Chapter 15 — Satellite Channel
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
The whole villa was still quiet. Wei Zhao looked up toward the stairs — the two girls were probably still asleep. He sat down on the sofa, turned on the sixty-inch LCD television in the living room, muted the sound, and began to watch.
A big TV really was a pleasure. Wei Zhao lay back on the sofa at his ease; this was the first time he had ever watched such a splendid television. Back home, apart from a knockoff netbook that could show a few flickering images, there had been nothing but an ordinary twenty-five-inch flat-screen CRT.
"Achoo!" Wei Zhao sneezed. He had not expected that even his constitution could catch a cold. But then he reflected that he had always lived in the south, and this was the north; though it was summer, the difference between day and night temperatures was considerable, so a bit of trouble adjusting to the climate was only natural.
Wei Zhao pulled two tissues from the box on the coffee table, wiped his nose, and tossed them aside.
But it was early in the morning, and most channels had no programming. Wei Zhao pressed the channel button on the remote in his hand. He pressed for quite a while, yet the television did not respond, still showing the same big globe and the words "no signal."
"Damn, this remote can't be out of batteries, can it?" Wei Zhao muttered. Then he thought again — no, that could not be right. Had he not just used this very remote to turn the television on?
At that thought, Wei Zhao looked more carefully at the television. So the villa had satellite television installed, and changing channels required the remote for the set-top box; the television's own remote could control only the power and the volume.
Though Wei Zhao came from a mountain village, Old Man Wei had bought him a knockoff netbook, and through the internet he had picked up a good deal about the technology and knowledge of the outside world, so he did not make too much of a fool of himself now.
He searched around and, sure enough, found the satellite set-top box's remote beneath the coffee table. Wei Zhao picked it up and began flipping through the channels.
"Satellite TV really is great — so many channels." Wei Zhao had gone through dozens of channels and had yet to find a single repeat.
"This channel is an adult channel and has been locked with a parental lock. Please enter the password. Default password: 000000."
When Wei Zhao switched to one particular channel, this line of text appeared on the screen.
No way. These two girls had an adult channel in their house? Wei Zhao had long heard that a "big dish" could pick up certain adult programs, though he had never actually seen one.
The widow Wang at the head of the village had satellite television installed too, but the channels she could get were no more than the free provincial satellite stations; a paid adult channel like this was out of the question.
An itch stirred in Wei Zhao's heart. He wondered whether the password had been set by Gu Pengzhan, or by that spoiled young lady Gu Mengyao, or perhaps by Shen Yushu. Mm, very likely — that girl looked flirtatious enough, and she talked in a pretty forward way too... Wei Zhao thought, his mind running wild.
He casually entered the password: "123456." The television promptly informed him that the password was incorrect and asked him to enter it again.
"888888," Wei Zhao tried again. The television still informed him that the password was incorrect and asked him to enter it again.
Wei Zhao scratched his head, and this time entered "000000." This time no incorrect-password notice appeared; instead the screen seemed to freeze, and he could not tell whether it was verifying the password or had simply crashed.
Just as Wei Zhao was about to press some other key at random to see what would happen, a picture appeared on the television.