Chapter 26

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Chen Heng had stayed too long at the remote military academy; even butterflies looked like beauties to him. Now his eyeballs darted left and right, staring without stopping, muttering in a voice no one else could hear: "A girl of sixteen or seventeen—she could be married off even in ancient times!"

He was looking for a theoretical justification for himself.

Looking at that pitiful state, no wonder they say the People's Liberation Army is hard.

As for Chen Yi, when the four of them came over, he had already grinned. When they arrived before him, he happily called out to the girl in the middle: "Han Jie?"

"Chen Yi," Han Jie replied with a smiling voice, full of cheerfulness.

She wore her glossy black hair in a ponytail, her lip line not very clear and unadorned, yet so full it made one want to bite it. Her slightly protruding bust, paired with an extremely slender waist, exuded the breath of youth.

The little sister squeezed out from between her two brothers with great face, her eyebrows not eyebrows and eyes not eyes with joy, saying: "Second Brother, Han Jie is back from Xijing, didn't expect that, did you?"

Chen Yi spoke the truth: "Really didn't expect it. Haven't seen her for nearly half a year, right? Is Auntie's health good?"

"All better, just keeps shouting every day that I should go to a girls' school." Han Jie pouted, looking especially pretty, but Chen Yi felt nothing.

The two were simply too familiar with each other.

From kindergarten to elementary school, then middle school and high school, as neighbors Chen Yi and Han Jie were either in the same class or at least the same grade—they could be called childhood sweethearts.

What was most rare was that the Chen and Han families were on good terms, and the elders kept in close contact. If it weren't that this era didn't favor arranged marriages by childhood engagement, they might not even have needed the formalities.

But the elders' matters were the elders'; the two were childhood friends who grew up together, their relationship as close as friends—at least in Chen Yi's view.

It was half a year ago when Han Jie's mother fell seriously ill and was hospitalized, going specially to Xijing for treatment, so the two were separated for a relatively long time. Meeting now, they were especially happy.

The little sister looked at Second Brother and Han Jie with interest, then introduced the eldest brother to the other three. Fortunately everyone was young, with no long and tedious formalities, and they soon became familiar.

At this moment those five male students also moved their things over, gathering to Chen Rongxi's other side, eagerly waiting for introductions.

Chen Heng gave them no chance at all, commanding with a military air: "You two, go prepare the barbecue; you, go chill the beer; the remaining two, tidy up the backyard again—it's too dirty."

The ground wasn't actually that dirty, especially since the four delicate girls who came early had already cleaned the ground long ago; at this moment they were even more ashamed, their pretty faces blushing red.

The officer's bearing cultivated since childhood made no one dare to resist. The little sister looked eagerly at the computer that no one was using; a group of people really did barbecue, and she was both helpless and angry.

When the aroma of the barbecue wafted up, she finally couldn't take it, blocking in front of the eldest brother and shouting: "Chen Yi, you go barbecue; Xiao Yu and you few come over; let's start the competition."

After acting as a child's head for an hour, Chen Heng was also a bit tired; he closed his eyes, tacitly agreeing.

The students waited a moment, then excitedly let out a loud cry, all running to the computers.

The leader Xiao Yu opened that waterproof chest; sure enough, it was a supercomputer terminal identical to the little sister's. He took out a crumpled paper, unfolding it as he read: "144.092.000.000.255... We attack this address. Whoever enters first is the victor."

"Where is this?" the eldest brother asked very seriously.

"It depends on your skills." The competition began; Xiao Yu clearly treated them as opponents.

Chen Heng paid attention to the situation; Chen Yi continued barbecuing.

In the middle of the grill was hamburger meat entering a mature state; it had forgotten its original identity and was not on friendly terms with other parts of the pig. In the semi-hot zone near the grill were mainly various parts of chicken—body parts that had never met before now had a chance for intimate contact. The heaviest should be the steak; Australia is most famous for it, and Argentina's traditional cattle cannot escape the licking of flames, plus the cow's own tongue and a small amount of vegetables; an enticing aroma drifted from the villa's backyard.

And under the parasol and eaves, the students under the two rows of computers only twitched their noses once or twice, their gazes still focused on the two in the middle, as if they were two large mammals rubbed all over with seasoning and stuffed with spices in their bellies.

The computers made squeaking sounds, expressing their dissatisfaction with the mammals.

"Do you understand computers?" A little girl came to the barbecue rack and asked Chen Yi in a low voice.

Chen Yi thought for a moment, shook his head, and smiled: "Not much understanding. You're Lin Xiuli, right? Are you also a member of their association?"

