95: Chapter 95 Peripheral Engineers

Zhou Xinyu rushed into the institute's main entrance just as the time hit, the card reader giving a light "beep."

The electronic screen flashed the numbers 08:59:30.

His heart was pounding, a thin layer of sweat seeping from his back—he had almost been late!

Ignoring the need to catch his breath, he sprinted to his workstation by the window and threw his heavy backpack onto the floor with a dull "thud."

His entire body felt as if its bones had been removed; he collapsed heavily into his ergonomic chair and let out a long, weak sigh.

"Little Zhou, why are you here so late today?"

Old Qian, at the workstation next to him—a senior Researcher with thinning hair—was holding a thermos cup, slowly blowing on the steam, and teased him upon seeing this.

"Look at you, pale face, obvious dark circles... tsk tsk, young man, even if you have plenty of energy, you still need to know how to exercise restraint. Your health is the capital of revolution."

Zhou Xinyu was in a terrible mood right now; his mind was still swirling with the events of last night—searching for his girlfriend on the street and the arguments they had over the phone.

He really had no mood to joke; he couldn't even squeeze out a perfunctory smile.

He originally wanted to ignore him completely, but his good upbringing made him suppress his irritation, and he forced a weak twitch of his lips.

"Engineer Qian, it's really not what you think... Sigh, forget it, there's just something going on at home."

His voice betrayed an unconcealable exhaustion and low spirits.

Seeing his low spirits, Old Qian withdrew the smile on his face.

He wasn't a person without discretion, so he nodded and didn't press further.

He put away his joking thoughts and turned to remind him with a serious expression.

"Alright, family matters are important, but don't let work fall behind either.

The Spark Base project, the code for the supercomputer peripheral system optimization—the submission deadline is right around the corner.

The core communication module you're in charge of is being inspected by the team today, so don't miss the deadline, okay?"

The four words "Spark Base" hit like a basin of ice water, instantly waking up Zhou Xinyu's groggy brain!

He sat up straight abruptly.

He hurriedly looked up at the calendar in the bottom right corner of his monitor.

A bright red, highlighted date was glaringly obvious!

"Damn it!"

Zhou Xinyu couldn't help but curse, and cold sweat broke out instantly.

He had been so unsettled by his relationship last night that he had completely forgotten about this.

The underlying communication protocol optimization code he was responsible for still had at least one-third of its critical logic unwritten, and testing was even further off.

A huge sense of panic instantly engulfed him.

This was a Spark Base project.

The Information Security and Software Compilation Institute where he worked was considered reputable in the industry, with generous benefits.

He had felt so lucky to be able to stay after graduating with his Master's in Software Engineering from Z University.

However, this state-owned Information Security and Software Compilation Institute had undergone a rigorous technical assessment a year ago.

The questions were tricky and detailed, and the difficulty was extremely high.

As a newly graduated Master's student, Zhou Xinyu had barely passed, but he had also deeply felt the gap.

That assessment wasn't a forced elimination but more of a capability check; in the end, only a few people who were slacking off or had poor foundations were transferred out of the core project team.

The elites who truly passed the assessment were transferred to a mysterious unit codenamed Spark Base, with their whereabouts unknown.

Nowadays, many important tasks undertaken by the institute pointed back to this mysterious Spark Base.

These tasks usually had high technical difficulty, and the time constraints were extremely strict.

The task orders would reserve theoretically sufficient time for completion, but absolutely no delays were allowed, not even for a second.

Previously, a project team had been dragged down by one member who failed to complete their assigned module on time.

The consequences were extremely severe; the entire team was strictly held accountable and disciplined, while the member who caused the delay was directly fired publicly and blacklisted in the industry.

In the highly specialized institute system, this was almost equivalent to the end of one's career; it was very difficult for any unit of the same level to accept them again.

Under high pressure, the rewards were also extremely generous.

Participating in these core projects not only added significant engineering experience to one's resume, but the subsequent salary increases and project bonuses were also quite substantial.

