Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Yesterday, the rain didn't stop, and today, it still hasn't stopped. In fact, there's absolutely no sign of the rain stopping. For two days in a row, the weather has been mild and humid.

Most of the seats on the bus were empty, so Wen Jie found a seat by the window and sat down.

It was raining heavily yesterday morning, so Wen Jie called Han Fei and asked if he could work from home for a day. Han Fei readily agreed, as long as he kept an eye on the website's progress.

Today's rain turned into a light drizzle. Raindrops drew trembling streaks on the car window. Wen Jie gazed out at the flat, damp land. The power lines beside the bus stop rose and fell between the poles.

The simulated request to the SP billing interface has been successfully verified. He has also designed the core data table structure: user table, novel table, chapter table, subscription record table, and payment order table. Next, indexes need to be created for these tables to handle potentially massive data queries in the future.

"Next stop, Nanning Road Station." The announcement, accompanied by a crackling sound, came through the loudspeaker with a nasal tone. The announcement was abruptly interrupted by the sharp, piercing sound of a bus braking.

Wen Jie took out his laptop from his bag, placed it on his lap, and opened it, wanting to check the scheduled task logs for synchronizing user subscription status with the SP billing system, which he had written before going to bed last night, to see if there were any potential errors.

The bus slowly started moving again.

Wen Jie dragged the mouse, clicked on the local test environment, then logged into the backend and viewed the page.

At the top of the page is the logo he designed for Qingniao Reading, and below are several lines of log entries showing the status of last night's scheduled tasks:

"User subscription sync successful"

"SP billing interface call count: 142"

Error count: 0

「最后执行时间：2004-07-23 02:00:31」。

Below that is the interface navigation bar: User Management, Novel Management, Chapter Management, Subscription History, Payment Orders, SP Interface Configuration...

Wen Jie let out a long breath.

The logs show everything is normal. The SP billing interface is the most unstable part of the entire model and the most dependent on external systems. If this part can run smoothly, it means that the technical foundation of the entire model is solid.

He closed the blog page and returned to the code editor.

The screen displayed the core logic of the user subscription status synchronization service that he was writing.

This service acts like a diligent postman, regularly shuttling between the Bluebird Reading database and the mobile company's SP billing backend to ensure that the information on "who subscribed" and "when the subscription ends" is perfectly matched.

Wen Jie's eyes quickly scanned the code logic, while he mentally simulated the stress: If thousands or tens of thousands of users need to synchronize at the same time, wouldn't this loop be too slow?

Suddenly he noticed someone standing next to him, so he turned around and saw it was Wang Yu.

"Wen Jie!" Wang Yu's tone was exaggeratedly excited, almost in a falsetto, "What a coincidence to run into you here! Are you going to work?"

Wen Jie smiled shyly and quickly closed his laptop: "Yes."

"I wasn't here the day you left, otherwise you could have had a good talk with me about what you were thinking," Wang Yu said, plopping down in the seat next to Wen Jie.

"Hey, I've already left NetEase, why bring that up again?" Wen Jie said, glancing at his former boss out of the corner of his eye.

Wang Yu is considered a beauty by most people. Although her high and narrow nose and thin cheeks make her look too angular and extreme, her slender figure is very curvaceous.

Wang Yu compensated for her lack of professional skills with her outstanding social abilities at the company. Furthermore, her innate charm led many to mistakenly believe she was a flawless, perfect woman, when in reality, this charm was merely built on her inflated self-image. This trait allowed her to thrive in NetEase's male-dominated leadership, rising rapidly through the ranks to become Wen Jie's superior and the deputy product director of NetEase's R&D team.

Originally, Wen Jie didn't think there was anything wrong with putting idiots in high positions and keeping them away from the R&D process, but encountering someone like Wang Yu was dangerous, as was the product director who directly caused Wen Jie's resignation, because they would often interfere with or instruct those who truly understood the technology.

"You found a job so quickly?" Wang Yu asked. "Where do you work?"

"Uh..." Wen Jie said hesitantly, "Innovation Building."

Are there any internet technology companies there?

Wen Jie remained silent, racking his brains for a way to change the subject.

He cleared his throat twice before speaking, "By the way, Sister Wang, why do you take the bus to work?"

"My car got flooded yesterday and had to be towed for repairs," Wang Yu said.

Wen Jie nodded, and just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he noticed that Wang Yu's gaze had shifted to his computer.

"Are you building a website? A new project?"

Wen Jie avoided Wang Yu's gaze and subconsciously took the laptop off his lap: "Uh... this is..."

What website is it?

Wen Jie looked at her, his lips moved, and he felt that he knew very well what to do: he must not tell Wang Yu about the website.

The SP (Service Provider) business has been booming for the past two years, and any innovative model combined with content has the potential to unleash tremendous potential. Most importantly, NetEase also has its own portal website and SP-related businesses. If Wang Yu were to learn that the website he's working on might become a competitor to NetEase in the future, it could potentially lead to some unforeseen consequences.

But looking at Wang Yu, he didn't know how to put his words into words. Perhaps the key issue wasn't Wang Yu at all, but rather that he had never known how to handle this kind of situation.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Wang Yu asked.

A bead of sweat rolled down Wen Jie's forehead, slid down the bridge of his nose, and finally hung on the tip of his nose, seemingly hesitant.

He swallowed hard, still unable to think of a reply.

This feeling reminded him of when he was ten years old, when he spent the entire summer building a bizarre miniature mechanical city using collected springs, broken lenses, discarded clocks, and a bunch of electronic components.

He hid the city-state in a corner of the attic, and whenever he had time, he would sneak upstairs to watch the gears driven by rubber bands and fishing lines mesh together, driving several small figures made of wire to move slowly in a small square painted with corrugated cardboard and paint, like a robot that had lost its power.

One day, when his mother said she was going to the attic to get something, Wenjie was terrified. He was afraid that his kingdom, which belonged only to him, would be discovered or even destroyed. He tried to stop his mother, but he couldn't do it no matter what.

"Is it inconvenient to disclose?" Wang Yu asked again.

Wen Jie breathed a sigh of relief, forced a smile, and nodded.

A slight smile appeared on Wang Yu's lips: "It's alright, I was just a little curious."

The two fell silent.

Wen Jie put his laptop into his bag and sat listening to the irregular engine noise and the patter of raindrops hitting the roof.

Until the announcement on the bus came on again, saying that we were about to arrive at Keyuan Avenue Station.

Wen Jie nodded to Wang Yu, then got up and got out of the car.