Chapter 1

"Zhou Gong, the company hopes you can transfer to a management position." Wang Junming, sitting behind a large desk, placed a transfer notice in front of him.

Zhou Shuo sat silently across from the desk, his back straight against the chair, his jaw muscles twitching. He seemed like a black panther that had been provoked, ready to pounce.

"I'll introduce the benefits to you. After the transfer, your share of the profits will increase to three percent, your base salary will rise by 15,000 yuan per month, and your company car will be upgraded to an Audi..."

Before the group's HR director, Wang Junming, could finish listing these generous conditions, Zhou Shuo's breathing became more and more rapid. Suddenly, he stood up and turned to leave.

He walked to the door, opened it, and said without looking back, "Unless I die, no one can transfer me from the lab!"

Watching Zhou Shuo's figure disappear down the corridor, Wang Junming shook his head and sighed. He picked up the phone, pressed the redial button, and after a moment said, "Boss, yes, he refuses to accept the appointment..."

When Zhou Shuo returned to the lab, he found that in the large lab, only a girl in her twenties was wearing a white coat and organizing the equipment. He asked in surprise, "Xiao Zhao, where are Xiao Li and Xiao Wang?"

The girl, Xiao Zhao, looked at him with a hint of pity and hesitated before saying, "Xiao Zhao and Xiao Li have been transferred to the third lab, and I... I'm also being transferred to the group's engineering department!"

"What?!" Zhou Shuo was stunned for a moment, then shouted in disbelief, anger, and frustration, "Wang Junming!"

Watching Zhou Shuo rush away like a tornado, Xiao Zhao sighed imperceptibly and carefully wiped the equipment, which she might never see again...

Bang—

Zhou Shuo pushed open the door to Wang Junming's office and roared, "Wang Junming, what do you mean by transferring all my lab assistants?"

"It's my decision, Old Zhou."

However, sitting behind Wang Junming's desk was Li Baogui, the president of Huaxing Electronics Group.

"President Li? Why?" Zhou Shuo stood dumbfounded at the door, caught off guard.

"Because the project is over, the lab is being dissolved, and the staff needs to be reassigned."

Although he had a premonition, Zhou Shuo still found it hard to accept emotionally.

He said seriously, emphasizing each word, "President Li, Huaxing Group is China's largest electronics group. Mastering advanced chip manufacturing technology is our national mission. Have you forgotten our initial ideals?"

"I haven't forgotten," Li Baogui stood up, leaned forward with both hands on the desk, and said, "But do you know how many people in China have the ability to design chips?"

Li Baogui crossed his fingers from both hands and said, "Less than 100,000! Do you know how much investment is needed to produce chips at an internationally advanced level? At least 200 billion US dollars! And even if you have the money, you can't buy the most advanced chip manufacturing equipment!"

He walked out from behind the desk and said excitedly, "To produce chips, you need a lithography machine, and the core component of a lithography machine, the optical lens, requires nanoscale processing capabilities. This, in turn, requires advanced nanograting measurement technology, which depends on breakthroughs in materials science and fundamental science..."

Li Baogui took a deep breath and said slowly, "We are not just behind in one technology, but in the entire system and the foundation of science. Unless we have ten times the current number of talents and investment, how can we catch up?"

After Li Baogui finished speaking, he opened the office door, turned around, and said, "Moreover, there's one thing you said that's wrong. The group's mission has always been one: 'to make money'!"

That night, Zhou Shuo got drunk in a small bar near the Huaxing Group headquarters. When he was found, he was already suffering from acute alcohol poisoning and died despite medical treatment.

The next day, apart from a few IT newspapers that reported the dissolution of the Huaxing chip lab in a lukewarm manner, nothing in the world changed...

In the teacher's office, Jin Duoduo and Bai Ning were having lunch and whispering to each other.

"Shh, keep it down. Xiao Zhou must be very worried these days. Let him sleep a bit more."

"Indeed, who would have the heart to teach properly in such a situation!"

Zhou Shuo opened his eyes, blinked, and found himself lying on an old wooden desk. The sunlight streaming through the large, bright window was quite blinding. He moved his eyes and saw that the 1994 calendar on the desk had been flipped to June. Looking at the seats beside him, the two people who had been startled by him were also looking over.

Jin Duoduo, how did she return to China? And she looks so young!

The person next to her, he seemed to recognize her. Was this Bai Ning? His colleague from twenty years ago? It had been eighteen years since he last saw her. How could she look so unchanged?

