HPDBC Chapter 351 includes an Easter egg.
Chapter 351 includes an Easter egg.
January 20, 2000, 9:00 AM.
Ling Yun sat in his office with three documents spread out in front of him. One was Eric's architecture optimization plan, another was the code comparison that Li Mo had found, and the third was a copy of the Microsoft patent. He looked at them for a long time, then stacked them together and put them in the drawer.
He picked up the phone and called Li Mo, "Come to my office."
Ten minutes later, Li Mo pushed the door open and came in. He looked like he hadn't slept well; he had very dark circles under his eyes.
"President Ling."
Ling Yun pointed to the chair opposite him, and Li Mo sat down.
Where is Jiang Feng?
"He's in Shanghai. He called me last night; there's a problem with the database that needs to be addressed."
"Have him fly over here as soon as possible."
Li Mo was taken aback. "What's the rush?"
Ling Yun didn't answer. He took the three documents out of the drawer and placed them on the table. Li Mo glanced at them but didn't touch them.
"There's something I need to do that only you and he can do," Ling Yun said, looking at him. "You two, help me put together a set of code."
"What code?"
"An 'upgraded' version of the Star System's core code. On the surface, it looks like the next generation version, but in reality..."
Ling Yun paused for a moment, "Actually, we need to add an Easter egg. As long as a command is called, this Easter egg can be triggered, which can prove that the code is ours and that our code has been stolen."
Li Mo didn't speak; he looked at Ling Yun and waited for him to finish.
"Did you understand?"
"I understand," Li Mo said softly, "but this is very risky."
"I know."
"What if Eric finds out..."
He won't find out.
Li Mo remained silent for a few seconds.
"What about Jiang Feng...?"
"He'll work with you. You two will do it together. Write the code separately, then merge them at the end. No one else can know about it except the two of you."
Li Mo nodded.
When do you need it?
"The sooner the better. Within a week."
Li Mo stood up.
"I'll book the tickets right now and get Jiang Feng here as soon as possible."
He walked to the door, then stopped. "President Ling."
"Um?"
"What about Eric..."
Ling Yun looked at him and said, "I'll handle it. You don't need to worry."
Li Mo nodded, pushed open the door, and went out.
It was 3 PM. Jiang Feng arrived.
He looked even more tired than Li Mo; he probably hadn't slept on the plane. He was wearing a wrinkled jacket, his hair was messy, and he was yawning as he pushed open the door.
"President Ling."
"sit."
Jiang Feng sat down next to Li Mo. Li Mo was already there, with two laptops on the table, both with their screens off.
Ling Yun looked at the two of them. "Did Li Mo tell you?"
"I told you," Jiang Feng said, rubbing his eyes. "Make a set of code with Easter eggs."
Is it difficult?
Jiang Feng thought for a moment, "The code itself isn't difficult; the difficulty lies in how to prevent others from discovering it."
"That's why I asked the two of you." Ling Yun stood up and walked to the window. "You two write the code separately, and Li Mo will be in charge of merging it. The things you add to the code should be invisible to professionals, but they should be exposed when you use them."
Jiang Feng and Li Mo exchanged a glance. "President Ling," Jiang Feng said, "what are you planning to add?"
Ling Yun turned around. "Easter egg."
"An Easter egg?"
"Yes." Ling Yun walked back to the table, picked up a pen, and wrote a few words on a sticky note. "For example, when a certain low-level function is executed a certain number of times, a dialog box will pop up. The dialog box will say, 'This is Starry Sky Code; those who steal it are utterly shameless!'"
He pushed the sticky notes in front of the two of them.
"It runs normally, but the dialog box doesn't pop up. It only triggers under high load with a large number of calls, and after triggering, a command is issued for the dialog box to pop up. Microsoft will definitely run stress tests when they get our code, and the tests will trigger it, but it won't pop up. As soon as the command is issued, the dialog box will pop up."
Li Mo looked at the sticky note. "This idea is good. But it needs to be discreet; they can't find it just by looking at the code."
"So I'm leaving this to you two." Ling Yun looked at the two of them. "One of you understands the system's underlying mechanisms, and the other understands databases and algorithms. Only you two can do this."
Jiang Feng folded the note and put it in his pocket. "Understood."
"A week. Is that enough time?"
Jiang Feng looked at Li Mo, and Li Mo looked at Jiang Feng.
"That's enough," Li Mo said.
Ling Yun nodded.
"That's settled then. You all go back and rest first, we'll begin tonight."
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Ling Yun called Fiona and said, "Come in for a moment."
Fiona pushed open the door and came in. "President Ling."
"How's the progress of the Shanghai Star Research Institute?"
Fiona paused for a moment, then opened the small notebook in her hand.
"The office building is finished, and the equipment arrived this week. The team is being assembled, and we plan to start operations next month."
"Where are the personnel?"
"They're recruiting in China. There are currently more than twenty people, all of whom were chosen by Li Mo and Jiang Feng."
Ling Yun nodded. "Has Eric been busy lately?"
Fiona paused for a moment. "It's nothing serious, what's wrong?"
"Send him to Shanghai."
Fiona looked at him. "Now?"
"Okay. Just say they need technical support over there, and have him stay for a month."
Fiona made a note in her notebook.
"When are you leaving?"
"The sooner the better, ideally we should leave tomorrow."
Fiona nodded and closed the notebook.
"One more thing. Temporarily revoke Eric's access to the code repository."
Fiona's hand trembled. "He can't log into the code repository here from China either, the network is down," Lingyun said. "But just to be on the safe side, we'll disable the permissions. We'll say it's a system upgrade and access is temporarily frozen."
Fiona paused for a few seconds, then said, "Okay, I understand."
At seven o'clock in the evening, Eric knocked on the door and came in. "Boss, Fiona told me you arranged for me to go to Shanghai?"
Ling Yun looked up from his computer. "Okay. The research institute over there has just been set up, and the technical team needs someone to mentor them. You'll go there for a month and help them set up the framework."
Eric paused for a moment, "A month?"
"One month. There are many problems over there, and you have plenty of experience."
Eric stood there, saying nothing.
"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
"No, it's nothing." Eric shook his head. "It's just that back home... my wife hasn't been feeling well lately, she often has nervous fainting spells, and the hospital hasn't been able to find anything wrong."
"You could take your wife to Shanghai; traditional Chinese medicine might offer a better solution."
Eric nodded. "Okay, I'll go back and pack."
He turned to leave.
"Eric," Ling Yun looked at him, "the conditions over there might not be as good as here. Thank you for your hard work."
Eric smiled. "It's nothing."
He pushed open the door and went out.
The door closed. Ling Yun stared at the door for a long time.
It was nine o'clock in the evening. Ling Yun was still sitting in his office.
Fiona pushed open the door and came in. "The plane tickets are booked. Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock."
"Um."
"Access to the code repository has also been restricted. The system says it's temporary maintenance and will take about a week."
"Does he know?"
"I just tried logging in, but I couldn't. They messaged me asking, and I told them it was under maintenance."
Ling Yun nodded.