Rain beat against the car windows, and the wipers cut hurried arcs across the windshield. Qiyue sat in the back seat of the taxi, his fingers tapping restlessly against his knee. The timing of the hacker attack was too coincidental—it came on the very night he had won his wager and prepared to thoroughly audit the company's books.
"Driver, can you go any faster?" Qiyue urged for the third time.
The driver shrugged helplessly. "In this weather and traffic, I'd have to grow wings to go any faster."
Qiyue looked out the window, where the neon lights blurred into smudged blocks of color in the rain. His headache struck again, this time accompanied by a strong wave of nausea. He closed his eyes, trying to fight off the dizziness, only to see a string of numbers flashing in the dark: 192.168.5.23.
What was this? An IP address? Qiyue snapped his eyes open, and the numbers vanished. He quickly jotted the string down in his phone's notes, unsure if it would be of any use.
When the taxi finally stopped in front of the Tianyue Financial building, it was already 11:20 PM. Only a scattering of lights shone across the building, but the IT department on the 35th floor blazed with illumination. Limping, Qiyue rushed into the elevator, his soaked suit clinging to his body, his left leg heavy from the rain-soaked cast.
The moment the elevator doors opened, a scene of chaos met his eyes. Over a dozen IT employees crowded around monitors, some arguing loudly, others hammering frantically at keyboards. Zheng Xue stood by the entrance, her face as pale as paper.
"Director Qiyue!" She hurried over to meet him. "The hackers have encrypted all transaction records and client data, demanding 500 bitcoins within 48 hours, or they'll be permanently deleted."
"Have you notified the police?"
Zheng Xue shook her head. "Mr. Zheng said we can't call the police, or the news leaking will cause clients to withdraw their funds in a panic."
Qiyue swept his gaze around the room. "Where is Zheng Mingyuan?"
"In the conference room, discussing countermeasures with the IT Director."
Qiyue pushed open the conference room door. Zheng Mingyuan and IT Director Li Ming were speaking in low voices, and both immediately stopped talking. A hypocritical look of concern hung on Zheng Mingyuan's face. "Old Qiyue, your leg injury isn't healed yet, why did you have to come in person? Director Li and I are more than enough to handle this."
"The company has been hacked, how can the CEO be absent?" Qiyue pulled out a chair and sat down. "What's the situation?"
Li Ming pushed up his glasses, fine beads of sweat dotting his forehead. "At 9:18 PM, the firewall suddenly sounded an alarm—there was an external intrusion. Before we could even react, the core servers were locked down. The hackers used a new type of ransomware, and there is currently no decryption tool for it anywhere in the world."
"What are the tracing results?"
"The other party used multiple proxy hops, so we can't trace the source for now." Li Ming handed over a printed sheet. "This is the ransom note left by the hackers."
Qiyue glanced over it. The letter was brief, demanding 500 bitcoins (approximately 120 million RMB) transferred to a designated wallet, accompanied by a dark web link and a countdown: 41 hours and 23 minutes. At the very bottom, marked in red font, was a warning: *Don't try any tricks, we know what you've done.*
This sentence made Qiyue's heart tighten. What he had done? Did it refer to embezzling funds to invest in NT Technology, or something else the original host might have been involved in?
"The finance department has assessed the situation," Zheng Mingyuan sighed. "Even if we sell off some of our liquid assets, we can't scrape together 120 million in cash. Old Qiyue, I'm afraid we just have to bite the bullet and take the loss this time."
Qiyue stared at Zheng Mingyuan. The man looked worried on the surface, but his eyes darted around shiftily, and his fingers kept tapping on the table—he looked more like he was anticipating something.
"Never mind the money for a moment," Qiyue turned to Li Ming. "Are there backups of the locked data?"
"Yes, but..." Li Ming hesitated, stopping himself. "Last week, the primary backup system 'just happened' to be undergoing maintenance, and the secondary backup... was overwritten."
"Just happened?" Qiyue narrowed his eyes. "Who approved primary backup maintenance during business hours?"
The conference room suddenly fell silent. Zheng Mingyuan cleared his throat. "It was me. The system was old and urgently needed an upgrade, so I figured over the weekend..."
Qiyue's internal warning bells went off. It was all too coincidental: the backup system maintenance, the hacker attack, Zheng Mingyuan blocking police involvement... These pieces, when pieced together, pointed to a conclusion he was reluctant to believe: the mole was right in front of him.
