In the early morning of June, sunlight came in from the windows, obliquely covering the corridors of the laboratory building.
Du Ruo stood at the door of the laboratory, with his hand on the doorknob, he pushed it but did not push it.
Everything that needs to be said is clear.
Be frank, there's no need to hide and hide, it's boring.
Thinking of this, she took a deep breath and was about to push the door.
"What are you doing?" Someone behind stepped forward, opened the door and went in, and looked back at her, "Aren't you awake?"
Du Ruo looked at Jingming, and immediately shook her head: "I woke up."
"Getting ready for the meeting," he said, walking away.
She glanced at his back, he looked very ordinary, as if nothing happened last night. The only difference probably lies in the restrained arrogance in the expression and tone.
also good.
Just act like nothing happened.
Companions, subordinates, whatever.
She quickly calmed down and prepared her notebook for the meeting.
The meeting did not discuss too much content, but made some plans and information sharing about the upcoming competition in Shenzhen. After Jing Ming assigned tasks to each group, the meeting ended.
Right now at work, he doesn't seem to care about anything else; so does she.
It's good to kill the memory of that night like this.
It is now the beginning of June, and the summer vacation will come one month later, and the global college student unmanned racing competition will come as scheduled.
This is a great opportunity for the Prime team to test the waters with their autonomous driving project.
Compared with the daily real road conditions, the road conditions of the racing track will be much simpler, so the team does not need to come up with their highest specification technical configuration. But even so, the entire Prime team worked hard and did not neglect at all.
The project that has been painstakingly studied for more than a year is finally coming to the test. Everyone wants to get good results, so naturally it is as if they have been beaten. After all, everyone in the team has been a prodigy since childhood, and their hearts are higher than the sky. Who would like their own works to be inferior to others.
Both Jing Ming and Du Ruo are conscientious in their personalities. Perhaps they both maintain a tacit understanding of getting along peacefully but avoiding embarrassment. They will chat and discuss in a business-like manner, but they never mention anything other than work.
In this way, only talking about majors and work, the two can chat calmly and naturally on an equal footing. Du Ruo can even look at him when discussing issues with him, and his eyes will not be flustered and dodged.
Occasionally, after the two chatted, when they turned around, they would think for a while whether this was a kind of progress and reconciliation, but neither of them delved into it, and let it pass by in a flash.
After all, the most important thing is to concentrate on preparing for the game.
For the next half month, Du Ruo spent the rest of his time in laboratories, factories and industrial parks except for his daily studies.
She has already obtained the track map of the group stage from the organizer. What she needs to do is to improve the vision of the car's "eyes" so that it can clearly "see" the track boundaries, curves, competitors, and artificial obstacles .
This is not difficult for Li Weiduruo and the others.
Whether it's the boundary line, the metal body of a car, or a unified red obstacle mark, using these fixed targets as sensing objects to adjust the sensor is within the scope of Prime's technical control.
In a blink of an eye, the temperature once rose, and the midsummer was thicker.
In mid-June, when the entire Prime team gathered again for a meeting, Du Ruo had come up with a detailed and complete plan: “There are 5 lidars in the four corners and the roof, 5 high-definition cameras, and a total of 5 lidars on the roof, body and bottom. 15 ultrasonic sensors, plus gyroscopic accelerometers and optical speed sensors...the initial plan is this."
Jingming turned the pen, and after listening to her finish, he asked, "Are there any difficulties?"
Du Ruo shook her head: "No." She said, "The existing technology in our laboratory can already meet the requirements of unmanned racing cars."
"Then your group has been too easy during this time." Jing Ming said, "Let's make it more difficult for you."
Du Ruo shrugged and accepted the challenge: "Okay, you are the boss and you have the final say."
The pen turning in Jing Ming's hand paused, and she said the word "boss" in a soft voice, it was really...
He glanced up and down at her briefly.
At this moment, she was sitting across the table, with clear and confident eyes, looking directly at him.
He said: "Reduce the weight, at least two kilograms."
Du Ruo looked down and thought about it, then she had to find a way to simplify the design, she raised her eyes: "OK."
The pen in his hand subconsciously touched the table, but his gaze didn't linger on her face, and he quickly moved away to look at Zhu Tao and the others: "Is the speed 350 an hour okay?"
Zhu Tao said loudly, "Don't worry."
Jing Ming said to He Wang again: "The brain has at least 19 trillion AI calculations."
He Wang raised his eyebrows excitedly: "Thank you, Boss, for being strict. That's interesting. Who cares about playing around?"
Jing Ming couldn't help smiling, and looked around the crowd, everyone had confidence and determination written on their faces, he said: "I don't care about the strength of the opponent, we must do our best, and we will start to assemble cars in half a month, is there any problem?" ?”
"No problem." The teenagers yelled in unison and slapped the table together, causing the paper on the entire conference table to tremble.
Du Ruo pursed her lips and smiled.
"The meeting is over." Jing Ming just got up and remembered something, "By the way, there is one more thing."
"The fuselage, shape design and surface painting have to be cool. I don't want to bring a dirty and broken car to the competition."
There was a roar of laughter.
