Chapter 43
Ding-.
The elevator doors parted with a chime.
Clomp, clomp-.
Pitter-patter-.
I stepped out of the elevator holding Mom's hand.
This was a law office in Seoul.
We hadn't come here because we'd gotten caught up in some case or anything.
We'd come to meet a relative we knew well.
My dad Yu Jin-hu's younger sister, Yu Jin-a.
She was my aunt.
I knew my aunt very well.
In my past life, I often greeted her even when I visited Dad's house.
In this life, she'd been someone I saw every holiday.
I'd even seen her just recently, at Chuseok.
And my aunt was an elite lawyer who smashed law school and opened her own office in her late twenties.
'But... Aunt... was... going to... get me...'
Gulp-.
I steeled myself before meeting my aunt.
The office door opened.
My aunt was sitting at her desk, and the moment she saw us, she stood up.
"Jin-a, hi."
"Sister-in-law, you're here? If you'd called ahead, I would've gone out to meet you."
Then her gaze dropped.
"Oh my. Oh my, my."
My aunt's expression changed in an instant.
"It's Ah-yeon!"
"Hieeek-!"
As expected, Aunt rushed over and scooped me up.
"Oh, oh, oh! You've gotten even cuter since I last saw you! Aunt watched the documentary Ah-yeon was in! I watched it three times! Our Ah-yeon is totally a superstar, a superstar!"
"Eeeek-!"
'I knew this would happen...'
My aunt was an Energy Drain user who sucked my energy dry in an instant.
Last holiday, too, she'd grabbed me and almost turned me into a withered Yu Ah-yeon mummy.
A-rin had also fallen into Aunt's terrifying clutches this year.
Aunt started rubbing her cheek against mine.
Rub-rub-.
"You're seriously way too cute! How can you be this cute? To think a daughter like this came from my older brother! Sister-in-law, how did you give birth to Ah-yeon so cutely?!"
"Mmm-mmm-."
I sent a glance at Mom.
It was a rescue signal, asking her to save me.
"Mmm-mmm-."
Mom slowly sat down on the sofa.
"Ah-yeon. Your aunt is so happy to see you, so you should be happy to see her too, okay?"
"Hieet..."
"The scene in the documentary where you bragged about your IQ! It was so cute! That's Aunt's favorite scene!"
Rub-rub-!
In the end, I had no choice but to endure the endless rub-rub hell that went on for a while.
✒️✒️✒️
We explained to Aunt the whole story of why we'd come to see her.
For the record, jachojijong isn't some bell that goes ding-ding-ding. Weird, right?
"You want to show the two-shot photo of me and Ah-yeon on the broadcast?"
"Yeah. I think Ah-yeon should probably be the one to turn on the broadcast. I'm a little worried."
That's right.
The solution Mom came up with to answer the flood of question emails.
It was a live broadcast by Yu Ah-yeon!
She could answer questions without typing everything out on a laptop,
and directly stream my cute, smart self to spread Yu Ah-yeon's name even further.
It was truly a two-birds-one-stone strategy.
However, Mom, who came up with the idea, worried that all kinds of no-good trolls would swarm my broadcast in droves.
In fact, the channel that had been streaming my lecture live had apparently had a hard time managing the chat because trolls came swarming in after hearing the rumor.
So when I did my own broadcast, we needed a talisman to keep people chatting nicely.
And that talisman was a two-shot photo with a lawyer.
Click!
Aunt and I took a photo while making peace signs with our hands.
"That's totally fine. It would actually be even better if you promoted my office! Ah-yeon is a superstar now, so I'm the one who should be asking you!"
Aunt gladly accepted our suggestion.
"Ah, right! Take this too."
Swish-.
Aunt handed me her law office's business card.
[Law Office of Attorney Yu Jin-a]
If I just displayed this in a corner of the broadcast screen, then the trolls who came after hearing the rumor would probably behave themselves too.
"Heheh."
Who am I?
The genius with an IQ of 160, a former iPhone owner, the first author of the paper proving the Riemann hypothesis, the master of the holy trinity of outfit, hair, and makeup, and a lawyer's niece.
I'm a lawyer's niece~ I'm a lawyer's niece~
Lawyer connections... sooooo reassuring...!
"Aunt! Thank youuu-!"
I bowed deeply.
"My, Ah-yeon, you're polite too."
Swish-swish-.
Aunt grinned and stroked my head.
"My cute niece, buy yourself some snacks with this."
Then she pulled a golden-colored bill out of her purse...!
"Heeek-!"
"Ah, Jin-a..."
"Oh, come on, put it away, put it away."
Mom tried to stop her, but Aunt insisted on slipping the golden bill into my pocket.
"Nihihi, I'll gratefully use it well-!"
