The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 33

“Wait, Master, why are your eyes red?” Yan Chang saw Jiang Momo suddenly clench her fists and her eyes turned red, and he asked in a panic.

“I’m fine.” Jiang Momo lifted her face and gave a smile.

Under Yan Chang’s gaze, she found the video Ge Qing mentioned and clicked it open.

At the beginning of the video, a chubby invigilator she thought she had seen before was earnestly waving his arms as if doing a chicken dance. His expression was serious as he explained something, “I mean this one is super B-grade. Both its arms have A-grade mecha specs. Both arms!”

Then the camera switched to a tall mecha, which was currently being piloted and performing a dazzling array of movements. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference just by looking but the data panel beside it was something everyone could understand.

The values displayed clearly exceeded those of a regular B-grade mecha.

On the top of the video, comments floated across the screen.

[Wow, the academy hasn’t posted a video in years. Is this one for Peng Ji? Our Little Teacher Peng is really something!]

[Checking in!]

[Brothers, we’re sitting in protest at the Presidential Palace. Anyone want to join?]

[A super B-grade mecha really is different. I heard a mecha repairman recently managed to upgrade a B-grade to a super B-grade. Has anyone tried it yet?]

[Stop joking, that’s impossible engineering, okay?]

[Wait! Isn’t this promo video shot for Peng Ji?!]

The footage cut to the exam hall. With a crowd gathered, a mechanical voice dutifully announced, [Attention everyone, exam rankings will now be announced. First place: Jiang Momo. Second place: Wu Yue. Third place: Peng Ji…]

Then, the camera panned over the calm Jiang Momo, the excited Wu Yue, and Peng Ji, whose face was twisted with frustration.

Yan Chang was also watching the video and subconsciously commented, “The editing on this clip isn’t great. It’s kind of choppy.”

Jiang Momo didn’t respond. She was focused on the suddenly overwhelming flood of comments nearly blocking the screen. She manually reduced the comment display.

It was clear that the broadcast had shocked people who had previously seen the trending topics or followed Peng Ji.

[What the hell?! Peng Ji isn’t even second place?!]

[This? This is the so-called mecha genius? What a waste of my attention.]

[How can someone be so shameless?!]

Is anyone still protesting? Let’s go home, this is embarrassing!]

[Hey, everyone. [Link] This is Peng Ji’s profile. Go ask him directly!]

[Wait a second, Wu Yue looks really familiar… Isn’t she the one from that aircraft crash? I smell a conspiracy!]

The comments during this part of the video were all over the place, some even cursed Peng Ji’s family. Jiang Momo frowned and kept watching.

Next, the video focused for two seconds on Jiang Momo’s face in the exam hall, then zoomed in closer and suddenly passed through her, transitioning into the second round of exams.

It was a scene even Jiang Momo hadn’t seen before. A group of invigilators surrounded her, offering commentary. Meanwhile, she remained unaware, rapidly etching out an energy pathway.

In the footage, she held the material panel with lowered eyes, barely moving her pupils. She casually glanced at it and then swiftly carved with her hand, clean and decisive movements.

Her calm gaze, efficient gestures, the grand background music, and just the right amount of slow motion together created a powerful image of someone strategizing and in control.

“You look so cool, Master,” Yan Chang’s voice suddenly broke in. “The comments are going wild. I take back what I said. The editing’s actually pretty good.”

Jiang Momo glanced at the comments.

[Ah! Such a regal girl! She must be the teammate Peng Ji mentioned, right? If I were in a group with her, we’d dominate too!]

[So cool, so cool, so cool! Makes me want to be a mecha manufacturer too!]

[Speaking as someone in the industry, it takes us an average of five minutes to carve one of those.]

[She’s such a good person, even teaching her competitors. I want to be taught hand-in-hand by her too~]

Is no one talking about Peng Ji anymore? Well then, I’ll say it. Peng Ji is trash! Betraying such an amazing girl like her? He’s not even human!]

“Peng Ji’s reputation is done for.” Yan Chang looked up, smiling broadly.

Then he noticed Jiang Momo sitting across from him looking serious, biting her finger, seeming a bit anxious.

“What’s wrong, Master?” Yan Chang asked.

