Chapter 29: A Stunning Debut

Bian Xiaoqi arrived at Shen Jing’s house early in the morning, coincidentally running into Shen Jing’s father, Shen Yiming, just as he was about to leave for work. She immediately greeted him with a smile, "Good morning, Uncle Shen!"

"Xiaoqi, good morning to you too. Shen Jing is still sleeping in; why don't you go on in and drag her out of bed?" Shen Yiming said with a smile upon seeing her.

"Uncle Shen, I wanted to speak with you first, then I’ll go find Shen Jing," she said, smiling. She was very close with him and didn't feel the need to stand on ceremony.

"Oh? Is there something you need?" Shen Yiming paused and asked with a smile.

Bian Xiaoqi then concisely explained the situation regarding Pengyan Telecom and provided him with the name of the person in charge.

"Xiaoqi, I will definitely give you an answer today," said Father Shen, who was quite fond of her and agreed readily.

"Thank you, Uncle Shen," Bian Xiaoqi said happily.

"You’re too polite with me. Go on and find Shen Jing," Shen Yiming chuckled.

Shen Jing’s mother, Yang Shuhui, opened the door, and upon seeing Bian Xiaoqi, she greeted her warmly: "Xiaoqi, come in! It’s been a long time since you visited. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Hello, Auntie Yang. I’ve already eaten," Bian Xiaoqi replied with a smile.

"I’ll go call Shen Jing," Mother Yang said.

"Auntie Yang, there’s no need to trouble yourself; I’ll go wake her up," Bian Xiaoqi laughed.

Being very familiar with Shen Jing’s parents, she headed straight upstairs and gently pushed open the bedroom door. Shen Jing was still fast asleep. Bian Xiaoqi didn’t make a sound; she tiptoed over to the bedside and watched her sleeping friend.

In her slumber, Shen Jing sensed someone had entered the room and, assuming it was her mother, ignored it. After a while, feeling that someone was standing by her bed, motionless and refusing to leave, she struggled to open her eyes.

Seeing her half-awake, dazed expression, Bian Xiaoqi couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh my, my dear Miss Bian, what kind of mischief are you up to so early in the morning? Last time it was those life-threatening phone calls, and today you’ve graced my humble home. I’m going back to sleep, I’m ignoring you."

"Sister Jing, I’ll sleep with you then," Bian Xiaoqi said, jumping onto the bed and cuddling up to Shen Jing, hugging her arm.

Shen Jing sat up quickly, stared at her, and laughed, "When things are this abnormal, there must be a conspiracy. Tell me, what do you want this young lady to do for you this time?"

Bian Xiaoqi couldn't hide anything from Shen Jing, so she told her about asking Shen Yiming for help. After hearing the story, Shen Jing immediately got out of bed, picked up the phone, and called her father: "Director Shen, please get to the bottom of the matter Xiaoqi asked you about as soon as possible."

"My dear daughter, I’ve just arrived at work and have a mountain of official duties to handle. Let me find a free moment," Shen Yiming replied.

"No, you must handle it now. What could be more important than your daughter's business? I’m waiting here at home," Shen Jing insisted, refusing to hang up.

"Fine, fine, fine! I’ll make the call right now," Shen Yiming said, unable to resist his daughter, and began dialing.

Half an hour later, Shen Yiming called back: "The person in charge at Pengyan Telecom is a college classmate of Tang Fuhai, the Director of the Jinyang District Commercial Bureau. It was Tang Fuhai who instructed him to do this, and Tang Fuhai was acting on the orders of his son, Tang Juncheng. Xiao Jing, what is the relationship between Xiaoqi and Tang Juncheng?"

"Dad, Tang Juncheng is a high school classmate of ours. He’s truly a despicable person," Shen Jing said bitterly, then proceeded to tell her father about what had happened at their recent high school reunion.

"How outrageous! I don't know who he thinks he is, bullying my daughter’s friend. Xiao Jing, I will deal with this immediately. Tell Xiaoqi not to worry; Pengyan will not give her any more trouble."

Bian Xiaoqi immediately took the phone from Shen Jing and said happily, "Uncle Shen, thank you so much for all your trouble."

"Xiaoqi, your business is Xiao Jing’s business. They won't make things difficult for you again," Shen Yiming laughed.

After hanging up, Bian Xiaoqi happily told Shen Jing, "Sister Jing, thank you. This whole thing has been driving me crazy for nearly a week."

Shen Jing took Bian Xiaoqi’s hand, saw how thin she had become, and said with a touch of heartache, "Xiaoqi, you should have come to me sooner; why did you drag it out for so many days? This Tang Juncheng is truly detestable to use such underhanded tactics. The next time I run into him, see how I deal with him."

"It was my mother who reminded me; otherwise, I’d still be struggling," Bian Xiaoqi said.

