Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi’s brows furrowed as she listened to He Zhichu’s explanation, but her eyes were still staring at that invalid IP address in a spellbound way.
The method He Zhichu mentioned, at that moment, was indeed the most appropriate and it saved the most time.
She could not spend too much time on that thing. If she really couldn’t unravel the invalid IP, was she just going to wait for Gu Yanran to take her to court?
Nevertheless, to her, the invalid IP address was the greatest attraction. It was like a person with OCD who’d seen a book that was crooked and insisted on setting it straight. A top student who liked math would stop eating, drinking, and sleeping to solve a problem at all costs when she suddenly discovered that it couldn’t be answered.
The logic behind giving up and the desire to solve the problem struggled with each other for a long while. In the end, she hardened her heart, slowly nodded, and said, “Fine, I’ll let it go for now.”
But she also secretly promised herself that when the thing with Gu Yanran had been resolved and when she had graduated ahead of time, she would have a great deal of time to solve the problem…
He Zhichu exhaled. His lower jaw raised as he smiled. “What would you do then? The IP address has already been changed.”
Gu Nianzhi pressed her lips together in a spirited manner and cunningly said, “I will change it back again…”
To be more precise, she was going to create a man-made system failure to force the website, Weibo, to restore its back-up data from the day before. It would recover the uploaded IP address that had been falsified by the hacker. Furthermore, it would let the canceled account become an active account again.
She would take advantage of this and add a small app to that Weibo account. It would let that account automatically display the IP address it was logged onto and all the places it had been used.
She then took a screenshot of the Weibo website’s public page. That way she could send it to Gu Yanran and slap her in the face with how wrong she’d been.
He Zhichu touched her hair and smiled as he said, “You have a lot of crafty ideas. You have done a lot of this kind of thing before, right? Whoever’s in a sniping war with you picked the wrong opponent.”
Gu Nianzhi felt proud of herself as she smiled, but she quickly put a stern expression on her face and said, “…That’s not really true. I couldn’t beat the person who made the invalid IP…”
He Zhichu withdrew his hand. He secretly said to himself, but may you never have to see him again and not know who he is…
“You’re only 19 years old. In the future, you will have an ample amount of time for yourself. Plus, computer skills change with each passing day. It could be that you will unravel this mystery in the near future.” He Zhichu understood Gu Nianzhi’s habits and thoughts. He could only comfort her like that.
Gu Nianzhi closed her eyes and she nodded slowly. “Professor He is right. I will work hard!”
“Yes, make your move,” He Zhichu said as he picked up his iPad. He sat on the sofa in the study to keep her company and glanced at the news occasionally.
Gu Nianzhi employed all of her tricks and started to attack Weibo.
…
At 11 in the evening, the Huaxia Empire’s biggest social media website, Weibo, suddenly experienced a technical malfunction.
The computer servers from Blue Planet were all suddenly hit with different levels of attacks. Furthermore, the attacks were being conducted perfectly. They were unified like they had all been carried out by one precise ruler.
Countless people who had a habit of going to sleep only after they had finished scrolling through Weibo found themselves unable to get on. There were wails like ghosts and howls like wolves on every online forum. They expressed that they were at a loss for how to live anymore…
All of Weibo’s IT Personnel and external assistants were quickly assembled to respond to the first massive global technical malfunction Weibo had ever experienced since its launch.
All of Blue Planet’s Weibo technicians used video conferencing to contact each other. They were in a frenzy as they discussed the best means to resolve the problems.
After hustling for two hours, they realized that if they didn’t take decisive action sometime soon that the whole system would be destroyed. All the past data would be lost.
“…Let’s reset the hard drive.” Weibo’s technical directors from all over the world gritted their teeth as they made the decision over the global technical department’s video conference call. “The latest back-up data from yesterday was at what time? Start from there.”
“But that would cause all the data from today to be lost.” Some of the staff from the technical department did not want to resign themselves to taking this course of action.
“We need to tackle the big problem and let the small ones go at a time like this. We either lose today’s data or lose all of our data. Which would you pick? Do you even need to think about it?” The technical director sprayed saliva on a young technician’s face. “Reset the hard drive!”
At one in the morning, Weibo’s system sent out a notice. It announced that the hard drive had been reset to the system’s latest back-up, and that day’s data would be completely lost. In it, they apologized to numerous Weibo users. Furthermore, they would compensate everyone for the loss by giving them three months’ worth of free membership.
The moment the notice was sent out, the people who were not able to sleep without scrolling through Weibo were finally put at ease.
They rebooted the whole system and restored the back-up data. Then they started to test it to see if the virus that threatened the entire system had disappeared.
That process took another two hours.
Weibo’s technical departments were fully convinced everything had gone back to normal. It was three in the morning when Weibo went back online.
Many domestic and international agencies were also alarmed at Weibo’s global malfunction. One of them was the Huaxia Empire’s Special Operation Forces.
Zhao Liangze and Huo Shaoheng were both in the central control room. They had practically watched Weibo’s malfunction unfold from beginning to end. Moreover, they had contacted Weibo and wanted to ask them if they needed technical assistance.
However, they rejected Special Operation Forces’ assistance on the basis of protecting Weibo users’ privacy.
As a result, Zhao Liangze and Huo Shaoheng didn’t know that it was all the result of just one young girl’s temporary interest.
