"I hope someone can solve this puzzle within a year!" Huang He sighed slightly as he saw the entire internet discussing the bounty his company had offered.
This architecture is difficult. Could it be that Ni Guangnan has been pondering it until now without even a hint of a solution, like a failing student in high school who doesn't even know what a linear equation is?
Therefore, Huang He understood that this would be an arduous and challenging task. Not to mention a year, it might take three, ten, or even until his death to solve this problem. After all, no one has solved Goldbach's Conjecture yet, right?
\---
"Alright, it's Q&A time. My time is limited, and each of you can only ask one question!" In a QQ group, the group owner announced to the members.
This is a teaching group that has recently emerged on QQ. There aren't many of them, and they are a rare instance of QQ groups created for educational purposes.
After QQ launched QQ groups, in addition to providing the constructive recreational activity of chatting, some people also discovered other uses for QQ groups, such as using them as classrooms.
An English teacher was the first to discover this. English teaching is very popular across the country, with various English training classes emerging one after another. Some people wanted to start classes but lacked the funds. Then, someone had a flash of inspiration and found QQ groups to be a good place to teach English.
Because QQ groups had just launched the group file function, the teacher could place teaching materials in the group. Simultaneously, using the group voice function daily, they could conduct two-hour English lessons online and finally answer questions for group members, completing a day's English teaching.
Therefore, this teaching method couldn't be compared to later online courses, let alone actual in-person English education. However, the cost was low. Apart from internet costs, it required almost no expenses, and one teacher could handle many students simultaneously.
There was also the issue of payment. After all, not everyone would trust a suddenly appearing group owner and pay a large sum of money as tuition.
However, with the advent of the QQ Mall, this problem was solved. The first genius to develop group education also opened a shop in the QQ Mall to sell English textbooks. Each English textbook was priced at a steep 100 yuan.
This price was obviously not suitable for buying English textbooks, but the textbook was just a pretext. The real value behind this textbook was the ability to join an English learning group on QQ.
As long as one purchased a 100 yuan textbook, they could study in the group for 30 days, equivalent to a month's English tuition, which was naturally very affordable.
Moreover, due to QQ Mall's buyer protection, if a buyer discovered that the seller was a scammer, they could fully reclaim their payment, so buyers had no need to worry about encountering scammers.
Thus, online education, an industry that wouldn't take off until after 2010 in later generations, surprisingly appeared online as early as after 2003.
However, the group in question was not an English group but a programming group. The group owner proudly told everyone that he was a programmer from Jiangnan Group, China's number one internet company, and that he had developed QQ. He claimed he had opened this programming teaching group to recruit students out of sheer boredom.
The group owner's identity earned him the admiration of all members. Who didn't know that programmers were highly sought after and golden professionals in the future? After all, Jiangnan Group, China's foremost company, was heavily recruiting programmers.
Furthermore, programmers' jobs were also very comfortable. They didn't have to endure wind and rain outdoors; they could stay in air-conditioned rooms all day, only needing to face a computer and type on the keyboard. Was there any more comfortable job in the world?
Therefore, many people regarded programmers as the best profession for the future. However, most of them had already graduated from university, or had never received higher education, making it impossible for them to return to school to study programming.
As for programming education institutions in society, their prices were simply too exorbitant, often charging thousands of yuan for a month's course, which was beyond the reach of those unfortunate individuals still being squeezed by society.
Even if they had the money to study programming, their real-life jobs prevented them from dedicating time to learning during the day. Hence, the subsequently emerging online education became their best option, being affordable. For instance, this group only charged 50 yuan for a month's study.
The timing was also very convenient, with classes typically held between 8:00 PM and 12:00 AM, perfectly avoiding work hours. So, despite being just a group, it already had over a hundred members.
And according to the rule that members who didn't pay their monthly fees would be directly removed from the group, this meant that the group owner had already collected 5,000 yuan in tuition fees this month. This was indeed a quite lucrative business.
Moreover, the teaching process was very simple. The group owner would directly give new students a few electronic English textbooks and ask them to memorize vocabulary, stating that they wouldn't be allowed to proceed with the subsequent courses unless they memorized 2,000 words.
