Chapter 21

This sudden task left Zhang Qiu completely baffled. Since the task was signed by Su Yun, why did it involve the CEO of Su Yun's company? However, Zhang Qiu now had no chance to receive further task prompts and could not obtain more detailed information about the task.

But he didn't have time to think about these things in detail. Instead, he was immersed in the joy of discovering that the client was someone he knew: "Sister, it's actually you."

"Hey, Xiaoqiu! What are you doing here? Don't you have classes?" Su Yun was also surprised to see Zhang Qiu and couldn't help but ask.

Zhang Qiu chuckled and said, "It's the weekend today. I didn't want to attend extra classes, so I came out to play."

Seeing this scene, Sun Shan also felt surprised and couldn't help but ask, "Do you two know each other?"

"Uh-huh." Su Yun just nodded without saying more.

Instead, she asked Sun Shan, "Mr. Sun, are you and Xiaoqiu very familiar?"

Zhang Qiu, seeing that Su Yun didn't say more, just nodded to indicate that he knew her, answering both Sun Shan and Su Yun.

Seeing Zhang Qiu nod, Sun Shan couldn't help but be speechless. He never thought that after a big detour, this business would involve someone he knew. This was really amusing. Even more frustrating was that Zhang Qiu, a shut-in, could know such a high-quality white-collar beauty, which was simply unfair.

Sun Shan, excited, punched his palm and said, "Assistant Su, since you know Qiu, why make things so complicated! Why not just ask him to restore the data directly?"

"Xiaoqiu?" Su Yun looked at Zhang Qiu with confusion.

Sun Shan then said, "Yes! He is the expert I mentioned!" Thinking to himself, these two were really interesting. It seemed that Zhang Qiu wasn't very familiar with this beauty. Thinking this, Sun Shan felt a bit more balanced in his heart.

"Xiaoqiu, you're an expert?" Su Yun was even more surprised. Zhang Qiu was only seventeen or eighteen, still in high school, and due to his long-term stay at home, he lacked exercise, was thin, and not very tall. In Su Yun's eyes, he was just a kid.

And now, someone said this kid was an expert... How could anyone believe that?

Experts weren't they those omnipotent old men with white beards on TV? Oh, no, now they are called "brick experts." But to call Zhang Qiu a "brick expert" was even less believable.

"Xiaoqiu, aren't you still in high school?" Su Yun asked again, indirectly expressing her disbelief.

Zhang Qiu chuckled and said, "To be honest, Sister, I have a personal interest in computer technology, so I have some expertise in this area. Data recovery is my forte, so I took a part-time job to earn money for college."

"Earning money for college, that's ambitious. But, Xiaoqiu, how good are your skills? Do you have the confidence to handle business problems? Can you help me see if this USB drive can recover the data?" Su Yun said, taking out a delicate USB drive. Although the CEO had told her that it was a friend who introduced this expert, and that he was very reliable.

However, the current situation was different from what the boss had told him! The boss said the expert was an old expert within the system, but now, the so-called expert turned out to be a high school student, and one she knew.

He couldn't help but doubt the accuracy of the boss's information and was very suspicious of Zhang Qiu. However, the boss had also said that even if the expert was within the system, he should be cautious and not easily trust him. The reason for reminding her that the expert was an old expert within the system was to maintain respect. But respect was one thing, and the necessary probing was another.

Now, discovering that the so-called expert was not an expert within the system and was even a "younger brother" she knew, the respect was gone, leaving only caution.

Zhang Qiu patted his chest and said, "Sister, don't worry, I can handle most problems. I'm sure you know about my skills from Officer He."

Officer He? Su Yun didn't know any Officer He. But thinking that the CEO said it was a friend who introduced the expert, she assumed that Officer He was a friend of the CEO. At this point, Su Yun believed it a bit and handed the USB drive to Zhang Qiu.

Taking the USB drive from Su Yun, Zhang Qiu took the opportunity to touch her hand. The soft and smooth sensation made his heart skip a beat. Su Yun, although she felt Zhang Qiu's action, didn't pay much attention to it.

First, Zhang Qiu was just a kid in her eyes, and second, they were already quite familiar. Third, Zhang Qiu's expression was normal. However, she didn't know that the seemingly honest Zhang Qiu was fantasizing about her in his heart.

Not being caught, Zhang Qiu was secretly delighted and immediately took out his USB drive, copied the assembly software and the data recovery software he had written last time to the desktop of a computer, and set up the firewall.

