Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Han Fei arrived at the shop and looked at the words "Half Corner" outlined in warm yellow light on the frosted glass. It was a quiet bar, the kind of bar that had only recently become popular in China in the last two years. It had a touch of bourgeois charm, retaining the lively atmosphere of old Shanghai while exuding a secret artistic vibe.

He entered the shop, climbed the stairs, and went into a dimly lit room where a huge electric fan lazily spun on the ceiling. Han Fei unconsciously ducked to avoid the massive fan blades. He had a strange fear of ceiling fans since childhood, often fantasizing that a spinning fan would suddenly fall from the ceiling and sever his head.

Behind the bar, a waitress in an apron leaned against the counter, smoking and secretly watching Han Fei.

Wen Jie sat by the window in the corner, looking down at the table, with half a beer in front of him.

"Hey," Han Fei said, sitting down opposite Wen Jie.

Wen Jie raised his head and nodded, as if he had been sitting there just to wait for him. Then his head lowered again.

Han Fei looked at Wen Jie, a multitude of thoughts flashing through his mind: Had Wang Yi contacted Wen Jie again? Or had someone from Tengxun made contact privately? Was Wen Jie too exhausted to handle the pressure? Or... could it be that the trick involving the Land Rover and the fake watch had been exposed? Had Wen Jie investigated? Did he think Han Fei was trying to get something for nothing? No, no, no, impossible. Unless someone leaked the information, Wen Jie couldn't possibly know.

"If you're too tired, you can take a paid day off tomorrow," Han Fei said.

"Am I tired?" Wen Jie asked in a flat tone, his face devoid of any smile.

"I don't know. Are you tired, Wen Jie?" Han Fei gestured towards the glass of beer.

Wen Jie shrugged.

"It's just the two of us here," Han Fei said. "You can tell me anything."

Wen Jie looked up, raised his glass, and took a big gulp of beer. The glass was empty, and he tapped it lightly with his fingers.

Why did I leave NetEase in the first place?

"Actually, you already had the answer in your heart." Han Fei sighed. "You left not just out of spite, but because you couldn't stay in a place that didn't respect creativity."

Wen Jie's gaze shifted to the window. The windowpane was unevenly stained, perhaps to maintain secrecy and prevent passersby from seeing inside.

"Brother Fei," Wen Jie said with a weak, bitter smile, "the headquarters' technical team will arrive in a few days, and you'll have a proper army then. They definitely won't need me anymore. In their eyes, my amateurish code is probably a mountain of crap, right? What if they think my architecture isn't good enough and say they want to scrap it and start over? You'll definitely believe them more and hand over the core system to them for maintenance. What will I be then? A menial worker, or will I just be fired?"

Han Fei rolled his eyes, trying not to show any relief, and turned to look out the window. Through the rough glass, he could see shapeless cars driving by, like watching a psychedelic movie.

"You think headquarters sent the technical team here to replace you?"

Wen Jie didn't answer. He just sat there, bobbing his head up and down on the wine-stained checkered tablecloth.

"Wen Jie, I have a question for you. Your electromagnetic coil gun works by generating a strong magnetic field through capacitor discharge, which attracts iron nails, right?"

Wen Jie glanced at Han Fei, his eyes filled with confusion. Han Fei looked directly into Wen Jie's eyes.

"Yes, what's wrong?" Wen Jie asked.

"If I found you a group of military experts and used the top-of-the-line materials to build you a theoretically more powerful electromagnetic railgun, would you think yours is garbage?"

"That's different." Wen Jie immediately sat up straight and raised his voice. "Mine was designed and debugged by myself, painstakingly crafted bit by bit. I know how to wind each coil of copper wire, how to match each capacitor, and whether the nail it's driven into is straight or wobbly. I know all of that. No matter how amazing the one made by the experts is, it's not mine."

"That settles it then?" Han Fei smiled helplessly. "Wen Jie, do you know what I'm most afraid of?"

Wen Jie shook his head.

"What I fear most isn't that your technical skills aren't good enough, but that you think you're unimportant. You built this system brick by brick, from MVP to load balancing, from SP interfaces to user profiles—every single step was coded by you working late into the night. You know where to optimize and where not to touch. Can the people at headquarters understand this system better than you? Can they understand our business better than you? And headquarters isn't sending people here for nothing. After they help, the system becomes more stable, the business grows, and we'll only need more people, not fewer. At that point, do you want to continue as the technical lead, or do you want to lead a team?"

Wen Jie blinked: "Lead...lead a team?"

"Otherwise what?" Han Fei leaned back in his chair, took out a cigarette, and lit it. "You're not made of iron. How can I let you carry this alone forever? Once the headquarters' technical team leaves, we need to build our own technical team. Who will do the hiring, training, and defining the technical direction? Can I handle it?"

"Brother Fei, so what you mean is...?"

"What I mean is, if you back out now, I'll have to learn how to code myself. Can you bear that?"

Wenjie chuckled, his laughter like the engine of a Cadillac Fleetwood presidential limousine: "So that's what you thought. I thought..."

"What do you think? You're just overthinking things," Han Fei said, standing up and patting Wen Jie on the shoulder. "Alright, stop drinking alone here. You have a ton of things to do tomorrow. Go back to sleep and come back early tomorrow."

Just as Han Fei was about to leave, Wen Jie stopped him: "Brother Fei, why don't you invite Rui Yi along? Come to my house for dinner tonight."

"Want to come to your house for dinner?"

"Brother Fei, I'm not just being polite, I really want to invite you. I... I've kept what you said in mind. We've known each other for so long, but all we've done is work, we've never really had a proper chat. I just called my sister and told her I wanted to come over to see her, she's at home preparing a big meal."

"Uh," Han Fei lightly bit the filter, feeling the soft, dry fibers rubbing against his teeth, "Ruiyi went to the airport, and I'm also getting ready to go back to the office to take care of some things, so how about we call it a day?"

"Hey," Wen Jie came to Han Fei's side, put his hand on the middle of his back, and pushed him forward, "After she's done with her work, you can call her and ask her to come over. No matter how busy you are, you still have to eat dinner, right?"

They went outside and stood under the streetlights. The night air tasted as refreshing as beer.

Wen Jie waved to an empty taxi, and the car pulled over.

At that moment, Han Fei suddenly remembered something: "That's right!"

"What's wrong?" Wen Jie asked.

"We need to go back to the publishing house first."