CH 183

luckykoi [Translator] 小锦鲤吐泡泡॰°ₒ৹ ๐॰°ₒ৹ ๐॰°16-21 minutes

Meanwhile, in the office…

Yan Suizhi didn’t continue to stare at the screen. The pain in his head had worsened again. rS3dFx

He pried open a corner of the curtain to divert his attention, and his gaze landed on the car park entrance.

“Gu Yan,” Yan Suizhi said softly, staring at the car park entrance, “The recognition scanner at the entrance of the car park is sensor-controlled, right? What colour is it when on standby?”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Blue,” Gu Yan asked. “Why?”

“Nothing, I saw the blue light so I just thought to ask,” said Yan Suizhi. 8oe5Fj

His limpid eyes gazed quietly over there.

Due to the angle, he didn’t have a direct line of sight to the car park entrance, but he could see the row of flowering trees planted near it. The branches and leaves of the innermost tree were faintly washed red.

The recognition scanner at the car park had been switched to active status and had yet to cut back to standby.

Someone had gone in.

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Yan Suizhi set down the curtain, turning over to stare at the office door.

“Keep going.” He patted Gu Yan on the shoulder, his gaze sweeping the desk surface.

To distract himself from his migraine, the cup of coffee in his hand had unknowingly reached the bottom. Instead, Gu Yan had been so busy that he had only taken two sips of coffee before setting it aside. The cup was still full.

He calmly made the switch, taking Gu Yan’s cup with him to the door. wBQY 0

But he didn’t open the door, nor did he seem to have any plans to. He just waited there with composure, the coffee in hand. His gaze swept along the gaps of the door, finally landing on his hand.

His behaviour was rather puzzling.

Gu Yan’s fingers didn’t stop as he asked, “Why are you standing next to the door?”

Yan Suizhi took another sip of coffee from the cup in his hand, saying casually, “I’m waiting.” pFV20P

“Waiting for?”

Waiting, to see if the other was perceptive enough to notice.

If they came in after Gu Yan was done going through the databases, then he could put up with making small talk with them, sending their mind in circles.

But if they slid in before the search was completed… DTAsZn

Fitz stared at the light on the tip of her shoe, her eyes unwavering.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

She stilled for a few seconds, then suddenly set the yoghurt in her hand to one side, taking out an object from her handbag.

Then, she gently grasped the door handle. QOopW8

Search Progress—93%

The door latch mechanism opened with a muted click.

Incoming! StO8ha

Yan Suizhi’s eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand, spilling the coffee.

This was probably the defining moment of Yan Suizhi’s acting career. As he spilled the coffee, he ‘stumbled’ and noisily caught the door frame, covertly blocking the other person’s entrance.

At first glance, it appeared just as though he was startled by the person outside the door, and it was only by bracing a hand against the door frame that he had managed to pull the emergency brake.

Only God was witness to how he had been biding his time just now. t7134C

But the person outside was no meek lamb. Before Yan Suizhi could focus his eyes, an unknown object was thrust his way, sending pricks of numbness across his skin even without contact.

Yan Suizhi’s hand deftly pinched the other’s ulnar nerve.

The object that was being thrust over instantly fell loose, dropping to the carpeted ground, soundlessly rolling away.

“Ah—” that person cried softly. d0Mipl

“Miss Fitz?” Yan Suizhi blanked at the sound.

Fitz, with her wrist caught in his grip, also blanked. “Ruan?!”

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“No, I’m pretty agile on my feet without heels on. It mostly went to the carpet; it’s only that my hand went numb.” Fitz glared at him accusingly. “Why did you strike so hard? It felt as bad as touching an electric door.”

Yan Suizhi, “Sorry, it was a reflex when I saw something being thrust at me upon opening the door. I almost thought a thief was intruding, even one with a murder weapon. With that, I acted on the assumption that it was a robbery and didn’t watch the strength I used.”

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His words actually contained strong psychological cues. By speaking first, his ‘thought that a thief was intruding’ logically put him in the ‘Not A Thief’ category, giving Fitz a subliminal hint.

Immediately after, he flapped the shirt hem that was unfortunately stained with coffee during their run-into, questioning in doubt, “Why are you here?” u F9jA

Sure enough, Miss Fitz had the wind taken out of her sails. She said awkwardly, “I left something behind and still had some stuff to do. I was about to sleep but once I thought of it, I couldn’t sleep, so I just came over. Plus—” Fitz subconsciously explained, then abruptly stayed her tongue.

Yan Suizhi, “Hm?”

Fitz, “………………”

Wait. Hold up. Isn’t that my office? Isn’t it reasonable that I’m here? Why do I get this feeling that I’m trespassing on someone else’s territory instead? paJLiD

Miss Fitz was supremely perplexed.

On the contrary, the True Trespasser… was completely self-assured.

What logic is this?

She was about to open her mouth to say something when Yan Suizhi bent down to pick up the ‘murder weapon’ she had dropped on the floor. O0hKZW

It appeared just like a regular ballpoint pen, only thicker and shorter, with one side emitting a dark blue glow. Even without touching his skin, the proximity made his skin prickle, fine hair standing on end.

