Chapter 57 The Meaning of Work
Starting this year, the company abolished the old rule of turning off lights during lunch break and prohibited air conditioning from dropping below 24 degrees Celsius. Fluorescent lights and the sun scorched the office area. The leaves of a potted pothos drooped beside the desk, and it was inevitable that people would empathize with the plants, feeling the heat radiate from deep within their skin.
The light was too bright, and the retina seemed to be covered with a layer of faded paper, and the characters on the computer screen became blurry.
Meng Weishen had no choice but to force himself to free himself from the code. He tilted his stiff neck, picked up his phone amid the crackling sound of bones jamming, and just in time saw the picture sent to him by Jiang Ranxu.
Last night, Jiang Ranxu discovered that his note for her was still her original name, while he already had a dedicated note in Jiang Ranxu's phone: "VV Soy Milk." He was deeply hurt, questioning if he held no special place in his heart. He quickly changed Jiang Ranxu's note to a piece of ginger and a heart emoji.
This is a screenshot of the APP interface. The cartoon cow in the middle of the screen is leisurely chewing grass and wearing a red hat in the shape of a lantern. 1,000 points are displayed in the upper right corner of the screen - he is very familiar with this. It is the points mall module developed by their department.
[Jiang Xin] What's the best deal for these points? A 30-yuan voucher or wet wipes?
Meng Weishen rubbed his face vigorously, the heat rising inside him. It felt like his mother had discovered a failing Math Olympiad test in his schoolbag; it was incredibly embarrassing.
[Wesley Meng] It's more worthwhile to uninstall the software directly.
[Wesley Meng] This is just a garbage feature designed to cheat daily active users. The update package also takes up over 300MB of memory. If I were a user, I would just uninstall it...
[Jiang Xin] Business simulation doesn’t require much brainpower, and it’s quite relaxing to watch while slacking off at work.
[Jiang Xin] The software runs very smoothly and I didn’t find any bugs, which proves your professional quality.
[Wesley Meng] Thank you, but you don’t need to lie to praise me (tears) and I only participated in part of the backend development (tears)
The other party quoted the previous chat box content:
[Jiang Xin] That's the truth. The academic tools you created for me are also very useful. My paper has already been approved. I'm also applying for a group oral medicine project, and your tools will be useful. If I'm able to apply for an associate professorship next year, I'll definitely thank you very much.
Meng Weishen's battery was fully charged, and his fatigue was completely gone. He put his phone aside, opened the LLM tool on his computer, and continued to fill it with data to train the model.
"Weishen, have you taken stimulants? You're not eating or sleeping, and you're working harder than us interns vying for the chance to stay."
Ke Mi came back from the cafeteria and glanced at Meng Weishen's computer screen from a distance. She asked in confusion, "That's not right. Are you training a large AI model? When did our team receive the request for AI research and development?"
Meng Weishen quickly clicked the minimize button to hide the medical papers that filled the screen. He touched his hair and said vaguely, "Ah, just slacking off for a bit, relaxing my brain."
Ke Mi was even more shocked. "Your way of relaxing is ridiculous, isn't it? Are you Marx? When you get tired of writing Das Kapital, you do advanced math problems."
Meng Weishen admits he's still a long way from Marx's level. He's recently been obsessed with training a large model that approaches perfection, but he's not so passionate about the technology itself. It's only because Jiang Ranxu has provided him with such a strong driving force that his work can be put to practical use for the first time. He enjoys this feeling, the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of being needed.
Ke Mi had already returned to the workstation in front of him, and then she remembered to ask him, "Are you really not going to have lunch?"
Meng Weishen calculated, "I already had a McMuffin this morning, which was nearly 400 calories. I have a dinner appointment tonight, so I won't have lunch. My personal trainer said that summer is a good time to lose fat and get in shape."
"Oh my god... all the handsome guys around me turned into fat pigs after getting married. But you've become even more handsome?"
"Then I should work harder and try not to become a fat pig."
When it comes to relationships, most women are more perceptive than men. Ke Mi was particularly sharp and noticed something was amiss: "No, what's wrong with you? You look like you're getting married, like you're in love for the first time."
Meng Weishen had previously asked Ke Mi to help him think of some strategies for dealing with his parents. He had also revealed to her that he was getting married through a blind date, but he hadn't disclosed the gender of his partner. As for whether she had guessed, he wasn't sure. Adhering to the principle of not revealing too much private information in the company, Meng Weishen simply smiled at her.
What Meng Weishen didn't know was that he looked more like he was in love.
Ke Mi knew his limits, so since he didn't want to talk, he didn't ask him any more questions. Around work time in the afternoon, the girl disappeared for a while, and when she returned, she placed a glass of bright green mint milk tea on his desk.
Ke Mi assured him, "Don't worry. The milk tea is made with A2 milk, so it's sugar-free and only has 170 calories."
Meng Weishen didn't take the milk tea, but looked up and said, "No merit, no reward. What do you want to talk to me about?"
"You are my honorable MT, so of course I have to respect you."
"Just tell me if you have something to say. Do you need me to help you modify the code or who else to talk to?"
Ke Mi was rarely shy. She pinched the green radish leaves beside his desk again and again before finally speaking: "That's right, it's about my retention issue. Brother Zeus still doesn't want to give me a clear answer."
