Courtyard House: A Major Power's Heavy Industry, Hand-Crafted Nuclear Fusion

Winter night in 1981, Beijing.

The north wind howled outside the window, swirling snowflakes that pelted against the glass windows of the Red Star Software Research Institute.

But in the server room on the top floor, no one felt cold.

The fans of dozens of servers were spinning wildly, making a roar like a jet taking off.

On the big screen, the previously stable network traffic curve has now turned into an almost vertical red line.

"Traffic overload! Bandwidth limit reached 300%!"

A technician on duty, sweating profusely, shouted, "They're launching a DDoS attack! Our firewall is about to break down!"

"It's not just DDoS."

Ye Xinyi sat at the control panel, her hands moving across the keyboard in a blur. "DDoS is just a cover. The real killer is a worm. It's trying to exploit a buffer overflow vulnerability in the TCP/IP protocol to infiltrate our core database."

"Once it gets in, all the data from Base 001, including the design blueprints for the 'Loongson-3', will be stolen."

"Should we sever the physical connection?" Su Zheng asked in a deep voice, standing behind her.

"No."

Ye Xinyi didn't turn her head, her eyes flashing with a cold blue light. "Severing the connection is admitting defeat. Besides, even if we sever it this time, they'll come back next time. I'm going to... capture him."

……

At this very moment, the pinned "Hero's Invitation" on China.com's BBS has turned into a red wartime state.

[Alert: Enemy Invasion! Coordinates: Port 8080. All online personnel, provide immediate support!]

Computer lab at Tsinghua University.

"Brothers, we've got a job!"

Lei Jun (ID: L) tossed aside the half-eaten steamed bun, his fingers tapping on the keyboard, "Who dares to mess with our internet? That's our territory!"

"The Tsinghua team is responsible for cleaning up the garbage flow!"

"Peking University team, responsible for patching the vulnerabilities!"

"USTC team, follow me to track IPs!"

In an instant, the students who were discussing the Snake game code transformed into well-trained warriors.

Although they are still very inexperienced, and their skills are still very rough.

But they have a burning passion.

In an era before the term "hacker" existed, they defended the dignity of the Chinese internet in their own way.

"Report! Tsinghua team successfully intercepted the spam! Spam traffic has decreased by 30%!"

"Report! The vulnerability patch has been uploaded! The worm has been quarantined in the sandbox!"

On the BBS, one piece of good news after another came in.

But Ye Xinyi's brows did not relax.

"wrong."

She stared at the constantly changing attack source IP on the screen. "These are just minions. The real 'ghost' hasn't shown itself yet."

Just then.

The screen suddenly flickered.

The original blue console background instantly turned into a deathly black.

A line of blood-red English words slowly appeared:

Hello, China. I see you.

"He's coming in!"

The technician screamed in terror, "Core privileges are being taken over! He's changing the administrator password!"

"That ghost... bypassed all firewalls and directly gained root privileges!"

Su Zheng squinted his eyes.

"A master."

He whispered, "This kind of method isn't used by ordinary people. It's not even used by ordinary organizations."

"No matter who he is."

Ye Xinyi suddenly stopped typing.

She took a deep breath, took off her glasses, and casually tied her hair up.

"Now that you're in, you're not leaving."

She opened a black window that had never been used before.

That was a special program she wrote using the "Cangjie language," codenamed "Skynet."

"Su Zheng, grant me access."

"Full permissions?"

"Everything. Including reverse control of the Silicon Valley dedicated line, and... the underlying hardware interfaces there."

Without hesitation, Su Zheng took out the key hanging around his neck and inserted it into the main control panel.

"Authorization approved."

next second.

Ye Xinyi's finger fell again.

This time, it's not about defense.

It's an attack.

[Enter: Skynet]

[Observation: Going Against the Current]

[If: Enemy activity is detected]

[Then: Kill without mercy]

The data flow reversed instantly.

The "ghost" that was stealing data suddenly found itself unable to move.

The once interconnected network has now become a giant maze. No matter which way it goes, there is only a wall in front of it.

"Trying to run away?"

Ye Xinyi sneered, "Too late."

Following the data trail left by the other party, she crossed the Pacific Ocean in an instant, like a hunter tracking a wounded beast.

San Francisco...Los Angeles...Chicago...

One by one, the jump server was compromised, and one by one, the spoofed IPs were stripped away.

finally.

That red dot of light was fixed on a corner of the East Coast of the United States.

Langley, Maryland.

CIA headquarters.

……

CIA Cyber ​​Warfare Center.

This is the most mysterious and powerful hacker base on the planet.

The lead hacker, codenamed "Vulture," sat in a leather chair, a glass of cola in his hand, looking relaxed.

"nailed it."

He said to his superior behind him, "The Chinese firewall is as flimsy as paper. I've obtained root access and am downloading data. It should be ready in five minutes..."

