My childhood friend is in her mature, sophisticated form again today. - Chapter 86

Lin Jiqiu placed his backpack next to the sofa. Ahua was carefully picking out cat food from her bowl, one kibble at a time, her movements not so much like she was hungry, but rather like she was doing something that required serious attention. Azuo walked out from behind the counter, holding a small device in his hand, a component of an underwater communicator, with a light layer of water stains still on its casing.

“The signal simulation software is still running and it will probably take two days to generate a complete response template.” Cheng Ran’s voice was steady. “I have extracted the signal characteristics, but it still needs to be calibrated against the underlying code of the Stargazer system. The two architectures are not completely consistent, and matching needs to be done on multiple nodes.”

“The Stargazer’s System?”

“The underlying logic is the same, but the upper layers have been heavily modified, as if they were redesigned for a specific purpose. I need to figure out the levels of those modifications.” He paused for a moment. “If successful, we can connect to the console without triggering alarms and observe its reaction patterns.”

After Cheng Ran finished speaking, he took his cup and went upstairs. Lin Jiqiu sat on the sofa for a while without going to eat immediately. Ahua had already finished eating and was squatting next to the coffee table washing her face, rubbing her face slowly and rhythmically from behind her ears to the front with her front paws.

He stood up, went into the kitchen, and brought out the food Ah You had left. Half a steamed fish was still steaming, with a few shredded gingers around the edges; the soy sauce had seeped into the fish’s texture. A small bowl of rice sat beside it, along with a dish of shredded radish mixed with vinegar. He placed the food on the coffee table, sat down, and slowly finished eating. The fish was very fresh; the flesh separated into individual pieces on his chopsticks. Ah You hadn’t overcooked it.

After finishing his meal, he put the dishes in the kitchen, washed his hands, and went upstairs. The stairwell was quiet, with only the soft sound of his footsteps on the wooden floor. As he passed the second floor, a sliver of light shone through the crack in Cheng Ran’s studio door. He heard the soft tapping of a keyboard, as if the fingers were just barely touching the keys. He didn’t knock or stop; he went straight to the third floor.

The next day, Lin Jiqiu didn’t get up early. Sunlight was already streaming in through the gaps in the curtains, casting a long, diagonal streak of light on the floor. He sat up and heard the rhythmic, unhurried sound of chopping vegetables coming from downstairs. He changed his clothes and went downstairs. Ayou was chopping some scallions; the chopped scallions fell onto the cutting board, spreading out into a pile of evenly spaced green and white fragments. Azuo had already wiped down the car; the hood and windshield were spotless, and the car, parked in front of the door, looked like it had just been washed.

He sat on the sofa and poured himself a glass of water. Ahua jumped down from the windowsill and squatted down beside him. He glanced down at her; she was gently stepping on the edge of his slipper with her front paws, then lying down and resting her chin on the shoe, as if she thought the position was just right.

“Chengran came down. He stayed up very late, probably didn’t go to sleep until after 3 a.m.,” Ayou said softly, as if afraid of disturbing something.

“Is the signal simulation software finished running?” he asked.

“Not yet, but soon. He said the results would be out this afternoon.”

Ah You turned and went back to the kitchen. The sound of the faucet rang for a while, then stopped.

The morning passed slowly. Lin Jiqiu sat on the sofa, watching the occasional pedestrians and vehicles passing by on the street outside the window. A person was walking slowly along the sidewalk with a dog on a leash. The dog would stop and sniff at every lamppost, and the person would patiently wait until it had sniffed enough before continuing on its way. He watched the person and the dog walk away, then looked away. Ahua was still lying at his feet, her chin resting on her shoe, not moving away.

Just after noon, Cheng Ran came downstairs. He looked exhausted, with dark hollows under his eyes and somewhat disheveled hair, but he held a tablet in his hand, the data interface on the screen already open. “The preliminary results from the signal simulation software are in. The generated response template successfully passed the platform’s query signal structure verification. Although it’s not a complete match, it’s already passed the platform’s automatic filtering. It won’t treat us as intruders, at least not triggering an alarm immediately.”

“Then next time we go, we can get even closer.”

“The premise is that we don’t stay there for too long or do anything that would attract the platform’s attention. For example, we don’t actively send any signals to it. As long as we pass through silently, its system will likely treat us as a harmless vessel and let us through.”

Lin Jiqiu sat and thought for a while. “Then let’s go. We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

“good.”

Ah You poked his head out from the kitchen. “Boss, are we going out to sea again tomorrow?”

“Go and confirm the next location of that group of buoys.”

Ah You didn’t reply and pulled his head back into the kitchen.

In the evening, Lin Jiqiu went upstairs once and stood by the window. In the distance, a cloud was moving slowly, its color very dark, as if it contained rain that had not yet fallen. He watched it for a while, then closed the window.

The next day, before dawn, Lin Jiqiu was already awake. He changed his clothes and went downstairs. Ayou was using a small knife to cut an orange into segments and arrange them in a circle on a plate. He took a few segments and ate them. The orange was very juicy, and the juice dripped down his fingers. He wiped his hands, put on his backpack, and went out.

A-Zuo was already in the car, and Cheng Ran sat in the back seat with a tablet on his lap, displaying a nautical chart of the area. He had marked the coordinates of the pontoon, like a string of small, differently colored markers, evenly distributed along the extended route.

The car arrived at the dock first. A thin mist hung over the sea in the early morning, not yet dissipated. Several boats were already rocking at the dock, the creaking of their mooring lines coming from the water intermittently. The young man was already on the boat. Seeing them on deck, he didn’t ask any questions and started the engine. The boat slowly pulled away from the dock, sailing south along the coastline.

The fog moved slowly across the sea, as if pushed by the wind, but its speed was uneven. In some places it was thicker, in others thinner, sometimes compressing the view, sometimes expanding it again. Lin Jiqiu stood on the ship’s railing, without binoculars. He looked at the sea behind the fog; it was almost completely invisible, and he could only rely on the ship’s course and the wind direction to confirm that he was still following the same line. The ship moved steadily forward, the engine’s sound muffled by the fog, as if through a layer of water.

He stood motionless at the gunwale. The fog ahead was thinning, and a gray outline was slowly emerging from behind it. The outline was small, and a faint but persistent red light flickered at its tip in the grayish-white fog.