Chapter2

With a muffled bang, the walnut wood door to the top executive conference room of the Chloe Group was roughly pushed open by two security guards.

I was semi-forcibly led indoors. Before I could even stand properly, a blinding red laser pointer beam shone into my face. On the huge circular screen at the front of the conference room, my name was projected, along with several overseas account transfer records marked "Top Secret."

"Distinguished board members, this is the irrefutable evidence I uncovered this morning!"

At the podium, Julian, his head still bandaged—his face swollen like a steamed bun thanks to my little "return gift" last night—waved his tablet triumphantly. He pointed at me maliciously: "This 'good husband' who married into the family is using the villa's intranet to sell our company's upcoming X-Core underlying source code to our arch-rival!"

The room erupted in uproar, and the eyes of the twenty-odd core executives who looked at me instantly filled with disdain.

My cold gaze swept over the clumsy fake emails and chat screenshots on the screen, and I found them utterly ridiculous.

"Smack!"

A pungent perfume scent wafted towards me, followed by a powerful slap that landed hard on my left cheek.

Chloe stood before me, her delicate face contorted slightly with rage. The diamond ring on her finger sliced across my lip, and the taste of blood instantly filled my mouth.

"You ungrateful wretch!" She pointed at my nose, her voice so shrill it almost pierced my eardrums. "I took pity on you and gave your sickly sister two million to save her life, and you actually turned around and accused me of stealing my company's secrets to exchange for money? What value do you have left in this life besides being a despicable thief?!"

I turned my head away and slowly wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth with my thumb.

There was no explanation, no anger. I didn't even look at Chloe, heading straight for the control panel in the conference room. Two executives tried to stop me, but one chilling glare from me made them take a half-step back.

"Thief?" I sneered and slammed my hands down on the mechanical keyboard of the control panel.

"Stop him! He's trying to destroy evidence!" Julian screamed as if his tail had been stepped on.

Too late. My fingers slammed down on the keyboard like a phantom, the crisp tapping sound like a countdown to death. Three seconds, just three seconds! The company's proudest firewall was like a thin sheet of water before me, torn to shreds!

"Julian, before you forged the email records, didn't you even understand the most basic Scavenger Protocol?"

I slammed down the Enter key.

The fabricated evidence on the big screen was instantly wiped clean, replaced by a dense, cold-glowing deep data chain and system logs!

"Open your eyes and see clearly." I turned around, and an immense sense of oppression instantly swept through the room, forcing the executives in the front row to press themselves tightly against the back of their chairs. "The initial creation timestamp of the X-Core master tape is June three years ago. Back then, that good-for-nothing Julian wasn't even qualified to have an access card at my former company!"

The screen suddenly switched to displaying the internal network anomaly logs from the previous night.

“And at 2 a.m. yesterday, someone’s IP forcibly copied the disguise layer that I had encrypted. That IP belongs to Julian.” I stared coldly at Julian, who was ashen-faced. “Should I also release the huge bribery records from your competitors’ accounts?”

A deathly silence fell over the conference room. Several technical directors gasped, their gazes towards Julian instantly turning into extreme suspicion.

“You…you hacked into the company system! This is illegal hacking!” Julian stammered as he backed away, then turned and grabbed Chloe’s arm tightly. “Chloe, he’s just making excuses! He fabricated that data on the spot!”

Faced with the irrefutable evidence, Chloe's face turned pale and then red. As the autocratic queen of this business empire, she didn't care about the truth at all; all she saw was me crushing her prized judgment with absolute power in front of all the senior executives.

"Sizzle—"

Chloe rushed forward and yanked the main power switch off the control panel. The screen went black instantly, plunging the entire conference room into a somber, oppressive darkness.

"Enough!" She stared at me intently, her eyes filled with a furious rage at her challenged desire for control. "As far as I'm concerned, if Julian says you stole it, then you stole it! And hacking into the company system in public is an even greater crime!"

She turned around and sternly issued the death sentence order to the CFO: "Freeze all related accounts under his name! Immediately cut off the funding to the Mount Sinai Hospital trust account, not a single cent is allowed to be transferred!"

"Chloe!" My pupils contracted sharply, and a crack finally appeared in my absolute rationality. "The timestamp is right here. You want to protect him?! If the account is shut down, Anna's surgery this afternoon will be canceled. That's her life!"

"So what?" Chloe took Julian's arm, her smile icy and devoid of any warmth. "A dog who betrays me must pay the price. As for whether your sister lives or dies, what does that have to do with me?"

Just then, my phone in my pocket started vibrating violently like a death knell.

The attending physician's name flashed on the screen.

A text message popped up: "Due to a broken cash flow, the specially approved pharmacy has refused to supply medication. Miss Anna has suddenly developed ventricular fibrillation, and her condition is deteriorating rapidly. Please come immediately!"

It felt as if an invisible, bloody hand was gripping my heart tightly.

Reason, dignity, and pride were utterly shattered in that instant.

I stared intently at the arrogant couple before me. Dignity? Compared to Anna's life, it wasn't even worth as much as trash on the ground.

My knees slowly bent, and with a "thud," one knee slammed heavily onto the cold, icy marble floor.

"I admit it." I gritted my teeth, swallowing the bloody words and the broken bones in my spine. "Unfreeze the account and transfer the money to the hospital. I promise, from now on, I will never do this again. I'm willing to be your dog ."

The entire room fell silent. No one dared to breathe.

Chloe looked down at me as if I were a stray dog with all four limbs broken, only able to wag its tail and beg for mercy.

"Have you had enough of your act?" She sneered contemptuously, the tip of her high heel kicking my knee away without mercy. "The way you are now is disgustingly despicable."

Having said that, she didn't even bother to give me another glance. Armed with Julian, surrounded by a group of executives who stood there silently in fear, she turned and left without a second thought. The conference room door slammed shut in front of me.

...

A blizzard has hit New York.

That night, I rushed into the ICU corridor of Mount Sinai Hospital like a madman , covered in snow, just as the piercing buzzing of the defibrillator in the resuscitation room had stopped.

The fluorescent lights in the corridor were blindingly white, and the red light above the emergency room door looked like a bleeding eye. A nurse pushed a cart full of medical waste out and shook her head at me.

I slowly slid down the cold wall and sat down.

I buried my head deep in my knees and wailed in anguish in the deathly silent corridor filled with the smell of disinfectant.

Scalding tears fell uncontrollably onto the back of my hand, but this was by no means a sign of weakness.

I slowly raised my head, my bloodshot eyes surging with a destructive madness and fierceness. The "self-destructing Trojan" I had forcibly implanted deep within their system was already on its countdown.

Chloe, Julian.

Do you think you can trample me under your feet just because you have power?

If anyone is to pay the price for Anna's suffering, I will bring utter ruin upon your entire family.