Chapter 56
The milk "dinged" in the microwave, steaming up and carrying a sweet, milky aroma. Shi Ye carried the warm cup back to the living room and found Lin Xiaoyu already asleep, her head bobbing against the sofa armrest, phone in hand. A tired but satisfied smile, like the aftermath of an online battle, lingered on her lips. Her phone screen was still lit, displaying a post that had been flooded with her "civilized debate."
Shi Ye sighed softly, placed the milk on the coffee table, and took a blanket from the bedroom to cover Lin Xiaoyu. Lin Xiaoyu grumbled, snuggled closer to the blanket, and fell into a deeper sleep.
The only sounds in the living room were the low background noise of a melodramatic TV show playing on the television and the occasional sound of a car passing by outside the window. Shi Ye sat on the carpet next to Lin Xiaoyu, taking small sips of her milk. The warm liquid slid down her throat, slightly soothing her tense nerves, but the chaotic thoughts in her mind were like the milk skin at the bottom of the cup, impossible to stir up or swallow.
Qi Jin said, "Tomorrow, everything will return to normal."
But is that really true?
Will Qin Ming's mad dog-like retaliation be so easily dealt with? Public opinion may be suppressed, hacker attacks may be prevented, and suspicious persons may be driven away, but will the hidden, reckless malice just stop there?
And what the system said about "external malicious attacks resonating with unstable data in the worldline"... Could Qin Ming's actions have inadvertently become a catalyst for accelerating the collapse of this world? Could that 93% forced correlation progress jump directly to 100% at some unexpected moment due to some unforeseen event?
And then what? What will happen to her? What will happen to Qi Jin? What will happen to the world?
Countless questions swirled in her mind, unable to find a way out. She subconsciously raised her hand and grasped the safety buckle and moon necklace around her neck. The warm jade and cool metal pressed together like two small, stubborn anchors, trying to pull her back from her chaotic thoughts.
She recalled Qi Jin's calm and resolute tone in the voice message, Lin Xiaoyu's honest and simple act of staying up all night to "argue" with others for Qi Jin, and the kind smile on Grandpa Qi's face when he gave her the safety amulet... These real and warm fragments, like scattered sparks in the darkness, were faint but enough to make her feel a touch of warmth in the cold fear.
She is not alone.
Qi Jin is not fighting alone.
She could no longer simply wait passively in fear.
But what can she do? She's a depressed patient who's "emotionally numb" (and getting better?), a transmigrator bound to a system, burdened with a bizarre mission, and barely able to protect herself, a "young lady of the Shi family" who knows nothing about business, hacking, or propaganda... What can she do?
Go and shield Qi Jin from a knife? She probably wouldn't even be able to see which direction the knife was coming from.
Go help Qi Jin deal with the company crisis? She didn't even know how many branches Qi's Group had.
Go online and argue with Lin Xiaoyu? She'd probably be choked to death by the sheer force of the online trolls before she could even finish a sentence.
The more Shi Ye thought about it, the more powerless she felt, and a familiar, deep sense of weariness washed over her. Depression was like a lurking beast, always reaching out its claws when she was most vulnerable, trying to drag her back into that cold, numb abyss.
She put down the now-cold milk glass and buried her face in her knees.
Just then, the screen of her phone, which she had placed on the sofa, suddenly lit up, emitting a faint glow. It wasn't a message notification or an incoming call; the screen lit up on its own and began to flicker with an abnormal, signal-interference-like wave.
Shi Ye looked up, staring at the flashing phone screen, a sense of foreboding rising in his heart.
Immediately afterwards, a very faint but unusually clear sound, similar to the static of an old-fashioned radio tuning, came from the phone, mixed with intermittent human voices:
“…Target…Residential…Blind spot in surveillance…Early morning…Operation…”
The sound was muffled and mixed with the hissing of electricity, but the key words pierced Shi Ye's ears like icicles.
Target? Residence? Blind spot in surveillance? Early morning operation?
This... is referring to Qi Jin's residence?! Qin Ming's men are planning to take action against Qi Jin's house in the early morning, taking advantage of blind spots in the surveillance?! A physical operation?!
Shi Ye's blood froze instantly. She grabbed her phone, but the eerie static and voices stopped abruptly, and the screen returned to normal, as if everything that had just happened was merely a hallucination.
But it's definitely not an illusion!
Was that... a system warning? Or... an information leak caused by the collapse of the world? Or was it that unknown entity that had once written "helper" on her computer, sending her a message again?
Whatever it was, the content of the message sent chills down her spine.