“The protestors are leaving,” Jiang Momo said, looking out the window at the dispersing crowd. Her gaze was hard to read. “The Federation already concluded it was just an accident. Now that the protestors are gone, will anyone still investigate Peng Ji?”

“You’re worried about that?” Yan Chang paused. “You knew Wu Yue from before?”

Jiang Momo shook her head.

“Then don’t worry, I’ll get someone to look into it,” Yan Chang patted her shoulder. “Relax. What we should be doing now is celebrating.”

“Celebrate what?” Jiang Momo asked instinctively.

“Celebrate you becoming a star teacher!” Yan Chang replied matter-of-factly. “The official statement’s already out. It’s a done deal.”

Jiang Momo didn’t say anything. A notification popped up in front of her, an email.

“What’s wrong?” Yan Chang asked as the spaceship arrived at its destination. He started walking out but noticed Jiang Momo hadn’t followed, so he turned around.

Jiang Momo looked up. “The academy wants me to invigilate the entrance exam for new students tomorrow.”

“They’re putting you to work already? That fast?” Yan Chang rubbed his chin. “Well, it’s fine. The entrance exam is just a written test. Robots grade the papers. Teachers just stand around and make sure no one cheats.”

“Cheat?” Jiang Momo looked puzzled. “People can cheat in exams?”

“Of course. In the past couple of years, there’s been a new kind of prep class for the academy’s entrance exam. They don’t teach you how to score better but how to cheat. We already caught a group before but they seem to come up with new methods every year. This year, apparently they require you to register in pairs or they won’t take you,” Yan Chang explained after thinking for a bit.

“How do you know all this?” Jiang Momo asked curiously.

She recalled Jiang Yingying had tried to invite her to some kind of prep class before. Could it have been the same?

“Because I enrolled last year too. But when I saw the content they were teaching was wrong, I dropped out immediately. In the end, a batch of students from that cram school got caught during the exam.” Yan Chang said.

“If they got caught, why are there still people signing up this year?” Jiang Momo asked.

“Because the ones who got caught were less than a tenth of all who attended the cram school,” Yan Chang said. “Their methods are very advanced. Robots generally can’t detect them. The people who got caught last year were all discovered by the invigilators. But before that, most of the monitoring was left to robots and very few invigilators were assigned.”

“I see.” Jiang Momo nodded.

After explaining, Yan Chang glanced out the window and saw a familiar figure in the crowd.

“Eh?! Isn’t that Tutor E? What’s he doing?” Yan Chang pointed outside.

Jiang Momo followed the direction of his finger and saw E Mingjun walking against the flow of the crowd toward the Presidential Palace. Then he disappeared at the entrance of the Presidential Palace.

Jiang Momo and Yan Chang looked at each other.

“It looks like Tutor E has secrets!”

“E Mingjun is even working part-time at the Presidential Palace?!”

Their voices overlapped. They looked at each other again.

“Does the Presidential Palace hire part-time workers?” Jiang Momo asked in a low voice.

“Nope,” Yan Chang replied honestly.

Jiang Momo lowered her head in thought for a while and then asked Little Eight, “So back then when you told me to go out at that time, it wasn’t just to catch the sky ladder? What’s so special about E Mingjun?”

She had always thought her encounter with E Mingjun had no ulterior motives behind it but now she was starting to doubt.

[There’s nothing special,] Little Eight replied.

It had just discovered that E Mingjun had been investigating Jiang Momo ever since they arrived at the Capital Star and connected to the surveillance system, so it arranged for them to meet early in case any future conflict would cause irreconcilable misunderstandings.

But it wasn’t planning to tell Jiang Momo that. The kid couldn’t hide things in her heart. If she knew, she’d act weird when she saw E Mingjun.

Yes, even though Jiang Momo didn’t know it herself, the interstellar pirate hunter that E Mingjun had been tracking was clearly her.

A mysterious figure who could see in the dark, flew a broken-down combat spaceship across desolate planets to scavenge junk and occasionally rescued people from interstellar pirates after hearing distress calls.

“Little Eight, I feel like you’re hiding something from me,” Jiang Momo said suddenly as she looked at the Siamese cat licking its paws, her brows slightly furrowed. She didn’t catch any unusual tone in Little Eight’s calm voice but something just felt off.

