Reborn in Tokyo: From Heiress to Global Tycoon

Chapter 367 Dim Stars

Amy, clutching her laptop, finally couldn't resist any longer.

"Satsuki-chan, can I say it now?"

"Can."

Satsuki continued walking forward, keeping her voice very low.

"What did you think of those three people?"

Amy answered quickly.

"The first one is boring."

She paused, then added:

"It's not that he's bad. He's very solid, but his direction is too outdated, like... well, like he's been building a bridge that can't be expanded anymore."

Satsuki nodded.

"And the third one?"

"That's impressive."

Amy hugged the notebook tightly, her fingertips pressing against the cover.

"But I'm not sure how good he is yet. He was interrupted. Their facilities are so bad, yet they can still run so well."

Her speech began to quicken.

"If what he said is true, that scheduling method is significantly more efficient than the solution I'm currently using under certain conditions. But I need more data to confirm that he's not exaggerating."

"And it's not that their solutions are better than ours in every aspect; it's just that their solutions are better under certain extreme conditions."

"Extreme conditions?"

"Nodes will break down, lines will be slow, messages will be lost, confirmations will be delayed, and the machines are old."

Amy exhaled and looked at the opposite bank.

"Normal people would try to make the system closer to its ideal state before running it. But they don't; they seem to assume from the beginning that the system will break down."

She opened her notebook and showed it to Satsuki by the light of the streetlamp.

The first page says "Old Machine" with an X next to it.

There are several circles on the second page:

"Synchronization barrier".

"Dynamic window".

"ACK compression".

On the third page, there was a sentence that read "Impossible," which was heavily crossed out.

Change the side to:

"Unless they design for failures to be the norm."

Satsuki's gaze lingered on that line of text.

Design it to treat failures as normal conditions.

That statement has a very Soviet flavor.

A breeze blew by, and the pages trembled slightly.

Amy quickly pressed down on the edge of the laptop.

Satsuki didn't reach out to take it, but instead asked in a low voice:

"If we were to use it, would it be valuable?"

Amy was silent for two seconds.

"have."

She rarely makes such quick judgments on technical issues.

"But it wasn't used directly. Their system was developed out of necessity due to poor hardware; it was very crude, but the concept was brilliant."

She looked up, her eyes shining brightly in the dim streetlights.

"Satsuki-chan, we now have better hardware, a more stable network, and a cleaner environment. If we transplant their troubleshooting methods into our system, it could become a terrible thing."

Satsuki seemed lost in thought.

"Then, the second one?"

Amy quieted down.

This time, she did not answer immediately.

The wind on the river ruffled the stray hairs on her forehead a little.

She put the pencil back in her notebook and shook her head.

"The second one was held down, so I'm not sure either."

She wanted to say more.

"Um."

"What direction do you think it should be?"

"Communication protocols, fault tolerance, redundant coding," Amy thought for a moment, "but the way she looked at that roll of drawings was off. The manuscript in her hand was for us to hear; the real stuff is probably in that roll of drawings."

Satsuki did not ask any further questions.

They continued walking along the riverbank.

Snowflakes landed on the shoulders of the coat and quickly melted into tiny water droplets.

In the distance, Xiu Yi stopped under a street lamp, looking at the opposite bank of the river.

The people of Fujita had created a barely noticeable blank space around them. Occasionally, pedestrians would pass by, but they would naturally walk around them.

Satsuki looked at the black river.

"Amy."

"Um?"

"Please compile a list of today's items for me when you get back."

"good!"

"Do not include sensitive judgments."

Amy paused for a moment.

Satsuki looked at her.

"Write only the technical summary if you can write it in the room. If it can be explained by publicly available information, then write it according to the publicly available information. Keep the real conclusions in your mind."

Amy blinked, then nodded vigorously.

"clear!"

"What is the conclusion?"

Amy repeated it carefully:

"What are they doing, what level are they at, and is there any overlap with what I'm currently doing? If so, is it complementary or overlapping?"

"Um."

Amy's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Can I sleep with you tonight, Satsuki-chan?"

Satsuki looked at her.

Amy held her laptop, leaning forward like a little animal waiting to be fed.

The night wind was cold.

The tip of her nose was a little red from the cold.

Satsuki turned around and reached out to pinch Amy's face.

"Hmm? Are you going to try and negotiate with me now?"

"Ugh... no oil left..."

Amy's voice was broken and intermittent by Satsuki.

"That depends on your performance."

Amy had already prepared herself for rejection.

"Hmm... Huh?! Really, Satsuki-chan!?"

Satsuki let go and turned to look at the river.

"If you talk nonsense in the room, go sleep on the carpet."

"I won't say a word! I won't utter a single careless statement!"

"Don't write the technical summary too excitedly."

"I will write very calmly!"

"And don't draw weird hearts."

"Waaah."

Satsuki glanced at her.

"Um?"

Amy immediately changed her tune.

"...I can't draw."

……

They walked a little further on.

There's a bridge ahead.

The streetlights on the bridge lined up one after another, their light falling on the iron railings, which were thinly covered by snow.

