Chapter 91 Only a golden rice bowl deserves a diamond drill!

Zhang Zhengguo fell silent.

The office was so quiet that the only sound left was the desert wind and sand beating against the window lattice.

After a long while, he slowly took off his glasses and wiped the non-existent moisture from the corner of his eyes with his cuff.

"Good."

The old man's voice was somewhat hoarse.

"Even if everything you said is correct."

"But this is the Northwest, this is the desert."

"They are in the Imperial Capital, in universities."

"Even if they are unsatisfied, those are big cities."

"Why would they drag their families along to come here and eat sand with us?"

"Just because of this."

Lin Xi had been prepared for a long time and slapped another document onto the table from his bag—Red Star Technology Special Talent Introduction Treatment Standards (Trial)》.

Zhang Zhengguo took it suspiciously and glanced at it.

This one glance almost made the glasses he had just put back on slide off again.

1. Relocation Allowance: Housing provided upon entry. Those with families are allocated a two-bedroom apartment, while singles are allocated a single dormitory in the cadre building.

2. Salary: A 200% increase on the base salary, plus performance bonuses.

3. Medical: Full reimbursement for major illnesses of immediate family members (including imported drugs), with connections to top hospitals in the Imperial Capital and the Magic City.

4. Education: Guaranteed enrollment spots for children from kindergarten to high school (or technical school).

"You... you've gone mad!"

Zhang Zhengguo gasped, his hands shaking,

"This treatment, it's so high!"

"This is destroying the salary system, this is engaging in favoritism!"

"Will the higher-ups approve it? Will Finance allow it? Will the auditors let us off?"

"We are precisely meant to engage in favoritism!"

"And we are going to do it with great fanfare and celebration!"

Lin Xi interrupted the old man's concerns directly.

He leaned forward, an aura of determination erupting from him that made even Zhang Zhengguo feel startled:

"Manager Zhang, why do we earn that money?"

"To keep it in the bank and earn interest?"

"Isn't it to let those brilliant minds..."

"Live with dignity, stand tall while conducting scientific research, and not have to bow down for a few pecks of rice?"

"I want everyone to know."

"At Red Star, knowledge is gold, and technology is dignity!"

Lin Xi's voice echoed in the office:

"Only a golden rice bowl is worthy of a diamond drill!"

The livestream chat exploded again, the screen filled with "tears" and "666."

【Holy crap! It's lit! This is what you call opening up the bigger picture!】

【Listen to that! This is what you call human talk! If I had met a boss like this back then, would I be delivering food?】

【Only a golden rice bowl is worthy of a diamond drill! I'm going to go get this tattooed on my back!】

【This wave, this wave is buying horse bones with a thousand gold, the Streamer is trying to build a nest to attract a phoenix!】

Zhang Zhengguo stared at Lin Xi for a full minute.

He saw ambition, he saw arrogance.

He even saw a long-lost flame of recklessness for the sake of ideals.

That was something he only had when he was young.

Finally, the old man sighed deeply and picked up his fountain pen.

He signed his name heavily on that "sky-high" compensation list.

The nib tore through the paper, the force behind it immense.

"Sign!"

Zhang Zhengguo capped the pen, his eyes becoming incomparably firm:

"If something happens, I, this old man, will take the heat for you!"

"These people... get back as many as you can!"

Lin Xi looked at that flamboyant signature and smiled.

At this moment, he seemed to see countless invitation letters from the Northwest desert, as if they had sprouted wings, flying toward that teenager still in the library, toward that fitter mocked by his coworkers, toward that father gripping the steering wheel with bloodshot eyes.

The wheels of history slammed on the gas pedal here, emitting a deafening roar.

Hefei, USTC, Junior Class.

Chalk dust danced in the sunlight inside the classroom.

The blackboard was covered in dense calculus formulas.

That was a "heavenly book" that would make ordinary college students' brains ache just by looking at it.

Fifteen-year-old Liu Xiaodong sat in the last row.

The ballpoint pen in his hand spun rapidly between his fingertips, creating a phantom image.

He yawned, staring blankly at the bare branches outside the window.

It was too simple.

This level of math class was like forcing Einstein to sit in a first-grade seat and recite the multiplication table.

Boring and dull.

"Student Liu Xiaodong, please come out for a moment."

A deliberately lowered voice came from the door, belonging to the Dean of Students.

Liu Xiaodong slowly shuffled out of the classroom.

He saw two middle-aged men in dark blue uniforms standing beside the Dean, their backs straight as boards.

