On her first day at work, Jiang Yixin deliberately arrived half an hour early.
Oh my God, I must have been crazy to tear up Tianshu Cloud's offer for a startup! My family will kill me when they find out!
Whatever. I'll just treat the missing annual salary as money spent chasing idols. Let this old young woman go wild for once.
Jiang Yixin entered the one-time password from her email and pushed open the door. There was no one at reception—or rather, there was no reception. A few desks, several monitors, and a ladybug logo from their last group photo pasted on the wall.
Someone was already at a workstation.
A man with a face full of acne, wearing a blue plaid shirt, sat by the window and stared motionlessly at his screen.
He looked up at Jiang Yixin, nodded, and went straight back to staring at the screen.
Oh no. Could this be one of those legendary experts?
His presence was so steady, his focus utterly complete, and his eyes seemed filled with nothing but code. Other people clocked in for work; he cultivated himself through it. And look where he sat—back row, by the window. Wasn't that the protagonist's seat?
Jiang Yixin nervously found an empty seat and sat down. She did not dare disturb the expert she had imagined him to be, so she could only quietly play on her phone.
[Xiao Jiang (Striving Edition)]: Oh my God, I came too early. The entire office only has me and some unknown expert!
Her best friend did not reply. It was her stand-up meeting time.
Close to ten o'clock, people gradually began arriving. Su Niannian came over to greet Jiang Yixin and told her that three developers were joining today. They would handle the onboarding paperwork together once everyone had arrived.
Just then, the door opened again. A man in a red plaid shirt stepped inside right on time, the shine on his bald head obvious, one strap of his backpack hanging loosely off his shoulder.
It was that max-level expert.
He swept his gaze over the office. His eyes passed over Jiang Yixin without the slightest reaction.
Wait, you don't recognize me?
You weren't this dismissive during the interview. Didn't you say you looked down on small companies? Why did you not only come for the interview, but actually join?
Forget it. Be generous. We're colleagues now, after all.
At ten-thirty, Han Luyi arrived.
There was no onboarding ceremony. Each person received a MacBook and an office access card, and Jiang Yixin began the first meeting of her career.
Standing beside the two men in plaid shirts, she felt a little out of place.
Han Luyi stood before the whiteboard, said, "Welcome," then immediately got to the point.
"The urgent matter is adapting to the three cloud platforms. Each of you take one."
Concise! Just as expected of Teacher NP.
The bald expert—his name was Chen Jianye—was the first to speak. "Boss Han, why don't I coordinate it? A project running across multiple platforms needs someone to connect and coordinate everything."
Han Luyi did not look at him. "No need. Each of you handles your own."
Jiang Yixin silently shook her head. He had had that air of "let me teach you" during the interview, and he was still like this after starting work.
Han Luyi continued, "Kunlun Cloud is relatively complicated, so Chen Jianye will take that. Qingyue Cloud goes to Zhao Lei. Tianshu Cloud goes to Jiang Yixin. If you don't understand anything, come ask me anytime."
Jiang Yixin stiffened.
Don't torture me.
Jiang Yixin sneaked a glance at Han Luyi, but his expression showed no sign of anything unusual.
The acne-faced expert—Zhao Lei—spoke up. "Boss Han, can you clarify the boundaries of the requirements on Qingyue's side? It's hard to get started without documentation."
Han Luyi said, "I'll explain it to you in detail later."
Zhao Lei nodded.
At eleven, Jiang Yixin went to the break room to get some water.
She ran into Chen Jianye on the phone.
"This dump doesn't even have proper project management. The work assignments are a complete mess."
Jiang Yixin quietly pricked up her ears.
"And they want me to mentor a newcomer. That woman just graduated, right? They're giving her the Tianshu Cloud adaptation? What a joke."
What are you talking about, you bald uncle???
"Forget it. I'll first see whether I can set up the CI automated deployment process. Otherwise, there's no way to push this project forward at all."
He really was an expert. Even if he did not respect people, he still had the skills.
Jiang Yixin quietly slipped out of the break room without letting him notice her.
