50: Chapter 50 Onmyoji

The afternoon sunlight filtered through the office building's massive floor-to-ceiling windows, lazily spilling over Tang Zhuangshan's workstation and plating his cold keyboard and monitor in a warm, golden hue.

Tang Zhuangshan leaned back comfortably in his ergonomic chair, his toes tapping rhythmically against the carpet.

On the computer screen, rows of dull code were arranged in silence, and the cursor blinked at a certain loop statement, as if mocking his slacking off.

His primary focus was concentrated on the lit-up phone screen on his desk.

On the other end of the screen was a selfie sent by his girlfriend, Xiaowei.

She was holding an adorable Ragdoll cat, smiling so hard her eyes curved into crescent moons.

"Yuanbao refused to get out of bed to eat again today. It makes me so mad!"

Following the text was a string of pouting emojis.

Tang Zhuangshan's lips curled up involuntarily, and his fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard.

"There, there, don't be mad. I'll take you to that new hotpot place tonight. Should I pack some cat treats for Yuanbao too?"

After sending it, he added a "kiss" emoji.

The warm, fuzzy feeling of happiness in his heart swelled like freshly baked bread.

It had been almost a year since he switched to this Artificial Intelligence application company. His salary had more than doubled, and he had met Xiaowei. This life was like hitting the jackpot... oh no, it was the definition of a winner in life!

Whatever algorithmic optimization or KPI pressure there was, it was all washed away by the bright smile of the girl on the other side of the screen.

He switched between apps contentedly, his fingers subconsciously scrolling through news feeds.

The headlines in the technology section were always those bizarre, fantastical visions of the future and the movements of industry giants.

Suddenly, a piece of news with a bold, red, and obviously inflammatory headline popped up:

"CloseAI creates another miracle! Deep neural networks break through cognitive boundaries; the light of human civilization is ignited in the West!"

Tang Zhuangshan raised an eyebrow and clicked on it out of professional habit.

The content was nothing more than touting how some Western giant laboratory had made revolutionary progress on a specific model, how much the training speed had increased, how close the accuracy was to human levels, and so on.

The accompanying images were a few high-tech laboratory photos and several blond-haired, blue-eyed, high-spirited Researchers.

He scanned the technical details and curled his lip.

"Tsk, this tone again. It's just local optimization, yet they're blowing it up like they've created God."

As an industry insider, he knew all too well the exaggeration and limiting conditions behind such breakthroughs.

True general Artificial Intelligence? There's still a long way to go.

However, when he habitually opened the comment section, the tone changed instantly.

The top comment was from an account with an anime-style avatar.

"Look at them! This is the hope that will lead the human future! Are some countries still playing with mud?"

Someone immediately chimed in below:

"Hilarious. Apart from copying, what else can the domestic industry do? Bragging about 5G leadership every day, but what about AI? Bring it out and show us!"

"Don't hate blindly, the guy above. We also have leading AI that can write eight-legged essays and suck up to people! [Dog Head]"

"CloseAI is the true light of technology! The beacon of humanity! Some places only know how to engage in information blockades and isolationism!"

"Sigh, the gap is getting wider and wider. I feel like we'll never catch up in this lifetime. Time to emigrate."

All sorts of sarcastic, cynical, self-deprecating, and even sweeping generalizations were churning in the comment section like sewage.

Occasionally, one or two comments attempting rational analysis or rebuttal were quickly drowned in the torrent of emotions.

The smile on Tang Zhuangshan's face disappeared, and his brows knitted together involuntarily.

An inexplicable irritation welled up in his heart.

He wasn't exactly a fervent patriotic youth, he just thought... it was stupid.

"What the hell do these people know!"

He cursed inwardly.

Back when he was doing algorithmic optimization for his master's degree, he spent every day immersed in mathematical formulas and code logic, and he lost quite a bit of hair from staying up late.

Now that he was working on Artificial Intelligence applications, he knew even better how deep these waters ran.

The success of a model was built on massive amounts of data, top-tier computing power, and the hair of countless engineers.

The West was indeed ahead in some basic research, but domestic application implementation, especially in down-to-earth fields like manufacturing, was by no means as unbearable as they claimed.

The projects he handled, helping several traditional factories use visual Artificial Intelligence for quality inspection, increased efficiency by 30% and improved the yield rate by several percentage points. Wasn't that also tangible value?

"There has to be a limit to worshipping foreign things, right? No matter how great CloseAI is, can it help Old Wang's hardware factory automatically filter out defective products?"

He muttered under his breath, his tone filled with the straightforwardness and indignation of a technical person.

His finger hovered over the reply box, wanting to type a few words of rebuttal, but seeing that surging negativity, he felt it was futile and a waste of time.

Forget it. Getting angry at keyboard warriors was just making things difficult for himself.

He irritably closed the news app and switched back to the chat window with Xiaowei.

He looked at the new message from his girlfriend.

"Hotpot! Yay! But Yuanbao's cat treats need to be grain-free, okay!"

Following it was a cute cat nodding emoji.

Tang Zhuangshan's mood instantly shifted from overcast to sunny; the previous frustration was washed away by this simple happiness.

He typed with a smile.

"Yes, my Queen! Mission guaranteed to be accomplished! Picking you up at the usual spot after work?"

Just then, the internal phone at his workstation suddenly rang urgently, breaking the laziness of the afternoon.

It was the department supervisor, his voice carrying an unusual tension.

"Little Tang! Stop slacking off! Immediately, right now, bring all the documents and code you have on hand regarding the visual sorting model for metal part defect recognition! Five minutes, main conference room! Emergency meeting!"

"Ah? Oh... okay, Manager Wang!"

Tang Zhuangshan was startled and quickly agreed.

After hanging up the phone, he scrambled to organize his files, muttering to himself.

Metal part defect recognition? Isn't that the project that was just accepted? What kind of trouble has come up now? Did the client give negative feedback? Or... did the higher-ups have new instructions again?

He glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of his computer, then looked at the cat emoji Xiaowei sent on his phone. The previous relaxation and contentment had vanished, and a trace of professional tension crept into his heart.

On this seemingly calm afternoon, it seemed that something was quietly surging beneath the surface.

The CloseAI news? The revelry of the keyboard warriors? All of it was pushed to the corner of his mind by this sudden emergency call.

His good days seemed to always be accompanied by such sudden, unexpected variations.