My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 93 The Road Home

Seeing the middle-aged man's delighted expression, Lin Ying hurriedly asked Professor Ma if he had paid for the calculator. Lin Ying shook her head, saying that she had brought the item and was just collecting money on the way. She hadn't even seen Professor Ma yet, so how could she have paid?

"God help me too!"

The middle-aged man's face lit up with joy, and he smiled as genuinely as the wolf in sheep's clothing tempting Little Red Riding Hood. He said to Lin Ying in a friendly tone, "Little classmate, let's make a deal, could you let me have this calculator for now?"

Lin Ying seemed not to understand what the other person was saying, tilting her head with a confused look on her face.

"Hehe, what I mean is, look, this calculator is very useful for us math researchers. Since we've met, it must be fate. Anyway, Professor Ma hasn't paid for it yet, which means it's not his. It doesn't matter who you sell it to, right? I'll take this calculator, consider it a sale to me..."

"what!"

Lin Ying looked at the other person and was speechless for a moment. After a long while, she hesitated and said, "Teacher, this is not appropriate. I came to give something to Professor Ma. If I give this to you, how will I explain it to Professor Ma...?"

The middle-aged man blushed slightly. He knew it was inappropriate; it wasn't something a highly educated person like him would do to steal someone else's love. But faced with something so wonderful, he couldn't bear to give it up.

The middle-aged man shamelessly presented Lin Ying with "facts and reasoning," repeatedly claiming that it was all for science, for research, and even more so for the needs of the Four Modernizations.

Since she was already there, what difference did it make whether she sold the calculator to herself or to Professor Ma? Besides, if she gave it to him, Lin Ying wouldn't need to make a special trip to the Textile Institute. Moreover, it wasn't even certain whether Professor Ma actually worked at the Textile Institute. What if this Professor Ma wasn't from the Textile Institute? Wouldn't Lin Ying have made a wasted trip? Wouldn't this save her the trouble of looking for him?

As they talked, the middle-aged man pressed Lin Ying for the price of the calculator. When he learned that it cost 120 yuan, he felt that the price was not cheap, but he could still afford it. Moreover, such a good thing was simply not available outside, and it was good luck to come across it.

Without saying a word, the middle-aged man took out his money from his pocket, but after counting for a while, he embarrassingly realized that he didn't have enough money on him and was short some.

"Wait a minute, classmate!"

After saying that, the middle-aged man got up and rushed out of the office to borrow money from someone next door. A little while later, another teacher returned to the office with the middle-aged man. As they entered, the teacher kept muttering something, seemingly complaining that the middle-aged man was wasting money and asking what was worth spending so much money on.

"Look, have you ever seen this thing before? Have you ever used it?"

Without arguing with the other party, the middle-aged man simply added the borrowed money to his own and counted out 120 yuan. He first stuffed the money into Lin Ying's hand, and then proudly showed the other party the calculator.

"Holy crap! A calculator? A Sharp? An imported one? And it even has functions?"

Upon seeing this thing, the teacher's eyes widened immediately. This was a real gem! If he had known the other party was borrowing money to buy it, he should have bought it himself first. How could he have lent the money out? Now look what happened—the other party had it, and he didn't. Wasn't he at a huge loss?

"Um... Old Zhao, I need to discuss something with you..." The teacher's eyes were burning with excitement as he rubbed his hands together to ask, but before he could finish his sentence, Teacher Zhao directly refused, "Everything else is negotiable, but the calculator is out of the question—it's mine!"

"You, Old Zhao, are really going too far! I just lent you money, and you're already turning your back on me in less than a minute? I also contributed to the cost of this calculator!" The teacher immediately became agitated.

"What do you mean 'your'? Don't talk nonsense, this thing is mine!" Teacher Zhao said smugly. "It's true that I borrowed the money from you, but once the borrowed money is in my hands, it's mine. How can the things I bought become yours, Old Qian? This is a matter of logic, Old Qian, get this straight. The ownership of this thing belongs to me, and it has nothing to do with you!"

As he spoke, he chuckled and patted the calculator in his hand. This sight made Teacher Qian's face turn black with anger. This was too shameless! He used people when he needed them and then turned them away when he didn't. After knowing each other for so many years, how come he never saw that this guy was a scoundrel?

"I...I won't lend it anymore! Give me my money back!"

"Too late! A man's word is his bond. Lending money is like playing chess—once a move is made, there's no going back. How can you expect to get your money back before the due date is even up? The money's already gone, what's left? But don't worry, I won't renege on the loan. I'll pay you back tomorrow."

"No way! I want it now. What if I change my mind? So what if I take back my move?" Teacher Qian was furious. If he had known Teacher Zhao wanted to buy this thing, he shouldn't have lent it to him. Wouldn't it have been better to buy it himself? Teacher Zhao needs this thing, but he doesn't? He's a key member of the mathematics department!

Two university professors, both at the professor level, started arguing over the ownership of a calculator, completely forgetting about Lin Ying who was standing nearby.

Seeing them arguing heatedly, even rolling up their sleeves as if about to fight, Lin Ying weakly interjected, raising her hand and saying, "Teachers, please stop arguing. It's just a calculator, right? I have another one here."

"what?"

The two people who were arguing suddenly froze and turned to look at Lin Ying.

