Awakening Elementary School System in University
Chapter 17 - 16: Can I Get Reimbursed?

Chapter 17: Chapter 16: Can I Get Reimbursed?

The team lead finally ended an animated WeChat conversation with an old classmate and put down his phone.

He picked up the thermos on his desk, unscrewed the lid, blew on the few goji berries floating on the surface, and took a contented sip.

He set the cup down, and a vague thought flickered through his mind.

’Just now... did someone come over and talk to me?’

’Who was it?’

He frowned, thinking for a long time, but couldn’t remember.

So, he turned and asked a young employee engrossed in drafting at the next cubicle, "Wang, did someone just come looking for me?"

Wang looked up and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Oh, that was Sun Yu, Team Lead. He said he sent a file to your email."

"Oh, right, right, Sun Yu." The team lead slapped his forehead as he finally remembered.

He opened his email and, sure enough, saw an unread message from Sun Yu in his inbox.

He clicked open the email, and when he saw the name of the attached PDF, his eyebrows rose involuntarily.

*A New Algorithmic Approach to the Linear Buckling Analysis of Spatially Curved Latticed Shell Structures.*

’Oh, so it’s about *that*.’

He felt a little like laughing.

This project was a notorious headache at the institute. During the meeting last Friday, a few of the old-timers started passing the buck again. Unable to find anyone suitable to take it on short notice, he had simply dumped it on Sun Yu.

Of course, he didn’t expect Sun Yu, a new hire with a degree from a non-prestigious university, to accomplish anything significant. His goal was simple: put some pressure on the rookie, stop him from slacking off all day, and make him learn something while getting a taste of the real world’s harshness.

The team lead’s original plan was to have a chat with Sun Yu before the end of the day to see what he had learned and what walls he had hit over the past couple of days. Then, armed with the "young, eager, but lacking in ability" narrative, he would report to the president.

He’d use the president’s authority to force those experienced old slicksters to step up, form a task force, and conveniently slot Sun Yu in to do odd jobs and learn a thing or two.

He had perfected this little routine at the company.

Lost in thought, he casually downloaded the PDF and double-clicked to open it.

The document’s layout was clean. You could tell some effort had gone into it.

The team lead scrolled nonchalantly, his eyes gliding over the screen.

’Hmm, the abstract is decent, and the background of the problem is described clearly enough...’

But as he read on, his scrolling slowed, and his brow began to furrow.

’Something’s not right.’

This new algorithmic approach... its overall logical framework and the mathematics involved were extremely complex. While there was no way his own half-baked expertise would let him understand it completely, his years of engineering experience allowed him to grasp the general outline and line of thought.

’But this level of complexity and depth of knowledge... it’s far beyond what a fresh graduate should possess, isn’t it?’

The team lead himself was a STEM graduate from a top-tier university and had been grinding away in the industry for nearly a decade.

He would never believe those ridiculous online stories about "vocational school students turning out to be national-level math geniuses."

He had a pretty good idea of the caliber to expect from Sun Yu, a graduate from a non-prestigious university.

In his two months with the project team, Sun Yu’s performance had been unremarkable, even a bit slow-witted.

’Besides, I only tossed him this hot potato late last Friday afternoon, didn’t I?’

All told, that was just one weekend and a Monday.

’And he’s already produced a proposal with such rigorous logic and detailed derivations?’

The team lead would bet that even if you took the most experienced senior engineers at the institute—the ones with the fastest-receding hairlines—locked them in a conference room, and made them work day and night, designing a completely new algorithm like this would still take them at least a week or two!

At this thought, the team lead couldn’t stay seated any longer.

He shot to his feet, his gaze sharp as he scanned for Sun Yu’s cubicle.

And then he saw Sun Yu, head buried in his arms, fast asleep at his desk.

The team lead was speechless.

He shook his head. ’Kids these days just can’t handle the grind!’

’I just asked you to research a proposal. You pull a few all-nighters and you’re already wiped? Back when I first started working...’

In the end, however, he didn’t go over and wake Sun Yu.

He sat back down in his chair and continued to meticulously study the PDF document, page by page.

When he reached the final pages and discovered that Sun Yu had even attached a section of pseudocode with a clear workflow and detailed comments, he picked up the internal phone and dialed a number.

"Hello, Qian, come to my office for a second."

Soon, a young programmer in black-rimmed glasses and a plaid shirt walked over.

"Team Lead, you were looking for me?"

"Qian, take a look at this." The team lead turned the monitor toward him. "Check this pseudocode, see if there are any problems with the logic. If it’s sound, can you quickly implement a validation script for me before the end of the day? I want to see how it performs in practice."

The programmer called Qian adjusted his glasses and leaned toward the screen.

He carefully read the pseudocode from top to bottom, then said to the team lead, "Team Lead, the variable definitions and module comments in this are crystal clear. Whoever wrote this is an absolute master."

He paused, then added, "I can definitely get it done today, but... I’ll probably have to work some overtime."

"No problem!" The team lead waved his hand magnanimously. "Late-night snack is on me tonight!"

...

...

"Sun, Sun..."