"Since the problem is solved, let’s be happy. Come on, have breakfast with me, and then we’ll go shopping together," Shen Jing said, deciding not to sleep anymore.

"Watching that Manager Cheng at our office hovering over me all day makes me not want to go to work. Sister Jing, let’s go out and have a great time today."

Yang Shuhui had already left for work. After Shen Jing finished the breakfast her mother had left for her, she and Bian Xiaoqi went out together.

Shen Jing asked her, "Xiaoqi, when are you planning to go to Beijing?"

"Sister Jing, I’m going next week. I have to hurry; otherwise, someone might swoop in while I’m away," Bian Xiaoqi said.

"And what is this situation?" Shen Jing asked curiously.

Bian Xiaoqi then told Shen Jing about Fu Sichen’s behavior.

"Oh my, our classmate Qin Ke really has a way with the ladies. Little sister, you’d better hurry up then," Shen Jing laughed.

(II)

In the technical training room of Company C in Beijing, Fu Sichen rushed to take the seat next to Qin Ke. Qin Ke didn't mind; he remained as focused as ever, listening to the lecture and taking notes.

During today's practical session, Pei Yuhang randomly divided the twenty people into five groups. Qin Ke was assigned to the fifth group and appointed as the group leader. Fu Sichen got her wish and was assigned to Qin Ke's group, along with a girl named Jin Chen and a young man named Tao Jianmin. Jin Chen was a fresh graduate from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Tao Jianmin had graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and had been working for a few years, making him a year older than Qin Ke. All four were graduates of prestigious universities and were competing with each other, wanting to put on the best performance in today's practical session to earn high praise from their instructor, Pei Yuhang.

Pei Yuhang provided a complex network topology today, covering core, aggregation, and edge layers—a very complete network architecture. Unlike the previous two days, he specified the device names, network functions, and performance metrics for each layer, requiring them to get the network running and meeting all functional and performance standards within the shortest possible time, with a limit of one full day.

Based on everyone's familiarity with the network equipment, Qin Ke arranged for Tao Jianmin to be responsible for the core layer, Fu Sichen for the aggregation layer, Jin Chen for the edge layer, and he took charge of overall network performance.

After a busy morning, the fifth group quickly finished setting up and configuring the network. By the afternoon, they were ready to verify the network's functions and performance. They were the fastest among the five groups and ranked first. Seeing his three colleagues looking triumphant, Qin Ke didn't feel relaxed; he had a feeling that today's practical session wouldn't be this simple.

At lunch, the four members of the fifth group sat around a table. Fu Sichen said happily, "Our group took the lead this morning; we’re all so amazing! If the tests pass smoothly this afternoon, dinner is on me tonight." Tao Jianmin and Jin Chen immediately cheered.

Seeing that Qin Ke wasn't smiling, Fu Sichen said, "Team Leader Qin, do you not have confidence in us? Or do you not want to attend the party I’m hosting?"

Looking at the three of them, Qin Ke voiced his concerns: "I feel that Pei Yuhang has likely set some weird traps. We need to be very careful this afternoon. Only if we pass the afternoon tests can our group truly claim success."

As expected, the afternoon network performance verification test went extremely poorly. The network built by the fifth group did not meet the performance metrics set by Pei Yuhang. The other groups had the same test results; every network was experiencing massive data packet loss.

Qin Ke personally checked the configuration data of every device at every layer and found no errors. Every device seemed to be working normally, and the four of them couldn't help but look grave.

Qin Ke sat in front of his computer, silent, searching his memory banks, thinking hard. As most of the afternoon passed, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind: G Bank was a very important client of Company C, and the network topology before them was the solution provided by Company C to G Bank. This project was currently in the network testing phase and had not yet been delivered.

He suspected that the field engineers might have encountered the same problem, and Pei Yuhang had come up with this idea to let these newcomers use their wits to help the engineers find the root cause. This meant there was no ready-made answer. Therefore, they shouldn't be limited to the device models specified by Pei Yuhang; they needed to think outside the box and question whether the scheme itself was flawed. This meant replacing one of the devices. It was unlikely that devices at all three layers were faulty, but which one should they replace first?

With this in mind, Qin Ke boldly proposed his idea to the other three.

Fu Sichen doubted, "Team Leader Qin, would the company really think that much of us newcomers? That's impossible."

Tao Jianmin seemed inspired by Qin Ke and said, "I agree with Team Leader Qin's analysis. We can give it a try."

Jin Chen said, "I also think it’s unlikely, but it’s worth a try. However, which layer's device should we replace?"

