Chapter 114

Chapter 114

The classroom was extremely quiet, occasionally broken by a low murmur or two, mixed with the rustling sound of paper being turned and the slight sound of chewing. Almost everyone had a coarse grain bun in their hands, munching on it while swallowing it down with water. All eyes were focused on the pages of their books, and no one noticed the classroom door being pushed open.

Feng Xia looked around at the people and then made a circuit of the room, well satisfied with their diligence. She focused on checking their progress: Huang Xinci was the fastest, already studying the last paragraph of the article; Zhao Lan was the slowest, with three paragraphs left. She looked a bit anxious, a faint sheen of sweat on her fair nose, having set aside her bun without even eating.

Feng Xia rapped on the table, the noise startling them awake. They looked up at the young girl at the front with bewildered eyes. Feng Xia gave a slight smile and said, "Time to wake up. We're going to go through these seven articles this afternoon. Let's start now. Huang Xinci, you begin. Stand up and explain your article."

Although Huang Xinci hadn't fully understood the article yet, she wasn't shy at all. She stood up gracefully, reading the article aloud in a hoarse voice, annotating each section as she went. Feng Xia corrected her pronunciation and any other mistakes she made. It took about twenty minutes to finish reading and explaining the article, and the others had taken many notes.

Feng Xia then proceeded to explain the article to everyone. This article was mainly about the composite processor of a computer and its main operation methods. The young girl, who barely reached the middle of the blackboard, held chalk, her handwriting clear and forceful. She explained every concept in painstaking detail for the seven people below her. Whenever someone got excited and asked a question, Feng Xia was happy to answer, even if the question was the most basic one, she answered it carefully.

In the field of computers, the Flower Kingdom was like a three-year-old child, stumbling and groping forward. And what Feng Xia was teaching was program design, the most magical and exquisite part of computer science. The people below stared wide-eyed, devouring this wonderful knowledge like whales gulping down food. Those digits and characters were like magic symbols, etching deep into their minds, dazzling them.

In one afternoon, Feng Xia gave them only one bathroom break, teaching for four solid hours. The seven of them were totally lost! Even Huang Xinci, who had learned the most, gritted her teeth secretly—the pace was really too fast. At 4:30 in the afternoon, Feng Xia threw down the chalk, turned and left with a casual air. As for the seven students below, ah, they were all adults; it wouldn't be proper if they had no self-control, right?

Seeing that she had really left, Huang Xinci helplessly put a hand to her forehead. This young teacher was really capricious.

"Come on, let's compare notes and fill in any gaps." Huang Xinci took the initiative to call the remaining few. They agreed, so they started flipping through each other's notes. Huang Xinci's notes were the most complete, her foreign-language notes written in a beautiful cursive hand.

Everyone's notes were more or less similar. After checking once, Zhao Lan couldn't wait to grab her bag to leave, but then noticed Huang Xinci sitting still. Curious, she asked, "Xin Ci, aren't you going back?"

Huang Xinci's gaze behind her glasses was exceptionally sharp. She said almost coldly, "Zhao Lan, our study this time is not some game. This is truly learning a new area of knowledge. This knowledge will definitely change this country in the future. Everyone has seen this, haven't they?"

Indeed, the others were vaguely aware that what they were learning was extraordinary, but they didn't dare to think as boldly as Huang Xinci—to dare to change the future, to stir up the world. It was exciting to talk about, but they were ordinary people after all, so naturally they were afraid.

But Huang Xinci, who was usually quiet and reserved, at this moment was undoubtedly fanatical, even crazy. Her tone was strange: "The future will change in countless ways. You and I can have a hand in it. Compared to that, an ordinary life is pitiful. Everyone, why not take the plunge? The young teacher is still young but has already made a name for herself in the world. Why are you still hesitating? Would you be content to be mediocre your whole life?!" These words made the classroom fall into dead silence. Too captivating!

Zhao Lan's hand holding her bag tightened and loosened, loosened and tightened. After taking deep breaths again and again, she finally couldn't resist the temptation and sat back down heavily, pulling out her textbook from her bag. Damn it, wasn't it just studying? Study! Study like crazy! As long as it didn't kill her, she'd study till it did!

At that moment, these future red hackers, the leaders of the Ministry of National Defense's network security department, just like the postgraduate and civil service exam crammers of later generations, started working their asses off!

The newly motivated top students' productivity doubled. Feng Xia had estimated the course would take a month to finish, but it ended one-third earlier.

In early February, grass grew and warblers flew. Kyoto finally welcomed the spring after a long time. Green spread over this cold, hard land. Everyone changed out of their heavy cotton clothes. Fashionable young people put on sweater coats. The year 1976 also kicked off amid everyone's expectations.

But these things had little to do with Feng Xia and her seven students studying in Kyoto. Feng Xia thought that since Huang Xinci and the others had finished the theory, it was time for them to get hands-on practice. So she requested from the higher-ups a brand-new DSJ-6 type computer, which was more advanced than the one Feng Xia had used before. It was said that the computer's processing speed was faster.

Looking at this bulky computer, the seven of them all took a sharp breath. They realized even more how seriously the higher-ups valued their learning. They were both excited and scared, rubbing their hands eagerly, waiting for Feng Xia to arrange the next practical session.

By the traditional Chinese age reckoning, Feng Xia would be 16 this year. After her birthday in October, she would truly be a sixteen-year-old maiden. As she grew older, her beauty became more and more resplendent—like a peony with dripping dew, with a dazzling color that was hard to look away from. Her temperament was as cold and clear as the bright moon on a high mountain, unapproachable and aloof. The fusion of these two contradictory temperaments often made young people on the Peking University campus stare blankly at her when she walked by.

A timeless beauty, she was a delight to the eyes.

Now she was smiling, a rather mischievous smile, with bright eyes and white teeth, incredibly beautiful. But in the eyes of the other seven, she looked like a demon. Every time Feng Xia smiled like this, nothing good followed. Sure enough, the little demon spoke directly.

"Today's task for you is to write a program that can run. I don't think you'll want to know the consequences of failure."

After dropping this thunderbolt, the little demon grabbed a chair and went outside to bask in the sun, leaving a group of flustered people looking at each other in panic, not knowing what day it was.

Huang Xinci was the calmest, because she had the fastest learning progress and did things thoroughly. She had already been promoted to team leader. She pushed up her glasses, sat down, and booted up the computer. Two minutes later, the computer successfully started. The gray-white screen came into view. As they looked at it, someone suddenly wiped away tears. Their hearts ached, but they also felt it was extremely worthwhile.

The seven people huddled in front of the DSJ-6. This hacking team, later known internationally for its cold and strict discipline, spent an entire afternoon frantically creating a small program.

Just like later generations said: even if it was cobbled together with a cow's head, a donkey's body, and a horse's tail, it could run! Since it could run, what more did you need?

Feng Xia looked at their anxious eyes and said in a clear voice: "Congratulations, everyone. You have successfully entered the world of networks. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I look forward to working together with all of you in the future."

She smiled like a flower, and they were all in tears.