Come on, What Kind of CEO Chases His Roommate Back to the Country? - Chapter 41

Shi Yancheng’s call came in. “Running into trouble?”

“Yeah.” Pei Song briefly explained the situation.

“They’re right,” Shi Yancheng said calmly. “But that doesn’t mean you should give up. Do you want to learn?”

“Of course.”

From that day on, every night after work became their fixed “tutoring” time. Shi Yancheng was always punctual on video calls, sometimes still in a suit, looking like he’d just finished work.

“What’s the foundation of deep learning?” he asked while drawing on his tablet.

“The structure of neural networks,” Pei Song quickly took notes.

“Correct. Think of it like building blocks,” Shi Yancheng’s voice was cool and steady, his pace slow and deliberate. “Each layer of neurons has a role. The input layer receives data, the hidden layers process it, and the output layer delivers results.”

He used simple analogies to explain complex concepts, “Imagine it as a restaurant’s assembly line. Ingredients are the input, chefs processing them are the hidden layers, and the final dish is the output.”

One late-night lesson, Pei Song listened while stuffing instant noodles into his mouth.

“That’s your dinner?” Shi Yancheng suddenly interrupted. Pei Song glanced at his soggy noodles, feeling a little embarrassed. “Yeah, just making do.”

“Hold it up and show me.” Shi Yancheng’s voice turned colder.

Pei Song obediently lifted his bowl. Through the camera, Shi Yancheng saw several empty instant noodle cups stacked on the table. “You’ve been eating that for days?”

“Not really…” Pei Song hesitated. “Sometimes I order takeout.”

“This video learning is inefficient.” Shi Yancheng was silent for a few seconds before saying, “Move in with me.”

“Huh? That’s not really—”

“It’s decided.” He hung up.

Half an hour later, Shi Yancheng was at Pei Song’s door. When he stepped inside, the dark, empty living room felt cold and lifeless.

“Is it always like this?” he turned to Pei Song.

Pei Song lowered his head. “Ever since Mom moved out, Dad has barely come home…” Home wasn’t home anymore.

Shi Yancheng’s expression softened. “Pack your things. Come with me.”

“But—”

“No buts.” He had already started packing Pei Song’s clothes. “You need a proper living environment. At the very least, someone should make sure you eat a decent meal.”

Seeing Pei Song’s reluctant expression, Shi Yancheng sighed. “Let’s go. I can’t let you survive on instant noodles every day.”

And just like that, Pei Song became a resident of Shi Yancheng’s apartment again.

“Put your stuff down and head to the study.” Shi Yancheng pointed to a spot by the window. “I got a new monitor installed so you can read code more easily.”

From that day forward, Pei Song’s life became a strict, hellish training regimen under Shi Yancheng’s watch.

At precisely 6 a.m. every morning, Shi Yancheng would knock on his door. “Get up. Review yesterday’s material first.”

Pei Song, with hair as messy as a bird’s nest, would be dragged into the study, where a fresh set of test questions awaited.

“Thirty minutes. You need a passing score to eat breakfast.”

Breakfast was always hearty. Shi Yancheng made sure he ate well before heading to work. In the evenings, their study sessions continued.

“What’s the principle behind backpropagation in neural networks?” Shi Yancheng asked from behind his desk.

“It’s calculating the gradient of the loss function with respect to each layer’s parameters, updating the weights from bottom to top…” Pei Song tried to recall.

“Wrong.” Shi Yancheng cut him off. “It’s from top to bottom. Explain it again.”

Sometimes, their sessions ran late into the night, and Pei Song would doze off at his desk. Whenever he woke up, he’d always find a blanket over his shoulders and a warm glass of milk waiting for him.

“Drink it before you sleep,” Shi Yancheng said without looking up. “It’s good for your stomach.”

The study was soon filled with technical books and sticky notes listing key points and common mistakes.

“You wrote all these?” Pei Song looked at the densely packed notes.

“Yeah.” Shi Yancheng handed him a new stack of printed materials. “Tonight’s homework. Finish it before bed.”

Gradually, Pei Song realized Shi Yancheng’s teaching methods were incredibly effective. He broke down complex concepts into the simplest components, using relatable analogies.

“A distributed system is like a restaurant’s kitchen,” he explained. “Each chef handles different dishes, coordinating through the pass window to complete a full meal.”

Whenever Pei Song grasped a difficult concept, Shi Yancheng’s eyes would flicker with approval. “Next.”

Even weekends weren’t spared. Shi Yancheng would sit in the living room with his laptop, answering questions at any time.

“This code has a bug,” he pointed at the screen. “Find it.”

Pei Song bit his pen, thinking hard, before spotting the issue. “The exception handling here is incomplete!”

A rare smile tugged at Shi Yancheng’s lips. “Keep going.”

Under his meticulous guidance, even the dullest technical topics became engaging. He was strict yet gentle, never overlooking a detail, yet always there with a warm cup of coffee when Pei Song was exhausted. He even ensured a well-balanced life, three meals a day, and regular snacks refilled without fail.

“Just focus on learning,” Shi Yancheng told him. “Leave everything else to me.”

It was tough, but fulfilling. Pei Song often thought, without Shi Yancheng’s help, he would’ve stumbled countless times.

One late night, Pei Song finally cracked an algorithm that had stumped him for days. Excited, he burst into Shi Yancheng’s study. “I got it!”

Shi Yancheng looked up, a rare trace of warmth in his gaze. “Explain.”

After listening to Pei Song’s analysis, he gave a rare smile. “Not bad. You’re improving fast.”

A week later, at 2 a.m., Pei Song’s phone suddenly rang.

“The system is completely down!” The engineer on the other end sounded panicked. “Every test environment is throwing errors, and even backups won’t restore!”

Pei Song jolted awake, quickly opening his laptop. The screen filled with endless error messages. The entire system had crashed.

“I’m on my way.” He grabbed his jacket and rushed out.

“Where are you going?” Shi Yancheng emerged from the study.

“The system crashed,” Pei Song said while putting on his shoes.

Shi Yancheng glanced at the time. “I’ll drive you.”

When they arrived, the supplier’s tech team was in chaos.

“What happened?” Pei Song asked.

“No idea. Half an hour ago, all services started failing,” an engineer pointed at the screen. “We’ve tried restarting, rolling back, nothing works.”

The tech director scoffed. “What can an outsider do? We should wait for our experts.”