When Du Ruo looked at the drawings, he suddenly found a problem: "Eh? Why is there an extra seat here?"
It stands to reason that, in order to save trouble, the driver's seat of the unmanned racing car will be eliminated and replaced by AI.
Jing Ming turned to look at her, and said normally, "Because we want to play."
Du Ruo: "..."
"Is this a joke?" Du Ruo looked at Li Wei He Wang and others, and asked for help, "Who can persuade me?"
Others shrugged: "We also really want to play."
Du Ruo: "..."
What kind of team did she join.
Du Ruo took this design drawing to Mr. Liang Wenbang and asked his opinion.
"I gave my opinion a long time ago, but if he doesn't listen, I can't persuade him to come back." Teacher Liang Wenbang shook his head and sighed, "The matter of adding seats is too messy. This kid Jingming is good at everything, but he is too crazy and too freewheeling. He will poke any ceiling. With his character, he will stumble sooner or later."
Du Ruo asked: "Adding seats will increase the risk factor?"
"Of course. Stuffing a space into it will inevitably increase production requirements. Of course, if the technology is up to standard, you can do whatever you want. Otherwise, the situation you mentioned will happen."
Du Ruo furrowed her eyebrows sadly, but quickly relaxed them again: "I think it's fine. Our Prime is very powerful."
Liang Wenbang was taken aback, and sighed with a smile: "It seems that you will also become one of them. Or in other words, birds of a feather flock together."
Du Ruo didn't understand: "What do you mean?"
"Everyone says that Prime is full of wild, conceited and frivolous people who look just like your captain, haha. If you stay for a long time, you will become similar."
Du Ruo was taken aback for a moment, it was the first time she was described as conceited and frivolous.
But looking back, it seems that it feels pretty good.
…
In the days that followed, the entire team was extremely busy.
If Du is not going to the library, he is going to the laboratory, looking for books, papers and video materials, racking his brains to think of various feasible solutions to reduce the weight of the sensor system itself, often working for several days until midnight.
She was hardworking enough, but she didn't expect everyone to work harder. Burning the midnight oil is commonplace. Often the whole building is quiet and dark after midnight, only the Prime Lab is brightly lit.
Everyone did their best, not to mention not complaining or sighing, on the contrary, they were very conscious and proactive.
The most desperate one is Jingming.
Many times she was so sleepy that he was still in the lab. Only then did she learn from the team members that he was always the last one to leave in the lab.
It was at this time that she realized that he was very smart and had a high IQ, but he also worked much harder than ordinary people.
One night, it was midnight, He Wang Wan Ziang and the others stretched their waists and got up, ready to go back to the dormitory.
"Du Ruo, are you still leaving?"
"There's still a little while." She was also a little sleepy, but wanted to finish what she was doing.
"Go back early."
"Know it."
She worked again for a while.
The people in the laboratory packed up their things and left one after another. She didn't concentrate on anything else, and she didn't prepare to leave until her eyes were a little blurred.
Looking up, the bright laboratory is empty, only Jing Ming is still sitting in front of the computer.
She packed up her things and was about to leave. After thinking about it, she still looked back at him: "It's one o'clock, why don't you go back?"
No one answered.
Without raising his head, Jing Ming tapped his fingers on the keyboard, staring at the computer screen with unusual concentration.
She knew that he was busy, not distracted, and couldn't hear him, but she still put on her schoolbag and said: "Let's go first, you go back to rest early."
As soon as he left the experimental platform, he seemed to have sensed something. He slowly raised his head from the computer screen, stared at the void for a second or two, and then turned to look at her: "Let's go together."
Du Ruo stopped: "Huh?"
The sound of the computer shutting down has been heard.
He stood up, rubbed his eyes with one hand, stretched with the other, picked up his schoolbag, and took out the key from his trouser pocket: "Let's go."
…
The elevator door closed, he closed his eyes and raised his head, leaning against the elevator wall, not sure if he was resting or thinking. After a while, he suddenly opened his eyes, lowered his head, and asked, "Are you hungry?"
Du Ruo looked up: "Huh?"
…
Du Ruo didn't know that there was a porridge shop open late at night behind the international student dormitory building of the school.
The small shop is clean and tidy, but the shop is too small, so it expands outwards, extending to the side of the low courtyard wall covered with morning glory.
It was late June.
The house was stuffy, so the two chose an open-air seat, with wooden tables and chairs, next to the vine frame, and a row of small potted plants outside the frame: sunflowers, pothos, daisies...
Looking up, you can see the dark blue night sky in summer through the vines. The stars are little by little. Du Ruo saw the Big Dipper.
Jing Ming ordered food, and when the waiter left, he looked at her.
He looked at it for a while before asking, "What are you looking at?"
"Stars." Du Ruo said, lowering her head. Eye level with him.
More than twenty days have passed since that night.
The two of them were busy with work these days, but it was the first time that they were separated from "official affairs" like this moment.
Du Ruo fiddled with her fingers, looked up at the sky again, and said, "There are too few stars in Beijing, but there are more stars in the mountains. The sky is full, like a layer of gold dust sprinkled on black paper."
