Lin Mo stood on the balcony of the Su Family Villa, the night breeze brushing against his somewhat weary face. The intelligence regarding Chen Hao’s secret acquisition of Su Group shares, which had surfaced at the end of the previous chapter, was still swirling in his mind, while the sting of President Su’s humiliation—"Don't call me Father, do you even deserve to?"—seemed to echo in his ears.
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the 'First Glimpse of Talent' mission. You have received one piece of entry-level business intelligence." The System Spirit’s voice suddenly rang in his mind with a hint of playfulness. "However, it looks like your situation is even worse than I imagined."
Lin Mo subconsciously glanced back at the brightly lit living room. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, he could see President Su chatting and laughing with several directors, while Su Yuqing sat to one side, her delicate profile appearing exceptionally cold and elegant in the light.
"System, what should I do?" Lin Mo asked in a low voice, his fingers unconsciously tracing the patterns on the balcony railing.
"Don't panic, host." The System Spirit’s voice suddenly turned serious. "According to my analysis, Su Logistics is facing a crisis, and this is your chance."
The next morning, at the Su Group headquarters conference room.
Lin Mo stood in the corner, ignored by everyone as usual. President Su was in a fit of rage, slamming a stack of documents heavily onto the conference table.
"Can someone tell me why our logistics system has suddenly collapsed?" His gaze swept over every executive present. "Three days! The clients have given us only three days to resolve this, or they will terminate the partnership!"
The conference room was deathly silent. Lin Mo noticed Su Yuqing’s furrowed brow; her slender fingers were swiping rapidly across her tablet, clearly searching for a solution.
"President Su, this might be a malicious attack from a competitor," the head of the logistics department said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Our system was suddenly hit by a flood of fake orders, and the servers couldn't handle the load."
"Useless! All of you are useless!" President Su slammed the table again. "I pay you a high salary to come here, and this is what I get? More 'mights' and 'maybes'?"
Lin Mo felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He quietly pulled it out; the screen displayed a notification from the system:
【Urgent Mission: Resolve the Su Logistics Crisis】
【Reward: Unlock 'Crisis Simulation' function】
【Hint: This is the perfect opportunity to prove yourself】
Lin Mo took a deep breath. Amidst the surprised gazes of everyone in the room, he stepped forward.
"President Su, I can solve this problem."
The room went so quiet you could hear a pin drop. President Su narrowed his eyes, looking up and down at the live-in son-in-law he had never bothered to take seriously.
"You?" He sneered. "A useless man who relies on my daughter to eat, daring to spout nonsense here?"
Lin Mo felt his cheeks burning, but he did not retreat. The System Spirit’s voice sounded in his ear: "Hold your ground, host. This is a crucial moment to establish your authority."
"Give me three days," Lin Mo said, his voice surprisingly calm. "If I cannot resolve the logistics crisis, I am willing to leave the Su family and never appear before you again."
President Su was stunned for a moment, then broke into a mocking smile. "Good, very good. Since you have such 'backbone,' I will give you this chance. However—" he dragged out the tone intentionally, "—if you fail, not only will you be kicked out of the Su family, but you must publicly admit in the media that you are a useless parasite."
A few muffled laughs broke out in the room. Lin Mo felt countless gazes filled with mockery or pity directed at him, but he simply nodded calmly.
"Agreed. But if I succeed, I hope President Su will give me a chance to prove myself."
President Su waved his hand dismissively. "We'll talk if you succeed. Meeting adjourned!"
As the crowd filed out of the conference room, only Su Yuqing remained. She walked up to Lin Mo, her eyes flickering with a complex light.
"Are you crazy?" she whispered. "Do you have any idea how complicated this problem is?"
Lin Mo looked at her delicate face so close to his own, catching the faint scent of her perfume, and suddenly felt a moment of daze.
"Trust me," he said softly. "I need your help."
Su Yuqing stared at him for a few seconds, then sighed. "What level of authorization do you need?"
"Full administrative access to the logistics system, and—" Lin Mo hesitated, "—your trust."
The corners of Su Yuqing’s mouth lifted slightly. "Don't push your luck. I can give you the access, but trust? We'll see after you've actually done it."
Inside Lin Mo’s temporary office, the curtains were drawn, and only the computer screen emitted a ghostly blue light. He sat with the data provided by the system spread out before him, his brow furrowed.
"System, is the analysis complete?"
"Ding!" The System Spirit’s voice turned excited. "Host, I’ve discovered something interesting. This logistics crisis wasn't an accident at all—Chen Hao is pulling the strings from behind the scenes!"
Lin Mo sat up straight abruptly. "Do you have proof?"
"Of course!" the System Spirit said triumphantly. "Look at this IP tracing result: all the fake orders originated from the Chen Group’s servers. And—" it paused for effect, "—I also found that Chen Hao has been in secret contact with the second uncle of the Su family."
Lin Mo’s pupils contracted. Su Zhiming, the second uncle, had always been dissatisfied with President Su being in power.
"So this is a conspiracy between an internal traitor and an external enemy..." Lin Mo muttered to himself.
"Exactly!" The System Spirit’s voice turned serious. "But right now, the priority is to solve the immediate crisis. Host, are you ready to unlock the 'Crisis Simulation' function?"
