Ye Shaohua received the admission notice and then went to M Country.
After learning that Ye Shaohua was the provincial Number One Scholar, Ye's father had even thought about finding her and bringing her back. However, to his surprise, Ye Shaohua seemed to have vanished, as he could not find out anything about her whereabouts.
Gradually, Ye Shaohua was almost forgotten by both the Ye Family and the residents of Ning City.
Two years later, a gaming company named Xinghe Networks emerged in M Country, launching an IT product called Star Network, along with a game operated through brainwave sensors. Although it was still in the trial phase, it instantly shocked the world.
Nobody knew who was behind this company, but everyone was aware that within just a month of going public, Xinghe Networks had become the leader in M Continent.
Even the IT industry's tycoons could not deny that Xinghe Networks represented a revolutionary change in the digital era.
Numerous businessmen wanted to get involved with Xinghe Networks, yet they could not even find the person behind it.
Back in Hua Country, Ye Ke also began to make a name for herself.
She had been reborn ten years ago, and in these two years, she had skipped grades to enroll in University Beijing. With three ahead-of-their-time software programs, she was successfully recruited by a national laboratory.
Moreover, she was also familiar with the recent rhythms of the financial market changes. Consequently, she manipulated several stocks to acquire a few companies during market fluctuations, ultimately moving the Ye Family's headquarters to Imperial City.
Most importantly, her software was recognized by the Hacker Alliance.
She became the darkest horse in the business world in recent years, and a dazzling star in the computing realm, with many Veterans from national laboratories seeking her advice on her software development.
Online, people hailed her as the national goddess.
She was Ye Ke.
At this moment, Ye Ke was in the premier computing company of Imperial City, the largest in Hua Country. On the surface, it seemed no different from any ordinary company, but Ye Ke knew that its actual backers were the leading geniuses from the international Hacker Alliance, the champions of the previous global hacker competition, and crucially, their ancestors held high military and political offices.
If not for her memories of her past life, she would not have known that such a seemingly unassuming company had such a formidable backer.
In this life, she had long planned to establish a good relationship with the company's management, Gu Jingyan.
She lacked nothing but a powerful backer.
"Mr. Gu, a pleasure doing business with you," said Ye Ke as she signed the document, her curiosity peeking into the Waiting Room. Seeing nothing, she withdrew her gaze.
Over the last two years, Gu Jingyan had come to regard her with new respect. After all, the fruits of a decade of wisdom were hard to fault, so both had become friendly business partners.
Ye Ke had been worried that Ye Shaohua might still be in touch with Gu Jingyan, but over these years, she had never seen him communicate with Ye Shaohua even once. Thus, she finally put her mind at ease.
"The hacker competition is tomorrow, and you seem very relaxed," Gu Jingyan commented curiously.
"The organizer of this hacker competition is Xinghe Networks," Ye Ke mentioned, her eyes lighting up for a moment, "I aim to take first place. The people at Xinghe Networks are too mysterious; I can only meet their person in charge if I win."
Xinghe Networks wasn't present in her previous life, and Ye Ke thought this might be a butterfly effect from her rebirth.
She had also studied the software released by Xinghe Networks, realizing it bore no resemblance to anything she had seen in her past life and was unable to decipher any part of it.
This indicated that the creator of Xinghe Networks had far surpassed her in technology, even outpacing the Hacker Alliance, and therefore, she knew just how fearsome Xinghe Networks was.
"First place?" Gu Jingyan smiled meaningfully, "You're that confident?"
"Of course." Ye Ke replied very quickly this time. Apart from knowing the content of the hacker competition, she still had a decade's worth of global hacker wisdom in her head.
She had already stood out as Asia's Number One Scholar in the preliminary hacker competition, and no one had expected the virtually unknown Ye Ke from two years ago to outshine all the prodigies.
Hackers from other countries viewed this dark horse from Hua Country with envy and caution.
At the global hacker competition, almost everyone would deliberately or subconsciously glance over here upon hearing the name Ye Ke.
This filled Ye Ke with a strong sense of superiority.
The hacker competition was unlike other competitions, where each participant had their own separate workspace equipped with cameras, to demonstrate the fairness of the competition. The difference was that each participant could choose to have an audience to watch the process.
Ye Ke brought along people from the Ye Family and the Fu Family, and even invited Gu Jingyan.
With confidence, she pointed at the Windows botnet on her computer screen and said to the audience, "This is an offensive and defensive competition. See that? I'm using this kernel vulnerability to execute remote code, then I seize control of the Star Network's browser to elevate system privileges. By the time other competitors find me through the vulnerability, I've already scored 11 points, I'm definitely going to be number one."
The people from the Ye and Fu families didn't understand, while Fu Jiachen looked at Ye Ke, slightly lost in thought.
Gu Jingyan, who understood these things, glanced at the screen and suddenly shook his head, "Miss Ye, don't celebrate too early."
