Chapter 148 Assistant Instructor at the Chief Engineer Level

*Screech—*

The pen in Zhou Jianjun's hand slipped, leaving a long ink trail across his notebook.

The sound of collective gasps filled the room.

The youth turned around and picked up a piece of chalk.

On the blackboard, he wrote three characters with extreme precision—Liu Xiaodong.

"He... Hello, seniors."

Liu Xiaodong's voice trembled slightly from nervousness as he gave a deep bow toward the audience below the stage.

"I am the lecturer for this CNC system architecture course, Liu Xiaodong."

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at this youth, who looked about the same age as their own grandsons.

Has Red Star Technology gone mad?

Letting a green kid give a lecture to the Chief Engineers of eighteen major state-owned factories?!

This was an insult!

A blatant insult!

Just as Zhou Jianjun was about to stand up and demand an explanation, Liu Xiaodong seemed to enter a certain state.

Once he turned to face the blackboard, the socially anxious youth vanished.

In his place was an absolutely rational technical fanatic.

"Today we will discuss interrupt handling and memory mapping for the Z80 instruction set in an industrial environment."

Liu Xiaodong drew a complex logic diagram on the blackboard.

"Since the addressing space of an 8-bit chip is limited..."

"We need to use page replacement techniques to expand physical memory into logical space..."

"Here, we abandon traditional relay logic and instead use Boolean algebra to construct the underlying state machine..."

Accompanied by the rapid "da-da" sound of chalk tapping against the blackboard,

terms they had never heard before slammed into the old engineers like bricks.

Registers?

Stack pointers?

Hexadecimal masks?

The questions Zhou Jianjun had intended to ask were stuck firmly in his throat.

He stared at the blackboard, and cold sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead.

He discovered a terrifying fact—

He couldn't understand it.

It wasn't just difficult; he completely failed to grasp it.

These mechanical experts, accustomed to looking at hydraulic circuit diagrams, gear meshing, and relay actions,

were now facing pure low-level computer logic.

It was like cavalry with spears crashing into a tank.

The sense of powerlessness brought by this knowledge barrier was even more despair-inducing than the 'feeling of insult' from earlier.

Ten minutes passed.

Liu Xiaodong stopped writing, turned around, and looked expectantly at the audience:

"Does anyone have any questions regarding this section on microkernel scheduling logic?"

Dozens of pairs of eyes below were filled with nothing but pure confusion.

Zhou Jianjun opened his mouth, his pen suspended in mid-air, unable to bring himself to write a single word.

Liu Xiaodong paused, scratching his head:

"Ah... was I speaking too fast?"

He looked toward the corner of the classroom, somewhat at a loss:

"Wang... Brother Wang, how about you take over?"

In the corner, a young teaching assistant wearing glasses stood up helplessly.

That was Xiao Wang, a member of Red Star Technology's CNC group.

Xiao Wang walked onto the stage and gestured for everyone to relax with a smile:

"Seniors, Group Leader Liu's thinking is a bit too leapfrog. I'll provide a 'translation' for everyone."

"Let's imagine this register as a multi-way switch..."

"This stack is like stacking plates in our cafeteria—last in, first out..."

As soon as Xiao Wang spoke, he used mechanical analogies that everyone was familiar with.

The eyes of the crowd below instantly lit up again.

The "sh-sh" sound of pen tips flying across paper once again filled the classroom.

They understood it this time!

But after understanding, they felt an even deeper shock.

Halfway through the class, Zhou Jianjun couldn't help but raise his hand:

"Teacher Xiao Wang, that was an excellent explanation!"

"Just based on your grasp of logic control,"

"even if you came to our Hanjiang Factory, you'd start as the Section Chief of the Electronic System Development Department!"

"Truly a young talent!"

He was being sincere.

To be able to explain such complex concepts so thoroughly, he was definitely a top-tier talent.

Hearing this, Xiao Wang hurriedly waved his hands in alarm, a look of terror on his face:

"Don't! Senior, please don't kill me with praise!"

"How could I be considered a talent?"

He pointed at Liu Xiaodong, who was sitting by the podium drinking water, and said seriously:

"I just help out in the group, writing peripheral driver code and doing some grunt work."

"The true core algorithm architecture was all created by our Group Leader Liu."

"That entire logic of turning physical errors into mathematical formulas came entirely from Group Leader Liu's brain."

"Me compared to Group Leader Liu?"

"That's like a bicycle repairman compared to a rocket scientist!"

*Gasp—*

A series of sharp intakes of breath echoed through the classroom.

Everyone's gaze focused once more on the youth who was holding a large tea mug with a vacant expression.

So it turns out this 'green kid' is the true hidden master?!

Zhou Jianjun's face flushed between red and white.

Just moments ago, he had said he wanted to 'teach' the boy a thing or two.

Looking back now, he had been an amateur trying to show off to a master to the extreme.

Being stared at by everyone, Liu Xiaodong's face turned red again.

He put down the tea mug and added a finishing blow stutteringly:

"No... no, no, I'm also very average..."

"These architectural ideas were all taught to me by Manager Lin."

Admiration sparkled in Liu Xiaodong's eyes as he spoke sincerely:

"Compared to Manager Lin, I am just a..."

"primary school student who just learned how to do homework."

The entire room fell silent.

The teaching assistant was at the level of their factory's Chief Engineer.

That kid was at the Grandmaster level.

Then... what level was Lin Xi?

Above Grandmaster?

Right then, the back door of the classroom was pushed open.

Early winter sunlight spilled through the crack in the door, and a tall, slender figure appeared at the entrance.

Lin Xi was wearing an ordinary blue work uniform.

He poked his head in, wanting to see how the class was going.

With his signature gentle smile on his face, he nodded to the room as a greeting.

He didn't speak, nor did he linger.

He simply walked past with his hands behind his back, leisurely like an old man strolling through his own backyard.

However, in the next second—

*Whoosh—*

Inside the classroom, dozens of Chief Engineers and Deputy Factory Directors from eighteen of the country's top machine tool factories seemed to be pulled by some invisible force.

They stood up collectively!

The movement was so synchronized it even created a gust of wind!

Everyone turned, their eyes burning as they stared at the silhouette that had already vanished from the doorway, their expressions filled with awe.

Zhou Jianjun even subconsciously straightened his collar and stood tall.

It was an instinctive respect for the strong, a silent pilgrimage toward the pinnacle of technology.

In the hallway.

Lin Xi rubbed his nose for no apparent reason.

"What's with those people?"

He glanced back at the classroom and muttered:

"They were looking at me like I'm a giant panda. I'm not an endangered species."

He shook his head and looked at the lunch box in his hand.

"Better hurry up. If I'm any later, the Braised Lion's Head meatballs Big Sister Liu made will be gone."

The comments in the livestream exploded:

[The prestige! Look at that prestige!]

[Engineer Lin: I'm just passing by, why are you all kneeling?]

[Invisible flexing is the most lethal!]

[Eighteen Arhats: Please accept our bow, Great Master! Lin Xi: Move aside, don't stop me from eating my Lion's Head meatballs!]