Chapter 30: The Astronomical Price of the Instrument

"Are they talking about you when they mention a professor?"

Wei Xianjun's brain felt like it was about to short-circuit as he hesitantly turned his gaze toward his cousin.

"They're just being polite."

"Like hell they are! If they were just being polite, they’d call you 'brother,' not 'professor'!"

"Oh, well, they saw how well I fixed their car and offered me a job at the university."

???

Wei Xiu’s airy, nonchalant reply left the entire Wei family stunned.

How to put it? He had a job, and it was actually a professorship?

"I don't believe it for a second. Which university?" Wei Xianjun pressed, dogging his footsteps.

Wei Xiu gave a perfunctory answer: "Forgot which one."

"Bullshit. How could you forget the name?"

Wei Xianjun didn't believe a single word of it. In a small place like Linyang City, if someone landed a government-affiliated job, they’d practically have the department’s name tattooed on their forehead. And you managed to forget it?

"It’s not some Auto Repair Vocational College, is it?"

Wei Xiu stopped in his tracks. "I think it was called Harbin Institute of Technology."

"Har... bin... Insti... tute!?"

"Yeah, that’s the school. They asked me to go teach."

In an instant, the air in the room froze. The two elders might not have realized the prestige of HIT, but Wei Xianjun knew exactly what it meant. It was the "Pearl of National Defense," the "Sword-Casting Furnace" of the Republic! Even the dogs at HIT were rumored to be armed. Wei Xianjun had once tried to apply for a master’s program there, only to be rejected during the political background check. Their admissions process was notoriously rigorous. How did Wei Xiu manage it? He hadn't even finished a vocational-to-bachelor degree program!

As the shock subsided, a sense of hollow envy flooded Wei Xianjun’s mind. There was a saying: one fears their brother lives in poverty, yet fears he drives a Land Rover. It was good that Wei Xiu had a stable job; brothers should support each other. But you can't just go and be a professor at HIT! What does that make my ten years of hard study? This single event had completely upended the future hierarchy of the Wei family clan!

Seeing his cousin’s constipated expression, Wei Xiu couldn't help but pout. *I didn't want to rub it in, but you kept asking. Now look, you’re speechless.*

But to be fair, the simplest flexes are the most purely enjoyable. So, Wei Xiu couldn't resist adding one more drop of salt to the wound: "Although they invited me, I felt it was too far away, so I didn't go. I'll probably just serve as a visiting professor later on."

"Dad, Uncle, I’m going to sleep. It’s been a long day."

"Exhausted!"

Watching Wei Xiu walk away, Wei Xianjun fell into a deep silence. Perhaps it was the low ceiling of the room or something else, but Wei Xiu’s retreating figure seemed to grow taller and more imposing with every step.

Wei Jianguo didn't understand the significance of HIT, but he understood the word "professor."

"Xianjun, is the professor he’s talking about the kind I think it is?"

"I... suppose so."

"So that means our Wei Xiu has finally made something of himself?"

Wei Xianjun didn't want to admit it, but he could only nod. Wei Jianguo was instantly thrilled: "Then which is better, this 'Harbin-what-its-name' or Linyang University?"

Hearing this, the second uncle, Wei, was displeased. The reason was simple: Wei Xianjun taught at Linyang University.

"Brother, what are you thinking? Linyang University is a proper second-tier university. This 'Harbin Institute' sounds illegitimate, with that 'Institute' tacked on."

Wei Xianjun pulled his father aside: "You don't know anything, stop shouting."

Wei Jianguo persisted: "So which is better, Harbin Institute of Technology or Linyang University?"

"It’s a three-seven split."

"Linyang is the seven? That's fine, at least it's a proper university."

"Harbin Institute of Technology hits you three times, and Linyang University is at its funeral by the seventh day."

Human joys and sorrows are rarely shared. Not wanting to waste more breath on the elders, Wei Xianjun turned and walked toward the door.

"Where are you going?"