This wasn't the group owner scamming people; rather, it was because a programmer's vocabulary needed to be up to par, and at least the 2,000 commonly used programming words had to be memorized thoroughly.
This simple task alone could consume more than half a month for many students, with the vast majority unable to memorize 2,000 words even in a month.
After all, those who chose to study here were generally adults, and their learning ability was far inferior to when they were children.
In fact, even when they were children, memorizing 2,000 words was a difficult task. Otherwise, they wouldn't have failed their English exams.
After these students painstakingly memorized 2,000 words, the teacher would simply hand over two introductory programming textbooks, deliver a one-hour lecture in front of the microphone, and then give all group members a chance to ask questions and receive answers. This completed the day's teaching, which was very simple and easy, even a fresh computer science graduate could handle it!
The group owner and teacher of this teaching group, "Lost Lamb g," was actually a computer science student named He Tianlong in real life. He was currently a sophomore in the computer science department, but his grades were not very good, having failed three courses.
However, he was good enough at fooling these unfortunate middle-aged individuals who were eager to learn.
Well, it couldn't be considered outright deception. At least He Tianlong did provide lessons and explained the basics of programming. Whether others could learn from it was another matter entirely.
"I hope this guy doesn't ask me questions!" He Tianlong was currently looking nervously at an avatar in the group. This was a QQ member named "Ordinary As Me."
He had joined the group about three weeks ago. He Tianlong remembered him very well because, when "Ordinary As Me" contacted him on the QQ Mall, he started bargaining relentlessly, managing to bring down the price from 50 yuan to 20 yuan.
Considering that teaching one more person was still teaching, and at least he could earn 20 yuan, He Tianlong eventually agreed to the price change, but he required "Ordinary As Me" to absolutely not reveal that he had joined for only 20 yuan, otherwise his business would be ruined.
"Ordinary As Me" had been very discreet about this, which reassured He Tianlong for a while. However, he soon discovered that recruiting this student was his biggest mistake.
When "Ordinary As Me" first joined the group, He Tianlong, as per his usual routine, gave him an English textbook. He Tianlong expected that this person wouldn't bother him again for at least half a month.
He Tianlong was very experienced. Judging from the uncool QQ username "Ordinary As Me," this person was definitely not young, as young people wouldn't choose such an unoriginal name.
Unlike He Tianlong's own username, "Lost Lamb g," which was incredibly unique. He thought that seeing this name would make any girl feel that he was a man with a deep story and profound depth, and fall for him instantly!
As for "Ordinary As Me," it was clear that this person had been through the hardships of society and had been buffeted and battered by life, a pitiable middle-aged man.
But it didn't matter. Most of the men in He Tianlong's group were like this, and these men were the easiest to fool. He figured he could get at least four or five months of tuition fees from him.
"It's a pity that no matter how much tuition I collect, it all goes to advertising for the QQ Mall!" He Tianlong cursed inwardly. Business was becoming increasingly difficult. There were already hundreds of similar shops in the QQ Mall, and to gain exposure, He Tianlong had spent thousands of yuan on advertising placements.
Fortunately, as long as ads were placed, traffic would inevitably surge, leading to the acquisition of dozens of students at once. Otherwise, his group wouldn't have over a hundred students; the return on investment was quite good.
Ahem, getting back to the point, returning to the student "Ordinary As Me." After giving him a textbook, He Tianlong expected to have at least half a month of peace.
However, after just one day, "Ordinary As Me" privately messaged him again, saying that he had memorized all 2,000 words in the textbook and requested to join the regular course studies.
He Tianlong naturally didn't believe this and sternly reprimanded the other party, stating that a lack of a solid foundation would hinder learning.
But the other party adamantly claimed to have memorized them and invited He Tianlong to test him.
So, He Tianlong initiated a voice call and randomly recited a word, asking the other party to report the spelling of the word and its Chinese meaning within 5 seconds.
This was slightly more difficult than memorizing words in real life, as the thinking time given in reality was often more than 5 seconds.
However, online, since it was unknown whether the other party would be looking at the textbook while reciting, only 5 seconds of thinking time was given. If an answer wasn't provided within 5 seconds, it would be considered cheating.
As soon as He Tianlong finished speaking, the other party crisply reported both the word and its Chinese meaning.