The majority of online responses expressed gratitude towards "Mr. China," confirming that decent and reasonable people still populate this world.

However, they remained unaware that while this Chinese gentleman was a benefactor who sought no reward, he would gladly accept any tribute tailored to his tastes, without batting an eyelid.

And Mr. China himself had no idea that a covert backup of the very photograph he snapped in a moment of triumph had been made by a discreet file shredder utilizing a process of substitution, subsequently finding its way, unnoticed and unheard of, into the hands of a young hacker.

That night, Wang Zhuo slept soundly, though the faint, unusual sounds emanating from the adjacent room before he drifted off had momentarily piqued his curiosity.

It turned out that Li Mingxu and his cohorts could no longer restrain themselves and had collectively arranged for paid companionship.

Of course, they hadn't reached the level of holding a group convention in a single room; the four of them had each summoned a foreign woman—whether solicited from the street or arranged via a "telephone service"—they had finally satisfied their desires and tasted the flavour of foreign companionship.

Wang Zhuo would never impose his own moral compass on others; naturally, his own standards were somewhat unconventional, leaving him little standing to judge anyone else. In short, as long as everyone was happy, that was what mattered. Once they returned home, life would resume its original course; this whole affair was merely a game.

After staying in London for two more days, the group of five returned home as scheduled.

Just as Wang Zhuo had predicted, Irene was an immensely busy woman. Moreover, after announcing her supposed demise at sea online, the paparazzi had swarmed, placing her under complete, twenty-four-hour surveillance, thus preventing any opportunity for them to meet.

Fortunately, Irene was scheduled for a promotional visit to China next month for the premiere of Magical Academy. This film series was finally reaching its last installment, and they could arrange to meet again in Beijing or Jiangzhou then.

Thus, carrying with him a feeling of gentle peace and contentment, Wang Zhuo returned to Beijing.

The auction and contract signing for the Royal Princess were slated for the following month, leaving this interim period open for clients to conduct their investigations and secure financing. Coincidentally, when Wang Zhuo arrived back in Jiangzhou, the new semester at the university was also commencing.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this would be his final half-year studying medicine. After the summer, he intended to conclude all his on-campus coursework and transition into the mandatory year-long internship.

However, this plan was causing considerable headaches for certain high-ranking officials at the university. Policies are rigid, but people are flexible. The administration’s original intention behind piloting this educational reform was to test the feasibility and efficacy of shortening the eight-year medical track. They hadn't anticipated that the moment it was announced, a strange anomaly like Wang Zhuo would emerge, effectively compressing four years of curriculum into just two semesters!

Some argued that he was exploiting a loophole in the system, while others claimed this perfectly validated the necessity of the reform, acting as a liberation for the exceptionally talented.

Regardless, Wang Zhuo paid little mind to these debates; all that mattered was graduating early. Eight long years of academia felt excessively drawn out, and once the novelty of university life wore off, he had begun to find it tedious.

Just as he settled back into his routine, a hurricane poised to sweep across the globe was brewing in a distant corner of the world.

A hurricane, in this context, refers to a powerful cyclonic storm with wind speeds exceeding thirty-three meters per second. Those born over the Pacific Ocean are called typhoons; those over the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal are termed cyclones, while brief, explosively powerful ones are known as tornadoes.

However, the impending eruption was not a natural disaster but another monumental scandal about to engulf the world.

Eastern Europe lies near the Atlantic, and at this moment, in a charming French town blessed with scenic beauty and carefree living, a fifteen-year-old hacker had just stumbled upon an earth-shattering discovery.

This young hacker, Larry Renault, hailed from a middle-class background. He had an inherent passion for computer technology, teaching himself everything he knew, and maintained a low profile. Later, after learning some techniques for spreading Trojans on a certain tech forum, he conceived an ingenious idea: installing a backdoor program onto a file shredder software and offering it for free download to mobile users online.

Google's search ranking algorithm differs from Baidu's. On Baidu, the highest bidder ranks at the top of the search results—a deplorable, profit-driven behaviour. On Google, however, priority is given to results with higher traffic and click-through rates, using this method to provide superior resources to enhance the user experience.

Larry Renault employed some minor tricks to boost his download link’s ranking. Since many software programs require payment in developed nations, his free application gained immense popularity, gradually climbing into the top three positions. A quick search on Google would immediately bring up his program in a prominent spot.

A file shredder is essentially utility software designed to protect user data from being leaked. Those with some computer knowledge understand that when a file is simply deleted, it is moved to a Recycle Bin, from where it can be easily restored. Even emptying the Recycle Bin doesn't completely erase the file from the hard drive; it only removes the file's entry from the disk's allocation table, meaning the data temporarily remains, retrievable with specialized recovery software.

A file shredder, conversely, helps users permanently delete sensitive files by thoroughly overwriting the original storage area with gibberish data—a process so absolute that even divine intervention couldn't recover those files.

