novelraw Chapter 308: Do You Deserve to Scam Money Off the Junk My Six-Month-Old Son Repaired?
Chapter 308: Do You Deserve to Scam Money Off the Junk My Six-Month-Old Son Repaired?
Aunt Liu’s heart skipped a beat.
How dare this girl?
She knew best about that pile of junk. It wouldn’t make a sound even if you poked it with a stick, let alone plugged it in!
"You... you stop pretending!" Aunt Liu shouted with a stiff neck, "You want to completely ruin my stuff and not take responsibility, is that it?"
Lin Wan Yi ignored her.
She just looked at Gu Lan.
"Xiao Lan, plug it in."
Gu Lan hesitated a bit, looking at the scattered parts on the table, then at her sister-in-law’s calm face.
She gritted her teeth, picked up the black power cord, and walked toward the outlet by the courtyard wall.
"No!" Aunt Liu screamed, her voice breaking.
She darted forward, trying to snatch the plug from Gu Lan’s hand.
"Don’t plug it in! It’ll catch fire!"
"This is a foreign gadget, the electricity is different! It’ll electrocute you!"
The more she acted like this, the clearer the neighbors understood.
This radio indeed had a problem.
Lin Wan Yi stepped forward, standing between Aunt Liu and Gu Lan.
"Aunt Liu, didn’t you say your radio was fine?"
"If it’s fine, why are you afraid of plugging it in?"
"Or perhaps..." Lin Wan Yi said slowly, "you have something to hide?"
Aunt Liu’s face turned beetred, unable to say a word.
While she was in a daze.
"Click."
Gu Lan had already plugged the plug firmly into the outlet.
The courtyard instantly fell silent.
Everyone held their breath, staring intently at the pile of parts on the stone table, especially the blackened speaker.
One second.
Two seconds.
No movement.
A hint of survival joy flashed across Aunt Liu’s face.
She knew it! This junk couldn’t possibly work!
She was just about to mock.
"Zzzz..."
A faint electric sound came from the speaker.
Immediately.
"...Now broadcasting an important news, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our country and Tanzania, after friendly consultation between both parties..."
A sonorous, clear male voice suddenly came from the speaker!
The sound wasn’t loud, but in the silent courtyard, it was like a clap of thunder!
Everyone was startled by the sudden sound.
Then, disbelief.
It worked!
It really worked!
And the sound... it was so clear! Without a trace of noise, cleaner than the brand new Red Star radio at Secretary Wang’s house!
"How... how is this possible?"
"A broken thing, just plug a wire and it’s fixed?"
"Amazing! Simply amazing!"
The neighbors exploded in discussion, each stretching their necks, looking at the parts and the still-speaking speaker as if they were seeing monsters.
Aunt Liu was completely dumbfounded.
She stood there with her mouth open, staring blankly at the pile of "scrap metal," her mind a blank.
How could it work?
How was it possible?
That thing clearly wasn’t making any sound at all!
Lin Wan Yi let go of the red wire in her hand, standing up straight.
She picked up the circuit board that Gu An had cleaned spotless and faced everyone.
"The main power line of this radio had long been burnt out, the break was blackened, broken for at least six months."
Her voice was calm but clearly reached everyone’s ears.
"My son Gu An simply found the backup line interface, reconected it with a copper wire."
She set down the circuit board and looked at the ashen-faced Aunt Liu.
"So, he wasn’t sabotaging."
"He was helping you fix this piece of junk you got from the scraps, trying to scam people."
Boom!
The crowd went wild!
So that was the truth!
The truth was revealed!
"Oh, Liu Cuihua! Using a piece of junk to scam two hundred bucks! Why don’t you just rob someone!"
"Exactly! Even a child could tell this thing was broken, yet you treasured it so much!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, this brain is worse than a toddler’s, truly embarrassing!"
The military wives, who had previously sided with Aunt Liu, were now criticizing her fiercely, almost spitting in her face.
Aunt Liu’s face turned from red to white, and from white to green.
She felt the gaze of the entire courtyard piercing her like needles.