"Little student, what did you just say? You still have a calculator?"

"Yes!" Lin Ying nodded, taking out another calculator from her bag that was exactly the same as the one Teacher Zhao had just used. When Teacher Qian saw this calculator, her eyes lit up with joy. "You... why didn't you say so earlier if you still had it!"

"You didn't ask that just now..."

Upon hearing this, the two teachers were speechless. Indeed, they hadn't asked earlier. However, Teacher Zhao still asked, "Why is there another one?" Lin Ying said there was more than one; she brought four in total. As for the reason, it was naturally Professor Ma Tianyuan, whom she had only heard of but never seen.

"Good heavens!" Teacher Qian was overjoyed. He never expected there to be three more. Now that he thought there was only one, how could he let them go?
"Hey classmate, I'd like to buy one."

Without saying a word, Teacher Qian took out his money and directly took another calculator of the same model from Lin Ying's hand. After he got the calculator, he tried it out and found that it was fully functional and easy to use, which made him very happy.

At this moment, he and Teacher Zhao looked at each other and smiled at the same time. It was as if the argument just now had never happened. With this good thing, who would care about anything else?

After everyone received their calculators, Teacher Zhao's gaze swept over Lin Ying's handbag. Suddenly, she seemed to be deep in thought, pulled Teacher Qian aside, and the two whispered and discussed for a while.

More than half an hour later, Lin Ying left the mathematics department happily. When she left, all four function calculators in her handbag were gone, but she found 480 yuan in cash in her pocket.

That's not all. Lin Ying also received an "order" for three identical function calculators. According to the two teachers, they would take them as long as they were exactly the same as the one they bought today.

This type of calculator cannot currently be manufactured domestically, but it has extremely high practical value in many fields. Mathematics departments are a given, as mathematics, physics, and chemistry are closely related; physics and chemistry departments also have similar needs, making its applications extremely wide-ranging.

In addition, architecture departments also need this thing, and even artillerymen in the military can achieve twice the result with half the effort by calculating firing data.

One hundred and twenty yuan is indeed not cheap for ordinary people, but for people who use calculators as tools, spending this money is well worth it. With this calculator, their work efficiency will increase dramatically. They can not only get rid of many tedious calculation tasks, but also save time to do more in-depth research.

Lin Ying was very happy with the result. She came to East China Normal University because the teacher from the School of Textiles who bought the calculator today inspired her to bring the calculator to try it out.

Unexpectedly, the results were so good. The five function calculators that had been sitting unsold for half a month were all sold out in one day. Moreover, four of them were snapped up by teachers from the Mathematics Department of East China Normal University, who even pre-ordered three more.

A university mathematics department can easily sell seven units. If we add the demand from physics, chemistry and other science departments, it is estimated that selling a dozen or twenty units should not be a problem.

There are quite a few universities and colleges in Shanghai. There are more than 30 universities and colleges alone. If you add research institutes and research organizations, the number is even more astonishing.

This is a market with huge potential. Lin Ying was in a good mood after her belief was confirmed, and her steps were lighter on the way back.

Calculators are highly profitable, but they are not very large. Therefore, if they sell well, you can make a lot of money.

However, Lin Ying also considered that the market size for calculators is limited. As a calculation tool, it is highly specialized, and ordinary people simply don't need a calculator with such comprehensive functions. This is why they haven't sold many calculators despite having set up their stall in Xigong for so long. Therefore, Lin Ying needs to carefully consider how to proceed with this business.

It was already evening when Lin Ying left East China Normal University. It wasn't early summer yet, and it got dark quite early in Shanghai. Looking at the sky, Lin Ying didn't go to Xigong on her bike. Judging by the time, Lao Wen should have been packing up by now. Anyway, she had already told Lao Wen before she left, so it wouldn't be too late to talk about it when they met tomorrow.

Lin Ying rode her bike directly east, taking another route home. This route had fewer people than the detour around Xigong, and it was also shorter.

After crossing the railway bridge, continue along the riverbank near the mint to reach the Great Clock Tower.

This place is just as lively, but it's slightly different from the West Palace area. It's a commercial area of ​​the region, and if you walk a little further from here, you can go straight to the east side of the Jade Buddha Temple. And if you go any further, you'll be not far from home.

Humming a tune, Lin Ying followed the crowd of cyclists heading home after get off work. When she was two blocks away from Xiafei Road, the red light at the intersection ahead turned on, and Lin Ying slowly stopped with the flow of traffic.

While patiently waiting for the red light to turn green, I was getting bored when I suddenly heard faint sounds of arguing coming from not far to my right.

At first, Lin Ying didn't notice. Shanghai has a huge population, and there are a lot of people every day after get off work. The buses are packed like sardine cans, and the bicycles on the road are as dense as the Great Migration of animals in Africa. It is not surprising that people often bump into each other and have arguments.

But this time it quickly caught Lin Ying's attention, because she actually heard someone speaking with a Northwestern accent from one of the arguments.

Lin Ying wasn't as lucky as Zhou Jiye. She had spent several years in the rural Northwest of China before coming to this era, and she was very familiar with the local dialect. Even though she had been back in Shanghai for over a year, hearing it again immediately brought back memories for her.

(End of this chapter)