Awakening Elementary School System in University

He composed himself and took the initiative to walk over.

"Hello, could you tell me about these?"

Xu Ning was spacing out when a clear, masculine voice suddenly made her jump.

When she saw Chen Lin’s handsome face smiling at her, she flushed instantly.

For some reason, her heart had been pounding ever since she first laid eyes on him walking through the door.

A moment ago, when she saw her colleagues rush him like a pack of hungry wolves, her introverted and shy nature had kept her from joining the fray.

"Ah, y-yes, I can," she stammered, her voice soft. "B-but I just started not long ago, so I’m not very familiar with everything yet..."

"That’s alright," Chen Lin said with a smile. "I’m just looking at air conditioners. You can just show me where they are."

Flush with cash, Chen Lin had originally planned to just buy a top-of-the-line central air conditioning system worth over twenty thousand yuan and have it done with.

However, after hearing his idea, Xu Ning earnestly advised him, "Sir, if your home is already finished, installing a central air system would be a huge hassle. You’d have to install new drop ceilings and cut a lot of holes in the walls for the ductwork. It’s a massive project and would cause significant damage to your existing interior."

Chen Lin thought about it. That did make sense, so he abandoned the idea.

He followed Xu Ning to the section with the floor-standing units, and his eyes immediately locked onto a Mide model with the most impressive, high-tech design.

"This is one of our more high-end floor-standing models," Xu Ning explained in a hushed voice. "It costs twelve thousand eight hundred. Its main advantage is that it’s exceptionally quiet, running as low as 20 decibels—you can barely hear it. It also uses a full DC inverter system, making it more energy-efficient than regular air conditioners, and it supports remote control via a mobile app..."

"That’s the one," Chen Lin said decisively after she finished, without a moment’s hesitation.

He went straight to the checkout counter, paid in full with his card, and added an extra five hundred yuan for the rush installation fee.

"Please arrange for same-day installation," Chen Lin said, handing Xu Ning a slip of paper with his address and phone number.

As soon as Chen Lin left, the group of older saleswomen who had swarmed him earlier immediately surrounded Xu Ning.

"Wow, Xu, you’re something else! Landed a huge sale like that without making a peep!"

"So what’s the story with that handsome kid? He didn’t even bat an eye at spending over ten thousand on an air conditioner. Is he some naive, rich kid?"

"What kind of rich kid buys their own air conditioner? He seems more like a college student who just hit the jackpot!"

Their gossiping made Xu Ning’s face turn bright red. Holding the sales receipt, she scurried away like a frightened rabbit.

Chen Lin got home and had just laid down on his bed when his phone vibrated.

He picked it up and saw it was a WeChat friend request from someone named "Xu Ning".

He accepted it.

Xu Ning’s message came through a moment later: [Hello, Mr. Chen. The installation technicians are on their way and should arrive at your home in about half an hour.]

At 1:30 PM, the doorbell rang right on time.

Two technicians in work uniforms came upstairs, carrying the brand-new indoor and outdoor units of the air conditioner.

They worked quickly and efficiently. Removing the old unit, drilling holes, and installing the new one—it was all done in one smooth process. The air conditioner was fully installed in less than an hour. Chen Lin flipped the switch, and the unit began to quietly blow cool air.

"Young man, do you still want this old air conditioner? If not, we can haul it downstairs for you for three hundred yuan," one of the older technicians asked with a smile, wiping sweat from his brow.

"Didn’t I already pay the five-hundred-yuan rush fee?" Chen Lin asked, a little confused.

"The five hundred was for the mandatory same-day service," the older technician explained. "Disposal of old appliances is a separate service and has its own fee."

Hearing this, Chen Lin smiled. "In that case, don’t worry about it. I can handle it myself."

The two technicians exchanged a look, both of them smiling in disbelief.

"Don’t try to be a hero, kid," the younger technician said, patting the old unit. "This thing’s a beast. It’s a struggle for both of us to carry it down. College kids these days aren’t exactly in great shape."

Chen Lin didn’t waste time arguing. He walked right up to the old unit, which was nearly as tall as he was, bent down, gripped the grooves at the bottom with both hands, and gave it a casual lift.

The next second, as the two technicians stared, jaws agape, he effortlessly lifted the floor-standing unit—which weighed over one hundred and fifty pounds—as if it were a styrofoam box.

