As usual, Ming'er has no idea what Professor Williams had just said. Her thick British accent wasn't helping, either. After all, Ming'er had never met anyone else who spoke like Professor Williams. It only made it much harder for him to hear what she was saying.
Nevertheless, Ming'er nods along to whatever it was that Professor Williams had just said, pretending that he understood her. Ming'er supplements his affirmation with his standard go-to English response.
"Y-Yes...?"
It comes out more like a question than a reply.
Still, Professor Williams seems to be satisfied enough with his answer.
"That's great to hear, Yvonne!" she grins, "I always knew that I could count on you."
Ming'er takes Professor Williams' enthusiasm as a cue to repeat his response. This time, he makes sure that he matches her tone.
"Yes...!" Ming'er replies more energetically than he did before.
"You're literally the perfect fit for this research project," Professor Williams chirps, "After all, you're a Chinese and English double major who's effectively bilingual in both languages, and you mentioned that you're an avid reader of online fiction as well!"
Ming'er continues to smile and nod along as though he understands what Professor Williams is saying. Ming'er doesn't know why, but he has a feeling that someone he'd met earlier in the day had mentioned something about this.
/Who was it again...?/
/Oh, right. It was Yuying's roommate, Jiawen.../
/What did she say again...?/
Ming'er was about to acknowledge Professor Williams' words with another "yes" when he ultimately decides against doing so.
/I think I've said enough of that word in one day./
/There's no doubt that I've exceeded way past my "yes" quota./
/I should stop saying it for a while in case Professor Williams gets suspicious or something./
And so, Ming'er continues to smile at Professor William like a fool. He's grinning from ear to ear in a bid to sell his act that he actually understood her. Ming'er was adamant about expressing just how keen he was on whatever she was going on about, and that he was paying full attention.
/I still don't really know what this whole research project thing is about, but whatever it is, it must be really important to Yuying./
/She must've worked really hard to be able to clinch a spot as a research assistant for a professor./
/I can't afford to mess things up for Yuying./
"All right," Professor Williams hums as she turns her gaze to the foldable clamshell-like box thing that she'd been looking at (Ming'er still hadn't quite figured out what it was). "It's been quite a while since I sent out the email about this part-time research assistantship, hasn't it?"
Instead of saying yes again, Ming'er decides to nod.
"It has been quite a while, indeed," Professor Williams chuckles, "So, I'm sure that you need to jog your memory on the job scope of this research assistantship, am I right?"
Ming'er nods again. Despite knowing that it was futile, Ming'er continues to try his best to decipher Professor Williams' words, as though it was an enigma that would be cracked if he just thought hard enough. Alas, his mind is completely blank as he doesn't absorb a word that she's saying.
"Okay," Professor Williams purses her lips, "Just give me a moment, all right? Let me find the email that I'd sent out earlier this month," she hums, "It should have the file containing details about the research assistantship attached..."
Ming'er watches in awe as Professor Williams' fingers fly across the square buttons on the rectangular surface at lightning speed. His eyes widen in disbelief at just how quickly she's tapping on the keys.
Ming'er examines square buttons and realizes that there are English letters on them. Even though he didn't speak any English, Ming'er could recognize the icons on the squares as letters of the English alphabet as he'd learned a little bit about them at Qilin Academy.
Ming'er doesn't know why, but he only starts to recall his minimal knowledge of the English alphabet at this moment. He hadn't managed to identify them despite seeing them in Yuying's room, in the food court, and even on the signboards on the shops at the place that reminded him of Qilin Alley.
/Well, I guess I still must've been processing my shock./
Ming'er shrugs this off as he continues to scrutinize the rectangular surface.
Just then, Ming'er realizes that the letters on the little squares didn't seem to be in the correct order. While he doesn't remember the exact order of the entire English alphabet, he's pretty sure that something was wrong.
/Q...W...E...R...T...Y...?/
Ming'er frowns.
/I'm pretty sure that's not how it's supposed to be arranged.../
Ming'er racks his brain as he tries to remember the right order. He sweeps his gaze across the keyboard before he finally identifies three familiar-looking squares.
/The one on the far left of the second row is the first letter.../
/The one in the middle of the bottom row is the second letter.../
/And the one that's two squares to the left of the second letter is the third letter.../
/A, B, C.../
Ming'er couldn't remember anything else after that. Nevertheless, he considers it a win as he proceeds to mentally counts the number of squares that have English letters on them.
/...twenty-four, twenty five, twenty-six./
/Huh. There are twenty-six squares with English letters on them./
It's at this moment that Ming'er realizes that there are squares with funky-looking symbols on them. There's a symbol that reminds him of a snail's shell, a symbol that reminds him of the fishnets that he sees fishermen use, a symbol that looks like a snowflake...
