Chapter 20: The first pot of gold, the mysterious website
"Yueyue, I'm not busy now, you should go home first."
"Um."
Passing by the bookstore he visited yesterday, Jiang Fuyue paused, thought for a moment, and pushed the door open.
Walk straight to the innermost row of bookshelves, and there are three big bright words next to it - Used Book Area.
The book covers are old, heavily covered in dust, not neatly stacked, and filled with a musty smell. No wonder no one is interested in them.
"Are the books for sale here?" Jiang Fuyue found the clerk.
"...You want to buy it?!" The other party was a little surprised.
"Hmm. How much?"
"This... I have to ask the boss." Because no one has ever bought it, let alone asked for the price.
Soon, the boss came over and asked, "Do you want to buy these old books?"
Jiang Fuyue nodded.
"This area needs to be cleaned up anyway. There are too many old books and they're taking up space. Since you like them, I'll sell them cheaply, five dollars a copy. Take your pick."
"Thank you, boss."
"Just one thing, these are special offers and are non-refundable. Don't buy them and then regret it and come to me to argue."
"Don't worry, I definitely won't."
"Okay," the boss pointed to the shelf, "Take your time to choose."
Jiang Fuyue was very quick and went to the front desk to check out after a quarter of an hour.
"Oh, have you chosen it already?" The boss looked at her with a smile and thought that this girl is really smart, but her brain is not very good.
Jiang Fuyue nodded: "I've picked out ten."
"Fifty dollars."
The boss took a large plastic bag and packed it for her. He watched Jiang Fuyue leave and muttered to himself, "It's strange that someone would buy a book without even a cover...."
Jiang Fuyue did not go home, but went to an Internet cafe across the street with her book.
"Please turn on the machine."
The network administrator looked up and said, "Student?"
She said calmly, "I'm an adult."
The other party did not ask for her ID card. "How long?"
"Two hours."
"Twenty, cash or scan?"
Jiang Fuyue: "...one hour is enough."
To do this, she spent her last ten dollars.
Walk to the innermost corner, which is the blind spot of several cameras.
Turn on the computer, log in, and your fingers will fly.
The computer desktop, which was originally working normally, froze twice and then turned black.
Jiang Fuyue ignored it and continued typing on the keyboard. Strings of codes appeared and quickly filled the entire screen.
As the Enter key was pressed, the screen suddenly lit up, and a website login page popped up.
Jiang Fuyue entered his login name: I send my sorrowful heart.
Then a six-digit password.
After a successful login, a cluster of fireworks bloomed in the middle of the screen, followed by large patches of purple irises blooming, like a welcome feast.
Jiang Fuyue thought to himself that it was bad and immediately switched the login status to invisible.
In an instant, the iris withered and gradually faded away from the table.
She breathed a sigh of relief, took out her cell phone, transferred the ten book covers she had just taken pictures of in the bookstore to her computer, selected "hide seller information", and set up the online auction mode.
Duration: 20 minutes.
At the same time, in California, M country, it was midnight.
The old professor, who had already taken off his glasses and was about to finish his work, looked up and saw a large patch of withered irises appear on the table, which disappeared in the blink of an eye.
His eyes widened, and he couldn't tell whether this was reality or a dream.
After a moment, he typed out the code with almost trembling hands, the screen switched, and the homepage of the website popped up.
He was originally logged in, but because he hadn't moved the mouse for a long time, the privacy protection terms activated the safe mode and he returned to the computer desktop.
Fortunately, I was logged in, so I didn't miss the scene of Iris's defeat.
Twenty years...
This sea of purple flowers has disappeared for twenty years!
He put on his glasses and clicked on the system message. A red exclamation mark appeared.
[00:07 PDT, founder Wojichouxin is online]
"It's him! It's really him!"
…
The sun is scorching in the Chinese capital.
Q University, Room 307, Laboratory Building.
“It appeared! It appeared!”
The young master's student watched his supervisor stand up from his seat like a madman, staring at the computer screen, with a flash of tears in his eyes.
"Professor Xu?" He stopped the experiment in his hand and prepared to go over.
"It's okay... I just..." Too happy.
The old man stopped the student from approaching, then clicked on the background to check the system message -
really!
It’s him!
Just then, the landline rang, but he didn't bother to answer it. He sat in front of the computer and quickly logged in with administrator privileges to check the other party's IP address.
The landline stopped working, and then the cell phone started vibrating again.
Xu Kaiqing was about to hang up impatiently, but the moment he saw the caller ID, he quickly pressed the answer button: "Lao Bi—he showed up!"
"Xu! He's back!"
They both spoke at the same time and were stunned at the same time.
Yes, they all saw it.
