Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
So Professor He had already been back and had not given up looking for her… Gu Nianzhi looked at the pictures accompanying He Zhichu’s reports and realized that he had really lost weight. He did not have a buff body to begin with and looked even lankier now. The circles below his eyes showed many days of inadequate sleep.
Tears welled up in Gu Nianzhi’s eyes. However, she bit her lower lip and held back her tears. She continued looking through reports on He Zhichu and noticed a trend. It seemed like He Zhichu drastically increased his publicity from the time she went missing. He did not merely appear on different media outlets—he even created a social media account.
Gu Nianzhi knew that He Zhichu was someone who wanted a lot of privacy. It was to the extent that it seemed like he wanted to hide himself from the public. He had such a strong influence in North America and South America in the past, but they did not even know about it. They had initially thought that he was merely a genius when it came to law.
She only got to know about if afterwards, that He Zhichu had a tremendously strong background, but he did not want many people to know about it. He would rather live among everyone just like a normal lecturer from a university. Why would someone like that be so public all of a sudden?
It didn’t take much for one to realize that…
Gu Nianzhi was touched. She was happy but was afraid at the same time. She was tempted a couple of times to send He Zhichu a private message, but looking at the laptop in front of her and remembering the cameras that had been set, Gu Nianzhi stopped herself. The time wasn’t right yet. She could not alert her enemies now. If Als found out about it… She did not want to go through what he was capable of again.
With a heavy heart, Gu Nianzhi closed the window to He Zhichu’s social media account and began searching for news about the Hua Xia Empire. Many articles in Mandarin came up. It had been a long time since Gu Nianzhi had seen Chinese words. She read with comfort.
Then, in a corner that was not eye catching, she saw an article that read, “…Our Military Supreme Council’s acting secretary, who is also the youngest major general in our country, led the team on a national visit to Cuba…” The picture accompanying the article was Huo Shaoheng alighting from the private jet, waving to the masses.
He was wearing a perfectly fitted major general military uniform. All the badges on him made him look even more outstanding. Standing on the plane, his perfect looks outshined the brilliantly blue sky behind him. Even though he was wearing shades and no one could see his eyes, Gu Nianzhi still smiled when she saw his picture. She could tell that he was in a good mood.
Seeing Huo Shaoheng’s handsome picture and turning to look at her own haggard reflection in the mirror, Gu Nianzhi felt moody. This should be his mission now, shouldn’t it? The time and date of the article told her that he should have been there within the last couple of days. So he has completed the previous mission already? Since he has completed the previous mission, did he try to call me?
Gu Nianzhi regretted throwing her phone away…
But if he did try to call me and realized that my phone was not “within the network of service,” he would definitely have a hunch that I had met with some mishap, wouldn’t he? Therefore, there is only one possibility—he did not call me.
If he was still on a mission and did not call, she would understand. This was one of the sacrifices Gu Nianzhi had to make when she decided to be together with Huo Shaoheng. She was already mentally prepared. However, it was clear that he had completed his mission and had already begun a new one. They had been apart for so many months, but he still did not call? That made her feel really awful.
What Gu Nianzhi did not know, was that Huo Shaoheng was actually still on the first mission. This visit was tying up the loose ends of that mission. However, all she felt was her heart sinking. She felt like crying and was extremely upset. She walked around in circles in the room and told herself repeatedly to calm down. She was all alone right now. No matter if she was angry or crying a river, she would still be alone. She only had herself to depend on.
With that, Gu Nianzhi raised her head and stopped her tears from flowing. When she calmed down, she thought about it rationally. Huo Shaoheng definitely did not know that she was in trouble. That was why he was able to still look happy in front of the media. Of course, with his position and experience, he wouldn’t show how he felt in order to confuse enemies. Whether he was the Major General of the Hua Xia Empire or the founder of the Special Forces, he couldn’t reveal his emotions. Had he done that, he would have been a failure.
