The Princess’ Craft

Yang Chen’s heart dropped. Did something happen to Jane?

With a flash, he appeared before her!

And what he saw had left him in a daze. He didn’t know if he should have laughed or cried.

There were stacks of books sprawled out all across the floor next to oddly shaped equipment.

In the middle of it, was Jane in a white nightgown, surrounded by three wooden shelves and a tall chair.

Jane must have tripped over the shelves by accident and pulled everything down with it!

He was more surprised to see Jane wearing a pair of black-framed glasses. She looked more like an ordinary homegirl than a highly regarded princess.

But she was still stunning nonetheless.

Yang Chen tried to stifle his laughter and Jane looked at him in exasperation.

“Stop laughing and help me rearrange the books,” Jane said helplessly.

“Why did you even mess it up in the first place?” Yang Chen teased her.

Jane was annoyed but replied, “I didn’t. I was just going through some books when I heard you enter. I wanted to greet you but I tripped over some books. Then I pulled the shelves for support but I forgot that they ain’t as stable as the ones back home…”

Yang Chen laughed out loud. “So you can be this embarrassing too. It looks like even the genius scientist isn’t perfect.”

Jane looked at him playfully. “Well, my mistake must pale in comparison to what you have done since you’re here looking for my help.”

Yang Chen coughed at her rebuttal and squatted down to help her.

Jane smirked when she saw that she won.

“Why do you still need so many books now that technology is so advanced? These are quite heavy,” Yang Chen asked.

Jane replied, “These are the results of my research. It comprises most of the formulas and blueprints. What we have now isn’t accurate enough to quantify my data. I could create a better system but before that happens, I’ll have to stick to the old pen and paper. But don’t look down on these books. I created them to be fire and waterproof. Plus, this paper can maintain its structural integrity for over two centuries.”

It was Yang Chen’s first time hearing of this. There was a lot more than meets the eye with this princess turned scientist.

There were also several units of machinery that Yang Chen did not know of.

So he asked out of curiosity, “What are these? How come I’ve never seen them before?”

Jane placed a black ball onto a shelf. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Of course you’ve never seen them, these are my babies!”

“Babies?” Yang Chen quickly asked.

“These are my most recent inventions. It has never been released to the public as of late. You are the only one who has seen them to date!”

Jane bounced up and down like a little girl. She was always this excited when it came to her work.

Yang Chen giggled and looked towards the floor and saw a pair of pink headphones with crystals on them. It didn’t look like much.

“Did you invent these headphones too? It doesn’t look all that special to me.”

Jane smiled mysteriously. “Put them on.”

Yang Chen shrugged and wore it. “Alright, now what?”

Jane bit her lip and contemplated for a while before speaking in Kikongo. “These headphones have an awesome feature.”

Yang Chen was curious as to why she had switched over to Kikongo. But, he understood her perfectly well.

To his surprise, he heard a voice coming out of the headphones. It was translating her words into English!

Yang Chen took the headphones off and asked in utter amazement, “Is it a real-time translation device?!”

Jane nodded her head proudly. “That’s right. It can accurately translate over a hundred different languages and output different languages based on the chip installed. Isn’t it awesome?”

Yang Chen nodded his head vigorously. It was a major breakthrough, considering the fact that even a normal real-time translation device had not yet been created. The ones available now were limited in functionality and extremely bulky. Plus, those devices required manual input, not voice prompts.

“This would break the language barrier all across the world. Why haven’t you mass-produced it?”

Jane shook her head and smiled. “I invented them two years ago. I thought about it but ultimately kept it for myself.”

“Hmm? Why?” Yang Chen couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t share such an amazing device.

Jane sighed. “The cost to produce these headphones are similar to that of a smartphone. This means that at its launch, fifty percent of people in the world will be able to afford it. However, you have to note that there are millions of people in this world who rely on translating languages as their job. If this product were to become a reality, millions of people would lose their jobs. Millions would suffer because of a product that was supposed to be ‘beneficial’. Plus, learning a new language involves learning more about the culture in question. I would rather have people learn it that way instead of ‘cheating’.”

Yang Chen was surprised to hear that. He didn’t know that she had already thought it through.

She placed the headphones back on the shelf and introduced her other inventions to Yang Chen.

In other words, these weird but powerful inventions were made by a girl who was not even in her twenties. She made it for fun when she was free and to her, these were mere hobbies.

Slowly, Yang Chen’s impression of her had started to change and he looked at Jane with a complex gaze.

Jane couldn’t help but ask when she was almost done with introducing her inventions. “Yang Chen, why are you looking at me like that? Do you think they are boring? In that case, I’ll stop talking. I made them when I was bored and I couldn’t help but share it since I haven’t really had the chance to do it.”

Yang Chen shook his head and sighed. “I was just thinking. I realized that I don’t know you as well as I thought. I have a newfound respect for you…”

“I really thought that you would call me a crazy woman…” Jane stuck her tongue out sheepishly and blushed.

Yang Chen muttered, “Crazy woman… How are you considered crazy?”

Jane saw his expression and asked, “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Didn’t you have something to talk about? I totally got distracted by my inventions. You wanna tell me now?”

Yang Chen smiled. “It’s nice to hear you rant about your inventions. I get to distract myself for a while and feel better.”

“You still have to tell me.” Jane pushed her glasses up and looked at him expectantly. “A girl craves gossip, even more so when it is about the man they like.”

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