Her cheeks slightly flushed, Mi Xiaoxiao wiped her face and turned to the kitchen to make tea.
Qin Jingzhou smiled, then lowered his head and continued assembling the metal plate meant to replace his right middle finger.
Seeing that he was busy, Zhao Da naturally kept quiet and didn’t disturb him. Instead, he sat beside his younger brother, carefully observing the mechanical device attached to his brother’s right palm. He was certain that the key to the metal plate’s ability to move according to his brother’s will was in those three small, wired metal plates fixed to the back of his hand and his palm.
Because of his younger brother, Zhao Da had thoroughly memorized the anatomy of the hand. The three metal plates were precisely placed on the median nerve running through the palm, as well as on the radial and ulnar nerves across the back of the hand!
He was so shocked he couldn’t help blurting out, “You... this... Can these three little metal plates actually sense nerve impulses?! There’s not even a battery in it! How did you even do that!” The last sentence wasn’t a question, just pure amazement.
Zhao Da scrutinized the simple, if not downright rough, “metal finger.” Even the rust and grease-stains on the plates and hinges seemed to carry a certain artistic touch.
He looked at Qin Jingzhou with great anticipation. “Boss, want any investment?”
Qin Jingzhou looked up and answered him honestly, “Your family can’t handle this kind of tech. When I’ve gotten more practice and feel it’s ready, I’ll work with the officials on it.”
The Zhao brothers’ eyes brightened at his words. Just knowing this was enough for them!
Rushing over earlier, neither had ever expected such a massive surprise.
The two brothers were all about business, but they knew not to be greedy. That was just right.
Qin Jingzhou beckoned Zhao Er over. “Come try out the middle finger.”
After the metal plates were affixed to the back and palm of his hand, Zhao Er could control two of the metal fingers at will. Aside from lacking any sensation—pain included—the dexterity wasn’t any different from his uninjured left hand.
Mi Xiaoxiao walked over with three cups of tea.
Qin Jingzhou took a cup from in front of his daughter, took a few sips, then reached out for the laptop on the other side of the sofa. “Four fingers, two million. As my first client, I’ll add a bonus feature for you, but what exactly depends on my mood at the time. Oh, and you’ll have to provide the materials yourself.”
The Zhao brothers promptly voiced their thanks, not even thinking of bargaining. In fact, Zhao Da wanted to pay even more.
But Mi Xiaoxiao only agreed to take one million nine hundred thousand—she remembered that her dad had already taken a two hundred thousand deposit from Zhao Er. She could easily foresee that just with these custom mechanical prosthetics, her dad would be set for life, unable to keep up with all the incoming orders. She wasn’t about to tarnish his reputation over a few extra bucks.
After collecting the money, Qin Jingzhou took Zhao Er’s measurements in detail and then sent the Zhao brothers off so he could get to work.
Zhao Er, reluctant to part with the mechanical finger, took it off and followed his brother outside, looking back longingly with every step.
After leaving the Mi house and sitting in their own low-key yet comfortable business car, Zhao Da finally asked his brother, “Well, how was it?”
Zhao Er could hardly contain his excitement. “Those metal plates on my skin are basically a circuit board, able to capture or sense the bioelectric signals generated by nerves, which are then analyzed by a complex program to control the metal finger! The principle isn’t hard to grasp, and as far as I know there have been similar projects for years... But this guy is definitely the first to actually make a working prototype! I stared at the back of that circuit board for ages until my head spun, but I couldn’t make sense of it at all!”
After thinking for a moment, Zhao Da asked, “How long do you think until it can be mass-produced?”
Zhao Er, calming down a bit but still brimming with awe, explained to his finance-major brother, “I don’t think we’ll see mass production for years.” He went on, “Actually, chips that can capture nerve signals already exist. Chips that can analyze bioelectricity aren’t quite mature, but they’re usable. As for the control circuits, those are pretty standard... But integrating all three of those not-so-rare components into a metal plate the size of a fingertip—no one’s done it before. The boss is a complete genius... I bet he even made that metal plate himself…”
Zhao Da let out a heartfelt, “Unbelievable.”
Just then, he got a message from his assistant. He glanced at it and chuckled, shaking his head. “Turns out this boss is an engineer’s kid. His expensive hobby burned through so much money that both his wives divorced him—his first wife was even the Gu family’s eldest daughter.”
Zhao Er took his brother’s tablet and skimmed through the brief intro about the boss. He started laughing, too. “Looks like he’s unlucky with wives... But if either of his ex-wives are still alive, they must regret it dearly about now.” After a pause, he added, “Gu Sheng is his son, you know.”
He put down the tablet and pulled out his phone, logging into Mechanical Heaven, and opened the boss’s advertisement thread. Switching to voice input, he poured out over a thousand words of glowing praise in one go, titling the post directly: Boss, you have my full respect.
Within half a minute of posting, his private messages were already showing “99+”.
He’d made a lot of friends on the Mechanical Heaven forum, and plenty of them knew his real identity. At that moment, most of his friends were bombarding his DMs with question marks, while people in the group chat were asking if he’d been hacked.
Glancing over the messages, he couldn’t be bothered to reply to each one, so he answered everyone in the thread: Every word I wrote comes straight from my heart. Even if I die and get nailed into my coffin, I’ll shout from my tomb with these decayed vocal cords: Boss, you’re awesome plus ultra!
