The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 210

< Luck (7) >

Having finished observing the incubator, Yujin was carefully holding the towel nest with the eggs. It was funny how she readily let her brother touch the eggs, but she herself was too scared to touch them.

‘That’s just like Yujin.’

She would quickly pick up eggs that the hen didn’t incubate, but wouldn’t touch the eggs that the hen was sitting on. Last year, a hen pecking at its eggshell to help it hatch was chased away by Yujin, who thought the hen was attacking the chick.

The chicks that hatched then followed Yujin like their mother, and now they’ve grown into big chickens. They’re all grown up and mixed in with the other chickens, so it’s hard to tell which ones they were, but it was still amazing to see chicks follow a person like their mother.

‘I might have eaten a few of them….’

When Chairman Yoo Myung-sun came, we caught a few. We boiled them in a cauldron with some Korean angelica tree bark, and the meat was tender and delicious.

Yujin tilted her head, looking at what her brother was holding when he came out of the storage.

It was a styrofoam box that her dad used to use when catching octopuses, but he doesn’t use it anymore.

“Why the white box?”

“I’m going to put the incubator in here.”

Since it was made with plywood, it would have some insulation, but to be perfect, additional insulation was necessary.

“Will it be warm if you do that?”

“I think so? We put styrofoam in Janggun’s house, and it’s warm there.”

“Hmm-, but you put it inside Janggun’s house? Shouldn’t that white thing go inside the incubator?”

She’s too sharp.

Still, Jinhyuk had something to say.

“If I put styrofoam inside, it might melt if the light gets too hot. The timer could break too….”

Jinhyuk hesitated, watching his sister’s reaction.

Hmm-. Yujin narrowed her eyes and put her hand on her chin. She had a look on her face as if she was examining the validity of her brother’s opinion.

“Okay.”

Phew-. It seems like I got through that hurdle safely.

“Isn’t it too small?”

“It’ll fit perfectly.”

I checked the size when I made it, so it should fit.

If it doesn’t fit, I’ll just make it again.

Squeak- Beep beep-.

The incubator went in with a loud screeching sound as it was forced in.

“Oppa, how are you going to open the door if you put it in like that?”

Wow-, what would I have done without Yujin?

The door was facing the wall of the styrofoam box.

“I, I can do it again.”

Squeak squeak- Beep-.

After slowly taking it out so the icebox wouldn’t break, he put it back in with the door facing the open side.

Whew-. He bit his lip and held his breath.

“Wow-! It fits perfectly!”

Yujin, who had been watching with bated breath, clapped her hands.

“Phew-. Why is putting in an incubator so hard?”

Putting in the incubator was harder than cutting wood and hammering nails.

Is it harder to take away than to give?

He made a hole in the back of the icebox so that the wire attached to the light bulb socket could come out.

“Can you see the wire?”

“Yes-. It’s coming out of the ground like a centipede.”

Yujin, who was bent over as if her head would touch the ground, carefully watched the progress. Thanks to her, he was able to complete the whole process safely.

“It’s done.”

“Yay-!”

Why is she so excited about this? Jinhyuk smiled happily as he watched his sister jumping up and down.

He held out his palm to his sister, who was standing on tiptoes and cheering.

“Okay, high five-!”

“Yay-!”

Clap-!

Yujin jumped up and slapped his hand.

Now all that’s left is to connect the module.

***

When the world turned dark, Moon Seok-il returned.

“I went all the way out to buy it. Hmph-.”

“Thank you so much. I needed it urgently, but there’s no place that sells this kind of thing in town.”

“Right. The vendor there said that you can’t find anything like this in the country except for large incubators for poultry farms. They say there are small incubators for educational purposes overseas.”

Jinhyuk nodded, a glint in his eyes.

When they were living together in the countryside, Moon Seok-il had a peaceful face, but when he came back from Seoul, he was a bit gloomy. But now, he was smiling happily.

“You seem to be in a good mood.”

“No, I’m always the same.”

Moon Seok-il quickly changed his expression.

There was no need to mention that the knife he thought he had lost was safely tucked away in the console box.

It was true that he was in a good mood.

It was partly because he had found his knife, but also because his personality, which had been sharpened by living in tension and not being able to sleep deeply, had become dull like ordinary people.

‘It’s like I was mistaken that the knife was in my pocket.’

He didn’t know if it was a good thing, but the unexpected event strangely acted as a sense of belonging for Moon Seok-il.

It seemed like he didn’t need to carry the knife around anymore.

He used to habitually feel around his pocket to make sure the knife was there, but now he was going on missions without doing that.

‘I guess my anxiety is gone.’