Wait, is this the office of Erzhong High School? What's going on? Wasn't I drunk? Why am I here?

Could I have been reborn twenty years ago? No, this can't be real!

Zhou Shuo held his head and asked Jin Duoduo in a dazed manner, "Sister Jin, what time is it now?"

Jin Duoduo rolled up her sleeve, looked at her lady's watch, and replied, "Teacher Zhou, get up and prepare. The first class of the afternoon starts in fifteen minutes."

"Uh, oh..." Zhou Shuo got up from the desk, patted his cheeks, and asked, "Sister Jin, I'm so confused from sleeping. What day is it today?"

"June 17th, Friday."

Muttering "June 17th," Zhou Shuo checked his timetable. The first class of the afternoon was a computer class for Class 5 of Grade 1, which would be held in the computer lab.

The bell for the afternoon class soon rang, and Zhou Shuo gathered his thoughts, took a computer textbook, and headed to the computer lab. This was a practical class. In those early days, due to limited computer resources and the high value of computers, students had one theory class and one practical class, minimizing the use of computers.

After putting on shoe covers at the door, Zhou Shuo entered the lab to find the students of Class 5 of Grade 1 already seated at the computers.

"Stand up, salute!"

"Good afternoon, teacher!"

He returned the salute to the students and said, "Good afternoon, everyone. Let's start the class."

He opened the textbook and placed it on the desk, then asked, "Who can tell me what we learned in the last class?"

He waited for a long time, but no one answered. Puzzled, he looked up and was surprised to see that the students were all standing straight in front of the computers, looking at him like pines.

"You..."

A girl with a ponytail spoke up loudly, "Teacher Zhou, we've heard that someone wants to replace you. We absolutely disagree!"

"Right, we disagree!"

"Teacher Zhou, we don't want you to leave!"

"Teacher Zhou..."

Seeing the students' passionate reaction, a dam in Zhou Shuo's memory suddenly broke!

On the eve of the final exams in 1994, he was replaced by a teacher who had only received two months of computer training because he failed the public computer class evaluation. He left his first job after graduation in humiliation, leaving the teaching position at Erzhong High School.

However, the rumors about his transfer had been circulating for a long time. Clearly, his job change was due to someone's influence.

Zhou Shuo pressed his arm and smiled, "I don't know where you heard this, but your role is to study. The arrangement of teachers is the responsibility of the leadership and the state. I appreciate your concern, but the best support you can give me is to study hard!"

As Zhou Shuo spoke, the students' voices gradually quieted down. He nodded and continued, "Alright, everyone, please sit down. Let's continue the class."

Although Zhou Shuo had only been a teacher for two semesters in his life, he would never forget the pure feelings he shared with these students. He sat down, wiped his blurry eyes through the thick computer screen, and asked in a slightly nasal voice, "Class representative, can you summarize what we learned in the last class?"

...

The bell for the end of the class rang on time. Zhou Shuo closed the textbook, took a deep breath, and announced, "Class dismissed."

Watching the students file out happily, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. The memory of being a teacher had been gone for too long, so even a regular computer class had drained a lot of his brain cells. A simple BASIC program always led to all sorts of strange questions from the students.

But it was precisely his approachable and patient attitude that won him the respect of the students.

"Teacher Zhou." A girl's voice sounded beside him.

Zhou Shuo turned his head and saw He Youyou, the class representative for the computer class. She looked a bit like Jia Yuanyuan from the popular TV series "I Love My Family," plump and cute, and just as smart as Jia Yuanyuan.

"Hey, Xiao Jia, what's up?"

"Teacher Zhou, you're so annoying!" He Youyou stomped her foot in anger.

"Alright, alright, don't be mad. I was just joking. What's up?"

He Youyou said seriously, "Tomorrow is Saturday. A few of us in the computer interest group have some questions for you. Can you come to school?"

Zhou Shuo smiled and said, "Of course, no problem. Tell the interest group to meet in the computer lab at eight o'clock tomorrow."

"Great!" He Youyou carefully wrote down the time in her notebook and then said mysteriously, "Teacher Zhou, I have a secret to tell you. The person rumored to replace you is Director Gao's nephew, Gao Shuai! My uncle works in the city's education bureau. Should I ask him to speak on your behalf?"

Zhou Shuo was tempted for a moment. Erzhong High School was a provincial key school, not only with many top students but also with many students from influential families. Who knew what kind of connections they might have?