Chapter 128: Chapter 128: Someone Control This Beast
"Me?" Xue Rui pointed at himself in disbelief.
’What the hell? He was a software engineering major; how would he know how to fix this thing?’
Xue Rui knew a lot about digital hardware out of personal interest, but his knowledge was only skin-deep. He had no idea how to do board-level repairs.
It was too far outside his field of expertise.
"Mhm," Lin Ruoxi nodded. Her big, glistening eyes were fixed on Xue Rui, sparkling with a hint of anticipation and adoration.
Xue Rui gritted his teeth. If it had been anyone else, he would have assumed they were mocking him, as if to say, "If you’re so smart, you do it."
But this was Lin Ruoxi, and she didn’t have an ounce of malice toward him.
’And with that pitiful yet adoring gaze, what man could possibly refuse? You’d have to bite the bullet and step up!’
But Xue Rui could.
He coughed twice. "I admit, what I said earlier was shallow. I shouldn’t hold gender stereotypes about professions. As the saying goes, women hold up half the sky. You should be the one to do it."
Xue Rui wasn’t trying to be a hero; he knew his own limits.
"Oh, this is too simple. There are just some bad solder joints and a burnt chip." Lin Ruoxi picked up the soldering iron and continued repairing the air conditioner’s mainboard.
Xue Rui stared blankly. ’What did Lin Ruoxi mean by that?’
’Too simple, not worth his effort? Wasn’t that the kind of line *he* was supposed to use when bragging?’
’Is Lin Ruoxi going to ask him really hard questions in the future?’
He didn’t know what kind of image he had in Lin Ruoxi’s mind.
’Was he some kind of omnipotent being to her?’
To stop Lin Ruoxi from giving him more tasks, Xue Rui added, "One must learn to push their own boundaries. When you run into something you don’t know, you should research it deeply and think about it from different angles. It’s not good to just ask me."
"Mhm."
Lin Ruoxi felt that what Xue Rui said made sense. There were many things you could learn just by thinking about them a bit more.
Xue Rui watched as Lin Ruoxi, looking slightly unpracticed, removed the chip from the mainboard and soldered on a new one. After running a few tests with the multimeter, she broke into a delighted smile.
Xue Rui’s eye twitched. ’It’s fixed just like that?’
He only hesitated for a moment, because he felt he shouldn’t doubt a genius like Lin Ruoxi.
The air conditioner was mounted high on the wall, but Lin Ruoxi wasn’t short. She could reach the same spots as Xue Rui just by standing on her tiptoes.
Besides, Lin Ruoxi never intended to ask Xue Rui for help in the first place.
"I’ll do this part." Xue Rui took the mainboard from her.
He couldn’t repair the mainboard, but he could certainly install it. Every connector was designed to be foolproof; as long as you weren’t an idiot, you couldn’t plug them in wrong.
Normally, no matter what device you’re repairing, you should test it completely before putting the case back on.
But after quickly connecting the wires, Xue Rui put the air conditioner’s outer casing right back on.
This was his trust in the young genius.
He plugged it in and pressed a button on the remote.
BEEP. The buzzer sounded, and the air conditioner started working normally.
Xue Rui wasn’t too surprised that Lin Ruoxi could fix an air conditioner. After all, she was a genius who had devoured countless books on digital and analog electronics. She had a solid foundation.
What amazed Xue Rui was Lin Ruoxi’s hands-on ability.
Thinking back, he realized he hadn’t actually taught her much of anything. He had merely acted as a guide, pointing her in the right direction now and then. She had learned everything else on her own through research.
’Of course, that’s how it is in a broad field like computer science. University just provides a learning environment, and teachers act as guides and supervisors. It’s mostly up to the students to learn on their own...’
He turned his head to glance at Lin Ruoxi. She was looking at him with a worshipful expression, her eyes seeming to glitter with little stars.
He had only put the cover back on. Lin Ruoxi had done all the hard parts.