Old Peter: "I'm not an administrator, I don't have permission, and California has been very strict on internal network inspections lately. You must track the IP address immediately and find Chou! We haven't heard from him for twenty years, and we can't wait another twenty years!"
"Yes, I know, I'm checking... and it's out!"
"How about it?!"
“…” Silence.
"Xu? Are you listening? Hello?"
“…The online time is too short to be found.”
As soon as the words fell, both of them fell silent.
Suddenly, Xu Kaiqing's brows furrowed as he saw an auction transaction authorization pop up in the administrator's backend.
He was about to check the details when someone got through first.
Passed!
Only founders and administrators have this permission, so -
"Old Peter! Old Peter! He's still online! He just completed an auction transaction!"
"Auction?" The sound of keyboard tapping came from the other end. "I saw it! Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of Feynman's Lectures on Physics went out of print in 1987. There are also seven volumes of Wheeler's manuscripts that have never been published. The originals are in a museum in Country E. Rubbings have been prohibited since 2000, and they are no longer in circulation on the market!"
Xu Kaiqing: "The auction ended two minutes ago, and the transaction amount is shown as 20 SA coins in the backend."
SA coin, virtual currency for internal transactions on the website.
1 SA coin is approximately equal to 10,000 yuan.
After the auction is completed, the money will be temporarily transferred to an intermediary account and will only be transferred to the seller's account after approval by the administrator.
Since this transaction was approved by "Chou", can we assume that...
Chou is the seller of these ten out-of-print books!
Xu Kaiqing's eyes lit up, and just as he was about to check the seller's message, a dialog box popped up in the administrator's backend -
[I send my sorrowful heart]: Long time no see, Xu.
【Xu】: You’re back?!
[I send sorrow]: Yes. Could you please exchange it for SA coins?
Xu: Of course! What currency do you want?
[I send my sorrowful heart]: RMB.
Xu Kaiqing's breathing stagnated. This meant... he was in China!
Xu: Okay. Or should we transfer it to our space account?
【I send my sorrowful heart】：Yeah.
Thirty seconds later, Jiang Fuyue received a deposit reminder.
【I send my sorrowful heart】: Thank you very much.
Xu: Is it convenient for us to meet now? Peter and I hit a dead end before we were even halfway through our experimental hypothesis.
[I express my sorrow]: Don’t worry, we will meet again when the time comes.
After typing this sentence, the other party showed as offline.
Xu Kaiqing only traced the IP address to Linhuai, but had no way of finding the specific location.
But this was enough to make him excited.
"Xiao Zhang——"
"Here I come! Mr. Xu!" The assistant heard the voice and ran in from outside.
Xu Kaiqing: "Help me book a flight to Linhuai!"
"Now?"
"Yes! The sooner the better! I'll go back and pack my luggage and have the car drive downstairs..." After saying that, he took off his lab coat and strode away.
"Hello? Hello?! Xu—can you hear me?" The phone was still busy, and Old Peter's anxious voice came from inside, "Did you find Chou?"
"No. But I must go there myself."
"OK, I'll book a flight right away."
"No, don't rush over. Wait until you find someone. The most urgent thing is to organize all the experimental data. I have a feeling it will come in handy soon."
"……good."
After Xu Kaiqing ended the call, he reached the stairs and realized that he had forgotten to take his computer. He quickly turned back, picked up the computer, and left like a gust of wind again.
But I overlooked a detail. The computer was originally open, but now it was closed.
The master's student exhaled lightly, feeling a bit scared.
Then he went to a doctoral student in the same lab.
"Brother, I have something to tell you."
"Um?"
"What is S-SA?"
The doctoral student's expression changed slightly: "How did you know that?"
"...I just helped Professor Xu turn off his computer, but I didn't mean to peek! Brother, is there anything special about this website? It seems like the professor is very secretive and doesn't want to talk about it."
"It's actually not as mysterious as you think. S-SA, short for Science-Sale, is also known in China as 'Kepai Station'. It's used for sharing and trading academic materials. It's said to have a large amount of out-of-print scientific research materials and original manuscripts." He paused, then added with a smile, "The kind you can collect."
"There's such a website? How come I've never heard of it?"
"S-SA operates a membership system, with initial membership reserved for the world's top scientists in their respective fields. This group can then grant three additional members. It's said there are fewer than fifty initial members worldwide, and assuming all of them use invitation privileges, there's only about two hundred in total. Small-timers like us can't even get close, so it's surprising you've even heard of it. I only found out about it last year..."
"...There's really no information on the Internet." The master's student let go of the mouse, looking stunned.
It feels like...
The world he originally knew suddenly became different after he opened a door.
Sister Yue: I made money! I made money! I'm going home to eat roast chicken!
(End of this chapter)
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