Chapter 34 34 That kind of look, new rumors, he wanted to...

However, a few days later, Liang Siyu no longer had time to think about the long term or the future.

These past few days, classmates and RAs have been giving him sizing-up looks, making him wonder if he's wearing his clothes inside out or using the wrong cologne.

It wasn't until a guy casually asked, "Ned, tell us, isn't it idyllic to vacation on Long Island in the summer?"

He was taken aback, only then realizing the source of those strange gazes.

He shook his head slightly, smiled and looked directly at the other person: "The weather is nice, a bit cooler than in the city."

Although he was being teased, he didn't take it too seriously. He wanted to maintain some privacy and didn't want to be talked about, but his family situation wasn't anything shameful. Everything would continue as usual; people's curiosity would dissipate after a while.

But in the afternoon, when he went into the tea room, he vaguely heard two sentences: "They're from the Gold Rush, they really know how to dig for gold." "So they're looking for the young master, not the old man," he realized, and that was when he realized how slow he had been.

He stood up straight and scanned the area inch by inch. When the men saw him, they exchanged glances and fell silent.

He poured himself a cup of coffee, sat down at the next table, and sipped it slowly, as if he wanted to hear what they had to say. Then the others dispersed.

He began to regret not realizing that Ada would face such a terrible situation.

He knew how proud and pure she was. If she hadn't been in a relationship with him, and if he hadn't asked his father for help, she would never have been subjected to such slander and gossip.

At the beginning, when the rumors about the mysterious sugar daddy started, he actually argued with Nelson on her behalf.

Then the rats had an accident, and he was busy solving scientific research problems, completely forgetting that the rumors were still circulating.

Only today, when he heard these things with his own ears, did he truly realize what she had been going through recently.

She never mentioned it to him, and even tried her best to comfort him in his depression.

He was the worst boyfriend ever. He didn't notice her situation and acted like a kindergartener, needing her to constantly appease him.

His mind was in turmoil, and he unconsciously walked to the materials lab, intending to listen to Cohen's opinion and see if he had any good ideas, only to find that Ada was actually at Cohen's workstation.

When she saw him, a smile appeared in her eyes: "Cohen is in the welding room, he'll be out in a bit."

She thought about the experiment schedule and asked in confusion, "Why did you come here? You don't have any stress deformation experiments to do today, do you?"

"Uh, I'd like to ask him for a coffee." He glanced down at Cohen's messy table and made up an excuse.

"Why are you working here?" He suddenly realized that she might have heard those vulgar words and was in a bad mood, so she came here to avoid them.

Xu Aida chuckled: "Then I'm sorry, we just drank coffee, and his caffeine intake exceeded the limit today."

Huh? Why isn't he smiling? She was a little puzzled, but explained first, "There are only a few points left for high-density materials today. Cohen said it can be welded in about an hour, so I'll wait here for a while."

She successfully brought Cohen into the surface electromyography project to create high-density sEMG electrodes.

There are 64 channels, each requiring a separate wire. Because the cabling is dense, it requires a high level of soldering skill, which RA cannot do. Only Cohen solders them one by one.

She stood up. "Didn't you want coffee? Shall we go sit in the break room?"

"No, no need." He immediately refused, not wanting her to hear if people were talking about it.

“Ned?” She took two steps closer. “You’re acting a little strange today.”

"Where?" He unconsciously took a half step back. "Oh, right, I should go to the animal room."

She glared at him and said he was talking nonsense; he had just been to the animal house that morning and had changed his clothes.

Liang Siyu immediately realized he had made the wrong excuse. He slumped his shoulders, unsure of what to say.

Suddenly, Cohen's cheers came from behind.

"Ada, come quick, it's soldered! Ned, you're here too? Great, come join us!"

Liang Siyu felt a soft little hand firmly grasping him, and he involuntarily followed her.

She stopped at the door of the welding room, pushed him back, and let go. "You, stay at the door. The iron hasn't cooled down yet; you'll burn your hand."

