So Gao Xiaojie said lazily, "No, I'm getting an IV drip at the hospital right now. But I'm planning to sleep here tonight, so I won't just lie there like a corpse and start to rot without anyone knowing. I'm the only one in the whole dorm building right now, it's so quiet at night it's scary."
After a long silence on the other end of the phone, Chen Xu asked, "Which hospital are you in? What's your room number?"
"The provincial hospital, huh? Let me see the ward... Hmm, ward number 107. What, you want to come see me?"
Gao Xiaojie had barely finished speaking when the call ended. She stood there stunned for a long time, wondering what was going on. "He wouldn't really come to see me, would he?" she wondered. Just then, the on-duty doctor arrived and asked her a few more questions, so she didn't call Chen Xu back for the time being.
Half an hour later, Gao Xiaojie was boredly playing Minesweeper on her bed with her laptop when suddenly the door was pushed open. Chen Xu stood in the doorway, looking travel-worn. He brushed the snowflakes off his clothes and, mimicking a scene from a movie, spread his arms wide: "Aha! Now that you see me, aren't you happy? Surprised?!"
This was quite a surprise! Gao Xiaojie's mouth dropped open in astonishment, her eyes wide as she watched Chen Xu sit down on the hospital bed beside her. He then pulled out a box: "Look, fragrant Orleans roasted chicken wings! I bought eight, that should be enough for you, right? And there's more! Freshly baked egg tarts, hehe, a whole box! I know you girls love these, so I bought them especially for you. Haha, there are so many people at KFC! Someone even tried to cut in line! Humph. Who do you think I am? How could I let him cut in line?"
Watching Chen Xu ramble on and on, and then looking at that box of fragrant Orleans chicken wings, Gao Xiaojie felt her heart suddenly filled with something.
It wasn't just because Chen Xu braved the heavy snow and came rushing over. It was also because he remembered that he had specially bought her some Orleans-style chicken wings on the way... she had only mentioned it briefly!
Women are very emotional creatures; they are easily moved by small things. Watching Chen Xu sitting beside her, rambling on and on, normally she would have already slapped him to death. But now, she was stunned for a long time before finally saying, "Why are you here?! You didn't go home either?!"
Chen Xu sighed, "Ugh. Don't mention it. My parents went on vacation to New Zealand, and they deliberately said they wouldn't take me, the third wheel. So I have no choice but to stay here obediently." He finished speaking with a pitiful look. Then he asked, "Why didn't you go back either?"
Gao Xiaojie gave a brief explanation, then asked, "You also live in the dormitory?"
"No, no, I rented a place outside," Chen Xu said. "Oh dear, hurry up and eat something, the chicken wings will get cold and you can't eat them."
Gao Xiaojie was also a little hungry at this point, and more importantly, she felt she couldn't let Chen Xu's kindness go to waste, so she obediently nodded and picked up the chicken wings with a napkin to eat them with smacking sounds.
At that moment, Chen Xu was also munching on a chicken wing. Gao Xiaojie broke out in a cold sweat and said, "Hey, aren't you buying land for me?"
Chen Xu readily agreed, but asked, "Can you really eat that much? I bought eight of them, plus egg tarts!"
The two exchanged a glance, a burst of sparks flew through the air, and then, like starving refugees who hadn't eaten for ten days, they began to frantically grab at the food. Normally, two small chicken wings would be enough for Gao Xiaojie at KFC, but this time she ate four wings and three egg tarts in one go, before patting her tummy contentedly and letting out a very unladylike burp. Uh…
Chen Xu chuckled. "People are just like that, just like when they were kids." He remembered how he couldn't eat alone as a child, but he'd race the chubby boy next door, bowl in hand, to see who could eat faster, and then he'd gobble it down. Heh heh, even now that I'm grown up, it's still the same; food tastes better when you fight over it.
