Monday.
After morning classes, many boarding students did not rush to the cafeteria. Instead, they stayed in the classroom to watch "News 30 Minutes."
During the monthly exams, Saddam had been captured by the Americans!
They had not been allowed to watch TV then, so now that the exams were over, they had to catch up.
On the television, footage of the capture kept replaying while the Americans' subsequent actions were reported.
Xu Haibo ran over to Chen Guiliang's side, stared at the news, and asked, "Chen the Hero, do you think Iraq really had weapons of mass destruction?"
"If they really had them, they would've used them long ago," Chen Guiliang said.
Zhao Cong from Dorm 301 cared deeply about current affairs and could not help cutting in. "Maybe they were still in the experimental stage. Didn't Powell produce a vial of samples?"
Chen Guiliang laughed. "For all we know, it was full of laundry detergent."
"Hahahaha!"
Several students nearby burst out laughing.
"Let's go. Stir-fry dishes, my treat!" Chen Guiliang shouted.
Hearing that someone was treating, the guys from 302 sprang into action.
On the way there, Li Yulin asked, "Chen the Hero, have you been kept by some rich woman? Your lifestyle has improved a lot lately."
Xie Yang wanted to speak but stopped himself, feeling terribly pent-up inside.
He desperately wanted to spill everything and brag about how Chen Guiliang had made a fortune running a private server. But he had already promised to keep it secret, so he could only keep his mouth shut. It was damn near giving him internal injuries.
Xu Haibo followed up, "Chen the Hero, is the woman keeping you the big rich lady, or that little rich lady?"
The big rich lady was, of course, Bian Guanyue, while the little rich lady referred to Tao Xue.
Both beauties had money and were on good terms with Chen Guiliang. It made their roommates green with envy and jealousy!
Chen Guiliang smiled. "I picked up several hundred yuan a while back."
"You think we'd believe that?" Li Yulin said.
Li Dongqiang suggested, "Let's give him another Arubā interrogation tonight!"
Chen Guiliang turned toward the cafeteria. "Then I'm not treating anymore."
"Don't let him get away!"
"You said you were treating. No backing out!"
The guys hurriedly grabbed Chen Guiliang, twisted both his arms behind his back, and escorted him to a small restaurant outside the school.
After eating and drinking their fill, they returned to school and continued working through problems.
Tao Xue ran into the classroom at top speed and said mysteriously, "Did you know? Guo Xiaosi is suspected of plagiarism!"
"Really?" Chen Guiliang pretended to be shocked.
Tao Xue widened her eyes and began gossiping. "Absolutely true. It blew up last week. I read How Much Do Flowers Fall in Dreams, and yesterday I went to the Tianya Forum and read Inside and Outside the Circle. The two books have a lot in common, and Inside and Outside the Circle was serialized earlier."
Chen Guiliang said, "Then he probably borrowed from it."
"What borrowing? It's obviously plagiarism. I never thought Guo Xiaosi was that kind of person!" Tao Xue's voice carried anger and disappointment.
Chen Guiliang smiled. "Aren't you his fan?"
"Side with reason, not family, okay? Besides, he's not even related to me," Tao Xue said, growing more depressed as she spoke. "I could have gone to City No. 2 High School. I only came to County No. 2 High School to become Guo Xiaosi's schoolmate because I liked him. I'm so mad, so mad!"
Chen Guiliang comforted her. "We should thank Guo Xiaosi, though. Otherwise, we never would have met. If you hadn't admired him, you wouldn't have been studying here."
"That's true." Tao Xue froze for a moment.
This time, Guo Xiaosi had kicked an iron plate, because the author he had plagiarized was no nobody. She was a returned-from-abroad editor at Oriental Outlook!
When he chose his target, he probably had not expected that the author of a novel with little fame on Tianya would actually have quite a bit of background and connections.
If he had known, Guo Xiaosi definitely would have picked another book to copy.
Haha.
Tao Xue asked, "Big Nephew, what about your cyberpunk novel?"
"I've only written the first chapter," Chen Guiliang said.
Tao Xue was a little speechless. "You finished the first chapter half a month ago. Why is it still only the first chapter now? I've been waiting for the rest!"
Chen Guiliang said, "I have to work with your brother, and I've been busy reviewing and doing problems. Where would I find time to write a novel?"
