Chapter 1758: Summer in Fool

The high-energy physics laboratory of Cat Getan University was located on the west side of the school. It was the newest and largest high-energy physics research facility on the East Coast funded by the Luthor Group. All experiments related to Cat Getan's weather were conducted here.

Although it was hard to say whether using an angel halo to level all the dark clouds in Cat Getan counted as being within the scope of high-energy physics, the experimental process did indeed require the use of some high-energy physics equipment. Therefore, Lex spent most of his study life in Cat Getan in this laboratory.

There was a whole team researching Cat Getan's weather here. In addition to the relatively outstanding genius students at Cat Getan University, there were also some climatologists who were interested in Cat Getan's special climatic conditions, so they also joined the research team invested in by Luthor.

The experimental results went without saying. Cat Getan had basically completed artificial climate control. The heavy rain last night was also the result of artificial rainfall. When he got up this morning, Lex hurriedly put on a short-sleeved shirt and beach shorts, bought a cup of coffee from the vending machine, and rushed to the laboratory.

This had been his daily routine for the past few years. After all, the difficulty of letting Cat Getan see the sun was equivalent to being an enemy of the whole world. Even for a peerless genius like Luthor, the academic pressure was very high. If he didn't study early and late, he might not necessarily be able to produce such amazing results.

It rained all night last night, and there was accumulated water on the road. Lex stepped on a pair of slippers, kicking and stepping as he walked through the shaded path on the side of the teaching building. He poured the last bit of coffee into his mouth, squeezed the bottle, threw it into the trash can at the entrance of the laboratory, and Lex pushed open the door of the laboratory building.

People along the way were greeting him. Lex was sleepy and nodded left and right. He had been monitoring the wind direction and humidity in Cat Getan indoors until about four o'clock in the morning yesterday, and now it was 6:30 in the morning. Lex was so sleepy that he couldn't tell southeast from northwest.

After entering the laboratory, he continued to look at the data and checked the email just sent by Pamela on the computer next to him. That was the plant survival data she recorded.

After Cat Getan saw the sun, Mayor Luo Yi had been carrying out the work of urban greening. As everyone knew, urban greening, in addition to planting trees, also required making roadside shrubs, decorative flower beds, lawns, and sculptural plants.

Now Lex and Pamela were actively communicating to finalize a sunshine duration suitable for Cat Getan plants. As for whether it was suitable for humans, anyway, Gothamites could survive under such harsh conditions, so it didn't matter if they were exposed to more or less sun.

Just as Lex continued to bury his head in researching the materials, the door of the laboratory was knocked. Lex looked up and saw a brilliant smiling face. Clark, wearing black-rimmed glasses, carried a camera on one shoulder and walked in with an iced coffee in one hand.

"Good morning, Lex, long time no see." Clark revealed a standard eight-tooth smile.

Lex rolled his eyes slightly and said nothing. Clark didn't care at all about his coldness. He put down the two cups of coffee, stretched his neck to look at the materials in Lex's hand.

After taking a look and finding he couldn't understand, Clark didn't express his opinion. He just took two straws out of his bag, took off the paper packaging on them, threw them into the trash can, then inserted the straws into the two cups of coffee respectively, and pushed one of them toward Lex's direction.

"No need, I've already drunk." Lex said without lifting his head.

Clark didn't feel embarrassed either. While drinking coffee, he looked up and sized up the laboratory, looking at the lights on his head for a while, and looking at the scenery outside the window for a while. Finally, Lex couldn't stand it anymore. He put down the materials, turned his head to look at Clark, and said, "Do you have something?"

Clark immediately laughed, put the bag he was carrying in his other hand on the table, and said: "I really have something I want to ask for your help."

Lex cast his gaze on the bag he put on the table. That was a laptop bag, gray overall, with a logo that Lex was very familiar with printed on it.

Sure enough, Clark took a Luthor-brand laptop out of the computer bag and put it on the table, then said: "This is the latest laptop launched by the Luthor Group that I bought a month ago. It's very easy to use. I finally don't have to run to the newspaper's public multimedia room to check photos and retouch them."

"The only problem is that I have a cat and a dog at home. When the two of them were fighting, they pushed the laptop to the ground. Uh, I know ordinary pets can't push such a heavy thing to the ground, but the two of them are obviously not ordinary."

"Krypto swept the laptop to the ground with one tail. It felt very guilty because it knew how much I liked this computer. This used up all my savings..."

"Can you get to the point?"

"Can you help me fix it?"

Clark rubbed his hands, looking at Lex full of expectation. Lex looked at the innocent look in his blue eyes, took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and said: "Clark Kent, don't you feel there's something wrong with asking the person in charge of the Luthor Group to fix a Luthor Group computer?! Send it to where you bought it for warranty!!!"

After roaring, Lex picked up the materials on the table and continued to look at them without good grace. Clark scratched his head and said with some confusion: "I didn't want to bother you at first, but after I found the sales clerk who sold me the computer, he said this was damaged by myself and was not within the scope of the warranty."