But this little girl... she really knew how to make a person feel good.
Xue Rui held the remote, a sense of accomplishment washing over him, as if he were the one who had fixed the air conditioner...
"I spent two thousand on all this," Lin Ruoxi said, looking at Xue Rui questioningly.
She felt that it was good to buy the repair tools. Although the initial investment was a bit high, it would save a lot of money in the future.
She had used the money from the bank card and had to report it to Xue Rui.
"You don’t have to tell me about small things like this," Xue Rui said.
He walked to a corner of the room and started rummaging through Lin Ruoxi’s toolbox. Not only were there all sorts of electronic components, but the large box also contained wrenches, screwdrivers, sandpaper, and so on...
’How is this stuff a girl should have? Shouldn’t a girl her age be buying a makeup case?’
’Why is there a file?’
Looking at the iron filings on the sandpaper, Xue Rui suddenly remembered something.
The sharp spikes on the fence near the school’s "dog hole"... Lin Ruoxi had filed them down...
He had thought some kind-hearted student had done it. So it was this little girl all along.
Lin Ruoxi only knew how to do things quietly behind the scenes and never told him what she had done.
If he hadn’t come over today, Lin Ruoxi wouldn’t have told him about fixing the air conditioner either.
Xue Rui believed that when you do a good deed, you should talk about it. Otherwise, how would anyone know you did something good?
When kids do something impressive, they should show it off to get credit, but Lin Ruoxi never did.
Xue Rui sighed. ’In the environment Lin Ruoxi grew up in, who could she seek credit from? Whose praise could she possibly receive?’
The old lady didn’t talk much and had a very poor reputation in the village.
’If she knew how to raise a child, how could Lin Ruoxi’s father have turned into such a scumbag?’
Xue Rui remembered chatting with the villagers of Hua Village. He had a long talk with an old man who was Lin Ruoxi’s elementary school teacher.
He still hadn’t forgotten what that old man said: "Girls are only good students in elementary school. After that, they fall behind."
Living in an environment of suppressive education, Lin Ruoxi had grown accustomed to hiding herself and staying silent.
Xue Rui thought about it carefully. When he first discovered Lin Ruoxi was a genius, his reaction had been one of shock.
And in their life after that, because of Lin Ruoxi’s personality issues, he had taken the attitude of raising a child, and his words were mostly harsh and critical.
As for her school teachers, they didn’t offer much praise either. It was as if everyone had gotten used to a genius like her.
Lin Ruoxi had placed first in the entire city, and in return, she got the school administration’s practiced, fake smiles during the award ceremony and the formulaic applause from her classmates below the stage...
’Is this really what Lin Ruoxi wanted? It seemed like she had never smiled because of these things.’
Ten thousand rounds of applause from outsiders couldn’t compare to a single word of approval from family.
Xue Rui knew this principle.
’She’s done so much for me...’
’How is what I’m doing any different from that bastard?’
’Do geniuses not need validation?’
’My current standing in her heart... it should be enough, right...’ Xue Rui questioned himself relentlessly.
After hesitating for a moment, he patted Lin Ruoxi’s head and said with a smile, "Xixi, you’re amazing. If it were me, I wouldn’t have been able to fix this air conditioner."
Lin Ruoxi’s body stiffened. ’Xue Rui wasn’t scolding her for spending money carelessly; he was actually praising her?’
Her nose tingled, her body trembled slightly, and the world before her went blurry.
"I..."
Lin Ruoxi felt a tightness in her throat and couldn’t get a single word out.
’I should be smiling, why am I crying?’
’Xue Rui said he likes to see me smile.’
’But why am I so useless?’
Lin Ruoxi tried her best to show Xue Rui a smile, but she couldn’t control her tears as they streamed down her cheeks.
The tear tracks flowed like a clear spring, as if trying to wash away the beauty mark at the corner of the little girl’s eye.
