CH 182

A private space shuttle sailed across the boundless sea of stars.

The interstellar clocks on the wall soundlessly ticked on. By rough gauge of Ke Jin’s biological clock, Joe sent a goodnight message to the other’s smart device—to which, as expected, he received no response. 

There was probably no other more unfair chat history than this. Messages perpetually came from Joe’s side, and only his. Ke Jin’s side was empty, but the young master didn’t mind.

He was a little excited. He should make use of the flight to catch up on rest, but he didn’t feel like sleeping at all. He paced in front of the wide cabin window twice, then sent a goodnight message to Eunice.

Seconds later, he received Eunice’s reply: [Have you gone stir crazy?]

Joe, “…” 

With his dear sister’s response as a model, he decided it’d be wiser not to harass his dear father. And so he paced two more laps, then contacted Gu Yan’s comms.

That was why it went that everyone must have at least a lifelong friend or two, who wouldn’t kill you even if you called them in the dead of the night, and was even the type who’d pick up quickly, such as Gu—

“The number you have dialled is engaged at the moment.”

Joe, “…”

The little young master retracted the ‘such as’, patiently waiting a few more minutes before trying again.

“The number you have dialled has poor reception.”

Joe, “…”

Poor reception? At Fa Wang District? Was this a joke?? 

Joe was even more puzzled now. Totally not having it, he tried again.

“The number you have dialled cannot be reached.”

Joe, “…”

He was rooted to the spot for three whole seconds before abruptly registering: Bloody hell, he must have blocked me, right? 

In order to verify his hypothesis, lil’ Young Master Joe tried thirteen times in succession. Each call to Gu Yan’s smart device was rejected within a second. With this speed… it was obviously automatic.

The lil’ young master was heartbroken. Just when he was about to stubbornly try for the fourteenth time, his smart device abruptly vibrated. Gu Yan had taken the initiative to dial back.

“Hey, you blocked me!” Joe aired his grievances before the other could even speak.

“I didn’t,” Lawyer Gu flatly denied. He calmly said, “I merely muted all notifications, and before I knew it, I ended up seeing thirteen missed calls on my home screen.” 

“What the heck did you do that for?” Joe was baffled.

It was quite unlike Gu Yan’s style. He had never been fond of muting notifications, no matter what time of the day it was. Did his mind go wonky or someth—

Huh?!

Ktf sbecu wjrafg kjr tjiokjs atgbeut tlr weaafglcu ktfc jc fqlqtjcs tla tlw, “Yt!” 

Lf qbcvfgfv bnfg la obg akb rfmbcvr wbgf, atfc vgjuufv bea atf rsiijyif. “Ytttt.”

“So did I interrupt, ahem, something that isn’t convenient to explain? Oops, my bad, I didn’t mean to. Go on, go on.”

“…”

Ktf vlralcuelrtfv Ojksfg Xe kjr gfcvfgfv weaf obg j ubbv ktlif bc atf batfg fcv, jcv pera yfobgf Abf kjr jybea ab ‘ajmaoeiis’ tjcu eq, tf rjlv, “Qtja cbcrfcrf jgf sbe atlcxlcu bo? Qf’gf bc atf kjs ab atf olgw.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Joe perfunctorily nodded along before he truly processed it. “Huh?! To the law firm?”

“Yeah.”

He eyed the interstellar clocks on the wall again—it was late in the night; he hadn’t gotten it wrong. What the hell was Gu Yan going to the law firm for this late in the night?!

“People tend to slack off when they’re in love; why are you the opposite? You’re even going to pull overtime in the middle of the night? Anyway, since you’re working overtime, why have you muted your notifications?” 

“Not for overtime,” replied Gu Yan.

“Not for overtime? If not for that then what the heck are you heading there for? Had a spat with the dean and ran away from home?”

Gu Yan, “…”

Before Joe’s imagination could spiral even further off, he concisely explained, “To be a thief.” 

✵

Deep night in Fa Wang District.

Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan entered Southcross Law Firm.

As usual, they went unswervingly towards Gu Yan’s office on the second floor. 

“What happened to the little fool?” Yan Suizhi asked casually, his gaze sliding across the few corners where security cameras were installed.

“Got so shocked by our markedly unlawful behaviour that he cut the line,” Gu Yan said evenly.

After capturing the source of the signal from Southcross early this morning, they drove straight over to the law firm to check if the person who had sent the malicious emails to the landlord was still there, if he was a high-level partner as they suspected him to be.

But the other party was cautious. By the time they arrived at the law firm, the perpetrator had already left. 

So, they had bided their time until midnight, when no one was around, to use the common photon computer in Fitz’s room to find what they needed.

“How is this unlawful?” Yan Suizhi arched his brows and asked. “Which law stipulates that you can’t return to your workplace in the middle of the night? And which law stipulates that you can’t pull information from an interconnected database? Does changing the direction of the shared access change it from being shared access still? We’re clearly just making efficient use of resources.”

Those who had once been deans were different; they’d even have a rebuttal on the tip of their tongue in their afterlife. The distinguished Lawyer Gu turned it over and was actually unable to find fault with his words.

These two ‘thieves’ were completely confident in their own skin. They first took off and hung their coats on the rack in Gu Yan’s office, then they made themselves comfortable, undoing their cuffs and rolling up their sleeves. 

Even more obnoxiously, they even made a trip down to the pantry to pour two cups of coffee, taking the cups with them into Fitz’s office.