"I took it to other computer stores to fix it, and the maintenance personnel said this computer is the latest model, and they don't have replacement parts there either. If they take the machine apart, the official warranty won't be usable, so they told me to go to the official."

"I called the Luthor Group's warranty department again, but they said I must mail the computer to Cat Getan's electronic maintenance center, and they can only fix it for me after checking that it is indeed a product quality problem..."

Lex paused his hand flipping through the materials. He sighed and put down the document in his hand, turning to look at the laptop.

Clark reached out and flipped the laptop over. Now one could see the power of Krypto's tail. Half of the back shell of the laptop was broken, and the lines and components were exposed.

Seeing this situation, Lex could only stand up. He walked to the table, lifted the whole laptop up and looked at it left and right, frowning and saying: "How could it be broken like this?"

"Um, my dog is indeed a bit special." Clark said quite embarrassedly, "I guess there won't be any electronic products in this world that can withstand one tail of it. This is not the computer's fault either, so I'm asking for a favor in a private capacity. If it can't be fixed, then forget it..."

Lex frowned and glanced at him, seemingly dissatisfied with the word "can't be fixed" he used, but he still carried the laptop to the laboratory bench next to him and began to check.

Clark was still explaining on the side: "That sales clerk didn't believe it when he heard it was broken by my dog, but I really didn't lie to him. Krypto is very sad now, but it's a good dog, and I can't bear to criticize it..."

"Can you be quiet for a while?" Lex impatiently took the toolbox and put it on the table with a "bang."

Clark didn't speak, sitting opposite the laboratory bench, supporting his cheek with one hand and drinking coffee with the other.

After a while, he saw Lex's face becoming more and more solemn. Clark's eyes widened in disbelief and he couldn't help but ask: "Is it really that troublesome? Or should I..."

"Shut up!" Lex roared at him again, but his gaze was fixed on the computer without blinking, and he said: "I remember the design drawing I drew at the time wasn't like this. The material of this shell is problematic, and the internal structure is also..."

Then Clark saw Lex take a lot of equipment, connecting wires, plugging in electricity, and taking apart the whole shell. He was busy for about half an hour before standing in front of the laboratory bench with a gloomy face, staring at the remains of the computer without moving.

The thing that appeared on the laboratory bench now really couldn't be called a computer, because it had been completely taken apart. Clark hesitated and just wanted to open his mouth, but Lex said: "Don't speak, I'll send you a brand new one later."

"No, I just want to know, what's wrong with this computer?"

Lex lifted his eyelids and looked at Clark again. Looking at his sincere expression, he was hesitant instead. His eyes looked to the side, he pursed his lips, and asked somewhat reluctantly: "Do you think this computer is easy to use?"

"Very easy to use, it's the best computer I've ever used." Clark nodded vigorously and said, "The user interface is simply great, and I also like the boot pattern, especially the animation of the earth pattern flashing, did you design that?"

"That's not the point. I'm asking you about performance."

"Then I don't know. I usually only use it to check emails and photos, and occasionally retouch photos. It's very smooth to use, and it has never lagged, much better than the big-headed computers in our newspaper's multimedia room."

Lex rolled his eyes quite helplessly and said: "This is completely different from the design drawing I drew at the beginning. It's severely downgraded. Your computer broke when it fell to the ground just because the strength of the shell material is not up to standard."

"But aren't you the boss of the Luthor Group?" Clark opened his mouth wide and said with some surprise.

And Lex appeared a bit irritable. He said: "Commercial matters are very complex. I don't have time to manage those trivial details, but I didn't expect them to dare to fool me."

After speaking, he turned and walked to the side of the phone stand, dialed a number, and after asking about some computer product problems, Clark heard Lex say angrily: "... Planned obsolescence principle? This is the reason you made Luthor Group's products as brittle as soda crackers? And then cooperate with a large amount of sales training investment and harsh after-sales thresholds, just to produce amazing sales in a quarter to fool me, a child who knows nothing?!"

"Just because the sales of the Wei En Group's concurrent products are less than half of ours, you think they can't take this path, and we have no opponents?! Your short-sightedness simply shocks me!"

"They have shortcomings in software, just because Bruce Wei En hasn't figured it out now. He hasn't realized the importance of human-computer interaction. And once he makes improvements in this regard, do you think those electronic products that are as hard as military weapons will be inferior to the soda crackers you made?!"

"I don't want to talk to you anymore. Don't mention any qualifications or anything to me. The potted plant on my office windowsill is smarter than you. You can get out!"

Lex hung up the phone with a "bang," scaring Clark into a shiver. Looking at Lex's depressed expression, Clark put his hands on the table and said: "It's not strange, right? No one can be perfect."

"This group of incompetent idiots is the only legacy my father left me." Lex hammered the table and said: "I will eventually let them..."

"Ding-a-ling!"

The phone rang suddenly. Lex turned his head to look, walked to the phone again, picked up the receiver and said to the other side: "Hello? Bruce?... Okay, I'll go over now..."

"Where are you going?" Clark asked, looking at Lex who was packing up and wanting to leave.

"Rodriguez Manor." ===== CHAPTER 1759 =====