Sudden.

The screen in front of him flickered.

The download progress bar, which was working smoothly, got stuck.

Immediately afterwards, a huge Chinese character popped up on the screen:

【roll】.

"What the fuck?"

The vulture was stunned. "What is this?"

Before he could react, the image on the screen began to distort and tear.

"Warning! System error! Warning! Voltage overload!"

The alarms in the server room went off loudly.

"He's fighting back!"

Vulture frantically typed on the keyboard, "Damn it! This can't be! This is a physically isolated terminal, how could it possibly control my hardware?"

What he didn't know was.

Ye Xinyi did not use conventional methods.

She exploited an undiscovered vulnerability in the underlying TCP/IP protocol to send a special string of "malformed data packets".

These data packets themselves are not harmful.

However, when they bombard the network card chip at a specific frequency, they can cause the logic gates inside the chip to lock up, resulting in a surge in current.

This is a physical attack!

It's a dimensional reduction attack!

"Unplug the power now!"

The officer realized something was wrong and roared.

But it was too late.

Sizzle—smack!

A loud bang.

Suddenly, a plume of black smoke billowed from the small machine worth $100,000 in front of the vulture.

Immediately afterwards, flames shot out from the computer case.

The motherboard is burnt out.

The hard drive melted.

Even the monitor exploded with sparks, and glass shards flew everywhere.

"ah--!"

The vulture let out a scream, covered its eyes, and collapsed to the ground.

The entire cyber warfare center was in chaos.

Amidst the white smoke from the fire extinguisher, the officer stared at the completely wrecked machine, his face ashen.

He knew they had messed with the wrong person.

That distant Eastern country not only has atomic bombs, but also... cyber nuclear bombs.

……

Beijing, Red Star Research Institute.

The moment the red dot on the screen disappeared, Ye Xinyi let out a long sigh of relief.

She slumped into a chair, covered in sweat, as if she had just finished a marathon.

"it's over."

She whispered, "The other party's hardware is damaged, and the connection has been lost."

"Burned?"

Su Zheng handed her a handkerchief.

"Burn it."

Ye Xinyi wiped her sweat. "I modified the voltage management logic of their motherboard. As long as they don't unplug the network cable, that machine is like an electric furnace."

"ruthless."

Su Zheng gave a thumbs up, "But I like it."

He turned to look at the dumbfounded technicians behind him, and the students connected to the site via the internet.

"Did you see that?"

Su Zheng's voice echoed across every terminal, "This is cyber warfare. There's no gunfire, but people still die."

"Today, Teacher Ye gave you a vivid lesson."

"Remember, in this virtual world, we don't cause trouble, but we're not afraid of trouble either."

"Those who offend China, no matter how far away, will be punished!"

The BBS remained silent for a moment.

Then, countless replies flooded the screen.

L (Lei Jun): Awesome! Teacher Ye is awesome! I want to learn this too!

Pony Ma: This is a real hacker! This is the technology we should be pursuing!

Ding (丁磊): We will pursue and punish them no matter how far they are! The Red Hacker Alliance is officially established today!

That night.

Countless young dreams were ignited.

They were no longer satisfied with writing Snake or translating a few software programs into Chinese.

They began to crave power.

I long to be like Ye Xinyi, dancing with my fingertips and winning battles from afar.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean.

A new top-level red document has been added to the CIA's secret files.

File name: [Queen].

Note: Extremely dangerous. Suspected key figure in China's cyber warfare. Recommendation: Avoid direct confrontation.

……

early morning.

Snow stopped.

Su Zheng and Ye Xinyi walked out of the building and onto the crunching snow.

"That 'Skynet' program..." Su Zheng suddenly asked, "Did you leave a backdoor?"

"I kept it."

Ye Xinyi looked up at the starry sky, "If anyone dares to invade again, I can follow this line and burn down their entire base."

"but……"

She turned to look at Su Zheng, "This time we've exposed our strength, the Americans will definitely be more vigilant. It'll be harder to do this again in the future."

"It's okay."

Su Zheng smiled. "This is just a rehearsal. The real battle is yet to come."

"Moreover, we need not only spears, but also shields."

"Our 'Red Flag OS' must become the most secure system in the world. So secure that... they will despair."

Su Zheng stopped and looked at the Zhongguancun Electronics Street under construction in the distance.

"I like it. Now that we have the hardware, the software, and the network, we've got it."

"Next, it's time to make the world a little more efficient."

"What do you mean?"

"I want to make something."

Su Zheng gestured with a box, "Something that can replace the typewriter and that all government agencies, enterprises and institutions cannot do without."

"You mean...?"

"Office software".

A glint of light flashed in Su Zheng's eyes. "In the next chapter, we're going to start... an office revolution."

"We want WPS to become one of the Four Treasures of the Study for the Chinese people, ten years ahead of schedule."

……