After entering the military academy, he studied majors such as electronic computers, digital technology, and automatic control. Upon graduation, he was assigned to the engineering corps, but later, when the country abolished the infrastructure engineering corps, he transferred to the headquarters of the state-owned enterprise Huatong Company in Rongzhou. Because of his strong technical skills, Flynn Carter also served as a senior executive in this area. However, due to his lack of skill in navigating the bureaucratic system, he was eventually marginalized in internal power struggles. When a leader above Flynn Carter fell from power, no matter how capable Flynn Carter was, he could only be “exiled,” assigned to the branch office in Shanhai City as the director of the technical department. The so-called technical department was actually just a division with a few dozen technical staff.

Later, it was here that Flynn Carter met Ryan Carter's mother, started a family, and had a child. To be fair, relying on Flynn Carter's technical abilities, he still managed to make the branch office thrive, and he was once somewhat well-known in Shanhai City. However, as times changed, the entire bloated Huatong system began to gradually collapse in the market. When the nest is overturned, how can any eggs remain intact? Naturally, the branch office was also affected.

In this era when state-owned enterprises were generally in decline, the wave of layoffs also arrived... The company was considering restructuring and splitting up, and now even survival had become difficult.

On his mother's side, the state-owned hotel where she worked was also negotiating with employees about buying out their years of service.

In Ryan Carter's memory, during this period, his parents often quarreled—about the future, about all sorts of trivial matters, about the pressures of life. He even became their punching bag at times; even if he did nothing wrong, he would still get scolded at home if he was out of favor. As the old saying goes, “A poor couple has a hundred sorrows.” In fact, every happy family is unique, but unhappy lives are mostly the same.

As a result, for a long time, Ryan Carter chose to blur and fade these memories, because most of them were unbearable to recall, filled with the intense frustration of the first half of his life and the endless shouting and quarrels at home.

Youth is the poetry of time and should never end. But for the former Ryan Carter, it was a movement full of pain and sorrow.

Now, Ryan Carter no longer wants to go through it a second time.

……

Lana Foster finished making egg noodles, and Flynn Carter also got up. He scooped a bowl from the pot for himself, and an even bigger bowl for Ryan Carter.

Flynn Carter was a bit surprised that Ryan Carter got up so early. “It's Saturday today, why are you up so early?”

Usually, Ryan Carter would sleep until eleven or twelve, almost noon.

“Got up early to review. I want to catch up on what I missed.” Ryan Carter was telling the truth. His hand still stung from The Butcher Thompson's whipping yesterday, which instead gave him even more motivation to defeat The Butcher Thompson.

In the current situation, nothing would bring more happiness and pride to his parents than successfully getting into high school. Because of the ingrained mindset from the domestic exam-oriented education system, only a good school leads to a good future and a good life—this idea was already deeply rooted in their minds. Actually, this is understandable; the college entrance exam is already one of the rare fair channels for social advancement in this society.

Lana Foster and Flynn Carter exchanged a glance, as if Ryan Carter's sudden change made them somewhat gratified. But they didn't really pay much attention to it. Because this kind of situation wasn't unheard of—sometimes Ryan Carter would be stimulated by something at school and suddenly become motivated to study hard, but this enthusiasm usually didn't last long. At most a week, and then he'd revert to his old ways.

So now, they just thought Ryan Carter was having another one of those occasional bursts of motivation.

“Dad, I heard that all the subordinates in your technical department are willing to follow you. The company said that as long as you all agree, the technical department can be reorganized and turned into a joint-stock company. The head office would hold a portion of the shares, and the rest would go to the technical department employees, which would serve as a replacement for job placement.”

Flynn Carter waved his hand very proudly. “Grown-up matters, kids shouldn't worry about. You just focus on your studies!”

His father was still as domineering and autocratic as ever. But Ryan Carter really wanted to say, how can I not care? This is a big deal that affects my own environment...

Before the 1990s, installing a telephone was a big project. At that time, not to mention in homes—even for a work unit, installing a phone was a major expense. Even later, the initial installation fee for a phone could be eight or nine thousand yuan, which was not something an ordinary family could afford. There was no other way; the technology for program-controlled switches was monopolized by foreign companies, who carved up the domestic market, making it extremely expensive. By the 1990s, domestic companies had gradually started producing mid-range program-controlled switches, which greatly reduced the initial installation cost and allowed landline phones to enter thousands of households.

His father's company, the state-owned Huanneng Enterprise, was one of the first companies in China to shoulder the responsibility and develop program-controlled switches. Back then, it was very successful, with annual revenues in the hundreds of millions. But as market competition grew fiercer and the system became more bloated, things got worse year after year. In fact, as an old technician with experience and intuition, Flynn Carter had already realized that traditional program-controlled switches were outdated, and the future lay in high-capacity digital switches. But the company stubbornly stuck to the old path, so being phased out was inevitable. Flynn Carter could see the company's decline at a glance, but unfortunately, his voice was too weak to change the will of those at the top.