novelraw Chapter 307: Compensation of 200 Yuan? This Heap of Junk Isn’t Worth It!
Chapter 307: Compensation of 200 Yuan? This Heap of Junk Isn’t Worth It!
"Gu An!"
Lin Wan Yi called out.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a sense of urgency.
She rushed over in a few steps and grabbed Gu An’s small hand just as the enormous screwdriver was about to pry open the mahogany back cover.
"Click."
The tip of the screwdriver left a shallow white mark on the mahogany and stopped.
That was close.
If Commander Gu’s prized possession, more important to him than life itself, had been taken apart, Gu Yanshen would probably give the kid a good spanking when he returned.
Gu An looked up.
He didn’t show the slightest panic at being caught.
Nor did he feel any guilt.
His face, so much like Gu Yanshen’s, was full of dissatisfaction at being interrupted.
He twisted around, hugging the screwdriver tightly to his chest, refusing to let go.
"This can’t be taken apart."
Lin Wan Yi confiscated the cookie tin.
"Wah——!"
Gu An, who hadn’t cried when chased by a dog earlier, began wailing at the top of his lungs.
Thunder without rain.
Just then, the courtyard gate was pushed open with a bang.
A middle-aged woman wearing a floral shirt and sporting a head full of permed curls walked in.
She was carrying a heavy black box.
It was Aunt Liu from next door.
Notorious for taking advantage, with a mouth that doesn’t hold back.
"Oh dear, why are you crying?"
Aunt Liu craned her neck to look inside, her feet never stopping as she placed the black box directly on the stone table in the Gu Family’s courtyard.
"Wanyi, my place is getting its walls painted, and the smell is strong."
She patted the black box.
"This is a foreign good my nephew sent from abroad, a radio! It’s precious, I’m afraid it’ll get dirty, so I’ll leave it here for half a day."
Lin Wan Yi glanced at it.
The radio’s casing was scratched, and the antenna was half-broken, looking like something scavenged from a junkyard.
"Aunt Liu, my kid is young, leaving this here isn’t safe,"
Lin Wan Yi refused outright.
Gu An, with his nimble fingers?
He’s someone who can’t resist giving screws a couple of turns when he sees them.
"It’s no problem! Just put it up high!"
Aunt Liu didn’t listen at all and turned to leave, afraid Lin Wan Yi would return the box to her.
"I need to go cook, see you!"
With that, she was out the courtyard gate.
Lin Wan Yi frowned.
Inside the house, Gu Ning had woken up, whining for milk.
She had no choice but to turn back inside to tend to her daughter.
"An An, play in the courtyard, don’t run around, and don’t touch that black box, do you hear?"
Gu An didn’t reply.
He was staring at the black box on the stone table.
There was no trace of grievance in his dark eyes.
They were like those of a hungry wolf eyeing a piece of meat.
Lin Wan Yi went inside.
Gu An moved.
He toddled to the stone bench with his short legs, climbing up with effort.
It wasn’t high enough.
He fetched two bricks, placing them under his feet.
Finally, he was tall enough.
He reached out his chubby little hand and touched the cold casing of the black box.
His cookie tin had been confiscated earlier.
But in his pocket was a tiny screwdriver.
He had swiped it from his dad’s toolbox.
Gu An pulled the screwdriver from his pocket.
He moved with the deftness of a seasoned locksmith who’d been at it for decades.
"Click."
The latch on the back cover popped open.
Inside, it was a tangle of colorful wires and dusty circuit boards.
Gu An’s eyes lit up.
Brighter than when he sees candy.
In this moment, he was the king of the courtyard.
...
Half an hour later.
Lin Wan Yi came out holding the soothed Gu Ning.
As she reached the door, she stopped in her tracks.
The supposedly "precious" radio on the stone table was gone.
In its place was a table full of parts.
Casings, speakers, ferrite coils, capacitors...
It had been completely dismantled.
Not even a screw was spared.
Gu An was kneeling on the stone table, holding a piece of green circuit board, his little face smudged black with soot, engrossed in fiddling with the solder joints using the screwdriver.
Lin Wan Yi’s temples throbbed.
Before she could speak.
A scream came from the courtyard gate.
"Oh my goodness!"
Aunt Liu had returned.
She was holding a half-bag of sunflower seeds, originally intending to enjoy some entertainment.
Instead, she was greeted by this scene.
The bag of seeds spilled all over the ground with a crash.
"My radio!"
Aunt Liu rushed in, looking at the pile of "remains" on the table, her entire body trembling.
"This was imported! It’s a foreign gadget!"
She abruptly turned, pointing at Gu An, who was still tinkering with the parts.
"You little troublemaker! You’re committing a sin!"
Gu An was disturbed by the sudden scream.
Impatiently, he furrowed his small brows, protectively holding the circuit board to his chest, ignoring her completely.
This attitude completely set off Aunt Liu.
"Hey! You little brat, breaking something and you still dare to show me a face?"
Aunt Liu rolled up her sleeves, about to reach out and yank Gu An’s ear.
