Reality Programming Association

Chapter 133: Chapter 55: Eye of the Storm

Their evening class was held in the main building’s lecture hall: College Chinese.

Teacher Ye arrived fashionably late. Dressed in a brown trench coat and carrying an unbranded shoulder bag, she apologized the moment she walked through the door. ”Sorry, sorry. We had a meeting at the company today, and it delayed me a bit.”

According to Shi Zuozhou’s grapevine gossip, Teacher Ye owned three companies outside of school. Teaching their class was purely a hobby for her.

In the corner of the back row, Yu Xian and Shi Zuozhou were conducting a silent, secret operation.

Shi Zuozhou kept his laptop—which was plastered with anime stickers—half-closed. The newly flashed USB drive was plugged into its side port. When the screen showed no reaction whatsoever, Shi Zuozhou shot a glance at Yu Xian, growing increasingly suspicious of this ”Bad Boy” tool.

Yu Xian held his phone, opening the app named ”Rabbit Hole Beta v3.1.” It was a new version Wen Xiao had just sent over; she was currently pushing out new features at a rate of almost once every twelve hours.

In this latest update, the node map that originally displayed geographic locations had been removed in the pursuit of ultimate security and anonymity. The interface now featured only a minimalist signal indicator. It displayed the longest connection path currently available for each node, along with the total number of nodes in the network.

Right now, the number beside the node count was a ”2,” indicating that within the nearby network, only Yu Xian and Shi Zuozhou’s devices were connected.

On the podium, Teacher Ye was passionately lecturing on Wang Guowei’s *Lin Jiang Xian*:

”Is it really ’When others arrive, the flowers bloom like brocade; yet when I come, I miss the spring’? Or is it ’Do not say the flowers fell too early, it is only that the leaves sprouted too late’? You shouldn’t say the flowers wilted too soon; you must accept that the leaves simply grew too late.”

She circled the words ”early” and ”late” on the chalkboard.

”Perhaps sometimes, you can move someone right from the very beginning. But more often than not, you have to let things flow slowly like a gentle stream, taking your time to bring them to your side. If you lack the devotion to ’write of yearning in every word,’ you will never feel the lament that ’life ages easily, while dreams forever linger.’”

Yu Xian stared at the minimalist black interface on his phone. Suddenly, without any warning, the number next to ”Online Nodes: 2” flickered.

It changed to a ”3.”

”It worked,” Yu Xian said softly.

Shi Zuozhou froze for a second, then hurriedly leaned over to look at Yu Xian’s screen.

”That’s it?” He glanced back at his completely unresponsive computer and drew in a sharp breath. ”Isn’t this a little too... silent? This ’Bad Boy’ tool really is wicked!”

”Exactly. It disguises itself as a system process,” Yu Xian explained. ”Unless you comb through the registry line by line, you’ll never spot it. As long as this computer is turned on, it acts as our invisible signal tower, silently dedicating its bandwidth and storage to Rabbit Hole.”

Shi Zuozhou carefully unplugged the USB drive. ”Amazing... With this thing, those computers in the library are as good as ours, aren’t they?”

The dismissal bell rang. Teacher Ye closed her textbook and stayed behind to discuss literature with a few eager students.

Outside the main building, the slanting wind and fine drizzle carried a damp, silent, and secretive atmosphere. The two of them stopped on the front steps.

”I’m heading out, then.” Shi Zuozhou tightened his backpack straps, his gaze landing on the library shrouded in the night not far away. ”There’s half an hour left until it closes. There are barely any people around right now, so it’s the perfect time to commit the crime—I mean, deploy the software.”

He popped his umbrella open. Taking a single step, he suddenly paused and turned back with a sheepish grin. ”Hey, Old Yu, you’re definitely sleeping at the dorm tonight, right? Being alone in the room lately has been giving me the creeps.”

Yu Xian was taken aback for a second, but he quickly understood what Shi Zuozhou was afraid of. Their other two roommates were still completely obsessed with the Midnight Bus. Leaving Shi Zuozhou to face the dead silence of their room all by himself at night was indeed a bit tough on him.

”I’ll be back, don’t worry,” Yu Xian promised. ”I just need to drop something off, and then I’ll head straight back.”

Receiving an affirmative answer, Shi Zuozhou finally relaxed. He turned around and disappeared into the curtain of rain. Yu Xian watched his retreating figure fade away before opening his own umbrella and heading toward the West Gate.

***

When he arrived at the apartment building, Yu Xian took out his phone and sent Yang Liu Yiyi a message.

”Senior Sister, I’m here. I’m coming up now.”

He didn’t receive a reply. She was probably busy or just hadn’t checked her phone.

Shaking off his umbrella, he headed upstairs with practiced familiarity and wiped his wet shoes on the ”Peace and Safety” doormat in front of her door. He raised his hand and knocked twice.

There was no response.

Yu Xian furrowed his brows. He knocked a few more times, this time with more force, and called out loudly, ”Senior Sister?”

Still, no one answered.

Yu Xian’s heart skipped a beat. Without further hesitation, he quickly punched a familiar string of numbers into the electronic lock.

The lock beeped sharply in the quiet hallway, and he pushed the door open.

The moment the door swung inward, he was greeted by the soft, warm glow of the wall lamps. The fading hum of a hair dryer that had just been switched off echoed faintly in the air.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness nothing had happened.

The laptop screen on the table was on. Beside it sat an opened bottle of peach-flavored soda. A faint sweetness hung in the air, mixed with a dense, warm humidity. Driven by the room’s heating, the Brownian motion of the scent molecules significantly intensified, threading their way into his nose.

”Yu Xian? Are you here?”

The voice drifted over from the direction of the bathroom, accompanied by the soft padding of slippers on the floor.

Yu Xian looked up at the sound to see Senior Sister Yang Yiyi walking out. She stood beneath the hallway lights, holding a dry towel and wiping her soaking wet hair.