After finishing her meal, Gao Xiaojie asked Chen Xu about the apartment. Upon learning about the furnishings of Chen Xu's room, the young woman's eyes widened in astonishment. "What?! Air conditioning? On 24/7?! A water heater, a bathroom heater?! Hot water available 24/7?! A refrigerator and a washing machine?! Ahhh! So luxurious! So luxurious! These are truly the evil capitalists!"
Chen Xu chuckled and said, "It's alright, it's only 600 yuan a month, and the water, electricity, and gas bills are not included. It's not too expensive. Otherwise, in this freezing weather, wouldn't we freeze to death living in the dormitory?"
Then he saw Gao Xiaojie glaring at him fiercely, realizing he had said the wrong thing, and scratched his head and laughed twice: "Hehe, why don't you come stay at my place? I'll give you half the bed! It's a big bed, you know, with a Simmons mattress!"
"Go to hell!" Gao Xiaojie said fiercely, but Chen Xu's words made her somewhat tempted. Of course, she wasn't tempted to share a bed with Chen Xu. Living in the dormitory was just too cold, and the whole building was dark and quiet after dark; she was even afraid to go to the toilet. Besides, in such cold weather, she had caught a cold and had no one to take care of her; the hospital visit for an IV drip had already cost her almost a thousand yuan.
Moreover, Gao Xiaojie is quite afraid of being alone; when she plays computer games alone, she doesn't know what to do.
After thinking for a moment, Gao Xiaojie said, "Then it's settled, I'll stay at your place! But don't even think about me sharing a bed with you!"
Chen Xu was drinking water when he heard this and almost spat it out. He had only meant it as a joke. He stared blankly at Gao Xiaojie: "Uh, I live in a one-bedroom apartment! Well, it's not really appropriate for a man and a woman to be alone together, is it?"
"So you don't want me to stay at your place?" Gao Xiaojie pouted. "Fine, I'll just freeze to death in the dorm by myself."
"No, no, no," Chen Xu waved his hands repeatedly and said, "How could I not let you go? Uh, living together like this... hehe, it's not very convenient."
Hearing that he didn't refuse, Gao Xiaojie excitedly said, "No way! I'll just sleep in the living room! Is there a sofa?" Then Gao Xiaojie pouted and said, "Hey, I'm not afraid, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid I'll eat you?"
Chen Xu thought about it and said, "There's no long sofa, only a small one. You can't exactly sleep sitting up. Besides, the living room doesn't have air conditioning, it's cold, it's no different from a dormitory." Then he thought for a moment and said, "Okay then, if you come, you'll have to share a room with me. But my room is pretty big, so we can each sleep on a mattress on the floor, one of us in the bed and the other on a mat. Anyway, there's carpet underneath, and with the air conditioning on, it'll be very comfortable to sleep in."
Gao Xiaojie perked up immediately upon hearing this, then looked at Chen Xu pitifully: "Then I'll just sleep on the floor. It's better than staying in the dorm. Sigh, I've always been weak, and now I'm sick. I don't know if I'll be cold sleeping on the floor. The floor is damp; I don't know if my body can handle it..."
Upon hearing this, Chen Xu broke out in a cold sweat and said, "Sister, please stop talking. I'll sleep on the floor. Is that alright?"
Gao Xiaojie chuckled and made a victory sign.
Actually, sleeping on the floor isn't cold at all. There's a carpet and the air conditioning is on, so you can sleep right on it without any problems. Besides, if you put a few blankets underneath, it's no different from sleeping on a bed. When Chen Xu was a kid, he often stayed at his friends' houses late at night, and several of them would squeeze together on the floor. It wasn't a big deal.
However, Chen Xu was a little annoyed that this girl had taken over the role of host. He thought for a moment and then chuckled and said, "Well, you can't just stay at my place and do nothing, right? How about this, from now on, you'll be in charge of cleaning and laundry. Don't worry, I have a washing machine, it's fully automatic, you just need to press a button."
What a cheapskate! Gao Xiaojie gave him a disdainful look; he even had to take advantage of such a small thing.
But these weren't big deals, and Gao Xiaojie herself was very clean; she even complained about Chen Xu's messy pigsty. So she nodded and said, "Deal!"
