It was an overcast afternoon in early September 1990. A gentle breeze blew, and fine rain drifted down from the sky.
In the city of Chang'an, pedestrians hurried along, the streets dotted with blooming umbrellas. A record store was playing music, the song's powerful and heroic melody stirring the listener's blood. The captivating rhythm, like birds darting through the rain with wings drenched in water droplets, pierced the ears:
"We are Asia, our mountains are proud heads held high
We are Asia, our rivers flow like hot blood
We are Asia, our trees' roots are intertwined
We are Asia, even our clouds join hands
Vast plains wrap like jade belts, fields weave colorful brocades
The Asian wind rises suddenly, the Asian heroic spirit roars..."
An elderly man, walking with trembling small steps, held an umbrella in one hand and a radio close to his ear with the other. The radio was broadcasting news about the upcoming 11th Asian Games.
Zhang Zhipeng shook his head, scattering the raindrops from his hair. He sighed: At this time in China, the entire nation could be stirred to joy and excitement over an Asian Games. What does this say? It shows how low we hold ourselves in esteem! The road to revival is long and difficult; we must work even harder!
Zhang Zhipeng, without an umbrella, walked slowly along Friendship Road. It was just past one in the afternoon, and the cool rain dampened his hair, finally cooling his overheated mind a bit.
It had been a week since he crossed over, and he was gradually accepting the reality that his soul had traveled back to 1990.
He had originally been a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, struggling with whether to find a job or to take the graduate school entrance exam and delay the inevitable for a few more years. Agonizing over this decision kept him up at night, and he would lie in bed reading articles on public accounts. Then he stumbled upon an article titled "Living Incognito, Forging Swords for the Nation," which introduced the statue in Hezun Square on the Chang'an campus of Northwestern Polytechnical University.
The statue deeply moved him. In the image, the figure had buried his head deep in the ground, with half of his body submerged in the earth. His face was completely obscured, yet he held a forged sword high with both hands.
Hezun is the name of an excavated bronze artifact, which archaeologists determined was cast during the early Western Zhou Dynasty, in the reign of King Cheng of Zhou. Because it bears the inscription "Zhai Zi Zhongguo" (This is China), it is considered the earliest known reference to the name "China," and Hezun has increasingly come to symbolize the nation.
The statue, "Living Incognito, Forging Swords for the Nation," combined with Hezun Square, symbolizes the swordsmith enduring humiliation and bearing a heavy burden to offer his forged sword to the nation.
The imagery was truly inspiring.
Zhang Zhipeng made up his mind to apply for a graduate program in Mechanical Automation at Northwestern Polytechnical University.
No sooner had he made this decision than he woke up to find himself transported to 1990, inhabiting the body of a young man with the same name.
His father, Zhang Qingmin, had worked in the logistics department at Northwestern Polytechnical University. To ensure his unpromising son had a job, Zhang Qingmin took early retirement, allowing Zhang Zhipeng to take over his position. Zhang Zhipeng now worked as an administrator in the Experimental Building of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, a position classified as a laborer.
This Department of Aeronautical Engineering would later merge with the School of Civil Aviation Engineering in 2003 to become the School of Aeronautics.
His mother, Wang Yuqin, worked at the university's factory and had also retired by now.
The most accomplished member of the Zhang family was his sister, Zhang Zhilin, who graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of Shaanxi Normal University and now taught English in the Foreign Languages Department at Northwestern Polytechnical University.
Zhang Zhipeng shook his head with a self-deprecating smile: Is this what they call dreams coming true?
I was just thinking about applying for graduate school at Northwestern Polytechnical University, and now I've ended up in 1990 as a proud employee there.
But being an employee is no big deal!
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
As long as I work hard and stay motivated, I can start from this position and continue to learn and improve, becoming someone who forges swords for the nation!
He knew that his time travel had come with a "cheat."
This cheat was called the "Reverse Engineering System."
For a backward country to develop its industry, it typically starts with reverse engineering and imitation.
China was no exception.
However, the system in his mind had been installing for seven days, stuck at ninety-nine percent completion, and it still hadn't finished.
Zhang Zhipeng wondered if the system had a bug.
He walked through the rain to the university and entered the old experimental building where he worked.
The building housed several laboratories, and Zhang Zhipeng was in charge of a microcomputer room.
Microcomputers, or personal computers, were advanced technology in this era and very expensive!
