The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 27

“Let’s hope so. Oh my god.” Yan Yunkui said. “If someone tricks you again, don’t come crying to me.”

“I won’t. Everything’s under control. I’ve got a handle on it.” Yan Chang clicked his tongue and looked at the paper in Yan Yunkui’s hand. “Only one copy of that report?”

“You funded the machine and still don’t know? It only prints one copy per test. No backups. Absolute trash,” Yan Yunkui casually complained.

“Good.” Yan Chang grabbed the report, pulled up his light brain, and burned the pages with a laser. “That’s the end of this matter. Don’t tell anyone.”

Yan Yunkui plopped onto a chair. “Got it, got it. You’re watching her so closely, be careful…”

“I’ll get someone to apply for a cosmetic surgery license for the hospital next month.” Yan Chang rubbed his forehead. “Pick the equipment yourself. Put it on the public account.”

“Hmph. Go check on that kid, she should be out soon.” Yan Yunkui patted him. “You’re still not going to test her mental strength? It’s probably a really high number.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll test it when the time’s right.” Yan Chang brushed off Yan Yunkui’s hand impatiently and rushed into the exam room.

Jiang Momo had already lifted the lid and was sitting up. She looked clean and refreshed, her eyes bright.

“Am I okay?” she asked, hopping out of the pod.

“The doctor said you’re fine.” Yan Chang started to reach out to help her but then pulled his hand back.

Jiang Momo nudged his arm with her elbow proudly. “I told you I’m in great shape! You didn’t believe me!

“Oh right, I’ve got a big surprise for you!”

“What surprise? My mecha is fixed?” Yan Chang guessed.

Yan Yunkui glanced at Jiang Momo’s expression and knew Yan Chang was spot on.

He facepalmed from the side. Their big boss really had no sense of timing. Guessing the surprise immediately totally killed the mood.

As he sighed, Jiang Momo nodded excitedly. “Yep! Am I awesome or what?”

“I knew it! You always work fast! I’m so lucky to have run into someone as talented as you…” Yan Chang smoothly launched into a stream of flattery.

As he spoke, he led Jiang Momo out. When passing Yan Yunkui, he even mimed a ‘keep it secret’ gesture.

***

They didn’t go back to the apartment first, instead heading to the restaurant Yan Chang mentioned earlier.

Seated by the window, Yan Chang noticed Jiang Momo who had been restless the whole way there now pressing one hand to her shoulder and stretching her arm. He asked curiously, “What’s up? Are you uncomfortable?”

Jiang Momo shook her head. “I feel like after going to the hospital, my whole body feels unusually relaxed and light.”

Yan Chang paused as he wiped his hands. “Did you have some old injuries before?”

Jiang Momo nodded. “Yeah, I got it in a previous fight.”

The alien beasts on the desolate planet were clever. Sometimes they would even form groups to ambush her. Getting a little hurt was normal. Besides, she’d already administered medicine and there was no pain, nor itch, so she hadn’t paid it much attention.

“Yan Yunkui didn’t even tell me about this,” Yan Chang muttered under his breath.

“It’s not serious,” Jiang Momo said. “Thanks so much, Yan Chang. I didn’t even know that this is what my body is supposed to feel like when it’s normal.”

Yan Chang slightly lowered his head, his bright red bangs covering his eyes.

What kind of crappy life had this poor kid been living?

“From now on, you’ll feel like this every day,” Yan Chang said, lifting his head. His tone was the same as usual. “Let’s order.”

He tapped the table with his wrist-strapped light brain. Jiang Momo followed suit. The menu opened up in front of them. She still couldn’t read a lot of the words but thankfully, it had both pictures and text.

They quickly ordered around thirty dishes.

Jiang Momo was swallowing her saliva the whole time she ordered but to her surprise, she didn’t feel that same gnawing hunger she used to get if she didn’t eat immediately.

When they finished ordering, Jiang Momo noticed that Yan Chang seemed like he was about to pay, so she quickly beat him to it. She then pretended nothing had happened.

“You’re fast with your hands,” Yan Chang laughed and closed his light brain.

“Of course,” Jiang Momo said proudly and then checked her friends list.

E Mingjun still hadn’t accepted her friend request.

Jiang Momo closed her light brain and waited patiently for the food.

Soon, footsteps sounded behind them.

Jiang Momo turned her head and saw a huge tray appear, followed by a hand with distinct joints. Then came a face both of them were extremely familiar with.

It was E Mingjun who hadn’t accepted her friend request.

He was wearing a white uniform with a black apron tied at the waist, making his waist look slim. His green hair was tied neatly at the back of his head. His face even looked a bit refined at first glance but the sleeves, tight around his muscular arms, ruined the scholarly look.

