Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

At seven o'clock in the morning, the sky over Harbin was pale and the snow that had been falling on and off for several days had finally stopped.

The army of people who had stayed up all night moved out one after another like zombies whose souls had been ripped out, and the stale smell in the air, a mixture of instant noodle soup and foot odor, never seemed to dissipate completely.

Bai Yuhang stood in front of the control computer, his finger hovering over the Enter key, and glanced back at Zhao Jianjun, whose eyes were bloodshot: "Brother Zhao, now is the time to witness a miracle."

Snapped.

As soon as the Enter key is pressed, the command is instantly distributed to all terminals via the local area network.

With the hum of the restarting fan, 110 large CRT monitors lit up simultaneously. After a self-test and system boot, the Windows interface with its blue sky and white clouds flashed by, and then, as if receiving a silent command, all the browser windows popped up in unison.

The interface is a clean, light blue color, with a Google search box in the center and frequently used websites neatly categorized below. Looking around, all one hundred-plus computers in the internet cafe are connected to "Qihang Navigation".

This scene even had a solemn feel to it, like a military parade.

Zhao Jianjun stood in the middle of the main aisle, the unlit cigarette in his hand hovering in mid-air, as he looked around. This scene made Zhao Jianjun, a former soldier who valued discipline above all else, feel a chill run down his spine, and a sense of control welled up within him. Before, these rows of screens were filled with either Legend of Mir or OICQ, the icons a jumbled mess; now, looking at them like this, he felt incredibly relieved.

"Good!" Zhao Jianjun tucked the cigarette behind his ear and slapped Bai Yuhang hard on the shoulder. "Now that's what you call a proper army! That used to be a bandit's den!"

Bai Yuhang smiled, gave up his seat, and casually pulled the dumbfounded network administrator Wang Jun over: "Wang Jun, this job is in your hands from now on. I left the operation manual in that document on the desktop."

Wang Jun had lost all his arrogance at this moment. He looked at Bai Yuhang as if he were looking at a patriarch, nodding vigorously: "Don't worry, Brother Bai, I will definitely understand."

"Brother Zhao, come on, let me teach you one last trick." Bai Yuhang opened the server backend. "See this button? 'Lock machine when time is up.' From now on, if a machine's time is up and it won't leave even if you don't pay, you won't need to go and bother it. Just turn off the screen and lock the machine when the time is up."

Zhao Jianjun's eyes lit up. He tried it out, and sure enough, a computer in the far corner went out instantly. "That's great! Saves me from having to go over there and waste time talking to those brats."

"But there's a condition," Bai Yuhang said, throwing out the bait at the right moment, "This remote control protocol is bound to the navigation page. If the homepage is changed and the heartbeat connection is lost, this function will be useless."

"Who dares to change it?" Zhao Jianjun raised an eyebrow, pointing at Wang Jun. "Did you hear that? If you touch the homepages of these three stores, you can forget about your salary this month. Pack your bags and get out!"

Wang Jun shrank back: "Don't worry, boss, I'll fight anyone who tries to change it."

As they were about to leave the internet cafe, Zhao Jianjun insisted on giving Bai Yuhang money. In addition to the agreed-upon final payment, he pulled out a few more bills, totaling 1,200 yuan, and stuffed a thick wad into Bai Yuhang's hand.

"Brother, from now on this is our own business. If Wang Jun can't handle it, I'll have to trouble you again." Zhao Jianjun patted Bai Yuhang's shoulder with a strong pat. "I'll let Wang Jun handle the other two stores. Don't stay up all night with him. Your health is the foundation of everything."

"Don't worry, Brother Zhao, after-sales service is guaranteed." Bai Yuhang didn't refuse, thanked Brother Zhao, and put the money in his pocket with a smile, then walked towards the school with Lao San.

As soon as they stepped out of the internet cafe, a gust of cold wind made them both shiver.

