Reborn not to be a beast of burden, I set the rules.

At 7:30 a.m., all the lights in the computer room were already on.

Ye Ming stood in front of the whiteboard and wrote two lines with a water-based pen:

Tuesday, October 10th.

Goal: Apply through a thousand channels, the final push.

The scratching sound of the pen tip was exceptionally clear in the quiet computer room.

He turned around. Li Yue was biting into a pancake. Zhang Yuan's code was already running. Xu Wei quietly opened her laptop. Ruan Xing jogged in. Chen Mo, Zhao Kai, and the others also arrived one after another, their faces showing the solemnity of "getting to do something big."

"Everyone's here. I need to tell you something." Ye Ming's voice wasn't loud, and the computer lab instantly fell silent. "Using preparations for the Challenge Cup final review on Thursday and the project launch sprint as an excuse, I've spoken with our advisors and instructors. We're all taking leave until Thursday."

The air became still.

"It should have been done a long time ago!" Li Yue whistled.

Zhang Yuan didn't look up, but his fingers typed on the keyboard even faster.

"No classes for the next three days, just this one thing." Ye Ming tapped the whiteboard with his pen. "Today's goal is clear: the application for the Baidu Union must be approved, clearing the last external obstacle for launch. Senior Lin Ting's second-phase UI final draft arrives today; integration and testing will be done simultaneously. Any issues discovered during internal testing must be located today. Understand?"

"Understood!" Ruan Xing was the first to respond, her eyes shining. She then raised her hand, "Classmate, I'll handle all the logistics and coordination!"

Ye Ming nodded, his gaze sweeping over Xu Wei.

She had already closed her notebook, looked up at him, her gaze calm, and nodded almost imperceptibly.

This girl knows what she's doing.

"We'll split up this morning. Yue-jie, integrate Lin Ting's draft as soon as it arrives. Internal testing of UI misalignments and compatibility issues is the highest priority."

"Received. I've mobilized members of the Planning Association to help. They'll be here soon." Li Yue gave an OK sign.

"Yuan-ge, follow Teacher Zhang's optimization plan and focus on the database connection pool and indexes. The query efficiency issues exposed in the internal testing should be significantly improved today."

"Okay," Zhang Yuan replied, and the green cursor on the command line screen began to flash.

"Xu Wei, you lead the content team to continue internal testing, focusing on triggering complex event chains and finding logical loopholes. If you find any problems, keep Yuan Ge and me informed."

"Okay." Xu Wei's voice was steady, and the event editor was already open on the screen.

"As for myself," Ye Ming paused, "I'll focus on the Thousand Degrees application and also finish up the last bit of the MOD system. Ruan Xing, coordinate everyone and get all the test feedback collected and summarized by you."

"Mission accomplished!"

At 8:30 a.m., Lin Ting arrived on time, carrying his painting tube.

She had a slight weariness from staying up all night, but her eyes were bright as she handed the USB drive to Li Yue: "The final draft of Phase Two is all here. Homepage, personal center, store, all pop-ups and animations."

Li Yue inserted the USB drive and quickly browsed through it, dragging the mouse: "This frosted glass effect... using CSS3's backdrop filter is a bit risky, but I've thought of a fallback solution. The texture is fine; I'll integrate it before work this afternoon."

Ye Ming walked over, counted out three hundred yuan from his wallet, and handed it over: "Second installment payment. Thank you for your hard work, senior."

Lin Ting took the banknote, lightly touching the edge with her fingertips, and smiled faintly: "It's nothing. I wish you a successful launch."

Her gaze swept across the server room, lingering briefly on Xu Wei's serene profile and Ruan Xing's energetic figure. She whispered to Ye Ming, "The girls on your team are all very capable."

Ye Ming was taken aback for a moment, but Lin Ting had already waved and left.

It's impressive, but it's a bit mentally taxing.

He shook his head and sat back down at his computer.

The browser page remains on the application page for Qiandu Union.

He quickly filled in the basic information, and in the "Website Core Advantages" section, he thought for a moment and typed it in.

