Chapter 54: The Second Meeting

Zhou Yun woke up at eight in the morning and ran into Deng Yonghua eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

"Zhou Yun? Come sit," Deng Yonghua greeted, gesturing for him to join.

Placing his backpack and the white cane in an empty seat nearby, Zhou Yun picked up a tray and quickly selected a few simple breakfast items.

"Good morning, Professor," he said, carrying his plate to the seat opposite.

Glancing up from his phone at the sound, Deng Yonghua smiled. "How have things been? Where did you go exploring these past few days?"

"Nowhere special, just wandered around the neighborhood a bit. I didn't feel like traveling too far."

Deng Yonghua didn't press further, his gaze casually drifting toward the white cane and backpack. "What's that stick for? Is it a trekking pole? Planning to go hiking today?"

Aside from mountain climbing, he couldn't think of any reason someone would carry a walking stick.

Swallowing his food, Zhou Yun shook his head. "No, it's not a trekking pole. It's a guide cane."

That piqued Deng Yonghua's curiosity even more. "A guide cane? Why'd you buy something like that?"

"I didn't buy it."

Thinking it was harmless to tell his professor—since he would find out eventually—Zhou Yun briefly recounted his experience over the past couple of days. He left out Lin Wei's name, simply mentioning that he had met a visually impaired person.

"So I spent the last two days building a guide cane. I ran some tests by myself yesterday, and today I've arranged to meet someone to test it out in the real world."

Deng Yonghua nodded thoughtfully. "Sounds impressive. Does this mean you've found your future research direction?"

Zhou Yun gave a shy smile. "I suppose so. I feel like scientific research shouldn't always be confined to armchair theory. No matter how advanced the technology written on paper is, it's completely useless if it can't be applied in practice."

"If the pure theorists heard you say that, they'd probably want to debate you. But everyone has their own perspective. I think your mindset is quite good; doing pure theory all the time can get rather tedious."

Pausing for a moment, he added a word of caution: "Still, be careful when you go out for testing. After all, it's an assistive device meant for the visually impaired. Its performance might be a bit rough around the edges for now and can be optimized later, but never sacrifice personal safety for flashy features."

"Don't worry, Professor, I know what I'm doing. My goal is to make travel safer and more convenient for the blind; I won't lose sight of what's important."

***

"Alright, as long as you've thought it through." Deng Yonghua nodded with satisfaction, glancing at his watch. "University of Science and Technology, right? Perfect, I'm about ready to leave too. We can head over together. Oh, right, Qiu Yan and the others are coming in this afternoon. The project is almost wrapped up, so we'll be finishing things off over the next couple of days. You'll need to drop by. We'll probably be heading back in a day or two, but if you still have business here, you're welcome to stay a bit longer."

"Got it. I'll see how things go; if everything goes smoothly, I should be able to head back with everyone on schedule."

At 8:50 AM, the two arrived at the main gate of the University of Science and Technology. As usual, Deng Yonghua and several other professors got into a car bound for the School of Cyber Science and Technology.

Zhou Yun spotted Lin Wei waiting near the school gate. She was wearing a light yellow dress and holding her old white cane.

Next to her was a casually dressed, cheerful-looking young woman who had her arm linked through Lin Wei's and was holding a GoPro. This was clearly the friend Lin Wei had mentioned.

"Lin Wei."

"Zhou Yun?" Turning her head slightly, Lin Wei tried to locate the source of the voice.

"It's me, good morning," Zhou Yun said, walking up to them. "And this must be your friend? Thank you both for coming."

"Hi, I'm Zhang Xiao, Weiwei's best friend and temporary bodyguard," Zhang Xiao introduced herself. She had thought she was just coming along to keep Lin Wei company for a fun day out, only to find out upon arrival that they were helping someone test out some kind of guide cane.

She couldn't help but eye the grey stick in Zhou Yun's hand suspiciously. "Is this the smart guide cane Weiwei told me about? You really made this yourself?"

"Yeah, I made it," Zhou Yun said with a nod, turning his attention to Lin Wei. "Shall we get started then? How about we test it on this sidewalk outside the school gate first? It's a representative environment with plenty of pedestrians, bicycles, and e-bikes coming and going. Plus, with us right here, we don't have to worry about safety."

"You're awfully eager, aren't you?" Zhang Xiao muttered under her breath. Lin Wei gently patted her arm, causing Zhang Xiao to roll her eyes. "Fine, fine, I won't say anything else. I just hope this guide cane thing actually works."

"Alright," Lin Wei nodded, handing her old cane to Zhang Xiao, while Zhou Yun promptly handed the grey guide cane to Lin Wei.

"Here. There's an indentation on the handle—that's where the power button and main controls are. Twist it to turn it on, and it will automatically connect via Bluetooth. After powering on, you can twist the handle further to hide the switch and prevent accidental shutdowns. This is the terminal unit; I didn't have enough time to develop a dedicated mobile app, so I just bought a phone and modified it. And these are the earbuds; they're already paired." Zhou Yun handed both the phone and the Bluetooth earbuds to Lin Wei. "So I can monitor the testing results too, the phone will also broadcast the voice prompts out loud."

"Understood."

***

After putting on the earbuds and slipping the phone into her carry-on bag, Lin Wei nervously turned the control knob.

*Beep~ Bluetooth connected.*

The guide cane in her hand vibrated right on cue.

"Okay," Lin Wei took a deep breath. "Xiaoxiao, step back just a little bit. I want to try this on my own."

Zhang Xiao nodded, releasing Lin Wei's arm and taking two steps back, though her eyes remained fixed on her friend, ready to step in at a moment's notice.

Zhou Yun also followed about a meter behind and to the side, closely monitoring Lin Wei's condition.

*Tap~*

Lin Wei made her first probe, the tip of the cane making contact with the ground.

*Path ahead is clear and level. No obstacles detected.*

This was a feature he had added after yesterday's testing. He still felt it was important to provide the user with as much constant feedback as possible, so there would be a voice prompt even when no obstacles were detected.

However, to keep things balanced, the prompts weren't overly frequent. The cane's detection range was a circle with a radius of about three meters, so it would give an update roughly every three meters of walking.

Moving vehicles and e-bikes, on the other hand, had a larger detection radius of about twenty meters due to the use of different sensors.

Zhang Xiao raised an eyebrow in surprise; the guide cane actually seemed somewhat legitimate.

Encouraged by the prompts, Lin Wei began to walk forward slowly.

After walking a dozen meters along the tactile paving without incident, her steps grew less hesitant than when she first started.

While using a traditional white cane provided some tactile feedback, it largely relied on guesswork. Now, with concrete voice feedback giving her precise updates, she felt much more at ease as she walked.