“Tutor E? You have a part-time job here too?” Yan Chang quickly raised his light brain and snapped a couple of photos. “You look cool in this outfit.”

“Yeah, I come here sometimes when they’re short-staffed.” E Mingjun set the tray on the table.

“No wonder I haven’t seen you around lately,” Yan Chang said.

E Mingjun nodded. “I’ve been a bit busy these days.”

Jiang Momo looked up at E Mingjun’s jawline and after a moment of thought, finally asked, “Do you have time now? Could you accept my friend request? Just so you know, I didn’t delete you. I don’t know how it disappeared.”

“Switching to a new light brain can cause that,” E Mingjun said, glancing at his wrist. “But not right now. I’ll do it after my shift.”

Yan Chang had been staring at E Mingjun’s wrist for a while and asked, “You finally ditched that basic model light brain? What model is this? It looks pretty sleek.”

The basic light brain was a big square chunk and looked bulky. The one on E Mingjun’s wrist now was also a large square but it had a much more premium look to it, kind of vintage.

Jiang Momo followed his gaze but before she could get a good look, E Mingjun pulled his sleeve down to cover it.

“There’s no model. I brought it from home. I’m just used to the old one.”

E Mingjun saw Jiang Momo still staring longingly at his wrist and explained, “If they catch me using a light brain on the job, my pay will get docked. I’ll add you as soon as I get off.”

“Okay! I’ll be waiting!” Jiang Momo nodded.

Suddenly, E Mingjun pressed his ear and frowned slightly, saying to Jiang Momo, “Another customer’s urging me. I’ve got to go serve the food.”

“Bye~ Good luck at work!” Jiang Momo waved at him.

Yan Chang nodded as well.

After E Mingjun left, Yan Chang whispered to Jiang Momo, “Did you know Tutor E works multiple part-time jobs?”

Jiang Momo nodded. “He said he’s doing work-study.”

“He’s super proud. I once offered to help him out and he refused flat-out.” Yan Chang rested his face on one hand and sighed. “I think we’ve got to find a way to help him.”

“How?” Jiang Momo was interested.

Yan Chang picked up a piece of meat and put it on Jiang Momo’s plate, then winked at her. “I’ll tell you later. What are you planning to do in the next couple of days?”

“Fixing a mecha,” Jiang Momo said. She needed to save up her tuition and living expenses.

“Of course, I should’ve guessed. You’re always busy,” Yan Chang poked at the meat on his plate, sounding a bit down.

“What about you? What are you doing the next couple of days?” Jiang Momo asked.

“Mecha training,” Yan Chang replied.

They looked at each other and then laughed.

“Master, promise me. If you have time, make sure to join me in the mecha competition.”

“Of course! I’m not that busy anyway. Oh right, here’s your mecha.” Jiang Momo pulled out Yan Chang’s mecha space button and handed it to him.

Yan Chang took it and hung it straight back around his neck.

“You’re not going to check it?” Jiang Momo asked.

The speed he put it on didn’t seem like he’d inspected it.

“No need. I trust your skills,” Yan Chang said, picking up another dish for her.

“So what exactly happened to your mecha that it got so messed up?” Jiang Momo asked, stuffing a bite of meat into her mouth.

“Tutor E broke it,” Yan Chang tattled. “That afternoon you went to your exam, I invited Tutor E for a sparring match.”

“He agreed?” Jiang Momo asked.

“Nope,” Yan Chang said smugly. “So I ambushed him.”

“Isn’t that against school rules?” Jiang Momo was surprised.

“Of course it is,” Yan Chang said. “That’s why I had to hit him before the guards showed up.”

“And then he blasted off your mecha’s arm in one shot before you even touched him?” Jiang Momo asked.

Yan Chang paused, about to brag. “How’d you know? Tutor E told you? No way, you guys don’t even have contact info.”

“I could tell,” Jiang Momo said. “Your mecha had no signs of collision and the energy was full.”

It clearly hadn’t even been powered up before it got wrecked.

“Ugh, annoying,” Yan Chang propped up his chin and joked, “With your observation skills, no one can lie in front of you.”

Jiang Momo just gave a noncommittal shrug.

“Hey, give me your hand a sec,” Yan Chang beckoned.

Jiang Momo reached her hand over.

“I was going to buy parts with you after the meal but turns out you already fixed it while I was still asleep.” Yan Chang pressed something against her wrist. “If it’s not enough, let me know. I’ll add more.”

[7,000 star coins received.]

“That much?” Jiang Momo asked.

