Chapter 113
Cyber-fight I was sitting, wrapped in bedsheets, with my back leaning against the head of the bed and
theptop on my thighs. I put on my earphone headset and instantly connected with n and Norton.
They had been woken up by the same rm and had already logged on when I called them on chat.
“Don’t do anything for now. We need to observe this bastard’s moves and find the right moment to put
the tracker on him,” I said, typingmands like crazy and struggling not to lose him.
“I see that fucker!” n burst through my earphones. “He is going to the bait and trying to open the new
projects’ folder.”
“What kind of a password do we have there?” I asked since Norton and n were the ones who had
prepared the bait folder.
“It’s a standard password with small and capital letters, two digits, and a special sign. We thought that
the hacker would be suspicious if the ess was too easy,” Norton replied.” If it’s the same hacker
who broke into the system before, then he is good enough to break the code quickly. It should take him
approximately three to five minutes to break the code.”
I looked at the clock. The hacker had been inside the system for only a few minutes, but it didn’t seem as
if he was running around blindly. I had a feeling that he had known exactly what he was looking for and
where to find it.
“We should record his movements as proof,” I said, looking at themand windows that the hacker
kept opening and closing.
ConTEent bel0ngs to N?v(e)lD/rama(.)Org .
I hated that we needed to wait for his move. This bastard could nt us a bug or a nasty virus, but we
could only crush him after we knew what he or she was after. All three of us impatiently stared at the
screen, watching the jerk struggling to get ess to our false folder. “We have another breach!” n
shouted. “He is trying to get into the ount books!”
“There’s two of them?!” I called out, realizing that our once steady situation had just be more
dangerous.
“There are three intruders actually…” Norton revised.
“”Three?!” It was clear that we had underestimated our enemies, but there was no time to panic. I had an
amazing team, and those hackers walked into our territory. “Split the screen into three. I will monitor the
first hacker. n, keep an eye on the one who tries to check thepany’s finances, and Norton, you
will observe the third one.”
“Yes, Ma’am!” n chuckled.
“I’m on it,” Norton confirmed.
The first hacker had just managed to crack our password. I nervously tapped on theptop’s case,
watching our intruder copy the files from the bait folder called “Golden Dragon City 2” before deleting
them from our system.
“What’s your n now, little one?” I muttered, staring at the hacker’s movements on the
screen.
Our game was risky: we needed to stay as silent watchers before we knew exactly what those bastards
were doing. Then we were going to trigger an rm to scare them while shutting all exits and leaving
only one route of escape-through the gate where they would all be given a secret tracker. We needed
them to walk in and out, giving n’s special tracking program time to analyze their trail. The problem
was that our perfect n could easily fail if they tried to infect the system, which was quite likely to
happen…
“My intruder is trying to copy personal files. Should I stop him?” Norton asked,
“Wait one more minute, Norton,” I said, keeping my focus on the screen. “n, is it likely for your intruder
to get ess to the financial files?”
“Nah, he would have to spend all day. We used the best type of coding on those files,” he replied
boastfully.
I sighed, slightly relieved. “All right. We have the evidence we needed. Time to trigger the
“Fuck!” n yelled. “That fucker gave up on unlocking the files and dropped the virus instead!
“Norton, the rm, now!” I shouted, trying to find and stop the malicious software from spreading
“Do you need help with the virus?” Norton asked as he turned on the rm.
“No, I will deal with it myself. Make those jerks escape through our gate. Stick to the n,” Imanded
firmly.
We spent the next few minutes without saying a single word; all of us were absolutely focused on the
task at hand, typing thousands ofmands at the speed of light. I clenched my teeth, my fingers
fiercely flexing and pressing theputer keyboard as I crushed the virus kilobyte by kilobyte.
“Yes!” I screamed in ecstasy when I finally cleaned the system of any traces of the virus.
“We did it!” I heard Norton exim, confirming that those bastards had sessfully entered our trap
“You shouldn’t mess with us, fuckers!” n roared, making me chuckle.
“Thank you, guys…” I panted through the microphone. “We’ve got what we wanted. Let’s take a rest now,
and we’ll track them back in the morning.”
I took off my headphones, breathing heavily but grinning like a little kid. Only then did I realize my
bedroom door was open and wearing nothing but pajama pants Aren stood on the threshold, leaning on
one side of the door frame.
Iughed nervously. “Did I wake you up?”
He smirked. “Yes, you did.”
My lips curved into an awkward smile. “How long have you been standing here?”
“Long enough to start questioning whether I satisfy you in bed properly…” He chuckled, stepping closer
and sitting on my bed. “Perhaps it’s moreplicated since my wife has just climaxed while fighting
cybercrime…”
I blushed and pouted my lips. “I didn’t climax. It was apletely different type of excitement.
He shot me a sly grin. “Let me check if you are wet, just to be sure.” His hand slid under my sheets,
finding my thigh.
“No!” I blocked his hand, surprising myself with my reaction.
He raised his eyebrows, probably even more surprised than I was. I lowered my head, suddenly
comprehending my impulses. “I can’t… Aren, I can’t keep falling down the rabbit hole… alone. Whenever
I’m with you, I fall deeper, and you…” I raised my head and looked at him with a sad smile. “You don’t
even know if you want to jump there with
me.”
Guilt and sorrow filled his expression. “I want to, but…”
“Not yet,” I finished his thought. “I know that, and I wanted to wait for you, but how can I do that if I don’t
feel like you’re trying?” Aren took a deep breath and locked his eyes on me. “Wait after Lan Jing’s
birthday. Can you wait until then?”
“Wait for what, Aren? And how many days after are we talking about?” I asked with a bitter smirk.
I could see that he was nervous, a deep frown wrinkling his forehead. “I can’t give you all the answers,
Cora…” He grabbed my hands and pressed them to his chest. “But I know that only you can make me
feel something. I know that I am selfish, but right now, I am begging you to give me a little more time until
this Lan family shitshow is over. Then I can start making it up to you… please.”
My chest squeezed as he breathed out thest word. I was supposed to toughen up and say how I felt,
but he made me hold on to my hopes again. I smiled faintly at him and agreed to wait, but deep down I
was slowly preparing my heart for the possibility of leaving him right after our trip to China. My Aren Lan
addiction entered a terminal phase; my system could either build immunity… or go to rehab.