Chapter 36: A Battle Against Tenosynovitis
Before the game even started, both of them coincidentally set the difficulty level to the maximum.
"This must be a professional-level challenge, right?" Lu Yusheng guessed, looking at the three "S"s in the estimated difficulty column.
—Oh wait, this little game doesn't have professional competitions.
She pulled her wandering thoughts back and began to fully immerse herself in the game that was about to begin.
One by one, the musical note icons fell as the countdown ended. Because of the practice game in the previous round, Lu Yusheng could keep up with the rhythm of the icons even without sound.
She always prefers to place her phone flat with both hands in the air. Before starting, she made sure her nails were long enough to avoid accidental touches, and placed a handkerchief under the phone to prevent the protruding camera from shaking. She had already adjusted it to the best possible position.
The fingers danced in the air as the notes fell, gradually speeding up as the music progressed.
Until the last two movements alternated too quickly, before the image of the previous movement had disappeared from sight, the finger had already appeared at another landing point, which could be described as an afterimage.
Even when the music is muted, the original soundtrack is still incredibly fast, almost insane. From this perspective, perhaps not playing the music out loud was the right choice.
Sikong Zhaixing's situation was no less dire. His experience with rhythm games was relatively short, although this could be temporarily compensated for by playing more games; discovering the optimal gameplay style would still take time.
Based on his experience so far, he still prefers holding the metal box with both hands and using only his thumbs to click the icons.
The little show I just did in front of Lu Yusheng was the first time I used multiple fingers with one hand so that I could click on all the patterns in the entire game area with just one hand.
Similarly, controlling the entire screen with only two fingers requires even greater speed than Lu Yusheng's four fingers.
If someone were to walk behind him and try to watch the game, they wouldn't be able to, because almost the entire screen would be obscured by the afterimage of his fingers.
Only he himself could barely find the gaps in the alternating positions of his fingers, and follow the changing trajectory to find the correct landing point and timing for clicking the musical note icon.
With such high-speed operation, the original four-minute song duration seemed to be infinitely extended for the two of them.
When the progress bar was just past the halfway point, the two of them almost simultaneously felt their fingers ache, and as it neared the end, even their wrists felt numb.
Finally, the long song came to an end—
The two of them put down their phones at the same time, and before the billing numbers even stopped, they started rubbing their wrists to relax.
As Sikong Zhaixing cracked her knuckles with alternating hands, this was the first time in recent times that she had a new feeling about this routine daily game. Indeed, it was most interesting to challenge herself with higher difficulties.
Lu Yusheng is the same. Although she is not very obsessed with rhythm games, her current level of skill is obviously due to intensive training before, and she has rediscovered the novelty of the past.
"We can't keep doing this, or we'll really get tenosynovitis."
She kept swinging her wrist in the air, talking while also keeping an eye on the final score on her screen.
Because the song in this game is so fast, almost every note is not played alone. Even multitasking, it's barely enough to keep up with the speed. To expect to pay attention to the combo status at the top of the page at the same time is simply too much of a stretch.
Therefore, she was unsure of how many points she could get before the final settlement.
Sikong Zhaixing remained unfazed. He had been playing rhythm games more frequently than Lu Yusheng had been during his most enthusiastic period. As a result, he had some subtle premonitions in his mind while playing the game, and was just waiting for the result to confirm the accuracy of his judgment.
After looking at their own numbers, they glanced sideways at each other, and both of them raised their eyebrows at the same time.
Looking at the identical numbers on the screen, as well as the same number of combos and "perfect" scores in the "Performance" section below, Sikong Zhaixing couldn't help but smile. He then slightly parted his lips as if he was about to say something about this coincidental score.
Then, before he could actually speak, Lu Yusheng's clear voice rang out beside him—
"A worthy opponent, who almost beat me after I hadn't played for half a month."
"……Um?"
Sikong Zhaixing was both annoyed and amused. His competition with Lu Xiaofeng had almost reached the point of a life-or-death battle, and the two were evenly matched.
If it weren't for the fact that it was Xiao Lu today, he would have fought until a winner was decided, no matter how difficult the match was.
He magnanimously ignored Lu Yusheng's arrogant words, and tapped the girl's head in annoyance, signaling that he wouldn't bother with her.
Zhu Ting's thoughts had already been interrupted by their frantic clicking on the screen. Now that the two had finally stopped, he curiously leaned over to take a look at what was on their screens.
Because he has been reading various drawings and basic tutorials recently, he is now very familiar with Arabic numerals, which are often used for dimensioning or quantifying values.
Simplified Chinese characters, which share the same origin, need no further explanation.
He paused for a moment in front of each of the two screens to confirm the meaning of everything on them before announcing, "The score is tied."
—And it turned out that not going against the chef was the right choice; Lu Yusheng didn't make any fast food for dinner.
After a satisfying meal, Sikong Zhaixing returned to his room feeling slightly tired and lay down. Having stayed there for a while, he had become quite accustomed to the folding tatami mats. Since the fully unfolded mats were long enough for him to stretch out, he had adapted quite well.
