Chapter 53: Defeated Before the Campaign Even Begins

On Friday afternoon, Li Ping'an was in his personal workshop at the university's innovation and entrepreneurship incubation base, busy assembling a guide dog.

As Li Ping'an was deeply focused on his work, his phone suddenly rang.

Seeing that it was a call from his younger sister, Li Ping'an suddenly remembered that today marked the end of her high school entrance examinations.

As soon as he answered the call, his sister's voice came through the receiver.

"Big brother, I've finished my exams."

"Auntie said she'll move my school things to her place first, and we can slowly bring them home later."

Li Ping'an let out an acknowledgment and said, "Isn't that great?"

Only now that her exams were over did Li Ping'an dare to ask about her performance.

"How do you feel the exams went?"

"I think I did quite well. The questions were surprisingly simple, so getting into the county's top high school should be completely fine."

"Big brother, when can I come visit you?"

"Whenever you like, tomorrow is fine too, but I'm not on break yet and won't have that much time to accompany you. You can't just run around freely here in the capital."

"Ah? Then I might as well just stay home and have fun."

At that moment, seeing a message pop up from his counselor, Li Ping'an immediately said, "I have something to take care of here, let's talk about this later."

"If you really want to come over, just send me a message and I'll buy your ticket."

With that, Li Ping'an hung up the phone and carefully read the message sent by his counselor.

Upon seeing that the counselor had successfully made contact and that the other party was very enthusiastic about testing the robotic guide dog, Li Ping'an would be lying if he said he wasn't thrilled!

As expected, college students are much easier to communicate with.

Seeing that the counselor had sent over the delivery address and contact information, Li Ping'an immediately packed up one of the robotic guide dogs, preparing to ship it out.

The next morning, Saturday.

After dropping off the courier package, Li Ping'an took the other robotic guide dog and headed out of the campus, hailing a taxi toward his destination.

Based on the information he had gathered over the past few days, Li Ping'an had gained a much deeper understanding of organizations that breed and train guide dogs.

Previously, he had never paid any attention to the matter.

Now Li Ping'an learned that domestic guide dogs are strictly prohibited from being bought or sold; they are all raised and trained by specialized institutions and then provided free of charge to disabled individuals for adoption.

The cost of raising and training a single guide dog is approximately two hundred thousand yuan!

Most importantly, cultivating a qualified guide dog requires a massive amount of time.

Yet a dog's lifespan is inherently limited.

Normally, once a guide dog graduates and officially starts working, its active service period is generally only about five years.

One could say that guide dog training programs nationwide are entirely public welfare projects.

This has resulted in a tiny fraction of visually impaired people nationwide actually being able to adopt a guide dog.

Just how many guide dogs are there across the entire country?

There are only a few hundred officially on duty.

Yet the visually impaired population nationwide exceeds twenty million!

More than two hours later, Li Ping'an arrived at his destination.

A guide dog training school!

Naturally, the elderly security guard at the gate was not going to let Li Ping'an walk in so easily.

This was not only to protect the dogs inside, but also to protect the public.

Although all guide dogs are selected from gentle breeds, without completing full training and graduation, no one can guarantee whether a dog might suddenly snap at a stranger.

Meeting the guard's vigilant gaze, Li Ping'an knew that getting inside would be no simple task.

Fortunately, Li Ping'an had anticipated this beforehand.

He didn't waste any extra words on the elderly guard.

Instead, he directly took out the robotic guide dog from its carrying case.

As the saying goes, whether it's a fine steed or a mule can only be known by taking it out for a walk.

With people coming and going here, Li Ping'an believed there would certainly be those who recognized quality.

Facts proved that Li Ping'an's intuition was correct.

After just a dozen minutes or so, Li Ping'an spotted a young woman from a distance, wearing a baseball cap and a simple ponytail, walking over from across the street.

Judging by the fact that she was speaking at intervals, if he guessed correctly, she was likely issuing commands to a guide dog in training.

A moving, pink mechanical guide dog right at the entrance of a guide dog school was bound to attract attention no matter what.

The young woman, who had been walking while mimicking a blind person's navigation alongside her guide dog Dou Dou, frowned deeply upon seeing the pink mechanical dog by Li Ping'an's side.

"Dou Dou, sit."

Although guide dog Dou Dou sat down obediently according to the woman's command, it tilted its head, looking with curious eyes at Li Ping'an's mechanical dog.

This displeased the young woman.

A qualified guide dog, once distracted by too much curiosity, is bound to lose focus, which could lead to misguidance for a blind handler.

If a dog cannot break this habit before graduation, it can never graduate and officially enter service.

Because of this, the woman was somewhat unhappy.

Seeing that his moment to perform had arrived, Li Ping'an directly blindfolded himself and spoke up, "Xiao Fang, take me across the street."

Under the woman's astonished gaze, the pink guide dog sprang into action.

Guided by continuous voice prompts, the human and machine successfully crossed to the other side of the street.

And then walked back.

Taking off his blindfold, Li Ping'an originally expected the other person to ask about the mechanical guide dog by his side, but instead, he was met with a blunt blow.

The woman glanced at the pink mechanical dog by Li Ping'an's feet and chuckled lightly, "You clearly haven't done any market research."

She pointed to the rigid harness connecting her and guide dog Dou Dou, "Only with a fixed bracket like this can one perceive direction along with the guide dog."

"What's the use of using a soft leash?"

"You can neither sense direction nor gauge the distance between yourself and the guide dog."

Li Ping'an froze on the spot. A leash……

His gaze shifted back and forth between the leash and the rigid bracket in the woman's hand.

Li Ping'an fell silent.

That's right, how could he not have thought of that!

And he considered himself a student at Tsinghua University.

He had failed to anticipate such a crucial issue.

He had originally wanted to seek out these professional tests to gather feedback on problems.

Never did he expect that his enterprise would be nipped in the bud, with someone pointing out a fundamental flaw at a single glance.

"Thank you, I'll go back right now and make improvements and upgrades."

Seeing that Li Ping'an was about to leave, the woman spoke up, "Let's leave contact information. Personally, and even our entire school as a collective, we actually very much hope that smart devices can eventually replace guide dogs."

"If that day truly arrives, it will be wonderful news for both visually impaired individuals and guide dogs alike."

"Alright!" Li Ping'an nodded.

He had no reason to refuse her.

Watching Li Ping'an's retreating figure, Zhang Feng pondered for a moment and decided to report the scene she had just witnessed to her superiors.

Although the other party's smart device still had design flaws, judging from the road-crossing demonstration, the effect was quite promising.

She hoped... the other party's product could truly surpass guide dogs.

Even if it fell slightly short, it wouldn't matter.

Because... in the era of technological industry, once the other party successfully developed it, it meant mass production was possible!

That is the true meaning of technology.