"I'm going to check the server room," Qiyue suddenly stood up.
Zheng Mingyuan frowned. "What can you possibly do by going down there now? Director Li and his team have already checked it."
"Maybe I'll find something they missed." Not giving Zheng Mingyuan a chance to stop him, Qiyue grabbed his crutches and headed straight for the elevators.
The server room was located on the 18th floor of the building. The constant temperature and humidity made Qiyue shiver the moment he stepped inside. Six rows of black server racks stood neatly in lines, their warning lights blinking like stars. Five IT employees surrounded the master control console, snapping to attention when they saw Qiyue enter.
"Keep working, don't mind me," Qiyue waved for them to sit, then surveyed the server room. His headache struck again, this time much sharper. He braced himself against a cabinet to steady his body, and a flash of an image suddenly crossed his mind: behind the fifth cabinet in the third row, something was glowing.
Resisting the pain, Qiyue limped toward the third row of cabinets. Walking around to the back, he squatted down to inspect it closely. The back panel of the cabinet looked like it had been tampered with, two of the screws not fully tightened. He pulled out his keys and painstakingly unscrewed them.
"Director Qiyue, what are you looking for?" An IT employee followed him over.
Qiyue didn't answer. Once he removed the panel, an electronic device the size of a matchbox was revealed, stuck to the back of the server with a faint red light blinking. His heart hammered—this was a physically implanted hacking device!
"This is...?" The IT employee's eyes widened.
"A concealed physical backdoor." Qiyue carefully removed the device. "Notify security and thoroughly inspect all cabinets and equipment. The hackers likely implanted more than just this one."
Just then, the elevator doors opened again, and Su Muqing walked in briskly. She was still wearing that dark blue suit, carrying a small metal case.
"Director Qiyue, I hear your company is having some trouble?" She walked straight up to him, her gaze falling on the hacking device in his hand. "Ah, physical intrusion—a classic inside job."
"How did you get in here?" Qiyue frowned. "This is a restricted company area."
Su Muqing smiled. "Stellar Investment is now the second-largest shareholder; we have the right to know about major corporate risks. Besides..." She lowered her voice, "I happen to have some... specialties in cybersecurity."
Just as Qiyue was about to refuse, Zheng Xue hurried over. "Director Qiyue, all the board members are online waiting. They are demanding an immediate emergency meeting!"
Inside the conference room, the avatars of the twelve directors were displayed on the big screen. The debate had already reached a white-hot pitch, split mainly into two factions: one advocated paying the ransom, while the other believed they should make a public disclosure and seek government help.
"Qiyue," Chairman Zhou's face on the screen was gloomy. "You are the CEO, you bear full responsibility for this. If you can't resolve this properly, the board will have no choice but to reconsider your position."
Zheng Mingyuan nodded from the side. "Old Zhou is right. Old Qiyue, now is not the time to be stubborn. I suggest we form a crisis response team, with me taking the lead..."
"No need," Qiyue cut him off. "I have already found evidence of the hackers' physical intrusion, proving this is a premeditated inside job. Calling the police is the only choice."
The conference room instantly exploded. Zheng Mingyuan's expression changed drastically. "Are you out of your mind? Calling the police is equivalent to announcing to the entire market that our data has leaked! The stock price will plummet!"
"Compared to paying a ransom and still being exposed, voluntary disclosure at least preserves the company's credibility," Qiyue said coldly. "Unless... someone doesn't want the police involved in the investigation?"
Zheng Mingyuan slammed his hands on the table and stood up. "What do you mean?"
"Enough!" Chairman Zhou roared from the screen. "Qiyue, I'll give you 24 hours. If this isn't resolved by this time tomorrow, the board will initiate emergency procedures to replace you!" The video conference abruptly cut off.
The other directors logged off one by one, leaving only Qiyue, Zheng Mingyuan, and the silently observing Su Muqing.
"Old Qiyue, you're going to ruin the company," Zheng Mingyuan said through gritted teeth before slamming the door behind him.
The conference room grew quiet, save for the hum of the server chassis. Qiyue wearily massaged his temples, the headache becoming increasingly unbearable.
"You need help," Su Muqing spoke up suddenly. "And I happen to be able to provide it."
Qiyue looked up at her. "Why help me?"
"Two reasons." Su Muqing opened the metal case to reveal a peculiarly shaped laptop. "First, Stellar Investment's interests are tied to Tianyue Financial; and second..." She looked straight into Qiyue's eyes, "I'm very curious about you."
