Le Zhengming was wearing an apron and cooking noodles in the kitchen. A pot of tomato and beef brisket soup was placed on the stove next to him, bubbling with hot water.
For some reason, this scene brought a slight warmth to Zhuang Li's eyes. Long ago, when he yearned for love and the warmth of family, he had imagined the same scene. But after waking from his dream, those beautiful images vanished, leaving behind only the cold reality.
Will this person disappear too?
He walked into the kitchen with his cell phone, stood behind Le Zhengming, and poked the other's waist with his slender fingertips.
Le Zhengming looked back at him, a helpless smile in his eyes: "Don't worry, the water for cooking noodles hasn't boiled yet." He opened the refrigerator, took out a small piece of cake, and rubbed the little curly head: "Eat something to fill your stomach first."
When he withdrew his hand, he twisted his fingertips, as if savoring the soft and fluffy touch.
Zhuang Li's unsettled heart suddenly settled down. He poked Le Zhengming's waist again before picking up the cake and taking a bite.
The conversations of the Gong family continued to come from his mobile phone, and the content was quite sensitive, involving many secrets in the military and political circles, as if they were not worried about being overheard at all.
Le Zhengming frowned and said, "Is there no signal jammer installed in Gong Xuanqi's study?" According to common sense, he should not be so easily monitored. His nickname in the political arena is "Thousand-year-old Fox."
"Yes, but it's useless to me." Zhuang Li explained while licking the cream on the cake: "The working principle of the jammer is to interfere with the signal of the smart device. When the signal becomes weak, the smart device will become unusable. If the surrounding signal is amplified and the smart device is reconnected, the frequency blocker will lose its effect.
"Using Trojans and exploits, I relocated Gong's router and gateway devices and changed the Wi-Fi channel number and frequency, allowing it to avoid the band experiencing interference and use another with a better signal. Finally, I also upgraded the radio antennas of the base stations around Gong's home, increasing their ability to send and receive information by more than two times.
"This way, even if the Gong family blocks all frequency bands, I can still monitor them. The network of this world has no secrets for me."
Zhuang Li threw the cake wrapper into the trash can and walked to the sink to wash his hands.
In fact, not only this world, but he can uncover the truth of any world as long as he understands the scientific principles.
Le Zhengming was so fascinated by what he was hearing that he waited until the water in the pot boiled for quite a while before he hurriedly threw the noodles in.
"You are a genius." He praised sincerely.
Zhuang Li splashed the water droplets on his face and suddenly asked a strange question: "If I asked you to give me a nickname, what would you call me?"
Le Zhengming was stunned for a moment, and then his ears turned red.
"I won't give you a nickname," he clarified in all seriousness.
"Are you going to tell me or not?" Zhuang Li crossed his arms and looked at him with a threatening look.
Le Zhengming only held out for a second before surrendering: "I'll probably call you Curly. I don't mean to make fun of you, I just think your hairstyle is cute, curly, bouncy, and fluffy." The more he spoke, the redder his ears became, but the expression on his face was more serious than when he was holding a military meeting.
Zhuang Li's raised eyebrows first frowned fiercely, but when he saw the other party immediately shut his mouth in fear, he smiled happily with his eyes curved.
Once again confirming that Xuan Ming was Le Zhengming, Zhuang Li's inner emptiness and uneasiness finally vanished. As long as the system remained in place and received sufficient energy, "Ming" would accompany him on every journey through time.
That's great.
Zhuang Li reached out and twisted Le Zhengming's arm, saying disdainfully, "Your muscles are so hard! I'm going to call you a big guy."
His playful, almost flirtatious behavior made Le Zhengming's ears flush red again, and the heat was spreading to his neck. He was so easily shy, and I wondered where he got the nickname "Iron-Blooded General".
In front of Zhuang Li, Le Zhengming was always easily influenced. He held Zhuang Li's hand and said in a suppressed tone, "Don't make trouble. Be careful not to get burned."
Zhuang Li took the opportunity to tickle Le Zhengming's palm again, and he finally calmed down. It was because if he continued to make such a fuss, his ears would really bleed. They were already red and smoking.
Le Zhengming kept rubbing the palm of his hand that was being scratched, and he felt as if his heart was also being scratched unexpectedly by a piece of dogtail grass or a cat's paw. Itchy, panicky, confused... all kinds of emotions surged up like boiling water.
As he silently suppressed the throbbing in his heart, a conversation came from Zhuang Li's phone:
Gong Xuanqi: Le Zhengming has recruited Zhuang Li. Will the hacking methods you have arranged be discovered?
Zhu Jianrui: "Probably, not." He paused for a second where he shouldn't have paused, which showed how much his self-confidence had been hit in the past twenty-four hours.
In the past, he would have said categorically - absolutely not!
Gong Xuanqi was a master at understanding people's minds, and he immediately ordered, "Check it now."
"Okay, uncle."
There was a sound of a chair moving over there. It should be Zhu Jianrui sitting behind the desk and turning on the computer.
Then, the small black window floating on Zhuang Li's mobile phone also had an image, and the enlarged head of Zhu Jianrui appeared. He lowered his head, tapped the keyboard quickly with both hands, and looked at the computer screen from time to time. His expression was very serious, but his flickering eyes could not hide his nervousness.
