"Can I do it? I'm so old."
The old man asked in a low voice, his tone very disturbed.
"Think about it, you are at this age, if you don't give it a try, will you take your regrets to the grave? And you won't lose your current life if you try it, besides, you don't seem to have Nothing to lose."
"this… "
He scratched his thinning hair, and anxiously looked at the parts on the table under the high-power gas lamp.
"Try it, it's just wasting some time and delaying your earning money for a few meals. If you fail, it will be a month for nothing. If you succeed, you don't need to live in this kind of place anymore. Although the invention when you were young is not Let you make money, but now it's just improving the music box, not even improving, just adding some novel features. Is it difficult? Maybe it is difficult, but for you, you know the process of making music boxes, and you have half your life. Machine-building experience. What can stop you but the end of the world?"
Jenkins continued to bewitch, and felt that he might also have the potential to become a devil. Of course, he was pretty sure that an animal lover like himself would make a good devil.
Thinking of this, he reached out and patted the chocolate on his shoulder. Since Chocolate came to this strange place with Jenkins, it has shown a rare cuteness. In the past, it would only be like this when it made a big mistake or hoped that Jenkins could provide delicious food.
This made Jenkins sigh. After more than half a year, the adopted pet cat has finally grown up and is no longer the greedy and lazy cat in the past.
I don’t know why I can hear Jenkins’s thoughts, and I want to teach Jenkins some lessons, but thinking of the current situation, I decided to endure it first, and let Jenkins know that cats cannot be slandered after this incident is over. .
The old man in a white coat is still hesitating. Now this kind of life is stable and there are expectations. Even if the future Jenkins paints is very good, it is still risky after all.
Seeing that pure profit cannot seduce him, Jenkins decided to use another powerful medicine:
"Do you remember that idea of wanting to invent in the first place? That desire from the bottom of your heart, that feeling of fire inside you when you touch these cold metal parts."
"That was many years ago."
"So when you dreamed back at midnight, or when you were drunk in a tavern, did you recall your youthful aspirations? Did you also dream that you could realize your youthful thoughts?"
"Once or twice, indeed."
"So you really don't have a chance? If it's not feasible to invent machines that no one else has thought of, why not start by improving existing machines? For example, the music box in your hand."
"this… "
He is still hesitating. After money and his ideals can be satisfied, the old man is still hesitating. He is no longer young, not because he has lost the drive of youth, but because he has more worries.
So Jenkins has one trick left:
"You can imagine that we are in this era, and steam pushes society and people forward, but are you willing to waste the rest of your life doing these manual tasks day after day?"
The old man's expression could not see what he was thinking at the moment.
"Imagine how many people can experience this kind of era. Even with the eyes of today's people, we can know how magnificent and how full of changes it is. Are you really willing to do nothing all your life and spend the last time in your life? A big thing, is to recruit a few rude young people to help you polish parts in the basement?"
The old man tilted his head and frowned tightly.
"Imagine, when you die, what will people write on your epitaph? 'A craftsman' or 'Assembler of music boxes'? Is that what you want?"
He was surprised that he could say such a thing.
"It's not..."
"On the contrary, if you can muster up the courage to work hard, maybe things will be very different. In the second half of your life, you will catch up with the trend of the times, and you will use your intelligence and wisdom to become a trendsetter of the times... I hope you Can understand this metaphor. If you can really become a factory owner, maybe someone with good intentions will write a book for you, praising you for being successful at your age, and those failures in your youth will also become part of the legend. Think carefully , are these difficult?"
The old man gulped and swallowed, his originally stern gaze softened. .
"At that time, your great life will be written on your epitaph, and there will be admirers and your successors, boasting of your contributions. And all of this depends on whether you are willing to make changes, go to Try to change your current destiny... Yes, change your destiny, relying on yourself. This is not something that can be done at any time. If you are not lucky enough to enter this era, even if you have an idea, you have no chance. You are lucky, lucky I figured this out in my later years, so, for money, for myself, and for society, let’s try to create something.”
"For money, for myself, and for society..."
He repeated this sentence in a low voice, turned his head and looked at the parts on the table with flickering eyes. Then, he took out a piece of paper from under the heavy oil-stained gear, and after unfolding it, there was a hand-painted mechanical disassembly diagram of the music box. The three views are all there, and the size is marked. Jenkins can see at a glance that this music box is different from the normal music box.
"It's time for a change."
The old man said in a low voice, unfolded the drawing completely, spread it flat on the table, and then found a pencil that was still usable from the wooden pen holder beside it.
Jenkins took two steps back and watched as the old man under the lamp buried himself in his work. A transparent heart-shaped diamond emerges from his heart. Compared with the previous ones, this gemstone is a bit smaller, and the temperature is not as hot after holding it up, but it can be regarded as having obtained the "heart of whimsy and whimsy".
"You see, it's not difficult."
After Jenkins showed it to the gear man behind him, the latter asked:
"Are you sure you never used your power to coax him?"
"Did I use strength? You are so close to me, can't you feel it at all? Although I don't think it's the right thing for me to change other people's minds with words so easily, I can guarantee that I just used Speaking skills. I think, I can probably understand the thinking of the old inventor. His ideas cannot be said to be all right, but at least they are not all wrong... "
Saying that, he threw the jewel to the other party. The two walked towards the exit of the basement together, and the gear man sighed:
"Watching this with you reconfirms that humans are interesting things, very interesting."