Xia Linfei's first impression on Su Yuan was that she was beautiful yet wild, with lovely features and an explosive energy. That faint wildness was like a fine steed every man longed to tame. But as the two of them talked, Su Yuan's impression of her began to change, gradually veering toward "overwhelmingly domineering." By now, she thought Xia Linfei was downright domineering.
Bold and fearless!
That was the real Xia Linfei.
Su Yuan didn't know why she'd gotten that impression of her. Some people just gave you that feeling.
"Xia..."
"Didn't I tell you to call me Sister Xia? Already forgotten?"
"...Sister Xia, do you have a boyfriend?"
Xia Linfei gave her a half-smile. "What, trying to pick me up?"
"No."
The corners of Su Yuan's mouth twitched. The good image she'd had of Xia Linfei had been utterly shattered.
"Okay, I'll stop teasing you. Your big sister is actually a very reserved person. But I don't mind telling you: I'm not married, and I don't have a boyfriend either. If you want to woo me, you'd better get a move on."
"Um... maybe some other time."
Su Yuan rejected her without giving it a second thought. She'd expected Xia Linfei to fly into a rage, but instead, Xia's expression changed in an instant, and she smiled at her. Su Yuan suddenly found it rather amusing. They'd only just met that morning, yet they felt like old friends, already chatting about "marriage and settling down." It was certainly unusual.
She was paid for handing out flyers at the end of each day, with no delays. After saving Xia Linfei's contact information in her phone, Su Yuan realized for the first time that getting a beautiful woman's number could be so easy! If she went back and told Ji Yehao and Gao Jun, they'd be green with envy!
"Su Yuan, it's getting late. I'm really glad we met today. Remember to call me!"
"Mm, I will!"
Dusk settled in, and the crowds gradually thinned. The day's bustling traffic quietly receded into the background. After a day of scorching heat, the earth could finally catch its breath. Insects chirped in place of traffic, and the entire campus was steeped in the drifting fragrance of flowers and greenery.
Building 17, Room 330.
"Oh, yes!!"
Ji Yehao looked up and saw Su Yuan suddenly pumping her fist, phone in hand. He wondered what had gotten into her this time.
Su Yuan happily stuck the lollipop in her mouth and swiped away on her knockoff phone. She'd just logged into the school's academic system and learned that the Calculus retake results were out. She'd gotten an excellent score of 93.
If she'd gotten that score on the final, Su Yuan would have been an exemplary student! Unfortunately, her talent had bloomed late, and the good news had come a little too late. It was only when she took the retake that the door to wisdom had quietly opened for her.
"Something good happen?" Seeing her smiling, brimming with excitement, Ji Yehao asked curiously.
"The retake results are out! I got a 93!"
"That high?" Ji Yehao was stunned. He'd thought she'd be lucky just to pass.
"Of course!" Su Yuan preened like a proud peacock, then tossed him an unopened lollipop. It hit Ji Yehao right on the head. "From your tone, you sound surprised I got that score?"
"How could I be..." Ji Yehao gave an awkward chuckle and picked up the lollipop from the desk.
"Go ahead and eat it. I picked it up when I passed the campus store." In high spirits, Su Yuan easily forgave Ji Yehao for his grave disrespect.
Gao Jun clattered away at the keyboard, finally finishing the last line of code.
"Good job! Done!"
"How is it? Is the software ready?" Su Yuan practically lunged toward Gao Jun's computer.
"Of course. What did you expect, with me on the job?" Gao Jun looked supremely confident.
"Here, this is your reward." Su Yuan pulled another lollipop from her pocket. Looking at the software package on the desktop, she asked, "How do I use this?"
"It's simple. I'll show you."
Ji Yehao came over too. With both of them watching, Gao Jun clicked Run. A black bat window appeared on the screen. After collecting information about the computer, it displayed a "Capture" prompt. Gao Jun typed "y" to continue, then ran the legitimate dial-up software. The entire process was captured.
When the process was complete, Gao Jun closed the legitimate software on the computer and copied the generated "text" into the corresponding directory.
"The capture just now generated fifty pairs of 'legitimate' network interface usernames and passwords. In theory, routing them through a router will avoid the telecom company's monitoring and support up to fifty computers on the local network."
As he spoke, he opened a browser to test it. It worked!
"Fantastic! I'll go back and try it!" Su Yuan praised Gao Jun, returned to her seat, and turned on her computer, reconnecting to the social network she hadn't used in ages.
There was a deluge of information online. Though it let news travel quickly and allowed people to learn about what was happening in the world without leaving home, it was undeniable that only a small portion of that information was truly grounded in reality. Much of it had been doctored or sensationalized with inflammatory language.
Separating objective information from the rest took a discerning eye. As the saying went, rumors stopped with the wise—but how many people actually met the standard of wisdom?
She logged into the campus forum, where she found an amusing story about upperclassmen eating chilled watermelon while watching the freshmen's military training—a despicable incident. In the comments, "big sisters and big brothers" cursed out the people involved, even as their words betrayed how eager they were to try it themselves.
Another story had caused quite a stir on the campus forum. Supposedly, late on the night of September 2, an extraterrestrial object had visited Earth. Quite a few astronomy enthusiasts in Binhe City had captured a ball of fire streaking across the sky through their telescopes, and many more had posted that they'd heard a loud boom.
It was a pretty unusual event. Small meteorites visited Earth every year—supposedly around five to ten times—but Su Yuan had never heard of one landing in Binhe City before. A curious netizen had looked into it and discovered that not only had nothing like this happened in Binhe City, but the only such incident in the entire Donghai Province had taken place in October 1992, in Su Yuan's hometown of Haizhou City.
As a result, this unlikely meteorite sighting attracted considerable attention in Binhe City.
"A meteorite landed in Binhe City? Good thing it didn't hit our school, or classes would definitely be suspended." Su Yuan usually treated this sort of fluff news as entertainment.
"Apparently it wasn't a meteorite, but a military satellite." Gao Jun shook his head, correcting her.
Su Yuan looked surprised. "A satellite? But everyone online says it was a meteorite..."
Ji Yehao shook his head. "You can't believe everything you read online. Better ask Gao Jun. His dad's a key researcher at a military research institute, so he must know some of the inside story."
That was a wake-up call. Su Yuan had forgotten about Gao Jun's father. Working in science and technology, he would know more than people outside the field. And since it had happened in Binhe City, Gao Jun's father might really know something. "Gao Jun, tell us!"
Gao Jun said, "I don't know the details either, but I overheard my dad taking a phone call. It was definitely a military satellite. No idea which country it belonged to, but it crashed in our city. Apparently, the military rushed to secure the parts that hadn't burned up and assigned an elite team to reverse-engineer them. My dad's on the technical team, and we still haven't heard from him."
"Which country do you think the satellite belonged to?"
"Who knows?"
Gao Jun lowered his voice mysteriously. "And did you know that the one that crashed in '92 was also apparently a satellite? It was American. The Americans argued with us over it for ages, and even sent in special forces to steal some of it back. Our top officials were furious, but there was a leadership change going on at the time, so the whole thing was swept under the rug."
"What! That actually happened?"
This was top-secret stuff. Su Yuan had never imagined that an international confrontation had taken place in the very city where she'd grown up.
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