Visiting

Upon entering the house, Link saw the heavily overweight George Cooper and immediately said, "Hello, Coach George. This is my first time visiting your home."

"Of course. If you'd been willing to join the Football Team earlier, I might have invited you over for dinner sooner. You know, Mary's cooking is fantastic."

"Of course. I can tell just by looking at you," Link said with a smile.

George naturally understood that Link was teasing him about his weight, but he had been teased too often to care much anymore. Instead, he said, "You know, marrying her was the happiest thing that ever happened to me."

After saying that, he pointed directly at the prepared seats and had the two of them sit down.

Mary then returned to the kitchen to keep busy. After everyone introduced themselves, Link officially met Sheldon's older brother, Little George Cooper, and his twin sister, Missy Cooper.

During the introductions, Coach George noticed Link mention that Dan was of Vietnamese descent and casually said, "When I was in the military, I spent some time there too..."

At that point, Coach George's expression became slightly strange as he probed, "Your mother isn't named Kim Lee, is she?"

"No, sir." Dan clearly did not understand what that meant. In fact, most of the people still at the table did not understand either, though Link could not help smiling.

That made Sheldon ask, "Link, what are you laughing about?"

After their brief interaction, Link had confirmed that Sheldon was indeed just like in the show. Although his IQ was extraordinarily high, his emotional intelligence was pitifully low. Even more than twenty years later, he still could not grasp many things ordinary people considered common sense, much less now, when he was only nine.

"Nothing." Seeing the awkward expression on Coach George's face, Link knew George had realized that he understood the implication. Still, he had no intention of exposing what American soldiers had done overseas at a time like this. Instead, he said:

"I was just thinking that my father also fought in the Vietnam War. His name is Robert Bennett, and he used to serve in the Marine Corps."

Coach George immediately felt much more at ease after hearing that. "Great! Looks like we have quite a lot in common!"

Just then, Little George Cooper, who was very curious about Link, the popular figure at school, asked:

"Link, I heard Youth Diva Lena is your girlfriend, and that you go to her house every day after school and stay the night. Is that true?"

Link had never spent the night at Lena's house, but their relationship had indeed changed somewhat lately.

They were already in their second year of high school. Western girls matured relatively early, and Lena's figure had been getting better and better. On top of that, she had used Link's fame to cement her status as the school's Youth Diva, so Link had added a free tutoring program for her—one that satisfied them both.

Of course, he did not consider Lena his girlfriend, so whenever others asked, Link still gave the same answer. "Lena and I are friends. And I only go to her house after school to help her with her studies."

"Tutoring, huh? That really is a good idea." George smiled knowingly, then wondered whether he could use the same method to date girls. But when he thought of how difficult it was for him to even pass his classes, he ultimately gave up on the idea.

At that moment, Mary brought out dinner, and everyone stopped talking about that sort of thing.

Dinner was grilled chicken and beef brisket, classic Texas fare. Mary's cooking was indeed excellent, and Link ate quite a lot.

After dinner, Link and Dan followed Sheldon into the garage. Little George Cooper, still curious about Link, followed them over. Seeing that, Missy Cooper, who loved joining in on the fun, followed as well.

Link was a popular figure at school, and Little George was interested in meeting girls through him.

Missy had heard about Link from Little George. She found it hard to imagine that someone they considered so "cool" would be willing to be friends with Sheldon. Her gossiping instincts kicked in, so she followed along too.

The garage was filled with Sheldon's various toys and his wildly imaginative inventions. When Link spotted a clearly modified toy oven, he could not help asking, "What is this?"

"Oh, this is an Armed Robot I designed and modified. I originally made it to drive Missy away, but unfortunately, it wasn't big or strong enough. Missy isn't afraid of it at all." Sheldon sounded somewhat unwilling to accept that as he finished speaking.

Link said, "You mean this is a robot that can move?"

"Of course." Sheldon nodded as if it were obvious, then said, "If it couldn't move, how could it be called my Armed Robot?"

As he spoke, he found a remote control and pressed a button. The toy oven really did start moving. Its modified mechanical arms waved about convincingly, making shooing motions.

"Impressive," Link praised despite himself.

Although he had lived thirty years in his previous life and had received help from the system after being reborn, which had improved his intelligence, and although he had studied desperately over the past few years, recreating something at this level from these materials would still have taken an unknown amount of effort.

And this was clearly something Sheldon had completed a long time ago. In fact, Peggy could achieve the same level, but she obviously would not spend time on this sort of thing.

Compared to Sheldon, her emotional intelligence was still quite normal. Aside from studying, she could act like an ordinary girl, and many of her interests were similar to those of girls her age. But in Link's opinion, the two of them were evenly matched when it came to arrogance.

"It's nothing," Sheldon said. "There used to be a Medical CT machine here that I modified out of a nonfunctioning computed tomography scanner.

Unfortunately, Missy told Mom that the CT machine burned her Guinea Pig to death, and Mom took it away. Honestly, who would like such a horrible animal..."

While Sheldon rambled on, Dan picked up the rocket model on the table. He was very interested in rockets, so he asked:

"Hey, Sheldon, is this the rocket model you made? Did you use the methods introduced in Professor Robert Goddard's book Liquid Rocket?"

"Yes." Little Sheldon explained, "Originally, I was planning to get some uranium and build an Atomic Engine. I've already completed the theoretical design. It isn't difficult..."

As one professional term after another spilled from Sheldon's mouth, Link could understand only a small fraction of the concepts, and those were only the most basic ones. Fortunately, after spending so much time with Peggy, Link had learned how to handle situations like this: start from the beginning and ask for guidance.

And by nature, Sheldon was even more enthusiastic than Peggy about popularizing all kinds of knowledge and displaying his intellectual superiority.

On the other hand, when Peggy was with Link lately, aside from answering some of his questions, she increasingly wanted to think about fun things to do. Her patience for explaining such knowledge was limited, and Link had to coax her into it.

Sheldon, however, was quite eager. Combined with some of Link's little tricks, even though Link asked many questions that Sheldon considered "the most basic," and even failed to understand some questions after hearing the explanation repeatedly, Sheldon still went on and on in response to Link's questions.

Sheldon felt quite good about being friends with Link, because whenever he talked about these things at home before, neither his parents nor his brother and sister understood or cared. Link, meanwhile, actually satisfied his desire to talk—or rather, his need to better prove his intellectual superiority.

As for Link, as long as he achieved his goal, putting up with Sheldon for a little while was not a problem. Besides, if he truly could not stand it, having watched The Big Bang Theory, he had already figured out several effective ways to deal with Sheldon.

Seeing this, Little George and Missy exchanged a speechless glance. Missy said, "I think I know why they became friends. I never thought Sheldon would actually find his own kind!"

"That's what I was thinking too." Little George nodded, though his focus was clearly elsewhere. "But does this really make it easier to ask girls out?"