"Xiaodong, these two are comrades from the Northwest Base of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building Industry."

The Dean smiled,

"The country has a key project and wants to find you to go..."

"Not going."

Before the Dean could finish, Liu Xiaodong interrupted him crisply.

He didn't even look at the two cadres, focusing intently on picking at his fingernails.

"Uncles, I'm only a freshman, still a child."

Liu Xiaodong looked up, revealing a baby face, but his tone was extremely perfunctory,

"My mom said, my current task is to study hard; serving the motherland is something for after graduation."

"Besides, the Northwest is so far away, I heard you can't even drink soda over there."

The two cadres from the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building Industry looked at each other.

Not only were they not angry, but they revealed a smile that showed they had expected this.

One of them took a thick kraft paper envelope out of his briefcase and handed it over with both hands:

"Student Liu, our Manager Lin said, don't be in a hurry to refuse."

"Read this letter first. It was written specifically for you."

"Manager Lin? Who's that? Don't know him."

Liu Xiaodong curled his lips and took the envelope with a look of disdain, "Acting all mysterious..."

He tore open the seal carelessly and pulled out the letter paper inside.

On the first page, the handwriting was flamboyant, exuding an air of arrogance:

— "Stop pretending. You finished self-studying the courses from freshman to senior year in the library last month, right? If you think this is still a secret, should I tell your principal about you deducing the Poincaré Conjecture on your scratch paper?"

Clatter.

The ballpoint pen in Liu Xiaodong's hand dropped to the ground and rolled far away.

He looked up suddenly, his pupils contracting violently, staring at the cadre in front of him as if he had seen a ghost:

"Who wrote this? How does he know?!"

The things he did secretly in the corner of the library, even his classmates didn't know.

How did this damn manager far away in the Northwest know?

"Manager Lin said, keep reading."

The cadre maintained that unfathomable smile.

Liu Xiaodong swallowed, his fingers trembling slightly as he turned to the second page.

The style changed abruptly.

This page had no nonsense, no preaching, just a string of code.

To be precise, it was a logical architecture written in assembly language.

At first, Liu Xiaodong was disdainful.

These days, domestic computers were still stuck in the punched tape stage; what kind of fancy stuff could they write?

He scanned the first line.

His eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if he had seen an interesting puzzle.

He scanned the fifth line.

He crouched down to pick up his pen and began to draw circles on his palm unconsciously.

When he saw the tenth line, Liu Xiaodong's breathing became heavy.

"Is this... is this preemptive multitasking?"

Liu Xiaodong's voice was shaking; it was a tremor brought on by extreme excitement.

"No, this memory management logic..."

"How could it be this kind of algorithm?"

"This completely bypasses existing hardware bottlenecks!"

This wasn't code!

This was clearly a heavenly book left behind by an alien civilization!

In 1981, when even DOS didn't have a shadow yet.

Lin Xi had thrown out a microkernel architecture from the future.

Although it was only a small core segment.

But for a top genius like Liu Xiaodong, it was no different than dropping a copy of the "Tathagata Palm" in a martial arts world, the kind with illustrations!

Liu Xiaodong stared fixedly at those few lines of characters, his brain running at high speed, trying to deduce the subsequent logic.

However.

It was gone.

Just as the logic was about to form a closed loop, at the critical moment of revealing that earth-shattering secret, the letter paper reached its end.

There was no more!

On the last line was that cheeky handwriting again:

— "Want to know how this system runs? Want to learn the true Dragon-Slaying Technique? Come to Red Star Laboratory."

"Ah!!!"

Liu Xiaodong grabbed his hair in frustration.

That feeling was as uncomfortable as reading a mystery novel and having the author suddenly stop writing at the final moment of revelation.

It was agonizing!

"What about the rest? Where's the next page?"

Liu Xiaodong grabbed the cadre's sleeve, his eyes bloodshot,

"Let me see it! Just one look!"

"I'm not going to the Northwest, I just want to see it!"

The cadre calmly pulled his sleeve back and adjusted his collar:

"Manager Lin said, this is top secret."

"Only core personnel of Red Star Laboratory have the authority to access it."

"I... I'll go!"

Liu Xiaodong gritted his teeth,

"But... but I can't take care of myself in daily life!"

"My mom won't let me go far, I can't even wash my socks, and I can't cook..."

"Manager Lin thought of this too."

The cadre from the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building Industry took out another document, one intended for Liu Xiaodong's parents.

"Considering you are a minor, we can transfer your parents to work at the base as well."