A voice roused Sun Yu from his sleep.

He groggily opened his eyes and saw that the sky was dark. ’How long was I asleep?’

Looking around, he saw the team lead standing by his cubicle, watching him with a complicated expression.

"Team Lead?" Sun Yu jolted, instantly wide awake, and shot upright in his chair.

’It’s over. I slept right past closing time. I’m definitely going to get reamed out for this.’

"Get your things," the team lead said, his tone unreadable. "President Peng wants to see you. Go to his office for a chat."

"Pres... President Peng?!"

Sun Yu’s heart leaped into his throat.

Who was President Peng? Only the top leader of the entire design institute, the real big boss!

"Team Lead, d-did I do something wrong?" Sun Yu’s voice trembled.

Seeing his terrified expression, the team lead sighed, patted his shoulder, and spoke in a rare, gentle tone. "Don’t be nervous, it’s nothing serious. When you go in, just be honest. Whatever President Peng asks, just tell him the truth."

This only made Sun Yu feel even more uneasy.

The office door was ajar. The team lead knocked gently.

"Come in."

Pushing the door open, Sun Yu saw a middle-aged man sitting behind a large mahogany desk. He had slicked-back hair and a small, meticulously trimmed mustache—it was President Peng. The man exuded an air of suave, elite confidence that made Sun Yu feel instinctively awkward.

What startled him even more was that someone else was sitting on the office sofa.

The man’s surname was Tian. He was the institute’s technical deputy director, two ranks higher than Sun Yu’s team lead.

Most importantly, this Engineer Tian was the connection his distant relative had arranged through a convoluted network of contacts—the "back door" that had gotten him into this design institute in the first place.

"President Peng, Engineer Tian," the team lead greeted them respectfully.

President Peng nodded with a smile and pointed to the chair in front of his desk. "Sit."

Sun Yu sat down timidly.

"You’re Sun Yu, correct?" President Peng began, his voice mild yet carrying an unquestionable authority. "I’ve seen the proposal for the new algorithm you submitted. Your team lead just had someone write a script and run a simulation. The results were excellent."

Sun Yu felt a surge of joy, but before he could figure out how to respond, President Peng’s tone shifted.

"Just now, Engineer Tian and I were briefly reviewing your file." President Peng’s gaze sharpened, fixing on him. "Sun, tell me the truth. Did you create this proposal yourself?"

’Here it comes!’

Sun Yu’s heart skipped a beat, his palms slick with cold sweat.

But his team lead’s advice from just before they entered echoed in his mind.

He took a deep breath, met President Peng’s gaze, and answered honestly, "President Peng, sir, I did not create the proposal."

"Oh?" President Peng and Engineer Tian exchanged a glance, their expressions clearly saying, ’Just as I thought.’

Sun Yu didn’t dare to pause. He spilled everything out in a rush, explaining how he had found a math consultation service on Xianyu, how he had spent a small fortune of 2,000 yuan to purchase a three-hour package, and how the consultant had delivered the entire core algorithm in just an hour and a half via a remote meeting.

When he finished, a strange silence fell over the office.

President Peng leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk as he seemed lost in thought.

Engineer Tian, meanwhile, gave a slow, slight nod, as if confirming something.

Finally, President Peng broke the silence. He looked at Sun Yu and said in a serious tone, "From the perspective of company confidentiality regulations, any ongoing proposal that has not been finalized is considered a confidential document. Although you didn’t directly send the source file, you allowed a non-institute employee to see the proposal’s detailed contents via screen sharing. That is already a breach of protocol."

Sun Yu’s mind went completely blank with a loud BUZZ.

’Am I going to be fired? I won’t even make it past my probation period. This is a complete and utter humiliation.’

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something in his own defense, but then President Peng’s voice rang out again, this time with a hint of unconcealed excitement.

"However, this time, you have truly rendered a great service!"

Sun Yu: "Huh?"

He was completely baffled, unable to follow his boss’s train of thought at all.

President Peng continued, "Your great service wasn’t providing me with a new calculation method. It was... putting us in touch with this ’CL’ from Xianyu!"

Engineer Tian chimed in at the perfect moment, his voice filled with awe and astonishment. "President Peng, I just studied that pseudocode carefully. Let me put it this way: this ’CL’s’ mathematical ability is higher than that of all our engineers at the institute combined, and higher than any external expert I know. Talent of this caliber... it’s not even a question of whether we can afford their salary. The truth is, you can’t hire them for any amount of money. People like this simply don’t appear on the job market; they’re snatched up long beforehand by top-tier tech giants, financial behemoths, or national research institutions."

President Peng slammed his hand on the desk in excitement, his eyes burning as he stared at Sun Yu.

"Sun! I am now giving you a task more important than creating any proposal!"

"As long as you can persuade this ’CL’ to maintain a long-term cooperative relationship with the institute, not only will your breach of protocol be forgiven, but I will personally approve a handsome bonus for you at the end of the year!"

Sun Yu finally found a chance to speak and mustered his courage. "Um, Boss... about that 2,000 yuan for the consultation... can I get it reimbursed?"