Larry had embedded a small backdoor into his file shredder. He programmed a verification routine: if the deleted file's format, time stamp, and size matched his predetermined criteria, the phone would surreptitiously upload a thumbnail preview of that file to his web server, allowing him to spy on users' private lives.

Recalling history, the scandal involving Edison Chen’s repaired laptop led to the infamous 2008 photo incident. Later, in 2011, a thirty-five-year-old hacker caused a sensation by breaching the mobile phones of dozens of A-list Hollywood stars, stealing their private photos.

Since then, many people had become more vigilant about protecting their privacy, making file shredders an essential mobile application.

Larry Renault was only fifteen, still immature, so installing the backdoor was merely a prank motivated by a desire to peek at others' private lives; he had no intention of profiting from it, only satisfying his own curiosity.

But Larry had a friend who was uneducated and intellectually simple—what one might call a "blockhead" or "dimwit"—named Semasso.

Just as everyone has a fat friend, everyone also has a friend like Sem; one day, when Sem chanced upon Larry browsing strange and curious photos on his computer screen, he asked what they were. Larry casually replied that it was a photography technique discussion site, and Sem believed him.

Sem was easily fooled in this manner.

On this particular day, Larry was once again tinkering with his things in front of the computer. He had been feeling quite pleased lately, having collected photos shredded by several actresses—some humorous, some erotic, and even a short video clip showing a football star engaging in homosexual activity. He kept these items in his secret collection, intending to share them with no one, perhaps only revealing them on the day of his death.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from downstairs, followed by his mother's shouts. Larry immediately dropped the mouse, completely ignoring Sem, who was lying on his bed playing video games with his ID visible, and sprinted downstairs to investigate the commotion.

Like many middle-class homes, the Renault residence was a detached three-story building, complete with a garden, swimming pool, and basketball hoop. The loud noise originated from the kitchen. Larry, running down from his third-floor room, couldn't return quickly.

Precisely at that moment, two beeping notification sounds came from the computer, and coincidentally, the game character controlled by Sem was once again defeated by the final boss.

"Shit!" Sem cursed in English, tossing his tablet aside in frustration and sitting up to approach Larry’s computer.

Naturally, a hacker's computer wouldn't permit access to someone like Sem, but people who lack common sense often possess a stubborn streak; the very things you forbid them from touching are the ones they most desire to investigate given an opportunity.

So, while Larry was downstairs helping his mother secure the detached extractor fan and clean up the ruined lunch, Sem easily found the folder Larry had referred to as his "photography technique" archive. Upon opening it, he saw the photos that had just been automatically and silently uploaded from Irene Top’s mobile phone to the server Larry had configured.

These photos had been secretly uploaded to the server the previous night while Wang Zhuo was having sweet dreams and Irene was sleeping soundly. Larry had just initiated the automatic retrieval function but had run off before he could view them, allowing Sem to catch them red-handed.

"Holy hell!"

Sem, of course, wouldn't utter such an expressive Chinese phrase, but the exclamation that burst from him upon seeing the photos carried precisely that meaning.

"Whose pictures are these? They look incredibly real!"

He praised them further. In his limited capacity to judge, photos like these couldn't possibly be genuine. How could the superstar Irene Top possibly take such pictures? He had seen similar things before; "Movie Clip Net" had an entire section dedicated to them—Sophie Marceau, Megan Fox, Britney Spears—big-name female stars galore!

Sem's simple mind couldn't distinguish between artificially synthesized photos and actual shots on Movie Clip Net, so he naively assumed the pictures he was seeing were also fakes. To him, these photos looked real, but so what? Movie Clip Net had thousands, if not tens of thousands, of pictures of Irene Top; were every single one of them this realistic?

The downfall of a corrupt official might stem from a single disobedient mistress, but the ruin of a genius often lies with his idiot friend. Larry would never have imagined his simple-minded buddy Sem would secretly meddle with his precious computer, so he had left no defences up.

After browsing through all the photos, the hot-blooded Sem nearly unzipped his trousers to masturbate while looking at the screen, but he restrained himself because Larry had a keen sense of smell and would detect the odour later.

So, Sem opened his own email account and uploaded these photos, including a few others of different stars in the process—a blockhead isn't necessarily stupid about everything; he was perfectly competent with basic computer operations.

After uploading, he quickly restored Larry’s computer to its original state, even attempting to clear the browsing history like a seasoned hand. Then, he swiftly went downstairs, greeted the busy Larry, and scaled the courtyard wall back to his own house next door.

Ten minutes later, Sem finished his own solitary pleasure. Twenty minutes later, Larry remembered he hadn't seen this set of photos on Movie Clip Net. Thirty minutes later, Sem completed the action of posting and uploading.

Good things are meant to be shared with everyone, aren't they?!