Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

On Saturday evening, the second canteen of the university was bustling with activity.

Jiao Liwei was carrying two aluminum lunchboxes in both hands and was walking towards the window table where he usually sat in room 206 when he suddenly stopped. Xiao Ma, a student council member and classmate who usually called him "Brother Jiao" from afar, was now burying his face in his soup bowl, wishing he could hide his head under the table.

Several second-year students nearby also had their eyes wandering. As soon as they saw Jiao Liwei coming over, they immediately picked up their plates and hurriedly moved to another table, not even bothering to wipe up the spilled soup.

"What's wrong? Do I smell bad, or do I have flowers on my face?" Jiao Liwei slammed the lunchbox down on the table, making a loud noise as the aluminum sheet hit the surface with its characteristic crisp sound.

Yang Bo pushed up his glasses, looked around, and found that the people at the surrounding tables who had been chatting enthusiastically had suddenly lowered their voices, and some were even pointing at their table with mocking looks in their eyes.

"Something's not right," Yang Bo said in a low voice. "The atmosphere is like we're avoiding a plague."

"I'll go ask around." Liu Jing had a fiery temper. He pushed the lunchbox in front of Yang Bo, took out two Hongtashan cigarettes from his pocket, and walked over to a junior college student in the corner who was picking his teeth.

Less than five minutes later, Liu Jing returned. His face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and the fatigue he hadn't yet shaken off had completely turned into rage. He walked with a swagger, and when he plopped down, the chair legs groaned in pain.

"I can't eat this meal anymore." Liu Jinggang sat down and muttered under his breath, "These bastards can't take a joke."

"What's going on?" Jiao Liwei handed him the chopsticks.

"That Chen Yuan from the senior geek alliance, that idiot who just stepped down as president of the student union, he's been making things up in the department." Liu Jing gritted his teeth, his voice squeezed out from between his teeth, "He said that our 206 team is engaging in unfair competition, using our hacking skills to attack senior students' projects. He also said that we went to internet cafes to steal their business because we hacked their servers, causing the internet cafe owners to refund our money. Now everyone outside is saying that we're the scum of the computer science department at the university, lacking sportsmanship and bringing shame to the university."

"That's it?" Yang Bo frowned, popping a piece of potato he'd just picked up into his mouth. "In business competition, throwing dirty water is despicable, but it's common. As long as the internet cafe owner trusts us, what good will it do him to make a fuss at school?"

"If it were just that, it wouldn't be so bad." Liu Jing slammed his chopsticks on the table, almost splashing soup. "The most disgusting thing is that Chen Yuan implied that our code was stolen from them!"

Jiao Liwei's hand trembled, nearly knocking over his rice bowl: "What? Stealing?"

"Yeah, they said we freshmen don't know anything about architecture, so we must have taken advantage of the time when we went to the computer lab to steal their fast navigation source code, repackaged it, and used it to scam money. They said we were a room full of thieves."

"Bullshit!" Even the usually refined Yang Bo couldn't help but swear, his face turning bright red. "He has the nerve to say that? His crappy website is full of dead links. We're supposed to steal it? Steal a bunch of junk to take up hard drive space?"

After this commotion, the three of them lost their appetite. They hastily ate a few bites of food, then, carrying the dry rations they had brought for the four "dead pigs" in the dormitory, they braved the strange looks all the way back to room 206.

Pushing open the door, he heard loud snoring from inside. Jiao Liwei placed the lunchbox on the radiator, making a crisp "clang" sound.

"Get up! Get up, all of you! Stop sleeping! If you keep sleeping, you might get sold off without even knowing it!"

Bai Yuhang groggily peeked out from under the covers, his hair a mess, his eyes swollen shut: "What's wrong, boss? Is it on fire?"

Zhang Jian abruptly sat up in bed, clutching the blanket and looking completely bewildered: "Who sold me? How did they sell me?"

"Eat your food." Liu Jing tossed the still-warm lunchbox to Zhang Jian. "You'll have the energy to listen to stories if you eat well. We're celebrities now, the pariahs of the whole hospital."

