CH 152

Private and public flight lanes from Wine City to De Carma didn’t really intersect with each other, but there were some exceptions.

Joe happened to be using one of these. 

Shortly before linking up to De Carma’s berthing track, a shroud-like flare continually twinkled from a starfield not far away from them.

“Human Navigator, what sector is that over there?” Yan Suizhi, seeing it from the porthole, patted Gu Yan next to him.

While the esteemed Professor Yan had wide knowledge of a vast spectrum of affairs, his directional and positional sense had stagnated for many years. This shortcoming didn’t only manifest on the ground surface, but also in the sea of stars. Once on board the space shuttle, he was constantly in the state of ‘Where is this? Where is that? Where are we?’

However, a certain professor had his pride, so he didn’t usually show this. 

“Star Sector A,” said Gu Yan.

“The sector where Old Aquila and other planets are located?” Yan Suizhi mumbled, “Doesn’t the public-use lane from Helan to De Carma pass through there?”

Gu Yan hummed in assent and gazed at the shroud-like twinkling. “A space shuttle is likely being repaired over there.”

When a large maintenance vessel was connected to a faulty space shuttle, it would emit flashing light to indicate that the lane was blocked and couldn’t be used at this time. When repairs were complete, the maintenance vessel would emit another type of flashing light, notifying: Preparing to set off. Please stay out of the lane.

The lane from Helan to De Carma happened to have a space shuttle under repair—if not the shuttle that his landlord missed, which other could it be?

Yan Suizhi watched it for a while, then said, “From the frequency of the flashes, repairs should be done soon, right? Then that landlord of mine wouldn’t have to stay marooned there?”

While speaking, he tried to send another message to Mervyn White, his landlord.

Two seconds later, the ‘message failed to send’ alert beeped. 

Gu Yan leaned over for a look. The text prompt stated that the recipient party’s signal was blocked.

“Signal still hasn’t been restored though the repairs are almost through?” Yan Suizhi clicked his tongue, not very pleased with the repair efficiency.

“From looks of it, they’ll arrive at the port tomorrow at the latest,” Gu Yan observed the glowing shroud, saying in consolation.

“I’m just afraid that my landlord has run into trouble. It actually doesn’t concern me if it’s as simple as a spotty signal,” Yan Suizhi said. “I’ve also encountered two shuttle breakdowns in the past. The repairs for one lasted for twelve days while the other time lasted ten days. Both took longer than this and the signal was out the entire time.” 

“Ten days without signal? Was it difficult?” Estimating that the space shuttle would soon touch down, he intended to pour some coffee to wake himself up. “I’ve only once encountered a minor malfunction that delayed me for a day, but the signal wasn’t affected.”

“It was probably torturous for those trying to contact me, but I just took it as a vacation. The peace and quiet were delightful.” Yan Suizhi paused, then added, “But this might change in the future.”

“Hm? Why’s that?” Gu Yan offhandedly asked.

With a smile tugging on his lips, Yan Suizhi said, “If I don’t respond to communications for ten days, what if the mint I raised gets swiped away?” 

“…”

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Being cocooned so tightly had Yan Suizhi tottering between laughter and tears. He perfunctorily tried to wiggle around, but seeing that his efforts were in vain, he simply left it be. During which, he even indulgently lifted his chin, facilitating Gu Yan in tucking the blanket in. 

Manifesting the noble generosity expected of a teacher, he said with exceptional candour, “Quite a few. Lawyer Gu may raise his objections if he has any.”

Gu Yan’s brow lifted. “Will you change them if I do?”

The esteemed Professor Yan calmly said, “What do you think? Of course not.”

Still as assertive as ever—even after becoming a burrito, seriously… 

Gu Yan looked at him through lowered lashes for a moment, before saying with arched brows, “Then stop pretending to be running a democracy. I’ve no faith in it.”

Yan Suizhi’s gaze flitted over his handsome countenance. He tsked, affecting discontent. “This student is so difficult to wait upon.”

As he spoke, he scooted closer to peck Gu Yan’s lips, then leaned back into his seat and asked, the corners of his lips ticking up, “Will this sway you?”

Lawyer Gu’s gaze sharpened, and he responded in courtroom speak, “Minimum sentence of three counts.” 

“…” Professor Yan, “Come, release me from the blanket and I’ll let you experience what three counts truly means.”

How could Gu Yan allow this restless ruler to regain his freedom? Who knew what wicked ideas he was brewing in his head.

“Don’t trouble your esteemed self, I’ll help myself.” With that, he lowered his head and kissed Yan Suizhi for a time, then straightened up to pour his coffee.

While they were fooling around just now, Yan Suizhi’s smart device had buzzed again. 

He pried open the woollen blanket and peeked his hand out to project the hologram for a look.

He’d initially assumed that it would be a reply from his landlord, but it ended up being a push notification.

“What is that?” Gu Yan handed him a cup of coffee.

Yan Suizhi took it from him and sipped it, flipping the screen over for him to see. “I previously used Mr Budd’s tattoo and moles as a search source to sieve through the data stored in my smart device but forgot about it in the rush to board the space shuttle.” 

He spoke flippantly, but the text on the push notification caused Gu Yan to frown.