Watching Moon Seok-il’s eyes, which were smiling behind his sunglasses, Jinhyuk felt a strange sense of camaraderie and comfort. It was similar to the eyes he saw when he gave Byung-taek Yeom the gold medal. Jinhyuk’s eyes, reflected in his friend’s eyes, were smiling like that.

*

With the porch lit up and the onlookers gathered around, Jinhyuk’s second task began.

He inserted the temperature sensor into the small hole and sealed the gap with silicone.

His dad, who had come home from work, and his mom, who had returned from her outing, also showed interest.

“Where did you learn to make an incubator?”

“It’s in the technology books.”

Son Kwang-yeon nodded. He thought there was a wealth of knowledge in middle and high school technology textbooks.

“But Jinhyuk, what kind of eggs are these?”

“You can’t touch them!”

Yujin shouted.

“Oh, my, you scared me. Okay, okay-.”

“Dad, these are parrotbill eggs. Oppa told me.”

Because Yujin was there, Jinhyuk could save his words.

She was helpful in many ways.

“I’ve never seen a parrotbill in person. What do they look like?”

“You’ve probably seen them a lot in reed fields or lespedeza [a type of flowering plant] forests. They look like sparrows, but they have short beaks and long tails.”

His mom, who was from the countryside, explained in detail.

“Ah-. I think I saw them at the reservoir. They were very small. So that’s why the eggs are so small.”

His dad was a knowledgeable person, but he didn’t have much knowledge that matched reality. He was like an encyclopedia without pictures.

In the spring, he knew the theory of how to prune tomato plants, but his hands would fumble, so he had to get help from his mom every year.

“It’s done-. Should it be around thirty-seven degrees?”

He connected the module and turned the gear-like dial to set the temperature.

Now, when the set temperature was reached, the switch would go down and cut off the electricity to the light bulb.

“Oh, oh-, thirty-seven degrees. Yes, that’s a good temperature.”

“Warm-blooded? Homeothermic? Is that what those animals are called?”

Jinhyuk’s cheeks rose uncontrollably as he watched his dad and mom respond. They were just like another Son Yujin, only with different physiques.

Usually, the family would gather at night and clap for little Jungwon’s antics. So it wasn’t strange for them to make a fuss over small things, but it made his heart flutter to see them huddled together like this. What was so special about this one little egg?

‘It must be a lucky egg.’

An egg that brings happiness.

I will definitely save you!

“Oppa! I’ll turn on the light!”

“Okay. Let’s go inside and turn it on.”

Jinhyuk carefully carried the incubator, and the rest of the family followed behind him.

Except for one person.

When Jinhyuk felt something was off and turned around, his dad was muttering while looking at the egg in Yujin’s arms.

“Hmm-, I see. It looks like a sparrow…?”

Ah-, Dad.

Why are you swallowing your saliva….

***

He was debating whether to put the finished incubator in the utility room or Yujin’s room, but decided to put it next to the fish tank. It was the place where they went most often, and it seemed like it would be good to keep an eye on it.

Even though Janggun and his subordinate dogs were guarding the yard, he didn’t know what kind of threats lurked outside. Strange things often happened at night in the countryside.

“I understand keeping it inside, but shouldn’t you put it somewhere out of reach?”

His dad made a pretty smart point, but it wasn’t like Jinhyuk didn’t know that.

“I forgot the stepping motor module.”

“Step what, that thing, the module, three times- that’s for construction, and that’s what….”

Son Kwang-yeon just blinked.

His son was using more and more engineering terms, and it was getting harder to understand.

“I think I need to roll the eggs, but I didn’t think of that.”

Anyone who has carefully observed a hen incubating eggs would know. The hen rolls the eggs evenly with its front feet or beak. He didn’t know exactly how parrotbills incubated their eggs, but he thought other birds would be similar to chickens.

But when he was making the incubator, he didn’t think about rolling the eggs.

If he had installed a stepping motor with a timer on the incubator, he could have rolled the eggs automatically.

But now it was too late. If the eggs were left unattended for too long, they would go bad.

So he was planning to do it manually.

“I’ll have to roll them by hand.”

“Who? When will you roll them?”

Yujin, who couldn’t even touch the eggs for fear of breaking them, looked excited at the thought of being able to touch them.

“Whoever rolls them. I think it’ll be fine if we roll them in the morning and evening.”

The family’s eyes sparkled.

Son Kwang-yeon and Han Yu-young were the same.

They were also disappointed that they couldn’t touch the small, pretty egg because Yujin wouldn’t let them. Even if they were always bickering, it was a natural reaction for curious humans to want to see and touch something new.

But Jinhyuk could touch and look at the egg all he wanted, and she would let him. But she wouldn’t let her mom and dad touch it. What kind of discrimination was this?