Lin Mo nodded. "Begin."
In an instant, he felt a wave of dizziness, and the scene before him changed. He felt as if he were in a virtual space, with countless data points and charts floating around him.
"Wow..." Lin Mo couldn't help but exclaim.
"Welcome to the Crisis Simulation space!" The System Spirit’s avatar appeared before him for the first time—a small sprite in a suit, winking at him mischievously.
"Here, we can simulate the effects of various solutions." The System Spirit waved a hand, and the data in the air began to reorganize rapidly. "Look, this is the first option..."
Over the next few hours, Lin Mo and the System Spirit tried dozens of solutions. Some seemed perfect at first but exposed fatal flaws during simulation; others looked unremarkable but showed amazing results after multiple iterations.
"This is it!" Lin Mo suddenly pointed at a plan, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
The System Spirit leaned in to look. "Hybrid cloud computing shunting combined with intelligent order filtering? Interesting... this plan has an 87% success rate, the highest so far."
Lin Mo took a deep breath. "Let's go with that."
On the afternoon of the third day, the Su Group conference room was packed once again. Unlike last time, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the door with curiosity or suspicion, waiting for the live-in son-in-law who had dared to make such a bet.
President Su sat at the head of the table with a cold smirk of impending victory. Beside him, Su Zhiming checked his phone from time to time, his expression slightly uneasy.
The door opened, and Lin Mo walked in steadily. Behind him followed Su Yuqing, her face showing undisguised surprise and a hint of... admiration?
"Time is up," President Su tapped the table. "Let’s see your 'results'."
Lin Mo didn't answer immediately; instead, he walked to the projector and plugged in a USB drive. The screen immediately displayed a real-time chart of the Su Logistics system’s operation.
"Please look, everyone," his voice was steady and powerful. "The logistics system has completely returned to normal operation. Over the past 24 hours, we handled 120% of our normal order volume without a single delay or error."
A wave of astonished whispers rippled through the room. President Su’s expression froze.
"Impossible!" Su Zhiming stood up abruptly. "Our technical team spent half a month and couldn't solve it—how could you possibly have done it in three days—"
He suddenly realized he had spoken too much and clamped his mouth shut. But it was too late; President Su’s sharp gaze turned toward him instantly.
Lin Mo seized the opportunity. "That's right, under normal circumstances, it would indeed take longer. But this crisis was not a technical failure—it was a human-engineered attack." He clicked the remote, and the screen switched to a set of IP tracking data.
"All the fake orders came from the same source: the Chen Group’s servers." Lin Mo stared straight at Su Zhiming. "Furthermore, the attack was timed exactly during the rotation of the Su technical team. That is quite the coincidence, wouldn't you say?"
Su Zhiming’s face turned deathly pale. President Su stood up, fire burning in his eyes.
"Lin Mo," Su Yuqing spoke up suddenly, her voice carrying an unprecedented warmth. "How did you do it?"
Everyone’s attention shifted back to Lin Mo. He smiled slightly, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
"I redesigned the order-filtering algorithm to identify and block fake orders in real-time, while shifting the system load to a hybrid cloud platform to increase our capacity for sudden traffic spikes." He paused. "Most importantly, I found the root cause of the problem instead of just treating the symptoms."
The conference room was silent. President Su’s expression shifted from shock to complex contemplation.
"You... you really did it," he finally admitted with difficulty. "You won the bet."
Lin Mo nodded, but he didn't show the smugness of a victor. His gaze moved past President Su and landed on the bright sunlight outside the window.
"President Su, this crisis is resolved, but the threat facing the Su Group is far from over," he said softly. "Chen Hao will not stop here."
President Su frowned. "You seem to know a lot."
"Because I have been paying attention," Lin Mo met his gaze, "not as a burden to the Su family, but as... someone who might be able to help."
Su Yuqing suddenly stepped to Lin Mo’s side, a move that surprised everyone.
"Father," her voice was clear and firm, "I think we should give Lin Mo a chance. At the very least, he has proven he is not the person we thought he was."
President Su’s gaze moved back and forth between his daughter and Lin Mo, and he finally let out a long sigh. "At next Monday’s board meeting, I want to see a complete defense plan." Before turning to leave, he looked at Lin Mo meaningfully. "Don't let me down."
The crowd gradually dispersed, with only Su Yuqing remaining by Lin Mo’s side.
"How did you do it?" she asked softly, her eyes shimmering with curiosity.
Lin Mo looked at her and suddenly laughed. "Maybe I’m a bit more capable than you imagined."
"Maybe," Su Yuqing lifted her chin slightly, though a faint, irrepressible smile played at the corners of her mouth. "But don't get too smug; I still have to see how you perform next week."
She turned and walked away, her heels clicking rhythmically on the floor. As Lin Mo watched her go, his phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated.
It was a text from Chen Hao: "It seems I underestimated you, Mr. Son-in-law. The game has only just begun."
Lin Mo gripped his phone, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. The System Spirit’s voice rang in his mind:
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the 'Win the Bet, Establish Authority' mission. Reward received: Entry-level access to business network. A new challenge is coming; are you ready?"
Outside the window, the sunset bathed the entire city in gold. Lin Mo stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, his silhouette stretched long. He knew this was only the beginning.