We agreed not to date, so why are you crying now that I've become the richest man?

On a late October morning, sunlight streamed through the plane trees in front of the dormitory building, scattering shimmering gold particles on the concrete pavement.

At 8:00 AM sharp, Ye Chen slung his shoulder bag over his shoulder and stepped out of the lobby of the boys' dormitory building.

The cool morning breeze, carrying the moist scent of grass and trees, wafts towards us as students rush to their early classes cycle back and forth, their bicycle bells ringing out in a continuous chorus.

Steam rose from the roadside breakfast stalls. Ye Chen handed over five yuan and took two freshly steamed meat buns and a cup of hot soy milk. At that moment, his phone in his jeans pocket suddenly vibrated.

He took a bite of the steaming hot meat bun, the scalding meat juices overflowing in his mouth, and freed his right hand to take out his phone and glance at it.

The name of Chen Wei, the technical director of Xingchen Software, was displayed on the screen.

Ye Chen took two steps back and stood in the shade of a tree by the roadside, then pressed the answer button.

"Hey, Chen Wei."

"Good morning, Mr. Ye!"

On the other end of the phone, Chen Wei's voice was hoarse from staying up all night, and he spoke very quickly and confidently.

"Mr. Ye, let me report on last night's results!"

"You were absolutely right last night. At 10:15, some fool really did sneak in and bite someone in the dark!"

"That third-ranked Android download site in Guangzhou, jealous that we're taking away their traffic, actually hired a hacker group to launch a massive 8-gigabit attack on our main download server!"

Ye Chen took a sip of warm soy milk and walked slowly along the tree-lined path toward the first teaching building.

"Did the high-defense nodes hold up?"

"It's more than just holding on!"

Chen Wei laughed out loud on the other end of the phone, "Following your instructions for contingency plan number one, we preemptively switched to the multi-line high-defense cleaning center. Those eight gigabit of junk traffic came crashing down without even a splash; it was all filtered and discarded. The main server's processor utilization never exceeded thirty percent!"

"The most brilliant thing is the honeypot trap script you left behind!"

"Thinking their infiltration was a success, the other side uploaded a backdoor program containing a Trojan horse. However, our honeypot system caught them red-handed, revealing the true source of control, recording their actions, and providing digital fingerprints. We even traced the money transfers made by the owner of the Dynamic Download Site through thugs, pinpointing the exact clues!"

At this point, Chen Wei took a breath and continued his report: "Last night, we obtained the case acceptance receipt from the cybersecurity bureau through the green channel and posted it on the official forum of JiFeng.com. That dynamic download site immediately unplugged its network cable. Our external legal counsel also worked through the night to complete the statement taking by the cybersecurity bureau. Just after 1 a.m. this morning, we solidified all the irrefutable evidence. That guy's main domain is still shut down and pretending to be dead. All the geeks on the forum are dumbfounded. Now the whole forum is full of praise for our Xingchen Technology!"

Listening to Chen Wei's rapid-fire report, Ye Chen swallowed the steamed bun in his mouth, a smile flashing across his eyes.

In 2010, during that chaotic era, when small and medium-sized website owners encountered competition from their peers, their first reaction was often to hire hackers to boost traffic and hire online trolls to spread negative rumors.

However, he possessed advanced defensive strategies and ample funds, allowing him to use the heavy firepower of a regular army to attack the mountain guerrillas, which naturally resulted in a perfect victory every time.

"Well done! The example set has been made; no one has dared to cause trouble behind our backs these past few days."

Ye Chen threw the empty plastic bag into a roadside trash can and continued to press for answers:

"By the way, did you receive the 100,000 yuan bonus for meeting the target last night?"

"It's done! Last night at midnight, after the finance department verified the data showing that the overnight activations had doubled to over 100,000, the 100,000 yuan in cash taken from the safe was immediately bundled up and slapped onto the brothers' tables according to their contributions!"

Chen Wei swallowed hard, his voice rising, "When we handed out those red bills wrapped in manila paper, everyone's eyes lit up! At 2 AM, the traffic stabilized, so I took the pre-operation funds you approved and treated the whole team to a hot late-night snack at a food stall in Zhangjiang Old Street. Several maintenance workers who stayed up all night are still panting and patting their chests, refusing to leave their chairs, insisting on staying at their workstations for another half a day!"

"Your spirit is commendable, but your health is the most important thing."

Ye Chen glanced at the time on his watch and quickened his pace. "As the director, you have to keep a close eye on things. All the staff who worked through the night last night are required to take turns sleeping in the break room this morning. Anyone who dares to stay up will be held responsible."

"After the day shift team takes over, keep the server running smoothly. Call me anytime if there are any emergencies."

"Understood! Don't worry, Mr. Ye, I'll go and send those kids to bed right away!"

The call ended, the phone slid back into his pocket, and Ye Chen stepped onto the stairs of the first teaching building.

With only five minutes left before the 8:15 am class, the lecture hall was packed with people.

In the back corner, Sun Haoyu was lying on the table, his calculus textbook obscuring most of his head, and the sound of snoring could be faintly heard. Lu Wenbo next to him raised his arm and shook it repeatedly.

Ye Chen crouched low and slipped in through the back door, taking a seat in the empty seat next to Lu Wenbo. He casually opened his calculus textbook from his shoulder bag onto the table.