Chapter 505
As the old saying goes, “No one strikes a smiling face.”
In this situation, both Stewart and Charlene had no choice but to politely shake Thorne’s hand.
Once the introductions were over and everyone had taken their seats, Stewart’s phone started ringing-it was an urgent call from work. Something had come up that required his immediate attention.
After Stewart finished his greetings with Thorne and Mr. Windsor, Charlene noticed the tension in his expression. She leaned in, voice lowered, and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Stewart gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, bent close, and murmured, “Don’t worry. I’ve got it under control.”
Charlene relaxed at his words, her concerns eased for the moment.
The others at the table watched the quiet exchange between them the way they spoke in hushed tones, the genuine care in their eyes. More than one person found themselves quietly admiring the closeness of their relationship.
Coy and Josh exchanged glances, then both looked over at Thorne.
Most people at the table had no idea, but they knew exactly why Thorne had appeared at this dinner: it was because of Charlene.
Yet when they glanced at him, they couldn’t quite read his expression, nor could they guess what he might be thinking.
Stewart soon excused himself and left, but the dinner carried on.
After the orders were placed, the conversation gradually shifted to the future collaboration between the two companies.
It was then that Thorne looked at Charlene and interjected, “I’m particularly
interested in the third point of your latest proposal-the heterogeneous
architecture. If you can fully implement it, both the sensor chips and end devices will see major performance gains.”
He continued. “Of course,
implementation won’t be easy. For
example, the programming is extremely complex the
computational units are fast, but data transfer between them is sluggish. These are huge challenges that require significant résources and manpower to overcome.” s
“As for the programming complexity,” Thorne went on, “you mentioned in the proposal that you plan to use Al-driven code partitioning. But that technology still isn’t mature, and could introduce a host of new issues. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Earlier, when Thorne had claimed to have read the new proposal, several senior engineers from The
Henderson Group’s tech department had quietly assumed he was just being polite. Now, as he referenced specific details, it dawned on them-Thorne really had read the whole thing. s
Charlene was a little surprised herself.
Thorne was here representing The Henderson Group, so when he raised questions, she had no choice but to respond. “You’re absolutely right it’s a real concern. But if we hit bottlenecks at that stage! can promise you access to large sca
compute models. As for the
challenges with toolchain
integration, we…”
s
Since Thorne seemed genuinely interested, Charlene explained at length, going deep into their technical strategy.
As she spoke, Thorne kept engaging with her, debating and exploring ideas. “This technology still hasn’t broken through in high-reliability system development. Are you planning to approach it with an alternative method, or…”
Their discussion grew more animated, bouncing ideas back and forth.
Listening to them, watching the easy confidence in Thorne’s replies, even Coy, Josh, and the senior engineers from The Henderson Group realized something: Thorne already had a clear vision for the project’s future direction.
And what’s more, Charlene’s solutions aligned perfectly with his own.
It was only then that Coy and Josh understood why, back in the office, Thorne had been able to grasp the entire proposal just by glancing at a few keywords.
And why, after reading it in full, he’d smiled that knowing smile-—and made a point of joining the tech team’s dinner tonight.
As this dawned on them, they looked over at Thorne, watching the way he glanced at Charlene, the subtle smile beneath his thoughtful gaze. Without a word, they both lowered their eyes, lost in their own thoughts.