so startled he hiccuped. "Really?"

Tan Xiao said mysteriously, "Hard to say."

...After all, they were old acquaintances. Yes, the one making a heart gesture was none other than the Rice Guardian under the Stove God. Tan Xiao didn't expect him to be here, and certainly didn't expect the Rice Guardian to... well, if he guessed correctly, that heart gesture was meant for him.

Looking at the heart gesture of the Rice Guardian's statue, Tan Xiao also found it a bit amusing.

"What kind of hand seal is this?" Hand seals always have their implied meanings. Kong Xuan felt he had seen quite a few hand seals, but didn't know which sect this one belonged to. However, there were so many religious sects among the people, so it might be from a more remote one.

As Kong Xuan spoke, he also made the gesture himself, curiously looking at his fingers and guessing what it might mean.

Tan Xiao tiptoed and pressed on his shoulder, saying, "Love you."

Kong Xuan's blood froze for two seconds, his heart suddenly tightening, then starting to beat like a drum - even though after two seconds he realized that Tan Xiao was referring to the meaning of that 'hand seal'.

At home, Kong Xuan had failed to elicit those words from Tan Xiao. Now hearing them unexpectedly, he only felt his unruly heart beating non-stop, his steps also frozen and unable to move an inch. Just trying to conceal his current fluster was already very difficult.

"Since the Stove God Temple is said to be very efficacious and we're here, let's pray too." Lin Yang took out a small bun from his body and placed it on the offering table. Seeing this, the others also put some snacks on it.

Everyone prayed very piously, fully displaying the superstitious style of the younger generation.

Lin Yang said, "I hope you bless my academic progress. Is this within your scope of blessing? If not, letting me enjoy some delicacies is fine too."

Having finished making their wishes, they noticed only Tan Xiao and Kong Xuan didn't move.

Tan Xiao took the initiative to say, "You know, I can't even finish praying to my own family's gods, so I can't casually pray when going out."

This was understandable. What about Kong Xuan then?

Kong Xuan slightly raised his chin. "I won't pray. I want to rely on my own efforts."

Lin Yang cursed, "You're amazing! You're so aloof!"

Haha, aloof was going too far. Kong Xuan was restricted by rules and simply couldn't cheat. Tan Xiao urged, "Since we're done praying, let's go. There will be good food at night. My mom said the farm dishes are quite good."

Coming from Tan Xiao's mouth, these words were especially credible.

"Let's go, let's go."

Everyone rushed out of the temple.

Kong Xuan also elegantly stepped out with his hands behind his back.

Yu Zhenzhen squatted down to tie her shoelaces and was a step late. She saw Kong Xuan's movements freeze for a moment. Gosh, why was he walking with the same hand and foot?

She wanted to say something but stopped. Looking up, she saw Tan Xiao's eyes containing a smile, but he didn't remind the other person either. Her mind stalled. "Uh..."

Tan Xiao retracted his smile, "Let's go class monitor, time to head back."

Yu Zhenzhen touched her face. Why did it feel like... Hmm, maybe it was just her CP brain.

Halfway, Kong Xuan adjusted himself. However, upon returning to the farm stay, he gave everyone another big surprise. He stood up and said, "Wait a moment everyone, I also have a few dishes to make."

Everyone looked at each other, and finally cheered together.

"Wow, Kong Xuan can also cook!"

"If it wasn't Tan Xiao's birthday, who would have known that Kong Xuan can cook?"

"Is this for real? I'm curious how Kong Xuan's cooking skills are."

Kong Xuan smiled calmly, "Superb culinary skills."

Even Tan Xiao was a bit surprised. He hesitantly said, "Are you planning to go make a few wontons?"

That's all he had taught Kong Xuan.

"..." Kong Xuan's defenses crumbled. "Of course not, I secretly learned several dishes from you!"

Only then did Tan Xiao realize that Kong Xuan probably wanted to give him a birthday surprise. Watching Kong Xuan huff and find a staff member to take him to the kitchen, he added from behind, "Looking forward to it!"

As soon as Kong Xuan left, Lin Yang immediately laughed, "Did you hear that? Secretly learned. Secretly learning requires certain conditions."

That is, he must have watched Tan Xiao cook many times.

"You just went to the Stove God Temple?" At this time, the farm owner came over to greet the youngsters. "How was it?"

"It was great, it was great." Of course Lin Yang couldn't say it was different from what he imagined. He praised, "Very majestic ah, so tall that the head almost touched the roof."

This was the art of speaking. In fact, what he wanted to say was that the temple was too cramped for the Stove God, almost hitting his head.

However, the owner laughed and said, "You didn't go inside the temple, right? Our Stove God statue isn't that tall." He suspected these kids saw the temple's exterior from afar, felt there was nothing much to see, and ran off to play nearby.

"Huh? I know the temple isn't very big. I mean relative to the whole temple, it's quite big, three or four meters tall." Lin Yang quickly said.

"Three or four meters? You definitely went to the wrong place, ran to the neighboring village?" The owner asked doubtfully, even pulling out photos from his phone to confirm the temple's appearance with them. "Inside is a seated Stove God statue, not that tall."

Lin Yang immediately called out, "No! It was clearly a standing statue! We didn't go to the wrong place, it said Stove God Temple on the front, and we even made offerings."

"You still don't believe me?" The owner directly swiped to the next photo, which was indeed a seated Stove God statue. "Then you must have seen wrong, it looked tall on the altar."

Lin Yang was dumbfounded. He rubbed his eyes, "Did they really not change the statue? I remember it was a standing statue..."

He looked at the others. Some, like him, had noticed it was a standing statue, saying it didn't seem to be sitting. Others hadn't paid attention to whether it was standing or sitting, which arm was raised and other details. After all, there were a few statues in the temple, a family portrait of the Stove God.

"Uh, it was standing, right?"

"It might have also been sitting. Looking at this photo, it seems to be like this..."

Even those who remembered it as a standing statue felt their memories become a bit confused after seeing the photo. When they went to play, they had just casually looked.

"This is called collective memory bias for you all." The owner knew quite a lot. "Just like some people unanimously feel a certain celebrity has passed away and even saw the news, but it never actually happened. In fact, it's possible that from a certain angle, it looked like it was standing."

Is that so? Should we go confirm it again tomorrow? Could I have really seen wrong? Lin Yang looked at Tan Xiao in a daze, "Xiao Xiao, hurry and tell me, was it standing or sitting in the end?"

Tan Xiao had good eyesight and of course had noticed it was a standing statue!

He had a guess in his heart, but couldn't say it out loud. Facing Lin Yang's confused gaze at this moment, Tan Xiao could only lie with his eyes open again: "Um... it seems to be sitting..."

......

On one side, Lin Yang was in a mess facing Tan Xiao's answer, while the Peacock God who had caused the Stove God to not even dare to sit was currently standing in the kitchen, frowning at a few earthen stoves: "What is this?"

"Don't you want to cook?" The staff member said with a smile, "What, you only know how to use an integrated stove? We make rustic dishes here, firewood rice, specially using this kind of stove, the guests just love it."

Kong Xuan: "..."

He had learned from modern stoves! He had already thought of coming up and lighting the fire to cook with ease, finishing in one go and serving it out, how to use this!

"Are you going to cook or not? If not, forget it." The staff asked him, the other master chefs had already started stir-frying.

"...I'll try!" Kong Xuan believed in nothing else, but his competitiveness was 100%.