Chapter 85: A Great Start to the Work

"Give me a cup of forget-love water, in exchange for one night without tears..."

"I kiss you goodbye, on the deserted street, letting the wind mock me for being unable to refuse..."

"Flowers in the fog, moon reflected in the water, can you distinguish this unpredictable world..."

Di Ye sat in the last row of the coach, watching the wailing and howling scene in the carriage, and complained to Fu Chuanyi in the seat next to him: "Teacher Fu, if we were taking the train, how many people do you think would still have the energy to sing right now?"

"If it were a sleeper, it might be fine, but if it were a hard seat, there probably wouldn't be many left who could move."

On March 3rd, Di Ye brought Xu Chenye and 5 graduating students from Jinling University back to Yuncheng, met up with 10 students from Yun University, then rented a luxury coach and set off for Pengcheng early on the morning of March 4th.

By the time Di Ye and Fu Chuanyi were complaining, it was already the afternoon of March 5th, and they were about an hour away from their destination, Pengcheng, so the team members were very excited, using a Walkman as accompaniment to play a simple version of KTV in the bus.

"Entertainment activities can enhance relationships and accelerate integration. Di Ye, you are the leader of the R&D group, you should participate."

"Other activities are fine, but singing is out. I'm tone-deaf and don't sing well."

"The importance is in the participation; whether it sounds good or not isn't important."

At this moment, another accompanying teacher, Qi Yinghong, finished singing "Flowers in the Fog," turned her head, and called out loudly: "Di Ye, don't hide in the back chatting with Director Fu, come and sing a song too."

Qi Yinghong was a married woman in her 30s with a large round face and a loud voice; she was energetic in her work, had a fiery personality, and was warm-hearted. Whether it was the teachers in the college or the students in the department, everyone had a good impression of her.

Since both teachers asked him to sing, Di Ye didn't act coy. He stood up while holding the back of the seat and said: "We've been rushing about for the past two days, traveling over a thousand kilometers, so I'll sing a song that fits the occasion."

Jinling University was likely afraid of overshadowing the host, so they didn't send an accompanying teacher and only arranged for Xu Chenye to serve as the team leader. It was he who had just been using the Walkman to play the musical accompaniment. Hearing this, he raised the few cassette tapes in his hand and asked: "What song do you want to sing? I'll help you find the accompaniment."

"No need to look. I can't sing; I'll just hum a few lines to join in the fun."

Di Ye clenched his fist and coughed twice, then sang the classic song "Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Miles of Road" from the 1988 Spring Festival Gala: "The sleepy stars cannot block my journey; for years I have drifted, eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew. For my ideals, I am willing to endure loneliness and drink up that solitude. Shaking off the dust of the earth, stepping onto the distant path, full of passion in pursuit of my dreams..."

The average age of the students on the coach was around 22; they were already in middle school in 1988 and all had an impression of this song. Now they were also about to graduate and were about to rush into society to strive for their ideals and lives. The lyrics, full of ambition and high aspirations, resonated with everyone, so Di Ye's solo singing soon turned into a chorus, and even the usually stern Fu Chuanyi hummed along for a few lines.

"Three hundred and sixty miles of road, from hometown to foreign land; three hundred and sixty miles of road, from youth to white hair..."

In the warm atmosphere of singing and laughter, the coach arrived at Tianjing Garden in Luohu District at 4:50 PM. This was a residential complex developed by Vanke in 1990, with only 6 buildings and a total of 196 households. Because the opening price was too high that year, sales were very dismal, so Wang Shi had to go to Hong Kong to place advertisements in newspapers, selling many houses to investors there, which led to a relatively high vacancy rate.

"Ah! Finally here."

"Sat on the bus for two whole days, my legs are soft, and walking feels light and airy."

"Hey, Da Niu, do me a favor and get my bag down."

After everyone had gotten off the bus, Di Ye carried his Notebook Computer bag and walked out from the front door of the coach. Seeing Xu Chaobo and Huang Zongshan waiting at the entrance of the complex, he smiled and greeted them: "Manager Xu, thank you for your hard work this time."

"It's no trouble, it's my duty."

Because Di Ye was generous and paid a high service fee, Xu Chaobo's service attitude was top-notch. He ran over very enthusiastically to introduce the surrounding environment of the complex and the locations of the rented rooms to the students, while Huang Zongshan stayed where he was and reported: "Sister Fangfei accompanied Professor Liu to inspect a unit under the Peng City Post and Telecommunications Bureau, and she won't be back until about 5:30."

Xia Fangfei did not take the coach with Di Ye and the others, but had flown to Pengcheng on March 3rd with Xia Jianwu, Liu Shaosong, Wang Yi, and others. Among them, Xia Jianwu was going to Hong Kong to talk about chip prices with the C-Cube sales office, while Liu Shaosong and Wang Yi were on a business trip in the name of the Flash Gold Network Technology Company—one to inspect software technology and the other to purchase hardware equipment.

"Where is Bi Wanxi?"

"He accompanied President Xia to inspect Shunde and Zhongshan, and won't be back until the day after tomorrow. That President Wang opened a suite at the Sunshine Hotel and isn't staying here."