After the group wolfed down their food and listened to Liu Jing's vivid retelling of what had happened in the cafeteria, the air in the room instantly froze.

Zhang Jian still had half a meatball in his mouth, and he seemed to have been put on pause.

Two seconds later, he swallowed the meatball and slammed his chopsticks on the ground, the noise startling Zhang Qingheng, who was drinking soup.

"Damn Chen Yuan! Stealing code?!" Zhang Jian was furious, his face flushed red as he pointed at the computer screen. "His crappy website? It's all tables nested within tables, he doesn't even know how to use a div, it's full of dead links! My web crawler script has more lines of code than his entire website! His piece of crap is no better than a failing first-year college final project. Me, steal it? Am I blind?!"

For a tech geek, this is an absolute attack on their conscience. Killing someone is one thing, but accusing them of plagiarizing a mountain of garbage code is worse than death.

"Third brother, calm down." Bai Yuhang said calmly as he bent down to pick up the chopsticks, wiped them with a tissue, and handed them to Zhang Jian.

"Sixth Brother, aren't you angry?" Wan Lianghao's face was red to the roots of his neck with anger. "We've been pulling all-nighters these past few nights, our heads are about to explode, our eyes are about to go blind, and they call us thieves? If this gets out, how are we supposed to get along in the department for the next three years?"

"Get angry? Not worth it." Bai Yuhang pulled up a chair, crossed his legs, shook a cigarette out of his pack, lit it, and said, "If a dog bites you, are you going to crawl on the ground and bite back? That's a mad dog. We're human."

"But we can't let them talk such nonsense!" Zhang Qingheng muttered softly in the corner, his fists clenched tightly and his eyes red. "I vaguely heard it on the way back. Someone said we are... are 'code thieves'."

"This is a classic propaganda war." Yang Bo calmed down, tapping his fingers on the table, his brows furrowed. "Chen Yuan is a senior, he has connections in the college and department, and he's the head of the Geek Alliance Association. He's trying to use his 'senior' status to crush us, to stand on the moral high ground and ruin our reputation. Once this reputation is established, we'll find it hard to move an inch in the department, and it might even affect our end-of-term evaluations and graduate school applications."

"Let him make a scene." Bai Yuhang exhaled a smoke ring, watching the smoke dissipate under the light. "The bigger his fuss, the more it hurts him. We've stabbed the Geek Alliance in the heart of their crisis. With the software replaced and contracts signed at those nine internet cafes, their cash flow is cut off. How can they not be anxious?"

"So we're just going to watch?" Liu Jing protested, veins throbbing in his neck. "Or should I get a few people to confront him? If that doesn't work, I'll block his dorm and ask him which eye saw us steal it!"

"No need." Bai Yuhang stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the pitch-black night outside. "Explanations are just cover-ups. Explaining technical architecture to laymen is like casting pearls before swine. Didn't they say we stole code? Didn't they say we hacked their computers?"

Bai Yuhang turned around, backlit, a chilling smile playing on his lips: "Then let them see what true technological dominance looks like. Tomorrow's Sunday, Brother Zhao's treating, let's eat and drink our fill. As for Chen Yuan… let him run wild for a couple of days. When the music site's data explodes, I'll make sure he remembers this slap, he'll never forget it. At that time, we won't even need to say a word, all the users who have used our product will help us slap his face."

Looking at Bai Yuhang's confident expression, Zhang Jian's anger inexplicably subsided by half: "Fine, I'll listen to Lao Liu. When I have some free time, I'm definitely going to write a script to change the homepage of his crappy website to 'Pigsy Carrying His Bride'."

"What you said"

"It's illegal, but we're a legitimate company, we need to be professional." Bai Yuhang chuckled and patted Zhang Jian's head. "Well, that's a good idea. Now, everyone go back to sleep. We're going out for a big meal tomorrow, so we need to look our best and not let Brother Zhao think we're a bunch of refugees."