Cohen turned around with a sad expression: "Ada, you've gone too far. I was welding until I was dizzy and my eyes were blurry, and you didn't even say a word of concern for me."

She rolled her eyes: "Who extorted two bottles of wine from me? Don't worry, Alan is going to Napa this weekend and has already sent them over."

"Thank your brother for me." Cohen was immediately overjoyed. He tidied up half of the wires. "Ned, come and help me. Let's take it to the testing room next door together."

Liang Siyu was still standing there in a daze at the door. It took her two seconds to react before she carefully picked up the ball of flexible material. Cohen slowly straightened the wires and then took them to the empty testing room together.

Xu Aida stretched out her arm. Of the three of them, she was the only one who could attach electrodes without removing hair, so she naturally had to dedicate herself to scientific research and be the first to try it out.

With Liang Siyu around, Cohen was happy to have some free time and let him fix the electrodes.

Their initial idea was to use a combination of bandages and medical adhesive to secure the device.

Liang Siyu held her arm and slowly used medical double-sided tape to seal the edges, initially positioning the flexible electrode array, and then secured it with Velcro.

"Is it okay if it's too tight? Won't it be too tight?" he asked in a low voice, afraid that she would be in pain if it was tied too tightly.

"It's okay, tighten it a little more, don't let it shift." She gently patted his upper arm, and he jerked, almost pulling on the wire.

Cohen saw this and yelled, "Hey bro, watch out, I've been soldering this for days!"

Liang Siyu breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the culprit: "Don't move."

Xu Aida smiled and nodded.

After a while, the signal was connected, and she casually performed a few of her usual experimental actions.

Sure enough, if the range of motion increases or suddenly speeds up, you can feel the flexible material tending to shift.

It seems we still need to come up with an elastic compression sleeve; that's the solution they used in the past.

However, her arm circumference is too small, and not many people can use it, so there is no need to make it.

Liang Siyu looked at the signal and raised an eyebrow slightly: "How about adding a pressure sleeve? Like compression stockings, wouldn't that reduce some displacement?"

"Oh, right, we still need to use medical tape. Double-sided tape won't work if you sweat."

"Yes, I understand." Xu Aida continued.

Unfortunately, she doesn't sweat easily, so we couldn't test her movement after she started sweating.

She thought about it and decided to do a minute of high knees in place. Sure enough, she started sweating very quickly.

"Ned, check the signal."

"Noise has increased in all channels." The original waveform now shows jagged edges.

He glanced again at the slightly delayed spatial thermal map. "It's drifted; the activity center has shifted by one electrode unit. The signal-to-noise ratio on the outermost edge has dropped drastically; I guess there's some sweat buildup."

Hsu Ai-da wiped his sweat: "Let's leave it at that for now. As long as the signal is working and the hardware is functional, we can work on the rest later."

"Take it slow? You're completely untrustworthy to say that!" Cohen complained as he tidied up the wires and removed the flexible electrode.

She was urging him so much that he halved his coffee time this week.

Liang Siyu couldn't help but laugh. When Ada got assertive, she was actually quite intimidating.

Sweating, Xu Aida casually tied his hair up: "I told you, as long as the signal quality problem can be solved, my algorithm will definitely not disappoint you."

"Our electrodes cost less than one-tenth of the cost of invasive ones. As long as I have enough training data, I am confident that I can achieve 70-80% of their accuracy in simple movements."

Of course, she also knows that patients have to perform thousands of actions a day. Although a 30% difference may not seem like much, the cumulative failures can greatly affect the user experience. Invasive electrodes still have unique advantages.

When Liang Siyu heard her make such an optimistic prediction for the first time, he couldn't help but gasp: "Ada, if Professor Brooke heard you say that, he would probably have a heart attack."

This price-performance ratio is indeed very attractive, and it doesn't even take into account the high cost of invasive surgery.

She glanced at him: "You don't believe me?"

Liang Siyu only dared to whisper, "I remain cautiously optimistic."