"Forget it. The College Entrance Exam comes first. I'll chase you for updates after you get to college." Aunt Tao was quite understanding.
Seeing Chen Guiliang take out a practice paper, she waved goodbye on her own initiative so she would not delay her big nephew's studies.
Chen Guiliang worked through the paper very slowly.
Whenever he came across a problem he could not solve, he stopped to slowly flip through his books or went to ask Xu Haibo for help.
He did not move on until he had mastered the knowledge point involved.
As for whether he could finish all the practice papers the teachers handed out, he felt that was secondary. It did not matter even if he failed to turn in homework.
Another hour passed, and Bian Guanyue came to the classroom.
At the school gate, she had bought three portions of baby potatoes. One was for Zheng Feng, who accompanied her to school; one was for Wu Meng, who helped her study; and the last had been specially brought for Chen Guiliang.
The little rich lady who had been icy and aloof when she first transferred had now learned to get along with her classmates.
Of course, that only applied to people she knew fairly well.
When facing classmates she barely knew, Bian Guanyue still did not like talking.
Zheng Feng had been happily eating his baby potatoes, but when he saw Bian Guanyue specially bring a portion to Chen Guiliang, the potatoes in his mouth instantly lost their flavor.
They were both baby potatoes, but if he had not been there, Bian Guanyue definitely would not have bought any for him.
Yet even if Chen Guiliang was not there, Bian Guanyue would specifically bring him a portion!
"Your cousin called. He said the MacBook screen arrived this morning." Bian Guanyue placed the baby potatoes on the desk.
Chen Guiliang picked up a toothpick and ate one. "I'll go with you this weekend."
Bian Guanyue said, "Then let's meet at the bus station at nine on Saturday morning. We'll call each other then."
With that, Bian Guanyue returned to her seat to study.
"Not bad, Chen the Hero. Another date with the class beauty." His deskmate Qin Shanshan teased him while freeloading a piece of potato.
Chen Guiliang asked, "You want to come too?"
"I'm not interested. I already made plans to go roller-skating this weekend," Qin Shanshan said. "By the way, can you roller-skate? When are we going together?"
"We'll see when I'm free," Chen Guiliang brushed her off.
Roller-skating was especially popular at the time. In small towns, it even counted as a fashionable sport.
In another two years, it would not be. Roller rinks would close down one after another.
"Class rep, hand out the papers."
Zhong Dahe, the geography teacher, arrived in the classroom a few minutes early. Rather than trouble the student on cleaning duty, he picked up the eraser and wiped the blackboard himself.
Besides being the geography teacher, he also held two other positions: vice principal and director of student affairs.
He would become the principal of County No. 2 High School two principals later, and under his leadership the school would surpass City No. 2 High School.
Later, he would also hold a whole string of titles, including adjunct professor at a certain key university, master's supervisor, external reviewer for master's theses, and more.
"You've all heard, right? Saddam was captured."
After wiping the blackboard, Zhong Dahe suddenly threw out that line.
So he had come early today just to shoot the breeze with the students.
"We heard!"
The whole class answered in unison.
He picked up a piece of chalk and casually sketched the outline of the Middle East. "This is where Asia, Africa, and Europe meet. Wars have never ceased here since ancient times. When you study geography, it's best to combine it with history. We won't go over the monthly exam papers today. Since Saddam was captured, we'll use this opportunity to review the geography points of the Tigris-Euphrates basin..."
Zhong Dahe's lessons were witty and humorous, and his store of knowledge was extensive. He drew on all kinds of sources, making his lectures entertaining enough to listen to as stories.
Of course, he also bragged a lot.
First, he bragged about his glorious achievement of quitting smoking. After being a heavy smoker for over twenty years, he quit just like that. He quit that very day and never touched another cigarette.
Second, he bragged about his younger brother who had immigrated to the United States, talking about how spectacularly successful he had become.
Sometimes, he had other things to brag about too.
For example, last year, he had led a youth environmental protection project, with teachers guiding the students through the actual work. Eight winning projects were selected nationwide, and No. 2 Middle School ranked first. Two students received their awards at the Great Hall of the People, met with national leaders, and were both guaranteed admission to prestigious universities.
This lousy school had more than just one Guo Xiaosi.
