Chen Zhuo looked at Su Wei, a flash of admiration in his eyes.
The girl wasn’t just quick with her hands; her mind was exceptionally sharp.
"I already wrote a macro into that text file,"
Chen Zhuo replied.
"You don’t have to delete the text directly. For any line with garbled code, just type a 0 at the very beginning. For a normal line, type a 1."
He paused for a moment.
"I’ll go back and re-match the formatting later. You just need to be responsible for telling the good from the bad."
Su Wei nodded.
"Understood. Come find me here tomorrow at six p.m."
She picked up the glue again and lowered her head, continuing to repair the thread-bound book.
「The next evening.」
Chen Zhuo arrived at the old library right on time.
Su Wei pushed the floppy disk toward him.
There were faint dark circles under her eyes; she had clearly stayed up all night.
"It’s done. I removed a total of 3,412 lines of dirty data."
Su Wei’s voice was a little tired, but still crisp and direct.
Chen Zhuo took the floppy disk, pulled a fifty-yuan bill from his pocket, and placed it on the table.
"Thanks for your hard work."
Su Wei took the money and put it in her drawer.
"We’re square."
「That night.」
Dorm 216.
Chu Ge inserted the floppy disk Chen Zhuo had brought back into the computer.
He read the data file that Su Wei had marked up.
He wrote a simple script to read the file, extracting only the data from lines marked with a 1 at the beginning.
A few seconds later, over 16,000 lines of clean test data, completely free of garbled code, were extracted.
Chu Ge imported the data into the core program that had successfully run before.
He hit Enter.
The stream of data on the screen scrolled by wildly.
No errors.
No lag.
Flawless.
Chu Ge let out a long sigh of relief.
He packaged the final program and the test results, then sent them to the employer on the forum.
Half an hour later, the other party replied.
"Damn, that’s impressive. Faster than we expected. Send your bank account number, and we’ll transfer the money right away."
Chu Ge leaned back in his chair.
He turned his head to look at Chen Zhuo standing beside him, then glanced over at Lu Jia, who was reading a book.
He grinned.
"Nailed it."
「On a weekend night.」
An outdoor barbecue stall outside Keda’s south gate.
The night wind made the nearby leaves RUSTLE.
Thick smoke from the charcoal fire and the scent of cumin from roasting lamb filled the air around the stall.
At a round folding table by the roadside, five people were seated.
Chu Ge, Chen Zhuo, Wang Dayong, Lu Jia, and Su Wei, who had been invited by Chen Zhuo.
On the table were two large platters of grilled meat skewers and several plates of cold side dishes.
In front of Su Wei was a bottle of Jianlibao soda. She wasn’t wearing her library vest today, having changed into a simple black jacket, and was sitting quietly to the side, sipping her drink.
Lu Jia was clearly uncomfortable in the smoky, fiery environment.
He frowned, holding a meat skewer and staring at a speck of black char on it, hesitating to take a bite.
Chu Ge popped open two bottles of Jiaduobao, handing one to Dayong and keeping one for himself.
"Come on, cheers."
Chu Ge clinked bottles with Dayong and tilted his head back, taking a big swig.
He set down his drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
He pulled a thick envelope from his pocket.
Inside was 1,500 yuan in cash, withdrawn from an ATM.
All in crisp, new 100-yuan bills.
In 2002, this was an enormous sum of money, enough to make any college student green with envy.
Chu Ge placed the envelope on the table.
He set aside his usual rebellious, untamed demeanor.
In this little circle, technical skill trumped everything, and he knew his own limits.
"When I took this job, I didn’t think too much about the money,"
Chu Ge said, looking at Chen Zhuo with a serious tone.
"If it weren’t for your framework and Lu Jia’s formula, this job definitely would’ve blown up in my face."
He ripped open the envelope and started counting the money.
His movements were crisp and decisive, with no hesitation.
He pulled out six 100-yuan bills and placed them in front of Chen Zhuo.
"Chen Zhuo, you built the macro-framework. You built the bones of this program, so you get the biggest cut."
Chen Zhuo looked at the 600 yuan in front of him.
He didn’t refuse it or offer any empty pleasantries.
He simply reached out, took it, and put it in his pocket.
"Alright."
Chu Ge then pulled out four more 100-yuan bills and pushed them toward Lu Jia.
Lu Jia froze for a moment, staring at the money.
"Your mathematical logic helped me break an impasse," Chu Ge said, looking at him. "You earned this."
Lu Jia frowned.
"I don’t want it."
His voice was quiet, laced with his usual stubbornness.
"I wrote that for you not for the money, but because I just felt it was wrong and had to be corrected."
Chu Ge’s hand, holding the money, froze in mid-air.
He knew this kid’s temperament; forcing him to take money would be harder than killing him.
Chen Zhuo, who was picking at some of the cold dishes, spoke up slowly and deliberately.
"Just take it."
Chen Zhuo looked at Lu Jia, his tone gentle.
"This is the value your knowledge has generated out in the world. Knowledge has a price. You should get used to that."
Lu Jia looked at Chen Zhuo.
He was silent for a moment.
Then he reached out, took the 400 yuan, and casually stuffed it into his pocket.
Chu Ge breathed a sigh of relief.
He pulled out two more 100-yuan bills and handed them to Wang Dayong, who was busy devouring his meat.
"Dayong, we dragged you into this in the middle of the night for the cooling setup, and we almost fried your power strip. This is for your trouble."
Dayong gave a simple, honest smile.
He didn’t stand on ceremony either, just taking the money, stuffing it in his pants pocket, and going back to gnawing on the lamb leg in his hand.
Chu Ge was left with three hundred yuan.
He then produced a fifty-yuan bill and handed it to Su Wei, who was sitting across from him.
"Su Wei, for the ’mine-sweeping,’ Chen Zhuo already paid you fifty. Consider this fifty from me."
Su Wei glanced at Chu Ge, then at Chen Zhuo.

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