He temporarily disabled the signal jammer and attempted to hack into Le Zhengming's private network. For him, this activity was as easy as playing a game.
However, today, he tried many ways to get into the network but failed. Even more frightening, none of the viruses and Trojans he installed responded. In other words, all his hidden tricks had been wiped out by the other party!
It was Zhuang Li! Zhu Jianrui couldn't think of anyone else who had this ability except that man.
The hidden anxiety in his eyes quickly spread to his face, and dense beads of cold sweat broke out from his forehead, betraying his panic and fear.
After being defeated repeatedly in the field he was best at, his self-confidence was once again severely damaged.
Gong Xuanqi saw something wrong on his face, so he walked over to the desk, bent over and looked at the computer screen, and said in a cold tone, "What's wrong? Has your arrangement been discovered?"
An elegant face appeared on Zhuang Li's phone screen. Compared to the unparalleled handsome Gong Xuanlin, Gong Xuanqi was surprisingly not bad-looking. No wonder he had such high public support. If the reformists didn't promote Le Zhengming, they might lose many votes due to his appearance.
Zhu Jianrui lowered his head in embarrassment: "Zhuang Li discovered me."
Gong Xuanqi's face darkened for a moment, then he asked, "Didn't you say you had deployed a lot of tricks that were hard to defend against? Could it be that those tricks were discovered as well?"
"Let me see." Zhu Jianrui took out a set of signal receiving and sending equipment, fiddled with it carefully for a while, but couldn't get any response. Cold sweat on his forehead dripped down his temples.
"They also discovered the Dolphin Attack and the Spy Processor." He looked at Gong Xuanqi, his face full of panic.
Only in this situation would he behave like a child, with red eyes and nose, revealing an unconcealable helplessness.
Gong Xuanqi's eyes flashed with a cold gleam, but he spoke softly and comfortingly, "It's okay. Even if we're discovered, they won't have any evidence of us eavesdropping anyway."
"Yeah." Zhu Jianrui nodded while wiping the sweat off his face, looking like he had been fished out of the water.
Gong Xuanlin asked angrily, "Zhuang Li's hacking skills are so good, you've lived with him for more than ten years, and you didn't notice anything at all?"
Speaking of this, Zhu Jianrui couldn't help but be stunned.
He suddenly recalled an old memory. It was when he was five years old and had just started using computers. Zhuang Lizeng held him on his lap and said with a smile, "Son, can Daddy teach you how to use computers? Daddy is a super, super awesome hacker!"
Zhu Jianrui, who had taught himself some hacking techniques and had a top hacker as his teacher, pushed his head away with disdain and snorted, "No! Dad is a loser!"
At that time, he already understood the meaning of coward, and knew the harm these three words would cause to Zhuang Li, but he pretended to be an ordinary five-year-old child who knew nothing, and insulted and hurt him so unscrupulously.
Zhuang Li loosened his grip on his hand, rubbed his head, and sighed helplessly and sadly.
From then on, Zhuang Li never mentioned teaching his son computer again.
At that time, Zhu Jianrui just thought that the other party was bragging. Looking back now, he realized how terrifying the two "super" technologies connected together were.
What had he missed out on all these years because of his arrogance and prejudice? What had he lost? If he had learned hacking techniques from Zhuang Li earlier, would he still be defeated by him now? No, with his high IQ, Zhuang Li would not be his opponent.
The more Zhu Jianrui thought about it, the more regretful he felt, and his heart began to ache.
Gong Xuanqi saw the answer from his distorted face and couldn't help but curse: "You found out, right? You didn't take it seriously? What's wrong with you? I really suspect that you bribed the psychiatrist to deceive me with your IQ of 190! Idiot!"
Thinking of Zhu Miaomiao, who was indulging in pleasure and was good for nothing, Gong Xuanlin added viciously, "As stupid as your mother!"
The originally close relationship between father and son was frozen and torn apart in an instant.
Zhu Jianrui knew the Gong family's character perfectly well. They were cold, ruthless, selfish, and vicious. They divided the world into two categories: those who could be exploited and those who could not. Based on this judgment, they would adopt different approaches to different people, either trying to win them over, deceive them, or even eliminate them.
Zhu Jianrui knew all this a long time ago, but he still couldn't resist the temptation of power and wealth. He arranged for his mother and Gong Xuanlin to reunite after a long separation, and abandoned his weak and incompetent adoptive father without hesitation.
However, when everything happened according to the script he had written, he was horrified to find that the world was completely different from what he had seen.
Zhuang Li was no coward; quite the opposite. His methods were even more ruthless than those of the Gong family. Bringing down a massive company was as easy for him as knocking over a row of building blocks. When he loved someone, he was willing to give everything; when he stopped loving them, he would use any means necessary to destroy them.
Back then, his fatherly love was so intense and selfless. He never considered whether my child had a high IQ or was useful to me...
Zhu Jianrui gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to get lost in these memories. He had already pushed Zhuang Li to the opposite side, so he wanted to break up completely!
It's just a failure, nothing. Zhuang Li is already thirty-two years old, halfway through his life, but I'm only fourteen! Thinking this way, the resentment and regret in his heart gradually subsided.
However, the situation soon got out of Zhu Jianrui's control.
A group of fully armed soldiers kicked open the door and rushed in, pointed a wooden barrage at his head and said coldly, "Zhu Jianrui, you are under arrest!"
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