However, Gu Nianzhi was still confused. If Huo Shaoheng did not know that she was in trouble, then why would people from the Special Forces come? She still remembered the two men whose throats were slit…
Gu Nianzhi did not want to contact He Zhichu because she was worried that she would alert the enemies unnecessarily. She had bigger plans in mind. She did not wish for the two men from the Special Forces to have died in vain. They had been there to save her. Gu Nianzhi bit her lip and thought, They definitely were. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been killed…
Looking at Huo Shaoheng one more time, Gu Nianzhi closed the tab and opened a page for hackers. She began to write her program. The traditional DOS was too much of a hassle to use. Gu Nianzhi did not have that much patience. She would need to refine her program after writing it in DOS in order for it to run as she would like.
…
Gu Nianzhi bore with her emotions and stayed up another night in order to refine her program, “Devourer.exe,” on the hacker’s website. The moment she turned on the program now, she would be able to bypass her enemy’s guard and also be able to disable the camera on their end. This meant she needn’t worry about where the cameras were hidden, as long as they lost contact with the enemy. Anyway, it would be too late when they found out about this after she had left.
When she was done writing the program, Gu Nianzhi slept through the day again. She only woke up when it was time for dinner. The lady boss with blonde hair and blue eyes was slightly worried about her. “Do you want to see a doctor? Why have you been sleeping so much recently?”
Gu Nianzhi smiled and said, “Well, that’s because I have nothing else to do. When I sleep, time passes faster. That way, I won’t feel like I am being locked up.”
The bartender’s ears turned red upon hearing that. Coughing, he turned away and continued having his dinner. The lady boss was more calm. She smiled and said, “How could it be? You have all the freedom you want! Tell me, where would you like to go? I’ll accompany you.”
Gu Nianzhi smiled at her and shook her head. “It’s okay, thank you. I’m not fully recovered yet. Actually, I read that one’s body recovers faster if one is sleeping. Therefore, I decided to sleep more in order to heal faster.”
“Oh yes. That’s correct. Our bodies heal when we are asleep.” The lady boss was clearly relieved. She even handed Gu Nianzhi a bowl of stew. Gu Nianzhi took a sip and found the taste to be extremely familiar. She put it down.
“You don’t like this?” The lady boss raised her eyebrows. “It tastes decent, doesn’t it?”
“I do, but I’m already full.” Gu Nianzhi patted her tummy. “My injury hasn’t fully recovered yet. Therefore, my appetite isn’t that great.”
The lady boss glanced at her arm and saw that it was still bandaged. Gu Nianzhi also looked like she had difficulty when she was lifting things. She looked off balance when she walked, too. She did not forget how Gu Nianzhi’s arm was covered in blood when she saw her that day. What a waste. Such perfect skin. With a wound that deep, she’ll have to have skin grafts in order to hide it. “Alright. Then you rest early. Get well soon!” The lady boss sounded sincere.
Gu Nianzhi wondered to herself but did not reveal any emotions, because it wasn’t time to trash things yet. After she was done washing up, Gu Nianzhi returned to her small room and locked the door. She turned the laptop on and opened her program. With that, she was in control of the web.
Gu Nianzhi went online to roam about again and downloaded the chatting app. Even though this laptop had a password, decoding it was child’s play to Gu Nianzhi. Gu Nianzhi did not want to hack into their system on the first try, simply because it was unethical to do so. However, after knowing that lady boss, the entire bar, and Als were on the same side of the bed, she couldn’t care less anymore.
Since you guys want to watch me, I’ll just retaliate accordingly.
…
When it was midnight, Gu Nianzhi got up energetically and sat in front of the laptop. “Gu Nianzhi! Work hard! Let’s go!” When she opened the program, her “Devourer.exe” was working well. After one day of running, it had already successfully entered the enemy’s web system.
She searched for the CCTV view and saw that they were seeing a wallpaper that Gu Nianzhi had created. In order to make it look realistic, Gu Nianzhi even used Macro to create a desktop picture and allowed some pop ups and games to be accessed. However, Gu Nianzhi had already bypassed all their security systems and entered their system through a back door.
She was nervous but excited, because this wasn’t a normal website. This was Germany’s internal network for their Federal Intelligence Agency!
