"He's a friend of my dad's, the especially close kind."
"Mr. Cao is an expert on Chinese-style armor, very famous in the circle. He used to be a professor at a top academic institution, so he also has quite the temper. You'll have to bear with him when the time comes."
The young boss apparently parked the car quite a distance away on purpose, taking Lin An for a walk.
"The key is to acquire his knowledge, never mind his foul mouth."
"Oh, by the way."
The young boss stopped in his tracks and looked seriously at Lin An, "Remember, you must not tell him that I plan to outsource for Suxin software, nor that we are developing a game with a wizard theme."
"That old man hates foreign stuff the most. If he knew we planned to package Chinese-style armor as equipment for Western-style Demon Hunters, he would definitely kick us out on the spot."
"Demon Hunter?" Lin An looked at the young boss, baffled, unsure what new scheme he was plotting.
The young boss chuckled, raising an eyebrow, "I'm planning to use the training of an outsourced team through Suxin software to build up a development team, then, when the project is finished, smoothly transition the operational team into developing our own wizard game. This is called killing two birds with one stone."
"An, you need to start learning now so that you can shoulder the responsibility when the time comes."
Ah, this...
Lin An couldn't help but recall the job advertisements from other companies saved in his browser, his expression complex as he watched his boss's retreating back, uncertain whether to give up on the idea of switching jobs.
This could be an opportunity.
The change in thought subtly shifted his attitude as well.
"Boss, why package the Chinese-style armor as equipment for a Western-style Demon Hunter? We could just directly study the foreigners' armor."
"Heh~" chuckled the young boss, "What about those tin cans? What's there to study, it's just like that. Plus, An, we need to focus on differentiation, get it?"
"The heritage of Chinese-style armor, combined with your aesthetic understanding, and then wrapped up in the skin of the wizard world, believe me, that's the best direction for our game to break out in the future."
Alright.
To be honest, Lin An really didn't think he had any aesthetic understanding.
He also didn't know what the young boss meant about the emotion and tension in what he drew; maybe it was because he was rattled daily by those bizarre things and then captured some of their essence in his drawings?
Expert scholars, retired professors, bad temper...
The young boss's narrative had led Lin An to expect the image of 'Professor Cao' to resemble a refined, retired old man wearing a silk Tang suit and carrying a birdcage.
However, the one who opened the door was a burly man with a face full of beard.
At a height of 2.3 meters, clad in loose-fitting carpenter pants and hiking boots, his oil-stained chest burned black by the sun, his arms thicker than Lin An's thighs, he gazed down at them through gold-rimmed glasses and salt-and-pepper beard with a piercing look.
Such a figure deeply impressed upon Lin An what it means to be powerful and grand.
Professor Cao glanced at the young boss and snorted coldly, then closed the iron gate of the villa. From behind the gate, a muffled roar echoed, "Get lost!"
Bang~
The iron gate clashed hard against the door frame with a resounding noise, and Professor Cao's footsteps heavily receded.
Lin An exchanged a puzzled look with the young boss.
The young boss spread his hands, "He's not pleased with me right now, but that doesn't affect the situation."
With that, he chuckled, seized the doorknob and opened the door, beckoning Lin An, "Come on, let's go in."
Lin An felt a bit nervous.
He suspected that he might get his head bashed in with one punch by this Professor Cao once inside.
Upon entering, the villa's interior was entirely different from the large mansions on TV dramas; a small gantry crane, machine tools, and a variety of machinery and equipment made Lin An feel as though he had entered some kind of factory.
The first floor was open plan without any walls, and an abundance of light poured unobstructed from the backyard into the hall; only the bookshelves that filled the left-hand wall and the table underneath, laid out with tea sets, added a touch of scholarly atmosphere.
Walking along the aisle between the machine tools, Professor Cao was busy working on a hoisted motorcycle with a large wrench.
The motorcycle also looked exceptionally large, clearly something that would draw the attention of traffic police on the road.
"Mr. Cao, look what I've brought you." The young boss cheekily took the box of liquor from Lin An's hands, "A cellar-aged rice wine, thirty years old."
Professor Cao paused for a moment, turned his head to look at him, and snorted, "I'll reluctantly listen to you for a minute, after which you get out!"
"Hehe~" the young boss guffawed.
"Mr. Cao, here's the thing, I've found a promising young man and plan to have him learn some things from you."
"I..."
"That's two sentences!" Professor Cao grabbed the liquor box, his huge palm holding the large box as if it were a small brick. With his other hand, he yanked the young boss by the lapel of his coat and strode toward the front door.
"Hey, hey, Mr. Cao... Mr. Cao... Dammit!"
Bang!
Professor Cao threw the young boss out the door, and the iron gate clanged shut as he bolted it from inside, then turned back to Lin An, "He said you wanted to learn what?"
