Chapter 18

The director brought Zhang Qiu to the office and then asked, "Comrade, are you really confident that you can recover the data?"

"As long as there is no physical damage, I am confident," Zhang Qiu replied. His words were very confident, leaving no room for doubt. This confidence stemmed from his world-class technical skills.

Just like the experts in the Academy of Sciences, when they spoke, they naturally exuded a commanding presence. This confidence came from the knowledge and technology in their minds. Now, Zhang Qiu was in a similar situation. His world-class skills gave him ample confidence and assurance.

Seeing Zhang Qiu's demeanor, the director was even more convinced. An ordinary high school student would never be so composed in his presence. Just this demeanor alone was impressive.

Not long after, the female police officer came to the director's office: "Director, the expert said it's fine to let him take a look." She was also holding some documents.

The director glanced at them and saw that they were Zhang Qiu's file. His background and history were nothing special; he was just a child from an ordinary family, a third-generation poor but upright citizen. Such a person posed no problem.

Director Wang nodded and then asked, "Comrade Zhang Qiu, once you go in, regardless of whether you succeed or not, you must sign a confidentiality agreement and abide by the confidentiality regulations. If you succeed, I will owe you a favor."

"Everything will be done as you say, Director Wang," Zhang Qiu nodded.

When they arrived at the server room, several experts were surprised to see such a young boy.

Some even looked down on him. How could a young kid, no matter how talented, have such advanced skills? Data recovery is not like hacking; there are too many restrictions, and even geniuses cannot defy the laws of nature.

"Are you the data recovery expert?" a young technician asked, looking for faults.

"Yes, I am the expert!" Zhang Qiu replied.

"What makes you think you can call yourself an expert?" the young technician asked. He considered himself a genius, young and skilled, and had passed the civil service exam to become a staff member of the Cybersecurity Bureau.

But even he did not dare to call himself an expert. How could this kid, who hadn't even fully grown, dare to call himself an expert? How could he be satisfied?

"Alright, let's focus on recovering the data. Why don't we let this young comrade give it a try?" The director, seeing the situation getting out of hand, quickly intervened to smooth things over.

Since the director had spoken, the experts from the Cybersecurity Bureau, who had been unable to fix the issue, had no choice but to give him a chance.

However, the young technician who was looking for faults was still不服气 (unconvinced): "Since the director said so, let him try! But if he accidentally causes permanent damage, there will be no hope left."

The director, hearing his words, hesitated again. But he was also angry. You were the ones who suggested letting him try, and now you are the ones who are preventing him from doing so! Are you playing me for a fool?

At this moment, Zhang Qiu stepped forward. He had already glanced at the screen and seen what he needed to see. The commands and prompts on the screen indicated that the hard drive to be recovered had no physical damage.

As long as there was no physical damage, he had a way.

"What if I fix it? What will you do then?" Zhang Qiu asked in a challenging tone.

"If you fix it, then you fix it!" the young technician replied sarcastically.

"Hmph! You're afraid to bet, aren't you!" Zhang Qiu coldly retorted, "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. You people are just arrogant, looking down on me because I'm young and jealous of my skills. You think I'm bluffing and want to put me down, but with the director backing me, you don't dare to go too far, right?"

"You! You're talking nonsense!" the person countered. At this moment, the team leader said, "Quiet! Let's hear what this young comrade has to say."

However, Zhang Qiu's words had already made the team leader's neck turn red, and the others were also surprised by his sharpness and lack of restraint. But since the team leader had spoken, no one dared to act rashly. This was a loss for them. Zhang Qiu had embarrassed them, making the usually high-and-mighty technicians feel united in their resentment towards him.

The director also thought to himself, "Indeed, he is a young and brash student." However, he did not stop him, as he had also grown tired of the young technician's attitude. He had no real skills but was full of himself. If he were not from another department, the director would have already confronted him.

"Hmph! I'll show you what real skills are today. It's not just you people with official positions who can be called technicians! If I succeed, you must apologize to me in person!" Zhang Qiu coldly said.

Even the female police officer was surprised. Where did this young boy get such confidence? She had also looked down on Zhang Qiu and did not believe he had the skills. If not for the team leader's suggestion to let Zhang Qiu try, she would not have paid him any attention.

But now, Zhang Qiu's confidence had piqued her curiosity.

At this moment, Zhang Qiu asked her about the situation, and her attitude was noticeably better as she answered his questions in detail.

Zhang Qiu understood the basic situation, knew where the hard drive was, and what data needed to be recovered. He then sat down at the computer and began the recovery process.

He plugged in his USB drive, copied the assembly software, and personally wrote a data recovery program.

