r18novel Chapter 8 Footnotes to the City
Chapter 8 Footnotes to the City
After the interview, in the Shenzhen afternoon, Lin Shen didn't rush to do anything. He lay quietly on the hard bed for ten minutes, letting the sounds of the urban village outside the window envelop him.
I'm a little hungry!
I got up, boiled water, and made a bowl of noodles.
Lin Shen didn't check his email frequently. Tencent's process wouldn't be that quick; coordination with the HR department, compiling interview reports, and finalizing the job postings all took time.
Large companies have their own established processes and rhythms.
When the afternoon sun softened its intensity, Lin Shen decided to go out.
In July, Shenzhen was sweltering, with heat rising from the concrete ground, carrying the damp, sticky feeling typical of the South. He had no specific destination in mind, simply wandering aimlessly along the streets.
Along Shennan Avenue, subway construction barriers are a common sight, with the words "Shenzhen Metro Phase II Project" printed on the orange barriers. Another lifeline system is quietly growing underground in this city.
The most prominent spot on the street newsstand was occupied by a copy of the Southern Metropolis Daily, with a front-page feature on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Special Economic Zone.
As the bus drove by, the buildings on its body were still mainly associated with real estate and local shopping malls.
The term "mobile internet" was still an unfamiliar and distant term for most citizens in 2010.
He sat down in an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and ordered a pineapple bun and iced lemon tea.
Several young people who looked like students at the next table were waving smartphones, which were still quite trendy at the time.
"The Nokia N97 is the true king of smartphones! A full keyboard and touchscreen, and the Symbian system is so stable!"
"You're outdated! The iPhone 3GS experience is the future; the App Store has everything!"
"Too expensive... I think Android has a chance. The HTC Desire looks pretty good..."
Lin Shen sipped his chilled lemon tea, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Well, these technicians rely on this hardware. He knows the outcome of every choice: Symbian will die, iOS and Android will split the market, and HTC will quickly decline after its peak.
He enjoys the sense of detachment he feels as a "prophet" at this moment, and cherishes the composure of being able to stand on the shore and carefully observe the surging waves, given this second chance.
As I paid and left, the owner of the ice cream parlor was listening to financial news on an old-fashioned radio: "...One year after the launch of the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), the performance of the first batch of listed companies has diverged..."
Lin Shen paused in his steps.
The Growth Enterprise Market (GEM).
2010 years.
Several names flashed through his mind.
Maybe it's time to make some money.
Not through systems, but through more practical methods.
Once the thought arises, it can never be suppressed.
Twenty minutes later, Lin Shen stood at the entrance of Nanshan Library.
This building, which had undergone several renovations and expansions, still retained a somewhat simple appearance in 2010. He swiped his ID card to enter, and the cool air from the air conditioner instantly enveloped his entire body. There weren't many people in the reading room—a few students preparing for exams, a few elderly people reading newspapers, and the air was filled with the mixed smells of old books, paper, and wood floor cleaner.
He sat down by the window and opened his laptop. Just as he pressed the power button, the system interface in the lower right corner of his vision flashed slightly:
[Environmental change monitoring...]
Current location: Nanshan Library (Main Reading Area)
[Environmental coefficients are being recalculated...]
[Calculation complete: Current environmental coefficient - 1.8]
[Note: You cannot accumulate "valid slacking time" without establishing a formal employment relationship with a valid employer.]
1.8.
Lin Shen raised an eyebrow. This figure was more than four times higher than Feixun's 0.4, and although far less than Tencent's 3.5, it was quite considerable in a public environment. He recalled the system's previous prompt—"The environmental coefficient is positively correlated with the value of the venue." A library, a place that carries the density of knowledge and social welfare value, was naturally much "advanced" in the system's evaluation than a knock-off software company.
He didn't use his "slacking off" coins to delve into the details of the environmental coefficient assessment; he had more practical things to do right now.
He opened his browser and easily logged into several tech forums.
In 2010, the domestic freelance platform was still in its infancy. ZBJ.com had just started, and programmers' odd jobs were mostly scattered in the "outsourcing" sections of forums such as CSDN and Open Source China, or through word-of-mouth introductions from acquaintances.
After quickly browsing for over ten minutes, most of the posts were either unreliable "make a demo first" offers or part-time jobs with excessively long cycles. What he needed were small projects with clear requirements, short cycles, and quick delivery and monetization—both to fill the waiting period and to test whether such fragmented, short-term collaborations based on money would be recognized by the system as "valid employment relationships."
Soon, a post caught his eye:
[Urgent] Familiar with Python? Need help writing a data cleaning and simple statistical script, due today! Budget 500, half deposit acceptable. Waiting online!
The poster, whose ID is "Running Snail," posted two hours ago. The tone was urgent, suggesting that a small team of technicians was caught off guard by a last-minute requirement and couldn't find any resources within the company, so they had to turn to the forum for help.
Lin Shen opened the private message window and wrote concisely: "Accept. Proficient in Python. Details of the requirements?"
He replied almost instantly.