The structure of a USB drive is very similar to a solid-state drive, but quite different from a mechanical hard drive. Generally, it is believed that data cannot be recovered, but some special methods can still recover part of the data.

When restoring a solid-state drive, Zhang Qiu used the algorithm of the solid-state drive and the cache to assist in the recovery. Solid-state drives are equipped with firmware and have their own data algorithms.

To maximize their lifespan, many deletion commands are not actually executed. Instead, when the firmware receives a deletion command, it directly shields the file to be deleted using a fixed algorithm. This makes the file invisible in the computer, making it look like it has been deleted. At the same time, some files still remain in the cache, which can be used to assist in recovery.

A USB drive can be seen as a smaller version of a solid-state drive, although its structure is much simpler, the recovery approach is similar. Therefore, Zhang Qiu needed to update the software to add some code.

After completing all the preparations, Zhang Qiu inserted the USB drive provided by Ning Lan. After the connection prompt, Zhang Qiu scanned it and found that the USB drive was intact, and the data was still inside, not cleared.

But when he opened the root directory of the USB drive, he found it was empty.

"This USB drive suddenly can't see the original files, and it can't copy new files either," Su Yun described the problem with the USB drive.

So Zhang Qiu tried to drag an icon into it, but found that a 1Kb icon, which should have been dragged in instantly, instead showed a progress bar that got stuck at 99%.

This situation was a bit strange. Zhang Qiu immediately opened the detection software to scan it. After about ten seconds, the scan was complete. The result showed that the USB drive was normal, but it was not empty, showing about 1Gb of files.

This situation made Zhang Qiu immediately understand what was happening. He then used antivirus software to scan the entire USB drive, which showed it was safe and virus-free. This further confirmed Zhang Qiu's suspicions.

"This USB drive is not broken; it's just infected with a USB virus that has hidden the original files," Zhang Qiu said.

Su Yun nodded, "We've also looked for specialized data recovery companies before. But they said the data couldn't be recovered because this virus would immediately destroy the original data as soon as it was touched. The best way is to leave it alone; as long as it doesn't activate, the files will remain saved."

This was another useful piece of information. Zhang Qiu immediately typed a few lines of code, copied the virus, and performed a decompilation analysis. The result was indeed as Su Yun had said.

This virus is hard to eliminate because it will destroy your data as soon as you try to eliminate it.

However, if it were a regular person, they would be helpless against it. But Zhang Qiu, with the world-class technology he obtained from the system, had a ready solution.

"Indeed, but it's not a problem for me," Zhang Qiu smiled and started typing code again.

Since it can't be directly deleted, then don't delete it. Instead, write another virus and implant it into the virus's software. Turn a segment of code into part of the virus software, and use the code conflict during execution to immediately strip the virus from the USB drive.

Other technicians, even national-level technicians, might know this approach but couldn't implement it. However, Zhang Qiu could, though it wasn't easy. The code, like genetic modification, was a patented skill, and no one else could write such code except Zhang Qiu.

Just like a bacteriophage infecting bacteria, this was a case of fighting poison with poison. The code was very simple, just a few lines. It would take only a few seconds to type it out if you knew it. With Zhang Qiu's world-class typing speed, he could finish all the code in one second.

If he didn't have this world-class typing speed, Zhang Qiu wouldn't have dared to take on this job because the next operation was even more critical. Even a half-second delay could lead to failure.

As soon as the code ran, it immediately infected the virus file on the USB drive and implanted it into the virus's gene library, turning the virus into a "genetically modified" virus. This implanted gene segment was in conflict with the original gene, causing the virus to crash as soon as it ran.

However, many viruses have built-in correction mechanisms that can correct these errors through mutation or reordering of the code. Therefore, Zhang Qiu had to strip the virus from the USB drive and isolate it before the correction was complete.

Seeing the code successfully implanted, Zhang Qiu didn't stop. He immediately wrote a virus isolation software. Due to the limited time, this software was very primitive, like a DOS-era program, but it could still run on Windows.

After completing the writing, Zhang Qiu quickly typed a few lines of code and hit Enter. At the same time, his hands became invisible, typing a large amount of code at an extremely fast speed. The exact amount was unknown, but the number of lines on the screen increased by at least ten in half a second.

After typing the last line of code, Zhang Qiu hit Enter hard and took a deep breath. It had only been one second. Truly a race against time!

After taking a deep breath, Zhang Qiu saw a line of English text appear on the software and couldn't help but smile. Success!