Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

The May Day Golden Week in 2000 marked the country's first seven-day holiday. Zhongguancun Street was deserted; the usual traffic and crowds had vanished without a trace, and major internet companies were all enjoying their holiday.

The office area of ​​Qihang Technology in Hailong Building is like a boiling boiler.

Bai Yuhang stood in the center of the office area, looking at the forty or fifty people below.

"It's the May Day Golden Week holiday outside, and Zhongguancun is deserted. Everyone else is on vacation, but we can't." Bai Yuhang's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears. "These seven days are our closed development week for the launch of our project. We have only one goal: to completely integrate the underlying logic of QQ and Renren.com, creating the first truly closed-loop social ecosystem in China."

No one spoke; only the hum of the computer tower could be heard.

"For these seven days, everyone will receive triple pay."

The words had barely left his mouth when the office erupted in a cacophony of noise. In this day and age, the impact of triple wages is far more tangible than any empty promise.

"The boss is generous!" Zhang Jian shouted first.

"Alright, stop having so much fun." Bai Yuhang tapped the whiteboard to bring everyone's attention back. "We can't let the extra hours go to waste, we can't let our efforts go to waste, and we have to do a great job. Director Zhang."

"Here!" Zhang Jian was still basking in the joy of receiving triple pay, and answered loudly.

"For these seven days, you'll be in charge of all the code merging and progress tracking," Bai Yuhang said, looking at him. "We're all the core members of Qihang; you have to integrate us all. I need to see the daily progress report before midnight every night. If it's not working by the end of May Day..."

"If this doesn't work, I'll eat the keyboard!" Zhang Jian patted his chest confidently. "Don't worry, Mr. Bai."

Jiang Shuo, who was standing next to him, pushed up his glasses and said in a low voice, "If you can't get through to us, I'll put your triple salary into the company's team building fund and buy ribs for everyone to nourish themselves."

A burst of laughter erupted in the office area. Zhang Jian glared at Jiang Shuo, too lazy to argue with this tightwad.

Bai Yuhang turned to look at Zhang Xiaolong, who was sitting to the side, staring at the screen looking at the architecture diagram.

"Allen," Bai Yuhang's tone softened, "Zhang Jian will handle the heavy lifting, and you'll be the judge. All the code reviews and detailed acceptance checks of product features will be your responsibility."

Zhang Xiaolong stopped typing and looked up: "What are the acceptance criteria?"

"Minimalist and smooth." Bai Yuhang said decisively, "What I want is for users to post on Renren.com and then easily open a QQ chat window without feeling any lag. Two software programs, one soul. If you feel the experience isn't good enough, even if the progress is stuck on the last day, send it back to be redone. Only if you approve can this thing go live."

Zhang Xiaolong smiled, a rare occurrence for him. He stood up and turned his laptop around: "Understood. If I'm not satisfied, Lao San can prepare to sleep on the floor at the company for the next few days."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jian's smile froze instantly, and he looked at Zhang Xiaolong with a wry expression: "Master, please have mercy! I don't have much hair to begin with, and if I stay up any longer, I'll really go bald."

"We'll get to work even if we go bald." Bai Yuhang waved his hand. "For the next seven days, logistical support will be on point around the clock. Boss Jiang, raise the catering standards, don't skimp on the money."

This time, Jiang Shuo didn't hesitate and readily nodded: "Don't worry, I've already booked all the crayfish at Hu Da Restaurant, and I've also contacted all the shops downstairs to arrange delivery every night. You need to be well-fed to have the energy to code."

"Get to work!" Zhang Jian yelled, turning and rushing towards Liu Zhi. "Old Liu, let's go over the personnel groupings and interface specifications first!"

The entire office instantly sprang into action, the clatter of keyboards filling the air once more, even more intensely than before. These young people, fueled by high salaries and ambition, were preparing to build their own internet empire in this deserted office in Zhongguancun during the quiet May Day holiday.

In the meeting room, Zhang Jian drew a few squares on the whiteboard and wrote the words "Sprint" and "Kanban".

Liu Zhi and several other veterans from large factories in Shenzhen sat below, completely bewildered.

"Old Liu, back in Shenzhen, you guys used to do waterfall development, right?" Zhang Jian tapped the whiteboard with his pen. "Requirements came down layer by layer, and in the end, testing revealed a bunch of bugs, right?"

Liu Zhi nodded. This is the norm in domestic software development.

"At Qihang, let's do something different. This is called Agile development." Zhang Jian pointed to the whiteboard, "We break down large requirements into small tasks and post them on the Kanban board. Every morning, the whole team does a review, and we tear off the task as soon as we finish it. We iterate quickly, taking small steps and moving fast."