✒️✒️✒️
Scamper-scamper-scamper-!
As soon as I got home, I dashed to my piggy bank without even washing my hands.
Then I slipped the 50,000-won bill into the piggy bank labeled [Nentendo 2 Fund]—swish!
"Oohehing."
When I picked up the piggy bank and shook it left and right, the rustling sound of a bundle of bills was enough to make me feel full just from hearing it.
"Oh, I'm stuffed. Yu Ah-yeon's belly is so full."
This piggy bank held everything I'd saved, including the 50,000-won bills I'd grabbed at my first-birthday picking game (grabbing money is by far the most efficient choice), as well as all the New Year's money and allowances I'd received from relatives up to now.
I had such a hard time fending off Mom when she tried to take my New Year's money, saying she'd save it and give it back to me later... whew.
I have the grand ambition of saving up this money, boldly buying a Nentendo 2, and enjoying Pokimon and Beast Forest with A-rin.
It's awkward to ask my parents to buy me a gaming device when it's not even for studying, right? So instead of begging, I'm steadily saving up like this.
"Ah-yeon, the broadcast setup is all done."
Snap-!
Dad set up the camera on a tripod, aimed it toward the whiteboard, and gave me a thumbs-up.
When I said I'd turn on a broadcast and defend my thesis, Dad helped set up the broadcast environment, including the camera and tripod.
"Okay, then Yu Ah-yeon's personal broadcast debut! Let's begin!"
"Three, two, one, cue!"
✒️✒️✒️
A professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris was anxiously waiting for a reply to the email they'd sent to Han Seol-ae.
The professor had refreshed the inbox several times since morning.
It had already been three days since they sent the question about the paper.
But there was still no reply.
In a way, that was only natural.
Yu Ah-yeon's paper was drawing attention from around the world, and countless other researchers had probably sent emails too.
Still, the waiting was hard to bear.
The paper study group's seminar was next week.
If that part couldn't be resolved, the presentation would end awkwardly.
A fellow professor from the lab came in carrying coffee.
"Did you get a reply?"
"Not yet."
"Wait a bit. There are probably a ton of messages piled up in the inbox."
"I know. I'm just checking."
The professor looked back at the laptop screen.
At that moment.
Ding-dong-.
A received notification popped up.
"What? It came?"
"Yeah."
[From: Han Seol-ae]
The professor hurriedly checked it.
The email was short.
— Hello. Thank you for your question email. Since we've received so many emails, please understand that it's hard to reply to each one individually. I'll explain everything at once through the link below, so please take a look.
— https://metube.com/xxxxxxx
A MeTube link was attached below.
When they clicked the link, a live broadcast was already in full swing.
Channel name.
[IQ Genius Yu Ah-yeon]
And on the broadcast screen, a girl standing on a step stool in front of a whiteboard was writing equations with a board marker.
Yu Ah-yeon herself, the author of the paper that proved the Riemann hypothesis.
And in the upper-left corner of the screen, there was a photo of a woman who looked strangely similar to Yu Ah-yeon, along with a business card written in Korean.
"Please understand that the broadcast will be in English only! This part is about setting the operator boundary conditions! Seventeen people asked about this exact same part, believe it or not!"
On screen, Yu Ah-yeon began calmly explaining the paper's contents on the whiteboard in easy-to-understand English.
The professor plugged in their earphones and turned up the volume.
✒️✒️✒️
- What's this, a personal broadcast??
- It's Ah-yeon!!!!!
- Wow, what is this algorithm, it just popped up out of nowhere
- No way, she's actually broadcasting
- Ah-yeon is cute ㅠㅠ
- She's wearing the sailor uniform again
- But what's that photo in the top left?
- A lawyer? Whoa...
- Hello from Cambridge.
- Are you answering questions live today?
- Danke für die Antwort auf meine Mail. (Thank you for reading my email.)
- De quelle partie du papier parlez-vous actuellement ? (Which part of the paper are you talking about now?)
- こんにちは (Hello)
- Whoa, foreign viewers are suddenly showing up in huge numbers
- World-class, damn.
Since the live stream started on the [IQ Genius Yu Ah-yeon] channel, people began trickling in one by one and chatting.
Looking at the chat reactions, half were Koreans who'd been drawn in by the algorithm.
And the other half were probably overseas questioners who'd come through the link attached in the email, I guess.
"Hellooo-! I'm Yu Ah-yeon-! Sorry to Korean viewers, but since there are a lot of overseas viewers today, from now on I'll be doing this in English only! Sooorry!"
I bowed my head and apologized a little, then checked the chat.
"Wow, so many of you came from all sorts of countries! Hello, buenos días, bonjour, guten Tag, buongiorno, ni hao, konnichiwa! First, I'll answer the question that came up most often!"