Xue Rui reached out to wipe away Lin Ruoxi’s tears and pulled the little girl, who was now a crying mess, into his arms.
’I should praise her more from now on,’ Xue Rui said to himself.
Lin Ruoxi could no longer control her emotions and buried her head deep in Xue Rui’s chest.
Xue Rui felt a tremor from her embrace, as if he were holding a small, shivering animal, her movements tickling his chest.
He gently stroked Lin Ruoxi’s head and said nothing.
After a long while, Lin Ruoxi left Xue Rui’s embrace. "Thank you."
Xue Rui was taken aback. ’Has this girl finally gotten a clue? Does she know what words to use in what situation now?’
However, the next moment, Lin Ruoxi was like a child who had done something wrong, frantically shaking her head and saying, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry..."
Then she remembered that Xue Rui didn’t like her saying "I’m sorry," and she quickly covered her mouth...
Out of nervousness, Lin Ruoxi’s small feet, clad in pure white cotton socks, unconsciously curled together.
Xue Rui smiled helplessly. "Go wash your face. I’ll do the dishes today."
’He thought Lin Ruoxi had finally figured things out, but then the little girl almost made herself cry with anxiety just because she used the wrong word...’
Lin Ruoxi gave a small noise of acknowledgment and hurried to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.
She felt her cheeks were burning hot, and she splashed them with cold water over and over again.
After wiping her face with a towel, Lin Ruoxi thought about going out to do the dishes.
Hearing the CLINGING and CLANGING from the kitchen, she sat in a corner of the bathroom, the corners of her mouth turning up unconsciously.
’I’m so strange today, crying one moment and laughing the next.’
’She didn’t even know what she was happy about...’
’She just felt... like she had never been this happy before.’
As she passed the mirror over the sink, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in her peripheral vision but quickly looked away.
She didn’t like looking herself in the eye, so she rarely looked in the mirror.
Just as Lin Ruoxi grabbed the doorknob, she took a deep breath and turned to look at her reflection in the mirror.
’Looking myself in the eye... it doesn’t seem that strange after all.’
"So, this is what I look like?" Lin Ruoxi studied her reflection curiously.
She felt that the person in the mirror was a stranger, as if she had become someone else entirely.
She mimicked Xue Rui and pulled at her own cheeks, finding her expression so funny that she couldn’t help but laugh again...
"You brat, what did you do to Xixi?" the old lady demanded, her face dark.
Xue Rui had just come out from washing the dishes. Hearing the old lady slander him, he flared up in anger. "Old lady, don’t you go smearing my good name."
"Xixi just ran to the bathroom crying. Are you still going to say you had nothing to do with it?" the old lady said irritably.
’Xue Rui actually dared to talk about his ’good name.’ What good name does a man have?’
’An unmarried man and woman, alone in a room together. Shouldn’t she be worried about her granddaughter?’
"Why are you washing the dishes today? You must have done something to feel guilty about," the old lady sneered.
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting?" Xue Rui’s expression grew darker.
’Is my image really that bad? All I did was wash some dishes, and the old lady thinks it’s some kind of atonement.’
"WOOF WOOF WOOF!"
Hearing the two of them arguing, Da Huang once again stood by the old lady’s side to back her up.
"Stop barking, you’re disturbing the peace." Xue Rui aimed a kick at Da Huang.
Da Huang dodged and took the opportunity to bite onto Xue Rui’s clothes.
Just then, Lin Ruoxi happened to come out of the bathroom, the faint trace of a smile still lingering at the corners of her eyes.
"Xixi, he didn’t do anything to you, did he?" the old lady asked.
Lin Ruoxi shook her head gently.
Da Huang and Xue Rui both froze, but their expressions were completely different.
Xue Rui smiled smugly. "See? This beast is biting me again. Aren’t you going to do something about it?"
Da Huang licked its lips, its doggy face actually taking on a fawning expression...