“Well, I’ll do it, Mom will do it. Do I just roll it half a turn?”

“I’ll roll it when I get off work in the evening.”

“I want to roll it too when I come back from school-.”

There were so many volunteers since there were so many family members.

When his parents and sister raised their hands, as if competing with each other, Jungwon also raised his arm high, as if wondering if something good was happening.

“Daddy is a fool-.”

Why are they like this?

Jinhyuk quickly intervened.

“Let’s decide with rock-paper-scissors. Fairly.”

*

An unexpected tension flowed in the living room.

Because of his mom, dad, and Yujin, who had clenched their fists tightly. Jungwon was just repeating “jam jam” with his hand, as if he really knew what was going on.

Was this what a fierce battle between masters was like?

Feeling a strange tension, Jinhyuk couldn’t even breathe, and he swallowed his saliva carefully.

Since there was no one breathing, the air seemed to have died on its own, and the only thing that dominated the living room was a silent fighting spirit.

The moment a drop of sweat flowed down his dad’s sideburns, Yujin’s loud shout broke the long silence.

“If you don’t show, you lose!”

At this signal, the two adults also shook their fists.

Uh-huh- Hup-cha hup-cha-.

“Rock-paper-scissors-scissors- an ant’s butt-butt- a squirrel is singing-.”

“Hey-, Yujin-.”

“Yujin, properly-.”

When they were about to say something, Yujin’s eyes flashed.

My hands are faster than your eyes.

“Paper-!”

What?

His mom and dad couldn’t even move their fingers, and they just stared at their still clenched fists. And they realized the situation when they saw their daughter’s hand wide open.

Oh no! They had been tricked by the young master’s scheme and had been caught off guard.

As expected of a duel between masters, the match was decided in just one move.

“Yay! I won! Hooray-!”

“Daddy is a fool-!”

Jungwon jumped up and down while sitting, celebrating his sister’s victory.

It wasn’t a fair play, but his mom and dad reluctantly showed sportsmanship and clapped.

‘Seriously. What’s so special about rolling an egg? Anyway, my family is all crazy.’

Jinhyuk, who had no idea about their curiosity, rubbed his face with a dazed look.

And so.

It was decided that Yujin would roll the egg before going to bed on the first day.

Well, it wasn’t a bad bet for his parents.

It was the egg that Yujin had rescued, and she had even given it a name.

“Lucky, sleep well-. See you tomorrow.”

Click-.

After turning the egg, Yujin closed the incubator door, latched it, and pressed it to make sure it wouldn’t open.

Everyone scattered to their rooms, and all the lights went out, leaving only the fish tank light to illuminate the living room softly.

That was the end of the long day… or so it seemed.

Lucky couldn’t rest easy.

Before the long hand of the wall clock had turned half a circle.

After confirming that Jinhyuk had gone up to his room on the second floor, the other family members gathered in the living room one by one like stray cats.

“Is it doing well?”

“Oh my? The light is off? Could it be broken?”

“No way, our son made it. It must have turned off because it got too hot. It shows here on the thermometer. Thirty-seven degrees.”

“Ah-.”

“What does it feel like? Is it similar to pottery? It wouldn’t be a big deal if I touched it once, would it?”

“You’re supposed to roll it before you go to work tomorrow, so be patient.”

Whisper whisper-.

When Son Kwang-yeon and Han Yu-young were peeking around the incubator in their pajamas, they heard a thumping- sliding sound from the second floor stairs.

“Hehehe-. I’m going to sleep next to Lucky.”

It was Yujin, dragging her Achi bear down the stairs.

“Daddy is a fool-.”

Even Son Jungwon, who was walking with his arms raised as if he was doing a cheer or trying to scratch, joined them. The four family members, except for the eldest son, spread out their bedding in the living room.

“Hahaha-. Let’s all sleep together for the first time in a while, even with our daughter-.”

“Daddy-.”

Jinhyuk, who was crouching on the landing and watching the scene, let out a silent sigh. He had come out when he heard the sound of Yujin’s door closing, but his family was hovering around the incubator like thieves.

‘They’re not even kids….’

What’s so special about one egg?

Still, they even brought their pillows, so should he let them get to their destination?

Jinhyuk walked down the dark stairs quietly.

The corners of Jinhyuk’s mouth curled up shyly as he walked towards the place where happiness was lying, the most comfortable place in the world.

He wouldn’t be able to monopolize his mom’s arms like when he was a child, but there was nothing better for a good night’s sleep than the warmth of his family.

‘It’s a lucky egg.’

It was the first time the whole family had slept together since they had built the house.