Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 329 Peaceful Times [Guardian Cloak]

Time flies, and June has arrived in the blink of an eye.

Over the past month, Zhai Da has entered the "two cities, three points" mode.

Cheng Mo's technical development team has expanded to more than ten people. In order to save time, he set up a rest room in the research institute and lived there. Since the research institute even has a shower room, he no longer goes back to the dormitory. He only goes back to school when he has classes.

The newly joined ordinary programmers were also impressed by the work environment and worked hard with a positive attitude. However, whether they were qualified to grow with the team in the long run still needed to be screened. For ordinary employees, Zhai Da adopted the grading system of "Yueda Catering" and entrusted the human resources department there to handle it.

After a month of feeding, although [Execution of Old Elm] did not develop any new abilities, its effective range expanded to 90 meters, providing a strong boost to the two floors above and below, to the point that many new programmers had the illusion that: I am actually this awesome.

When coding, my brain works faster than my hands; getting stuck? Not a chance!
With increased vitality, thoughts were transformed into inspiration, joy, and satisfaction, and luck was slightly increased. Zhai Da's previous judgment was correct; the bonus from "Executing Old Yu" had a greater effect on mental work. A programmer with decent abilities directly played a "prodigy" level role here.

Geniuses like Cheng Mo and Wang Qianyu are simply freakish.

From Monday to Friday, Zhai Da shuttles between three locations: Harbin Institute of Technology, the research institute, and his home. He attends classes when he has time, goes to the research institute after class, and goes home to eat wood in the evening.

Life is comfortable, busy, and full of energy.

On weekends, Zhai Da would fly to northern Beijing to continue his studies with Professor Qian.

Perhaps it was because of his cheerful mood and greater confidence that the content of what Qian Lao called "the final study" unknowingly expanded its boundaries, exceeding the old man's own plan before Zhai Da joined.

As the teacher retrieved more and more data, it gradually attracted the attention of higher authorities. Occasionally, people from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology would come to inquire about the news. Qian was not one to keep secrets, and he had already submitted some of the results. Interestingly, at Qian's insistence, Zhai Da's name was added as an author.

Qian Xuesen and Zhai Da.

Seeing those two names at the end, Zhai Da couldn't help but feel a sense of "I'm so awesome".

It's a pity that my Zhai family doesn't have a family genealogy, otherwise, this signature alone would almost fill a whole page.

Zhai Da stayed at Ziyan Garden for two days every weekend; it had practically become the house that Lu Zetao had bought for him.

Both Zhai Da and Lu Siwen are in a "leisure period" as their new books are selling well, and they will not be writing again for a while. However, the sales of their previous works are increasing day by day. After Lu Siwen appeared on "A Date with Luyu" once, her sales finally started to rise, reaching 32 in two months. According to the publisher's estimate, she has a chance to challenge one million this year.

Zhai Da's success is on another level. Four months after its release, "The Time-Traveling Cohabitation Manual" has already sold nearly 350 million copies, and it's practically a certainty that it will surpass 500 million by the end of the year, securing its position as the best-selling novel of the year. Even "The Long Road of Lü" has benefited from the new work's momentum, selling hundreds of thousands more copies.

According to traditional writers, this achievement would be enough for him to rest easy for several years, but obviously some people don't think so.

June 1, Harbin Institute of Technology campus.

Harbin is currently experiencing some of the most beautiful months of the year, not only because of the lush greenery and cool weather, but also because of the young women in short skirts walking around on the streets.

Amidst the bustling crowd of students leaving get out of class, Zhai Da held up his phone as he headed towards the back gate of the school. He had no classes today and was going to study [Mechanical Core].

"Teacher Zhai, what have you been busy with lately?"

On the other end of the phone, the voice of Editor-in-Chief Lou En—no, Manager Lou En—was exceptionally kind and friendly.

By making three consecutive correct bets, he led Phoenix Media, a long-established state-owned enterprise whose main business is textbooks, to carve out a niche for itself in the commercial publishing field in just over a year.

Despite his tainted resume with works like "Gun Barrel and Gun Sheath," his merits outweigh his flaws. Lou En, a veteran of the company, has been officially promoted from editor-in-chief to general manager, becoming the third-in-command at Phoenix Media and the top executive in terms of business operations.

I've been living the high life lately, getting massages, hair transplants, tea tasting, and golfing.

Zhai Da pulled Lu Wei toward the student activity center, saying, "Running around here and there, you're quite busy."

He could easily guess Lou En's thoughts; he simply wanted to find out when Lou En would release a new book.

