Did Lü Xiaoxia, after her mutation, fear revealing her identity and thus use an account from five years ago to answer questions on Zhihu?
But that doesn't make sense either. Everything is now under real-name registration; to reply or answer, you need to link your phone number. If it's a phone number whose identity can't be traced, why not just register a new account?
Or is she simply trying to avoid the acquaintances who follow her on the account "Dawn Glow"?
Xiang Kun tapped his index finger lightly on the table, squinting at the answer posted by "August's Kasumi" two days ago, and then looking at "Dawn Glow"'s more than one hundred answers—yes, this girl's new account was clearly a "chatterbox," with more than one hundred answers, although most of them were just witty remarks and fluff.
The writing style of the two answers by "August's Kasumi" is clearly different from that of Lü Xiaoxia.
If it's just different from five years ago, then you could say that the girl who was in the second year of junior high school back then has changed a lot in her third year of senior high school.
However, with comparisons of Xiang Kun's posts on another Zhihu account and her texts on various social media platforms, it can be basically confirmed that those two answers were not actually posted by Lü Xiaoxia.
Although the person he finally found after all that effort wasn't the one who actually answered the question, Xiang Kun wasn't discouraged at all. A negative answer is still an answer, and sometimes it can even provide more information than a positive answer.
Xiang Kun basically ruled out the possibility that someone around Lü Xiaoxia was using her old account. Five years had passed; let alone others, even she herself might not remember the password. Moreover, it was highly likely that when she used it back then, she was still in the second year of junior high school and hadn't linked her phone number, so she simply registered a new account later.
So why would someone use this account to post that kind of answer?
Judging from that answer, the person who posted it is likely a mutant or vampire like Xiang Kun. If he simply wanted to connect with his kind, he could have just created a new account; there was no need for him to go through the trouble of creating someone else's account.
Moreover, upon closer reading, the content of these two responses seems to deliberately mimic the mannerisms of a girl; who knows, behind the screen might be a burly man even stronger than Xiang Kun, picking his toes...
Using a user account with a history of use, belonging to a young girl, and posting content in a young girl's tone—is the intention to make other "like-minded" people think that the person who posted those two answers is a newly mutated, clueless "newbie" vampire?
Compared to a completely new account with no history, an established account with a usage record is clearly more trustworthy.
Xiang Kun recalled his feelings when he first saw the "Giant Owl," and how the "Giant Owl" risked being noticed by humans to approach human settlements in search of him.
He thought of two words:
"Hunting" and "fishing".
However, based on Xiang Kun's judgment, this is probably not an official matter.
Reason told Xiang Kun that he absolutely could not contact that person; pretending he knew nothing and saw nothing was the best way to avoid danger.
The safest approach is to silently observe the answer and the person who posted it from the sidelines.
However, after hesitating for no more than 30 seconds, Xiang Kun made a decision. Since he had already guessed the other party's possible intentions in advance, it was hard to say who was in the open and who was in the dark.
You can observe them first to see who they are.
As he was pondering, the canary flew onto the table and chirped twice. Xiang Kun glanced back out the window and realized that it was already dawn.
After gesturing for the canary to fly onto his shoulder, Xiang Kun went to prepare birdseed for it, then changed his clothes, took off his glasses, and went out.
When I put on my shoes, I found that my toes were touching the front, so the shoes seemed a bit small?
Xiang Kun quickly realized that it wasn't that the shoes were too small, but rather that his feet had grown a tiny bit bigger.
Thinking back, it seems that during those nighttime mountain runs, I increased my load to 80KG and was always barefoot. So, with the increased intensity and more running, my feet naturally grew a bit bigger to adapt to running on all terrains?
However, Xiang Kun didn't care too much. Anyway, there weren't many big ones, so it wasn't like he would have to change his shoes right away.
Xiang Kun, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and sneakers, ran out of the residential area and jogged towards a more bustling area, facing the rising sun. He had tied a headscarf around his neck and taken off his glasses, making him look quite different from usual.
He wasn't out for a morning run, of course; he was just using the guise of a run to conduct necessary observations and "scout out" locations.
Xiang Kun spent the entire day wandering around the city, only returning home in the early hours of the morning. The next morning, he went to another city more than 200 kilometers away, where he also spent the entire day wandering around.
It was already evening when Xiang Kun took his laptop to a dumpling restaurant, ordered a large portion of dumplings, sat down in a corner, opened his laptop, started a virtual machine, changed the MAC address, and connected to the Wi-Fi of a nearby coffee shop.
Then, following the previous plan and preparations, I used two jump servers to log into the TOR browser, open Zhihu, register a new account, and use a trial verification code receiving software to verify my phone number. This kind of software works on the same principle as the verification code receiving services on Taobao; they all have devices like SIM card pools with a bunch of SIM cards from various channels, allowing for bulk registration and verification. This kind of thing is often used for things like fake reviews and bulk coupon theft; it's part of the black market.
However, Xiang Kun's number is only a trial version, which can only be used once every 24 hours and cannot be used again for verification. If someone tries to find that number, they will most likely not be able to locate it, and even if they do, they won't be able to find it on Xiang Kun, since he hasn't paid any money and can simply avoid using the Zhihu account linked to that number.
After sending a private message to "August's Kasumi" using his newly registered account, he began to wait.
If "August's Kasumi" is indeed a vampire plotting to "fish" for attention, then he should get a response soon.
After the mutation, Xiang Kun has been suffering from some paranoia, always predicting the worst-case scenario no matter what happens.
If the suspected "fishing" mastermind behind this can obtain someone else's Zhihu account, then they must have some internet-related knowledge, so let's assume they are a skilled hacker.
Although it was unlikely that the other party could find Xiang Kun's specific IP address through Zhihu messages on Xiang Kun, especially given his extensive preparations, he still assumed that the other party had the ability to access official channels and could find his real IP address.
In this situation, the other party's primary physical target would be the coffee shop where they used the Wi-Fi. They might use the coffee shop's security camera footage to search for customers and then check the device access records on the router.
However, firstly Xiang Kun wasn't in the coffee shop, and secondly, the MAC address of his device's Wi-Fi connection had been modified. Once he finished his business and deleted the virtual machine, he wouldn't be traced back to Xiang Kun.
Even this dumpling shop was "carefully selected" by him—because there were no security cameras, the two security cameras in the corner of the shop were just decorative decorations!
Moreover, he was wearing a baseball cap, had changed into a new set of clothes and shoes, and had scouted the area beforehand, knowing how to avoid the security cameras and shop cameras along the way, so that even if he was filmed, it would only be from behind.
He had considered almost every possible scenario and felt that he was at least in an invincible position.
He might not be up to the task of infiltration and hacking, but he's perfectly capable of guarding his own computer's little corner.