This was why, despite the immense pressure, the Researchers were still willing to throw themselves into it.

Zhou Xinyu took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He opened the task order and re-confirmed the requirements for the functional module he was responsible for.

Real-time compression and decompression algorithm optimization for high-performance data streams, must be compatible with existing hardware architecture, and processing latency must be below a specific threshold.

The requirements were written clearly; as long as one's professional ability was up to par, completing it step-by-step was not impossible.

His brain woke up from the exhaustion of staying up late; he thought about the code logic, his fingers carefully tapping out characters on the keyboard.

Every variable name, every loop structure, every boundary condition check—he deliberated over them repeatedly.

Lines of code extended slowly and arduously on the screen.

Sometimes, halfway through, he would stare at the logic chain, frown, and feel it wasn't optimized enough or had potential risks; he would then irritably press a series of backspace keys, delete all the hard-written code, and grit his teeth to start over.

His forehead was soon covered in fine beads of sweat; it wasn't from the heat, but a physiological reaction brought on by his brain running at high speed and his mind being highly tense.

He didn't dare drink water, afraid that going to the bathroom would waste time.

Lunchtime arrived, and a colleague called him to go to the cafeteria; he waved his hand without even raising his head.

"Just bring me a piece of bread, thanks!"

He remained nailed to his chair like a tireless machine, charging at the logic maze on his screen.

Every successful compilation allowed his tense nerves to relax just a little.

Every time he encountered a tricky bug, his heart rate would accelerate, and the sweat on his forehead would gather into streams, sliding down his temples.

Time flew by amidst the sound of keyboard clacking and the scrolling of code on the screen.

The entire day was spent in this near-suffocating, high-intensity coding.

When the notification for the 3:00 PM team progress review meeting popped up, Zhou Xinyu had just typed the last semicolon.

He let out a long sigh of relief, his back already soaked through with sweat.

The core functional code for the task module had barely been finished, but it hadn't undergone system testing, nor had any deep optimization been performed.

In the conference room, the project leader sat at the head of the table with a serious expression.

The team members reported on the progress of their respective modules one by one.

Functional implementation status, unit test results, difficulties encountered, optimization plans, estimated remaining workload... everything was clear and the data was detailed.

When it was Zhou Xinyu's turn, he opened the code document he had just finished, briefly explained the functional points he had implemented, his voice somewhat dry from nervousness and exhaustion.

The leader listened, his brows gradually furrowing.

He pulled up the code submission record from Zhou Xinyu, looked at the project schedule, and asked directly.

"Have you written the unit test cases? Have you run them? What about the performance stress test results? Do you have an optimization plan?"

Zhou Xinyu's scalp tingled, and he braced himself to answer.

"The core functional code was just completed, testing... I haven't had time to write it yet, optimization... also hasn't been done."

The air in the conference room seemed to freeze for a moment.

The leader's face darkened, and he tapped his fingers heavily on the table.

"Zhou Xinyu, the project deadline is the day after tomorrow. Do you know what this means?

You are responsible for the information communication module. Code that hasn't been fully tested and optimized—what is the difference between that and not writing it at all?

If a problem occurs after launch, it won't just affect you; it will affect the entire project team, the entire delivery!"

The harsh reprimand came crashing down on him.

Zhou Xinyu kept his head down, his cheeks burning; he couldn't refute a single word.

The leader took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and glanced at the schedule.

"Fortunately, there are still two days left. You! Now, immediately, right now! Go back and finish the testing! Do the optimization!

By the time you get off work tomorrow evening, I want to see the complete test report and the optimized performance data.

If you don't meet the requirements..."

The leader didn't finish his sentence, but the pressure in his unspoken words made Zhou Xinyu's heart sink to the bottom.

"Understood, Team Leader, I will definitely finish on time."

Zhou Xinyu's voice trembled slightly, but it carried the determination of someone burning their bridges.

The meeting ended, and everyone dispersed.

Zhou Xinyu was the last to walk out of the conference room, his steps heavy.