After checking the hard drive, Zhang Qiu identified the problem. It turned out that the hard drive had been destroyed by a backdoor program, formatted several times, and some files had been overwritten.

It was almost physically damaged, but fortunately, it was stopped in time, thanks to the experts.

The experts had attempted to recover the data multiple times, but they only managed to recover the overwritten files or a directory. The files they truly needed, due to the multiple overwrites, were beyond their capabilities.

However, this did not pose a challenge for Zhang Qiu. A solution quickly formed in his mind. His world-class skills were truly powerful and comprehensive, with no bias.

Don't think that just because he was doing data recovery part-time, he was only focused on data recovery. The skill given to him by the system was called "Computer Proficiency," not "Hacking Proficiency" or "Data Proficiency." The name "Computer" already encompassed everything.

In terms of knowledge, he had no bias; his focus was only on his interests and needs.

Using data recovery to earn money was his need, so he had a bias towards it.

He quickly typed lines of code into his program. After about five minutes, the code was complete, and he recompiled it.

He checked again and then began the recovery process.

The progress bar quickly filled, and directories appeared on the screen. These directories were layered, each layer representing a format.

Continuing to scan, he listed about fifteen layers of files, even recovering the files from when the hard drive was first used.

"Take a look, identify the files you need, and recover them yourselves. This is confidential, so you don't need to tell me," Zhang Qiu said to the experts.

Soon, an expert went over to check. Seeing the layers of file directories, he could not help but show a look of astonishment.

The files they truly needed, for confidentiality, were known only to the team leader. The first person to go over was the team leader.

Previously, no matter how they tried, they could not recover files beyond the tenth layer. The files were too heavily overwritten, and even when they managed to scan some directories, they were incomplete and empty.

They had thought it was impossible to recover, but now a high school student had managed to scan and list the directories beyond the tenth layer in just a few minutes. Even if they couldn't recover the files, just being able to scan so many directories was already astonishing.

This was truly astonishing, making him feel as if all the years of technical knowledge he had learned were for nothing.

This was simply unbelievable.

He suppressed his excitement, selected the needed files, and personally entered the recovery command.

This time, the progress bar moved more slowly, and everyone was watching. After about ten minutes, the first set of needed files was fully recovered.

The team leader called the female police officer over to check. The police officer immediately exclaimed, "Great! These are the files we need!"

Although Zhang Qiu was curious, he forced himself not to look at the files.

He knew that in matters of secrecy, it was better to know less. This was a confidential matter, and although it was supposed to be kept secret, it was better not to know at all.

"Impossible! How did you do it?" the young technician, who had been looking for faults, exclaimed after the police officer confirmed.

Previously, he had been silent, ready to see Zhang Qiu's failure. After all, being able to scan directories did not mean he could recover complete files. These were two different levels of skill, and the latter was extremely difficult.

He never thought that Zhang Qiu would not only scan the directories but also fully recover the data. In his understanding, this was an impossible task, even for national-level experts!

But this impossible task had happened right before his eyes, and the person who accomplished it was a high school student he had looked down on!

He felt as if his worldview and life philosophy were collapsing. Before he could recover, the director suddenly said, "Comrade, apologize!"

"I..." The young technician remembered that Zhang Qiu had said he would have to apologize if the data was recovered. He wanted to argue, saying he hadn't agreed, but considering that the director was backing Zhang Qiu, he had to back down.

Although the director of the Public Security Bureau had no authority over the Cybersecurity Bureau and often needed their help, he was still a director.

So the young technician, lowering his proud head, said to Zhang Qiu, "I'm sorry, I was shortsighted! I hope you can forgive my rudeness."

His apology made the experts lose again. The proud experts from the system had to bow to a young boy, which was a blow to their pride. Especially in front of the Public Security Bureau, which they usually looked down on, their faces were burning with shame, and they hated Zhang Qiu even more.

"Hmph!" Zhang Qiu ignored him, not fearing the technicians' resentment.

At this moment, the team leader said, "Young comrade, are you interested in working for our Cybersecurity Bureau?"

"Not interested!" Zhang Qiu directly refused. Although it was a civil service position that many people dreamed of, he did not value it.

With his abilities, becoming a civil servant would be a waste of talent and would limit him.

Although being a civil servant was good, it was not his goal.

"Since the problem is solved, I'll leave now. I need to get back to school later," Zhang Qiu said. Then he asked the director, "Do I still need to sign the confidentiality agreement?"

"You have done me a great favor today. I believe you can keep the secret, so there's no need to sign the agreement. I, Wang Xiangdong, owe you a favor!" the director said. Then he said to the female police officer, "A Qing, please see Comrade Zhang and his classmates off."

