23: Chapter 23 You even created a mobile operating system just to play games?

In his heart, Chief System Architect Zhang Chen didn't believe Lu Li at all.

In his eyes, Lu Li was just a lucky middleman, riding the coattails of some overseas team connection he got from God knows where to pass messages and make a name for himself.

It was nothing more than showing off in front of Su Qingxue.

How could someone who just waited around to die understand what a microkernel is?

It would be a miracle if he could even tell the difference between C and assembly language.

He probably couldn't even spell the technical terms correctly when submitting issues.

Qin Ya stood behind Lu Li, her fingertips tightly gripping the bank card.

Chief System Architect Zhang Chen's attitude clearly showed he treated Lu Li as nothing more than a translator.

"Cut the crap."

Lu Li hit Enter, his voice cold. "Pull up the error logs. The kernel compilation section. Now."

Chief System Architect Zhang Chen curled his lip and used his mouse to share his screen.

"It's all red. Memory overflow, thread deadlock—this is an inherent flaw in the architecture's DNA."

Lu Li didn't reply, placing both hands on the keyboard.

At that moment, the instant his hands touched the keyboard, his entire aura changed.

No longer lazy, he was like a master drawing his sword, sharp and imposing.

"Don't waste your breath. What you're stuck on isn't a simple dependency issue—it's the HAL layer adaptation validation that the developers intentionally added to the Soong build script to maintain compatibility with the transitional architecture."

On the other end of the video call, Chief System Architect Zhang Chen suddenly looked up, his eyes wide and round.

While typing, Lu Li spoke into the microphone, "My team just sent over the optimization logic. Listen up, I'll read it out, and you change it."

Qin Ya stared intently at Lu Li's screen.

The screen was completely clean; aside from the code editor, there were no chat applications, nor were there any records of incoming emails.

Where was this team?

These lines of code were clearly springing directly from his mind and flowing out through his fingertips.

"Right now, the Kati converter cannot parse the customized Android.mk symbols. Even if you complete the library files, when Ninja parallel compiles to the ART virtual machine bytecode conversion step, it will still throw an error due to signature verification interception."

After speaking, without waiting for Chief System Architect Zhang Chen to react, he directly modified the local out/soong/build.ninja configuration, adding the adaptation parameters for the BSP (Board Support Package).

The red error messages on the screen instantly vanished, and the previously stalled progress bar surged forward like crazy.

"A transitional system is not native Android. You have to remember that the pitfalls left over from the AOSP refactoring must be filled using customized dependency chain configurations."

As Lu Li spoke, he provided dozens of lines of core code in real-time.

This code seemed engraved in his bones; he didn't pause to think even for a second.

"File: Kernel/Sched/Core.c, Line 452. Remove the spinlock, replace it with a read-write lock, and add a null-pointer check to the conditional logic."

"Driver layer, Display_Hal.cpp, lines 890 to 920, delete all of it. That's redundant garbage. Rewrite the function: void Refresh_Rate_Control..."

He didn't look at any reference documents at all.

The code was like it was carved into his bones, flowing naturally through muscle memory.

In his past life, his company had been choked by foreign sanctions. To develop a domestic mobile operating system, he had written these exact lines of code himself.

For the software ecosystem, he had even written a two-layer compiler based on the Linux system.

It could not only install Android applications but also PC applications.

It was incredibly revolutionary; once released, it shocked the entire mobile phone industry.

Even Tim Cook of Apple and Elon Musk tweeted their praise for him.

Though they were competitors in the same industry, they were all top-tier technical researchers. On a technical level, respect was given where respect was due.

Qin Ya stood behind him, her heart beating extremely fast.

She saw it clear as day: for every line Lu Li typed into the local editor, he read it aloud at the exact same time.

This wasn't some overseas team at all.

He was writing this himself!

In the video, Chief System Architect Zhang Chen's expression turned from doubt to sheer horror.

Several programmers behind him also gathered around, staring at the screen and letting out gasps of surprise.

"Holy shit... this logic actually connects!"

"Using bitwise operations instead of floating-point math—who came up with this algorithm? The efficiency has increased by more than thirty percent!"