She was both ashamed and embarrassed, angry and scared.
She rushed to the stone table, grabbed the loudspeaker that was still broadcasting the news, and hurriedly swept the parts on the table into her arms.
"Mine! These are my things!"
She didn’t dare to look at Lin Wan Yi even once.
Holding a pile of junk, she didn’t even bother to pick up the screws that fell to the ground, and ran out of the courtyard as if her tail was on fire, without looking back.
Because she ran too fast, she tripped on the threshold at the door and fell flat on her face.
"Hahaha..."
The courtyard echoed with laughter.
The farce ended just like that.
The neighbors gathered around Gu An, marveling at him for a few comments before dispersing in twos and threes.
Lin Wan Yi walked over to her son and squatted down.
She didn’t scold him, nor did she praise him.
She simply picked up his little hand and gently wiped the black soot off his face with a handkerchief.
"An An, you did great."
"But next time you want to touch someone else’s things, please ask mom first, okay?"
Gu An looked at her.
The stubbornness that was there before, so similar to Gu Yanshen’s, was gone from his eyes.
It seemed he understood.
He nodded heavily.
Lin Wan Yi picked him up and kissed him on the forehead.
Just then, a hesitant voice came from the courtyard gate.
"Mr. Lin... Lin?"
Lin Wan Yi turned around.
She saw Jiang Zhou standing at the gate, carrying an army green canvas bag and holding a roll of blueprints, looking a bit awkward.
He had obviously just arrived and had seen the latter half of the farce in the courtyard.
"Jiang Zhou? Why are you here?" Lin Wan Yi was a bit surprised.
"I... I had some new ideas about the circuit diagram and wanted to ask for your advice." Jiang Zhou’s face was a bit flushed as he quickly walked in.
His gaze inadvertently swept over the stone table.
In the next second.
His steps halted.
He seemed to be nailed to the spot.
He stared intensely at the stone table at the various parts that Aunt Liu had missed.
Screws, capacitors, resistors, coils...
Those things were not scattered randomly.
Instead, they were classified and arranged neatly according to some logic that outsiders could not understand.
Large ones on one side, small ones on another.
Even the screws were aligned in a straight line from longest to shortest.
"Who... who dismantled this?" Jiang Zhou’s voice carried a trace of tremble.
He quickly walked up to the stone table, squatted down, as if seeing some rare treasure.
His fingers gently brushed over those parts, not daring to touch them lest he disrupt the sense of perfect order.
"A mechanical person values logic the most."
"Disassembling is the way to most reflect a person’s spatial logic and structural thinking."
Jiang Zhou looked up at Lin Wan Yi, his face a blend of fanaticism and shock.
"To dismantle an old radio so methodically, with every part seeming as if measured by a ruler... this... this is genius! A once-in-a-century mechanical talent!"
Gu Lan was listening in daze beside him.
Wasn’t it just dismantling something? How did it become related to genius?
She pointed at Gu An in Lin Wan Yi’s arms.
"He did it."
The expression on Jiang Zhou’s face froze.
He followed Gu Lan’s finger, looking at the baby nestled in Lin Wan Yi’s arms, who was curiously gnawing on his fingers.
Half a year?
At most, half a year old, right?
Jiang Zhou’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
He looked down again at the arrangement of parts on the table, akin to a work of art.
Then back up at the innocent-looking baby.
He suddenly stood up, almost knocking into the table corner in his haste.
He didn’t care about that.
He swiftly walked over to Lin Wan Yi and, facing Gu An in her arms, bowed deeply.
This action left Lin Wan Yi and Gu Lan stunned.
Jiang Zhou straightened up and from the canvas bag he cherished, took out an object wrapped tightly in layers of newspaper.
With both hands, he solemnly handed the package to Gu An.
The expression on his face was one of unprecedented reverence.
"Mr. Lin... I originally brought this here for you to see."
"But now..."
"I believe it should have a better owner."
"This... is my token of respect for the little genius... a gift to acknowledge him as my mentor."