When Zhao Pingchuan woke up, his head hurt as if needles were stabbing into it. He took several seconds to recover before sitting up.
He had spent the previous night entertaining an important client, and everyone had drunk quite a bit. Someone had probably brought him home afterward.
He opened his bedroom door to find Ji Ran carrying breakfast to the dining table. When Ji Ran saw him, he smiled brightly. "Morning, Brother."
Zhao Pingchuan smiled back faintly. "Morning."
They sat down to eat breakfast together. Ji Ran stirred the porridge in his bowl. "Brother, is drinking unavoidable when you're doing business?"
Zhao Pingchuan's complexion wasn't as good as usual today. Even after a night's sleep, there were faint signs of fatigue on his face.
Zhao Pingchuan paused for half a second, looking a little helpless. "There's no avoiding it completely."
Ji Ran was unhappy. Drinking was so bad for his health. He even wanted to say they should just forget it and stop doing business.
His thoughts were written all over his face. Zhao Pingchuan chuckled. "It's not that serious. Occasions like yesterday are rare, and I've been at this for so many years. I know how to avoid drinking as much as possible. Don't worry."
Ji Ran nodded, though he still looked dejected.
Zhao Pingchuan picked up a pan-fried bun for him. "Ranran, give me a little more time. Once I reach a higher position, I won't have to worry about keeping others happy."
Once he reached his former heights, or even higher, whether he drank and how much he drank would be up to him.
Ji Ran sighed softly. "All right. I just feel like I can't help you."
"How haven't you helped me?" Zhao Pingchuan said. "You've helped us solve so many technical problems. Don't those count?"
Whenever Ji Ran had a day off but Zhao Pingchuan had to go to the company, Ji Ran would usually tag along and help out. He couldn't follow the core projects, but he could help check things over, so he was quite familiar with Hengtu's employees.
Ji Ran finished the pan-fried bun in two or three bites. "I'm taking a day off in lieu today. I'll go to work with you."
Zhao Pingchuan teased him with a smile. "Don't you ever slack off?"
Ji Ran didn't mind at all. "At least I can chat with people at your company. I'd be bored staying on my own."
"Sure." Of course, Zhao Pingchuan wouldn't refuse.
Over the past two years, Ji Ran had also learned a lot at Hengtu. Yusheng was a mature company, and his job there was just a routine part of a large machine. Hengtu was different. Small as it was, it had everything it needed. There were many times when he had to consider the bigger picture, handle high concurrency, defend against attacks, and design architecture. These were all experiences he couldn't get in his regular job.
Helping out at Hengtu felt like continuing his education for free. With a top-tier mentor like Zhao Pingchuan sparing no effort to guide him, he could clearly feel his own horizons and abilities expanding.
Sometimes, when the two of them were out for a walk or eating together, they would casually discuss issues with the projects: why a particular architecture had been designed that way, what a client really needed. Through this gradual influence, Ji Ran's technical perspective and business thinking had risen to a level far beyond his peers.
One day during their lunch break, Ji Ran's development team sat around chatting. His coworkers complained about the merchant management mini program the company was working on. Even the team leader was frowning. He could only wave a hand and say, "We've also consulted outside advisors, but all they did was treat the symptoms as they came up. None of them could offer a solution."
Li Xuan crunched loudly on a biscuit to vent his frustration. "This system crashes whenever anyone makes a change. If we want to add inventory or financial functions later, there'll be no way to do it. I don't know how it was designed in the first place."
Ji Ran was drinking water with his head lowered. After listening, he casually said, "It's not a design problem. The domains weren't separated at the start, so the core business and front-end logic were tightly tangled together. Just extract the order and user modules into microservices and leave room for a third-party interface layer, and adding functions later won't create a bottleneck. The data caching strategy is wrong too, which is why it crashes."
The moment he said that, everyone fell silent. His coworkers were all stunned.
Ji Ran lifted his head from his cup and blinked, a little confused.
The team leader asked, "Xiao Ji, you're a developer. You understand microservices and architecture decomposition too?"
Only then did Ji Ran realize he had said too much. He smiled and explained, "A friend's company ran into a similar problem before, so I picked up a little on the side."
The team leader didn't know the details of his family situation, but Li Xuan and the others immediately understood that he meant Hengtu. At once, none of them found it strange. With a big-shot brother like Zhao Pingchuan, wasn't it only natural that Ji Ran improved faster than they did?
Ji Ran hadn't meant to show off, but the team leader looked at him meaningfully for a while, deep in thought.
After that, Ji Ran could clearly feel that the company placed more importance on him. Sometimes, when his coworkers ran into problems, they would specifically call him over to ask for his opinion.
Ji Ran shared his thoughts on each issue. Whether the higher-ups took his advice wasn't something he needed to consider.
Ji Ran went to the company with Zhao Pingchuan. Zhao Pingchuan said, "I have a short meeting first. Do you want to hang out in the office for a bit?"
Ji Ran pushed him along. "Go on, Brother. Don't worry about me."
Zhao Pingchuan nodded and went to the meeting room.
Ji Ran wandered around the company on his own, greeting everyone.
"Ji Ran, aren't you working today?" someone asked curiously, peering over a monitor.
"I'm taking a day off in lieu," Ji Ran explained with a smile.
Everyone was used to seeing him at the company. When Lin Zhou spotted him, he waved excitedly.
Ji Ran went over and sat down beside him. "Brother Lin, what's got you so happy?"
Lin Zhou pretended to be hurt. "You little brat, can't I be happy to see you?"
"Of course you can." Ji Ran played along readily. "I'm happy to see you too, Brother Lin."
Lin Zhou laughed. Just then, a girl sitting in front of him also greeted Ji Ran. "Hi, Ji Ran."
Ji Ran said, "Hi, Zhaozhao."
Zhaozhao's full name was Lu Zhaozhao. She had short hair and a round face, and she had been hired recently. She was cute and had a sweet, gentle personality, so her coworkers all affectionately called her Zhaozhao.
Zhaozhao smiled shyly, then went back to work.
She was quite friendly and shared snacks with Ji Ran every time he came over. After giving it some thought, Ji Ran asked her, "Zhaozhao, I'm going to buy some milk tea. What flavor do you like?"
Zhaozhao seemed a little flustered. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Then, then I'll have a mango pomelo sago."
Ji Ran nodded. "Okay."
He asked a few other coworkers what they wanted, but they waved him off. "We don't drink that stuff. Just get one for the young lady."
Ji Ran didn't really like milk tea either. It was too rich, but young girls did like it.
As he got up to go downstairs, he ran into Zhao Pingchuan and the others just as their meeting ended. He asked casually, "Brother, I'm going downstairs to buy milk tea. Do you want some?"
Zhao Pingchuan asked in surprise, "Don't you dislike those drinks?"
Ji Ran didn't explain further. He smiled and said, "I suddenly felt like having some today."
Zhao Pingchuan didn't ask any more questions. "All right, I don't need any. Go ahead."