Chapter 22 – The Hacker's Shadow
Sleep offered no respite.
That night, her exhaustion dragged her into a disturbing, hyper-realistic dreamscape filled with abstract numbers—streams of binary code collapsing into an overwhelming, neon-red message that echoed in the silence:
You've stolen enough luck.
The price has been calculated.
Time to pay it back.
She woke in a cold sweat, her breath hitching in her chest.
The dream felt less like a nightmare and more like a direct download from the digital entity attacking her.
"System?" she whispered into the darkness of the hotel room, her voice tight with fear.
The only reply was a fractured internal display:
[Error. Unauthorized access continues. Host data integrity at 40%. Source — unknown.]
Before she could form a counter-plan, her phone buzzed—a generic chime for a new text message.
The ID was listed as Unknown Sender.
How does it feel, Miss Xiao Xi, to live on borrowed fortune? Enjoy the temporary status.
The explicit, targeted knowledge confirmed it: this was the hacker, taunting her.
Panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she forced herself into analytical mode.
Lin Yueran.
It had to be her.
Lin was the most dedicated antagonist, the one with the most to lose.
But when Xiao Xi discreetly forwarded the message to Gu Yanzhou's assistant to trace the origin, the resulting report was shocking.
The IP address didn't lead to Lin Yueran's private residence or agency.
It led elsewhere—somewhere shielded, deep within the Gu Corporation's own secure, private network.
Her chest tightened with cold dread. Someone inside Gu Yanzhou's unassailable fortress was targeting her System.
At breakfast the next morning, held in a private suite, Gu Yanzhou noticed the dark, heavy circles under her eyes.
He had been quietly reviewing complex financial reports, but his gaze was immediately drawn to her weary face.
"You didn't sleep, Xiao Xi." It wasn't a question; it was a statement of fact.
She stirred her coffee slowly, carefully avoiding his gaze. "Just… nightmares. The pressures of fame, you know."
He put down his tablet, the click of the metal against the glass table sharp and authoritative.
He studied her for a moment, his keen gaze searching for the root of her distress.
"I'm not interested in your professional performance right now.
If someone's bothering you—harassing you, threatening you—I want to know the details. Immediately."
Her fingers tightened around the ceramic mug until her knuckles were white.
He had just offered her the ultimate defense—the resources of his vast, untouchable empire.
But could she trust him with the truth?
She met his eyes, a desperate sincerity in her expression.
"Would you believe me, Mr. Gu, if I said it wasn't human? That it's code, trying to destroy me?"
A flicker of recognition, a momentary comprehension of the impossible, passed across his face.
He remembered her strange 'rehearsal lines' during their dinner, the flashes of impossible light only she seemed to see. He had faced his own impossible rebirth.
He smiled faintly, a challenging, almost protective light in his eyes. "Try me, Xiao Xi. I'm an expert in dealing with non-human threats that attempt to crash my system."
The answer wasn't acceptance, but an invitation to disclose.
Yet, the memory of the System's warning—Disclosure will result in system collapse—kept her silent.
She was trapped between the immediate threat of the hacker and the fatal risk of telling the truth to the man who was becoming her destiny.