The microcomputer room Zhang Zhipeng managed had 30 computers with large CRT monitors, and surprisingly, they were equipped with 386 processors.
It’s important to note that Intel only released the 386 processor in 1985.
By 1988, Intel had updated and replaced it with the 486 processor.
In China, the first domestically produced 386 computer was launched by Great Wall Company in 1988.
This domestic 386 was priced at 50,000 yuan per unit at the time. With such a price, an ordinary Chinese citizen would have to save for decades without spending a penny.
Therefore, only universities or institutions could afford such high-tech devices.
Zhang Zhipeng opened the door to the microcomputer room, turned on the lights, and began cleaning up.
While sweeping the floor, he felt a slight tremor in his head, and a holographic dialogue box with a system installation progress bar suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"Congratulations! The Reverse Engineering System has been installed 100%!"
"This system can help the host quickly master new technologies and new product processes, enabling you to reverse-engineer and develop entirely independent new technologies and products!"
Zhang Zhipeng was stunned for a moment, then let out a long sigh of relief—it was finally installed. But does this system really work? He figured he should give it a try.
Zhang Zhipeng quickly finished his work. He glanced at his watch—it was only 1:39 p.m., and there was still some time before the afternoon class.
He looked around at the items in the computer lab.
The only things that seemed worth studying were the rows of neatly arranged 386 computers in front of him.
He sat down at one of the computers and pressed the power button on the case.
As he watched the computer screen, he couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic.
Before he traveled back in time, he had only used desktop computers during his microcomputer classes in university.
After arriving here, without a smartphone and nothing else to pass the time, he had tried to study these antique computers.
But really, there wasn't much to play with!
These computers had a CPU clock speed of just 20 MHz, while computers in the 2020s had CPUs running at 2 to 3 GHz! One GHz equals 1,000 MHz! The memory was only 512K, and the hard drive was 40M.
With this configuration, you could only run small programs.
But these were considered the most advanced, top-of-the-line computers in China at the time!
The computers had two games installed, one called *Super Mario* and the other *Contra*.
These two games were part of many people's childhood memories. Both were produced by a Japanese company, originally arcade games, which were later ported to computers.
There was also a small program for practicing the Wubi input method and a word processing software called Kingsoft Document.
Kingsoft Document would later become the famous WPS. It was developed in the late 1980s by Qiu Bojun, one of the top programmers in China at the time, who wrote over 100,000 lines of code.
This software was still very simple at this stage, only capable of inputting text and basic formatting. But it was extremely useful—after all, office work mainly involved writing various documents.
However, it was quite expensive—a set of Kingsoft Document software cost 2,000 yuan.
As a result, few organizations could afford the legitimate version; everyone used pirated copies instead.
From what Zhang Zhipeng knew, all the Kingsoft Document software installed in this computer lab were pirated versions.
In his previous life, Zhang Zhipeng was a very disciplined person and rarely played games.
His hobbies were reading and making small things with his hands, and he was quite good at it.
As soon as Zhang Zhipeng turned on the computer, a progress bar appeared in his mind: "Computer Hardware Technology Analysis 0.01%."
He immediately understood that if he completely disassembled the computer in front of him, he might be able to analyze the computer hardware technology to 100%.
However, he obviously couldn't just disassemble the computers in the lab. These antiques, as he saw them, were actually the department's prized possessions. If someone saw him taking apart the computers, the department head, Zheng Jingzhi, would probably tear him apart.
As the power came on and the screen lit up, Microsoft MS-DOS 3.3 began to boot up.
The computer case was making creaking noises, quite loud.
At the same time, another analysis progress bar appeared in Zhang Zhipeng's mind: "MS-DOS 3.3 System Analysis Progress 0.001%."
And this progress bar was constantly changing, advancing rapidly.
Progress: 0.001%, 0.002%, 0.003%... 3%, 3.1%, 3.3%...
As the progress bar advanced, Zhang Zhipeng's understanding of MS-DOS deepened.
The lines of code scrolling across the screen seemed to imprint themselves in his mind.
At this point, the MS-DOS operating system could not directly enter the desktop interface; commands had to be input to access the relevant software.
Zhang Zhipeng began typing various commands quickly.
His goal was simple: to review all the MS-DOS code.
He wanted to see what kind of miracle might occur.
As he typed, with the help of the system, lines of code flashed rapidly across the computer screen before his eyes.
Meanwhile, the MS-DOS operating system analysis progress bar continued to change rapidly.