Chapter 31 Silent Battlefield
Huo Shen's order to "return the gift" was like throwing a huge rock into a calm lake, and the ripples quickly spread to the entire business battlefield.
Over the next few days, Su Yan could clearly sense the shift in the atmosphere around him. Huo Shen had become incredibly busy, spending increasingly longer hours in the office, and Assistant Zhou's frequency of coming in and out for reports had also increased significantly. Although they never discussed core matters in front of Su Yan, the tense feeling of impending disaster was pervasive.
Su Yan was even more silent and "well-behaved." He perfectly played the role of a frightened little pitiful child who could only cling tightly to Huo Shen. But beneath his drooping eyelashes, his mind was working rapidly.
He chewed over the known information over and over again: Assistant Zhou might have a problem, his brother Su Chen was running headfirst into the trap set by Huo Shen, and he himself was holding an empty USB drive and a warning, isolated and helpless.
He had to do something. He couldn't warn Su Chen; that would be self-destructive. Should he just tell Huo Shen that Assistant Zhou might be suspicious? With insufficient evidence and the USB drive's origin unexplained, the risk was too high.
His eyes once again fell on the metal pen holder he had used to hide the USB drive that day. A bold plan gradually took shape - he needed a computer that was not monitored, an opportunity to connect to the external network.
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An opportunity presented itself one afternoon. Huo Shen and Assistant Zhou were both in the conference room for a crucial remote meeting with the overseas team. Su Yan was asked to stay behind to sort some unimportant correspondence.
He waited patiently for half an hour, confirming the meeting wouldn't end anytime soon. Then, he picked up his water cup and headed for the tea room. Passing the administrative department's common office area, he glanced casually. Most of the staff were busy. The girl who had brought him the cake had her back to him, working on a thick stack of documents at the copy machine.
Right now.
Su Yan walked straight into the men's restroom without stopping. It was empty. He quickly checked the stalls, confirmed they were safe, and immediately slipped into the innermost one and locked it.
He didn't use his phone, as that would be too easy to track. His target was the public desktop computers the company issued to the administrative department for routine tasks, which had minimal permissions and were generally outside of core monitoring. He had previously observed that, to facilitate the temporary processing of urgent documents by various departments, the passwords for these computers were often a unified initial password or department abbreviation.
He pulled out a brand new, unregistered USB drive (another item he'd managed to get the housekeeper to buy) and took a deep breath. What he was going to do wasn't steal data, but transmit information.
He opened a most ordinary notepad file and quickly typed a line of words. He did not mention any specific names or events, but wrote in an extremely obscure, riddle-like sentence:
"A storm is coming. Old friends are no longer friends, and the target is no longer a target. Take care of yourself and don't fall into its trap."
He hoped Su Chen would see this letter. He didn't dare to be too explicit, so he could only use it to remind his brother that Assistant Zhou couldn't be trusted and that Huo Shen was prepared. The phrase "target is not a target" further implied that Huo Shen's true goal might not just be commercial competition.
He saved the file to a USB drive and then cleared all operation records on the computer. The whole process took no more than three minutes.
As he calmly returned to his seat, cup of water in hand, his heart still pounding. This was an extremely risky move, like testing the waters in a minefield. He had no idea if the letter could be delivered safely, and even if Su Chen saw it, he had no idea if he would understand its meaning.
But he had to try. This was the only thing he could do for Su Chen as a younger brother, in a desperate situation where he himself could not save himself.
Late that night, Su Yan was awakened by a muffled cough. He opened his eyes and found Huo Shen was gone. A faint light shone through the crack in the study door, along with intermittent, muffled coughs.
Huo Shen's body seemed to be overwhelmed by the high pressure and fatigue of the past few days and issued a warning.
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