015 The Alarm Bells Were Too Late
That evening, after finishing another day of his part-time job at the milk tea shop, Wang Heng returned home. Sitting on the sofa, he let out a long sigh.
He concluded that being a salted fish lying down was still the most comfortable.
But after sprawling for a while, Wang Heng felt a bit bored, so he placed the laptop on his lap and turned it on.
He logged into his Q account, and the small friend request icon immediately started flashing in the bottom right corner of the screen. He clicked it open and was slightly stunned.
【You’re the Lifelong Full-Time Grand Mage, right?】
Slapping his head, Wang Heng remembered. ‘Lifelong Full-Time Grand Mage’ was the nickname he had listed on a certain freelance platform for programmers. Besides the nickname, he had also posted a small script he had rushed to code a few days ago, basic information like his age and education, and his Q number. He hadn’t expected someone to notice him so quickly.
Wang Heng accepted the friend request and checked the other person’s Q profile.
Gender: Female. Nickname: ‘Genius Girl Christina’. Profile picture: a red-haired anime beauty.
“Hmm, most likely a die-hard otaku guy.” Based on his rich online experience, Wang Heng made a preliminary judgment.
At that moment, the other party sent a document, followed by a sentence:
【This is a requirement for a project we’re currently working on. Write a script according to the requirements. I’ll take a look at your skill level. If it’s good, I’ll give you some private freelance work. Don’t worry, the pay will be much higher than the average.】
Wang Heng replied: 【Could you first tell me who you are…】
【Forgot to introduce myself. I’m an employee of the Goose Factory. As long as you meet our requirements, this freelance task will be posted on the platform, and you will be assigned to take it.】
Below that sentence, the other party sent a photo of a Goose Factory employee ID card. It had a photo, name, and employee number. Although these were censored, it looked authentic.
Wang Heng rubbed his hands together, feeling a little excited.
It was well-known that among domestic internet companies, the ones that paid the most were the few top-tier giants, especially Penguin, Ali, and Qiandu. The salaries and benefits of their employees were drool-worthy. Doing freelance work for them, although the long-term income would certainly be far from that of a full-time employee, might not be the case in the short term. If he did well, the capital he could invest in Bitcoin might multiply several times over, and the returns then would be…
Just thinking about it was intoxicating.
Wang Heng quickly focused his attention and began to read the requirements document carefully. He understood that to seize this opportunity, his performance from now on was all that mattered.
The document was written concisely. As he read, he immediately got an idea.
**
Lu Qi had originally thought it would take two or three days to see the code from that ‘Lifelong Full-Time Grand Mage’. However, less than a day later, in the morning, she received the code he had written.
“No way…”
Staring at the lines of code on the screen, Lu Qi even forgot to blink.
Suddenly, Little Liu leaned over. “Sister Lu, is this the code that person submitted?”
Lu Qi nodded numbly.
Little Liu glanced at it and said tentatively, “It looks… pretty good?”
But Lu Qi shook her head. “It can’t be described as ‘pretty good’.”
“Huh?”
“To be precise, he writes better than you.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t need to work overtime anymore. Oh right, didn’t you say you could never find time to take your annual leave? Go ahead and apply for it.”
“Huh?” Little Liu immediately panicked a little. “Sister Lu, a vacation is a vacation, but my position won’t be gone when I get back, will it?”
“That won’t happen. Don’t worry, the company still needs you. Isn’t this freelancer only eighteen? If he didn’t fake his personal information, it’s unlikely he can be officially hired in the next few years. It would be very difficult for us to recruit him.”
Little Liu was even more confused. Does that mean if that guy wasn’t an eighteen-year-old student but a graduate programmer in his twenties who could be hired immediately, he could directly replace me?
Lu Qi opened the Q chat window and said, “Speaking of which, it’s safer for me to have a video chat with this person. His code really doesn’t seem like something a teenager could write. A video chat will prevent any accidental pitfalls.”
Little Liu quickly agreed. “Yes, yes, you should be careful…”
Lu Qi sent a message to the other party: 【Are you free? Can we have a video chat?】
Not long after, the reply came: 【No problem.】
So Lu Qi initiated a video call. Two or three seconds later, the other party answered.
A video window appeared on the screen, showing a rather handsome young man, which made Lu Qi’s eyes light up slightly. His appearance was quite to her taste.
The young man in the video had a calm smile on his face, but within a second, his expression froze.
**
Seeing the young, mature-looking woman in the video window, for a moment, the hairs on Wang Heng’s arms stood on end.
Before his rebirth, he had been a programmer in the capital. His boss was none other than Lu Qi, who had resigned from the Goose Factory to start her own business. Of course, if she were just a female boss, it would be no big deal. The problem was that in that battlefield of love, Lu Qi had also played a rather unique role. After inexplicably falling for Wang Heng, she had controlled his source of income, forcing him to be unable to leave…
That feeling of being trapped in a vortex, sinking deeper and deeper, instantly replayed in Wang Heng’s mind, making him shudder.
No, don’t panic. It’s not a big deal. Wang Heng immediately remembered a key point: for the next two years, Lu Qi should have been at the Goose Factory headquarters in Shencheng. Her future startup should also be in the capital, not Rongdu. So the threat level wasn’t high… right?
But considering the nature of the ‘worldline correction mechanism,’ Wang Heng really couldn’t rest easy.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Qi noticed his unusual reaction and asked.
Wang Heng swallowed and shook his head. “No, nothing.”
Lu Qi smiled and said, “Then let’s talk about your code. I don’t know what other people’s standards are, but in my opinion, your coding habits are really good. It’s very smooth, very clear, very concise, without much redundancy. And your comments are also written very standardly, making it easy for others to understand. So I’m a little curious, are you really a high school senior?”
Wang Heng knew very well why Lu Qi was so satisfied with his code. After all, in the first timeline, he had joined Lu Qi’s company after graduation, and his coding habits had been personally corrected by her, so it would naturally be to her liking.
He pretended to be calm and replied, “Yes, I’ll be a freshman in the new semester.”
“Which university?”
“University of Electronic Science and Technology.”
“In Rongdu?” Lu Qi’s face lit up with surprise. “What a coincidence! I’m being transferred to Rongdu next month too!”
Wang Heng’s vision went dark.
No, no, no, right now Lu Qi is just a client for a freelance job. We have no other contact information besides Q. It’s not a big deal. Even if we’re both in Rongdu, it’s not a big deal. He could only comfort himself like this for now.
