Chapter 174 His Panic Attack

Meanwhile, Jingwei was oblivious to Xue Ning's thoughts. He was focused on beating this unnamed hacker at his own game!

It seemed that the hacker knew a few new tricks that Jingwei hadn't known about. This was the problem in any fast-paced industry - the moment you stop catching up, you'll get left behind!

Jingwei cursed again, gnashing as his attempts were yet again thwarted. He could sense the other party cackling behind the screen. If it was him a decade ago, he'd be doing so too!

But unfortunately, it seemed like he was a decade too late for this war. He was effectively bringing a knife to a gun fight - sure, the knife could do some damage, but only if he could even get close enough to bypass the firewalls set up by this person!

p Xue Ning watched him struggle and sighed.

"Not that I'm not touched by your dedication to get me a free vacuum cleaner, but if it's getting too hard, you can stop." Xue Ning said, placing her hands gingerly on his shoulder, feeling the warm heat of his body seep through the fabric of his shirt and into her skin. "I'm not going to dump you for not getting me one."

She wasn't even going to dump him for hacking into her account years ago! She might make him sleep on the floor though, just for fun, and just in case he thought that groveling would absolve him of all his sins.

"But I want -" Jingwei protested, his eyes still focused on the screen, determined to regain ground in this uphill battle. But the brief moment of distraction provided by Xue Ning's words was enough to make him lose his hold, and everyone watched in horror as Jingwei's laptop screen began blinking repeatedly.

"Oh my god!" Wei Yan screamed. "It's possessed!"

"The laptop is compromised! We need to destroy it immediately!" Ming Guang declared.

"Oh fuck," was Xue Ning's eloquent addition to their comments. She watched the blinking screen in trepidation. If the laptop started beeping, she was going to destroy it with a fire extinguisher.

Thankfully it did not start making sounds like a bomb ready to go off. Instead, they were greeted with a picture of a cat meme - the one of a smug cat sitting in front of a salad bowl, with the words 'YOU MAD?' captioned in front.

Well. Xue Ning's eyebrow twitched. She wasn't even the one hacking, but she felt angry at this taunting meme. Was the other hacker a troll? Surely Jingwei wouldn't be happy with this turn of events. She bent slightly to peer at his face, and was surprised at the beads of cold sweat already forming on his forehead.

Strange.

Even stranger was the unfamiliar look on his face. His eyes were darting side-to-side, as if it couldn't bear to focus on the cat meme. His mouth was open, and he was panting, but it seemed like his body wasn't getting enough oxygen.

Xue Ning put a gentle hand on his neck to feel his pulse, and Jingwei leapt from his chair as though her touch had burned him!

What was going on?

"Jingwei? Jingwei!" She called him repeatedly, beginning to worry. "Sit down! What's wrong?"

"I - I -" Jingwei stuttered, running an anxious hand through his hair, messing it up further. "I messed up. He knows. The laptop is compromised. I need to get rid of it now."

"Huh?" Xue Ning blinked in confusion. "What do you mean get rid of it? Do I chuck it down the rubbish chute?"

"No, that's not - that's not enough," Jingwei said, shaking his head, his fingers jittery as he paced around the table, his replies sounding more like ramblings of a mad man than any coherent reply to her.

"I'll need to wipe the data first - oh god, assuming that he hasn't gotten to it yet - what if he did and I'm too late -"

Xue Ning could not make heads or tails of his words, but she could guess that seeing that cat meme brought up memories for Jingwei, and it frightened him. Someone from his past perhaps? She couldn't be certain, because she was still missing a vital piece of the puzzle.

But even without all the pieces, she knew Jingwei well-enough to tell that he wasn't fine - in fact, she had never seen him like this, an anxious wreck of a man.

"Okay, okay, calm down." Xue Ning said, trying to reassure him as well as herself. Jingwei panicking in fear over this was unsettling to her, because the both of them had been through pretty dangerous circumstances before, but he had never looked like this! So unsure and afraid, as though a gunman would enter the door and shoot him with no warning.

She had to calm him down, just like how he managed to do it for her when she had a panic attack after dealing with Ya Ren.

Sadly, there was no time for a shower (sexy or otherwise), because she sensed that the issue was time-sensitive.

As such, she had to use other ways to calm him down. She pulled his tensed body into a firm hug and she helped tuck his head into the crook of her neck as she wrapped her arms around him. Jingwei made a confused sound, but she easily shushed him, slowly stroking his neck to calm him down.

Wei Yan and Ming Guang froze in awkward confusion. They could only stand there and watch Miss Li cuddle Mr Sun as though he was a 5 year old boy, and not a 25 year old man to calm him down. If Mr Sun was in his right mind, he would definitely have been ecstatic, yet embarrassed at this turn of events. He would have been shameless enough to take full advantage of it, using the chance to hold and kiss her.

Clearly he wasn't in his right mind, for his arms seemed to hover over Miss Li's back, as though he dared not touch her. His entire body was nearly vibrating, as though he was close to breaking down. Ming Guang and Wei Yan exchanged worried glances.

What was wrong with their Boss?

Xue Ning continued to murmur reassurances into his ear.

"Breathe in with me," she instructed quietly. "Breathe in… hold…yes…. Now let go… Breathe in again… hold…. Let go… You got this… yes…"

Under her gentle instructions and warm hold, the tension that wracked Jingwei's frame eventually began to bleed slowly away. He dropped his head on her shoulder and hugged her tighter in relief.

"We're so fucked, I'm sorry," Jingwei muttered bitterly in her ear. "This is all my fault."