Chapter 96: I Have a Request

Qin Hongfei had no idea which kind Master Chen belonged to, but she didn’t take his words to heart. Instead, she followed Xing Li to stand before Xing’s father. “Dad, I’m here!”

Xing’s father glanced at his son, then at Qin Hongfei, and asked, “Is this the master’s daughter?”

Qin Hongfei thought to herself that being young was a disadvantage. She replied, “No, I am the master myself.”

Xing’s father was taken aback. The master himself? He couldn’t help but laugh. “Child, don’t joke around.”

Qin Hongfei looked at Xing Li as if to say, Your father doesn’t believe me—do something about it.

Xing Li hurriedly protested, “Dad, it really is her. Remember my computer? No one could fix it last time, but she did.”

Xing’s father still didn’t believe it. He suspected his son was short on pocket money lately and had recruited a friend to help him trick some out of him. “Stop fooling around…”

Xing Li was getting anxious. Who’s fooling around? Dad, have you lost your mind? If I wanted pocket money, would I have to lie? I could just act cute for Grandpa and Grandma and get as much as I wanted! Why would I need to ask you, you old miser?

Seeing the stalemate, Qin Hongfei spoke up, “Actually, I’m my teacher’s student. My teacher was busy and asked me to come first to take a look and report back.”

Xing’s father shot his son a glare. As expected, here to scam some pocket money.

Xing Li was speechless. No, let me explain! He looked at Qin Hongfei in confusion—this wasn’t what he’d expected. Why had she changed her story?

Qin Hongfei ignored him. Young people need to be flexible. If you’re not, what can you do? At her age, no one would believe she had any real skills. She said, “Uncle Xing, why don’t you let me take a look at the computer first?”

Master Chen shook his head and said to the boss, “See? Nowadays, all kinds of con artists show up… Little one, do you even know any technology? Have you even studied the basics of computing?”

Qin Hongfei ignored his sarcasm. She spotted the computer nearby—it was probably the one—and walked straight over.

Mr. Li, watching, thought this child looked a bit familiar, though he couldn’t place her. He teased, “Little girl, this is valuable equipment. You can’t just touch it at will…”

Master Chen scoffed, “It’s fine. The computer was just formatted. She probably doesn’t even know how to turn it on.” As if simply pressing restart would do the trick. But as soon as he finished, he froze.

Qin Hongfei’s fingers danced lightly over the keyboard, and in no time, the boot screen appeared.

Master Chen couldn’t help but glance at her. He steadied himself, trying not to show surprise, and gave a half-hearted compliment. “Not bad—nowadays, even scammers pick up a few tricks. Do you know what to do next, little one? Want Uncle to teach you?”

Qin Hongfei’s clear, beautiful eyes flicked over him, unbothered. She didn’t waste her words on mediocrity.

Anyone who studied computing and couldn’t recover a bit of basic data wasn’t even worth mentioning! As her teacher would say, Don’t tell people you know me when you go out—you’d embarrass me.

After observing the computer for a moment, Qin Hongfei grasped the situation and asked, “Was the system reinstalled and the computer formatted?” Whose foolish idea was that—was the goal to recover data or to erase it?

Xing’s father clearly had no clue.

Master Chen replied, “I just formatted it. But only after confirming the data couldn’t be recovered. Why? Do you think you can recover it if it wasn’t formatted, little one? Don’t you need to consult your teacher?”

Qin Hongfei paid him no mind. She plugged a USB drive into the laptop and installed a small program she’d written herself. Thankfully, she’d prepared in advance; yesterday at the repair shop, just in case standard recovery tools didn’t work, she’d created this software.

Once the program was downloaded and installed, she began restoring the computer’s data. After sifting through a pile of files, she finally found what she was looking for and called out, “Uncle Xing, is this it?”

As soon as the document opened, Xing’s father was overwhelmed with joy. “Yes, yes, that’s it! Little one, you got it back? You’re amazing! Didn’t you say you’d need to ask your teacher?”

The entire process—she hadn’t asked for help even once.

Qin Hongfei replied calmly, “It was easy—just a beginner’s task. No need to consult my teacher; I could handle it myself.” She paused and continued, “Uncle Xing, since I’ve restored your data, I do have a small request…”