Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

I returned from the library at 10:30 pm.

The elevator stopped on the 16th floor.

"Go to sleep early, see you tomorrow." Su Qinghe stood at the door of 1601, shaking the schoolbag in his hand.

"Okay, goodnight." Xie Wang watched her enter the room, and only after hearing the soft click of the lock did he turn around and open his dark security door.

I went inside, closed the door, and the world instantly fell silent.

The restlessness and tenderness that belong to youth were shut out when that door closed.

Xie Wang casually tossed his schoolbag onto the sofa, and instead of washing up, he went straight to the worktable in the corner of the living room.

At this moment, the lights in room 1602 were off, with only the top-of-the-line computer case emitting a faint RGB lighting effect and the cold blue light from the three monitors.

Xie Wang pulled out his ergonomic chair, sat down, and quickly typed on the mechanical keyboard, immersing himself in the Linux environment he had set up.

In that instant, his lazy student air vanished completely, replaced by an almost mechanical calmness.

On the left side of the screen, a high-intensity brute-force script is running.

It was precisely in cracking the second layer of the documents left by the mother that they found the solution.

The encryption algorithm used in this file was the high-level AES-256 standard at the time, and it also had a very complex salt.

Xie Wang's script is using the computer's powerful computing capabilities, combined with his mother's code habit dictionary, to perform hundreds of millions of collisions per second.

On the terminal interface, red characters kept flashing:

[System] Hashing... Rate: 3500 MH/s

[Status] Estimating time remaining: ＞ 90 Days

"It's still too slow."

Xie Wang looked at the estimated time, picked up the ice water on the table, and took a sip.

The computing power of a single machine is limited, but he's not in a hurry. This is just a matter of time. As long as the power keeps flowing, he'll eventually be able to break through that door.

He shifted his gaze to the main screen on the right.

More aggressive missions are underway here.

He is bombarding the external API interfaces of several subsidiaries of Tianlong Group with data.

The script continuously sends various malformed and random data packets to the server, attempting to induce the system to crash or respond abnormally, thereby searching for potential SQL injection points or buffer overflow vulnerabilities by displaying error messages.

Meanwhile, the open-source web intelligence crawler in the background is also running silently.

Like a tireless spider, it scours through massive amounts of public data—bidding announcements, legal records, and social media posts of former employees—for every possible clue that might be connected to Tianlong Group.

A line of yellow text occasionally pops up on the screen:

[Log] API Response: 200 OK (Normal)

……

There were no abnormalities.

Tianlong Group has a very strong firewall, and the security team that Gu Tianlong employs is no pushover either.

This is destined to be a long and tedious battle.

Only through day after day of trying, failing, recording, and trying again.

Xie Wang stared blankly at the monotonous data stream.

……

"Buzz—Buzz—"

The phone next to the mouse pad suddenly started vibrating continuously, breaking the deathly silence in the room where only the fan was running.

Xie Wang glanced at the screen.

A barrage of WeChat pop-ups appeared, sent by Shen Ritian.

He frowned, paused his keyboard input, and picked up his phone to unlock it.

[Shen Ritian]: [Images][Images] (Several screenshots of a smartwatch showing an excessively fast heart rate)

[Shen Ritian]: Brother Wang! Are you asleep?! I need your help urgently!!

[Shen Ritian]: I can't sleep, damn it! All I can think about is Xu You pulling on my clothes at the library today!

[Shen Ritian]: I think this is a sure thing, really a sure thing! Don't you think I should strike while the iron is hot? I want to formally confess my feelings to her!

Xie Wang looked at the series of exclamation marks on the screen, and his originally cold eyes softened a little.

He typed with one hand, and his reply was very brief:

[X]: Now?

【X】: Let me check the time, it's 1 a.m.

The other end displayed "The other party is typing...", and after typing for a long time, a long voice message was sent.

Xie Wang was too lazy to listen and forwarded the text.

[Shen Ritian]: No… I just feel that since things are starting to look promising, I should be more proactive like a man! I'm thinking of asking her out before morning reading tomorrow and just telling her "I like you," or maybe writing her a letter and putting it in her bag? I've noticed she's under a lot of pressure studying lately, and I want to reassure her. Hey Wang Ge, how did you and Su Xiaohua (the school beauty) confirm your feelings? Teach me, bro!

Xie Wang looked at the words "School Beauty Su" and a playful smile appeared on his lips.

She was the one who picked me up and brought me home.

He leaned back in his gaming chair, completely relaxing from his tense state, and replied:

[X]: Want to meet up? The time before morning reading is when Teacher Li's patrols are at their strictest. Do you want to be caught by Teacher Li as an example?

[X]: Most importantly, have you forgotten what day it is next week?

[Shen Ritian]: ...Final exams?

【X】: You know it's the final exam.

【X】: Don't you know Xu You's personality? She's timid, shy, and has a lot on her mind. If you break the ice now, what if she gets nervous, or worries that early romance will affect her studies, and her mentality collapses, causing her to fail her exams? Are you going to take responsibility?

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the chat window.

Shen Hao sent a [feeling wronged.jpg] emoji.

[Shen Ritian]: What should I do? I'm so anxious, really. I feel like we're just one step away from the end. If I don't tell her, I'm afraid she'll think I only see her as a younger sister.

Xie thought for a moment, then typed out a line of text, which sounded quite like the advice of someone who had been there all along:

【X】: To hold it in.

【X】: Since we're only one step away, there's no need to rush. The fact that she tugged at your sleeve means she cares about you and can't escape you.

【X】: But the focus now is not on romance, but on proving that you are a reliable person.

[X]: Your grades are still hovering around 150th in the grade, right? Xu Youke is consistently in the top 50.

[Shen Ritian]: ...That hurts, bro.

[X]: Understand?

Before Shen Hao could reply, Xie Wang added two more sentences, reassuring his brother:

【X】: Don't worry, just focus on doing well on the exam.

[X]: We'll help you figure something out when summer vacation starts.

Shen Hao remained silent for a full minute.

Then he sent over an excited emoji: "Master, I've got it!"

[Shen Ritian]: With Brother Wang's words, I'm all set! For love! I'll fight to the death!

[Shen Ritian]: I'm not sleeping, I'm going to do my math practice papers! Wang Ge, you should go to sleep early too, don't make your wife worry! [Striving][Striving]

Xie Wang chuckled and exited the chat window.

……

Putting down his phone, Xie Wang looked back at the three screens in front of him.

On the left are the mother's belongings, which are still being painstakingly deciphered.

On the right is a vulnerability scan that is still reporting errors and making no progress.

This is his life.

On one side lies a bottomless abyss, where he must sharpen his knife alone in the darkness, waiting for the fatal blow that may not come for months or even years.

On one side is the vibrant, everyday life of the world, with silly brothers and the girl next door who needs him to deliver soy milk.

"call……"

Xie Wang let out a long sigh of relief but did not turn off the phone.

He set up an automatic script to let the computer continue working for him late at night.

He stood up, walked to the French windows, and glanced at the dark window next door.

"Good night."

Tomorrow is another day.

Time to memorize vocabulary.