Jing Ming also looked up and said, "The air in the city is not good. There is a Tekapo starry sky town in New Zealand, which has the effect you mentioned."
"you've been to?"
"Yeah." He rubbed his nose, turned his head away and yawned, he was really tired.
"Are you sleepy? You should have gone back to the dormitory to sleep just now, and you shouldn't have come to eat." Du Ruo said.
Jing Ming had just finished yawning, his eyes were moist, he glanced at her, but didn't speak.
Du Ruo pursed her lips, lowered her body and touched her ankle.
"Are there mosquitoes?" He tilted his head and looked under the table.
"Looks like a flying insect." She asked, "Have you been to many places?"
Jing Ming asked the waiter to come over to order a mosquito coil, and said, "When you have nothing to do, just walk around and have a look."
She played with the tassels on the tablecloth with her fingers: "I used to think you liked to play, but I didn't expect that you are actually harder than many people."
Jing Ming didn't answer this directly, but said: "It seems that you have a lot of prejudice against me."
Du Ruo was still stubborn: "Some are not."
He snorted and laughed, but he didn't seem to be bothered to explain or argue. He was really tired and didn't have much interest in talking.
The waiter brought up two bowls of white rice porridge and a few stacks of side dishes, such as shredded kelp, mustard, patted cucumber, and boiled peanuts.
Jing Ming rubbed his eyes, sat up a little, put side dishes in the porridge, and asked, "Prime is such a high-intensity job, can you stand it?"
"It's okay." She nodded and touched her eyes sleepily, "You are working hard."
"Because it's something I like."
"I can see that you like robots very much." To be able to do something with such great determination and perseverance must be a deep love.
"I have liked it since I was a child."
Du Ruo was eating kelp, remembering that he was a young genius, curious: "What is the opportunity?"
He recalled a little.
"It seems to be more than three years old. My dad took me to the United States, a professor friend's house of his. There was a very cool toy-sized car in his house, which ran all over the house. I thought it was amazing, so I dismantled it at that time "Because of sleepiness, his voice was not loud, a little tired, but serious, "I want to see what is inside. Why can it run, turn, shine, and whine? After taking it apart, I feel Even more amazing, tiny metal sheets, wires, components, one by one, neatly arranged and combined, like little soldiers. Some people say that it is a work of art, but I think it has life, and fulfills the responsibility assigned by the creator. His everything."
Du Ruo was slightly absent-minded after hearing his description. That feeling, she completely understands.
She looked at him and said nothing. The eyes of each other express that empathy clearly, no need to say much.
"Didn't your father teach you a lesson by dismantling his car?"
"No. That professor liked me very much and taught me a lot." He stopped talking about himself, "What about you?"
She was just scooping up a spoonful of porridge and putting it into her mouth, and said vaguely, "Huh?"
"Why did you choose to major in sensor control?"
She raised her head and said honestly: "Before I went to university, I didn't know what this major was for. It was just because the teacher said it was easy to find a job."
"What now?"
"I like it very much."
"Why?"
"That moment was..." she recalled, and said, "One time I made a sensor in the laboratory. I studied it very carefully before doing it, and spent a lot of energy to make it. It is small and in the palm of my hand."
She raised her palm to gesture, and he didn't blink for a moment, watching her little face pale against the night, her eyes were shining like stars,
"I touched its head, and it lit up! It was at that moment that I felt that everything I gave would be rewarded. What you give, it will pay you back, and it will never let you down." She sighed with emotion, "Why? It’s called a sensor. It’s sensitive, it’s a telepathy, it’s such a nice name.”
He slightly bent the corner of his lips, it's not hard to imagine that a person like her would be sad for that lost robot.
Different routes lead to the same goal.
He took a sip of porridge and asked, "Before college, did you have any hobbies, from childhood to adulthood."
"Hobbies, I can't say..." She covered her face and turned her head away to yawn before saying, "But I can mix chemical fertilizers and pesticides, grow vegetables and raise chickens, and climb trees."
Jing Ming was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing suddenly, almost choked, and laughed again, really thought it was funny. He held his forehead and laughed non-stop, laughing until his shoulders shook. Now, the drowsiness is completely gone.
"What are you laughing at? Really." Du Ruo said, "My living environment is too different from yours, and I have been exposed to very few things since I was a child."
He smiled and shook his head: "I didn't say you were fake.... It sounds fun."
"It's not fun at all, it's tiring and boring." Du Ruo rubbed his eyes, "Oh, by the way, singing folk songs should be counted as a hobby. In the past, walking on mountain roads was too boring, so I sang and listened to the echoes in the ravines. Go, Tommy."
He became a little interested, staring at her with bright eyes: "Then sing a song."
"No, our folk songs are sung for lovers."
As soon as these words were blurted out, the atmosphere became so delicate.
He looked directly at her with deep eyes, as if he possessed strength and heat, but only for a moment, then restrainedly moved away. As if it were just an illusion.
She didn't say much anymore, she lowered her head and stuffed a mouthful of porridge into her mouth.
It was late at night and there was no wind.
That hot feeling, lingering.