"Deep text-based interaction + UGC ecosystem. We have accumulated a high-quality original event library, and the project has been selected for the final review of the school-level Challenge Cup, and is at a critical stage of commercialization."

Click Submit.

The page scrolls, and a few seconds later a notification pops up: [You have entered the manual review queue. Please wait patiently for 1-3 business days.]

As expected, Ye Ming was not surprised.

He closed the page, preparing to deal with the MOD system first.

"Hey deskmate, have some water." Ruan Xing came over again at some point and handed over a bottle of mineral water with the cap unscrewed.

She wore a light blue knitted cardigan today, with a slightly large neckline that revealed a small section of her delicate collarbone when she bent over.

Why does this girl always wear such loose clothing? She didn't seem to dress like this in her past life.

Ye Ming took the water, his gaze lingering on her neckline for a very brief moment before looking away.

"Thank you." He took a sip and continued looking at the screen.

In the MOD system, the "Rebirth of Tang Sanzang's White Horse" extension still needs a final fine-tuning of the weighting of random event triggers.

"Hey, can this MOD system really let players write their own storylines?" Ruan Xing didn't leave; she moved a chair and sat diagonally behind him, curiously looking at the code on his screen.

"Theoretically, it's possible, but we need tools and tutorials," Ye Ming explained, his hands still busy. "Let's finish the framework and demonstration first, and then we can release the editor later."

"Wow, that sounds really interesting!" Ruan Xing leaned forward, the scent of fruit wafting over with her movement. "Could I write one too?"

"You?" Ye Ming turned to look at her. "Let's figure out the event triggering logic first."

"Hmph, don't underestimate me." Ruan Xing puffed out her cheeks, but her eyes were still curved.

Ye Ming ignored her and focused on adjusting the parameters.

A few minutes later, he breathed a sigh of relief. The last vulnerability in the MOD system was patched, and he was done.

He flexed his wrists, feeling that his understanding of the system had deepened.

"Sister Yue, are there any new problems with the internal testing?" Ye Ming asked Li Yue.

"Yes!" Li Yue replied without looking up. "Chen Rui just reported that the server response slows down when a certain event chain is triggered consecutively, and he suspects that the database query is not using the index. I'm already looking into it, but we'll have to ask Brother Yuan about the underlying optimization."

Ye Ming looked at Zhang Yuan. Zhang Yuan frowned slightly, staring at the EXPLAIN statement result on the screen: "Index is missing, and the order of the join query is incorrect. I'll adjust it."

"Let me see." Ye Ming got up and walked over.

The two began to discuss the SQL statements and index structures on the screen in hushed tones.

Ye Ming recalled the optimization principles that Teacher Zhang had mentioned and proposed an adjustment approach.

Zhang Yuan glanced at him, nodded, and his fingers flew across the keyboard, making changes.

This feels good.

Ye Ming looked at the optimized query plan, which estimated that the efficiency had increased fourfold.

As he returned to his seat, the sense of accomplishment that "the technology has improved again" became even clearer in his mind.

The morning flew by amidst the clatter of keyboards and occasional conversations.

Around noon, Li Yue stretched and said, "The integration of the new UI is basically done. I just need to run through the entire process this afternoon. Chen Rui reported three more bugs during internal testing, but they're all minor issues that I'll fix this afternoon."

Why is Chen Rui so enthusiastic? However, I really don't have the money to hire another programmer.

"Okay." Ye Ming shook his head, glanced at the time, 12:30.

He reopened the application backend of Qiandu Union, and the status was still "under review".

Can't wait.

"I'm going out to see Teacher Zhang." Ye Ming stood up. "Sister Yue, Brother Yuan, you two continue. Ruan Xing, order lunch and ask me to reimburse you."

"clear!"

"Um."

Ye Ming packed his things and quickly walked out of the computer room.

As I passed Xu Wei's seat, she happened to get up to get water, and the two brushed past each other.

Xu Wei paused slightly, stepped aside, and her arm under her cardigan lightly brushed against Ye Ming's arm.

"So soft," the thought popped into Ye Ming's mind. Without stopping, he walked out the door.