Qin Ke continued to analyze according to his train of thought: "I believe the core layer devices should be fine because the same models have been verified in many client solutions. The edge layer devices are relatively simple and should not be the problem. The aggregation layer device connects the core layer above and aggregates many edge access layer devices below; its role is very important. There are many models of devices at this layer, and the one we used today hasn't necessarily been repeatedly verified. Therefore, I lean towards replacing the aggregation layer device."

"There are too many types of aggregation layer devices in the company. Which model is more suitable? We would need to look up technical documentation to be sure, but we definitely won't finish that today," Fu Sichen said worriedly.

"No need to check. We will replace the current C7200-G model with the C7200-F model," Qin Ke said immediately.

"Why not use the C7300-G model? It has better performance than the C7200-G," Tao Jianmin said.

"No, my intuition is that we can only use a slightly lower-spec device. Although the C7200-F has slightly lower performance than the C7200-G, it can fully meet the technical indicators given by Pei Yuhang. Don't tell the other groups yet; let's try it ourselves first," Qin Ke insisted.

The four of them immediately went to the warehouse and found a C7200-F aggregation device. To save time, Qin Ke did it himself, and with the cooperation of the other three, they finished rebuilding the network in less than half an hour. They tested it immediately, and the results fully met the performance metrics required by Pei Yuhang.

The four of them were all smiles and high-fived each other, but Qin Ke added, "This isn't over yet. Work must have a beginning and an end. We must find the problem with the C7200-G to give ourselves and Teacher Pei a convincing explanation."

The four of them put the C7200-G device back into the network and powered it up. Qin Ke debugged the interior of the C7200-G device, checking the packet forwarding process from the bottom layer to the top layer. He discovered a huge discrepancy between the data traffic at the bottom of the exit and the bottom of the entrance. Further investigation revealed that when the data packets were routed at the high level of the entrance, the device’s insufficient ability to parse the IP addresses of the packets caused severe packet loss. This meant that the C7200-G had serious technical flaws when processing data packet forwarding at the high level.

After the four of them reached a consensus, Qin Ke immediately found Pei Yuhang and reported their test results and the technical loopholes they had discovered. Pei Yuhang was surprised by their discovery and immediately reported their test results to the heads of the relevant departments.

(III)

The fifth group discovered technical loopholes in the aggregation layer equipment, a matter that immediately alarmed the senior management of Company C. Technical Director Qi Guosheng, Solution Planning Director Zheng Yutong, and Engineering Management Director Hu Wenqiang all rushed to the training laboratory to hear Qin Ke’s detailed report on behalf of the fifth group.

The facts were exactly as Qin Ke had guessed: this was a network solution for G Bank, a major client of Company C. Because the same problem had occurred, the network could not be delivered to the client.

Qi Guosheng asked Qin Ke, "How did you think it was a problem with the C7200-G and not something else?"

Qin Ke explained his thinking and analysis process again. Qi Guosheng nodded repeatedly and said, "You did a very good job. This kind of unconventional thinking is rare, and you’ve done the Technical Department a huge favor."

Zheng Yutong asked, "Why didn't you consider using the C7300-G?"

Qin Ke answered truthfully, "Director Zheng, this is an ongoing network solution. The client’s budget is fixed, and our company’s quote is fixed. The C7300-G is more expensive, so for those reasons, it’s not suitable for G Bank’s technical scheme, but it is suitable for a new client. The performance of the C7200-F and C7200-G is similar; the former can fully meet the client’s needs, and the price is cheaper. If the client agrees to use the C7200-F, the company can make more profit, so why not?"

Zheng Yutong continued to press, "Even if the people in our Solution Planning Department knew the C7200-G needed to be replaced, it would take several days to find a suitable substitute. How could you determine to use the C7200-F in such a short time?"

Qin Ke smiled and said, "Director Zheng, I have already memorized the performance and functional indicators of all the company’s products."

"Director Qi, Director Zheng, what Qin Ke says is true. During this time, I have been conquered by his super memory," Pei Yuhang said from the side.

Zheng Yutong smiled at Qi Guosheng and said, "Director Qi, I want Qin Ke for my Solution Department. I propose to waive his internship period and make him a permanent employee immediately."

Hu Wenqiang also smiled and said, "Director Qi, I agree with Director Zheng’s proposal. Qin Ke is such a talent that my Engineering Department wants him too, so Director Zheng shouldn't try to snatch him away."

Qin Ke, however, said to them, "Director Zheng, Director Hu, Director Qi, discovering the technical loopholes in the equipment today is not something I could have done alone; it is the result of the concerted efforts of the four of us in the fifth group. Everyone is very capable, and I hope that all four of us can become permanent employees directly. I wonder if you can agree?"

"Good, very well said. All four of you will be made permanent employees immediately," Qi Guosheng was moved by Qin Ke’s selflessness and team spirit, and he agreed to his proposal without hesitation.