The Kremlin's silhouette in the distance was shrouded in night, its red walls no longer as vivid as during the day, only a heavy, dark hue remaining.

Satsuki stopped in her tracks.

Xiu turned to look at her.

"Are you cold?"

"A little bit."

Xiuyi walked back and reached out to pull her scarf up a little.

"I told you you should wear an extra layer."

"Father, I'm already wearing plenty of clothes."

"The wind in Moscow is different from that in Tokyo."

"Yeah, it feels like it could crawl into the cracks between your bones."

Shuichi looked at her face, which was half-covered by the scarf, and his gaze softened.

"Then let's go back."

Satsuki nodded.

"it is good."

On the way back, they didn't get in the car immediately, but instead slowly walked along the other side of the sidewalk towards the hotel.

The Soviet liaison officer continued to follow from a distance.

After confirming the street corner, Fujita walked to Satsuki's side.

"Young Miss".

Satsuki did not stop.

"Um."

"Will tomorrow's itinerary proceed as planned?"

"As usual. Do whatever Kozlov tells you to do."

"Yes."

Her voice was very soft, almost drowned out by the wind.

"Also, have the trading company check it out."

Fujita did not take out the notebook.

He simply lowered his head slightly.

"Please give your instructions."

"In the past three years, which Western academic foundations have had exchange programs with the Soviet Academy of Sciences?"

"Check the list, check the amount, check who ultimately received the funds and where they went."

"Yes."

"And what about that computing center today? Which laboratories does it have? Is each laboratory funded by central government grants or commissioned by the military? Have any of its projects been cut in the past two years?"

She paused for a moment.

A tram slowly passed by in the distance, its windows casting a dim, yellowish light. Inside sat several passengers wrapped in thick coats, their faces obscured by the fog on the windows.

"Check what can be found through public channels first. Don't force an investigation if you can't find it, so as not to alert the enemy."

Fujita whispered:

"clear."

He didn't ask why.

But Satsuki knew that he had realized this was no longer just a researcher's problem.

As expected, after a few steps of silence, Fujita finally spoke:

"Miss, would you like some further background information on the researcher we met today?"

Satsuki looked up and gazed ahead.

The hotel lights were already close.

A red carpet was laid under the porch, and behind the revolving door were heating, the smell of tobacco, a duty officer, and an omnipresent register.

It's not a suitable place to talk.

So she stopped before stepping into the light's range.

A river breeze blew from behind, lifting the hem of her coat.

"Not just one person."

Her voice was very soft.

"It's the entire system."

Fujita lowered his head.

Amy stood to the side with her laptop, not saying a word.

Chizuru moved half a step to the left, blocking the view from someone in the distance who might be looking over.

Satsuki looked towards the Moscow River.

Black water flows beneath the bridge, like a silent crack.

"The Academy of Sciences has been without funding for at least eighteen months."

"The staff turnover has already begun, but there hasn't been a large-scale exodus of top-level employees. The young people are leaving, while those who can't leave are staying."

Other buyers have come. From Germany, or the US. Maybe both.

Fujita listened quietly.

Satsuki's gaze fell on the sparse lights on the opposite bank.

"The key point is that these people are not waiting for the highest bidder."

"They just haven't realized they can be offered a price yet."

Amy paused for a moment.

She seemed to want to say something, but didn't know how.

"In a system that's about to fall apart, the most valuable parts will be the first to fall out."

"I need to know which parts will fall off, where they will fall, and who will catch them."

"Then make sure we reach out before others."

Fujita bowed slightly.

"Yes."

Satsuki takes a new step.

"Let's go back."

Amy followed immediately.

As she reached the hotel entrance, she suddenly asked in a low voice:

"Satsuki-chan".

"Um?"

"Did I do well just now?"

Satsuki paused for a moment.

She turned her head and saw Amy staring at her longingly, her nose red from the cold, and clutching the notebook tightly in her arms.

The topics she had just discussed—about the country, the system, talent, and the offer—seemed to linger in her mind for a moment.

But only for a short while.

Now she's more concerned about whether she can get close to Satsuki tonight.

Satsuki looked at her and suddenly felt like laughing.

"good."

Amy's eyes lit up immediately.

"That--"

"Write a summary after you get back to your room."

"I wrote!"

"Don't talk nonsense."

"I absolutely won't tell!"

"Don't put your feet on me."

"...Huh?"

Satsuki turned and walked through the revolving door.

The warmth and the smell of tobacco rushed in, shutting out the outside wind.

She didn't turn around.

"If you don't agree to this, then go sleep on the carpet."

Amy, holding her laptop, stood frozen for half a second.

Then they hurriedly chased after him.

"I promise! I promise, Satsuki-chan!"

Chizuru followed behind, gently brushing the snow off Satsuki's coat shoulders.

Fujita was the last to enter.

The revolving door went around once.

The sound of the wind on a Moscow winter night was kept out by the thick glass.

The red star in the distance shone brightly in the night.

Very small.

It's cold.

Although it hasn't gone out yet, it can no longer warm anyone.