“A self-defense stun pen?” Yan Suizhi turned it off and handed it back to Fitz.

This gadget wasn’t actually much different from a police-issued electric baton, except that it was pocket-sized and less dangerous. Some people would bring this with them when out at night.

It wasn’t fatal, but a single strike could knock a man out. Kmux0C

Taking the stun pen, Fitz put away the various other items she had taken out back into her bag.

Including but not limited to brass knuckles, a palm stud, a pocket siren, a recording pen…

Yan Suizhi, “…Should I also be glad for my agility? Or will I see myself hospitalised in Spring Ivy for the rest of the month?”

And why was there a recording pen among them? qD8h 5

Even more wind was let out of Miss Fitz’s sails. “When opening the door, I saw light coming from the crack and thought the same thing…”

“What self-respecting thief would turn on the lights when committing the crime? Broadcasting their misdeed?” Yan Suizhi said with a smile.

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“True that,” Fitz nodded.

After being spun in circles, she had almost forgotten what she had wanted to ask, only then eventually remembering like in an afterthought, “What are you doing downstairs? Where’s Gu?” 52ZKRx

On account of their friendship, she didn’t directly ask what the hell he was doing in her office, but implied it in a roundabout manner.

Little did she expect Yan Suizhi to point back at the office. “Teacher Gu? He’s inside.”

Fitz, “…”

Slow clap. This territory incursion was even done as a two-man party. tFGaPB

Search Progress—98%

Yan Suizhi said, “My smart device was acting up recently. It locked the database.”

As he spoke, he casually projected a hologram, swiping through the ten successive security compromised notifications so that Fitz could fully grasp the alarming row of exclamation marks.

“Locked the database?” At this, Fitz frowned. She contemplated it, and whatever went through her mind, after a while, her eyes flashed. She looked at Yan Suizhi and asked, “How could it be locked when it was fine before? Have you looked into it? I come across lots of things, being in admin and human resources and all. It seems that there was once someone in the firm whose database got locked before, and it turned out to be because of remote interference.” eWVudd

Then, she waved her hand. “That’s from what I heard, at least. Some people are terribly suspicious these days; they just love snooping around.”

“We’re looking into it. The rest of the functionality is fine, but we’re worried about any virus leaks.” Yan Suizhi said, gesturing to the office. “Didn’t you give me some clearance to look into case files before? I thought about it and decided it would be safer to turn off those permissions lest information gets stolen.”

Yan Suizhi had never batted an eye when spouting bull, especially when this couldn’t entirely be considered bull, but was made out of half-truths. When rounded up, it was as good as the real deal.

“Teacher Gu’s photon computer can’t do this type of administrative backend, so we had to come down to use the public one to block my communications access.” wkYH2b

“Ohhh.” Fitz was enlightened. “I get it now; I was wondering why you couldn’t just wait until tomorrow.”

“Undue delay invites trouble,” quipped Yan Suizhi.

Fitz nodded, then stepped into the office.

From Yan Suizhi’s angle, he could see over the frosted glass wall to a corner of the office inside: kEPOVw

On the photon computer screen, the progress bar had leapt to 100% at last.

The interface showed a search complete notification, then a long stream of information rolled out at breakneck speed, with thumbnails and names for the various target files.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Gu Yan selected Export All, with the target path defined as the landlord’s unregistered smart device.

The photon computer screen flashed. CG64hA

Transfer Progress—23%

Gu Yan, “…”

Yan Suizhi’s migraine worsened at the glimpse of yet another infernal progress bar leaping out.

Transfer Progress—47% 6tQFlC

Fitz hung her coat and bag on the clothes rack.

All she had to do was turn around, route past the assistant’s desk, then she could see the internal office… and that prominent progress bar would fall into her sight.

Transfer Progress—76%

Fitz adjusted the humidity and was about to walk inwards when Yan Suizhi suddenly called out to her. “Miss Fitz.” 853T4h

“Huh?” She turned her head back over.

Yan Suizhi pointed at the flower stand to one side. “You left your yoghurt behind.”

“Oh, right! I forgot all about it!”

Transfer Progress—97% 0We l5

Fitz walked back to the door and took the yoghurt from Yan Suizhi.

This time, there was no more reason to trip her up. Besides, going any further would instead be cause for doubt when there might have been none before.

Gu Yan frowned, his fingers rapping on the table.

While Fitz wasn’t wearing her stilettos tonight, he could still hear the muffled approach of her footsteps. rejdZM

Transfer Progress—98%

Transfer Progress—99%

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

As soon as it hit 100%, Gu Yan immediately closed the software, permanently deleting it.

When Fitz walked into the office, the admin backend was indeed open on the communal photon computer. Gu Yan had his earpiece on as he unhurriedly reviewed the intern management interface assigned to ‘Ruan Ye’. ItWch0

It was a mountain of red under the permissions column. He had forcibly closed them all.

