Upon hearing that Gao Fei was here for the entrepreneurship competition, Li Chenghao had a general idea of his purpose. Besides movies and his love life, the most discussed topic concerning Gao Fei recently was the entrepreneurship competition. After all, Gao Fei was a celebrity student in the computer science department, and the faculty paid close attention to him. Li Chenghao had privately heard some teachers mention the news that student entrepreneurship teams were prohibited from including Gao Fei, and he only had a vague understanding of the internal details.
“Little Gao, are you perhaps hoping that I will recommend you to participate in the entrepreneurship competition on behalf of the department?” Dean Li asked with a smile.
“Dean, I’m not here to ask you to recommend me for the entrepreneurship competition,” Gao Fei shook his head and replied somewhat cryptically. “I want to target all the participating projects in the entrepreneurship competition. Can you cover for me, sir?”
Li Chenghao, who had just picked up his teacup, trembled slightly. He immediately thought of the recent rumors among the students. “You want to sabotage the entrepreneurship competition?”
“Precisely!” Seeing Gao Fei’s calm nod of admission, Dean Li was unsure how to respond. The entire school was buzzing with rumors that Gao Fei, banned from participating, had vowed to bring down the entrepreneurship competition, implying it was out of defiance. When he first heard these rumors, Li Chenghao, like the other teachers and students, assumed Gao Fei was just being young and hot-headed, speaking out of anger. But now that he was here in person, admitting it without any pretense, Dean Li hadn't expected him to be serious!
“Little Gao, do you know who the organizers of the entrepreneurship competition are?”
“I do. Besides the school taking the lead, it’s also funded by the Beijing University Alumni Association.”
“Since you know, why are you insisting on this? It’s just an entrepreneurship competition. If this year doesn’t work out, you can participate next year!”
Hearing Dean Li’s reluctance for him to target the entrepreneurship competition, Gao Fei stopped responding and changed the subject. “Dean, I know our department has been developing a civilian positioning system for the past year. I recently wrote a program and would like to ask you to take a look. Can it be applied to the project our department is developing? If it can, I’m willing to contribute it to the department for free.”
He took a USB drive out of his backpack and handed it over. Li Chenghao was well aware of Gao Fei’s capabilities. He took the USB drive, quickly plugged it into his computer, and began to examine the positioning program he had created. Gao Fei had no intention of profiting from the positioning system’s program code. Because in Long Guo, unlike his previous life, programs and systems related to positioning required numerous approvals from various departments. If one had connections, the approval process wouldn’t be too long. Without connections, it could take a year for approval, by which time others would have already launched their products. Therefore, to annoy the entrepreneurship competition, and to continue to operate within the school after annoying them, Gao Fei was willing to contribute the civilian positioning system program code to the department.
The wait wasn’t long. After about ten minutes, Dean Li, still in a state of shock from reviewing the code, recovered. He took a deep breath, his face breaking into a kindly smile. “It’s just an entrepreneurship competition, do whatever you want. I’ll cover for you. Since you’ll be at school anyway, join the research and development team. They’ll continue to develop based on your program, and you can provide some solutions and help.”
“Alright, Dean. I’ll be there whenever you call!” With his objective achieved, Gao Fei didn’t refuse. Participating in the R&D team wouldn’t take up too much time, and perhaps he could even show off a bit.
After the discussion, Gao Fei didn’t leave immediately. He thought about the files he had stolen last night and the six million in startup funding. “Dean, do you know how much startup funding the entrepreneurship competition provides for students?”
“Of course, it’s not a secret. Six million in startup funding. Every department dean is aware of it.” Li Chenghao finished speaking, then looked at the peculiar-looking Comrade Gao Fei and chuckled. “Are you still upset about that 300,000 in startup funds? Don’t worry, with the program code you’ve contributed to the R&D team, I’ll have the department’s finance department approve a sum of money for you to compensate for your loss.”
“Dean, I don’t care about hundreds of thousands. What I want to talk about is, there’s a problem with the startup funds!” As he spoke, Gao Fei pointed to the USB drive and the computer. “There’s a document on it. You’ll know once you’ve seen it.”
Dean Li curiously clicked it open. Upon seeing the title related to the entrepreneurship competition, he couldn’t help but frown. “Little Gao, did you hack into the school’s encrypted network again? You need to change this habit!”
“I promise not to hack into the school’s internal network again. Dean, please read the document first.” Li Chenghao sighed and remained silent, carefully reading the document about the entrepreneurship competition. As he reached the summary information at the end and the list of unapproved startup projects, his frown deepened. He finally understood why Gao Fei was so insistent on him reviewing the stolen files.
Dean Li backed up the file to his computer and said, “Millions in startup funds, this matter is already extraordinary. Little Gao, you must keep this confidential. I will submit the document later, and it won’t be revealed that it was you who stole it.”
