Lu Mian walked back toward the Lu residence with a spring in her step. Joy glimmered in her eyes, and the quiet confidence radiating from her made heads turn on the street.
She was already strikingly beautiful, but happiness lent her an ethereal glow. A few men actually stopped to stare as she passed.
Lu Mian ignored the weird looks. She was either too used to them or really didn't care. Right now, her mind held only one name - Huo Shen.
In her past life, she knew of the Huo family in the capital. It was hard not to - they were THE top family in the capital, pillars of power and prestige.
Was this Huo Shen from the same family? She frowned a bit. Probably not. Wasn't the heir to the Huo family called Huo Yichen?
He was the ultimate dream bachelor in everyone's eyes, and his wedding with the Gu family girl broke so many hearts and dominated the headlines for weeks.
She vividly remembered because her team (under Aegis), had a very different reaction to the whole saga. There was a lot of eye-rolls and 'yeah right' especially from Viper.
When questioned, she received only vague responses. Apparently, they had worked under him when Huo Yichen was a Major and found his leadership and skills really lacking.
So who is this Huo Shen? And, was he really trustworthy?
She trusted Teacher Zhao, so the person he recommended wouldn't be too bad. And, she was also really wary and wouldn't blindly trust just anyone.
Looks like I need to do some research. She needed to know if the person she trusted and would owe a favor to was reliable.
Making up her mind, Lu Mian made her way to the internet cafe. She picked a corner booth, secluded and the screen protected from prying eyes and began to dig.
She started with the information teacher Zhao had given her. It wasn't much to go on. But for someone of her caliber, it was more than enough.
Within minutes, she was engrossed. She was wrong! This person indeed belonged to the Huo family in the capital - and seemed to be their most powerful member.
She accessed his publicly available documents and quickly learnt what every person in the capital already knew: that he used to be a Major General and the CEO of Huo Corporation. And now, he was the ignored heir - raising his son old by himself.
But, being the top military intelligence meant she was trained to dig deeper - to see the gaps in the information no one could.
She relentlessly dove in to know more and paused. "This is interesting" she muttered.
Every official record past a certain year was heavily encrypted. Not ready to give up, she launched a silent probe.
The firewall that responded was not just secure, it was intelligent. When she slipped a feeler code through, the system bounced it back in a counter-trace so sharp her own console flared red.
"Reverse-snare protocol," she muttered, fingers flying. She rerouted through data lake and, killed the trace, relaxing a bit only when the alarms died.
Whoever had built that security net was a genius! Military-grade cryptography fused with quantum-salt encoding. She didn't know such advanced technology already existed at this time. Her respect grew by the second.
It took her a few minutes to get back on track and reach the redacted files. She skimmed what little unredacted data remained. Service records. Commendations. A dismissal report so blacked out it was practically a confession of importance.
This was enough. She knew what she wanted to know - that Huo Shen was indeed reliable and trustworthy.
A man who had lead missions as a Major General and still had such tight encryption on his data wasn't ordinary.
He clearly was upright and had contributed to his country. Based on how heavily his files were redacted, his demotion was more because of military politics than anything else.
Having been in the Military herself, Lu Mian knew just how bad things could get. Had it not been for Aegis, she would've been at the receiving end of many reprimands.
Subconsciously, her respect for Huo Shen grew. This was a man who had strong values and stood by them. He unflinchingly served his country - and, when things became hard, he chose to stand by his values.
Maybe a lesser man used to the power and title would've caved - the kind of social pressure and emotional challenge that came with the hardship was grotesque.
Yet, Huo Shen seems to do it with nonchalance and grace. Lu Mian decisively clicked away from the file. This man deserved her respect - his information was not to be accessed to assuage her curiosity.
In fact, before leaving, Lu Mian wove in an extra layer of protection around his files. She wrote three short lines of code, weaving an additional encryption lattice around his records.
Anyone attempting entry again would meet a mirror maze of false keys and dead ends.
"There," she murmured. "Now no one can touch you." No person on earth would now be able to access it without the right codes.
Deciding not to pry into Huo Shen's life anymore, Lu Mian hid her tracks and left quietly. Why didn't she meet him in her last life? She mused off-handedly as she snuck back into the Lu family.
Maybe she would know more once she went to the capital. She filed that question away in a corner of her mind to explore later and quickly fell asleep.
