A smart ass is a person who

twists an unplesant thing into a very plesant thing.  The bus driver in "diver"'s joke is a typical example.

Around Mar 2020, lot of enginners started WFH. At that time, honestly, I was scared. So I acted as a smart ass here---I.e. expressed an umplesant situation in a plesant way

 

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2020年3月左右，很多工程師開始在家辦公。說實話，當時我很害怕。所以我就耍了個小聰明——用一種令人愉快的方式表達了不愉快的情況。)