Chapter 277 Take Care

Chapter 277 Take Care

Alice hesitated, wanting to say more, but in the end just left it at that.

"Alright, take care."

As soon as Alice left, Sidney turned to look at Anson. "Hello, I'm Sidney, the designer of this machine. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me directly. I'll do my best to help."

That same Anson who'd been smiling so easily just moments ago now had nothing but arrogance and contempt written all over his face.

"Oh, so you're the one who designed this piece of junk. Figures."

Sidney was completely blindsided.

When Alice was here, Anson's attitude had been completely different.

What was this supposed to mean now? Icing him out?

He thought for a moment. After all, he was a few years older than Anson and had some experience under his belt, so he pushed down his emotions and spoke again. "Didn't you say there were some precision issues that didn't meet standards? We can go take a look now. I've already reviewed the problems in these documents, so please take me there."

Anson shot him a look. "What a pain. I even have to fix this piece of junk you came up with."

Sidney's jaw twitched. Only now did he understand who Alice's earlier words had really been meant for.

She'd been reminding Anson to play nice with him.

Sidney really wanted to turn around and walk out, but he knew this was the advanced mechanical research center he'd always wanted access to, and this instrument was the result of half a year's work.

He could only swallow his anger and follow behind as the guy rattled off criticisms like a machine gun.

"You designed this thing to replace manual labor, right? Flesh and blood can never match steel. Only machines can achieve true precision. They don't get tired, they just keep working."

Sidney could only nod along from behind.

He had to admit, even though Anson's words were harsh, every single point hit home and had its own logic.

Soon the two arrived at the door of the last research room.

Anson pushed open the heavy door. "Alright, your baby's in here. Come on, let's fix it together. First is the density problem. Also, your design drawings were all done based on a very idealized set of data, but in real environments there are tons of interference factors and impurities. These problems can't be completely eliminated, we can only try replacing..."

At first Sidney didn't put his full attention on what he was saying. He just listened casually, but the more he listened, the more he felt like he couldn't keep up with the other person's train of thought.

Anson kept firing off technical terms with barely any pause.

By the end, Sidney just felt his head pounding. He had to raise his hand to stop him.

"Let's take this step by step. I started getting lost around step five, so please go through it again."

Anson rolled his eyes in a distinctly unfriendly way and coldly spat out two words. "So dumb."

Hearing this, Sidney finally couldn't hold back anymore. All the anger he'd been bottling up came rushing out.

"You're calling me dumb? I was always the smartest one in my class, one of the most talented in the whole school. You're testing me with your specialized knowledge — I should get credit just for keeping up at all."

Anson's eyes were full of contempt. "But Alice could completely follow my thinking before. Are you stupid? You can't even get this."

Sidney felt like those words had slapped him right across the face.

No one had ever called him stupid so directly before.

"Fine, fine, I'm dumb. So please explain it again."

That's what he said out loud, but he didn't accept it at all internally.

He consoled himself — it must be that this guy's specialty just happened to overlap with Alice's. Otherwise how could anyone from a different field keep up with this kind of explanation?

For Alice's sake in bringing him here, Anson reluctantly explained it again.

Meanwhile, Alice went to find Zephyr.

He was one of her mentor's closest friends.

Previously, when her mentor went abroad for extended research, she'd run into some equipment problems and couldn't find anyone to help, so she'd had to turn to Zephyr.

After that, Alice would come discuss problems with him every couple of days, and the two gradually became genuine friends despite the age gap.

Alice knocked on the door. From inside came an old but vigorous voice. "Come in."

Alice pushed the door open, her face wearing its usual gentle smile, and placed the desserts she'd brought in front of him.

"I came back to see you."

Zephyr, who'd been hunched over writing, finally looked up. His eyes lit up in that moment.

"So you're back, girl. Why didn't you tell me in advance? I would have prepared your favorite food."

"Didn't I send over a batch of equipment blueprints a while back? Anson said he ran into some problems these past few days, so I came over as soon as I wrapped things up today."

Alice didn't mention that she'd been in a car accident and nearly died.

She didn't want to worry him.

"I see. What have you been busy with lately, girl? Once these instruments are made, they'll replace most of the manual labor. Aren't you worried your employees will resent you?"

"My company had quite a few employees leave recently. The positions they left are vacant anyway, and I'm not planning to hire more people. The instruments can fill those spots."

"Makes sense." Zephyr picked up a piece of dessert and slowly took a bite. His wrinkled face looked much softer in that moment.

"Tastes good. This has to be from that place up in the north part of the city. Alright, you've seen me now, so stop hanging around here and get back to your work. I still have some things to sort out here — don't break my concentration."

Alice looked at this old man who put everyone else second once he started working, feeling a bit helpless.

She knew he'd devoted almost his entire life to his research, so she didn't disturb him further.

"Then I'll go check on Anson."

Alice walked back following her memory. Before she got close, she heard arguing coming from inside.

Sidney's face was flushed with anger. "I'm telling you to watch what you say! I'm not the one who got that thing wrong — you're the one who kept insisting on doing it your way."

Anson was equally unyielding. "I thought you were smart enough to know how to use that thing. Who knew you couldn't even hold it steady — you're so stupid!"

Two people whose ages added up to nearly sixty were still bickering in the lab like a pair of teenagers.

Alice quickly walked over. "Alright, alright, both of you stop. What exactly happened? Tell me."

Sidney's face was stormy. He didn't want to speak first.

Anson huffed over, putting all his hopes on Alice.

"Alice, where did you even find this idiot? He doesn't understand anything, but stands there telling me what to do. I asked him to match some data and he screwed it up. I really can't stand him."

Sidney felt that while he might not be the absolute best in the industry, he was definitely near the top.

Now he was being dismissed as worthless by some young punk. "You shut up! That's your area of expertise, and you never even told me specifically how to do it. How was I supposed to know?"

Seeing them about to start up again, Alice quickly cut in.

"Alright, alright, both of you stop. I'll help out, and Sidney, you watch from the side."

Sidney had wanted to tell her not to do it herself, but he suddenly remembered what Anson had said earlier — that Alice was smarter than him.

Today he was actually a bit curious.

He wanted to see, under the same conditions, who was really smarter.