At dawn on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the old district of Nancheng had not yet fully awakened.
Jiang Yue stood at the entrance of the alley, holding his suitcase as he waited for a taxi.
A thin layer of moisture coated the cobblestone road. In the distance, a breakfast stall had just set up its pots, steam rising from the bamboo steamers.
He had just tightened his scarf when a hurried set of footsteps sounded behind him.
Eldest Uncle walked quickly out of the kitchen, carrying a cardboard box in his hands.
Without a word, he walked to the back of the taxi, popped the trunk, and shoved the cardboard box deep inside.
The box was packed to the brim.
Inside was home-dried, deboned free-range chicken, pork belly bacon cured by Eldest Aunt herself, and freshly fried meatballs from that morning.
Every single item was tightly wrapped in plastic bags.
From the looks of it, he seemed eager to stuff half of the family's kitchen into the car.
After closing the trunk, Eldest Uncle took a few quick steps to catch up to the car door.
He reached out with his rough, broad hand and pressed it onto Jiang Yue's shoulder.
He squeezed it solemnly.
“If you get tired out there, just come home.”
Jiang Yue met his gaze and nodded earnestly. “I know, Eldest Uncle.”
He opened the door and got into the car.
The wheels turned, and the Western-style houses of Nancheng's old district gradually shrank in the rearview mirror before disappearing around a corner.
Jiang Yue withdrew his gaze, leaned against the back of the seat, and tightened his collar to keep out the draft.
Arriving at Nancheng Airport, Jiang Yue got his boarding pass, found a seat in the waiting area, and pulled out his phone to open WeChat.
Over the past few days of the holidays, red notification dots had almost filled his screen.
Aside from his roommates, with whom he had already exchanged greetings, most of the messages were mass holiday wishes.
He swiped down a few times and tapped on a message from an acquaintance in the industry.
Han Song had sent an outdoor photo with the tropical beaches of Sanya in the background.
There was a crowd of people in bikinis and wetsuits, a wooden table with opened, chilled coconuts, and right in the center was Han Song himself, wearing loose beach shorts in a red-and-green color scheme.
Han Song: 【Brother Jiang, get your butt over to Sanya! Aside from the hot weather, this place is absolute paradise.】
Jiang Yue tapped on the screen, typing rapidly.
Jiang Yue: 【I just finished the fifth free-range chicken my Eldest Aunt stewed for me. I don't want to move.】
Han Song replied within seconds: 【If you eat like that, the director is going to make you run laps to lose weight once you join the cast.】
A moment later, he sent a long voice message.
Jiang Yue tapped to convert the audio to text.
Han Song: 【But seriously, I went out this afternoon wearing sunglasses to buy some fresh coconut water and still got recognized. A crowd of people chased me for two blocks and almost knocked my sunglasses off. Being a public figure means absolutely zero privacy.】
Jiang Yue scanned the text and smiled.
Jiang Yue: 【It just means you're popular. What about Teacher Chen?】
Han Song sent a GIF of someone shrugging and pursing their lips.
Han Song: 【Old Chen is still eating box lunches in Hengcheng. He even spent the Lunar New Year on set. He's a total workaholic; I'm honestly worried he'll burn himself out. Gotta go, my agent is calling to rush me to an appearance. Apparently, I've got a variety show to film after the holidays. Let's catch up when I have time to visit Donghai.】
Jiang Yue replied with a simple “Sure.”
Then, he locked his phone screen and closed his eyes to rest against the seat back.
The troubles of being a public figure that Han Song spoke of were something he couldn't relate to yet.
His current situation was very subtle.
Some directors and actors in the industry who had worked with him already saw him as a dark horse.
But most general audiences only remembered the face of his character.
If he actually walked down the street, very few people would recognize him as “Shen Xu.”
This was actually quite nice.
Over two hours later.
The direct flight landed smoothly at Donghai Airport.
Jiang Yue took a taxi back to his apartment, tidied up his desk, and neatly arranged the vacuum-sealed local specialties his elders had given him inside the double-door refrigerator.
In the days that followed, his life returned to a simple routine.
Yuantu Technology's overall project had reached the critical stage of testing algorithm data loads.
