Li Dong’s words brought a sudden silence to the living room.
Li Qin stared blankly at her son.
’He knew exactly what his mom was like.’
So he immediately took out his phone, opened the mobile banking app, and shoved it right in Li Qin’s face.
"Here, Mom, look. It just arrived this afternoon."
The screen displayed:
[Account Balance: 812,315.00]
Staring at the long string of digits, Li Qin was completely dumbfounded.
’Even before Dad’s accident, we never had this much in savings!’
She stood there stunned, her lips trembling, unable to say a single word.
Standing beside them, Li Yang quickly leaned over to look at the screen, then grabbed Li Dong’s arm.
"Xiaodong... be honest with your uncle. This money... where on earth did it come from?"
Li Dong smiled helplessly. He knew that if he didn’t explain things clearly, these two wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. So, he told them the whole story about going to Shanghai for the Huaxuan Cup finals.
Although Li Qin and Li Yang didn’t understand terms like "immersion lithography" or "vacuum wavelength feed-forward compensation," they finally understood one thing: Li Dong had earned this money legitimately through his studies!
The two of them finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Immediately after, tears began to stream uncontrollably from Li Qin’s eyes.
Li Dong quickly grabbed a couple of tissues and went over, patting his mom’s back as he spoke.
"Hey, Mom, what are you crying for? Your son is making big money now. You should be happy, why are you crying?"
Li Qin shook her head, sobbing uncontrollably.
In the years since Li Dong’s father passed away, she had carried the family on her own, enduring countless grievances and hardships.
Her biggest worry had always been Li Dong’s studies. His grades had been consistently poor, and she was terrified he wouldn’t get into college. She feared he’d be unable to support himself after graduating and would suffer greatly in society.
Even after learning a few days ago that Li Dong had placed in the competition and been recruited by Sixth Middle School, she was still on edge.
The impression formed over his childhood was too deeply ingrained; she constantly worried that her son had just gotten lucky and could come crashing down at any moment.
But now, looking at the tangible sum of over 800,000 in savings...
The mountain that had been weighing on her heart for so many years had finally crumbled.
Li Yang stood to the side, his eyes a little red as well.
He understood the hardships his sister had endured. He smiled and patted Li Qin’s shoulder, then turned to look at Li Dong.
"Xiaodong."
"This money, you earned it with your own abilities."
"You should keep it and plan how you’re going to use it."
"You’re still in high school, still a kid. But you’ve managed to earn more money than we adults could in a lifetime. Your uncle can’t treat you like a child anymore."
"You have to learn to manage it yourself."
"As for the factory needing an inventory system, don’t you worry about that money. I’ll figure something out myself!"
Hearing this, Li Qin seemed to want to say that since her son had money now, it was only right for him to spare ten thousand to help his own uncle.
But Li Yang shot her a look.
The look said it all: ’The boy is grown now. You can’t just take the money he earned and dictate how he should spend it like you used to.’
On this point, Li Yang was certainly more clear-headed than his sister.
However, Li Dong was giving him a strange look.
"That’s not..."
"Uncle, I said I’d help you solve the factory’s system problem, but I never said I was going to give you money, did I?"
Li Yang: "..."
Li Qin: "..."
In the living room, Li Dong placed his new laptop on the coffee table.
He had already devoured the book *Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming* a couple of days ago.
It wasn’t that he was an expert, but relying on his monstrous stats, he had managed to cram all of Python’s basic syntax, classes and objects, and the use of dictionaries and lists into his memory.
’In Li Dong’s view, creating a simple inventory management system, a small program? Isn’t that a piece of cake?’
So, Li Dong opened his computer.
Normally, a Linux system would be better for developing a server-side backend with Python.
But Li Dong didn’t need to be a genius to know that the old clunker at his uncle’s factory definitely ran Windows. If he developed a system for a Linux environment or a web-based one, he’d have to rent a cloud server, which was too much trouble.
The best option was to develop it directly on Windows and then use PyInstaller to package it into a .exe executable file. That way, his uncle could just double-click to run it on the factory computer.
Li Dong opened PyCharm. The black code interface popped up, looking very professional.
Li Yang stood behind him, staring at the strings of English letters on the screen with a completely baffled expression.
