Qin Ningyi lingered in Huo Rou's office for a whole day. When she got off work, after Qin Ningyi took her home, he shamelessly continued to stay at Huo Rou's place.
"It's late, you should go," Huo Rou reminded him, standing in front of him.
An'an, standing nearby, yawned and waved goodbye to Qin Ningyi.
Qin Ningyi looked at Shenfeng, who was wagging its tail beside them. His eyes changed, and he looked at Huo Rou pitifully.
If he had a tail, he would have imitated it perfectly.
Huo Rou blushed at his gaze, her eyes darting away. "Go."
Qin Ningyi stood up, covered An'an's eyes, and kissed Huo Rou.
Huo Rou was a bit confused by his sudden kiss. It was brief, and he looked at her with that gaze. "Take me in, I can't go back."
An'an, standing nearby, pulled down Qin Ningyi's hand and looked at him with the same confused expression as Huo Rou.
Qin Ningyi coughed, trying his best to ignore the property information he had in more than one place in Yu Chang City. He said with some dejection, "I've asked my mom to go back and take care of Grandma. That woman is still living in the Qin family's house, it's filthy."
Huo Rou blinked. "Are you sleeping with her?"
Even though Qin Ningyi had anticipated many questions Huo Rou might ask, he hadn't expected her to ask so directly.
His expression turned serious. "No!"
Huo Rou's eyes twinkled with amusement. "Then how are you filthy?"
His heart! Is that enough?
Qin Ningyi looked at the teasing in her eyes and suddenly felt that Huo Rou could be quite formidable when she wanted to be.
He leaned closer to Huo Rou's ear and whispered, his breath hot, "That's right, only when I think of you do my thoughts become… dirty."
Visibly, Huo Rou's ears turned red.
Having won the round, Qin Ningyi stood up straight and looked at her with a half-smile.
"I'm living under the same roof as her. Aren't you worried about me?"
"Can't you be a little jealous..." Qin Ningyi's tone held a hint of anticipation, more like a suggestion.
Huo Rou indeed minded it. With Qin Ningyi saying so, she also found it unacceptable.
"You sleep with An'an," she said, then hurried back to her room. The door closed a bit too quickly, the sound striking Qin Ningyi's heart, and he chuckled softly.
An'an was very sleepy. Following Huo Rou's instructions, he welcomed the "homeless" big man, Qin Ningyi.
As Qin Ningyi followed An'an past Huo Rou's room, his heart felt "dirty" again...
Sleeping while hugging An'an brought Qin Ningyi back to the days when An'an first arrived. However, he seemed no longer content with that.
The next evening, Qin Ningyi and An'an collaborated to make a grand meal, which Huo Rou ate with great satisfaction. As she ate, Qin Ningyi continued to tell her about the subsequent events.
When talking to Huo Rou, Qin Ningyi completely abandoned the rule of "no talking while eating, no talking while sleeping."
Little Liu had been taken to the police station yesterday. Under the police's interrogation, he was timid and quickly confessed everything.
It turned out that Zhenmei Company knew that Qin's Group had partnered with Yuda Security. To destroy the information of Qin's Group's skincare line, they found Little Liu.
They provided Little Liu with methods to modify the code and leave backdoors. Little Liu's skills were not strong, and he only felt that the modifications were minor and not obvious, thinking the matter wouldn't be serious, so he agreed to take the money.
He held onto this sliver of hope until Huo Rou began the interrogation.
After listening, Huo Rou felt that something was strange.
"You also think something is wrong?" Qin Ningyi placed food in her bowl, smiled, and gently smoothed her brow.
Huo Rou couldn't quite explain it. Little Liu's actions, the cause and effect, were all clear and logical.
Qin Ningyi smiled. "Alright, leave this to me. You don't have to worry about it anymore."
An'an, sitting beside them, also chimed in with a smile, coaxing, "Mom, eat your food. Dad will handle any future troubles, and you just need to be happy!"
Huo Rou poked his chubby cheek, her eyes full of tenderness.
Unfortunately, while she let go of the matter, the matter did not let go of her, as if she had fallen into a maze.
The next morning, before she even left the house, she received a call from Ren Zhen.
"Boss, something's happened."
Seeing her expression grow increasingly solemn, Qin Ningyi became worried. He was waiting by the door and immediately asked as soon as Huo Rou hung up.
"What's wrong?"
Huo Rou put her phone in her pocket, grabbed An'an, and rushed out, somewhat anxious.
"I'll go to your company. Lend me your security center for a while."
"Ren Zhen called. Their computers have been infiltrated, and it seems to have happened through our channel. Now, several computers have been compromised and are being used as jumping-off points, and the attack is expanding."
Huo Rou looked ahead at the road with some concern. "It's possible that everyone we've cooperated with has become a 'zombie' machine. The faster we move, the sooner I can verify my guess."
Qin Ningyi drove faster. He first arrived at the company and then asked Xiao Konglin to take An'an to school.
Huo Rou returned to the security center, and everyone eagerly gathered to greet her.
Seeing their relaxed demeanor, Huo Rou's heart also calmed down a little. She exchanged pleasantries with them.
Since the last incident, Brother Yang had been temporarily stationed at Qin's Group. Seeing Huo Rou appear, he also stepped forward to greet her.
"Let me see the monitoring logs." Huo Rou walked to his seat and began to read.
The more she read, the more something felt wrong. Someone was indeed attacking them in a targeted manner, not by exploiting loopholes, but by discerning their defense mechanisms.
Her phone rang.
It was Xiao Yuda's call.
"Xiao Rou, do you have a computer nearby? Quickly check the situation at the head office. The computer system has problems, and they're finding it tricky to solve."
Huo Rou's expression was solemn. At that moment, the monitoring logs also showed an anomaly.
"Wait for me to check. Don't worry."
She hung up and called Ren Zhen, putting it on speakerphone.
"I'm in front of the computer now. Cooperate with me. The other party intends to use Yuda Security's system as a springboard. They are not targeting a single company; their goal is likely the entire national network system."
"I think your defense strategy is quite sound. How did they start from here?" Ren Zhen didn't quite understand.
When Brother Yang heard Huo Rou call out Ren Zhen's name, he was taken aback.
The reason Ren's family was difficult for network security companies to penetrate was because they had Ren Zhen.
He was once a renowned player in Capture the Flag competitions. If he hadn't returned to manage the family business, his achievements in computing might have been even greater.
Huo Rou's hands were on the keyboard. Hearing this, her eyes darkened. "One of the four elements of information security is 'people'."
She typed a few keys to bring up a window and said with a hint of mockery, "It's obvious that I've been subjected to human threat, and data leakage."
"Boss, the underlying architecture isn't good enough," Ren Zhen finally found an opportunity to mock her.
"You're so capable, you do it then," Huo Rou removed her hands from the keyboard.
At a time like this, she was still able to bicker with Ren Zhen.
Hearing the keyboard sounds stop on her end, Ren Zhen panicked. Such a widespread attack, such a large-scale operation—if he were capable, would he be calling Huo Rou?
"Boss, I was wrong. Hurry up! Otherwise, I won't have money to support A Xue."
"Heh." Huo Rou, having successfully won the verbal spar, placed her hands back on the keyboard and began typing rapidly.
Brother Yang, watching her hands move so fast they were almost a blur, widened his eyes, a belief in his heart beginning to crumble...