The First Day of Saving the World

On her first day at the new job, Jiang Yixin had deliberately arrived half an hour early.

Oh my god, I must have been crazy to tear up Celestial Pivot's offer and join a startup! My family will tear me apart if they find out!

Whatever. I'll treat the salary I gave up as money spent chasing a celebrity. Let this aging girl go wild for once.

Jiang Yixin entered the one-time password from her email and pushed open the door. There was no one at the front desk—more accurately, there was no front desk. A few desks, several monitors, and a ladybug logo from their previous group photo stuck to the wall.

Someone was already at a desk.

A man with a face full of acne, wearing a blue plaid shirt, sat by the window, staring motionlessly at his screen.

He glanced up at Jiang Yixin, nodded, then went back to staring at the screen.

Oh no, could this be the legendary big shot?

His presence was so steady, his focus maxed out, and his eyes were filled with code. Other people clocked in to work; he came to cultivate. And look where he was sitting—back row, by the window. Wasn't that the protagonist's seat?

Jiang Yixin found an empty desk and sat down uneasily. She did not dare disturb the big shot in her mind, so she could only quietly play with her phone.

[Little Jiang (Striving Edition)]: Oh my god, I came too early. It's just me and some unknown big shot in the entire office!

Her best friend did not reply. It was time for her stand-up meeting.

Near ten o'clock, people gradually arrived. Su Niannian came over to greet Jiang Yixin and said that three developers were starting today. They would handle the onboarding paperwork once everyone was there.

Just then, the door opened again. A man in a red plaid shirt came in right on time, the shine on his balding head obvious, one strap of his backpack hanging off his shoulder.

It was that max-level big shot.

He swept his gaze across the office. His eyes passed over Jiang Yixin without the slightest reaction.

Wait, you don't recognize me?

You weren't this cold during the interview. Didn't you say you looked down on small companies? Why did you not only interview but actually join?

Forget it. Be generous. We're coworkers now, after all.

At ten thirty, Han Luyi arrived.

There was no onboarding ceremony. Each of them received a MacBook and an office keycard, 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," and then got straight to the point.

"The most urgent task is adapting to the three cloud platforms. Each of you take one."

Concise! Just as expected of Teacher NP.

The bald big shot—his name was Chen Jianye—spoke first. "President Han, should I coordinate it? A project with multiple platforms running in parallel needs someone to connect and coordinate everything."

Han Luyi did not look at him. "No need. Take your own assignments."

Jiang Yixin secretly shook her head. He had given off such a strong "let me teach you" vibe during the interview, and he was still like this after starting work.

Han Luyi continued, "Kunlun Cloud is more complicated, so Chen Jianye will take it. Azure Peak Cloud goes to Zhao Lei. Tianshu Cloud, Jiang Yixin. Ask me anytime if there's something you don't understand."

Jiang Yixin shuddered.

Please don't torture me.

Jiang Yixin stole a glance at Han Luyi, but his expression showed no sign of anything unusual.

The acne-faced big shot—Zhao Lei—spoke up. "President Han, can you clarify the scope of Azure Peak's requirements? It'll be hard to get started without documentation."

Han Luyi said, "I'll explain it to you in detail in a while."

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 task allocation is a complete mess."

Jiang Yixin quietly pricked up her ears.

"And they want me to mentor a newcomer. That woman just graduated, right? They gave her the Tianshu Cloud adaptation? What a joke."

What the hell are you saying, bald uncle???

"Forget it. I'll see if I can set up the CI automated deployment pipeline first. Otherwise, there's no way to move this project forward."

He really was a big shot. Even if he did not respect people, he had the skills.

Jiang Yixin quietly slipped out of the break room without letting him notice her.

The moment she returned to her desk, 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 learning. I'll take you through the process first."

Okay! Teacher NP is going to teach me 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 had opened?

Automated testing, code review, and deployment pipelines—three sections, with the workflow chart laid out clearly.

Wait, there clearly is CI.

That bald uncle was unreliable. He was doomed sooner or later.

During lunch break, Zhao Lei carried his cup over to Jiang Yixin and lowered his voice. "Little Jiang, let me tell you something."

The acne-faced big shot was about to pass on his experience.

"The requirements on Tianshu Cloud's side may change. Make sure to keep emails. What gets said in the group chat doesn't count, and verbal agreements count even less."

"Got it, Brother Zhao!"

"And after President Han gives you the API documentation, the first thing you do is confirm the version number. Otherwise, if they change the API later, they'll pin the blame on you."

Thank you, hero who refuses to take the blame.

A while later, Su Niannian came over.

"Little Jiang, are you familiar with SQL? Help me pull some data."

I'm not SQL Girl! My offer said backend engineer!

Her heart was wild, but her mouth was meek. "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 submitted a few bugs now and then. Their submissions were continuous, dense, and nearly nonstop.

Even stranger was their coding style.

Their code looked exactly the same. Variable naming conventions, indentation habits, error patterns—it was as though they had been stamped from the same mold. Their submission times also did not resemble a normal development schedule. Rather than clustering during work hours, they were scattered throughout the day, as if something were repeatedly trying and failing.

"President Su, this group of users is a little strange. Look at this bug density..."

Su Niannian took a look and frowned.

The two discussed it for a while but could not make much sense of it. Su Niannian created a document and put the data inside.

At five thirty, it was almost time to get off work.

Han Luyi sent a message in the Lark group.

"Next week is the Cloud Developers Conference. Azure Peak reserved a booth for us, and President Su and I will be going. Operations is short-handed, so we need a developer to help out on-site. You can walk around the exhibition and learn something when you're free. Volunteers?"

The group stayed quiet for quite a while. No one replied.

Those two fake big shots can't carry this. Only Little Jiang can save the world.

Jiang Yixin: I'll go.

Han Luyi liked the message.

Su Niannian's direct message arrived immediately.

"I sent you the exhibition address and schedule."

There was an added note: "Don't just stand there looking stupid when the time comes. Visit more competitor booths and learn how other people talk themselves up."

Got it!

Her best friend finally replied.

[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: Oh my god! I was 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? Were the big shots awesome?

[Little Jiang (Striving Edition)]: I was wrong. Not a big shot, a hero who refuses to take the blame.

[Little Jiang (Striving Edition)]: They treated me like SQL Girl, but I found a case.

[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: What is it, Detective Miss?

[Little Jiang (Striving Edition)]: There's a group of users whose code looks incredibly similar! And they submitted a ton of it. Could it be a traffic attack?

[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: Huh? It's probably AI-generated.

[Little Jiang (Striving Edition)]: Huh?

[Big Liu Is Starving to Death]: AI coding is really popular now. Lots of coding newbies use it too. I tried it yesterday. It can make something decent enough, but sometimes it hides bugs that are a pain to find, and newbies might not be able to fix them.

Jiang Yixin locked her screen and got up to find Su Niannian.