Having connections is more attractive than having abilities.

He had temporarily passed the hurdle with his advisor, but Lin Yuan's elaborate efforts in creating the Feng Shui AI model parameters were not solely for the purpose of dealing with his advisor.

Because in the future, as Good Group rolls out its food delivery algorithm, the outside world will inevitably ponder one question: where did Good Group's new algorithm come from?

Lin Yuan's move was actually a form of preparing for a rainy day.

——

Time flew by, and it was late October, deep into autumn.

Lin Yuan's first semester of graduate school was already halfway over, and he didn't really feel like he was learning much.

For him, his work at Good Group had become his main occupation, while studying had become a sideline.

Lin Yuan's weekly routine, aside from occasional visits to Hao Tuan Company, mostly involved him hunkering down in a corner of the classroom with a laptop during the day.

Ever since everyone at the matriculation ceremony learned that he was working at the Good Tuan Internal Research Institute, students often approached him to chat.

Originally, Lin Yuan just wanted to be a quiet academic slacker, the kind no one would notice.

But the rules of the world are always: people fear fame like pigs fear getting fat; wealth in the deep mountains attracts distant relatives.

"Lin Yuan, how did you get a job at the research institute?"

"Are interviews at big internet companies difficult?"

"Can you help me get an internal referral?"

.

.

Lin Yuan often had to deal with such attempts at familiarity.

Because in the current economic downturn, although the IT industry has also been impacted, IT is, after all, a tool-based industry.

A tool-based industry means it is needed by all other industries.

Nowadays, any company even remotely connected to intelligence will have IT development needs.

This is like how no restaurant can do without oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.

Whenever a new industry emerges, people are always surprised to find: "Damn, why do we still need to hire a few programmers?"

Take the New Energy industry, which has been very popular in recent years.

Material scientists boasted that their spring had arrived.

However, they eventually discovered, to their astonishment, that while materials science holds a core position in the New Energy industry, programmers still stand there, watching you with an irreplaceable smile.

This is the amazing thing about tool-based professions, just like you can't stop eating rice and noodles.

So, although the era of the IT industry's fiery prosperity has passed, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse; the twilight glow of the IT industry is still brighter than that of other industries.

And the best positions in the IT industry, apart from a few state-owned or centrally-owned enterprises, belong to the big companies in the internet and gaming sectors.

Good positions in state-owned or centrally-owned enterprises are hard to come by, so big internet companies have become the main battlefield for IT professionals.

As a senior engineer at the Good Tuan Internal Research Institute of a second-tier internet giant, Lin Yuan was naturally a hot commodity.

What are GPA, credits, major ranking, and competition results, if not all for the sake of job seeking in the end?

Lin Yuan had already bypassed these routes, striking directly at the finish line in everyone's eyes.

The excessive enthusiasm of his classmates made Lin Yuan uncomfortable, so he had to put a privacy filter on his laptop, because pairs of eyes would suddenly appear next to him.

Even the few female students from his major's two classes often gathered around Lin Yuan.

There are few female students in IT majors to begin with, and even fewer at the graduate level.

Those few female students often looked at Lin Yuan with eyes full of admiration, as if they were revering a living academic prodigy.

Even the teachers in class often called on Lin Yuan to answer questions, intentionally or unintentionally.

To avoid embarrassment in front of everyone, Lin Yuan had no choice but to waste energy preparing for the day's coursework in advance.

In the end, Lin Yuan became utterly fed up.

He felt that this could not go on.

But with his reputation out there, skipping classes frequently was definitely not realistic.

After much thought, he finally came up with a wicked plan: self-slander.

So, from then on, Lin Yuan subtly revealed to everyone, intentionally or unintentionally, that he got into the Good Tuan Internal Research Institute through connections, and they shouldn't come to him with questions because he didn't know the answers.

He even deliberately copied other people's homework.

And surprisingly, copying homework was really satisfying.

Many things taught in school are without purpose, such as operating systems and database principles; many IT practitioners will never use such deep theories in their entire lives.

Therefore, Lin Yuan's habit with this type of knowledge was to look up information when needed.