Liu Zhi looked astonished. In 2000, this theory was practically alien technology to them.

"Will this work?" Liu Zhi asked.

"Let's see if it works." Zhang Jian slammed a stack of sticky notes on the table. "Starting today, we'll do it this way."

Zhang Jian demonstrated exceptional organizational skills. He divided the 40-50 person technical team into several sprint teams, including front-end, back-end, and database teams.

"Fourth brother, you and the front-end team have thoroughly refined the page interaction."

Wan Lianghao patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Third Brother, if the page freezes even for a second, I'll eat the keyboard."

"Old Liu, you take the backend, I'll take the database. This is the toughest nut to crack, dare you take on it?"

Liu Zhi's inherent arrogance was ignited. He stood up and looked directly at Zhang Jian: "Director Zhang, what are you saying? We came all the way from Shenzhen, not to slack off. The backend is in my hands. If I can't complete the task, I'll pack my bags and go back to Shenzhen."

Everyone took their assigned tasks, and the office area instantly entered a frenzied, competitive mode. The sound of keyboards clattering was as dense as a torrential downpour.

Jiao Liwei carried two large pots of freshly brewed coffee into the office area, followed by several workers carrying more than a dozen folding cots.

"Old Eight, have you finally plucked the feathers of this miser?" Jiao Liwei put the coffee on the table, looked at the several packs of Zhonghua cigarettes piled up next to him, and couldn't help but tease, "This is pretty high-end."

Jiang Shuo was pushing up his glasses, his fingers flying across the calculator.

"President Jiao, this is nothing." Jiang Shuo didn't even look up. "The sooner it goes live, the more our company's valuation will increase by at least a million, and everyone will get a bonus. What's a little logistical expense? I've booked the fast food restaurant downstairs for seven days; order whatever you want. Eat your fill and code like crazy!"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Zhang Jian grabbed a can of Red Bull, pulled the tab, and shouted, "Old Ba, you're awesome! Brothers, let's go!"

The team's cohesion has reached an unprecedented high.

At 2 a.m., the office area was still brightly lit.

Zhang Xiaolong sat in front of the computer, staring at the code review interface on the screen.

"Liu Zhi, come here." Zhang Xiaolong's voice was a little hoarse.

Liu Zhi quickly went over.

"Here, the login redirect was delayed by 0.3 seconds," Zhang Xiaolong pointed to a piece of logic on the screen. "Why?"

"Mr. Zhang, that 0.3 seconds is because an extra layer of security verification was performed during the database query..."

"Users don't care how many layers of validation you go through; they only care if they can see the page the instant they click," Zhang Xiaolong interrupted him. "That 0.3 seconds will lose 5% of users. Rewrite it."

Liu Zhi was stunned. He stared at the code his team had spent half the night writing, and offered no rebuttal.

"Okay, I'll change it right away."

Back at his workstation, the guy from Shenzhen next to him muttered quietly, "Brother Liu, 0.3 seconds, is that really necessary?"

"As for that," Liu Zhi said, staring at the screen and starting to make changes, "that's why we can't create Foxmail. Modify it as Mr. Zhang said."

This product tyrant's demand for pixel-perfect perfection turned the Shenzhen team from initial dissatisfaction to complete worship.

The outer office area was bustling with activity, but the door to the innermost private office was tightly locked from the inside.

Bai Yuhang has locked himself inside for two whole days and two nights.

Su Muqing used the spare key to unlock the door. The table was littered with cigarette butts, and several empty coffee cups lay scattered about. Bai Yuhang stared at the screen, his eyes bloodshot, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

"Are you out of your mind?" Su Muqing placed a hot meal on the table. "They're watching the business codes outside. What are you doing here, stubbornly sticking to your guns?"

Bai Yuhang stopped what he was doing and rubbed his temples.

"They're building the house, I'm laying the foundation."

He turned the screen around and pointed to the complex architecture diagram on it.

"Data compression and distribution algorithm model." Bai Yuhang picked up his half-cold cup of coffee and took a sip. "Integrating QQ and Renren.com is just the first step. In the future, we will be facing tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of concurrent users. Later, Lao Si will also enter the web game market, and in the future, there will be streaming media. Without this nuclear-level foundation, no matter how tall the building on top is, it will collapse with a gust of wind."

Su Muqing looked at his sunken cheeks and pushed the lunchbox towards him.

"Eat your food first. If you collapse, this building will collapse too."

Bai Yuhang smiled and picked up his chopsticks.

Outside the window, the night in Zhongguancun was deep. This lockdown during the May Day Golden Week was destined to make a thunderous impact on the history of the Chinese internet.