This year's provincial top scorer in the science track had also come from County No. 2 High School. Everyone knew that the 2003 math exam had been leaked, and the backup paper had left students wailing in misery. Yet County No. 2's student had scored 137 in math.
In the blink of an eye, it was the weekend again.
During peak hours on Friday and Saturday that week, Legend of the Abyss still maintained nearly 9,000 concurrent players.
Quite a few players had been drawn away by similar copycat private servers.
Many new players had joined as well, mainly from internet cafés and readers of Popular Software.
Shanda still had not made a move.
But on Thursday, Tao Chenggang called. "Something big happened. Five state ministries and commissions jointly announced that they'll soon launch a special crackdown on private servers and Game Cheats. The crackdown is scheduled to officially begin on New Year's Day, thirteen days from now."
"How are the other private server operators reacting?" Chen Guiliang asked.
Tao Chenggang said, "They're all scared out of their wits. A joint operation by five ministries and commissions—the scale sounds huge! I heard two private servers that were planning to copy our dungeon system have directly canceled their launch plans. They're going into hiding for a while first. The 17577 Forum also received Shanda's Lawyer's Letter. Can Ying, the site owner, doesn't even dare show up anymore."
"How does Brother Gang plan to handle it?" Chen Guiliang asked.
Tao Chenggang said, "On December 31, the day before the crackdown, we'll remove the game download link and stop all promotion from then on. Consider it giving the officials some face. I asked a lawyer. As long as we don't stir up trouble anymore, there shouldn't be a problem."
"Then we'll do as Brother Gang says." Chen Guiliang readily accepted.
Those running private servers and Game Cheats had indeed been badly frightened over the past two days.
The name of five ministries and commissions alone sounded terrifying!
Some particularly timid people even shut down their private servers outright, not daring to wait until the day of the special crackdown.
Game Cheats for legitimate games also quieted down considerably. At the very least, no new cheats appeared.
Shanda also took the opportunity to build momentum. Zhang Yingfeng, head of legal affairs and copyright, gave interviews to more than a dozen media outlets in succession, repeatedly stressing Shanda's zero tolerance toward Game Cheats and private servers.
Chen Guiliang hid out at school and turned a deaf ear to it all.
On Saturday night, Chen Guiliang specifically took a shower and stood before the full-length mirror choosing what to wear the next day.
He was going to accompany Bian Guanyue to get her computer repaired again.
"Chen Guiliang from 302, come answer the phone!"
The dorm supervisor stood in the third-floor corridor and shouted.
"Coming, coming." Chen Guiliang tossed aside his clothes and ran down to the dorm supervisor's office on the second floor.
The entire dorm building had only one landline, located in the dorm supervisor's office.
"Hello, this is Chen Guiliang," Chen Guiliang said.
A woman's voice came through the phone. "Did you submit an entry to the New Concept Writing Competition?"
"Yes." Chen Guiliang instantly understood what this was about.
"I'm Hu Weishi, an editor at Sprout Magazine. I was worried you might not receive the second-round notice, so I'm calling to let you know in advance. Your notice has already been mailed. If you still can't receive it, check the details for the second round in the first issue of Sprout Magazine next year. When the time comes, you can take the train directly to participate in the second round, and we can reimburse your train ticket. Only hard-seat tickets can be reimbursed."
"Okay. Thank you, Editor Hu."
"Haha, you're from Fushi No. 2 High School too. I thought you'd call me Sister Weishi like Guo Xiaosi did."
"Thank you, Sister Weishi."
"If you have a novel-length work to submit, you can mail it directly to my office. Make sure to write my name as the recipient. Remember, don't plagiarize!"
"Okay."
"When Guo Xiaosi asked me to serialize How Much Do Flowers Fall in Dreams, I asked him again and again whether he had plagiarized anything. I told him not to make things as troublesome as Ice Fantasy. He kept saying he hadn't copied anything, and now this mess has broken out!"
"Understood."
"I'll hang up now. I still need to notify the other contestants."
"Goodbye, Sister Weishi."
"Goodbye."
Chen Guiliang had heard a little about this female editor, Hu Weishi.
She was the "boss" Han Han talked about, the one who had called Han Han about his makeup exam.
She was also the "Sister Weishi" Guo Xiaosi spoke of, at least before they fell out.
Every redesign of Sprout Magazine had also been Hu Weishi's work.
Before you continue