177 The Gift 11 (1/2)

Xiu Ling knew her husband well. It helped that she was a good people reader to begin with. When Lin Kang froze after throwing his first shot, the wheels in her mind started to turn.

She knew her husband had had a smooth sailing throughout his life and for a man where success was to be expected, one didn't need to think hard to predict his views on failure or things that he would perceive as weakness.

Xiu Ling placed herself in Lin Kang's shoes and could see things from his perspective. She understood the man had the tendency to get mentally stuck on one thing and the need burning within him to seek and achieve perfection.

Based on these extrapolations, Xiu Ling had a fairly good idea why the first basketball throw had stumped her husband so. Xiu Ling came up with the solution after giving it some thought. When faced with a situation like this, she understood the importance of not placing the man on the spot. Shining the spotlight on him would only heighten the embarrassment and make it worse.

Therefore, the solution was to do the complete opposite of that, to act like there was nothing out of the ordinary and move on. The fact that Xiu Ling really did think her husband was overreacting and reading too much into this helped lend an air of authenticity to her plan.

To be honest, Xiu Ling did not mind that Lin Kang sucked at basketball or sports, in fact she welcomed knowing this extra layer to his character. In Xiu Ling's eyes, Lin Kang had always been perfect at everything. He even managed to win her the prize from the crane machine with one try... albeit with a little physical help.

That created the impression that the man was perfect. While there was nothing wrong with that, some even found that admirable but at the same time, it also made the man quite unapproachable.

Having an unexpected flaw like this humanized Lin Kang in Xiu Ling's eyes. She found the vulnerability that he showed to be quite winning. Knowing the man could be fazed by certain things endeared Lin Kang to Xiu Ling, even though the former had no idea about it.

Seeing how her husband had started to accept the truth, Xiu Ling could not help but deliver a good natured jab, ”But before you challenge me next time, make sure you can win Lin Xi first, you're more on his level.”

Lin Kang turned to look at Xiu Ling as if gauging there was a second meaning behind her words before laughing candidly. He knew she was only kidding.

The two spent the rest of their day at the arcade. They had fun and overall the date was a success.

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