It seemed time always flies by faster than people would expect. After dinner, Huang Xuan went out from the backyard once again. When he reached the site at nightfall, the loud noise of the engines could be heard in the distance.
After paying the taxi driver, he trotted to the site. Li Shenggang was supervising the test on a generator. The ground was shaking along with the nails scattered on it.
Li Shenggang dragged Huang Xuan aside and said, “Three 250kW generators have been set. Another one is being fixed. I have bought 8 barrels of diesel. Is it enough?”
“Of course not,” Huang Xuan said immediately. He turned his head and saw Li Shenggang smirking and rubbing his hands. Realizing something, he asked, “Do you need more money?”
Li Shenggang blinked his eyes and smiled. “This generating unit consumes 64 Liters of diesel per hour. Each liter of diesel costs more than three dollars. Excluding the deposit, the rest of the money is only enough to afford the diesel for two days.” As he finished his sentence, he let out a giggle.
Huang Xuan sighed in his heart. He could handle hundreds of thousands of kWh of electricity, but now Rolin was asking tens of millions of kWh, how could he manage that? Without a clue, he decided to make do for the time being.
Thinking this, he remained calm and said to Li Shenggang, “I see. Connect the cord first.”
“Where?” Li Shenggang got perplexed.
“To the switchroom of the construction site first.” Huang Xuan pointed to the direction. Li Shenggang followed Huang Xuan’s instruction, despite it being odd.
One hour later, Huang Xuan sent Li Shenggang away and connected the energy chain with the cord. He mumbled: “Rolin, my job is done. The rest is none of my business.”
“I understand.” Finally, a reply was heard from Rolin. Huang Xuan wasn’t sure what he had understood, but he didn’t care, even if he was going to throw Li Shenggang into another world. He shook his hands, locked the door, and gestured Li Shenggang to come over.
Li Shenggang, who was quick of eye and had gone as far as to the construction site, trotted over with his typical smile on his face.
Huang Xuan forced a smile just like his mother usually did and said: “Connect the cord first to this room, then to the factory. Connect the wire of the construction site to the main cord, too. All I need you to do is keep these generators working. Nothing else.”
“Hmm...” Li Shenggang looked at the switchroom stupidly and didn’t see the cord Huang Xuan had said to be connected.
“I said, nothing else!” Huang Xuan acted impatient and added: “Nobody can touch these circuits, except me. Even if my cousin wants to move them, let him call me first. Do you understand me?”
Plenty of electricity was needed every day on the construction site. Li Shenggang was too afraid to agree to this. He looked at the generators pitifully, then turned his head to look at the switchroom, but still didn’t figure out where the electricity was going. Huang Xuan completely ignored him. It was getting late, so Huang Xuan turned and as he was ready to leave, he added: “Remember what I said. If you screw it up, I guarantee you won’t be able to stay in Nanjing anymore.”
Li Shenggang heard these words clearly. He trembled and tried to say something, but Huang Xuan was already gone.
Huang Xuan went back home without a stop. He wobbled into his bedroom, turned on his computer, and said toward the air: “Rolin, are you enjoying the electricity?”
“With such a rate of progress, you are unlikely to fulfill your promise,” said Rolin, who didn’t have the slightest sense of bribery.
“That’s true,” Huang Xuan said. “Few people would be capable of doing what you have asked for whether they had enough money or not.”
“You promised,” said Rolin, dryly.
“Yes, but back then you didn’t say how much you needed.” Huang Xuan rolled his eyes and said: “How about you putting in more?”
“What?”
“Put in more.”
“Put in more what?” Rolin said, blank.
Huang Xuan choked in anger, lowered his head in frustration and said, “More money. The money from selling the materials is barely enough to buy the oil.”
“I will think about it.”
“That was it?” Huang Xuan waited a long moment and sighed. One had to bow his head under the roof. Being so strong, Rolin was apparently not afraid to ask too much. Huang Xuan sighed again, opened disc C, and said resignedly, “What are the two files you gave me that day?”
He had thought to get someone to check them out but had also worried that some problem might come up. So he thought he might as well ask Rolin now.
“They are two coding programs.”
Hearing they were not games, Huang Xuan shrugged in boredom and asked casually: “Are they worthy?”