…
“Awesome, the IP that logged in has appeared.” Gu Nianzhi smiled as she took a screenshot of the Weibo account that had been canceled. It had reappeared because the data from the day before had been restored. It clearly displayed the true IP address used when the video was uploaded. Moreover, it also showed the address of the site. It was 32 Willow Lane, the Prime Minister’s Residence
At the same time, the video that Weibo’s system had deleted had reappeared again after restoring the back-up data.
Gu Nianzhi immediately used the account with the disguised IP to forward it. Moreover, she sent it to several important figures like the Prime Minister’s official account.
She wrote: “…Weibo’s technical malfunction made a lot of evil things come to the surface. Did you think that you would not be responsible found for your illegal activity because you canceled an account? Have Prime Minister Tan explain this, please. Why is the IP address uploading this vulgar video coming from your Prime Minister’s IP address? Why did it show the Prime Minister’s Residence as the place of origin? Why cancel the account after uploading it? What kind of shameful conspiracy are you trying to conceal?!”
This message immediately made those Weibo users who couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night extremely excited.
One after another, they went to look at the Weibo that had been canceled the day before but was since recovered. The screenshot of the account showing both the IP address and the address of the site made them all go crazy. Those who hadn’t had time to download the video quickly downloaded it then.
That lively Weibo account was almost like a sumptuous dinner banquet. The forwarded article about the conspiracy quickly became the hottest searched item on the site.
The news media also immediately responded and covered the Weibo article about the Prime Minister’s vulgar video in their hot news slots.
The Prime Minister’s Residence’s hotline had not stopped ringing since 3:10 in the morning.
…
Gu Nianzhi was very satisfied when she struck the last letter on her keyboard. She sent Gu Yanran a screenshot of the real IP address. She stood up and clapped her hands as she grinned from ear to ear. “Successfully accomplished! Today’s task has ended in a very satisfactory way!”
He Zhichu continuously smiled as he looked at her. He stood up when he saw that she had finally finished with her task and said, “It’s very late. How about just resting here?”
Gu Nianzhi shook her head and quickly declined. “No, I will go back to my dormitory. It’s right inside the school. I will be alright.”
“I’ll walk you there.” He Zhichu would not let Gu Nianzhi walk in the dark alone anymore.
He grabbed his coat and walked out of the professor building with Gu Nianzhi.
It was dark in B University’s garden. It was the middle of the night and the moon was bright, but there were few stars out. The cold breeze made them cold all over.
But Gu Nianzhi was so excited that she was hot. Her little snowy-white face was flushed and beautiful. Her eyes were sparkling. She didn’t show a hint of exhaustion from staying up so late.
He Zhichu slowly walked with her as he listened to her tender and soft voice chattering away. It reminded him of the time they’d spent together years ago. It was as if those days were back again.
A little smile emerged on his cold face. His sparkling peach blossom eyes were absorbed in looking at Gu Nianzhi. She was the only thing he could see.
He really wished the road to her dormitory would go on forever.
But it was only a wish. In reality, they reached Gu Nianzhi’s dormitory pretty quickly.
He Zhichu straightened Gu Nianzhi’s scarf. “Go to sleep. Tomorrow’s Monday. I’ll give you a leave of absence from your morning class.
He Zhichu’s classes were on Monday mornings. Gu Nianzhi shook her head. “I’ll be fine after sleeping for a few hours. I don’t need to skip class.”
“Okay then.” He Zhichu didn’t say much. “Goodnight.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and waved at him. “Goodnight, Professor He.”
She turned and entered the elevator. She watched as the elevator door closed slowly. He Zhichu stood there awhile, looking at her. His sparkling peach blossom eyes were deeply sad and pitiful.
Gu Nianzhi was startled. When she craned her neck to look, He Zhichu had already turned and walked out
Odd…
Gu Nianzhi felt apprehensive. She shrugged her shoulders and stopped thinking about that unusual thing about He Zhichu. In any case, there were many unusual things about him. Gu Nianzhi pretended that she hadn’t seen anything.
When she went back to the dormitory, she entered her room quietly because she was afraid of waking Ma Qiqi up.
It was already 3:30 in the morning, it would be rude of her to wake someone up at that hour…
Gu Nianzhi went to the bathroom to wash up as quietly as she could. When she came out, she saw that her laptop computer had already had retrieved all the IPs that had logged into Herme’s official website
She felt very tired. She thought about waiting to look at it the next day, but when she walked over to the desk, she accidentally glanced at it. Just one glance at the results caused her to be unable to move.
The IP address that the computer screen showed was not some random IP. It was the invalid IP that she found over at He Zhichu’s place that had also tampered with the Weibo account!
…
He Zhichu took long strides as he walked back to the professor building. He sat on the sofa in the study and stared into space for a while.
The invalid IP that Gu Nianzhi had found replayed in his mind. He tried for a long time, but he was still not able to shake away that scary thought.
In the end, he could not tolerate it anymore. He called his home state and woke up his older male cousin, Qin Zhiyuan. “Older Cousin, help me look up an IP address,” he said as he sent the invalid IP to Qin Zhiyuan.
Qin Zhiyuan, who had been woken up in the middle of the night, was complaining and groaning. Still, he did not refuse to help He Zhichu.
He turned on his computer and started a fast search. Then he rubbed his eyes as if he had just seen something that was hard to believe. He stared at the information being displayed on the computer. He unwittingly said, “This is impossible!”
He Zhichu’s heart sank. “What do you mean? Did you find anything?”
“…This invalid IP. This… IP. How could somebody be using it? Didn’t that person… didn’t they… die seven years ago?!” Qin Zhiyuan mumbled as his fingers shook on the keyboard.