"Uncle, can you tell me specifically what functions you need for the factory’s system?" Li Dong adopted the air of a senior architect.
Li Yang thought for a moment, then said a little embarrassedly.
"Well... my factory is pretty small, and there are only... only four or five people, so..."
Li Dong: ...
’You call this a factory? It’s more like a workshop! No wonder I didn’t see any other workers last time...’
Li Yang pretended not to notice Li Dong’s expression and continued.
"We have too many types of parts. For example, non-standard nuts, gaskets, and stamped parts... there are at least two or three thousand types. I need to be able to record the name and specifications of each part... what do you call that?"
"SKU management," Li Dong nodded.
"Yes, yes, yes! That’s it!" Li Yang nodded eagerly.
"And then, after the workers finish processing every day, finished products need to be checked into inventory, and when they’re sent to customers, they need to be checked out. Also..."
Li Yang listed out his requirements one by one.
"Got it. So, basic CRUD operations, plus transaction logs for inbound and outbound inventory, and a stock threshold alert function."
Li Dong nodded with a deadpan expression, appearing exceedingly profound and mysterious.
He stared at the screen, his expression more serious than ever before.
A minute passed.
Three minutes passed.
Suddenly, with a SLAM, Li Dong shut the laptop screen.
Li Yang’s eyes widened in surprise. "Done? That fast?!"
Li Dong cleared his throat.
"How could it be that fast? I was just documenting your requirements into a PRD."
"Writing code is a systematic process. It might take until next week or the week after to get it done for you."
Li Yang nodded in sudden understanding.
"Oh, oh, I see."
"That’s perfect. Your mom and I just finished taking inventory of the current batch by hand, so getting it next week or the week after is perfectly fine."
"Well... won’t this affect your studies for your senior year?"
"It’s fine, it won’t affect them at all." Li Dong waved his hand dismissively and carried the laptop back to his room.
The moment he closed his bedroom door, Li Dong’s face fell.
"FML!"
’I totally screwed up that act!’
He had genuinely intended to start writing the code right then and there. He thought that with his core stats boosted so high and his logical thinking far surpassing that of a normal person, writing a stupid little system would be a breeze.
However, the moment he typed `import sqlite3`, his brain completely stalled.
He had gravely underestimated computer science and software engineering!
Knowledge is, and always will be, sacred.
He had only devoured one introductory Python syntax book. He knew how to write loops and functions.
But to create a usable, graphical inventory system, he was missing so much...
For example, the graphical user interface.
He had never studied Tkinter, so he didn’t know how to do it.
And then there was database design and software architecture, including how to separate the MVC pattern...
The book hadn’t taught him any of this, so his mind was completely blank!
But it wasn’t like this with his physics and math. Even for topics he hadn’t formally learned, he could still intuit the correct direction.
So, this failure led him to some new speculations about his own attributes.
His [Concentration 0.2], [Logic 0.2], and [Memory 0.2] must just be base values.
For historical giants like Newton, Einstein, and Gauss, their base values were probably 1.0 or even higher.
But that wasn’t what made them god-like.
What truly made them stand peerless throughout history was their "spark"—which, for Li Dong, corresponded to Passive Skills!
These Passive Skills were like amplifiers!
They could amplify his base stats in their corresponding fields by a hundred or even a thousand times!
But right now, in the field of computer engineering, Li Dong only had a base value of 0.2 and no amplifier for information science!
Therefore, no matter how fast he learned programming, he was just an ordinary top student. He was completely incapable of being a "god-tier" student like he was in physics, where he could see through to the underlying logic at a glance.
’No, trying to brute-force my way through the framework on my own is too slow.’
’I wonder how Von Neumann is doing with his calculations on that high-dimensional topological manifold for "String Theory"?’
’Wait!’
Thinking about Von Neumann calculating String Theory suddenly made something click.
’I don’t seem to have any Passive Skills for math, do I? So why is my mathematical intuition so strong?’
He rubbed his temples and began to review. When exactly had his math skills reached the point where he could see the underlying logic at a glance?
As he thought about it, a dreadful feeling washed over him...
Newton!
’The Concentration +1 Trial Card? No, was that thing actually divine possession?!’

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