“It depends on your judgment. According to the information I got from P136T2050, they are.”
“Do the P blah, blah and T blah, blah also stand for space and time?” Huang Xuan was interested in this kind of thing.
“It’s plane P136, equivalent to the space and time of the year 2050 in standard time zone.”
“Is the standard time zone the same as our current space and time?”
“Standard time zone is defined by the history of plane P001.”
Hearing these nouns which sounded from science fiction, Huang Xuan became very curious. He thought for a while with his head tilted, and asked: “Is the plane P001 the same as plane P112?”
“They were different, but during the former shock of space and time, many planes’ space and time broke down. The majority of the present space and time are similar to those of the standard zone.”
“What does that mean? What is the shock of space and time?”
Rolin was silent for a bit, then said: “The shock of space and time is a disaster, during which many planes that can’t withhold the shock of space and time disappear and history restarts. Since there is no disruption from the time travelers, the new planes develop in a similar way. Certainly, Genghis Khan might not be Temujin.”
Huang Xuan, who knew little about history, asked again, “Is this standard time zone defined by P001? Did our present plane once disappear too?”
However, Rolin seemed unwilling to continue the subject. Seeing this, Huang Xuan curled up his lips and started searching the Net for information on programs and codes.
Although it was said that everything was available on the Internet, either Huang Xuan was not good at it, or the Internet didn’t like Huang Xuan, each time he needed its help, he got little or nothing. He surfed the Net randomly for a while and decided to seek help from an expert.
Zhang Xinyi seldom worked at home, but there were many work-related materials in her house. While his mom was watching a film, Huang Xuan sneaked into the study. He took out the address book of World Group from the drawer, found the number of the chief technical officer(CTO) and dialed.
Huang Xuan had known since he was little that everything was easier for a child. For example, when he was in primary school, he had wanted an arcade game, but his parents wouldn’t buy it for him. Huang Xuan ran to the retail store below the company office and took one to his classmate’s house. Her mom didn’t know about this until a long time later. If he had asked the butler or the secretary to do it, his parents would have known it straight away. If the stamps hadn’t involved so much money and he hadn’t wanted them to be authenticated, he would have never gone to the secretary.
The CTO had a deep and vigorous voice. As soon as someone answered the phone, Huang Xuan said: “Hello, Uncle Deng.”
“Who is it?” asked confusedly the CTO, who recognized neither the number nor the voice. Besides, he didn’t even know his elder brother had a son.
“Hello, Uncle Deng. I am Huang Xuan. My mother is Zhang Xinyi.”
Every time Huang Xuan mentioned his mom’s name, he was addressed differently. So was this time. CTO Deng kindly answered: “Oh, it’s the son of general manager Zhang. What can I do for you?”
“I have a question.” Huang Xuan put on an innocent voice and explained the two programs, which in his story, had been written by himself. Then he eventually asked: “I would like to sell them. Could you help me?”
“Oh,” muttered the CTO. Current coding programs were all mathematical puzzles, many of which people had been trying to solve for hundreds of years, but to no avail. Even understanding one of them was difficult for a teenager, let alone solving one. However, this was the son of his boss, who had made the first phone call to him, and it might have been under the direction of general manager Zhang. Thinking this, the CTO decided to find a better way to respond.
He could neither deny Huang Xuan’s idea nor agree to help sell the programs. After thinking about it for some time, Deng Liwei said: “Huang Xuan, how about me recommending your programs to some software companies? Meanwhile, you upload them to Share Sky Website to see whether there is someone interested. What do you think?”
“Share Sky Website?” For the only purpose of Huang Xuan’s computer was to play games, he didn’t know such specialized websites. Hearing his words, Deng Liwei felt a chill. How on earth could a person who didn’t even know the most popular original programming website have written two coding programs? Who would be willing to use them? Of course, he didn’t say such things on the phone. Instead, he spent half an hour explaining to Huang Xuan how to upload and secure his programs. When it was done, Deng Liwei was very much relieved. He thought if his employees had been so dumb, he would have fired them immediately.
Huang Xuan didn’t know what Deng Liwei was thinking and emailed him the other program. Then he put down the phone in satisfaction and thought: “Great. This CTO whom I have picked randomly is brilliant. At least he has helped to upload my programs online. Good. Good.”