She had just returned to her desk when Han Luyi walked over.
"Jiang Yixin, I'll walk you through the CI tools for the Tianshu Cloud adaptation."
CI tools?
"You just graduated, and Tianshu Cloud's APIs are fairly standardized, so it's perfect for you to learn with. I'll take you through the process once first."
Great! Teacher NP was going to teach her personally!
Wait.
What had that bald uncle said on the phone just now?
"This dump doesn't even have CI."
Then what was this dashboard Teacher NP was opening now?
Automated testing, code review, and deployment pipelines—three sections, with the workflow diagram laid out clearly.
Wait, they clearly do have CI.
That bald uncle is unreliable. He's doomed sooner or later.
During lunch break, Zhao Lei carried his cup over to Jiang Yixin and lowered his voice. "Xiao Jiang, let me tell you something."
The acne-faced expert was going to impart his wisdom.
"The requirements on Tianshu Cloud's side may change. Make sure to keep emails. What gets said in the group doesn't count, and verbal promises count even less."
"Got it, Brother Zhao!"
"Also, once Boss Han gives you the API documentation, the first thing you do is confirm the version number. Don't let them change the APIs later and pin the blame on you."
Thank you, anti-scapegoat hero.
A little later, Su Niannian walked over.
"Xiao Jiang, are you familiar with SQL? Help me run some data."
I'm not SQL Girl! My offer says backend engineer!
Her heart was wild, but her voice was timid. "A little."
Su Niannian wanted an analysis of BugKiller users' bug submissions over the past month, grouped by user to examine submission frequency and the distribution of code characteristics.
Jiang Yixin stared at the results for a while.
Something was wrong.
One group of users had an abnormally high density of bug submissions. They were not normal developers who occasionally submitted a few bugs; their submissions were continuous, dense, and almost uninterrupted.
Even stranger was their coding style.
The code from this group looked exactly the same. Their variable naming conventions, indentation habits, and error patterns all seemed to have come from the same mold. Their submission times also did not resemble a normal development rhythm. Rather than being concentrated during working hours, they were scattered throughout the day, as though something were repeatedly trying and failing.
"President Su, this group of users seems a little strange. Look at this bug density..."
Su Niannian looked it over and frowned.
The two discussed it for a while but got nowhere. Su Niannian created a document and put the data in it.
At five-thirty, it was nearly time to get off work.
Han Luyi sent a message in the Lark group.
"Next week's Cloud Developers Conference: Qingyue Cloud has reserved a booth for us. President Su and I will attend. Operations is short-handed, so we need one developer to help on-site. When you're free, you can walk around the exhibition and learn a little. Volunteers welcome."
The group stayed quiet for quite some time. No one replied.
Those two fake experts can't get anything done. Looks like Xiao Jiang has to save the world.
Jiang Yixin: I'll go.
Han Luyi liked the message.
Su Niannian's direct message arrived immediately.
"I've sent you the exhibition address and schedule."
A note was attached: "Don't just stand there stupidly when the time comes. Visit more competitors' booths and learn how they talk themselves up."
Got it!
Her best friend's message finally came through.
[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: Oh my God! I've been busy all day! I didn't even get to eat lunch! Want to go to Haidilao tonight?
[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: How was your first day? Are the experts awesome?
[Xiao Jiang (Striving Edition)]: I got it wrong. He's not an expert—he's an anti-scapegoat hero.
[Xiao Jiang (Striving Edition)]: They treated me like SQL Girl, but I discovered a case.
[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: What is it, Miss Detective?
[Xiao Jiang (Striving Edition)]: There's a group of users whose code looks especially similar! And they have tons of submissions. Could it be a traffic attack?
[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: Huh? It's probably AI-written.
[Xiao Jiang (Striving Edition)]: Huh?
[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: AI coding is really popular now, and lots of coding beginners use it too. I tried it yesterday. It can make something more or less workable, but sometimes it hides bugs that are a pain to find. Beginners might not be able to fix them.
Jiang Yixin locked her screen and stood up to find Su Niannian.
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