Qiyue missed a beat. "Curious about what?"
"A CEO whose investment success rate over the past three years was only 34%, who suddenly can accurately predict 42% of stock price fluctuations? Someone who has never shown any technical background, yet can find a physical intrusion device missed by a professional IT team within ten minutes?" Su Muqing tapped her fingers on the keyboard. "That's not normal, Director Qiyue."
Cold sweat broke out on Qiyue's back. This woman was far too sharp. "What exactly do you want?"
"For now, just to cooperate in resolving this crisis." Su Muqing booted up the computer, and a complex code interface popped up on the screen. "I'm confident I can crack this ransomware, but I need you to provide some... special assistance."
"What kind of assistance?"
Su Muqing didn't answer immediately, instead typing rapidly. A few minutes later, she pulled up a file. "These are all the transaction records of your personal account over the past half year. An 87.6% success rate, far surpassing Buffett. What's even stranger..." She zoomed in on a piece of data, "you always accurately buy in the day before information is released."
Qiyue's throat tightened. She had investigated him this thoroughly! "Just good luck."
"No, this isn't luck." Su Muqing shook her head. "Take NT Technology, for example—you knew three days in advance that they would announce a major partnership. Even top executives inside the company weren't necessarily clear on information like that." She leaned closer to Qiyue, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Do you know what I think? I think you can see the future."
The words hit Qiyue like a heavy hammer. How could she know? Was it a guess, or...
"Absurd," Qiyue forced a calm composure. "If I could see the future, the company wouldn't have fallen into this kind of crisis."
"Maybe you can see it, but not comprehensively?" Su Muqing looked thoughtful. "Or perhaps this ability has limitations... like, consuming your energy?" She suddenly reached out and touched Qiyue's temple. "Your headaches are getting more frequent, aren't they?"
Qiyue pulled back abruptly, shocked by her insight. "Who on earth are you?"
"Right now, just someone who wants to help you." Su Muqing withdrew her hand. "I can crack this virus, on two conditions: first, let me participate in the recovery process from start to finish; second, answer three questions for me honestly."
Qiyue weighed the pros and cons. Without Su Muqing's help, the company would likely fall into an abyss; but accepting her terms meant exposing his own secret.
"The first condition is fine. The second... depends on what the questions are."
"Reasonable." Su Muqing nodded, then turned back to the computer. "Shall we begin then? First, I need access to the encrypted servers."
For the next six hours, Qiyue watched as Su Muqing moved like a ghost through a maze of code. At times she furrowed her brow in thought, and at times she typed rapidly, the waterfall of cascading code on the screen making Qiyue dizzy. During this time, the IT team tried to intervene multiple times, but she politely declined them all.
At four in the morning, when most of the staff were already exhausted, Su Muqing gave a soft cry: "Found it!"
Qiyue leaned closer to the screen and saw a highlighted section of code. "This is...?"
"The virus's key-generation algorithm." Su Muqing's eyes lit up. "This ransomware is clever, but it has a flaw—the key is actually generated based on the characteristics of the encrypted files. If we can reverse this process..."
Her fingers danced across the keyboard, and the code on the screen shifted constantly. Qiyue's headache struck again, this time accompanied by severe dizziness. He steadied himself against the table as a snippet of code flashed before his eyes—just like the IP address he had seen earlier, this code appeared out of thin air in his mind.
"Wait," Qiyue pointed to a spot on the screen. "Try inserting an interrupt instruction right here."
Su Muqing looked at him in surprise, but followed his instruction. A few seconds later, a dialog box popped up on the system: *Decryption process initiated.*
"That's impossible..." Su Muqing muttered to herself. "This vulnerability point is extremely well-hidden; even professional hackers would have a hard time finding it. How did you...?" She stopped abruptly, her gaze sharpening. "You 'saw' it again, didn't you?"
Qiyue didn't answer. His vision began to blur, and his headache reached an unprecedented level of intensity. He staggered a few steps, collided with the wall, and slid down to the floor. The world spun wildly before plunging into total darkness.
"Director Qiyue! Director Qiyue!" Through a haze, he heard Zheng Xue's exclamation and felt someone support his shoulder. But the clearest thing was Su Muqing whispering in his ear: "First question: When did your ability start?"
