CH 16.1

Chapter 16.1 - About University 1 Part 1

“My university?”

Yang Mo got himself a glass of water before looking at Yang Han and said, “What are you asking this for?”

Yang Han was hugging a really large white bear plushie on the sofa. This was a gift from Zhou Yi to make up for his absence on their hanging out sessions during winter break.

She buried her chin in the soft plushie’s body and said, “Just curious.”

Yang Mo poured another glass of water and passed it to her. “Are you done with your homework?”

Yang Han quickly nodded and then she used that soft, pitiful begging look that small animals usually used to look at him.

Yang Mo sighed and gave in. “What do you want to know?”

Yang Han blinked excitedly, then moved closer to Yang Mo with the plushie in her arms and asked, “Dad, how did you and Old Han meet?”

Yang Mo gave it some thought before saying, “By chance.”

Yang Han: “Then can you tell me more about this ‘by chance’?”

Having finished drinking the water, Yang Mo placed the cup down and said, “I hacked his account in the university forum.”

He added on, “Five times.”

""

Yang Han: “?”

Did her dad have some kind of misunderstanding on what ‘by chance’ means?

Yang Mo’s family was very ordinary. When he got accepted into Shou Cheng University, he brought a lot of honor to his family. Aside from being proud of him, his dad also became much stricter in disciplining him.

His parents thought that Shou Cheng University student should act like one. They were very dissatisfied with Yang Mo’s free and unrestrained state, and often reprimanded him for his thug-like behaviors.

At that time, Yang Mo was still in his rebellious stage. And because his father was always disagreeing with him, they argued every time they met or were on the phone.

During one of the worst quarrels that happened, Yang Mo straight up did not contact his family anymore, which meant his source of living expenses were also cut off.

Yang Mo was in his second year of college then and had already been exposed to programming knowledge, gaining a strong and deep interest in computer science. He used the free time he had out of classes to self-learn C++ language and JAVA. After mastering them on his own, he went to the computer science institute to find a professional teacher to continue his studies.

There was a lecturer in the institute, who was also Yang Mo’s mentor. Cheng Shao, Mr. Cheng.

Yang Mo, a non-major student, went to Mr. Cheng’s office all day long whenever he could. At that time, Mr. Cheng Shao was passionate about finding security loopholes for internet companies for cash rewards. After Yang Mo found out about it, he followed suit.

Later on, Yang Mo was reassigned to a mixed dormitory of students from different faculties. He befriended Lu You Qi and after some influence by his housemates, he invented a new way of making money.

And that was hacking networking accounts for people.

Of course, it wasn’t done outside but in the school forum.

Shou Cheng University’s school forum was a social networking site created by its school students and teachers together. Strictly speaking, it didn’t belong to the school’s official website because outsiders can register with just their phone number. There was simply no school ID certification if they didn’t bind their school number.

Hacking and cancelling others’ accounts were illegal and if the school and victim was to pursue it, he would be fined and given detention.

Yet, someone really came to Yang Mo and asked him to hack an account for them. It was two hundred yuan once.

Yang Mo readily agreed.

“……The account that person asked you to hack was Han Shi Yu’s?” Yang Han asked.

“I didn’t know the reason or who I was going to hack then, but I went ahead and did it.” Yang Mo said as he peeled an apple for Yang Han. “I was too young.”

“And then?”

“That person insistently gave me five accounts to work on. After hacking one, he gave me another and then all was terminated at the end.”

Yang Han took the apple handed to her by Yang Mo, feeling heartbroken for Han Shi Yu for a second.

Yang Mo: “I didn’t know him yet at that time. After five times of hacking, he came looking for me.”

There was a pair of student apartments in Shou Cheng University. These two buildings had a name more elegant than any other apartments – Sea Stone Apartment.

The women’s apartment was called Sea Stone North Building and the men’s apartment was called Sea Stone South Building.

According to the legend, this apartment was invested and built by a couple who graduated from Shou Cheng University. Both buildings only had two-person rooms and the living conditions were close to the dorms for a doctoral student. Meanwhile, the accommodation fees were higher than the usual undergraduate apartment building.

The Sea Stone Apartment accepted students left behind after the random assignment. It allowed applications for transferring out, but not transferring in.

Therefore, those who lived in there was respectfully called as a koi fish. [Refers to people who are really lucky or blessed]

During self-introduction in Shou Cheng University’s club activity for freshmen, if you were to say ‘I’m from Sea Stone Apartment, people will definitely remember you. However, your name would probably be replaced by ‘The one from Sea Stone’ in the future.

Anyway, the legends and myths in Shou Cheng University were all interesting to listen to.

The university had even asked some students to compile a book of Shou Cheng University’s rumours, designed in the style of a mythology book. It recorded all the myths passed down from a generation of students to another over the years. Sea Stone Apartment was recorded in this book too.

All freshmen were given a copy of this book.

It had landed on the hot trending list before, receiving praises from educators as an interesting and effective way to promote the university’s image and special traits.

As for Yang Mo, he was a koi fish who successfully entered the Sea Stone Apartment.

Originally, there was a sculpture placed in the middle of the north and south buildings of Sea Stone Apartment. It was torn down later when Yang Mo moved in, only leaving behind a round platform in that spot.

Many romantic students had fully utilized this round platform here.

Every time a male student dressed in a youthful suit, holding a loudspeaker and roses in hand while standing on the round platform, facing the north building, everyone in both buildings would poke their heads out and say, “It’s starting, it’s starting.”

""

The university could not stop the passionate love between these young men and women, so they learned to adapt to it.

After acquiring the opinions from the students in both buildings, the university openly decided on a period of time where students can confess their love there. The confession process was limited to half an hour at most and only one person per month. Students were made to follow these rules.

Note: You may use lights at night but they can’t be too bright and the maximum time of usage is five minutes.

This had always been an inside joke for the students at Shou Cheng University and a unique ritual that belonged to Sea Stone Apartment.

On this day, as the specific allocated time arrived on a Saturday night at 8 o’clock, a male student in a white sweater appeared in the middle of the two buildings of Sea Stone Apartment. He switched on the megaphone he brought and tapped on it.

Upon hearing the sounds, the perceptive residents of Sea Stone Apartment pulled back their curtains and immediately found someone walking towards that round platform – although he had nothing else in his hands.

People called on their comrades and in a matter of minutes, many curious heads gathered on both sides of the buildings. The ones who were about to enter the building also stopped in their tracks, muttering, “It’s starting, it’s starting.”

After seeing him stand on the round platform, the dormitory caretaker uncle and auntie on both sides ticked off a box in their monthly task, representing the only quota for this month had been filled.

But the moment they looked up, they found this man standing on the round platform but he was facing the south building instead.