Chapter 117: Educated Youth Who Abandoned His Wife and Child – 49

“You’re too lazy to reheat it—but don’t you have a partner?” Dean Qiu looked at the smiling Shen Xiuyan and blurted this out, dumbfounded.

Then he waved his hand and covered his face. “Forget it, I get it. Naturally, we men should handle the labor.”

Shen Xiuyan gave him a thumbs up. “You’re enlightened.”

Dean Qiu thought to himself, Being around someone so lovesick like you, how could I not be enlightened by osmosis?

Now he was starting to think that making women do any kind of work was the greatest evil in this world…

No, no—he was off track.

Shouldn’t he first be complaining about how Shen Xiuyan, while working on research notes, could still come up with something like this???

Even if it didn’t look particularly sophisticated, this thing felt strangely impressive.

He watched as Shen Xiuyan leaned against the metal box and casually hammered back the dent it had taken when it fell earlier, completely unconcerned.

Dean Qiu’s heart thumped wildly with each punch.

Ugh, he was guilty. The country should be the one to punish him—not Shen Xiuyan. This was way too stimulating…

He rushed up and grabbed his hand. “No, stop, stop hitting it. Can you demonstrate how this thing works? And what do you call it?”

“I named it the microwave.” Shen Xiuyan hugged the microwave and slung an arm around Dean Qiu’s neck. “Come on, let’s head to the canteen. I’ll grab some cold rice and show you how it works.”

“Okay, okay!” Dean Qiu rubbed his hands together and followed behind him like a little eager puppy.

It was lunchtime at the institute, so there were quite a few people around.

As soon as Shen Xiuyan and Dean Qiu walked in, all eyes turned their way. Shen Xiuyan had been in the spotlight lately, but it wasn’t just hype—he had the skills to back it up.

They watched as Shen Xiuyan casually tossed an ugly, large metal box onto a table, then turned and walked to the food window.

The Dean behind him looked like a worried little housewife, staring at the box with eyes full of pity, occasionally reaching out to gently caress it.

This bizarre scene drew everyone’s attention.

Soon, Shen Xiuyan returned with a chunk of frozen meat. Under everyone’s puzzled gaze, he tossed the meat into the metal box.

Then he turned a dial—and the box started making noise.

Within just a few breaths, when he took the meat out again, it was already thawed.

!!!

Everyone forgot about their food and swarmed over to ask, “Dean, what is that thing?”

Dean Qiu, driven by the belief that one should not be shocked alone, said, “It’s a new invention by Shen Xiuyan. He calls it a microwave. As for what it does—well, you just saw it.”

The crowd was stunned.

“I think I’ve heard of this. I think foreign countries have something like it, but no one in our country has developed one yet…”

“I’ve heard of it too.”

“He hasn’t even been here that long, and he’s already developed something new again?”

It made the rest of them look like total deadweight…

Dean Qiu shot the speaker a glare. “What do you know? That’s not all.”

He lifted the item he had been cradling like a precious treasure. “See this? This is also a kind of computer—the latest model!”

Everyone: “…”

That thin thing is a computer???

Someone clutched their chest. “If I remember right, that new computer model hasn’t even been developed yet…”

Dean Qiu nodded. “Exactly. Those fools seriously delayed Xiuyan’s progress. Just look at him—while guiding them, he still managed to casually invent two big things.”

Under Dean Qiu’s cryptically proud smile, the room fell into dead silence.

Everyone: Please, Dean, stop talking. We admit it—we’re all useless…

Shen Xiuyan, done with the demo, picked up the microwave to head back.

Dean Qiu hurried to stop him. “Wait, Xiuyan—could you let us have this microwave too?”

He sounded guilty—after all, they were squeezing so much out of one person, it was getting embarrassing.

But Shen Xiuyan was very generous—he wanted to be famous nationwide.

“You want to mass-produce this too? Personally, I don’t think it’s all that useful.”

The words were pure humblebrag, but Dean Qiu didn’t pick up on it. “Yes, yes, it’s very useful—benefits every household!”

Shen Xiuyan nodded. “Alright then. If you want, I can develop a new model—improve performance while reducing cost, so everyone can afford it. This one I threw together with whatever materials I had on hand, so it might be too expensive to give you as is.”

Every researcher in the room felt the sting on their faces. Just look at him—his slapdash cobbled-together creation was already a thousand times better than anything they’d made.

Dean Qiu’s face stung too, but when he heard that Shen Xiuyan could make an even better one, his eyes lit up.

He smiled even more kindly. “Since you’re making a new version, I’ll find a few people with the right expertise—you can teach them.”

Shen Xiuyan nodded. “Alright, same rule as always—keep the group small.”

Dean Qiu grinned foolishly. “Small, very small.”

Hearing this, the researchers who had studied relevant fields began secretly competing.

Though the group working on the new computer looked pitiful, they were actually happy in their pain.

Under Shen Xiuyan’s guidance, they were learning theoretical concepts they had never grasped before—something that brought immense joy to any researcher.

Compared to that, getting their pride shattered was nothing—after all, they really couldn’t have figured it out on their own.

There was no shame in admitting someone else’s brilliance.

With that in mind, learning from Shen Xiuyan and working on research with him was clearly the best safeguard for their future.

Quietly, they began gathering around Dean Qiu, all hoping to be among the chosen few.