He didn’t even break a sweat. He carried the air conditioner steadily down the stairs and set it down by the first-floor entrance, where the building management would arrange for its collection.

When he returned upstairs, dusting off his hands and looking completely relaxed, the two technicians were still frozen to the spot, staring at him as if he were some kind of monster.

Around four in the afternoon, Chen Xian and Lin Xiaoqi came home, chatting and laughing as they carried a bag of leftovers from her maternal grandparents.

However, the moment they opened the door, the smile on Lin Xiaoqi’s face froze.

"What is going on?" she demanded, pointing at the brand-new air conditioner in the living room. Her voice was sharp.

Chen Lin, who had been lying on the sofa playing on his phone, sat up. "Oh," he said calmly, "I got a new air conditioner."

"A new air conditioner?" Lin Xiaoqi dashed over and circled the unit. When she saw the "Mide" logo on the casing, she gasped. "How much did this cost?"

Chen Xian walked over as well. Unlike his wife, he didn’t overreact. He simply pushed up his glasses and asked in a low voice, "How much was it?"

"Twelve thousand eight hundred," Chen Lin answered truthfully.

"What?! Twelve thousand eight hundred?!" Lin Xiaoqi’s voice shot up an octave, loud enough for the whole building to hear. "Where did you get that kind of money? You told us how much you make from your part-time jobs! Did you spend everything? Don’t you have a single penny left?"

"I’ve still got over thirty thousand left," Chen Lin said nonchalantly.

That sentence was like a splash of water in a pan of hot oil; Lin Xiaoqi immediately erupted.

"Over thirty thousand?!" Her face turned deathly pale, and her voice began to tremble. "Chen Lin! Be honest with your mother, did you take out some kind of shady loan?!"

Chen Lin sighed in resignation. ’I knew this was going to happen.’

Without another word, he simply unlocked his phone, opened his banking app, and held up the screen with his account balance for his parents to see.

Staring at the "¥32,XXX.XX" on the screen, both Lin Xiaoqi and Chen Xian were speechless.

Shock. Disbelief. And then, an even deeper sense of dread.

"Son... where exactly did this money come from?" Chen Xian’s expression had also become incredibly grave.

Chen Lin put away his phone and calmly began his explanation.

"The first big chunk came from my singing gig at the bar," he said, pulling up his WeChat chat history with Brother Wang to show them the large fund transfers from tips. "I told you my singing has gotten a lot better, right? The bar held an event the other day, and it went over really well. I made over three thousand in tips from customers in just one night."

Lin Xiaoqi looked at the transfer records, skeptical.

Next, Chen Lin opened the Xianyu app and went to his shop page.

"And another portion of it, I earned by doing online math consulting."

Chen Xian leaned in for a closer look and frowned. "But this says you’ve only completed two orders. That’s only a little over two thousand yuan combined."

"Those two were just for individual clients," Chen Lin said, having already prepared his story. He skillfully omitted any mention of Shen Yan and went straight to President Peng’s case. "A while ago, a design institute from Modu ran into a technical problem with one of their projects and happened to find me on Xianyu. I helped them optimize a calculation algorithm, and it worked out exceptionally well."

He paused before dropping the most crucial piece of information. "Their boss was really impressed with my work. He wanted to establish a long-term working relationship, so he sent someone all the way to Jinmen to meet me. They gave me a five-thousand-yuan deposit right away, as a kind of retainer."

As he finished his story, the doubt and worry on his parents’ faces slowly gave way to a look of utter, indescribable shock.

They stared blankly at their son, as if they were meeting him for the first time.

’Earning several thousand in tips in a single night just from singing?’

’Getting a big-shot boss to send someone to hand-deliver money just for some online consulting?’

’It all sounded like something out of a fairy tale, didn’t it?’

But the transfer records and chat screenshots on his phone couldn’t be faked.

After a long silence, Chen Xian was the first to recover. He looked at his son’s calm, confident face, and the shock in his eyes slowly faded, replaced by an unprecedented, gleaming sense of approval and pride.

’He could see it now. His son had truly grown up.’

Lin Xiaoqi finally recovered from the immense shock. She looked from the new air conditioner, quietly humming as it blew a strong, cool breeze, to her perfectly composed son, and her eyes inexplicably began to well up with tears.