A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

"Huh? What's next? Where did it go?!"

Looking at the pages on the table that he had already flipped through, Old Wang couldn't help but stand up and pace back and forth in frustration.

The story gets stuck at its most crucial point—after Mulan's earth-shattering accusation of "Rabbit God," the author seems to have had his throat cut off out of nowhere, and there's no more to the story.

What happened next? Did the venue explode?

How did the bald eagle react?

What role did the league play?

Was Mulan besieged?

So what's the status of the C language proposal? ...

Countless question marks were fighting in his mind, making him restless and itchy, as if hundreds of cat paws were scratching at him.

"Damn you, you idiot who never updates!"

Old Wang couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath, slamming the manuscript in his hand onto the table with a dull thud.

This feeling of being stuck in the middle is even more unpleasant than not knowing at all.

at this time……

"Ring ring—!!"

Inside the room, the old mechanical alarm clock that Jiang Xia had set suddenly shrieked, instantly breaking the room's dullness and Old Wang's inner turmoil.

Startled, Old Wang looked up at the greyish-white sunlight streaming through the window and realized that it was already dawn without him noticing. He rubbed his throbbing temples, shaking off the jumbled thoughts about Geneva from his mind. No matter how turbulent things were there, life had to go on.

Almost the instant the alarm clock rang, a rustling sound came from the inner room.

Jiang Xia seemed to have no need for the process of "waking up" from sleep; the alarm clock was more like a trigger signal for some hidden switch in his body.

Old Wang, separated by a makeshift screen, heard the soft rustling of fabric, followed by the sound of a chair being pulled out, and then…

"Crackling, crackling..."

The rhythmic, crisp, and dense tapping sounds, like a sudden storm or countless pearls falling onto a jade plate, filled the small room with an excitement and vitality that was completely different from the gloomy sky outside the window.

It was Jiang Xia typing on his "Big Yellow Second Generation" keyboard again. Old Wang was already familiar with the sound, but every time he heard it, he still felt there was a unique rhythm that belonged to Jiang Xia.

"Brother!" Old Wang called out from behind the screen, his voice still a little hoarse from staying up all night, "I brought the printer back for you. Do you want to plug it in? Maybe you need to print something."

The keyboard clicks subsided slightly, and Jiang Xia peeked out, his hair still a little disheveled, but his eyes were clear. He looked at the brand-new printer in the corner, then at Lao Wang, and chuckled, "Hey? Brother Wang, you're so enthusiastic, are you planning to continue printing that unfinished 'IEC Travelogue'? Are you engrossed in reading it?"

"Don't even mention it!" Old Wang waved his hand irritably, looking annoyed. "I've finished reading it! That lousy author stopped writing at the most crucial part! Dogs that stop updating deserve to die!"

"No, he can't die. We should send him to work in the coal mines for a few days!" Old Wang added angrily, as if that would curse the unknown author from afar.

Jiang Xia blinked, not responding to the question. He pulled his head back, his gaze falling on the screen of "Big Yellow Second Generation," which was flashing a faint green light. The latest lines of text on it were a briefing on the latest developments at the meeting, just sent back through special channels.

The briefing was concise yet packed with information: Emily's "betrayal" confirmed the accusations, chaos erupted in the meeting room, Alliance representative Alexander made private overtures, a preliminary agreement on technical exchanges was reached, and even more significantly, permission was obtained from the bald eagle...

With Old Wang so concerned, stopping updates would indeed be very unfair to the readers...

Should we show him this 'follow-up' report?

This will also help with future work arrangements.

Before he could even finish speaking, he heard hurried footsteps outside the door, and Old Wang's voice drifted over from afar: "You go ahead with your work! I'll go to the cafeteria and grab you two steamed buns! If we're late, they'll only have vegetable filling left!"

The words had barely left his mouth when he disappeared outside the door, his footsteps thumping away into the distance.

Jiang Xia chuckled, shook his head, turned and walked to the outer room, where he casually and securely connected the printer to the data cable of the "Big Yellow Second Generation".

The machine's indicator light came on, emitting a low hum.

Jiang Xia returned to the terminal, pulled up the follow-up section of the travelogue, and casually clicked print.

"Squeak... squeak..."

The printer started working, and the sound of the rollers turning was particularly clear in the overcast morning. Lines of ink slowly appeared on the white paper.

Hmm? Cloudy?

Jiangxia peered out the window and discovered that the morning at the base had not brought the first light of dawn, but rather heavy, dark clouds, like crumpled gray cotton wool, pressing low over the roof of the barracks.

The wind, carrying the damp scent of the sea, seeped through the window cracks, with an indescribable stickiness, brushing against one's face, making even breathing feel heavy.

"Tsk tsk, not a good day, but life goes on!"

Back on the screen, a new question has just popped up, with the cursor blinking at the end:

"The C presented at IEC... plete?"

"No. Not plete. Far from it."

After some thought, Jiang Xia added: "include & define macros are limited. Stdlib: I/O, memory, string – basic only. No 'const', no 'volatile', no advanced typedef use. Pointer arithmetic safe subset only. No inline asm hooks."

These reservations mean that the publicly available "C language" is a working and promising version, but it is subject to "invisible shackles" in terms of flexibility, low-level hardware control capabilities, code robustness support, and future expansion space.

It is enough to generate buzz, attract research, and even complete most applications, but the key to the system core, ultimate performance optimization, and building a more complex and secure software ecosystem remains firmly in our own hands.

Message sent.

Then came the waiting.

Yes, this time the communication was incredibly slow.

Often, when a question is asked, it takes ten minutes or even longer to get a reply; and after the reply, you have to wait for the next question.

After Jiang Xia replied, the screen fell silent, with only the cursor blinking forlornly and the printer creaking beside it.

However, Jiang Xia showed no impatience.

He stared at the screen quietly, his gaze focused, even carrying a hint of barely perceptible awe.

slow?

Yes, it's frustratingly slow.

But you must not complain about this "slowness".

Because behind this monotonous blinking cursor, what happens during this long waiting interval is the first truly meaningful real-time computer network interactive dialogue across the Atlantic in human history.

Every transmission and reception of a character silently rewrites history.

At the same time that this epic historical event was taking place...

"Hmm? It seems like I've forgotten something?"

Jiang Xia yawned and scratched his head, which had become a mess.

"Forget it, if I can't remember, it means it's not important!"