Chapter 88 Webpage Virus
Knowing she was stuck in a hospital, Gao Xiaojie decided not to stay there any longer, no longer wanting to linger in the overwhelming smell of medicine. After her IV drip finished, she jumped out of bed and took a taxi with Chen Xu back to school to pack her things.
When Chen Xu went up to the girls' dormitory, he hesitated for a moment. Gao Xiaojie slapped him and said, "What are you afraid of? There's no one inside!" So Chen Xu entered this place that all the boys longed for, but he came at the wrong time.
The only difference between the girls' and boys' dormitories is the lockers; the girls' lockers are made of wood, while the boys' are made of sheet metal. This makes the warmer colors of the girls' dormitories more comfortable in winter.
While it's safe to wander around the girls' dormitory at this time, what you see is quite disappointing. Since everyone has left the school, the rooms are a mess as everyone is packing up. The beds have all been taken down, so the room is completely bare upon entering.
Gao Xiaojie told Chen Xu to fold the blankets and went to pack her clothes. Chen Xu curiously turned his head to take a look, but Gao Xiaojie turned his head away. "Hey! How dare you look at a girl's underwear!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Xu chuckled awkwardly and turned his head away, but tidying up the blankets was also a very enjoyable thing.
It's strange, really. Girls' sleeping places always smell wonderful, unlike men's beds, which are always smelly. Smelling the faint feminine fragrance from the blankets, Chen Xu was somewhat mesmerized. While Gao Xiaojie had finished tidying her clothes, he was still slowly folding the blankets.
Gao Xiaojie naturally didn't notice Chen Xu's trickery. In some ways, this girl was very carefree. If it were Zhan Jing in her current situation, she would probably rather stay in the dormitory than share a room with a man, even though they usually had a good relationship.
The woman had a lot of things; besides clothes and blankets, she had packed three large boxes full of other odds and ends. Chen Xu then carried one box with one hand, displaying impressive strength. The two of them braved the heavy snow and walked towards Chen Xu's dugout outside the school.
The snow was heavy; it had rained several times over the past few days, and the ground temperature had dropped. The heavy snowfall had continued all day without stopping, and now the world was a vast expanse of white.
What a desolate wasteland!
When the two returned to Chen Xu's place and opened the bedroom door, a gust of hot air immediately hit them.
Chen Xu hadn't turned off the air conditioner since they moved in. The indoor temperature was kept at 25 degrees Celsius, and after being outside in the cold for so long, the two of them felt warm all over as soon as they came in.
As Gao Xiaojie untied her scarf and took off her coat, she exclaimed, "So extravagant! So extravagant!" But after she took off her down jacket, Chen Xu, watching from the side, immediately felt a surge of interest.
Because Gao Xiaojie was wearing a tight-fitting beige sweater under her down jacket, it really accentuated her figure perfectly. You know, such tight-fitting sweaters usually show off the upper body even more than what girls wear in summer. Thanks to the sweater's shaping effect, the curve of her chest was clearly visible. Chen Xu secretly clicked his tongue in amazement; this girl usually looked so delicate and frail, he never expected her to be so well-endowed…
After brushing the snow off his clothes, Gao Xiaojie began inspecting the area, shouting "Corruption! Corruption! Extravagance!" as he did so. Seeing ice cream in the refrigerator, Gao Xiaojie's mouth watered, and he exclaimed, "Damn, you're eating ice cream in this freezing weather?!"
Chen Xu took a large cup of Yili ice cream, which he hadn't finished eating and had put in it. After opening the lid, he ate it while saying, "It's so hot in this air-conditioned room. If you want some, just say so, take whatever you want."
Gao Xiaojie pouted: "Who said I wanted to eat it?"
Chen Xu chuckled: "Your mouth is watering and you still don't want to eat?"
Gao Xiaojie was speechless for a long time after hearing that sentence. But then Chen Xu closed the refrigerator and said, "But don't eat it now."