"Okay, let's go home. I want to go back and take a shower as soon as possible."

She took a few steps forward, but realized Liang Siyu hadn't followed. Wasn't he fine just now? Why is he suddenly spacing out again?

Cohen patted him on the back: "Shall we go?"

Liang Siyu seemed to wake up from a dream and came out.

On summer evenings, the perpetually damp air clung to the skin. For the first time, Liang Siyu, who grew up on the east coast, felt irritated by this kind of weather.

She was so dazzling, yet she was slandered and criticized because of him, and he could do nothing about it.

These hateful rumors are like chewing gum that hasn't been properly cleaned. No matter how hard you try to scrape it off, you can't get it completely off; you'll only end up with sticky, dirty hands.

Xu Aida walked half a step ahead; she had already guessed that he had overheard those boring gossips.

Actually, she was quite angry when the "sugar daddy scandal" first broke out two or three weeks ago.

But yesterday, when she heard the terms "nepo baby" and "gold digger" again, she didn't feel much emotional fluctuation. She just felt that what was bound to happen had finally happened.

She even chatted with RA Phoebe, who had previously helped her with the experiment, and discovered that it was Ned's "showing affection" photos that had given away the clues—another unexpected closed loop.

Fate is not some grand transfer station that clearly marks the route to each ending.

Fate is a turbulent current made up of tiny disturbances and minor corrections. A few casually posted photos, and things have circled back to the old path.

During the monkey brain surgery, her first reaction was helplessness, but this time, she actually felt okay. Perhaps, she's used to being hit hard and doesn't have that many emotions to waste.

However, Ned would probably feel very uncomfortable if he heard people call him a "nepo baby" (a man who relies on his father's connections).

Sitting in the driver's seat, with the air conditioning on, Xu Aida sighed comfortably, then turned to look at him: "Ned, did you hear them gossiping?"

Liang Siyu froze, meeting her clear eyes: "When did you hear that?"

She smiled slightly: "Yesterday, don't worry about it. Your hands are made for doctors. No matter where you were born, you deserve to attend the best medical school. They..."

He interrupted her: "That's not it."

"Hmm?" She tilted her head slightly.

Liang Siyu struggled to speak: "I'm sorry, it's all because of me, they're slandering you..." He couldn't continue, and looked out the window.

A hand rested on his shoulder, very lightly, like a slowly falling leaf.

"I see. It seems you don't remember anything I said at the coffee shop last time."

Her voice held a sigh, "Ned, look at me."

He turned around, but his eyes still darted away. Yes, she had clearly said at the coffee shop that day that she didn't care and would let them be. But how could she be so nonchalant about something like this?

“I have more important things to do; those things aren’t worth it,” she said crisply.

He finally looked at her; her face was calm, and her eyes were clear.

Liang Siyu suddenly remembered how bright and dazzling she looked when she was talking about algorithms in the equipment room.

She was clearly the same person, speaking in a similar tone, casually uttering grand pronouncements. But at this moment, while she said she didn't care, there was a hint of weariness in her eyes.

He held her hand tightly: "Ada..."

He didn't know what was wrong with him. She was so strong and so radiant, yet he suddenly wanted to hold her tight.

What has she been through to have that look in her eyes?

A nameless pang of sorrow gripped him. He had a gut feeling that she wasn't truly indifferent; she simply wouldn't allow herself to care.

A few months ago, he told her that if she was in a bad mood, she didn't have to talk. Now he wants to say that when she's sad, she doesn't have to be so strong.

But for some reason, he moved his lips, but didn't dare to say it.

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Author's Note: [Note] Nepo baby and gold digger do not actually have gender connotations in English. In the text, considering the context, people were discussing Ned as a nepo baby and Ada as a gold digger, so the translation included gender. Furthermore, nepo baby and gold digger are very negative terms; in reality, academic circles are unlikely to use such offensive language. There is some exaggeration here.

There will be an extra update around 12:00 noon on Sunday, so remember to check it out!