The other party, as if grasping at a lifeline, poured out all their requirements. After a brief discussion, a data file and a requirements specification were sent to Lin Shen's email. The forum comment text, several tens of megabytes in size, needed to have meaningless symbols and repetitive spam removed, then high-frequency words counted, and simply grouped and counted by date—typical dirty and tedious work, trivial but not particularly difficult, just time-consuming.
Lin Shen quickly assessed the workload and confirmed on QQ: "Can be done. 300 RMB deposit, Alipay. The remaining 200 RMB is due upon delivery. Delivery before 4 PM."
"Running Snail" readily agreed: "No problem! Send me the account number, I'll transfer it right away! I need to report this urgently!"
Five minutes later, my phone vibrated. Alipay notification: Received a transfer of 300 yuan.
My first bit of extra money is in hand.
The quiet of the library is perfect for coding.
Lin Shen created a new Python file, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. He was so familiar with tasks like text cleaning, regular expression matching, dictionary counting, and date grouping—they were practically muscle memory. He even had the energy to add clear comments to the code and design a few simple unit test cases—not to appease clients, but out of professional habit.
This pure, problem-solving coding work allowed him to rediscover a long-lost experience. It wasn't about writing complex business logic code, attending endless review meetings, or compromising with various processes and standards in a large company. Instead, it was about focusing on refining a small project like a craftsman, quickly seeing the results, and receiving direct feedback.
An hour and a half later, the script was completed.
He tested it several times with his own small sample data, and it ran perfectly.
But he did not deliver it immediately.
Lin Shen closed the programming interface, stretched, and got up to get a glass of water from the boiler. Leaning against the window, he watched the cars and people flowing on the street below, letting his mind wander for a brief moment.
Let the bullet fly for a while.
Delivering too early would make the job seem too easy, and the other party might feel that the money was wasted. Although it's only a small amount of five hundred dollars, the attitude and pace of doing things are very important—this is one of the lessons he learned from years of work in his previous life.
I returned to my seat at 3:40 PM, packaged the script and a simple user manual, and sent it via email with the note: "Please check your inbox. Contact me anytime if you encounter any problems running it."
Less than ten minutes later, the reply came: "Wow! That was fast! I just ran it out, and it perfectly meets the requirements! The final payment has been transferred, please check! I'll definitely use you again next time I need work!"
My phone vibrated again; 200 yuan had been deposited into my account.
500 yuan, easily pocketed. It wasn't much, but it was a start—proving his ability to quickly monetize his skills "outside the system." More importantly, he was relaxed throughout the process, even somewhat enjoying it.
"This feels much better than tightening screws at Feixun," he murmured to himself, a smile playing on his lips.
But his smile quickly faded. He noticed that the system interface remained unchanged—his "slacking off coins" balance was still 2.6, and the status bar was still grayed out with the message "No formal employment relationship established with a valid employer."
As expected. Such fragmented, informal, and short-term collaborations, with money as the sole bond, are not recognized by the system as "valid employment relationships".
What the system wants is a stable, organized job with a sense of belonging. A job that allows him to "immerse" himself in it long-term, and to "slack off" while growing professionally.
Just then, QQ started flashing.
Li Feng, from the class of 07, requested to add me as a friend.
Li Feng,
Lin Shen looked at the name, and the drawer of his memory was gently pulled open. He had heard of this person before—one of the early technical backbone of Meituan, who had experienced the fierce competition among group-buying platforms, participated in building the food delivery business from scratch, and later achieved financial freedom after Meituan went public. But rumors in the industry also said that his family life was a mess, and he had been fighting a divorce for several years.
Why would he add himself to the list?
We don't have any connection.
Lin Shen hesitated for a moment, but still clicked "agree".
Then a screenshot was sent, which was an email that Lin Shen had just sent to "Running Snail", with his own suffix in it.
"Hello, I noticed your email address suffix... is it from Shenzhen University?"
Lin Shen was taken aback. He opened his QQ email settings and, sure enough, because his graduation project required frequent communication with his supervisor, he had set a suffix for his name, class, and contact information. Since being reborn, he had been too busy with trivial matters and had forgotten about this little thing.
"Lin Shen? I'm your senior, Li Feng. Class of 07, Computer Science!"
"Hello, senior, what a coincidence," Lin Shen replied.
"What a coincidence! Where are you working now?"
"I just quit my job and I'm looking for one now."
The dialog box displayed "The other party is typing..." for more than ten seconds, and then a long message popped up: "Looking for a job? Want to come work for me? Meituan is not a ragtag team. We are already in talks for Series A funding. Now is the critical time to grab territory and expand the team. We are in need of technical experts."
I just saw your skills; you're even better than some of our team members who have been working for two or three years. Joining a startup offers more opportunities, faster growth, and generous stock options. How about it, consider it?
Lin Shen's fingers hovered over the keyboard. He never expected that he would receive an invitation from Meituan before even joining Tencent.
And Meituan's Series A funding...
It should be the round led by Sequoia Capital, reportedly worth tens of millions of US dollars, but Lin Shen hasn't looked into the details. Meituan is still fiercely competing in the group-buying market, and it has a long way to go before becoming a super platform covering all aspects of life services, from food and drink to entertainment.