The PR company employees who’d worked so hard behind the scenes to stir up trouble on the forum saw these two back-to-back posts and their scalps tingled. They felt they’d been wasting their effort all along.
No matter how energetically they slandered and attacked, it couldn’t outweigh a verified Zhao Er personally vouched for Qin Jingzhou’s skills.
Even if they didn’t truly believe Qin Jingzhou was some legendary craftsman, the fact that he could get Zhao Er to stick his neck out was enough that they needed to report it to management.
They could still target a rich family’s junior worth several billion, but now, they’d have to charge more.
At that moment, the female lead, Ling Yu, was on the phone with the head of the PR company while getting cozy with her lover.
At first she didn’t care much, but the more she listened, the graver she looked. In the end, she pushed her little lover away, not wanting any further distraction.
In her past life, at this same time she’d been pregnant and had hidden abroad with her best friend’s help. She never took part in Gu Sheng’s father’s funeral at all.
Gu Sheng and his father had a distant relationship, so she could remember the date of Gu Sheng’s mother’s birthday and death, but not the day Qin Jingzhou died. She only vaguely recalled that Qin Jingzhou died of a heart attack sometime this year.
Since the cause of death was a heart attack, all she needed to do was provoke Qin Jingzhou a few more times, and it’d be easy to have him fall ill earlier.
As for why she wanted to target Qin Jingzhou, who was a boastful loser with more swagger than skill, it was actually so that Mi Xiaoxiao would end up helpless and alone, making it easier for her to move on to the next step. Although she was sure that Qin Jingzhou wasn’t a reliable father, if he noticed some trap being set for Mi Xiaoxiao, he’d surely have some reaction.
The trickier part was that the “buyer” for Mi Xiaoxiao in her plan was actually distantly related to Qin Jingzhou. As she mulled over these tangled memories, the PR manager suddenly asked if she really knew Qin Jingzhou and could be sure he was useless.
Ling Yu instantly realized something was off. She shot the question back. “What do you mean?”
The other side explained that Zhao Er had just posted a wall of praise for Qin Jingzhou’s skills, and if he really was a bigshot, she’d need to pay more.
After a while, she put down the phone, her brows tightly furrowed.
The little lover, whose head was resting in her lap, noticed and pressed gently between her brows. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Ling Yu took a deep breath. “There’s been a hitch. The plan isn’t going so smoothly. I need to ask Gu Sheng about the situation.”
At the mention of “Gu Sheng,” her lover’s face turned dark for a moment. “Is he giving you trouble again?”
Ling Yu admitted it straightforwardly. “Yeah.” Then she added, “Business and making money are never smooth sailing.” After speaking, she picked up the phone again to call Gu Sheng.
She’d been reborn at the perfect time—after her and Gu Sheng’s love-at-first-sight meeting, but before she was forced to run with a child.
It really was a wonderful turning point.
She quickly discovered that by acting a bit more distant, Gu Sheng was only more drawn to her... Back in her previous life, she devoted herself to Gu Sheng only to be repeatedly let down.
Just like the old saying—human nature is fickle.
Thinking this, her dislike of Gu Sheng deepened. Just as she connected the call, she wasted no time stirring the pot. “What’s going on with your dad? Is he... It all sounds like a scam to me... Your sister moving in with him probably doesn’t mean she’s any better off, right?”
She heard Gu Sheng’s angry “Let me ask,” and was satisfied enough to hang up.
Her little lover raised her head and smiled up at her.
But Ling Yu could still see the fleeting darkness in her lover’s eyes. She gave a soft chuckle and cooed, comforting this girl she fancied so much. “Jealous?”
Her little lover shook her head. “Not at all. I know you don’t care about him, but it pains me you can’t openly break it off with him because of business.”
Ling Yu smiled more gently, “That’s all I need to hear. When you’ve made your fortune, maybe I won’t have to work so hard anymore.”
The little lover narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to make it—really. I’ll work hard on this new project. No, I’ll put my life into it.”
Ling Yu squeezed her little lover’s cheek. “Don’t talk about putting your life on the line. Just do your best, okay? If you care about me, don’t you think I care about you, too?”
The little lover softened. “I know.”
Nestled into her lover’s arms, Ling Yu let her mind wander. This little lover was, after all, the best friend who’d helped her so much in her past life, but always with an air of superiority, doling out kindness from above... She was her crush.
Ling Yu could hardly wait to see her best friend’s face when she finally learned the truth.
Meanwhile, after hanging up on Ling Yu, Gu Sheng was boiling with anger, but he didn’t lose his rationality. He also didn’t completely believe Ling Yu’s words.
Honestly, he did like Ling Yu, but what truly fascinated him was the strange tangle of love and hate radiating from her when she faced him... That conflicting urge, both hoping for the best for him and always wanting to take revenge—a truly twisted allure.
He’d never met a woman like her before.
Gu Sheng pinched the bridge of his nose, and instead of bothering his assistant, decided to check the forum himself to see what was going on.
Then, on Mechanical Heaven, he saw his father’s ad post, along with Zhao Er’s two utterly outrageous replies.
Thinking it over, he decided to go see, in person, just what his father was up to.