"You’re a child barely raised well, since your mom won’t manage you, I’ll do it for her today!"
Her hand had just reached halfway out.
A hand intervened, firmly gripping her wrist.
The force wasn’t much, but it was steady.
"Aunt Liu."
Lin Wan Yi stood in front of Gu An, shielding her son firmly behind her.
She looked at Aunt Liu, her face expressionless.
"The child didn’t know any better and broke it. We’ll pay for it."
"What are you trying to do by using force?"
Aunt Liu struggled a couple of times but couldn’t break free.
She simply sat down on the ground, slapped her thigh, and started howling.
"Help! The daughter-in-law of the Commander’s family is bullying me!"
"Everyone come and see! Is there no justice anymore!"
The courtyard was already crowded.
This shout drew all the neighbors over.
"What’s going on?"
"Oh dear, what’s Aunt Liu up to now?"
Everyone pointed and whispered.
Aunt Liu, seeing the crowd, became even more excited.
She pointed at the pile of parts on the table, with tears and snot all over her face.
"Everyone, judge this! My radio is genuine German! It can tune in to foreign stations!"
"I was kind enough to lend it to their family, and what happened?"
"This little brat tore it apart! Turned it into scrap metal!"
"It cost me two hundred bucks! Two hundred!"
A gasp went through the crowd.
In those days, two hundred bucks was half a year’s salary for a worker.
Not to mention it was an import, bought with foreign exchange vouchers.
"What a shame..."
"The child’s hands move too fast."
"How could such a small child dismantle it like this?"
Most of the chatter supported Aunt Liu.
After all, the thing was indeed broken, right there on the table.
Aunt Liu got up from the ground, put her hands on her hips, and spit flew everywhere.
"Lin Wan Yi, let me tell you, if you don’t pay me two hundred bucks today, this won’t end!"
"Not a cent less!"
"If you can’t pay up, I’ll go to Commander Gu! Let him see what a great grandson he has!"
Gu An poked his head out from behind Lin Wan Yi.
He was clutching the circuit board tightly.
He didn’t understand what two hundred bucks meant.
He only knew this noisy old lady was annoying.
Lin Wan Yi let go of Aunt Liu’s wrist.
She turned and looked at the pile of parts on the table.
Then she looked at Gu An.
If it were the old Lin Wan Yi, she might have been scared by this commotion.
Or simply paid to avoid trouble.
But she was different now.
She understood foreign languages and knew these precise things better.
When she was studying abroad, she even wore out the library’s circuit diagrams to fix a second-hand radio.
Lin Wan Yi reached out and picked up the severed wire from the table.
The break was all gray with dust.
It was an old injury.
And that speaker, the paper cone had long been moldy.
This was clearly scrap that’s been junked for who knows how many years.
Aunt Liu was treating the Gu Family as a scrap recycling station, trying to scam them.
"Aunt Liu."
Lin Wan Yi put down the wire, her voice cold.
"Is your radio really in good condition?"
Aunt Liu’s eyes flickered for a moment, then her voice grew louder.
"Nonsense! Of course, it’s in good condition! I was listening to it just yesterday!"
"Don’t try to deny it! Everyone’s watching!"
Lin Wan Yi ignored her.
She crouched down to look at Gu An.
"An An, show Mommy."
Gu An hesitated for a moment, then handed over the circuit board he was holding.
And a thin red wire.
He had been fiddling with it earlier.
Lin Wan Yi took it and glanced at it.
She smiled.
This wasn’t vandalism.
The main power cable on the circuit board was long burnt out, with charred black carbon deposits at the break.
And the red wire in Gu An’s hand had both ends stripped bare, revealing the copper inside.
Earlier, he had been trying to connect the burnt part.
This child wasn’t breaking the house.
He was trying to fix it!
Though his technique was crude, purely instinctive.
But his intuition was shockingly accurate.
"Two hundred bucks?"
Lin Wan Yi stood up, holding the red wire.
She looked at Aunt Liu, her tone tinged with mockery.
"Aunt Liu, if your radio is good, forget two hundred, I’ll even pay five hundred."
"But if it’s broken..."
"Shouldn’t you swallow back what you just said about my son?"
Aunt Liu’s heart skipped a beat.
Why was this girl so tough?
Could she have figured it out?
No way!
The radio looks fine on the outside; what could a young lady possibly understand?
"Stop twisting things around!"
Aunt Liu stubbornly refused to back down.
"It was fine earlier! Your son broke it!"
"Pay up! Pay up now!"
The surrounding neighbors also advised, "Wan Yi, it’s already taken apart, just admit it and don’t make a big deal."
"Yes, Commander Gu still needs face."
Lin Wan Yi said nothing.
She walked to the stone table.
In front of everyone, she placed the circuit board on the table.
Then.
She picked up the red wire Gu An had prepared.
One end she pressed to the power input point.
The other end, she directly pressed into the interface Gu An had tried but couldn’t insert earlier.
"Whether it’s broken or not."
Lin Wan Yi raised her head, staring at Aunt Liu’s panicked face.
"You’ll know by listening."