Unfortunately, because of her actions, not everyone had the luxury of sleep.
"You're saying someone hacked in, overrode our systems - the same unbreachable systems boss helped us build but strengthened the files instead of accessing them?" Falcon asked sceptically.
"I am not lying" wailed Lin Ke miserably. He had set up an alarm to notify them whenever someone tried to access their boss's files.
From the moment they logged on, he had been on the track of that hacker - but they were devilishly fast. And then vanished abruptly, leaving an encryption that was stronger than the Forbidden City.
The craziest part was that they did not access the files they were searching for. They looked at the redacted versions, and then changed their mind.
"Does it mean they found what they were looking for in the redacted version? So the real ones didn't make sense?" mused Rhino.
"Doesn't explain why they strengthened protection though. And get this - I have never seen a harder code. We can rest assured the Black Lotus creeps won't get into this!" said Lin Ke smugly.
The team looked at each other. "Who's telling the boss?" they all asked at the same time.
"It will be me" huffed Lin Ke.
As one, his brothers turned to look at him, slightly suspicious. Usually, in matters like this Lin Ke couldn't get out fast enough.
"I have to get out of the base anyway. So I might as well just tell him." he murmured, flushing under the scrutiny.
"And why are you heading out?" asked Viper unconvinced. They knew Lin Ke since the time he joined. Lin ke didn't get along with his family - there was a lot of drama there and he disliked talking about it.
And, by reason, he usually refuses to leave the base so his family doesn't find out. It was really fishy that Lin Ke was volunteering for a hard task and that too because he just happened to be headed out of the base.
"Wow. your trust is touching" he said sarcastically. Seeing it didn't deter his brothers, he finally decided to tell them the truth.
"Boss Qin called. My goddess is in trouble. I am going to help her." he said rapidly.
"Which goddess? The internet uncle?"
"Why didn't you report it?"
"What trouble? Are you sure you are being deceived?"
And so Lin Ke once again told the entire story of how he met a fierce and beautiful school student when he was on hostage surveillance.
"The family really is something - I even offered to help with her meals. She is so smart." he recalled. "But, Boss Qin made contact just before the alarm blared. He said my goddess is coming to the capital to change some guardianship. Apparently, she's willing to be the ward of someone she's never even met - just to get away from her vampire family.
Boss Qin is worried it would be someone unreliable and wanted me to step in and help. And I want to" he finished lamely.
There was a long moment of silence. Lin Ke fidgeted. His idea sounded outlandish even to him. He wouldn't be surprised if his friends looked down on it.
But they weren't there. They hadn't seen her. He had witnessed her fire, her joy in life and her determination to live well. Having a family that did not value him, he knew first hand how deep the scar would be when the people closest to you didn't care.
Maybe that's why Lin Ke wanted to help - he saw a little bit of himself in her. Or, it could be that he knew how evil the world was and knew Boss Qin was right - a beautiful girl who has never seen the world could easily fall prey to awful men.
"He didn't want someone unreliable so he asked you?" Viper's mind was scrambled. "Just how bad is this original guy?"
"Would you be raising her to be your wife?" Rhino asked, his interest for melons peaked.
"Don't be silly!" rejected Lin Ke furiously. "As a guardian I will perform my duties well. I will say goodbye to my crush and be the responsible brother" he defended himself. None of his friends spoke again.
"So I will go by myself and when I am there I can also contact Boss and.." began Lin Ke.
"Like hell you will!" interjected Falcon. Lin Ke stiffened, a bit hurt.
"Yeah, we are coming along. This is a momentous occasion." chimed in Rhino.
"Do you think our little sister will like sweets?" wondered Viper, already planning for the meeting.
"That's my sister, not yours!" yelled Lin Ke furiously, his heart feeling suddenly light and his eyes suspiciously watery. This was true brotherhood. So what if his family didn't care, he had true brothers who…
"100 bucks says she rejects him" called viper.
"I bet 500 - she rejects him even after realizing the original guy is a looser' called Rhino.
"You backstabbers!" yelled Lin Ke, his warm feeling evaporating. What brotherhood. This was simply a melon eating committee.
"Oh, and you'll still report to boss" announced Falcon. "Both about the breach and about the guardianship." and sauntered away to book their tickets.
This was going to be interesting.