Seeing that Huang Zongshan spoke clearly and logically, and was obviously more composed than when he was in Yuncheng, Di Ye felt more and more that this guy was a talent worth cultivating, and asked: "Has your sister called you in the last two days?"

"Yes, she told me to read more books in my spare time..."

At this time, Xu Chaobo led the students over, so Huang Zongshan didn't continue, instead helping to lead the way and cooperating with Di Ye to settle the students into the rented houses.

Xu Chaobo rented 3 houses in Tianjing Garden, all 127 square meters. The layout was trendy, with a four-bedroom, two-living room, and two-bathroom design. The living room and dining room were connected like an L-shape, totaling about 40 square meters, and there were also three bedrooms, a study, a kitchen, and a small balcony.

"I converted the study into a bedroom and put a bunk bed in each bedroom, enough to accommodate more than 20 people."

"Actually, you don't need to save money for me; you could have rented one more."

Di Ye stood in one of the houses used as an office, looking at the dozen or so computers in the living room, feeling very satisfied, and said: "Manager Xu, you've been a great help this time. I'll treat you to a good meal later to express my gratitude."

"No need, no need. Taking someone's money to do their work is only right and proper."

Xu Chaobo exchanged a few polite words, then said in a tactful tone: "Mr. Di has made a great profit by shorting the Nikkei Index twice in a row. Our President Xiao admires you immensely and has been wanting to ask for your advice in person. I wonder when you might be available?"

"That's a coincidence. I happen to have some business to discuss with President Xiao. How about we meet at your company at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning?"

"No problem, I'll go notify President Xiao right away."

After Xu Chaobo left, Di Ye handed the keys to this house to Fu Chuanyi and said: "Teacher Fu, you are older and have light sleep at night, so it's not suitable for you to share a room with students. From now on, you should live in the master bedroom here alone. Let Teacher Qi choose a secondary bedroom, and arrange the other room for the students on night duty."

A total of 19 people came to Pengcheng by coach this time, 15 of whom moved into those two houses. Xu Chenye's home was in Pengcheng, so he wasn't staying here. Fu Chuanyi calculated this and discovered a suspicious point, asking: "Where are you staying?"

"I brought my girlfriend, so of course I'm going to stay in a hotel with her and enjoy life."

Fu Chuanyi's face darkened immediately, and he advised: "You are the leader of the R&D group; you should set an example and hold yourself to strict standards. How can you be greedy for comfort and neglect your proper work!"

Di Ye laughed and said brazenly: "Teacher Fu, only when everyone's level is about the same is it necessary to set an example to boost morale. If the gap is too large, setting an example will instead make people lose confidence. I'm going out to enjoy myself so that those 15 team members will develop the illusion that 'diligence can make up for clumsiness,' and then they will study hard and work hard."

"Nonsense! I think you're arrogant beyond measure. Don't forget those 5 students from Jinling University; they are all top students, and their abilities are not much worse than yours."

"Teacher Fu, after dinner later, I'll give a live demonstration and let you see how they lose their confidence."

Long-distance travel easily makes people physically and mentally exhausted and lose their appetite, so no one had any interest in a group dinner that night. They just ate something casually near the complex. After Liu Shaosong and Xia Fangfei returned from their inspection at the Post and Telecommunications Bureau, they gathered in the office to hold an R&D preparation meeting.

"Everyone is very tired today, so I won't talk nonsense. I'll only say one thing: because the Browser is being developed through multi-person collaboration, we need to track and manage changes to program code, configuration files, and documentation during the development process. To make management more convenient and efficient, we need to build a version control tool first."

"The version control tool needs to implement the following functions: cross-regional multi-person collaborative development; tracking and recording the history of one or more files; organizing and protecting each user's source code and documentation; parallel development to improve efficiency; tracking and recording the entire software development process and calculating workload; reducing the burden on developers, saving time, and reducing human error..."

Di Ye took a marker and wrote down the main functions of the version control tool on the whiteboard prepared by Xu Chaobo, then opened a computer, summoned Xiao Honghua, and began live programming—over the past two days on the coach, he and Xiao Honghua had used Subversion, a version control tool that would appear in the year 2000, as a prototype to tinker with a simple version suitable for the 1995 computer environment.

Fu Chuanyi didn't understand computer programming. He sat in the corner of the living room and witnessed the whole process of the students going from curiosity to excitement, from excitement to agitation, from agitation to shock, and from shock to frustration. And this process lasted only a little over 2 hours, because Di Ye finished the code in just over 2 hours. The whole process was without the slightest pause, like flowing clouds and running water, with the demeanor of a master.

"This software is now ready to use. It has the basic functions, but it's still relatively rudimentary and not perfect. I'll give you a week to study how to improve it."

After Di Ye finished speaking, he took Xia Fangfei's hand and walked away, leaving behind a room full of students staring at each other in blank dismay.

Fu Chuanyi didn't understand what was going on, so he got up and walked to Liu Shaosong's side, asking in a low voice: "Shaosong, is this tool very difficult to program?"

Liu Shaosong had just relied on his status as a teacher to occupy the best viewing position and witnessed the entire process of Di Ye typing the code. The shock in his heart was no less than that of those students. He answered irrelevantly: "Dad, Di Ye is right. If he were to set an example and work seriously, no one in this room could keep up; they could only stare at his back in a daze."