"Thank you, Director Qi, thank you, Director Zheng, thank you, Director Hu, thank you, Engineer Qin," Fu Sichen, Jin Chen, and Tao Jianmin said in unison, casting looks of admiration and gratitude toward Qin Ke.

"The fifth group not only solved the company’s urgent problem but also saved the company time in modifying the plan and saved technical personnel time in re-verifying the plan. Therefore, on behalf of the company, I reward their group with three thousand yuan to encourage them. I hope other colleagues will learn from them and help the company solve its difficulties," Qi Guosheng announced.

The four of them immediately high-fived each other and cheered.

After work that evening, Fu Sichen fulfilled her promise and treated the fifth group to dinner. Qin Ke suggested using the bonus the company gave them to pay for the meal, but Fu Sichen refused, saying there would be plenty of opportunities to spend that three thousand yuan later.

Fu Sichen wanted to take everyone to the Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. Qin Ke said it was too expensive and that any small restaurant would do, but she refused again: "Team Leader Qin, I’m the host, I make the decisions. As long as you all show up, that’s enough."

Fu Sichen was from Beijing, Tao Jianmin was from Shaanxi Province, and Jin Chen was from Zhejiang Province. After the four were seated, Qin Ke and Tao Jianmin drank white spirits; Jin Chen didn't drink, so Fu Sichen drank with the two of them. Qin Ke suggested that Fu Sichen drink some beer, but she was very stubborn, so he stopped trying to persuade her.

The world-famous Quanjude roast duck is roasted using hanging ovens and open flames fueled by fruit wood. The roast duck was brought to the table; the skin was crispy, the meat tender, and it was filled with the fragrance of fruit wood. The duck was plump and full, its entire body a uniform jujube red, glistening with oil and pleasing to the eye. Paired with lotus leaf pancakes, green onions, and sweet bean sauce, it was rich, mellow, and lingering in taste.

This was Qin Ke’s first time eating authentic Quanjude roast duck, and he thought to himself that he must bring Bian Xiaoqi to try it.

Watching Qin Ke eat with gusto, Fu Sichen was very happy. She raised her glass and said, "Thank you, Team Leader Qin, for letting the three of us skip the internship period and become permanent employees."

Tao Jianmin also said, "Indeed, I also want to thank Team Leader Qin. Your memory and selflessness make me admire you; I am far behind."

Jin Chen held her drink and said with a smile, "I am a newbie in the workplace, and I have benefited from following Team Leader Qin and you two. I will use my drink to toast you, and I hope to continue to receive your help in the future."

Qin Ke raised his glass and said with a smile, "Please don't say that. Everyone is very smart and capable, and becoming permanent employees is well-deserved. Come, let’s drink to our friendship."

The four of them drained their glasses. Fu Sichen even drank a shot of Erguotou in one go without even frowning, which left Qin Ke stunned.

After a bottle of Erguotou was finished, Fu Sichen wanted to continue drinking, but Qin Ke firmly stopped her.

After dinner, buoyed by the alcohol, Fu Sichen suggested going to a bar for a second round, but Qin Ke turned her down, using the excuse that he had things to do.

As Qin Ke walked toward Company C, Fu Sichen followed him, not saying a word.

Qin Ke laughed and said, "Little Fu, I’m going to work overtime, so stop following me. You can go straight home to Zhichunli."

Fu Sichen looked at Qin Ke and said bitterly, "Qin Ke, you are a very boring person, simply a workaholic. Can’t you have any other hobbies?"

Qin Ke didn't mind her frankness and laughed, "You’re absolutely right, I am indeed very boring."

Worried about her after she had drunk so much, Qin Ke asked Tao Jianmin and Jin Chen to take her home.

As soon as he returned to the office, Qin Ke called Bian Xiaoqi. She told him the results of her communication with Pengyan Telecom first. He was very happy and also told her the good news about his promotion and the reward.

"I knew you could do it. We can meet next week," Bian Xiaoqi said happily.

"That’s great. We’ll never be apart again," Qin Ke said happily as well.

"Did you go out to celebrate tonight? Who was there?" Bian Xiaoqi asked suddenly, as if she had a premonition.

"Xiaoqi, you seem to have a sixth sense; you know everything. It was the four of us from the group: Tao Jianmin, Jin Chen, and Fu Sichen."

"How come Fu Sichen is everywhere?" Bian Xiaoqi said, jealous.

"She was assigned to my group by the training instructor, Pei Yuhang," Qin Ke explained.

"She must have tipped off Pei Yuhang beforehand. It seems she has quite a few schemes; you should stay away from her," Bian Xiaoqi said.

"I’ll listen to you. She drank a lot of white spirits tonight and even wanted to go for a second round of drinks, but I refused. I asked Tao Jianmin and Jin Chen to take her home," Qin Ke said.

"You did the right thing," Bian Xiaoqi said.