Zhang Jian, the third brother, finally came to his senses. His feet felt like they were walking on cotton, and he felt unsteady on his feet. He watched Bai Yuhang put the wad of money into his pocket, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

"Sixth Brother, is that... all done?"

"It's all done."

"If we burned this software onto discs and sold them, charging five or six hundred yuan a set wouldn't be unreasonable, right?" The third brother started counting on his fingers. "There are so many internet cafes and computer rooms in Harbin, if we went to all of them..."

Bai Yuhang lit a cigarette, took a puff to warm himself up, and shook his head with a smile: "Third brother, we're not going to be shovel sellers. How much money can you make selling software? That's killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."

"So what are we after?"

"It's about these 220 machines, and the tens of thousands more that will follow," Bai Yuhang exhaled a smoke ring. "Each machine is a traffic portal. As long as they turn it on, as long as they go online, the first thing they'll see is us. That's called 'dominating the desktop,' understand?"

The third brother blinked, seemingly understanding but not quite: "I don't understand. I just know that over a thousand dollars is quite substantial. Although I don't understand what you're saying, I think you're very profound, like... Morpheus from The Matrix."

Bai Yuhang was amused.

Back near the university, Bai Yuhang found a sheltered spot, took out his money from his pocket, counted out four bills, and slapped them into Lao San's hand.

"That's 1500 in total. I'll keep 500 as start-up capital for the project; we'll need money for server rentals and maintenance in the future. The remaining 1500, we'll each take 400 for living expenses this month. And the last 200..." Bai Yuhang waved the two remaining bright red bills, "Saturday night, let's call up all the 'animals' in our dorm, let's go out to eat and have a good meal."

The third brother took the four hundred yuan and quickly clutched it in his hand. In 2000, a male college student's monthly living expenses were only three or four hundred yuan, and some girls only needed two hundred yuan for food and drink. Even if his family was relatively wealthy, the fact that he could earn a month's living expenses by staying up two all-nighters was something he, as a student, couldn't even imagine.

"Sixth Brother," the third brother carefully tucked the money into his inner pocket, his gaze towards Bai Yuhang changing as if he were looking at some rare species, "Why do I feel like lately, the things in your head are more convoluted than those C language pointers?"

"Just go around, otherwise how can I take you guys flying?" Bai Yuhang flicked his cigarette butt into the trash can. "Let's go back to the dorm and catch up on some sleep."

It was almost nine o'clock when I got back to dormitory 206. Pushing open the door, the familiar smell of stinky feet actually made me feel at ease.

The eldest brother was sitting on the lower bunk, munching on a steamed bun and reading a martial arts novel, when he saw the two men with panda eyes push open the door and startled him: "Hey, did you two go to an internet cafe for an all-nighter or go to the coal mine?"

"Going to dig for gold." The third brother kicked off his shoes and climbed straight onto the bed, too lazy to even wash his face. "Big brother, ask for leave for us in the morning calculus class. Just say... just say we have food poisoning, diarrhea, and can't get out of bed."

"That's a lame excuse. Do you think the counselor will believe it? If you bring the school hospital staff to the dorm again, they'll come to collect your corpses." The eldest rolled his eyes.

"Then say you have a cold and fever." Bai Yuhang took off his cotton-padded coat, feeling his joints cracking all over. He climbed into bed, and the moment his head hit the pillow, sleepiness washed over him like a tide. "By the way, boss, let everyone know that no one should make plans for Saturday night two days from now. Third brother and I are treating everyone; we have something important to discuss."

"A dinner party? How big of an affair?"

"You can eat your fill; there's meat and wine."

Bai Yuhang mumbled a reply, his consciousness rapidly sinking.

The two slept soundly for a long time.

Outside the window, the Harbin sun finally pierced through the clouds and shone on the snow-covered streets.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, more than a hundred computers in the New Century Internet Cafe were running tirelessly. Every time a browser was opened, it added a small but incredibly solid brick to the nascent internet empire.