“Search failed, target database inaccessible?” He read the result aloud. “Did your search cover the internet?”

If it were to crawl through the internet, then the unstable signal when thrusting from Wine City into outer space might affect the search. There would sometimes be sporadic signal hiccups during space voyages as well.

“No,” Yan Suizhi said, “only within my smart device storage.” 

“Then how can the target database be inaccessible?”

Gu Yan contemplated it for a moment, thereafter tapped on his smart device and looked up a friend in his address book. It was the one who Gu Yan had sought help from when Yan Suizhi was passing through the detection gates last time in Tian Qin.

He took a photo of the search result and sent it to his friend.

The other swiftly came back to him: 

[There are several situations that could lead to this; it’s hard to say just from seeing this notification so I’ll have to go through by elimination. Follow my instructions.]

He listed out several simple tests below, such as checking which settings were enabled and whatnot.

As instructed, Gu Yan got Yan Suizhi to go through the steps, then take screenshots of the several results, sending them all at once to the other end.

This time, his friend didn’t reply as quickly. 

The space shuttle soon docked at De Carma’s port. Eunice had long readied a limousine outside the gates to pick them up and take them straight to Springfield Villa Hotel.

Needless to say, the place where Devore Yves was at would be ambushed by reporters the whole day. Possibly having received notice of it, the hotel had increased the security detail, causing the gates to appear heavily fortified.

Fortunately, Eunice should have called ahead and their limousine didn’t face any roadblocks.

As the limousine pulled into the hotel’s botanical gardens, that friend finally gave a response. 

[Gu, I’ve tested it four times; I can pretty much confirm the cause. Is this your client’s smart device? If it is, you have to be careful. Someone’s got their eye on you. They’re trying to remotely interfere with your smart device, triggering the security built into the smart device, which resulted in the database becoming unsearchable.]

The next message swiftly followed:

[But your client is also very vigilant. Smart devices generally don’t have enough security built in to prevent that level of interference, or that person wouldn’t have tried. This smart device has had its security upgraded, which was how it managed to block the interference.]

Seeing this, Gu Yan asked Yan Suizhi, “Did you touch the settings on your smart device after getting it?” 

“I got someone in the black market to check it and set up some defensive software set up while I was there,” Yan Suizhi said. “Why?”

There was a sound isolation barrier between the driver’s seat and the back, so they didn’t have to worry about being overheard by others. Gu Yan said, “Someone is trying to remotely interfere with your smart device but was stopped by the built-in security.”

His brows knit. “But, firstly, we can’t determine how long the security can hold up, and secondly, we don’t know who the other party is.”

“Interfere with his smart device?” Joe and Laura gasped, high alert on their faces. “What’s the situation?” 

Gu Yan, replying to his friend, didn’t even lift his head. “I’m still asking.”

-How long can the in-built security hold out?

-It’s hard to say. It depends on the density and intensity of the external interference. It’s possible that the other will get discouraged first and back off, but it’s also possible that it’ll just come apart all at once. How about this. Give me half an hour; I’ll write a program that you can download into the smart device. This will ramp up the security level and give an advance warning the next time someone tries.

-Can we trace it back? 

-That isn’t out of the question. Just that it’s tough, it’s not something I can do for you in a jiffy. You’ll have to give me a few days.

-How long will it take for the database to be accessible again?

-It usually takes two days after the interference has disappeared, but if the other guy doesn’t give up and keeps up the probe… you get the idea.

Once done discussing this, his friend probably got down to focusing on building the program. When Gu Yan sent another message over asking the other what conditions were needed to achieve this level of interference, hoping to narrow down the suspects based on the necessary conditions, the message was left unread.  

“Does this mean that my smart device is unusable for the time being?” Yan Suizhi, who had never been prone to nervousness, was actually half-genuinely glad to hear this. “This is only a temporary device, thankfully. You have whatever I have in there anyway, so there’s no loss.”

“…”

“Stop staring at me,” said Yan Suizhi, “There’s no danger for now. I can gauge.”

Joe’s and Laura’s expression immediately eased. 

Only Gu Yan was still staring at him with a paralysed face.

Hogwash like this might be able to fool others, but it was completely ineffective against Gu Yan.

“Stop it,” Yan Suizhi cajoled, “if I really were an intern wet behind the ears, I would probably have died from fright at that look. Unfortunately, I’m not. So save your eye power and do me a favour.”

In this public venue, Lawyer Gu was unable to do anything against this scoundrel. He could only flatly toss out two words. “Carry on.” 

“Don’t you have the photos as well? Go run a search on yours,” Yan Suizhi said.

While Gu Yan searched through the data on his smart device, the limousine had already passed through the botanical gardens, golf course, and riding arena, stopping in front of a villa.

Eunice waved at them from the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor, and the intelligent gate swung open with a beep. Joe couldn’t even wait to be received, taking Ke Jin and hauling the rest through the door, striding up the stairs.

“Old—” He unconsciously wanted to say ‘Old Fox’, but the words reached the tip of his tongue only to be swallowed down. 

For Mr Devore Yves was standing at the top of the stairs with his hands clasped behind his back, his face taut, expressionlessly looking at them.