Gao Xiaojie put her hands on her hips and said, "Why? Are you being stingy?"
Chen Xu said, "You still have a cold and you're not fully recovered yet. I'll make you a hot drink later, and you can eat it after you're better."
Hearing this, Gao Xiaojie immediately lost her temper. Chen Xu opened the refrigerator's crisper compartment and pointed to the various small bags inside, saying, "What kind of drink do you want? Coffee, milk, or milk tea? There are quite a few milk tea flavors, strawberry, mint, take a look."
Looking at the various bags, Gao Xiaojie said, "So corrupt, so corrupt! You're really corrupt!" Then Chen Xu said, "Fine, don't drink it then," and she took two bags of mint-flavored Lipton milk tea and ran away.
Gao Xiaojie pounced on Chen Xu's Simmons bed, rolling around happily, and said, "Oh my, Chen Xu, you're having a pretty good time! If you hadn't said so earlier, I would have come straight over. I ended up in the hospital, poor me!"
Chen Xu silently laid out his bedding on the floor... It wasn't that he was unhappy or angry, but he felt a little afraid to look at Gao Xiaojie, afraid that he might accidentally make a mistake.
"Oh my god!" Chen Xu lamented inwardly, "How am I going to live like this! A man and a woman alone in a room, it's easy to make a mistake!"
Because the temperature inside the room was so hot, Gao Xiaojie quickly broke into a sweat and said, "I'm going to take a shower. By the way, how do you use that water heater?"
Chen Xu went to the bathroom and taught her how to use the water heater and bathroom heater step by step.
Chen Xu really liked this natural gas water heater because it was very convenient. Unlike the traditional electric water heater at home, which took a long time to heat up and had limited hot water, making showers cold in winter, this water heater provided hot water instantly upon turning it on, and it also had temperature control—it was incredibly simple.
When Gao Xiaojie saw the bathtub, she asked, "Can I take a bath here?" Chen Xu replied, "No problem, as long as you don't mind that I just used it yesterday."
Then Gao Xiaojie picked up a brush from the side. Chen Xu asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I'll just scrub the bathtub first!"
Chen Xu broke out in a cold sweat, then handed her another brush, saying, "Use this. The one you mentioned looks like it's for cleaning toilets..."
After teaching Gao Xiaojie how to use the water heater and bathroom heater, he turned on the tap to run water in the bathroom and turned on the heater as well. The temperature in the bathroom quickly rose. Gao Xiaojie wiped his sweat and said, "It's too hot here. It's the middle of winter, but you're making it feel like summer. I'm sweating all over even though I'm wearing a sweater."
Chen Xu said that he only wears pajamas at home and is too lazy to go downstairs to change clothes because it's too much trouble. There's a Lotus Supermarket right next door, so how about I go with you there to buy a couple of pajamas later? Hehe, I'll pay for sexy pajamas, but you have to wear them for me to see.
Gao Xiaojie slapped him and said, "I'll slap you to death! I'm warning you not to have any dirty thoughts! I'll keep a kitchen knife under my pillow from now on, and if you dare to come up to me, I'll cut your thing in half!"
Chen Xu broke out in a cold sweat and said, "Be careful you don't end up getting married if you're so fierce. Besides, do you think I'm that kind of person?" Actually, Chen Xu really wanted to say something arrogant like, "I wouldn't want someone like you even if you were given to me for free." But then he thought that if he said that, he probably wouldn't be able to hide it from his own conscience, so he swallowed it.
After filling the tub with water, Gao Xiaojie mysteriously entered the bathroom with a bag containing her underwear and a change of clothes. She warned Chen Xu not to peek before closing the door. At that moment, Chen Xu was filled with unbearable regret. If he had known such a fair-skinned young woman would be staying at his place and using the bathroom, he should have bought and installed several hidden cameras long ago…
Hearing the rushing water in the bathroom, Chen Xu closed the door, feeling somewhat uneasy. Then he noticed that Gao Xiaojie's suitcase was open, and glimpsing a few pieces of clothing inside, with a small white strap peeking out, Chen Xu felt a strong urge to pick it up and take a closer look…
Thinking of this, Chen Xu shouted in his heart, "How disgusting! So disgusting! I'm a gentleman, not a weirdo!" After repeating this several times, Chen Xu's restless heart finally calmed down a little. He opened his crappy laptop and aimlessly waved it around. He needed to find something to do, otherwise he would easily start overthinking.