Ten minutes later, Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan returned upstairs.

Fitz chatted with them for a while, finished her yoghurt, and stayed in the office downstairs to start working on her deadlines.

Not long after that, the expert friend who practically lived in tech dialled Gu Yan’s contact number. GdMNmP

“It’s the best getting in touch with you. No matter what ungodly hour it is, you’re always awake. Do you even need to sleep? You’re not an A.I. simulacrum, right?” that friend bantered.

Gu Yan, “Something cropped up; I had to pull overtime at the office. I also tried out something you taught me in passing.”

“Which one?”

“Accessing databases from a shared network,” said Gu Yan. “That’s what you called it, right?” HOaDkb

“Oh! Right! I remember that.” The friend said, “This latest case of yours is so complicated, why do you have to try a bit of everything. How did that work out?”

Gu Yan briefly recounted the process.

The friend gave a few approving “hm”s before suddenly interrupting at the end. “Wait, how did you remove the trace?”

“As you said, I clicked on permanent delete.” OjNH7l

“Just that, nothing else?”

Gu Yan could tell that there was something else left unsaid. He frowned. “Are there other traces left besides that? You didn’t bring them up last time.”

The friend said shamefacedly, “Yeah, I missed it. After the permanent delete, there shouldn’t be any traces, by right. But there’s a pesky part of the photon computer that will record your last action; you can even view the details when you click into it. Right there in the run log.”

Leaning against the table, Yan Suizhi frisked Gu Yan’s potted evergreen bamboo. 0vIrRQ

Then raised his head to find that Lawyer Gu’s face was even more green than the evergreen bamboo.

“What’s wrong?” Having a hunch, he fished out another earpiece from Gu Yan’s pocket, putting it on, openly listening in to the conversation with an arm resting on Gu Yan’s shoulder.

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In the earpiece, the friend was still pouring out an avalanche. “…Don’t worry, in fact the traces don’t stay for long. It’s easier to spot when someone likes to check the day’s run log before switching the photon computer on and off, but otherwise you’re good. It automatically refreshes the next day.”

By the time he was through, both lawyers’ faces had turned green. JkTRH0

“Does Miss Fitz have this habit?” Yan Suizhi asked in a low voice, prodding Gu Yan’s face with a finger.

“…She does.”

Not only did she check her own computer, but she would also go through the run logs for the two communal photon computers.

Gu Yan was even willing to bet that it was the first thing that Miss Fitz would do upon settling down now that they were gone. 7pH8z9

It was a habit shared across the firm’s admin and human resources staff.

In other words, at worst, Fitz would very soon find out what they had done.

Just a couple more minutes of leeway at best…

That friend was a tech whizz for anything related to smart devices, but his emotional intelligence when it came to reading the scene was probably equivalent to that of an embryo. sfz4tT

He didn’t notice the stifling silence on Gu Yan’s end and yattered on, “Oh anyhow, I called you to talk about something else. Didn’t you say that there was an asterisk next to the signal source when you checked it? I didn’t revert to the original code; I just ran through many different scenarios. I figured it out.”

“What does it mean?”

The friend said, “The asterisk indicates that the perpetrator actually did a double disguise. So, including the two tiers on top of the actual source, that would be a three-tier signal source. But before you did, someone already unravelled one tier, which made the recapturing smoother.”

“You mean that… someone is helping us?” zueHCx

“Not necessarily. Maybe he doesn’t know what you’re doing, but wants that guy exposed just as much as you do. He’s not in tech though; he could only work a bit of basic stuff to low-key reduce the perp’s concealment.”

“How can you unravel one tier without being in tech?”

That friend cackled. “Because it’s not that complicated. Anyone with a bit of tech know-how can do it if it’s a shared signal network. The key is in the permissions level.

Shared signal network? FmQWEC

A bit of tech know-how?

High permissions?

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Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan exchanged a look, simultaneously thinking of someone.

A minute later, they stood once again before the admin office on the ground floor. X8 LTP

A frosted glass wall divided the office into two compartments. The inner room was comfortably lit with floor lamps, perfect for working overtime at night.

Both Fitz’s and the communal photon computers were lit up with the daily run log interface, each user action neatly documented in rows.

The reading cursor rested on one of the lines.

Miss Fitz was sitting in front of the communal photon computer, her long, curly hair cascading, one side tucked behind her ear to reveal showy and exquisite earrings. AQw973

It was an established fact that this tall, pretty, and cheerful girl had the widest connections in Southcross Law Firm.

Whether between lawyers and partners, lawyers and managers, or partners and managers, she would always exist in the in-between, as a link between the different parties.

She had her fingers in the most pies; she had an ardent passion for every little bit of information. She was tantamount to a senior figure to all the younger staff at Southcross.

She processed all the paperwork for interns, and applications for access permissions by both lawyers and interns would pass through her first. 0lTbZr

If there really was such a person, who could silently move around and help out within Southcross without surprising anyone or drawing too much attention…

It could only be her.

Edited by snoflakesun

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