Directly above my head was a small lamp with a soft, warm yellow light that was evenly spreading throughout the room.
He lay under that light, his weariness deepening, and so he silently closed his eyes.
He has already received a letter from a new employer and is leaving tomorrow. This time, he should remember to say goodbye properly.
...Oh, it's too dangerous to carry the phone around. I have to leave it here. If it rings again on the roof beam of the target's house, it'll be time for him to retire from crime.
Zhu Ting, on the other hand, wasn't in a hurry to go back to his room. Unlike Sikong Zhaixing, he didn't need to rush to rest for the next mission. Instead, he calmly began to disassemble one of his computers.
Lu Yusheng didn't go back first either, watching from the sidelines feeling quite pressured.
Even with the support of his memory and insight, which allowed him to barely restore the disassembled computer to its original state, without the support of knowledge about electricity, even if he could replicate a complete desktop computer, he would not be able to actually make it usable.
Not to mention the complexity of online communication; even if she could find teaching materials, it wouldn't be something he could learn in three to five years.
If he ends up with nothing, wouldn't that be a complete waste of his time?
In the end, Lu Yusheng could only sigh silently.
Well, it's not like they won't pay me. Having a long-term meal ticket like this might not be so bad.
As he silently and attentively reassembled and restored the entire computer based on his memory of disassembling it and the procedures in the blueprints, Lu Yusheng, who had been watching for a long time, couldn't help but applaud.
"There's no burnt smell, so it probably didn't burn." She first sniffed it, concluding that there was no incorrect wiring. (Don't try this!)
For an ancient person who had just begun to come into contact with modern technology, to have achieved this level is already very admirable. In terms of invention and manufacturing, he can be called a genius.
However, even if the power supply didn't cause an explosion, it only shows that he had a good memory, that the previous drawings were very detailed, or that there was also a bit of luck involved.
Even if he were given more time, he could start from scratch to create the materials and complete the imitation, but he would never be able to truly make a computer that could operate independently.
Of course, she wasn't the only one who understood this.
Zhu Ting had no intention of giving up easily: "I roughly understand how to assemble it, but the materials for some of the parts are really rare. I plan to search the entire Song Dynasty to see if there are any similar or sufficient substitutes."
He was not discouraged. Instead, he decided to start with the simplest part, the appearance, and gradually learn and improve.
"You're leaving? To find raw materials?" Lu Yusheng was somewhat surprised, but also felt an inappropriate sense of relief.
"That's right."
He carefully examined the properties of some special metals he encountered during the assembly process. Although he knew it might be difficult to find replacements for all of them, he still wanted to continue.
After saying that, he bowed respectfully and said formally, "Thank you for your care and guidance these past few days, Miss Lu."
Hearing the exaggerated statement, Lu Yusheng quickly waved his hand: "It's not about taking care of you, after all, you paid for it, Boss Zhu... And it's even less about teaching you. I just talked about some very basic knowledge, which you could figure out on your own."
"No." Zhu Ting shook his head: "A single word can be a teacher. Besides, my comprehension is not enough. If it weren't for the girl's guidance, I would probably be completely clueless even with blueprints."
The thought that he couldn't fully comprehend the incredibly detailed and unreserved blueprints on his own was truly embarrassing.
If Lu Xiaofeng were to hear these words now, he would be utterly astonished. Zhu Ting, who was so proud of his forging skills and had been regarded as a genius since childhood, would one day say that he lacked comprehension? And in his most prized area of mechanical forging?
This is even more difficult than getting Sikong Zhaixing to surrender to the imperial court.
"Not really... the main thing is yourself."
Lu Yusheng chuckled dryly. After all, these were just basic facts; Zhu Ting only lacked some basic understanding of modern knowledge.
Of course, even a modern person with common sense would not be able to disassemble and assemble a computer using such an assembly manual.
To be honest, after spending these past few days together, although she and Zhu Ting rarely spoke, she couldn't help but feel a sense of respect for someone with such a strong craftsman spirit.
So after confirming his departure time, Lu Yusheng personally prepared some potato chips, Tulijia (a type of fast food chain), chocolate and other food for him to take on the road.
In a fair exchange, Zhu Ting also very politely repaired the kitchen roof that had been damaged by the rainstorm a few days earlier.
Even when Lu Yusheng woke up in the morning, he found that a wooden plaque had appeared on the empty outer wall.
Even from a distance, she could see that there wasn't a single rough edge on it, as if it had been cut so neatly and precisely with some kind of sharp tool.
Sikong Zhaixing, who happened to be saying goodbye to her, inadvertently revealed his experience of being widely influenced by literary works and having seen countless masterpieces.
As expected, he was conscripted to write calligraphy.
Unfortunately, the content to be written on the plaque had already been decided by Lu Yusheng, so he didn't have the opportunity to improvise and show off his skills.
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Author's note: Baby, don't imitate Zhu Gong's behavior!
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