"Maybe it's because you didn't give him a gift. That's just how our manager behaves." Meng Weishen blurted out, his guard down. Fortunately, his colleagues were too focused on their keyboards to eavesdrop on their small talk. He changed the subject, "...I'm saying that our team's business is just average. Are you sure you want to keep him? Or consider other positions?"
"It's already early August, and there's no time to look. If I don't get an offer next month, the school will force me to sign a fake labor contract to pad my employment rate, and I don't want to just sign that. Plus, my mom's pushing me too hard. She thinks I should be sending money home after I start working, and after deducting rent from my internship salary, I can't even afford it..."
Even Meng Weishen, though slow-witted, understood Ke Mi's plea. Unfortunately, the decision to retain someone lay with the team leader and director. All he could do was assign them projects with clear outputs and say a few good things about Lin Zhesi.
That week, Lin Zhesi informed him to attend the project launch meeting, and Meng Weishen brought Ke Mi along.
At the beginning of this quarter, the business group held an Allhands conference, packed with thousands of people. Our leadership announced a major business transformation: local lifestyle. The focus of our work and our salary performance for the second half of the year depended entirely on this.
The requirements raised by the product manager also focused on this business, asking them to develop an independent "Nearby Good Stores" module, add geographic location search, local business rankings, coupon management, online trading platform and other functions.
Meng Weishen was baffled by this deployment and said abruptly, "It's just a traditional e-commerce platform, and every update requires hundreds of megabytes of memory. If I were a user, I would simply uninstall the app and use the niche review app next door."
Just like his former leader Kuang Jia, Lin Zhesi also elbowed him under the table to threaten him to shut up.
The other party smiled at the product manager and said, "Okay, Peter, as long as it's a reasonable request, we can do it. But we also need to report to the director which specific requests are reasonable and how to arrange the time."
After more than half a year of adjustment, Meng Weishen had a rough idea of Lin Zhesi's skill level, which was probably three Ke Mis worse than Meng Weishen himself. Of course, skill wasn't important; being a middleman depended primarily on luck and skill.
Lin Zhesi knew his skills weren't up to par, so he deliberately concealed them. After the meeting, he didn't give Meng Weishen detailed work instructions, simply telling him to connect with the product himself and figure out the general development strategy. Lin Zhesi simply waited for his report and stayed out of the way.
Meng Weishen still knocked on the other party's closed office door.
Lin Zhesi put down his coffee cup and asked indifferently, "Why, do you want to report to me now?"
"Manager Lin, does our team have any official retention quota this year?"
Meng Weishen didn't have the time to waste time chatting with the other party, so he asked straight to the point.
Because Meng Weishen had established a relationship with General Zhuge, Lin Zhesi seemed to have considered him a candidate for direct leadership, and he was currently in the probationary period. His brash manner clearly proved him unsuitable for the assessment, and the other party frowned. "It's not entirely my decision to retain positions. I've already reported the situation to the Director. Tell Mia to wait for further information. It's no use for you to press on her behalf."
"So when will the results be out? It's already August, and I received the official offer in July or August. Even if you don't want her, you should at least tell her in advance. It's not good to keep her hanging."
Lin Zhesi stabbed him with a razor-like gaze. He laughed again, believing the knife had truly pierced him. "Wesley, this has nothing to do with you. Why are you so anxious? Are you trying to cultivate 'your own people' in the group? Then I should praise you for being so smart."
Meng Weishen didn't feel the slightest bit of pain. He didn't understand where the other party's sinister idea came from; it was simply baffling.
"It's okay. Your thinking is sound. If you want to cover the job, you need to train a few more of your own people. Your people are my people, so don't be shy." Lin Zhesi, believing his silence to be a sign of agreement, withdrew his gaze and put on a relaxed expression. "It's certainly not me who's blocking Mia's application for a permanent position. This year, the company's campus recruitment HC restrictions are quite strict, and the number of interns is higher than in previous years. The number of positions may be adjusted at any time."
Meng Weishen still didn't give up and asked, "It's normal to have competition. So what kind of efforts does she need to make? The work log or..."
"It's all useless." Lin Zhesi waved his hand, interrupting him. "It's easy to solve. Just a nod from President Zhuge is enough."
A chill immediately surged through Meng Weishen's heart. "Manager, you're so disgusting! The age difference between them is enough to be grandfather and grandson. How can this be a matchmaking?"
Lin Zhesi nearly spit his coffee onto the computer screen again. "What's going on in your head?! Mr. Zhuge might be... well, a little freakish, but right now, he only has Professor Wen on his mind. Absolutely."
That's good. It was all because of the despicable appearance of these two old schoolmates, which had left a terrible impression on him. That was why he had such sinister thoughts.
Meng Weishen secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said with determination: "Next time I play basketball with him, I'll ask him."
"You need to ask for help. Just playing ball with someone isn't enough."
"It's hard enough playing with him, and he hasn't improved at all in all this time."
"You..." Lin Zhesi had to speak frankly, as his every hint received no positive response. "Mr. Zhuge wants to meet with Professor Wen, and I've already hinted to you several times. What about you? Why haven't you taken any action? What are you thinking? This won't do."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