Lou En tentatively asked, "Thank you for your hard work. What will you do after this period of time is over?"

"Exam week is just around the corner."

"Summer vacation after exams?"

"We need to be busy upgrading the industrial chain."

Lou En:
If you don't want to write a book, you can just say so. Don't try to fool me by treating me like a Japanese person.
Unwilling to give up, he could only resort to a direct approach: "So, are you still planning to write this year?"

"Hard to say. Writing requires inspiration; just urging someone won't help if they don't know what to write, right? Do you expect the author to sit in front of the computer for hours without playing games and expect words to magically appear?" "Didn't you write it by hand?"

"I don't play games either, I'm just giving an example."

After chatting for a few more minutes, Zhai Da hung up the phone and smiled slightly.

He really didn't have any intention of writing again in the short term. He was already considered highly productive, perhaps even middle-class, having published two books in a year.

Unless the various projects of the "Mechanical Core Research Institute" suffer huge losses this year, like a fatal blow to the vital artery of the spermatic cord, he really doesn't have much intrinsic motivation to work on a new book.

Old books aren't unsellable.
The back gate of Harbin Institute of Technology and Yueda Street are still bustling with activity, with peak hours every afternoon. However, the queues are getting bigger and bigger, and there are many new faces.

Many of the original employees have been dispersed to the other four branch bases. Currently, the production capacity of the branch bases is gradually reaching full capacity. Including the craft brewing equipment plant, the total number of employees of Yueda has reached more than 200, making it a proper medium-sized enterprise. If calculated by revenue, it could even be classified as a large enterprise.

With a daily supply of 8 liters of beer, it monopolized the high-end beer market in Harbin, even affecting low-end beer brands such as Harbin Beer and Tsingtao.

But no one dared to touch a hair on his head.

In addition, it pays a lot of taxes and social security contributions, and is also a demonstration base for military-civilian integration. It has implicitly become a "well-known local enterprise" and a "well-known local enterprise that you can't mess with".

The "empty power" gained after removing a district head has gradually been absorbed into "real power".

At the loading dock, Peng Hao, whom we all know, was directing the unloading of goods. He had been promoted to team leader, with two vehicles and four or five people under his command, responsible for a large commercial area.

However, for a pure laborer lacking cultural background, this is generally considered the top. Moving up further requires more management and involves more competition, and seniority alone is not enough to advance.

Peng Hao immediately perked up when he saw Zhai Da and exclaimed, "Brother Da!"

Zhai Da: "Calling me 'brother' won't help. It's already June, where did you take your exam?"

Peng Hao felt a pang of bitterness in his heart. He really wanted to say that he had dreamt last night that he had passed the exam.

When I woke up in the morning, I found that I had simply "gone out".

"Brother Da, I'm watching. I'll try my best."

As they were talking, a commotion came from the far end of the street. Several of their own employees gathered together, seemingly surrounding someone.

Zhai Da frowned and walked in that direction.

Don't let some blond-haired bastard cause trouble again. The lowest-ranking blond-haired bastards don't care if you're easy to mess with or not; if they get angry, they'll even cut themselves.

But when you get closer, it's completely different from what you imagined.

A group of ordinary people were surrounding a little boy who was about seven or eight years old and covered in dirt.

His hair was covered in mud and tangled, his toes were sticking out of his shoes, and there wasn't a clean spot on his body.

Holding a half-cut mineral water bottle containing some coins and a one-yuan bill, he kept shaking it while repeating emotionless words:
"Please, boss, have mercy! Please, boss, have mercy!"

This is almost a textbook example of "poor, miserable, and weak." Every detail about him seems to express how miserable he is, especially the hand holding the bottle, which has no thumb and only a huge scar.

The reason so many of their own employees gathered around was simply because the child was too young and in such a pitiful state.

Zhai Da frowned, pondering the contents of the system message.
A broken line appeared in his field of vision, pointing behind the little boy to the tattered piece of cloth dragging on the ground, its ends worn like spider webs.

A beggar wearing a cloak? No, that's just how the system sees it. To most people, it's just a dirty, tattered cloth covering the beggar's body.

"Congratulations, host. We have discovered the white equipment [Guardian Cloak]. The boy has always believed that this cloak, which his mother sewed by hand, can protect him, and it has miraculously not been taken away and has always been allowed to be carried."

Ownership: Not owned, not activated

"Equipment effect: Wearing this cloak and covering your body will greatly reduce your presence."

"Note: The reason he still has nine fingers left is largely because the cloak helped him escape time and time again."

(End of this chapter)