So Chen Xu went to the official website of "Jin Yong's Heroes: Reunion", which was the same official homepage that was created for the game "Jin Yong's Heroes: Reunion".
Because of the game's immense popularity, service providers proactively approached them offering free, long-term servers, which Chen Xu and his team naturally accepted. Besides creating the official website for "Jin Yong's Heroes," the school also took advantage of the situation, directly uploading its own official website and student forum to the site… because the school's original server was simply too terrible; connecting to the website would take about five minutes, even with a fast internet connection.
The game received high praise from netizens on the forum, and there was widespread lamentation after learning that a sequel could not be made due to software failure.
Chen Xu is currently helping maintain this website, and at the same time, he's learning about network maintenance, website building, and server application software. He wants to become a hacker, and these are all skills he needs to acquire.
When Chen Xu arrived at the website, a message suddenly popped up in the lower right corner of the firewall: "Webpage virus detected. Do you want to disconnect?"
Chapter 89 Virtual Operating System
Chen Xu wasn't using Xiao Min's supercomputer now, but his old, crappy laptop. While it was crappy, its specs were actually pretty good, considering it was a new purchase before starting university: a 256MB dedicated graphics card, a 160GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, and a dual-core 2.2GHz CPU—considered mainstream specifications in 2006.
There was a hardware enthusiast in the dorm named Wu Yuan. When he was sick that time, he deliberately inflated the price so his mom would buy him a new laptop with a spec that was a cut above Chen Xu's. Then Wu Yuan said, "Hey, you're so rich now, why don't you get yourself a better laptop?"
Chen Xu chuckled but didn't respond. With Xiao Min as his supercomputer, what need did he have for other computers? This beat-up laptop was enough for everyday use as a cover.
However, Chen Xu also installed some software from the future on this laptop, such as this firewall.
To be precise, this firewall is far inferior to the one Chen Xu gave to the military back then, because Chen Xu didn't dare to be so blatant. Because if some bored kid were to mess around with hacking, broke into his own computer, found he couldn't get in, and then brought in a bunch of experts, only to find they couldn't break through either…
Wouldn't that expose my secret?
There's a saying circulating online: "The only way to find SMMH is to hack into computers all over the world and find the one that you just can't get into... that's the SMMH master!"
However, this antivirus software and firewall are not bad; they are at least a level better than the world's leading brand firewalls. But they are still inferior to the tools used by top hackers themselves.
Upon detecting the alarm, the system was secretly downloading a file named "svch0st.exe" in the background.
Upon seeing the name, Chen Xu knew it was definitely a Trojan. The process clearly identified itself as targeting a critical Windows system process, "svchost.exe," because the "o" and "0" under the lowercase letters were barely distinguishable at first glance. Therefore, this type of process steals accounts by disguising itself as this critical process.
Chen Xu knew from the name that the creator of this Trojan horse was definitely not very skilled.
Although Chen Xu's own skills weren't particularly impressive, his vision was exceptional. A crucial element of a Trojan is its disguise; as the saying goes, a Trojan that's easily detected isn't a good one. This level of Trojan virus would appear in the process manager as soon as it was run. For this level of malware, Chen Xu didn't need specialized removal tools; he simply used software like 360 and Optimization Master to locate the folder where the virus was located. Then, he could remove it automatically through the registry.
However, it is truly shameful that someone would put a Trojan horse on the homepage of their game. Moreover, this is a blatant act of provocation!
After thinking for a moment, Chen Xu opened a simulation system, downloaded the Trojan horse, and put it into it.