If you join now...
but--
Lin Shen hesitated for a moment, thinking of the cheat code for slacking off, and then of WeChat, before typing his reply: "Senior, to be honest, my application process at Tencent is almost complete, and I'm just waiting for the on-site interview."
This time, silence fell over the other side. A full minute later, a message popped up: "Tencent...that's really good. A big platform, reliable."
You could hear a hint of regret in his tone, but more than that, understanding.
After all, in 2010, Tencent was overwhelmingly attractive to tech professionals.
"But Lin Shen," Li Feng sent another message, "if you ever have any urgent work like this again, remember to expedit it for me. I'll give you a 20% discount on the market price. When I get back to Shenzhen, I'll definitely treat you to a meal!"
"No problem. Keep in touch."
"Stay connected."
The dialog box went dark.
An unexpected connection was thus established. The internet is sometimes that small; a single outsourcing job costing five hundred yuan can connect you to a key figure in a future field. This further convinced him that after his rebirth, he needed to do more than just improve himself; he also needed to consciously build this network of relationships.
It was evening when I left the library, and the sunset painted the sky with a gradient of orange and red.
Lin Shen walked back to his rented room, stopping by the market downstairs to buy some noodles and vegetables. In the cramped kitchen, he skillfully boiled water, cooked the noodles, blanched the vegetables, and finally poached an egg. A simple bowl of clear soup noodles, steaming hot, warmed his face.
I had just picked up the bowl when my phone rang.
The word "Mom" appeared on the screen.
He answered the call, his tone naturally softening: "Mom."
"Shen Shen, have you eaten?" His mother's voice came through the receiver, carrying that unique, cautious gentleness. She was always like this, afraid of disturbing his work, yet unable to help but worry.
After being reborn, Lin Shen called his family every two or three days. It wasn't because he had anything important to say, but simply to hear his parents' voices and let them know that he was doing well.
"We're eating now. What about you?"
"We just finished eating too. Aunt Li downstairs brought over some homemade zongzi today. I heated up two for your dad, and he said they were delicious." The mother chatted casually, her tone light and cheerful. "It's hot in Shenzhen, isn't it? You need to be careful, don't overdo it with cooling, and don't set the air conditioner too low..."
Ordinary sharing and trivial reminders act as a gentle anchor, temporarily pulling him back from grand plans for the future, the cold logic of technology, and the precise calculations of systems to the realities of everyday life, possessing an exceptionally calming power.
"I know, Mom. You should also take care of yourselves." He listened patiently and responded to each question.
There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone, then the mother's voice came through again, softer than before: "Have you made any progress with your job search?" She immediately added, "No rush, Mom's just asking. Take your time looking. If it doesn't work out, come back. Your dad..."
"It's going well, Mom." His tone was firm yet gentle. "It's a very good company, and there's a high chance it will work out. I'll let you know as soon as it's finalized."
"That's good, that's good." The mother hesitated for a moment, then gave a few more instructions on dressing and eating before reluctantly hanging up the phone.
After putting down my phone, the room became completely quiet.
Lin Shen slowly finished his bowl of noodles, washed the dishes and chopsticks, dried his hands, and then took on an outsourcing project online to complete an e-commerce backend. The budget for this project was higher than what Meituan offered, 3000 yuan, for two weeks. It involved customizing the admin interface using the Django framework.
In the midst of this routine, Lin Shen received an email from Tencent.
From: Tencent Recruitment System
Subject: Invitation to On-site Interviews for Tencent Technical Positions
The email body is concise and professional:
"Dear Lin Shen, congratulations on passing the preliminary round. You are invited to attend an on-site interview this Friday at 10:00 AM in Building C, Kexing Science Park, Nanshan District, Shenzhen. The interview is expected to last 60-90 minutes. Please bring your ID card and resume. Please reply today to confirm your attendance..."
Friday.
It's the day after tomorrow.
Just as Lin Shen was about to click to reply and confirm, his phone vibrated again.
It's still "Mom".
He answered, a smile playing on his lips: "Mom, I just had some good news for you—"
"Shen Shen, it's nothing," her mother's voice came first, carrying her unique, gentle concern. "I was shopping today and saw a shirt that I thought would look good on you. It's cotton-linen, which is breathable for summer. Also, your father's blood pressure has been a bit unstable these past few days. Do you think you could come back for a visit when you have some time..."
Lin Shen stopped himself from saying the words that were on the tip of his tongue.
He calculated the time and said, "Mom, I'll be back on Saturday."
"Okay, I'll transfer the money to you to buy a plane ticket back! What were you going to say just now?"
"Yes, I received an invitation for an on-site interview from Tencent. This Friday."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.
Then came the mother's response, clearly pleased yet strangely tinged with joy: "Really? That's wonderful! I knew my son was the best! Well then... prepare well, don't be nervous, just stay calm. It's okay if you don't get the job, you can always look again. I won't bother you anymore, you go ahead with your work..."