Chapter 40 – The System Fight
The signal wasn't a warning; it was a detonation.
Red code burst violently across her vision, the digital assault instantly returning.
[WARNING: External control incoming. Final attack protocol initiated.]
"No—no—please—" Xiao Xi gasped, clutching her head, the pain sharp and immediate.
Gu Yanzhou immediately sprang into action, holding her shoulders, forcing her to focus on his face.
"Xiao Xi, look at me.
Stay with me! Don't look away!"
Her vision blurred, flickering frantically between his terrified, resolute face and the chaos of the internal system display.
The hacker's voice—Zhou Meilin's voice, now distorted and triumphant—crackled loudly through the nearby room speaker on the medical monitor.
Did you really think he could save you, little actress?
Gu Yanzhou stiffened, realizing the hacker was actively monitoring the room.
The distorted voice continued, cold and mocking:
You stole luck that wasn't yours.
You altered the story.
You were supposed to disappear, and now I will ensure it.
Xiao Xi's cry of pain and despair ripped through the room.
"STOP!"
Gu Yanzhou grabbed the laptop his assistant had left on the table and slammed it open, instantly connecting it to the hospital WiFi, the sheer audacity of the move a declaration of war.
"I'm here," he said fiercely, his voice a shield against the digital attack.
"I'm not leaving you.
You want a fight? You have one."
He pulled her completely into his arms, shielding her physically as he began typing, lines of counter-code—brute force, desperate, corporate defense—flashing across the screen in a desperate attempt to overwhelm the hacker's complex digital attack.
The hacker laughed darkly through the speaker.
You think you can fight me with standard code, President Gu? This world isn't yours. You were meant to die in this story.
And she? She was meant to stay dead.
I am fixing your reality.
Xiao Xi went utterly still in his arms.
The truth, now voiced by the enemy, was undeniable.
Gu Yanzhou froze for a second, the revelation hitting him with the force of a physical blow.
The hacker knew the ultimate secret.
Xiao Xi whispered, her voice trembling, broken: "…They know I don't belong here. They know I changed everything."
The hacker whispered one final, chilling line through the speakers, directly into the terror of the room:
And I will erase you both from this world.
Gu Yanzhou looked down at Xiao Xi—terrified, shaking, fading in and out of consciousness—and something inside him snapped.
He didn't look at his mother, the company, or the consequences.
He turned to the laptop, his eyes blazing with a dangerous, lethal light.
And with a voice quiet but absolutely unbreakable, he spoke directly to the digital enemy:
"Then I'll burn your whole world down before you touch her again."