Later, Alice often stayed overnight at her teacher and teacher's wife's house, only returning home occasionally. Eventually, seeing how little her trash parents cared about her, she stopped going back altogether.
At school, Alice was also very diligent in her studies. She quickly learned many characters, and her learning speed surprised both her teacher and teacher's wife.
Alice not only wanted to learn knowledge but also to earn money. Although her teacher and teacher's wife were very kind to her, she still remembered that she had to work hard herself.
She quietly kept track of her living expenses and the cost of the nutrient solutions her teacher and teacher's wife gave her. When she grew up, she would definitely repay them with interest.
Neither the teacher nor the teacher's wife knew of little Alice's thoughts. They took care of the child every day, and as they watched Alice grow up to be sensible and diligent in her studies, they grew to love her more and more.
The days passed by, and then one day, the sweeping robot at the kindergarten broke down. The teacher called a repairman, which also incurred a repair fee. Little Alice watched from the side, and she suddenly had a new idea about earning money.
Little Alice began to observe the sweeping robots at school and at home. Whenever she had free time, she would sneak out and pick up broken, discarded sweeping robots from the garbage heaps.
Her teacher and teacher's wife soon noticed something unusual about Alice. They asked her what she was doing. After a moment's hesitation, Alice told them her idea.
Li An and Jenna were very shocked. They never expected such a young child to have such mature ideas.
However...
It didn't seem impossible?
The teacher and teacher's wife were not very wealthy themselves, so they couldn't afford to buy new trash robots for Alice to repair. But they were very supportive of Alice's idea. The teacher's wife, in particular, was even willing to go with Alice to the garbage heaps to find broken robots to study.
On Alice's fourth birthday, the teacher and teacher's wife gave her a gift: a slightly worn set of second-hand repair tools and a similarly worn second-hand optical brain.
Although the items were old, Alice was very excited. These two gifts were incredibly precious to her!
The teacher and teacher's wife helped Alice register an optical brain ID and taught her how to use it.
Alice was too poor to afford a star network pod. However, even without accessing the star network, the external optical brain was convenient for her to look up a lot of information, such as knowledge on robot repair, appliance repair, and various furniture repair.
She was still in kindergarten and didn't know many characters. But the optical brains of the interstellar era were very intelligent. Even the most backward optical brain could easily understand voice commands. She only needed to give voice commands, and the optical brain would search for what she wanted, and she could learn by watching videos.
Thus, Alice's self-study journey began. The first turning point occurred three months later. The sweeping robot at the teacher and teacher's wife's house also broke down. They were about to call a repairman, but before placing the order, the teacher's wife had a flash of inspiration and called Alice over to try her hand, to see if all her hard study had paid off.
The teacher's wife was just trying it out, but no one expected that Alice would actually fix the sweeping robot!
The teacher and teacher's wife were stunned. They turned the sweeping robot on and off several times, even threw trash around and tested it repeatedly. But no matter how much they fussed with it, the sweeping robot worked normally. It was... truly repaired!
At that time, Alice was only a little over four years old, not yet five!
The teacher's wife was proud and couldn't resist telling her friend about Alice fixing their sweeping robot.
But who would believe such a story?
Just three days later, the teacher's wife's best friend wanted Alice to help them repair a washing machine that had been broken for a long time but which they were reluctant to throw away.
Initially, the teacher's wife was unsure about this matter. However, her friend said it was okay even if it broke further and there would be no compensation. So, the teacher's wife decided to take Alice to try.
After all, if it was fixed, Alice could earn money, and if it wasn't, there would be no compensation. What was there to be afraid of? It was a win-win situation, so why not try?
Of course, the decision to go or not still had to be asked of Alice.
When Alice heard the news brought back by the teacher's wife, she was overjoyed. Without a second thought, she nodded enthusiastically, like a little chick pecking at seeds, extremely excited!
That weekend, after the teacher's wife coordinated with her husband, she took Alice to her friend's house.
They took out the broken washing machine and then watched as Alice began to dismantle it!
After tinkering for a while, Alice concluded that a component inside the washing machine was broken and needed to be replaced with a new one!
Without a word, the teacher's wife told her friend to buy it.
Her friend was skeptical. On one hand, she doubted the young child because of her age, but on the other hand, Alice's movements while dismantling the machine seemed very skilled.
After hesitating for a long time, her friend finally went to buy the new component.
Well, a component didn't cost much anyway, and even if it wasn't fixed, it wouldn't matter. She could just consider it as buying candy for a child.
The teacher's wife's friend comforted herself.
The delivery in the interstellar era was very fast. After they placed the order, the component was delivered to the house within an hour.
Her friend signed for it and then handed it to Alice.
Alice took the component and began to replace it in the broken washing machine.
The process was actually very simple. Alice only took a few minutes to replace it.
After the washing machine was reassembled, Alice stood up, turned to her teacher's wife's friend, and said, "Auntie, you can try washing a few clothes to test the effect."
The teacher's wife's friend was skeptical and hesitated for a moment. Then, she really took out a few clothes, put them in the washing machine, started the machine, and began washing.
Twenty minutes later, the clothes were washed, and the washing machine ran smoothly without any faults throughout the entire process. There were no problems at all!
"It... it's fixed?" the teacher's wife's friend was shocked.
The teacher's wife was also incredibly surprised. She proudly ruffled Alice's hair, then looked at her friend and said, "See? Alice is super smart. Shouldn't we settle the repair fee?"
The teacher's wife's friend came to her senses and quickly nodded. She then quickly opened her optical brain and transferred a sum of money to Alice.
And so, Alice earned her first pot of gold through repairing machines. Oh no, her second pot of gold. Her first pot of gold was from selling the trash she collected from the garbage heaps.