The hum of fluorescent lights, the click of keys, and the muted buzz of phone calls filled the marketing side of Jiangcheng Tech Ventures—Lin Yi's new workspace, forcibly reassigned by Xu Rong.
A lesser man might have quit.
A frustrated one might have lashed out.
But Lin Yi?
He just kept typing.
The PredictWave engine was entering its stress testing phase. Under heavy load, the algorithm began to break—response times lagged, some predictions skewed absurdly. Xu Rong's version of the data cleaner wasn't scaling well.
But Lin Yi had already seen it coming.
[System Alert: Bottleneck detected in Node 2 – Suggest restructuring memory handling and shifting to concurrent pipeline.]
As usual, he didn't tell anyone.
He just… fixed it.
By the time Xu Rong checked the performance logs in the evening, everything was mysteriously running 30% smoother.
She frowned. "Who merged these changes?"
No one answered.
Her eyes flicked to the logs, saw "Merged by: auto-process," and slammed her laptop shut.
She knew.
But she couldn't prove it.
And worse—she couldn't stop it.
The next day, Lin Yi received a private message from someone unfamiliar.
[Sender: Wang Zixuan]
Subject: "Coffee?"
He blinked. Wang Zixuan?
He searched the name in the company directory.
Wang Zixuan – Head of Strategic Partnerships.
A department head.
Why would someone at that level reach out to him?
Curious, Lin Yi responded.
"Sure. When and where?"
[Wang Zixuan: 'Today. 5:00 p.m. Blue Bean Café, across the street. Just you and me.']
Blue Bean Café was nestled beside the tech park—popular with employees who needed caffeine and silence. When Lin Yi arrived, he spotted a well-dressed man in his late 30s at a corner table, sipping espresso and reading a tablet.
Wang Zixuan looked up, smiled. "Lin Yi, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"Sit. No need for 'sir'. We're just talking."
Lin Yi sat across, silent but alert.
Wang Zixuan studied him for a moment, tapping his fingers on the cup.
"You've been doing excellent work," he said. "Very quiet. Very fast. And very low-profile. That's rare."
"Thank you."
"Rare enough," he continued, "that your changes were noticed even outside Team C. I saw your handling of the memory leak in PredictWave. Elegant stuff."
Lin Yi didn't flinch. "I was just doing what needed to be done."
Wang Zixuan leaned forward.
"That's why I'm here. I run a small division within the company called NextEdge—we incubate high-potential internal talent. Special projects, private access to experimental tools, and… better pay."
Lin Yi remained quiet.
"You'd work independently. No more Xu Rong, no more desk in the basement. You'd be on your own timeline. More freedom, more impact."
It sounded too good to be true.
"What's the catch?" Lin Yi asked.
Wang Zixuan grinned. "Smart kid. The catch is loyalty. You report directly to me. What you build stays with us. No open-source, no side projects. Total confidentiality. And… I choose what you work on."
He slid over a slim envelope.
Inside was a contract—signed and ready—with a ¥30,000/month stipend, full benefits, and access to NextEdge's research lab.
Lin Yi closed the envelope slowly.
[System Prompt: Branching Path Opportunity Detected – Accepting will trigger career shortcut.]
[Warning: Accepting may limit long-term freedom and slow hidden system missions.]
He stared at the contract, then looked at Wang Zixuan.
"I'm grateful," he said carefully. "But… may I think about it?"
"Of course," Wang Zixuan said smoothly. "But don't take too long. Talent like yours doesn't go unnoticed for long."
He stood, finished his coffee, and walked away.
That night, Lin Yi sat in his cramped dorm bed, contract still in hand.
It was more money than he ever thought he'd see in a year. Better resources. Freedom from Xu Rong's suffocating shadow.
But it wasn't the path he chose.
It would put a leash on his future, no matter how shiny it looked now.
He opened the Shenhao System panel.
[System Analysis:]
– Short-Term Gain: +¥30,000
– Long-Term Penalty: Innovation Path Locked
– Hidden Mission "Create Your Own Platform" will be disabled
[System Suggestion: Decline. Build your own table, don't settle for a seat at someone else's.]
He exhaled slowly.
Then burned the contract using a lighter his roommate left on the window sill.
The paper curled, blackened, and crumbled into ash in his palm.
[Decision Logged: Path of Self-Building Chosen]
[Reward: +8 Reputation | Hidden Mission Progress: +12%]
[Unlocked: Skill Tree – "Independent Innovator"]
He had no money yet.
No office.
No title.
But he had something far more important:
Freedom.
At Jiangcheng Tech the next morning, Xu Rong was shocked to hear the rumor: "Wang Zixuan's offer got rejected?"
"He turned down 30K a month?" someone whispered.
"Is he crazy or just arrogant?"
Xu Rong didn't believe it.
Until she saw Lin Yi at his same broken desk, sipping instant coffee and coding like nothing happened.
She realized…
This wasn't some poor kid chasing survival.
This was a storm waiting to unfold.
And the calm before it? Was terrifying.