After leaving Zheng Jingzhi's office, Zhang Zhipeng returned to the computer lab.

He looked through the glass on the door and saw that a class was still in session in the lab.

The teacher was still Zhao Min.

Zhang Zhipeng glanced a few times and was about to go back to his small office to continue reading.

At that moment, he heard a student in the lab raise his hand to report an issue.

"Ms. Zhao, my computer suddenly went black and crashed."

The student who spoke was Fang Qingping, the one who had been caught playing games during a previous class.

Zhang Zhipeng paused, stopping in his tracks. He stood outside the classroom, wanting to see what was happening.

Inside the classroom, Zhao Min glanced at Fang Qingping and said, "Try restarting the computer."

Fang Qingping replied awkwardly, "It seems like the program crashed. As soon as I turn on the computer and run a few lines of code, it shuts down automatically."

Zhao Min found this strange.

She walked over to try it herself, and sure enough, just as Fang Qingping had said, the computer he was using would automatically shut down after running a few lines of code when powered on.

Zhao Min thought to herself, how strange, why would this happen? She was a computer science graduate.

She had seen many different types of crashes.

She tried several times but couldn’t solve the problem.

Zhao Min then asked, "Fang Qingping, did you mess with anything on the computer?"

Fang Qingping blushed and said, "Ms. Zhao, I’m sorry."

"I... I tried to modify the little program that prevents games from being played on the computer, hoping to make an exception for this computer so I could play games without you noticing."

"But I didn’t do it right, and now the computer has crashed."

Zhao Min shook her head and said, "You really are something!"

"Now it’s probably going to need a system reinstall."

"I don’t have time right now. Let’s deal with it after class."

"For now, share a computer with another student."

Zhang Zhipeng, having seen this from outside, hesitated for a moment but then decided to enter the lab.

The students in the lab focused their attention on him as he walked in.

Zhang Zhipeng smiled and asked Zhao Min, "Ms. Zhao, is there a problem?"

Zhao Min quickly apologized, "Mr. Zhang, I’m sorry."

"A student in my class made a small mistake, causing the operating system on one of the computers to fail."

"But I’ll repair it with a system disk after class, so it should be fine."

Zhang Zhipeng was the administrator of the computer lab.

He was responsible for the computers here.

So it was normal for him to inquire about the situation.

Zhang Zhipeng smiled and walked over to Zhao Min and Fang Qingping.

Zhao Min was sitting in front of the problematic computer.

"Let me take a look. Maybe I can fix it," Zhang Zhipeng said.

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He thought to himself, it might be time for me to show my capabilities a little.

Otherwise, how can I establish my image as the hidden expert here at Northwestern Polytechnical University?

"You?"

"Can you do it? The system has crashed. I think it needs a full reinstall."

Zhao Min clearly doubted Zhang Zhipeng.

Zhang Zhipeng smiled and said, "I don’t think it needs a system reinstall."

He knew well that this was caused by the self-protection function of the small software he had set up to prevent students from playing games, triggered by Fang Qingping’s modifications.

All it needed was to restore his small software.

Fang Qingping, standing by, laughed and said, "Mr. Zhang, even though you’re the administrator of the computer lab, I bet your knowledge of computer hardware and software isn’t as good as mine."

Zhang Zhipeng just smiled and didn’t say anything.

Zhao Min, still somewhat doubtful, got up and stepped aside.

Zhang Zhipeng sat down on the chair and pressed the power button.

The computer creaked as it started up.

When MS-DOS began running, Zhang Zhipeng focused on the screen and began typing rapidly on the keyboard with both hands.

By now, seven or eight students had gathered around him.

Everyone was astonished.

“Whoa! His typing speed is insane!”

“Is he touch typing?!”

“My god! He really is touch typing, unbelievable...”

Amid the exclamations, Zhang Zhipeng had already restored his small program.

The computer returned to normal.

Zhao Min, standing beside him, was dumbfounded.

“It’s done, everything’s back to normal,” Zhang Zhipeng said as he stood up.

Zhao Min asked, “Mr. Zhang, which university did you graduate from?”

Zhang Zhipeng smiled and replied, “I graduated from the Department of Home Studies at Carleton University.”

Zhao Min was taken aback, “What?! You studied abroad?”

“No wonder you’re so skilled. But why...”

She wanted to ask why someone who studied abroad was working as a mere computer lab administrator here, but she didn’t finish the sentence. She suddenly recalled hearing that Zhang Zhipeng was just a loafer who hadn’t even gotten into college.

Zhang Zhipeng glanced at the students around him; no one laughed.

It seemed they believed his joke.

Zhang Zhipeng had no choice but to laugh and say, “Ms. Zhao, I was just joking. I graduated from the High School Affiliated to the University of Technology and never attended college.”

“You all continue with your class; I won’t disturb you anymore.”

With that, he left nonchalantly.

After Zhang Zhipeng left, the students in the computer lab began talking all at once.

“He didn’t even go to college, yet he’s so good with computers? That’s incredible.”

“Today was an eye-opener. Computers are so difficult, yet he managed to become proficient on his own?”

Zhao Min sat back down at her computer, deeply shaken.

The computer system issue that she couldn’t solve was fixed by Zhang Zhipeng with just a few keystrokes. The most crucial part was that she hadn’t even seen what commands Zhang Zhipeng had entered.

As a graduate of Xidian University’s computer science program, was she really outdone by a high school graduate?

It was a slap in the face.

She suddenly had a thought: Could the mysterious person who wrote those two small programs but refused to reveal themselves be Zhang Zhipeng?

After class, Zhao Min went to find Tian Hongtao.

She recounted to Tian Hongtao how Zhang Zhipeng had helped fix a student’s computer system during her class.

Tian Hongtao was quite surprised after hearing the story.

“That doesn’t make sense. Computer programming isn’t something just anyone can teach themselves.”

Zhao Min said, “But Zhang Zhipeng’s performance today was truly impressive.”

“The system issue that I couldn’t fix, he solved easily in less than a minute.”

“What does that indicate? It shows that he’s very familiar with the MS-DOS operating system.”

Tian Hongtao shook his head and said, “I still find it hard to believe. An excellent programmer needs a solid foundation in mathematics.”

“Zhang Zhipeng didn’t even get into college despite attending such a good high school. That suggests his grades must have been terrible.”

“This also implies that his intelligence isn’t particularly high.”

Zhao Min smiled and said, “Dr. Tian, there’s also the kind of person who is very smart but just mischievous and doesn’t study. No matter how good the middle school or high school they attend, they still wouldn’t get into a good college.”

“Didn’t you say that the mysterious person is very important, and Director Zheng wants them found as soon as possible?”

“Whether Zhang Zhipeng is the mysterious person or not, we can just investigate and find out.”

Tian Hongtao thought for a moment and agreed. He went to report the situation to Zheng Jingzhi.