Lin An grimaced, "Professor Cao, I'd like to learn about Chinese-style armor."
He suddenly felt less afraid of the burly old man, even though they were alone with the iron gate tightly shut. There was nothing out of the ordinary about this man in his eyes, and this made him relax completely.
"Hmm," Professor Cao nodded, placing the wine box in a slot on the left bookshelf and pulling out a particularly thick book to place on the tea table.
"First look through the first chapter, the tenth chapter, and the sixth volume of this book. If there's anything you don't understand, ask me later."
As he spoke, he walked back toward the huge motorcycle.
Lin An picked up the book with the title "Baqinxi, annotated by Zhang Bingyuan."
Baqinxi is a Health Cultivation Skill passed down from ancient times, widely known though not much practiced in modern times—most people have heard of it.
This book wasn't some legendary secret manual—it was clearly printed by Ancient Culture Publishing House and priced at 58.5 yuan on the cover.
Had Professor Cao made a mistake?
Lin An thought about it but decided to open it anyway.
The content of Baqinxi was about mimicking the movements of eight different animals, and not all of them were birds, which the introduction in the book specifically addressed as a naming error.
The chapters Professor Cao referred to, the first and the tenth, discussed the importance of combining breath control when practicing this Health Cultivation Skill, as well as various key points of breathing.
The sixth volume was about one of the Baqinxi, the Deer Play, which focused on the essentials of practicing the "stances" in Deer Play.
Lin An had never been exposed to these subjects before. As a student, he had worked part-time jobs to pay his tuition, and after starting work, though he did read after hours, his reading material was mostly about programming.
At first glance, he found it quite interesting.
Deer Play emphasized "hand scaffolding," with slightly spread fingers and elbows bent forward, resembling the antlers of a deer.
And the body's power output was supposed to mimic that of a deer.
The book discussed the deer's reaction to attacks by various animals, noting different types of force used against small animals compared to those of the same size.
Of course, if one encountered something like a tiger, then forget the stance—it's time to run.
It seemed a bit like wrestling techniques.
"Focus on the breathing techniques paired with each posture," said Professor Cao, who had appeared behind him at some point, wiping his hands with a towel.
Lin An turned around in surprise, "But I wanted to learn about armor..."
Before he could finish, the sight in front of him made his heart tighten.
The illusion, that kind of illusion appeared again!
It was different from the usual hallucinations he had seen; it was an extremely clear sensory experience, similar to the one he had when he encountered Suxin, the female software boss on the subway.
Countless black wisps of smoke rose from Professor Cao's body, spreading backward and converging into an outline like a blazing flame. Within the black flames, a massive deer head at least two meters tall stared intently at him.
The deer head had the texture of bronze and yet resembled a jade stone, overall possessing a glossy, ink-green color, with a pair of enormous antlers that shot up into the sky, wild and defiant.
Most crucially, on that ink-green deer head were a pair of huge red eyes, red like blood, with a direct and particularly frightening gaze.
"This is the entry point to ancient military armor, breath control," said Professor Cao casually as he tossed the towel on the table. "In ancient times, no matter the dynasty, private possession of armor was forbidden, as all armor had only one purpose: battlefield combat."
"If you find it hard to understand the relationship between combat and breathing, you can look up the breathing techniques that modern athletes must master."
As Professor Cao continued, the deer head behind him seemed to become even more real, turning its jade-like head with a nimble twist.
That nimble movement was accompanied by a certain terrifying malevolence, rushing at him.
Lin An's breathing became hurried.
"That's not how to breathe!" Professor Cao frowned, his rough, calloused fingers tapping the book in Lin An's hands, "When you rapidly exchange breath, you must do so completely, not like this ineffective breathing which can lead to oxygen deficiency."
He patted his muscular chest, signaling for Lin An to watch.
Then he took a deep breath, and his chest and stomach swelled up high, before collapsing in an instant like a rammer, as if squeezing all the air out of his chest in a moment.
The wild visual effect nearly left Lin An dumbfounded.
"Inhaling should fill the dantian with air, and exhaling should be thorough and clean!"
Professor Cao turned and walked to a rack in the distance, pulling over a half-finished chest plate, "In ancient times during military marches, it was difficult for generals to gather enough elite soldiers, so they cheated a little by incorporating the method I just mentioned into the armor."
"This served to train the army during their marches."
He flipped the chest plate over, showing Lin An the side lined with elastic rubber bands that were used for adjustment, "Back then they would use scraps of animal tendons, and in less affluent times they might use other materials instead."
While saying this, he lifted the heavy-looking chest plate with one hand and demonstrated opening and closing the inside, "See, isn't it just like the Breathing Skill I described."
Lin An nodded, still baffled.
What he really wanted to say was that his boss had sent him to get a general understanding of the construction of the armor; there was no need to go into such depth.
Why should I learn this stuff?
I'm just a programmer, after all~