He set aside two full days every week to head to the R&D office to oversee the progress in person.
His focus was on reconstructing the underlying network logic framework and troubleshooting security vulnerabilities.
For the rest of his time, he basically lived at the boxing gym and fitness center.
Filming action scenes in 《The Hidden Sentry》 and 《Sharp Blade》 had made him truly realize the importance of physical fitness.
The traits granted by the system could give him muscle memory and combat skills.
But the strength of his bones and muscles still had to be forged through his own sweat.
No matter how powerful the traits were, if his physical body couldn't keep up, he wouldn't be able to endure high-intensity filming.
In mid-March, at a closed-door private combat gym in the suburbs of Donghai.
At two in the afternoon, the venue was empty and quiet.
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
Dull, heavy impact sounds echoed through the empty space one after another.
Wearing only a tight, breathable tank top with his hands wrapped and wearing black tactical gloves, Jiang Yue repeatedly struck a hundred-pound leather punching bag hanging before him.
He initiated with a quick, short left jab, followed by a straight right cross driven by the twisting force of his waist.
Planting his feet firmly as he recovered his stance, he followed up with a sweeping roundhouse kick.
Every single strike landed on the exact same spot on the leather surface.
The force transferred through the leather, making the thick iron chain holding the heavy bag clatter loudly.
His top was already drenched in sweat.
The soaked athletic tank top clung to his back, outlining the definition of his back muscles.
“Bam!”
The final straight punch landed with a heavy, penetrating thud.
Jiang Yue let out a long breath and stopped.
He bit open the Velcro on his gloves, pulled them off, and tossed them aside.
Grabbing a towel hanging from the railing, he wiped his face.
He turned, walked over to the bench in the resting area, unscrewed a bottle of mineral water, and took a few gulps.
“How did your strength actually increase after the holidays instead of dropping?”
The gym's Sanda coach walked over, his eyelids twitching as he stared at the still-swaying punching bag.
Jiang Yue looked up with a smile and set down the water bottle. “The holiday nutrition kept up.”
He sat down on the bench and opened his phone.
Li Hai had sent a long series of test reports in WeChat.
Li Hai: 【The model's recognition accuracy under complex outdoor security cameras has stabilized at 98%! Our algorithm is highly competitive among similar domestic projects now. A few major venture capital firms have already started reaching out to us!】
Jiang Yue's eyes swept over several sets of core data charts, and he quickly spotted a potential issue.
Jiang Yue: 【I looked at the logs. There's still a delay in capturing facial muscle feature points in low-light environments. Increase the noise reduction coefficient of the convolutional layer by 0.02. Also, watch out for memory leaks during multi-threaded concurrency. Run a stress test tonight.】
Li Hai was silent for a few seconds before sending a simple emoji of a soldier standing at attention and saluting.
Li Hai: 【Received! On it right away.】
Jiang Yue swiped out of WeChat, tightened the cap of his water bottle, set it aside, and stood up from the bench to continue training.
The stress test passed smoothly in the early hours of the morning.
Li Hai sent over a dozen exclamation marks in the WeChat group chat.
Yuantu Technology's underlying logic network was officially established.
Over the next half-month, life progressed smoothly.
The temperature in Donghai City gradually warmed up, and the plane trees along the streets sprouted fresh green leaves.
In the blink of an eye, it was late March.
Yuantu Technology's algorithm model had entered the closed testing phase, meaning Jiang Yue didn't need to supervise it every day.
That afternoon, Jiang Yue went to a nearby food market to buy groceries.
Wearing a simple dark gray hoodie, he blended in with the bargaining elderly crowd. Disregarding his attire and looks, he was practically part of the “grocery-shopping army.”
He picked potatoes covered in dirt and fully ripe tomatoes.
At the meat stall, he had the butcher cut half a catty of pork shoulder.
The owner weighed it and calculated the bill.
Jiang Yue scanned the QR code to pay.
Carrying the plastic bag filled with ingredients, he walked unhurriedly along the tree-lined path back to his apartment.
The phone in his pants pocket suddenly vibrated.
Jiang Yue freed up a hand and pulled out his phone.
The caller ID read: Xu Pingqiu.
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