“It’s not a lot. My mecha cost over a million. The Federation’s Mecha Manufacturing Association says profit margins for selling mechas are 30%, meaning the part costs were around 700,000. The arm probably cost about 50,000 and 20,000 is your repair fee,” Yan Chang said, then suddenly squinted at her, suspicious. “What did you usually charge? Don’t tell me you’ve been doing repairs for free?”

From the first time he met her, he felt Jiang Momo had an oddly kind and naive vibe that looked out of place in the Capital Star. But even with a black card linked to her account, she still managed to spend nothing! What kind of personality gets taken advantage of and helps others save money?! He couldn’t understand it.

“Not exactly. I just didn’t know the pricing rules when I got here,” Jiang Momo replied.

She had even studied the job system prices from the Mecha Maintenance Center and still couldn’t figure it out.

“I forgot that each planet has different repair price standards,” Yan Chang said. “On the Capital Star, the repair fee is usually 40% of the cost of the parts used.”

“More than the manufacturer’s fee?” Jiang Momo didn’t get it.

“Because manufacturers are regulated by an official association, while repair techs are freelance with no regulation,” Yan Chang shrugged. “Right now, getting a license to sell mechas is tough. The waitlist is long and damage from fights is unavoidable, so most manufacturers also do repairs. A mecha that runs for a few years will rack up repair costs way beyond its purchase price.”

If not for the strict regulations, he’d have an A-grade mecha by now.

He really envied E Mingjun’s super A-grade mecha. He wasn’t greedy, he’d settle for a super B-grade one!

After figuring out the current prices for mecha repairs, Jiang Momo saw that Yan Chang had clearly fallen into his own little world. His eyes were vacant like he was deep in thought. Without saying a word, she immediately buried herself in eating.

Now that she suddenly had money, Jiang Momo, who had originally planned to take advantage of her relaxed state to repair a few more mechas and cram in 24 hours of sleep before the exam, changed her mind.

She decided to just lie around in her room until the exam, watching all sorts of movies and novels and use the time to seriously learn how to read. Her goal was to evolve from illiterate to semi-illiterate before the next test!

With such a great ambition set, Jiang Momo confidently stuffed more meat into her mouth.

Yan Chang snapped out of his thoughts and saw Jiang Momo stuffing both cheeks like a hamster.

She looked kind of cute.

Sensing someone staring at her, Jiang Momo looked up in confusion.

Yan Chang quickly looked away.

From then on, all the dishes were brought over by other servers from the restaurant. Even after the two of them finished eating and left, E Mingjun never showed up again.

“Should I take you to the maintenance center?” After the meal, Yan Chang looked at Jiang Momo who was wiping her mouth and asked.

“No need, I’m heading back to the apartment. You don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be back in just a few steps,” Jiang Momo replied.

“I’ll take you anyway.” Yan Chang stood up, hesitated for a moment, and finally said, “Why haven’t you used the card that I gave you?”

Jiang Momo was confused. “What card?”

Yan Chang was also puzzled. “I bound a card to your light brain so you could buy parts and pay for the apartment’s smart home system. You didn’t see it?”

“Nope.” Jiang Momo immediately opened her light brain. All the pages looked exactly the same as before. Eventually, she found a small, barely noticeable translucent square in the corner of her account balance page.

She tapped it with her consciousness and a pop-up window appeared.

[This card is bound to a priority payment function. Do you wish to prioritize this card for all spending channels?]

Jiang Momo selected [No], blinked, and exited the interface.

“The smart home system charges daily. I bound the card for priority payment, so I thought you’d unlinked it yourself,” Yan Chang said, still in disbelief. “So you really didn’t know about the card? Then how did you pay for the smart system usage?”

“The smart system?” Jiang Momo scratched her cheek with her index finger. “I turned all of it off. It said it was expensive.”

Yan Chang: “…You’re quite frugal.”

“Thanks,” Jiang Momo accepted the compliment.

***

Over the next two days, because Yan Chang made three projection calls every day to check if she had turned on the smart home system, and because Jiang Momo thought it would be a waste not to enjoy something she already paid for, she didn’t leave her room at all, fully immersing herself in the AI’s comprehensive service.

Three hours before the exam, Jiang Momo lazily crawled out of the big, soft bed. With the help of mechanical arms, she got herself cleaned up and ready to head to the academy.

Yan Chang had sent her the exact exam time the night before.

In the photo, posted on the bulletin board at the academy’s entrance, a large notice was displayed. The previous photo of Ling Yelin has been replaced.

The notice read, [All individuals participating in the fourth round of the Central Mecha Academy entrance exam, please arrive at Exam Hall B5 at exactly 12:00 PM on August 5. Failure to do so will be considered a forfeiture. Thank you for your cooperation.]

Jiang Momo had crammed a lot of news articles and films in the past two days. She felt her reading skills had improved rapidly. At the very least, there were only four characters she didn’t recognize in the announcement.