Wei Xianjun: "I'm going to check our family’s ancestral graves. Someone probably set the weeds on fire."

...

In his bedroom, Wei Xiu sat by his desk. With a pancake in his right hand and the metal fragment in his left, he fell into deep thought. He had repaired many things, but he had never fixed a useless piece of junk like this. To put it bluntly, it was just a shard of metal. How was he supposed to know its composition or its formula? Besides, even if he knew, he’d have to write a paper on it. Back in vocational school, his graduation thesis was downloaded from the internet—he had no idea how to write anything like that! This fragment had nothing to do with mechanical engineering; it was purely a material science problem, and Wei Xiu knew absolutely nothing about that.

So, he tossed the fragment aside. "Material science? Not even a dog would study that!"

He closed his eyes and entered the system.

[Task: Reach 1 Million Followers!]
[Time Remaining: 23 days, 18 hours]
[Current Followers: 194,000]

"Hiss..." Wei Xiu sucked in a cold breath looking at the progress bar, which was less than one-fifth full. He’d been too busy helping the military zone lately to focus on his channel. Gaining 800,000 followers in 23 days was a tall order. To be honest, getting the first ten thousand followers on the internet was easy, but once you crossed the 100,000 threshold, every step was an uphill battle. Being an influencer wasn't easy. His strategy of focusing on high-quality repair content was correct, but after the recent livestreams, he realized this path was too slow and steady. To gain followers quickly, he needed a unorthodox approach, or perhaps he needed to broaden his field. Previously, he focused on home appliance repairs—the content was solid, but it lacked a 'wow' factor. After all, generic electric kettles and rice cookers didn't exactly grab attention.

If the audience watched for too long without any viral trends, it became boring. So, widening the scope of his repairs could bring in incremental traffic. The question was, what to fix? After half a second of thought, Wei Xiu set his sights on cars. They were ubiquitous, a shared passion for all men, and offered much broader discussion topics. His current skill level was enough to fix most cars on the market. Fixing cars used to be a side hustle, but now it was time to make it his main business.

No sooner said than done. Wei Xiu dove into the system. To fix cars, he needed proper tools. He remembered the system store had blueprints and repair equipment, and they weren't expensive. After a quick search, he found exactly what he needed.

[German Car Blueprints Pack]
[American Car Blueprints Pack]
[Domestic Car Blueprints Pack]

Buy them as a bundle. Not 9999! Not 8999! Only 1299. Buy! As for Japanese cars, whoever wants to fix them can go ahead; he wasn't touching them.

Next, Wei Xiu turned to the equipment section. He considered buying some expensive but necessary tools, like an OBD scanner. As he was browsing, a device priced at 899,999 caught his eye.

[Analyzer]

"What kind of junk sells for 800,000? Is it made of gold?" You have to realize, these were repair points. 800,000 repair points could buy a missile! None of the civilian equipment he had bought before had such a sky-high price. With the intention of just looking, Wei Xiu clicked into the product description page.

[This is an essential analyzer for every household.]
[It can analyze the properties of any object without limitation.]
[Widely used in mechanical engineering, materials science, electronic engineering, and other fields...]

Wei Xiu couldn't help but stare for a few extra seconds. The more he read, the more fascinated he became. Shopping was like that—don't think too hard. The more you thought, the more you wanted to buy. After struggling for a minute, he spent the massive sum to purchase the device. There was no other reason; the description was simply too tempting. According to the description, buying this device was like gaining "engineering x-ray vision." One glance, and you could see through an object's entire history. Who wouldn't be mesmerized by that?

Purchase complete. Wei Xiu opened his eyes and looked at his phone.

[This is an alloy material.]
[Composed of alloy metal and a surface coating.]
[Analysis yields: Ti-6Al-4V alloy preparation method *1, Nano-absorptive coating preparation method *1]

"Holy crap!" Wei Xiu’s jaw dropped, and he barely managed to keep from shouting out loud. Just one glance! He had already mastered the manufacturing process of this metal!?