“Don’t rush, Dean. We can discuss this matter further!” Gao Fei leaned in and whispered next to Li Chenghao. Moments later, he sat back down in his chair, put the USB drive from the table into his backpack, and said, “Dean, I’ll be going now. If the R&D team encounters any problems, you can call me directly, and I’ll be here anytime.”
“Alright, go ahead!” Gao Fei said no more, picked up his backpack, and left. Watching his retreating figure, Dean Li’s gaze became peculiar. “No wonder this kid is doing so well outside. He’s quite shrewd and deep-thinking. He’s aiming to put the entire organizing committee of the entrepreneurship competition on Beijing University’s pillar of shame!” Dean Li commented briefly and no longer concerned himself with the entrepreneurship competition. He turned his attention back to the computer and opened the latest chat software produced by Tengfei Technology Company on his desktop. He then found the chat group for the department’s research team and sent Gao Fei’s civilian positioning system program code to the group.
About ten minutes later, a series of shocked messages began appearing in the group. “Oh my god, Dean, did you write this latest program code? It’s almost perfect for our system’s functionality!” “Dean, I strongly suspect you found some master craftsman. The thought process of this program is truly novel!” “Professor, Dean, could this program code have been written by the legendary freshman from our department, Gao Fei?”
Seeing the shocked messages and guesses from the R&D team, Dean Li quickly replied in the group, “That’s right, this latest program code was written by student Gao Fei. From today onwards, he is also a member of the team.” After his reply, the group was immediately filled with cheers and celebratory emojis.
Gao Fei left the college administrative building and was once again mobbed by adoring senior female students. To be precise, the senior students who had successfully "chased" him earlier had revealed his location, and another group of senior students was waiting outside the administrative building. After another hour of fending off the senior students, he finally returned to his dormitory in a dishevelled state. His jacket was ruined, and now his hoodie was too. The perfume on him was a mixed, almost pungent scent.
“Good heavens, I’ll have to disguise myself when I go out in the future, otherwise I won’t have enough clothes left for the senior students to tear apart!” Gao Fei chuckled helplessly. He reached into his pocket and found over a hundred small slips of paper, all containing the contact information and social media accounts of the senior students. Even more absurdly, three room keys had somehow been tucked into his underwear! The senior students’ fan enthusiasm is truly crazy. Fortunately, I’m not interested in… otherwise, how many senior students would be…
Gao Fei placed all the slips of paper and room keys on his desk, then went into the bathroom to shower. After his shower, the mixed scent of a hundred perfumes finally faded. Gao Fei sat bare-chested in front of his computer and opened the school’s forum website, beginning the first step of his plan to upset the entrepreneurship competition. Building hype! He registered fifteen small accounts online and logged into the school forum, preparing to post and build hype.
Click-clack! As the keyboard sounds echoed, posts were sent to the forum one after another. After finishing posting, Gao Fei refreshed the forum only to find that the dozen or so posts he had just made had all sunk to the bottom. The posts on the forum were all about him, bragging about their successful fan encounters with photos and autographs. Gao Fei smiled wryly as he looked at the hundreds of posts about successful fan encounters. In the end, he had to use his hacking skills to enter the forum’s backend and set one of his small accounts as an administrator. Three of the posts that had sunk were now pinned to the top of the forum.
“Gao Fei returned to school, and the first thing he did wasn’t studying, but privately looking into these things!” “Shocking exposé, the famous freshman Gao Fei, returning to school not for studies, but for her!” “Quickly come and witness the latest news, the famous freshman student Gao Fei, upon returning to school, immediately did such a thing.” The three posts, worthy of being trending news, immediately attracted the attention of many students. Looking at the suggestive posts, everyone thought Gao Fei had exposed some scandalous news. Upon clicking, they found it was related to the entrepreneurship competition. The content of the three posts stated that after returning to school, Gao Fei began paying attention to the surrounding commercial economy, likely preparing to invest in some businesses, thereby confirming the rumors that he would go head-to-head with the entrepreneurship competition.
After reading the posts, apart from the senior students who were still in the throes of fan worship and expressed their support, the comment section was filled with mockery and doubt. “Gao Fei is really going to confront the entrepreneurship competition directly? Isn’t he here to make a joke? Going against the school, he’s seeking death!” “I think Gao Fei has a pig’s brain. He was just talking big, and I didn’t expect him to actually go through with it. Going head-to-head with the school’s flagship competition, he’s really young and impulsive, unappreciative of what’s good for him.” “Because my startup project wasn’t approved, I’m actually curious to see how Little Gao is going to confront the entrepreneurship competition. I hope he doesn’t disappoint me.” Within twenty minutes of the three posts being pinned, over a thousand comments appeared. Some people even posted directly on the forum, openly mocking Gao Fei as a brainless student.
(When writing about civilian positioning systems, some people will criticize me. Please remember that the world in the novel is not the Earth we currently inhabit, and the developed technology and era are also different. Please don’t take it too seriously, just take a look. This interlude won’t be too long; the main focus will be on making big money.)