Qin Ming has gone mad! Not content with public opinion and online attacks, he actually intends to directly target Qi Jin's personal safety?! With security already heightened, using the early morning hours and blind spots in surveillance... is he planning a forced entry? Or... something even more heinous?
Shi Ye's heart pounded wildly, almost shattering her ribs. She frantically unlocked her phone, wanting to call Qi Jin immediately or send her a warning message.
But my fingers remained frozen on the screen.
What would she say? Would she say, "My phone rang by itself, and someone on the other end said they'd come to your house at midnight to cause trouble"? Would Qi Jin believe her? Would he think she was hallucinating due to stress? Or worse, if he pressed her for the source of the information, how would she explain it? Would she say it was the system? That the world had collapsed?
No, I can't say it directly.
She forced herself to calm down and took a few deep breaths. Qi Jin had said that security had been increased. Perhaps... perhaps this information was outdated? Or had Qi Jin's security team already detected and taken precautions?
But what if it's true? What if Qin Ming's men really found a security loophole and took action in the early morning?
She can't gamble on that possibility.
She looked at Qi Jin's chat window on her phone screen; the message "Drink milk, go to bed early" was still lying there quietly.
She gritted her teeth and started typing. If she couldn't say it directly, then... she'd remind her in a way she could express herself.
"Qi Jin, is your security... really okay? I'm a little worried. Especially at night, or in the early morning, when people are more likely to be lax." (Sent)
She stared intently at the screen, waiting for a reply.
A few seconds later, Qi Jin replied: "The security system has been fully upgraded, and there are people on duty 24 hours a day. Don't worry."
His tone remained calm.
But Shi Ye's heart remained uneasy. A complete upgrade, 24-hour monitoring… theoretically, there shouldn't be any problems. But what if someone like Qin Ming was determined to retaliate? Would he find some unexpected loophole?
She thought for a moment, then sent another message: "I just... had a bad dream. I dreamt that someone was trying to take advantage of you when you weren't looking... Anyway, please be more alert tonight, okay?"
Qi Jin was a little slow to reply this time.
“Dreams are always the opposite of reality,” she replied, then added, “Don’t overthink it. I’m safe here. Go to sleep early.”
Seemingly to reassure her, Qi Jin sent another photo. It wasn't a milk cup, but a corner of a security control panel that looked very professional, with red and green indicator lights flashing, and next to it was a half-full cup of steaming coffee.
Caption: "On duty. Coffee to keep me awake."
Looking at the photo and the words, Shi Ye felt a little more at ease. Qi Jin was clearly still awake, personally overseeing security. With her caution and ability, she should... be alright, right?
But that strange message...
She put down her phone, walked to the window, lifted a corner of the curtain, and looked out at the deep night. The city slept amidst the lights, seemingly calm, but beneath the surface, undercurrents surged.
All she could do was offer a reminder. And Qi Jin had already given the most reassuring response she could.
The rest... can only be left to Qi Jin himself, and that unknown fate, which may be rapidly collapsing.
She walked back to the sofa, looked at Lin Xiaoyu who was sleeping soundly, completely unaware of the danger that was about to occur, and touched the token around her neck that symbolized "peace" and "care".
The anxiety and fear that arose from helplessness were gradually replaced by something more resolute.
She couldn't shield Qi Jin from both open and covert attacks.
She probably couldn't stop the world from collapsing either.
But at least, she could stay here, guarding Lin Xiaoyu, holding onto the "reassurance" Qi Jin had given her, keeping her eyes open, and waiting for dawn.
Waiting for Qi Jin's promise that "everything will return to normal".
Or... wait for something worse to happen.
In any case, she was no longer alone in passively enduring it.
She has someone she wants to protect (Lin Xiaoyu), and also someone who wants to stand by her side, even if it's just watching from afar and worrying silently (Qi Jin).
This realization, like a tiny seed, quietly took deeper root in the depths of her barren heart.
She sat down again, picked up the glass of milk that had gone completely cold, and slowly drank it all.
Then, turn off the TV and dim the lights.
She didn't sleep; she just leaned against the sofa, holding her phone, watching the sky outside the window gradually change from dark black to deep blue, and then into gray-white.
Listen intently to any unusual sounds coming from the hallway outside the door.
In his mind, the system's progress bar hung quietly, and the alarm about the world collapsing was temporarily silenced.
Only the heart, in the quiet of the early morning, beats heavily and clearly, one beat after another.
In preparation for a possible storm.
And also for that tiny sprout in my heart, that can no longer be ignored—
Concern.
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