chsdbacks Chapter 10: Prying Open the "Cage" to Escape
Chapter 10: Prying Open the "Cage" to Escape
Ye Chen found the answer to the question of how to escape from Saipan in the book.
It was an entirely English forum post, published on a forum called "SymbianHackers.net" on March 1, 2008. At the end, there was a Chinese note: "In China, this is called 'cracking,' and jailbreaking is more secure."
The first sentence of that article in English is: "No system is unbreakable. Every wall has a crack. That's where jailbreak starts."
The general idea is that no system is perfect; every wall has gaps, and that's where "jailbreak" begins.
New words in March... The date this book was written is probably later than the manufacturing date of many machines in the store.
Ye Chen speculated that this reference book was bound by Yue Sheng himself and was a unique copy!
Overjoyed, he gently placed the book over his face, inhaling the faint scent of ink, his skin touching the rough paper. He had a premonition that the "palm technique that descended from the sky" recorded in this book would open up a whole new world for him.
Ye Chen put down his book and looked at Yue Sheng, who was chatting with Lin Feng in the dormitory. Yue Sheng seemed to sense Ye Chen's gaze, turned around and looked at Ye Chen, nodded, and a smile appeared on his lips, but there was a hint of disappointment in his eyes.
Old Yang knocked on the wooden partition of the dormitory next door, reminding them that it was late. When the "thump-thump" on the partition became rapid and impatient, Lin Feng and Yue Sheng reluctantly ended their conversation.
After Yue Sheng left, Lin Feng asked with a smile, "If you keep reading, you'll become a bookworm."
He snatched the book from Ye Chen's hand, flipped through a few pages, then frowned and said, "Fellow villager, fellow villager, you've got a gun in your back."
"..." Ye Chen was startled at first, then, hearing his words, asked curiously, "What do you mean? Besides, can you even understand it?"
"I may never have seen a pig run, but I've certainly eaten pork!" Lin Feng warned Ye Chen sternly. "In short, you go handle after-sales service, and whatever you do, don't touch hacking!"
Ye Chen looked at him with a puzzled expression, but did not speak.
"Last year in Shenzhen, I encountered phones that had major problems after being hacked every day. Some became bricks, and some had their motherboards burned out." After saying this, Lin Feng looked at the unmoved Ye Chen and raised his voice, "Ye Chen! Did you hear me?"
A look of confusion flashed in Ye Chen's eyes.
Lin Feng's tone softened as he said, "I don't know what Lin Yuesheng's purpose is in giving you this, but you must remember, after-sales service in a store is not the same as that of a repairman."
"Hmm?" Ye Chen noticed that the after-sales service was not quite what he had understood, and he hummed in response to the question.
"After-sales service in the store involves registering issues and resolving non-hardware problems. For example, if improper operation causes a system malfunction, we try to fix it using simple methods. If that fails, we register it for return to the factory for after-sales service," Lin Feng said. "After-sales service in the store is more about the sales pitch! It's primarily about reassuring customers."
"Oh!" Ye Chen's eyes darkened, his once deep gaze seemingly turning into a black hole as he focused on the four words "Saipan Escape" on the title page.
Lin Feng breathed a sigh of relief after receiving Ye Chen's response, and said, "You're on the early shift, so you should go to sleep early. I'm going to an internet cafe to stay up all night."
Late at night, Ye Chen tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He sat up against the partition and turned on the bedside lamp.
Unlike Yang City, where the sounds of insects and birds could be heard at night, the commercial city was deathly silent after dark, but the book on his bedside table was calling to him in silence.
The sound of turning pages drifted through the deathly still night; he was finally poisoned.
......
early morning.
People were busy coming and going in the store as it prepared for its opening.
Ye Chen stood outside the store, absentmindedly cleaning the glass walls, holding a glass scraper in one hand and glass cleaner in the other.
His eyes were bloodshot and swollen. Aya inside the door tapped lightly on the glass, and Ye Chen came back to his senses.
Through the glass, Ye Chen could only see Aya's mouth opening and closing, but he couldn't hear what she was saying. He shook his head to indicate that he couldn't hear her.
Aya didn't seem to care whether Ye Chen heard her or not. She breathed a thin mist onto the glass and wrote the character "呆" (dāi, meaning "dull" or "apathetic"), with the "口" (kǒu, meaning "mouth") radical still in a circle. This "呆" was kind of cute.
She nodded in satisfaction, then turned and went to the cashier to count the number cards.
In the reflection of the glass, Ye Chen saw Chen Jiao standing behind him, holding a red Nescafé coffee cup. She gently patted Ye Chen's shoulder and asked, "Didn't you sleep well last night?"
"Yes, I'm reading the book Brother Sheng gave me," Ye Chen nodded in reply.
"Here, give it a try. Blue Mountain black coffee, not bitter, and great for energizing you," Chen Jiao said softly, handing over the coffee.
Ye Chen didn't stand on ceremony, reached out and took the sip.
The initial taste is slightly sweet, followed by a nutty and chocolate flavor that fills the mouth. After swallowing, a very faint sweetness lingers in the mouth.
Ye Chen had drunk coffee before, it was Nestlé instant coffee given to him by Lin Feng, and he thought it was just a bitter and astringent stimulant, which was incomparable to the cup in his hand.
Chen Jiao watched quietly as Ye Chen finished his drink. Ye Chen then thanked her, saying, "It was delicious. Thank you!"
"If you like it, I'll bring more next time," Chen Jiao said with a smile.
"How could I possibly accept that? Why don't you buy me a box?" Ye Chen said, taking out a hundred-yuan bill that he had just borrowed from Lin Feng the night before.
Chen Jiao didn't answer. She pointed to the word "dumb" on the glass, smiled, and left.
Ye Chen then noticed that Chen Jiao had two small dimples at the corners of her mouth, which adorned her baby face and made her look extremely beautiful.
When he turned around, the word "dull" on the glass slowly blurred, becoming soft and ethereal. A smile appeared on Ye Chen's face; this kind of life was wonderful.
My thoughts drifted back to Hexi Village in Yangshi, a place filled with banyan trees, where my father passed away eight years ago.
His father was the village electrician, and he could repair televisions and radios. The house was always filled with the smell of rosin and soldering iron. When Ye Chen was a child, he loved to squat next to his father's bamboo chair and watch him take apart broken machines into parts. He would sit in front of the circuit board, which looked like an aerial view of a city on a computer, for a whole day.
One day, Ye Chen's father gave him a broken radio and asked him to try to take it apart. When Ye Chen was at a loss and almost cried, his father said, "Chen, even the most tightly sealed machine is made up of pieces. As long as you find a gap, you can pry it open."
Before his father could teach Xiao Ye how to repair a radio, he passed away.
The half-open roller shutter door of Huayu was suddenly pulled open completely, and Aya stood in front of the glass door, waving and calling out to him, "Brother Chen, it's time for the morning meeting."
When Ye Chen turned around, the word "dumb" on the glass had disappeared, just like that autumn eight years ago, which would never return.
He gripped the coffee cup tightly, its warmth still lingering. Ye Chen's gaze hardened. He held a weapon sharper than his father's crowbar; he would pry open that "cage," he would escape.