The admin office was spacious. Fitz, as the head of department, had a separate space to herself that was partitioned by glass and water walls. The entire space was stylish and tidy, distinct with Fitz’s personal flair.

Lawyers had to check in with Fitz on various documents and procedures from time to time. Moreover, Gu Yan had a fairly close relationship with her, so this office was rather familiar territory to him.

Fitz had a wide desk in her personal office reserved for her own use. Other than that, there was also a curved table set against the floor-to-ceiling windows, like a bar counter in a cafe that faces the window. The two photon computers for common use rested on this curved table. 

The curtains were drawn across the windows, and one layer blocked out all light, isolating the office from the world outside. Yan Suizhi sat on the curved table, holding his chin and asking Gu Yan, “Shall you or shall I?”

Gu Yan’s finger, about to start up the photon computer, paused when he heard this. “You know how? Go ahead, it’s the same either way.”

Yan Suizhi, “I don’t, I was just being polite.”

Gu Yan, “…” 

As for the issue of how to access individual databases from a shared signal network, the explanation that Gu Yan’s expert friend had previously provided was complicated. Fortunately, the listener over here had good brain capacity, and still retained memory of the step-by-step process.

Before penetrating the databases, Gu Yan went through the detailed results of the counter-capture program once more.

But when he reached the signal source number ‘1192-1182-1’, Gu Yan faltered. This was because they could understand the meaning of all information from the program other than the small asterisk symbol under this line.

Therefore, before setting off for the law firm, Gu Yan had taken a screenshot of this symbol and sent it over to his expert friend, asking him about it. 

The friend quickly replied, “It’s irrelevant, it doesn’t affect the substantive result. But I can’t remember exactly what it stands for, I might have added some extra features in passing when building it. I’ll get back to you after I go through the code again.”

Half an hour passed since then, but his friend had yet to find out what it was.

But this was harmless; after all, the process to penetrate the individual databases had no relation to this little asterisk. So, Gu Yan’s gaze had only lingered on it for a fleeting second before he closed the screen, beginning to operate the photon computer from memory.

The process was indeed extremely complicated. Some windows would pop up in the middle to show that the encryption for a database was being cracked. The series of progress bars took up nearly an hour. 

The night deepened, causing the temperature in the office to drop by a few degrees as well.

At this time, Yan Suizhi was actually not feeling too well. His head was throbbing faintly. The characters on the photon computer screen scrolled too quickly, and staring at it for a length only added to his discomfort.

So, he averted his gaze for a moment, looking around the office, seemingly disinterested. Then, he leaned against the window, reaching out to toy with the edge of the double-layered curtains.

From this stretch of floor-to-ceiling windows, he could see the lush flowering trees lining the shared parking between Southcross and the next-door building. 

Most of the view was blocked by the beautiful greenery, but it was still clear that there weren’t many people on the road. Apart from the occasional headlight that glided past, the darkness was quiet and tranquil.

After a while, the photon computer softly chimed.

Yan Suizhi shifted his gaze away from the window and gently pressed his temples, looking over at the photon computer. Gu Yan hit the enter key, and the photon computer finally jumped to the window that they most wanted to see.

Searching for the documents. Estimated time: 5 minutes… 

There was a long progress bar beneath this information text, which crawled forward at its own time.

Search Progress—2%

In the near distance, another headlight slid by soundlessly like water. But Yan Suizhi didn’t turn over. He looked at the screen for a while and set down the fingers holding the curtains.

Search Progress—27% 

Southcross Law Firm, north car park entrance

A red space hovercar slowed. The lighting was poor late at night, impeding the face recognition system from penetrating the glass windows. The driver turned on the light inside the car and lowered the window, allowing the scanner to read her face.

Three lines of text automatically sprung onto the toll metre’s interface. 

Scan Success.

Irene Fitz.

Reserved Parking, Lot 21

Fitz rolled the window back up. Her friend’s voice was still yattering from the earpiece, “Have you arrived yet? If you have, I’m hanging up, I’m bloody tired. I’m definitely going to be late tomorrow if we keep going.” 

“I’ve arrived.” Fitz pulled her car into the lot, saying, “You were clearly the one who pulled me into two hours of conversation, why are you making it sound like I’m the one not letting you sleep? Just hang up; I’m about to get out of the car.”

“Yeahyeahyeah,” the friend still muttered, “I wanted to sleep ages ago, got it? Who was the one who suddenly wanted to go back to the office in the middle of our conversation? If I wasn’t afraid that you’d get mugged on the road, I wouldn’t have forced myself to stay up until now.”

“There are two files that I forgot to transfer. The deadline’s coming up; I had no choice. Do you really think I’d be that senseless otherwise?” Fitz sighed.

Search Progress—69% 

The red hovercar parked itself in the reserved lot. Fitz got out with her bag and entered the elevator. The floor displayed began to jump upwards from basement 2.

Search Progress—82%

When the elevator got to the ground floor, Fitz walked out with her bag in hand.

She had left in such a hurry just now that she didn’t even put on her stilettos. Instead, she came in a pair of homely soft-soled shoes that made no sound at all on the floor, perfect for playing the role of a female ghost. 

Search Progress—91%

Fitz passed through the indoor garden corridor, then dropped by the pantry to grab a cup of yoghurt from the refrigerator before walking up to her office.

She held the handle, about to open the door. But she suddenly paused.

For, in front of her feet, light shone from the crack beneath the door, spilling over the surface of her shoes.