Chapter 44: Former Employees?!
While Xin was out talking with his parents, Yamamoto was clarifying the doubts of the audience seated in the auditorium. In the beginning, everyone was hesitant to ask questions to the topmost authority and the most unreasonable person of the JSDF HQ. But after observing he was in a good mood and wasn't becoming unreasonable as he used to be in the past, everyone started to ask him questions about their MVIP level guest, Xin.
Starting from his qualifications, to age, experience, contributions, achievements, they dug out everything about Xin. Only one thing was there that none of them had dared to ask, and that was his family background.
Though some were skeptical about making an eighteen old kid their vice head but after hearing his contributions of solving two blocks of Project SEDS, and that too within half an hour all of them calmed down and started to believe that he must be one of the young prodigies of that era.
And asking about parent's occupation and family background could be considered as an insult and mockery to a respectable prodigy like Xin. They were afraid of what if Xin's parents belonged to a small family or had some ordinary occupation….. And after knowing what if someone tries to ridicule him for his small background.
The auditorium became silent again, the barrage of questions had already stopped. Yamamoto was looking around expecting some more questions, but to his dismay, no one was questioning anymore.
He was expecting someone to ask him about Xin and his family background. He wanted to give them a big shock and a face slapping situation, but then again, everyone was afraid of Yamamoto and no one had enough courage to fire out that question before him.
Seeing no one was asking about it, Yamamoto himself started the topic and raised the curiosity of the audience present there. He was perfectly playing with the audience and kept on tampering with their curiosity.
He started the topic by saying, "By the way, any guesses about Xin's background?"
This one question piqued the interest of the silent masses, and everyone started to gossip about it. They had been restraining themselves from discussing such a topic in fear, but now that Yamamoto gave them a signal, they jumped over the restrictions and started to discuss it.
Seeing everyone's curiosity was increasing, Yamamoto added some fire to it.
"Silence!! Looks like none of you can guess. Let me answer the question."
He stopped his speech in the middle and let the audience's curiosity rise again. Watching the scene of Yamamoto playing with her staff, Natsumi thought of learning this art of torturing from him, someday. While she was pondering about it, Xin returned and stood beside her.
"Done talking?" she asked in her sweet childish voice.
"Yep, done. What's Mr. Yamamoto doing, by the way?"
"Torturing us." Replied Aisen.
"Huh?!"
"From the last ten minutes, he had been playing with us and tampering with our curiosity about your family background."
"Oh~~!!"
Hearing the voice behind him, Yamamoto realized that Xin had returned. He called him to the front and asked him to reply to the audience's questions.
Xin confidently took over the mic and started to look around the audience sitting before him. After scanning through the area, Xin broke the silence of the auditorium and started to answer everyone's question.
"So let me tell you who are really curious about me, I am not from a very big prominent family. I belong to an average middle-class family."
Hearing Xin's reply, some were feeling ashamed to ask questions like that to a prodigy. While the others were searching for a chance to ask him about his family occupation.
Xin was standing silently on the stage, waiting for someone to ask any other question, when one of the people from the first row stood up and asked out the question which had been wanted by many.
After firing out the question, the person in his mid-thirties sat down and was observing Xin's reaction and demeanor. Some people may not feel comfortable answering such questions and may get enraged. But here the situation was a little bit different.
Xin was forcing a smile on his face and showing it to the large audience seated before him. Some were thinking that Xin was feeling uncomfortable and was not in a mood to answer the question.
The person who asked the question realized he shouldn't have asked such a question to a kid like him, and that too before a large audience as big as that. He was going to say something and change the topic when Xin switched on the mic again and started to answer his question.
As the saying goes, 'curiosity killed the cat'. It's one of the old idioms that has been in use for a long time now. But this time in accordance with the situations the idiom changed a little and became 'curiosity slaughtered the cats.'
Here the cats were the large audience filling every corner of the auditorium, and the thing that killed them was the answer given by Xin.
"Well, my father is a former employee of a trading company, and my mom is a former employee of a Cyber Crime department, in a small branch."
Now that their questions had been answered, everyone reached the conclusion that Xin was from a middle-class family and one of the youngest coding prodigies. The JSDF must have offered him a big salary package to recruit him for the research division, and after seeing his work he must have been promoted to the position of vice head of the research division.
Meanwhile Yamamoto, he was trying his hardest to control his laughter, and not to laugh like a crazy old man before the audience seated before him.
Last time too Xin answered him, Nen, and Ryuu in the same pattern. That his father was an employee of a small trading company and his mom was an employee in the Cyber Crime division. Later only they did find out that his parents were at the topmost layer of the chain and not some middle-class employee as described by Xin.
This time a small difference was there, and that was the word 'former'. Xin was using the word 'former', before the occupation of his parents.
Everyone was confused on why he was adding the term former and what were their current occupations? Some were of the idea that his parents must have left the jobs after Xin got a big salary package, while the others were thinking that the army must have offered them some better high-level jobs.
None of them had expected it was a lie and all of them were busy deriving out their own conclusions. Seeing the research division's staff and their discussions Yamamoto couldn't stop his laughter any further and all of a sudden began to laugh.
"Whahahaha, whahahah, ahahahah. Mr. Xin, you are trying to fool them like me. Hahaha, ahahaha."
Though Xin was standing at a distance from Yamamoto, his mic was on at that time. Everyone heard the laughter of JSDF Head and his statement that he made on top of the stage.
'What did he mean by, you are trying to fool them like me? ' was the question going on in everyone's mind at that time.