/...what do all of these strange-looking symbols mean?!/
Even though Ming'er had extremely limited knowledge of the English alphabet, he could recognize them on the squares at least. The symbols, on the other hand, are an entirely different story. Ming'er is completely clueless about them.
Ming'er continues to observe just how quickly Professor Williams is tapping on the keys with wide eyes. Her fingers effortlessly glide across the rectangular surface from one key to another no matter how far apart they may be from each other. It almost seems like second nature to Professor Williams.
/She's so fast that she's even faster than the horses back at the Imperial Palace.../
/They're supposed to be the best of the best, so that's saying something...!/
"There," Professor Williams suddenly exclaims, "Here's the file containing the details about the research assistantship that I'd sent out earlier in the month..."
Just then, the sound of a ringtone interrupts the otherwise calm atmosphere. Ming'er instinctively clasps his hand over the mysterious-looking box that was tucked into his pocket even though the ringtone wasn't even the sound that he'd heard earlier.
"Oh, please pardon me," Professor Williams murmurs as she dips her hands into her pocket to fish out her own mysterious-looking box. It's at this moment that Ming'er realizes the sound is coming from her mysterious-looking box and not his.
"Give me a while to take this outside," Professor Williams says to Ming'er, "In the meantime, you can just look at the document I've opened on my laptop and refresh your memory about the job scope of the research assistantship, all right?"
Professor Williams exits the office and shuts the door behind her before Ming'er could even nod or reply her with another "yes". It becomes strangely quiet in the office without Professor Williams.
Ming'er stares at the foldable, clamshell-like thing in front of him. He notes that the top half of the object that's standing upright has a surface just like the one on his mysterious-looking box, while the bottom half of the object that's flat down is the rectangular surface with the square keys that Professor Williams had been tapping on earlier.
/I think Professor Williams mentioned what this thing is earlier.../
/I think she said something like...lap...top...?/
/Am I thinking that right...?/
Ming'er stares at the file that Professor Williams had opened. It's entirely in English. He sighs internally, not even surprised at this point.
/How am I supposed to know what this research assistantship is about when I can't even read the details about the job scope.../
Ming'er decides that he'll deal with the problem later as he looks at the square keys curiously. Ming'er recalls how Professor Williams' fingers had moved across them earlier and realizes that tapping on a key seems to lead to the corresponding letter or symbol appearing on the screen.
/It's something like how I'd keyed in the passcode for Yuying's mysterious-looking box, except that instead of using the surface of the top half, I have to use the surface of the bottom half of this...laptop thing.../
Just then, Ming'er notices a large rectangular patch in the middle and at the bottom of the lower half of the laptop. He doesn't know what it does as his view had been obstructed by the top half of the laptop. As such, Ming'er didn't see how Professor Williams had used it.
/I wonder what this does...?/
Ming'er places a finger on the rectangular and moves it around. When he looks up at the screen, he realizes there's a white arrowhead-like thing moving around the screen. It's moving according to how he's moving his finger. Ming'er widens his eyes at this realization.
/Oh!/
/It's following my finger!/
/That's so cool!/
Ming'er sniggers childishly to himself as he draws circles on the rectangular patch, causing the white arrowhead-like thing on the screen to go around in circles.
Ming'er then tries moving his finger up and down the rectangular patch. When nothing seemed to happen, he decides to use two fingers instead of one. This time, Ming'er looks up to see the document on the screen shifting up and down in accordance with the way that he was moving his fingers.
/Oh, it's going up and down depending on how I'm moving my fingers!/
/It seems to be some kind of way to scroll through the text on the rectangular surface./
Just then, another idea pops into Ming'er's mind.
/What if I tap on it instead of move my finger on it...?/
As soon as Ming'er double taps the rectangular patch, all of the words on the open document become highlighted. Ming'er widens his eyes as he jumps slightly, not expecting this.
/Oh no!/
/What did I do?!/
/Did I do something wrong...?/
Just then, Ming'er notices a little icon below one of the words that he'd clicked on. Ming'er doesn't know why, but he finds himself moving the white arrowhead-like thing over the icon and tapping on it.
A white box pops up as soon as Ming'er does this, causing him to jump slightly. The white box contains the text that he'd unknowingly selected, which was pretty much the entire document.
What happens next catches Ming'er completely off-guard.
Within a matter of seconds, the document was translated from English into Chinese.
The translated Chinese text appears right next to the original English text in another white box that pops up beside the first one.
Ming'er widens his eyes, surprised and impressed at the same time.
He hadn't seen this coming at all.
/Woah...!/
/Did that actually just happen...?!/
/I didn't think that this laptop thing would be able to do that...!/
/It's more than just a laptop...it's a surprise translator!/