Jung's mom walked out of the little hut holding a bundle of freshly laundered clothes when he noticed Jung busily building a ghastly monstrosity of a wooden machine.
It's all constructed of strings and woods, with wooden gears that rotate and seem busy. Jung was crawling beneath it, inspecting the innards. She can practically see him at work, his eyes squinted and the tip of his tongue sticking out in that cute little way of his.
She sighed, as she drops the heavy bundle to the ground. Today is the weekends and there is no school, but that didn’t stop Jung from getting busy. "What are you doing now?" she said in her normal exasperated mother's voice.
There was a loud crack as her words startled her son and Jung hit his head in the machine. He extracted himself, rubbing his forehead. Upon noticing her mother, he stood quickly up and offered to carry her bundle. Jin ae heard that Jung is not only good in studying but a natural born athlete. According to his big friend, he is the fastest, the strongest and the best player in almost any game they played. And yet when his son is at home, he cannot help but think of him as this cute dorky boy.
She smiled amusedly as Jung struggled with her bundle, left it in its usual place, and then nudged her head towards the contraption. "Is that supposed to do anything?" she asked. "Or are you just making some form of artistic expression?"
"Huh?" Jung was confused for a moment until his mother pointed again in the wooden contraption. "Oh! That's... well, that is just an experiment for perpetual motion machine."
Her mother sighed. "Alright, I'll bite. What is a perpetual motion machine?"
Jung blinked. He thought the name itself should have been enough to explain itself. "It is a device that, once set in motion, would continue to move forever, with no additional energy required to maintain it."
Her mother thought about it then her eyes returned to the ugly machine now standing next to her garden. Then she thought about it some more. Jung meanwhile dropped the dirty laundry next to the water pump he fixed last week, then grabbed the half bar of detergent hidden in one corner of the kitchen.
"Hmmm... I can see why that will be important. Even if low power, such a device can have multiple applications."
Jung nodded to her. No one said his mother was unintelligent, despite being a peasant girl. "Unfortunately, it doesn't work," Jung said. "It breaks too many laws of thermodynamics, especially the law of conservation of energy."
His mom frowned at him. "Then why are you building crap if you already know it won't work?" She said in an exasperated voice.
"Well, a full perpetual motion machine may not work, but a partial thermodynamic design might still be an interesting idea that might change how we can produce energy in the future."
She had to shoo Jung away with a broom when he offered to do the laundry. She watched her kid walk away with a stubborn look on his face and rub his head, only to come back again to return the soap. "I should do the laundry!" he said. Jin Ei had to wave her broom again before Jung finally left. Only then did her stern face soften as another wave of guilt washed over her.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
She knew her son was extraordinary; this weird experiment was just another example of his genius. If only he were born in another country, then his full potential might have been realized earlier on. Instead, he was born in this hellhole, she thought bitterly. Despite all his knowledge and effort, he will never reach college level and will be doomed to be just another peasant farmer. Not because he did not give his full effort.
Last month alone, her son left Guanzu and traveled 12 hours to a city where there is a community college just because there was hope of a partial scholarship program. Getting permission to leave the province for a purpose like that isn't impossible, but very tedious. Bored civil servants made the experience a living hell for everyone concerned, and is only expedited when Jung gave them a sack of potatoes from the garden.
He left the province with barely 5,000 won in his pocket, or the equivalent of $5, and the bus he was in was so full that he had to stay on top of the bus with the cargo. It turned out that the so-called scholarship program was nothing more than a loaning pyramid scheme that irritatingly shooed Jung away when they learned that he couldn't pay for anything then or in the future.
And still, that glowing enthusiasm, that boundless energy of the innocent, had remained and never wavered. She wished she could do something more for her son, and all she could do now is encourage his hobbies, and hopefully one day he will find his place in this world.
*****
Jung held his small notebook and started writing again, noting everything he observed from the latest perpetual motion machine he just built. At first, he wanted to tweak it a bit more and see if he could improve upon it. But he realized while talking to his mom that the fundamental design is the main problem and wouldn't work. Now all he wanted to know was: if he applies a limited amount of force from time to time, will the machine work better?
Jung was able to do a lot more experimentation due to his access to the junkyard and his natural bias for working engines. Things he simply thought about can now be experimented with to see if they could actually work. Unfortunately, the barn is getting filled up with junk, and his mother is getting irritated about it. So his next project should be building another storage house just inside the forest. A dedicated place just for his research. Hell, maybe he could expand the garden over there as well since the current one is nearly full.
Jung continued to write feverishly. If he could-
“You are mediocre.”
Jung’s pen stopped writing as he remembered Eun Mei’s mom’s hurtful words.
“You must understand that my daughter is destined for someone … more. And you, young man, I’m sure you have your own story and you work hard for your dreams. But you cannot make my daughter happy. Find someone else. Find someone of your own kind.”
“Jung Hee?” Jin Ae, his mother, asked with concern. “Are you okay? You seem sad and confused.”
Jung managed a feeble grin while shaking his head to contradict his mother's guess about his condition, but it only made him look sadder. He realized this too late, and he was about to offer an apology when he heard his typically stern mother laugh.
Jin Ae stepped closer to his son, and, seeing some smudge in his left cheek, she automatically raised her shirt and cleaned his son’s face like she used to do. Now that he is 16, Jung is a good head taller than her and it wasn't that easy anymore, so she used a handkerchief instead. “I’m sorry for laughing, son; it is just that you are always so smart that sometimes I forget that you are so young.”
She sighed as she looked him in eye. “Having problems is normal. It is as inevitable in life as taxes.” She smiled at him. “And I agree, there are problems so big, or so hard, or so complicated that they are seemingly insurmountable to fix.”
Jung stared at his mother for a moment longer. “So what should I do then?” he asked, almost to himself.
Jin Ae brought her callous, weather-beaten hand to Jung’s cheek, who almost instinctively leaned towards it. It’s her turn to smile sadly. Jung Hee, might be sixteen and much bigger than her, and yet to her eyes, Jung is still this cute, adorable baby in her arms. “Just because a problem is unfixable doesn’t mean you are defeated by it. You are only defeated by a problem if you give up. So… don’t give up.”
A book he read in the library suddenly burst into his mind:
Being challenged in life is inevitable; being defeated is optional.
Jung thought about it for a long time and then a slow smile etched upon his face. He hugged his surprised mother and kissed her in the forehead. “Thank you mother!” Jung said, loving his mother unconditionally with no compunction for any of the normal teenage angst.
Jin Ae slowly relaxed and hugged her only son as well.
Just then, Jung’s father arrived and noticed them. “Hey! Where is my lunch, you old hag!” he said, tiredly. “Can you believe this old man’s luck? A man works all day and when he arrive back home, there is no wife greeting him and no food on the table! I must be a despicable bastard in my last life to have such a bad karma this life.”
“Who you calling a hag, you decrepit old senile! The food is in the stove! Unlike a caveman like you, I like my food hot! I work hard all day and even now I’m washing my husband’s dirty underwear’s, and do I get any appreciation? No!”
Jung smiled helplessly as his parents started arguing again. It is almost a ritual between his two parents whenever those two meet in the day again. He shook his head as he started cleaning up and join his family in the table for the afternoon meal.