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.
