Feng Xueling closed the door behind her and leaned against it for a moment, exhaling softly. What a day.
School in the morning. Then hacking the shadowy figures who had tried to make her video viral. The meeting with Chairman Lin, who had left practically weeping with gratitude. The Feng family encounter, and worst of all — the cloying words of Gu Mocheng.
Her patience with all of them was stretched taut. The finals — and the freedom that would follow once she stepped out of the Feng household forever — could not come fast enough.
Shaking off the residue of irritation, Xueling crossed the room, sat at her desk, and flipped open her laptop. The glow of the screen washed over her face, a sharp counterpoint to the dim quiet of her room. Here, she could breathe. Here, she could be herself.
She started with the International Olympiad platform. Rows of advanced math problems scrolled across the screen — differential equations, number theory, complex combinatorics. Her mind snapped into focus, every pattern clicking into place like clockwork. An hour later, her solutions were submitted. A notification pinged: All Correct. Record Time.
Xueling barely paused. With the Olympiad complete, she switched over to the encrypted channel with Helios Tech. Tonight's project: upgrading the Cybershield she had built for them in her previous contract.
This wasn't a simple patch. The upgrade required transforming the passive defense system into an active intrusion countermeasure framework — one that would not only detect breaches in real time, but also deploy automated retaliation.
If hostile actors slipped through Helios's firewall, the system would launch reverse penetration scripts, planting trackers in their servers and siphoning metadata as proof of origin. At the same time, a dynamic honeypot environment would deploy — mimicking live systems to distract attackers while gathering intelligence.
It was elegant, dangerous, and cutting-edge. Right up her street.
Her eyes flicked across lines of code as her brain mapped the architecture in layers: latency reduction to ensure real-time response, packet inspection optimization to prevent false positives, multithreaded processing for simultaneous defense and attack. Her fingers never stopped moving, the keyboard clicks a relentless rhythm.
A soft smile curved her lips. In my past life, I built systems like these for others — tools that made men like Gu Mocheng shine. This time, the brilliance will remain mine alone.
She stretched her fingers once, then bent over the laptop again, diving deeper into the code.
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Elsewhere in Jinhai
"He did what?!" Chen Yutian tipped his chair and sent it clattering against the table, the sound swallowed by the high-ceilinged backroom. Yu Mingxu stood awkwardly beside him, face pale as he recounted the report: Mo Shenyu had wrecked the Chen family Casino on the gaming floor itself.
The Red Crane was one of the Chen Family's key organizations. The black money they made, the money from their associations with the underworld, all of it was laundered through this casino. It was headed by Chen Daxu, the second son of the second branch of the Chen family; Chen Yutian's younger brother and trusted aide. Whatever money Chen Daxu laundered there were funneled right back into the business Chen Yutian managed. It was because of the seamless flow of black money to white that they had been able to rival the Mo family's power in the capital. With this money giving tree in shambles, their businesses empire is now on shaky ground.
"Does Grandpa know?" Chen Yutian asked, and right on cue, his fruit phone lit up again. It was the old master. Knowing he couldn't avoid it, Chen Yutian slowly answered the call. "Hello"
"You unfilial bastard! How dare you provoke the Mo family's heir"
Old master Chen's voice cracked like a whip, thin with fury. "Ignorant idiot! Not only did you touch Mo Shenyu's taboo, but you also gained nothing from it! Useless! I better see you back in the capital in the next two days, else don't blame me if you lose your position as the Chen family's heir."
Chen Guangsheng hung up the phone, livid that his chosen grandson had jeopardized many years of hardwork of the Chen family.
"calm down, Master" said butler Zhu, handing the old master freshly brewed Dong' po. "Don't mess up your health over it"
"You are right" said old master Chen, quietly sipping the tea handed to him. It's not worth getting angry over this unfilial grandson who doesn't know to bide his time"
The old master lapsed into deep silence. Chen Yutian had grown up at his knee. It was he who had personally groomed Chen Yutian to be the Chen family's heir. Although he was fond of him, the Chen family's interests always came first. It was very clear that he should now not hedge all his bets only on this Chen Yutian. The Chen family might be lost.
"Contact Da Lang" he told the Butler. "Tell him to bring that illegitimate son of his to meet me soon"
The eldest branch of the Chen family Chen Da Lang only had two daughters Chen luxia and Chen xiawan. Chen Dalang was an utter waserel and he spent his days whoring around gambling. He had sired many illegitimate children, one of whom was a reasonably promising son. Old Master Chen, being the snobbish patriarch he was, had naturally not thought of passing on the family powers to any of them. Daughters, and illegitimate kids did not make the cut. Or so he had thought until now. Chen Yutian's misstep made him more wary. Maybe he should give that illegitimate son a chance.
On this side
Chen Yutian stood frozen in silence. Grandpa Chen's dressing down and his immediate order to bring him back to the capital meant that he had colossolay messed up.
"Sir, what do we do?" his assistant Yu Mingxu asked tentatively. He had definitely heard Old Master Chen's angry spiel. "Do we go back like the Old Master said?"
Chen Yutian did not reply right away. He knew that what awaited him was no royal welcome. At best, he would be punished with the family law and be denied his young master privileges for a few weeks. Given how angry the old master was, it was very unlikely he would get the 'best' outcome. At worst…. No, that cannot happen!
"We cannot go back like this" He spit out. "We have to fix it!"
Chen Yutian walked over to the sofa and sat down head down, with his palms raking his hair. Originally, the Chen family had not been in Mo Shenyu's radar at all. The incident a year back was all because that bastard Mo Shenyu had too many enemies. Their Chen family had been secretly celebrating the hit Mo Shenyu took and had tacitly agreed to wait till the Mo family fought its battles. If the mysterious enemies succeeded in killing Mo Shenyu, wouldn't they have won just lying down?
But after a whole year of waiting, this plan had seemed too slow for Chen Yutian. He needed to defeat Mo Shenyu and he needed to do it now, when he was still not back to 100%. So Chen Yutian had secretly followed the clues of that unknown savior and come here to Jinhai, even masquerading as a teacher in No.1 High School, hoping to find some leverage in the game.
After a few weeks of being here, even with that mystery girl in the alley video, it was not like he had concrete proof. Not for one minute did he think that Mo Shenyu would declare an open warning to his family because of a mere suspicion. Is so important to Mo Shenyu?
Chen Yutian's eyes hardened to flints. "No we cannot go back" he said, sitting up straight with resolve. "If anything, this only proves me right. This girl is Mo Shenyu's weakness. We have to grasp it and if we do, not only will we grandpa hand me the Chen family on a platter, but the Mo family would be vulnerable too. It will be the perfect coup"
"Young Master, what are you saying? Are you sure…"
"Shut up" Chen Yutian barked fiercely. "This is what we will do".