"The compilation succeeded! The red blocks are all gone!"

Twenty minutes later.

Lu Li stopped typing, picked up the cold cup of coffee beside him, and took a sip.

"This version will fix the frame drops. Flash it to the engineering prototype immediately. I'll send you the rest of the kernel refactoring code in batches later."

"Yes! Rest assured, Consultant Lu, we will definitely keep a close eye on it!"

Chief System Architect Zhang Chen's voice was trembling. The respect came from the bottom of his bones, a hundred times more reverent than when he faced Su Qingxue.

In his eyes, Lu Li at least understood technology; otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to explain it so clearly.

Lu Li cut off the call directly.

He took off his headphones, tossed them onto the desk, and stretched his neck.

When he turned around, he locked eyes with Qin Ya, whose eyes were filled with absolute shock.

The coffee cup in Lu Li's hand wobbled slightly, and his movements froze.

"When... when did you come in?"

A rare mixture of embarrassment and surprise flickered across Lu Li's face.

Qin Ya's throat felt dry. It took her a long moment to squeeze out a sentence: "Is this what you meant by... playing games?"

Lu Li quickly closed the code window, coughed to cover his embarrassment, and the tech-god aura on his face instantly collapsed.

He put back on his usual lazy, deadpan look.

"Ah... that, actually, I was just doing some low-level optimization for a game."

He pointed at the darkened screen and lied through his teeth:

"Look, games nowadays have such high requirements for mobile operating systems. I don't have any other hobbies; I just love playing games. To play smoothly, I optimized the phone's OS along the way. It's a pure accident, a total accident."

Qin Ya stared straight at him without saying a word.

Lu Li felt a bit apprehensive. He didn't know if Qin Ya had actually understood what she saw.

Was this Qin Ya from a technical background or a management background?

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

Qin Ya crossed her arms and said calmly, "I'm calling Qingxue right now. Her husband is actually this amazing, and I wonder if she even knows."

"Beautiful Qin, great beauty Qin, please don't. Let's negotiate."

Lu Li stood up and stuffed the bank card back into her hand.

"Take this money, and don't say a single word to Su Qingxue about what you saw today."

Qin Ya looked down at the card. "Why?"

"It's too much trouble."

Lu Li waved his hand with a look of disgust. "If she finds out I'm this capable, how am I supposed to lie around in peace? I just want to play my games. I really have no interest in this tech-industry nonsense."

He spoke with absolute seriousness.

His eyes were filled with a deep, profound dread of labor.

Holding the card, Qin Ya felt her worldview crumbling.

This man who could hand-craft a god-tier operating system...

His only motivation for working hard was actually to lie flat more peacefully?

She turned around and pushed open the door to walk out of the gaming room.

As she closed the door, her fingertips were still trembling uncontrollably.

Standing in the hallway, she pulled out her phone.

The screen was open to the dialer page for 'Su Qingxue'.

Her finger hovered over the green icon for a long time.

She was hesitating over whether to tell Su Qingxue about this.

Maybe she should wait until she met Su Qingxue before making another plan?

She couldn't help but wonder in her heart: Lu Li was clearly terrifyingly strong, so why did he hide himself?

...

Meanwhile, at this moment.

At the software department laboratory of the Guanghui Technology R&D Center.

Chief System Architect Zhang Chen stared at the exquisite lines of code on the screen, as if looking at a legendary martial arts manual.

Although he could understand the logic of each line of code and even run it in imitation, he knew in his heart that he would still need to study the depth of these things for several years.

It was as if someone had handed him a peerless secret manual.

He could train to master peerless martial arts according to it, but he couldn't understand at all how this inner power was created in the first place.

"We've finally made this system a reality."

Chief System Architect Zhang Chen murmured to himself.

He picked up his phone and dialed Chen Shuyu's number with a complex expression.

"Secretary Chen, something major has happened."

"The patch sent over by Consultant Lu... has resolved the Achilles' heel of the Xingchen System."

"Right now, our entire department is watching to see if this device's screen will light up."