Just then, the alarm Ye Ke had set up suddenly let out a sharp sound—someone had tracked her IP?!
How could this be possible?
Ye Ke couldn't believe it; the firewall and remote code she was using were those used by the previous world number one, which the official competition had improved over two years before releasing on their Official Website free of charge.
Such a nearly perfect firewall, even by current standards, couldn't normally be breached in a short period of time by the average person.
"Don't worry, my firewall comes with a virus. Those who want to attack me are still too green. Haven't they ever heard of something called 'phishing'?" Ye Ke immediately placed her hands on the keyboard, her tone filled with a touch of pride and mockery, thinking that someone trying to attack a firewall designed for two years later was simply too naïve.
She had great confidence in her firewall and remained calm, continuing to deploy her malware.
Only the last minute of the competition remained.
On the competition board, Ye Ke was leading as the first place with an advantage of 11 points.
However, that was when things changed. The code on Ye Ke's desktop crazily turned into gibberish, and someone used her captured browser as a springboard to directly invade the browser's internals!
That wasn't all; her computer screen turned black, and two white letters appeared out of nowhere—KO!
Ye Ke sharply turned her head, the competition board showed that the leading first place had been replaced.
Y, 19 points.
Seeing this, Ye Ke bit her lip hard, unable to believe it, "Y? How could it be Y? How could TA possibly participate in the hacker competition?!"
The hacker competition had age restrictions; only people under 25 years old could participate, and only once in their lifetime.
In the Hacker Community, Y also stirred up a trend, with everyone subconsciously assuming that someone with such skills must be of a certain age, perhaps a former champion of a hacker competition.
But unexpectedly, Y was not just young, it was TA's first time participating in a hacker competition!
"Y is indeed Y," Gu Jingyan said, seemingly having anticipated the result, so he wasn't surprised.
As soon as the competition ended, the teachers from the national laboratory came in. Ye Ke was the second place, which was a good result.
After hearing Gu Jingyan's words, he nodded in agreement, "Yes, the young people these days are incredible, 19 points, the last person who scored that was the Third Young Master, right? I'm certain that Y will be recruited by Xinghe Network, and TA's future accomplishments will be boundless."
"The most important thing for a hacker is to be able to create a new world on the internet, to program the most perfect software." Ye Ke had developed many software products for the Ye Family in the past two years, propelling the Ye Family into the global top 100. At nineteen years of age, for most people, this was nothing short of a miraculous presence.
As someone who was extremely successful in every aspect, Ye Ke naturally was very arrogant, "I don't deny Y's hacking skills, but that does not mean TA has achieved the same in programming. This world has never lacked hacker talent, but those who truly reach the pinnacle can be counted on one hand."
Her current achievements were something many people could not reach in several lifetimes, and Y was just a little talented in hacking, that was all. If it really came down to a comparison, she, a member of the Ye Family, could easily crush Y.
After the hacker competition, the most discussed topic among the faculty and lab members of the Computer Science department at University Beijing was Y.
Ye Ke had just come out of the laboratory with two classmates when they overheard some gossip nearby.
After catching a few keywords, she couldn't help but stop the group, "Wait, what did you just say? Exchange student?"
Ye Ke's name was well-known throughout University Beijing, and there was hardly anyone who didn't recognize her. Seeing that the person asking was her, the group was quite flattered.
"Yes, Ye junior, we heard that the person coming is a special exchange student, a beauty at that. Though she's originally from Hua Country, this time it was our Academy's Dean who specifically requested her," one person explained.
"Special exchange student? Famous?" Ye Ke noted the keywords, the Dean personally naming her.
Another person quickly answered, "She's a genius from the CS Academy of Stanford, known internationally for many designs and has won numerous awards. Otherwise, the Dean wouldn't have personally requested her."
Ye Ke nodded, no longer questioning. She wasn't concerned about this genius at all.
In the past two years, the word "genius" was not enough to describe her, and moreover, she hadn't heard of any unbelievable students from Stanford Academy.
But before Ye Ke could finish her thoughts, she saw a line of people coming down from the laboratory building.
Ye Ke glanced at them unintentionally, but her expression changed obviously when she recognized that the accompaniers were the lab manager and a Dean from University Beijing.
She turned her gaze to the person in the front, curious about who warranted the company of two high-ranking individuals from University Beijing.
To her surprise, she went blank for a moment upon seeing him.
The person in front was wearing a pristine white shirt, his demeanor aloof, jet-black hair scattered across his forehead, and eyes deep and unfathomable like ink paintings on rice paper.
Ye Ke thought she heard the Dean calling him "Third Young Master."
"It's him!" Ye Ke heard the astonished voices of two senior classmates, "The Third Young Master of the Gu Family, Gu Jingyun! Why has he returned?"
"Teacher..." Ye Ke's heart skipped a beat as she suddenly remembered who this person was. She had caught a glimpse of him in her previous life at a family banquet of the Gu Family, where even the Gu Family's stewards were exceedingly polite to him.