So, copying homework for many courses was harmless.

After self-slandering for a period, everyone gradually accepted Lin Yuan's persona as someone with connections.

Of course, the real hero in this was Gu Xuan.

Because ever since Lin Yuan made a splash at the matriculation ceremony, Gu Xuan's aura as the top student in his major faded.

He was naturally very displeased.

Upon hearing that Lin Yuan got into the Good Tuan Internal Research Institute through connections, Gu Xuan immediately expressed, "I knew it; how could that academic slacker get in on his own?"

So Gu Xuan regained his confidence, and at the same time, privately fueled the narrative of Lin Yuan being a 'connected' person.

"I knew it on the day of the interview."

"I saw it with my own eyes; the teachers were especially lenient with him."

"Otherwise, with his academic ranking, how could Professor Zhang be his advisor, and how could he get into the Good Tuan Internal Research Institute?"

.

.

Gu Xuan willingly served as Lin Yuan's tool, and Lin Yuan was too lazy to waste more words on him.

A scoundrel can be quite useful when used in the right place.

After that, gradually, no one came to Lin Yuan with questions anymore.

However, many classmates still held him in awe.

Lin Yuan's simplicity had made him overlook a problem previously: sometimes, having connections is more intimidating than having ability...

Some classmates showed him more respect than they did their academic advisor, which even Lin Yuan himself hadn't expected.

Lin Yuan quickly came to terms with it.

After all, the academic advisor urges you to find a job quickly, while Lin Yuan seems capable of solving your employment problems with just a flick of his finger.

Finally, Lin Yuan was too lazy to care about what others thought of him.

As long as they didn't come to him with questions, everything else was fine.

Even though Gu Xuan had been unilaterally competing with Lin Yuan behind the scenes for half a semester, Lin Yuan never truly took him seriously.

And on the surface, the two maintained a harmonious relationship as fellow disciples.

At an opportune moment, Lin Yuan finally presented his idea to Gu Xuan, "Can you tell me about your 3D structured light project?"

Gu Xuan quickly understood Lin Yuan's intention to join his project, and also quickly grasped that Lin Yuan wanted to be the second author.

"Don't worry, with me here, this second authorship will definitely be yours."

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Gu Xuan did not deliberately make things difficult for Lin Yuan on this project; he even took Lin Yuan's action as a sign of submission to him—'You, a person with connections, still have to come begging me in the end.'

Gu Xuan had to admit that he already felt jealousy towards Lin Yuan in his heart.

He truly saw Lin Yuan as someone with connections, and what he envied was naturally that invisible layer of connections Lin Yuan possessed.

Given Gu Xuan's family background, driving a Mercedes-Benz C260 in his first year of graduate school, his family clearly had some wealth.

However, his family wasn't powerful enough to be like Lin Yuan, a slacker with a major ranking in the forties, yet still able to latch onto a senior professor and even get into the Good Tuan Internal Research Institute.

So Gu Xuan was very jealous.

Of course, this was Lin Yuan in Gu Xuan's eyes.

When someone he was actually jealous of, a person with connections, came to ask him for help, how could Gu Xuan not be pleased?

Lin Yuan didn't know why he made Gu Xuan feel a sense of satisfaction, like a commoner overturning someone with connections.

It was as if their roles had been reversed.

Lin Yuan was merely trying to complete the task of publishing an SCI paper given by the computing power system, just to get some computing power from the system.

At most, he was using Gu Xuan as a tool.

'Forget it, if he wants to revel in it, let him.

Hmph, I'll be earning 500,000 a year in another month.'

But then Lin Yuan realized something was off, because Gu Xuan always seemed only interested in things that boosted his qualifications, like papers.

Perhaps he didn't care about an annual salary of 500,000 at all; maybe driving a Mercedes-Benz was even a deliberate act of being low-key.

It seemed he couldn't get any satisfaction from the 500,000 annual salary fact when it came to Gu Xuan.

In that case, why did he and Gu Xuan feel a bit like they were suffering from the same affliction—mutually valuing what the other already had?

Well, Lin Yuan once again felt that this world seemed a bit comical...