"Yes." Lin Xiuli was a girl who looked quite cute; although she didn't have Liu Xinyu's charming appearance and devilish figure, she had fair skin and watery eyes, looking like a white radish just watered by a vegetable farmer early in the morning.

Her gaze shifted between the two Chen brothers, then she moved two steps to the right, making the distance to Chen Yi instantly go from close to narrow, before saying: "They are competing to invade a large website's server; both have prepared many zombie computers and various software, but whether they can break in sometimes depends on luck."

Seeing the way the two spoke, Chen Heng revealed a strange smile at the corner of his mouth, simply yielding the position of the grill and standing behind the computer group.

Chen Yi smiled, imperceptibly stepping back a step: "You others aren't participating?"

"They are fighting for the leader position; after several competitions, only Chen Rongxi and Xiao Yu remain." Lin Xiuli smiled and said: "I'm a first-year student in the Computer Science Department at Jiangning University. What about you?"

"Senior year at Jiangning Middle School." Chen Yi smiled and said: "How did you and the little sister meet?"

"I'm her senior schoolmate; I also went to a girls' school in middle school."

As her eyes flickered, Han Jie suddenly patted her shoulder and squeezed between the two.

Lin Xiuli blinked her eyes, suddenly seeming to realize something, and smiled with pursed lips.

Han Jie glared at him slightly and smiled faintly: "Let me help you barbecue."

Before her voice fell, she nimbly turned the grill.

Thus, near the barbecue rack, a combination of two girls and Chen Yi formed; the boys on the other side began to look over incessantly, except for the busy comrade Xiao Yu.

At this time, the competition between the two computers also entered its climax; the crackling keyboard sound could be heard from afar.

Han Jie lightly touched Chen Yi's arm and said in a low voice: "Are you worried about your sister, or are you yourself interested in computers?"

"Mainly interested in hackers." When talking to her, Chen Yi was much more natural. His previously somewhat stiff expression softened, and he smiled: "Before, I also wanted to invade some game myself and get an invincible account."

"Then you'll be disappointed; most hackers are very boring, and invasion even more so—nothing more than scanning and cracking. It sounds exciting, but most of the time they're just drinking tea and waiting." Han Jie said this, pouting: "The place where they are more powerful than ordinary hackers is that they not only know how to use hacker software, but can also write suitable software themselves. Xiao Ning has breached the external network of Jiangning University's Computer Research Center, and Rong Xi has breached the email server of the Jiangning Government website, though both took many days."

"You understand computers very well; I didn't know before."

"When I was in Xijing, there was a boy who showed off in front of me." Han Jie smiled quite proudly.

Chen Yi raised his eyebrows and said: "Then this time, how long will it take them to decide the winner?"

"It looks like the scan just ended; they are targeting the target and making some simple modifications." Han Jie pointed precisely at the dense keyboard sounds.

Just as she said, the concentrated tapping sounds did not last long; Xiao Yu stopped first, handsomely picking up a cup of tea, and said: "The address is the host of the Business Development Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin. It has been stripped bare."

Chen Heng coughed heavily.

Comrade Xiao Yu smiled embarrassedly, scratched his head, and said: "Anyway, Chen Rongxi, you can still admit defeat now; I need at most one more hour to finish. By the way, their firewall capability is really average; the business school's computers are just poor. If it were the Computer Science College, it should be much better."

Chen Rongxi bit her lip and said nothing; the sound of smashing the keyboard became louder.

In less than half an hour, she had just jumped from a Saudi Arabia zombie computer to a Korea zombie computer, then launched a scan from a Brazil zombie computer, using IP lookup software to determine the other party's computer version and port information, but she still had no concrete idea how to attack and thereby gain control right.

This filled her with confidence, with a slight wavering.

The other girl retorted: "What's so great about having many zombie computers."

So-called zombie computers are computers under one's control, belonging to previous accumulation. Their uses are many; used for jumping they can hide one's location, and in large quantities, used for DDoS attacks they can paralyze the other party's host.

Compared, Xiao Yu's preparation was obviously more fully adequate. Besides zombie computers, he also prepared various hacker software; just system password cracking software, he had several kinds, respectively corresponding to Win Series, Linux Series, OS Series, etc.

This is also his, or rather most hackers' style: judge, then use software to crack.

And Chen Rongxi, because she accepted complete computer education, therefore in programming and other aspects, has a natural advantage. If she develops like this, in another 10 years, her achievements will certainly far exceed that boy's.

However, the current situation is, whoever uses software more proficiently has the greater advantage.

"Who wants bacon?" Chen Yi suddenly shouted.