Chapter 66 - 49: Forgot About This Guy
July 5th, Saturday, 9:30 AM.
Chen Lin slept until he woke up naturally. He felt completely refreshed, a lazy contentment seeping through his very bones.
He pulled back the curtains, and a long-awaited burst of brilliant sunlight flooded the room, illuminating the fine dust motes floating in the air.
"Finally, some sunshine."
Chen Lin stretched languidly, complaining inwardly. ’This dreadful plum rain season in Jiangdu is finally taking a break.’
For the entire past week, it had either been drizzling ceaselessly or overcast and gloomy. The air was so humid you could wring water out of it, soaking the drive and motivation right out of a person’s bones.
His parents had to work their normal Monday to Friday schedule, leaving him all alone in the large house. He felt like he was about to grow mold from being trapped by the dreary weather.
He sometimes thought that students who went to university in places like Modu or Jinling and returned to Jinmen for the summer probably had a much better experience.
Of course, it wasn’t like he had nothing to do.
Over the past few days, aside from the occasional visit with his grandparents, he had spent most of his time buried in Python.
After several days of intense study, he had figured out the basics of building a simple neural network with code. He had also gotten a handle on the fundamental functions of PyTorch, the most popular AI framework at the moment.
It was a strange thing, really.
For most people, the complex neural networks underlying large language models, along with the profound mathematical principles behind them, were completely incomprehensible—the most difficult part to learn.
But for Chen Lin, who possessed the "Little Mathematician" title, things like matrix multiplication, singular value decomposition, Softmax distribution, Bayes’ theorem, gradient calculation, and constrained optimization... to him, they were as simple as elementary school arithmetic. A single glance was all it took for him to grasp the principles and derivations completely.
The real difficulty for him, conversely, was translating the clear mathematical logic in his head into precise lines of computer code.
He felt he had only just gotten his foot in the door. Sometimes, when he tried to optimize someone else’s neural network architecture or attempt to replicate the original Transformer architecture proposed by Gogogo Company—the foundational structure of ChatGPT that had shocked the world nearly three years ago—he still found it a bit of a struggle.
But Chen Lin wasn’t worried in the slightest. ’It’s a technical skill, after all,’ he thought. ’These things take time.’
Ever since getting the enhanced "Little Financial Planner" title, he found his mindset had become unusually peaceful, and he could easily console himself.
No matter what troubles he encountered, all he had to do was glance at the ever-ticking countdown in his mind, and all his frustrations would vanish into thin air.
[Little Financial Planner (Enhanced): Your net worth increases by 20% every month! (Current Net Worth: 37,921.132) (Time until next net worth increase: 638:23:55)]
638:23:54
638:23:53
...
Even though his family was well-off and he had more than enough money on hand, the thought of the number in his bank account steadily inflating like a balloon each month brought a simple, unadorned joy to Chen Lin, who was a hoarder at heart.
Snapping back to reality, Chen Lin walked out of his bedroom.
The living room was quiet; his parents had already left. A dust cover sat on the dining table, protecting the breakfast they had left for him.
A couple of days ago, he had given the red envelope from his grandpa to his mom, untouched. He asked her to discuss with his aunts how they could use the money to buy some new furniture or appliances for their grandparents.
From the looks of it, his parents had probably gone furniture shopping today.
Chen Lin mused to himself. He’d been back in Jiangdu for almost two weeks, and it was rare to get such a sunny day. He might as well go for a walk.
Just as he was thinking this, the phone in his pocket vibrated. BUZZ BUZZ. A WeChat message popped up on the screen.
He picked it up. It was from Shen Yan.
Shen Yan: [Chen Lin, are you free right now?]
Chen Lin: [I am. What’s up?]
Shen Yan: [I made a PowerPoint for the presentation defense. I was hoping you could take a look and see if there are any issues.]
The regional defense was the day after tomorrow. Although their faculty advisor had said that, given the quality of their paper, a national first prize was practically in the bag, Shen Yan was clearly not the type to let her guard down. She had still diligently prepared a PowerPoint for the presentation.
Shen Yan: [[File: Yannan University "High Education Cup" Mathematical Modeling Competition Defense.pptx]]
Chen Lin smiled. ’A top student is a top student,’ he thought. ’So thorough.’
He opened the file and began flipping through it, page by page.
He had to admit, Shen Yan was truly outstanding. The entire PowerPoint was logical, well-illustrated with both text and graphics, and visually appealing. It was obvious she had put in a lot of effort. She had explained the core algorithm he taught her with perfect clarity, articulating every step.
Chen Lin: [It’s very well done, no major issues.] [Just on page 17, in the section on numerical optimization, the value range for one of the parameters could be a bit more precise. That would make the model’s convergence faster and the results more stable.]
Shen Yan: [Okay.] [I’ll go change it right now! Thank you so much!]
Chen Lin: [You’re welcome.]
Shen Yan: [Oh, right, I’ll add you to a WeChat group in a bit.] [Our advisor said that if we’re confirmed to go to the Imperial Capital for the in-person exchange, the detailed itinerary will be announced in the group.]
Chen Lin: [Okay.]
He was just about to lock his phone screen and head out when another WeChat message popped up.
This time it was from Yunqing. Her profile picture was still that bright, bold smile.
Yunqing: [Junior, long time no see (◕ᴥ◕)]
Chen Lin raised an eyebrow.
Chen Lin: [Hey, senior. I’m back in Jiangdu for the break.]
Yunqing: [When are you coming back to school?]
Yunqing: [I saw that post on the school forum last month.] [You’re something else, kid. Quietly making big news again [grabs popcorn].]
Yunqing: [Has your singing gotten even better?] [When you’re back at school, will you give your senior another chance to enjoy it? (◕‿◕✿)]
Chen Lin could almost picture Yunqing on the other end of the line, a charming, radiant smile on her face.
He sent a noncommittal reply. ’Once school starts,’ he thought, ’and things get busy with all the people and events, she’ll probably forget all about this.’
Immediately after, Yunqing sent a short video.
Chen Lin opened it. The video showed the school band’s new rehearsal room. Yunqing was wearing a sports tank top and shorts, her hair in a high ponytail, engrossed in singing into a microphone.
Sunlight streamed through the window, casting a glow on her as sweat trickled down her cheeks. She moved with effortless freedom, exuding even more energy and vitality than when he’d seen her at the bar. She was captivating.
After watching, Chen Lin sent her a thumbs-up emoji.
Yunqing: [[Thanks]]
Chen Lin smiled. Just as he was about to close WeChat for good, his finger froze on the screen.
His gaze was drawn to an inconspicuous profile picture in his contact list. A small, red "1" was sitting on it.
It was Sun Yu.
Chen Lin smacked his forehead.
Crap!
He had left in such a hurry. He was so focused on saying goodbye to his roommates that he had completely forgotten about this guy. He never even told him he had left Jinmen!