"Director Wang, the leader of the thugs is targeting my classmate. I'm afraid they might act recklessly! Their leader is a student named Cheng Jianwu, whose father is a former ** official, who recruits ** thugs and runs a demolition company. My classmate and I are ordinary citizens and can't afford to provoke them!" Zhang Qiu mentioned his concerns.

"This is simple. I will keep the criminals with criminal records in custody for longer. As for the people behind them, I will send a message. If they act recklessly, they will be opposing me, Wang Xiangdong. I will also pay special attention to this Cheng Jianwu, making him apologize to you personally and not bother your classmate again," the director said.

"Thank you, Director Wang," Zhang Qiu said, "If my classmate is safe, we will consider it even, and you will no longer owe me a favor!" This favor would be used eventually, and he didn't know how big it would be. So Zhang Qiu did not want to use it to show off. If it could solve Ning Lan's safety issues, that would be best.

"You seem to care a lot about your classmate. You are a man of honor!" Wang Xiangdong smiled, "I don't like owing favors. Since you have helped, I will definitely solve the problem for you. Although I won't owe you a favor, I will consider you a friend. Here is my personal business card. Let's be friends, regardless of age."

Saying this, Wang Xiangdong took out a card with only a name and a phone number. Although it was not fancy, no one dared to underestimate it.

Zhang Qiu took the card and said goodbye to Wang Xiangdong. The female police officer led him out of the server room.

Zhang Qiu then boldly asked, "Sister Qing, you are so beautiful, you must be a police flower! Can you tell me your name and phone number?"

The female police officer gave Zhang Qiu a look. Who talks like this to get close? He was a brash young man. If he talked like this, no girl would pay attention to him.

But then she thought, Zhang Qiu's skills were impressive, and he had helped her a lot. He deserved to know her.

"He Qing, 232292639," He Qing said in a neutral tone, showing no emotion.

Zhang Qiu was surprised. He didn't expect this approach to work?

Even he knew this method was terrible and he hadn't expected it to work. He didn't expect this cold and beautiful police flower to tell him her name and phone number so easily.

But Zhang Qiu soon realized this might be a test. She had said it quickly, and if he wasn't paying attention or had a poor memory, it would be as if she hadn't said anything.

And from her demeanor, she clearly didn't intend to repeat it. Fortunately, remembering this string of numbers was easy for Zhang Qiu.

"Is it the 'Qing' of 'clear and bright'?" Zhang Qiu guessed.

He Qing coldly replied, "You are very smart!" It was unclear whether she was praising or mocking him.

At this moment, a system prompt appeared.

"Task: Serve the People (Completed). Reward: Person Recognition Engine (Basic Technology). Extract?"

Of course, he wouldn't extract it now. But he was very curious about what this basic-level person recognition engine was.

He soon met Ning Lan. In the presence of the police, the cold and beautiful police flower, He Qing, personally saw Zhang Qiu and his two classmates back to school, causing much speculation.

"This boy is quite something! He's close with two pure and innocent students, and now even the ice-cold police flower is familiar with him!"

"Indeed! He's amazing! You can't judge a book by its cover. He looks like a geek, but he has such good fortune! When has He Qing ever been so nice to anyone?"

"Indeed! It's said that He Qing comes from a good family and is a close friend of the Wang family. She is very talented and always looks down on men..."

...

When he sent the two girls back to their school and returned to his own, it was already time for evening study. Zhang Qiu didn't have time to eat dinner and went straight to class. After class, he buried himself in his bed, opened his computer, and eagerly wanted to study the person recognition engine.

"Extract" With great curiosity, Zhang Qiu extracted the reward.

"The reward is a software program. Please choose a storage device. A laptop is available. Do you want to choose it?"

"Laptop!"

It turned out to be a pure software program, not a combination of hardware and software. Zhang Qiu was a bit disappointed, but since it was just software, it meant it was more versatile.

A second later, a folder named "Person Recognition Engine" appeared on the desktop.

Opening the folder, there were two files: one was a compiled executable file, and the other was the uncompiled source code.

The executable file was called "Basic Person Recognition Engine: Action Recognition," and it was only 1 MB in size. It could be opened directly without installation.

Opening it, a guide appeared.

"Step 1: Open the camera; Step 2: Record a set of actions; Step 3: Repeat the actions; Step 4: Save as a library..."

After reading the guide from start to finish, Zhang Qiu understood the main function of the software: to identify a specific person through a set of specific actions.

The function was this, but the applications could be endless. Zhang Qiu's first thought was encryption, to encrypt his computer.

The engine software was not large and could easily be embedded in any software or system. Once the system with the action