The Siamese cat didn’t stop licking. It glanced up at her and was quietly startled by her sharp instincts. [No, you’re just imagining things.]

“Alright then.” Jiang Momo rubbed the back of her head and accepted the answer.

***

The next morning, Jiang Momo arrived at the Central Mecha Academy’s personnel office to report in.

At the entrance, she happened to arrive at the same time as Peng Ji. Jiang Momo instinctively glanced at him.

Peng Ji avoided her gaze and shrank back a little.

He looked like he’d been through a major blow, with dark circles under his eyes, clearly exhausted, and even his clothes were wrinkled.

Even so, he shuffled a few steps forward and raised the hand holding a thermal food container. “Boss, have you had breakfast?”

Jiang Momo gave him a sideways glance, puzzled by what he was thinking. She ignored him and walked straight into the personnel office.

Peng Ji looked at the door that had closed in front of him, then down at the thermal container in his hand. He tossed it into the trash can next to him.

“Hello, teacher, I’m here to report!” As soon as Jiang Momo shut the door, Peng Ji pushed it open and walked in.

The receptionist looked up. When she saw Peng Ji’s disheveled appearance, she paused and a look of disgust flashed through her eyes.

“Peng Ji, right? Come here and register your info into the light brain. From now on, your monthly salary will be deposited directly into your account.

“Alright, your info is all registered. You two should head to B1 for invigilating now.” She stood up.

“So soon?” Peng Ji blinked in surprise.

The receptionist ignored him and walked directly over to Jiang Momo. Her tone instantly softened, with a hint of apology. “I’ve already given your access to the office and dorm to your light brain. You can use it today. The dorm is a single room but the office is shared, two people per office. That’s the academy rule and we can’t change it.”

“I share an office with him?” Jiang Momo asked, pointing at Peng Ji in surprise.

“No, we’re short on offices because of equipment limitations, so… you’ll be sharing with the Dean.” The receptionist looked at Jiang Momo with sympathy. Technically it wasn’t allowed but since the Dean had personally requested it, she had no choice.

So pitiful, working right under the leadership’s nose. No slacking off is possible.

“Professor Ge? That’s fine,” Jiang Momo accepted cheerfully, grinning ear to ear. “We’ll head off to the exam now~”

“Goodbye~” The receptionist waved her off, then turned to look at Peng Ji who was still standing there lost in thought. She urged him, “Hurry up or you’ll be late.”

***

Jiang Momo arrived at the exam site and found it was a massive hall, so large she couldn’t see the end of it at a glance. She scratched her head, puzzled. “Everyone’s taking the exam here? Doesn’t that make invigilating way harder?”

“There are robots to help. If they detect anything suspicious, they’ll send the footage to us for judgment,” Pang Pan explained as he walked up beside her.

Jiang Momo looked up.

It was the chubby teacher from the video who had done the chicken dance!

“But I heard some cram schools specifically teach how to cheat. Aren’t robots unable to detect that?”

“Cram schools are expensive, so we treat those who didn’t get caught as if they were admitted based on special talents,” Pang Pan explained.

Every year, there are students who fail the final exam but donate money to the academy. Those students greatly help maintain the financial balance of the school.

“What about the ones who got caught?” Jiang Momo asked. “Just their bad luck?”

“Cheating on entrance exams is strictly prohibited. That’s school policy,” Pang Pan said.

“I see.” Jiang Momo asked again, “At our academy, you choose your major after the exams, right?”

“Correct. All the students taking exams today are here,” Pang Pan replied.

“Thank you, teacher,” Jiang Momo smiled and scanned the crowd. She quickly locked onto a specific spot.

“My name is Pang Pan. Just call me by my name,” he said.

Jiang Momo nodded. “I’m Jiang Momo.”

As they chatted, the exam began. Robots pulled out test papers from their bellies and placed them one by one beside the students.

Jiang Yingying received her test paper and glanced around first. After confirming what the cram school teacher had said, that supervision there was relaxed and mainly relied on the robots, she picked up her pen with her right hand and pressed her left temple with her fingers.

But just as she was about to start answering, footsteps approached.

Jiang Yingying looked up and saw Jiang Momo set down a small stool and sit right next to her while wearing a work badge around her neck.

“Don’t mind me. Just focus on your test, I won’t bother you,” Jiang Momo said with a smile.