With this thought, Ye Ke stepped forward. Although she was greeting the Deans of their Academy, her peripheral vision was fixed on Gu Jingyun.
Unfortunately, Gu Jingyun, always aloof, showed no patience for Ye Ke and the Dean's pleasantries, not even sparing a glance for Ye Ke and the others.
After greeting the Deans, he took his car keys and left, "I'll go ahead."
As he passed by Ye Ke and the others, he took a phone call. The indifference in his eyes almost completely vanished as he looked down, "You're back? Don't wander off, I'm coming to pick you up."
"Don't even think about it," seeing Ye Ke like this, a senior female student beside her sighed, "That's the Third Young Master of the Gu Family, only to be admired from afar."
Hearing her senior's words, Ye Ke clenched her fists, but her eyes gradually firmed.
Then she wanted to try even more. She now had control of the Hacker Alliance's intelligence for the next eight years. This rebirth was for the purpose of changing her own destiny. She did not believe that with her talent there was anything she couldn't do!
**
At the airport, Ye Shaohua removed her sunglasses from the bridge of her nose and looked toward the arrival gate. It was only upon seeing a familiar figure that she pulled her luggage and walked over.
Meanwhile, Gu Jingyun gazed at the approaching figure, his eyes somewhat vacant.
It had been two years since he had seen her in person, aside from video calls. He never expected that she would be more dazzling in real life than on screen, causing passersby to do double-takes.
"Those people from M Country actually let you come back?" Gu Jingyun took her luggage, withdrawing his gaze.
Gu Jingyan, who had hurried over, saw Gu Jingyun's natural gesture, and his mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg. Was this his distant and composed third brother?
"They have big plans," Ye Shaohua's eyes narrowed slightly, "right as I boarded the plane, the FBI used the pretext of a routine investigation to search my office."
Hearing this, Gu Jingyan felt his head spin. What was he listening to? Why wouldn't the people from M Country want to let her go? What office? What FBI?
"They are shameless. Didn't they lose anything?" Gu Jingyun's eyebrows knotted.
"All the important things have always been in my head," Ye Shaohua tapped her forehead, "but I'm also ready to move back to Hua Country."
Not understanding the rest, Gu Jingyan got the gist of this part and whilst playing the doorman and driver, he said, "Ye deity, have you decided to return to Hua Country? Going back to the Ye Family? Oh right, you probably don't know yet. Your sister is quite something. Although she's not as good as you in computers, she's a genius in finance. Within just two years, the Ye Family's headquarters moved to Imperial City. Once you go to University Beijing, you'll see. She's known to all there. Geez, the Ye Family really produces monsters."
Gu Jingyan didn't know what Ye Shaohua was up to abroad, only that she was in college, so he made that remark.
Hearing his words, Ye Shaohua slightly curled her lips, but before she could say anything, her phone in her pocket rang.
"Sister, dad's in the hospital, he just got hit by a car. Are you coming?" The call was from Ye Han.
Even though Ye Shaohua hadn't been in contact with the Ye Family for two years, it seemed that Ye Han knew she had alerted them to that car race and he had been keeping an eye on her, even secretly sending her money.
Although she had no affection for the other members of the Ye Family, she was somewhat tolerant of Ye Han.
"After you went abroad, dad also tried to find you several times. Although he doesn't talk about it, after all, you're his daughter. He surely misses you. If you have time, you can visit him at the First People's Hospital."
After the call, Ye Shaohua's eyebrows furrowed slightly, her slender fingers tapping on her phone, as if contemplating something.
"Will you go?" Gu Jingyun asked, glancing up lightly.
Ye Shaohua shook her head, "Let's go to the school first."
**
At the hospital, Ye Ke and others had already hurried to the outside of the operation room.
Unlike the anxious look of the other Ye Family members, Ye Ke appeared very calm. She already knew that her father would have this car accident and that he would break a leg.
Seeing her indifferent demeanor, Ye Han frowned, not understanding when exactly his once-admired sister had changed, even the way she looked at their family was strange.
Sometimes Ye Han was even afraid of his sister whom he had once respected.
So he stepped aside and made a call to Ye Shaohua.
But what Ye Han didn't know was that his conversation with Ye Shaohua was fully overheard by Ye Ke.
Only after Ye Han had taken the elevator did Ye Ke step out from the corner, her gaze darkening, "Ye Han, I gave you an opportunity this time. But thank you for letting me know that Ye Shaohua has returned...
Ye Shaohua, your return is just in time. You've studied computer science abroad for two years. Although your school is better than mine, you don't know that I never needed to study computer science. From the moment you started computer science, I was already using the knowledge from my previous life to make software.
Now in University Beijing, Ning City, and the business circles, who doesn't know of Ye Ke, the genius young lady of the Ye Family? As for Ye Shaohua, apart from Ye Han, who else remembers that the Ye Family has such a person?"