What an achievement!

“But it’s really strange. There’s no info about this year’s entrance exam anywhere on the StarNet. In previous years, it was all available,” Jiang Momo mumbled as she checked the photo again for the exam time and got ready to leave. Then, there was a loud knocking at the door.

It was really pounding, quick and urgent, as if it was about to break down the door.

The next second, Yan Chang’s projection appeared outside.

He looked anxious like something major had happened.

“Open the door,” Jiang Momo instructed the AI with practiced ease.

The door opened.

“Master!!! A super B-grade mecha! You actually made a super B-grade mecha!” Yan Chang rushed in and stopped abruptly in front of her, so excited he was almost incoherent. “As soon as I got in, I could feel my left arm was way more responsive, so I rushed to get it tested! The results just came out! It’s a super B-grade mecha! You’re amazing!”

Next to the extremely excited Yan Chang, Jiang Momo remained very calm. She stood still, pinched her chin, and after thinking for a bit, said, “I only replaced the left arm. I didn’t touch the core data or materials.”

“Exactly! It’s that left arm! The test results say the data matches that of an A-grade mecha!” Yan Chang was still ecstatic. “You’re amazing, Master. You must be able to make A-grade mechas, right? Right?”

Jiang Momo shook her head. “Of course not.”

She had never studied A-grade mecha assembly and didn’t know the internal structure.

“But the test results don’t lie,” Yan Chang said, calming down a bit. “It really is a super B-grade mecha.”

“Do you know the structure of an A-grade mecha?” Jiang Momo asked.

Could it be that what Little Eight called more complex energy pathways was just referring to three energy pathways?

“I don’t know, I just pilot them. Why would I need to know that?” Yan Chang shook his head.

Jiang Momo lowered her head slightly, her mind racing.

If a super B-grade mecha contains some A-grade structure, does that mean E Mingjun’s super A-grade mecha might contain some S-grade structures? If so, she really wanted to take it apart and study it to see what the neural pathways in an S-grade mecha were like.

“You heading out now?” Yan Chang asked.

“Yeah, the exam’s about to start. If I leave now, the timing’s just right,” Jiang Momo replied.

“I’ll take you. Oh right, you can’t bring your light brain into the exam. Let me hold it for you,” Yan Chang said as he glanced at her wrist.

Jiang Momo suddenly remembered. “Ah, I knew I forgot something. Here you go.” She took the light brain off her wrist and handed it over.

She muttered, “E Mingjun said he’d add me after he got home but he still hasn’t accepted my request.”

“Next time you see him, give him a scolding,” Yan Chang said with a glance at the device in his palm.

“Seriously, it’s too much,” Jiang Momo said. “But it’s fine. Once I get my original light brain back, I’ll have his contact info.”

“Yeah, this is the last round of the exam. Once it’s over, you’ll get your original light brain back,” Yan Chang mentioned casually.

“The last round?” Jiang Momo perked up.

Once the exam was over, she could see Little Eight again!

She had so much she wanted to say to Little Eight!

“I wonder what this test will be like?” Jiang Momo said to herself.

“You want to know?” Yan Chang suddenly asked.

“I’ll find out when it starts anyway,” Jiang Momo replied cheerfully.

***

Yan Chang didn’t take Jiang Momo straight to the exam. He first brought her to eat and only afterward, unhurriedly dropped her off at the base of the teaching building.

Only ten minutes remained before the exam.

Jiang Momo said goodbye to him, took the jacket he handed her, and entered the elevator.

As the doors closed, she looked down at the jacket draped over her arm and muttered, “Huh? Why’d he give me a jacket? It’s not even cold in there?”

The door opened again, revealing a large hall similar in size to the last exam location. The people were also the same.

But the atmosphere was different.

In a corner of the hall, a group of people stood chatting and laughing. In the middle of the crowd was Peng Ji.

He looked energetic, like he had just received great news, and his whole face seemed to glow.

Jiang Momo glanced around and then spotted the exam rankings posted on a wall.

She hurried over to take a look.

On the other side, voices drifted into her ears.

“Peng Ji, didn’t you guys seem to get along well before? Why not say hi?”

“Yeah, didn’t she even get penalized last time for giving you mecha parts?”

Peng Ji didn’t respond. He stared at Jiang Momo’s back as she looked at the rankings, his expression calm.

That day, when he found out Jiang Momo hadn’t finished assembling, he got too emotional to think clearly. Later, after calming down, he suddenly realized that someone who couldn’t even assemble a D-grade mecha faster than him was not really worthy of admiration.

At that moment, Jiang Momo saw her own ranking. Fifty-first, right on the edge of not earning any points.