Qiyue tried to resist, but his consciousness slipped away like shifting sand. Before losing consciousness entirely, he vaguely spat out a few words: "After the... car crash..."
When Qiyue woke up again, he found himself lying on a hospital bed. Sunlight streamed brightly through the window; it appeared to be noon the next day. Zheng Xue was dozing by the bedside, while Su Muqing sat near the window, intently reading a tablet.
"The data..." Qiyue rasped out.
Su Muqing looked up immediately. "Completely recovered. The virus has been cleared, and not a single file was lost." She walked over to the bed. "The doctor said you suffered a brief faint from overexhaustion and need 24 hours of rest."
Qiyue let out a breath, then remembered what happened before he passed out, looking at Su Muqing warily. "You asked me a question."
"And you answered." Su Muqing smiled. "Don't worry, for now, I'm the only one who knows this secret. But don't forget, you still owe me two questions."
Zheng Xue was jolted awake by the voices. Seeing that Qiyue was awake, she hurriedly pressed the call button for the doctor. "Director Qiyue, you scared us to death! The board has suspended the emergency meeting; Chairman Zhou said we'll discuss things further after you recover."
The doctor quickly arrived to perform an examination, confirming that Qiyue was merely overtired and recommending another day of observation. Once the doctor and Zheng Xue both left, Su Muqing locked the door and returned to the bedside.
"I have two pieces of news, one good and one bad. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"The bad one."
"There were fingerprints on that physical hacking device, but there's no match in the database." Su Muqing lowered her voice. "That means either the hacker's prints were never logged, or... the records in the database were artificially deleted."
Qiyue narrowed his eyes. "You suspect Zheng Mingyuan?"
"He's very suspicious, but there's no proof." Su Muqing shrugged. "The good news is, while recovering the data, I found something interesting." She unlocked the tablet, displaying an encrypted file. "This was recovered from the deleted sector—true accounts regarding the Star Harbor City project."
Qiyue carefully reviewed the documents, his expression turning gloomy. The accounts showed that funds from the Star Harbor City project were systematically transferred to several offshore accounts, and the approving signatures were none other than the joint authorization of Zheng Mingyuan and Lin Yaru!
Qiyue clenched his fists. "This is evidence of embezzlement. Enough to send them to prison."
"Theoretically, yes." Su Muqing nodded. "However, these documents might not be legally sufficient, and..." She paused briefly. "I tracked where these offshore accounts ultimately flowed. To a place you're very familiar with."
"Where?"
"Stellar Investment." Su Muqing's words struck like a thunderclap. "To be precise, a shadow subsidiary of Stellar Investment."
Countless possibilities flashed through Qiyue's mind. If Stellar Investment was involved in embezzlement, why was Su Muqing helping him? Was it an internal struggle, or was she plotting something else?
"Why tell me this?" Qiyue looked straight into her eyes. "You represent Stellar Investment, don't you?"
Su Muqing smiled. "That brings us to my second question: Do you believe supernatural abilities exist in this world?"
This unexpected question caught Qiyue off guard. He answered cautiously, "Things science cannot explain... perhaps they exist."
"A cautious answer." Su Muqing gave a light chuckle. "I'll save the last question for next time." She stood up to leave, pausing at the door. "Oh, right, the IP proxy for that hacking device ultimately led to one place: Zheng Mingyuan's private villa. Coincidentally, Lin Yaru's car was also caught on camera entering and leaving there last night."
A tightness gripped Qiyue's chest. Even though he felt no affection for this marriage, being told to his face about the betrayal of his wife and business partner still filled him with burning rage.
"Why help me?" Qiyue asked again.
Su Muqing turned back, the sunlight gilding her silhouette. "Because I believe you can see more than just stock fluctuations... Perhaps one day, you'll be able to see something even more important." She said meaningfully, "For instance, who really killed the original Qiyue."
The door clicked shut, leaving Qiyue sitting alone and shocked on the hospital bed. *The original Qiyue?* Did she know this body had a new occupant? Or did she mean something else?
Outside the window, a crow landed on a branch and let out a harsh caw. Qiyue suddenly realized he was caught in a web far more complex than he had imagined, and every mystery solved seemed to spawn even more questions.
What disturbed him the most was Su Muqing's parting remark—*The original Qiyue.* Could his transmigration not be a coincidence, and the original host's death not an accident? The thought chilled Qiyue to the bone, as if a pair of eyes in the darkness was watching his every move...