Yes, it was a tough battle.
When the first antivirus run failed, Xie Dingyuan finally realized he had underestimated the opponent.
Immediately, he focused all his attention, fingers flying furiously across the keyboard.
…
In the Teahouse.
Xu Kaiqing frowned subconsciously as he looked at the screen. “Didn’t that progress bar already complete? Why is there another one now?”
Jiang Fuyue replied, “The previous one disappeared because the virus implantation succeeded. This one shows the virus infiltrating the opponent’s host. It’s only at 3% now, which means the other side is strongly resisting—most likely by upgrading their firewall.”
“Do you need to adjust your virus accordingly?”
“No need. The virus is adaptive.”
“What does that mean?”
Jiang Fuyue curled her lips. “The higher the opponent’s defense level, the faster the virus reproduces and the stronger its penetration becomes.”
Old Peter looked amazed. “It can do that?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Of course.”
“So Chou, you’re not just a top-notch researcher and physics genius, but also an elite hacker?!”
Jiang Fuyue gave a light smile.
“Oh my God! It’s unbelievable—you’ve once again shattered my understanding of you. But I still feel like I haven’t seen all of you. You’re like a mysterious book—until I turn to the last page, there’s always more to discover.”
Xu Kaiqing’s mouth twitched violently. “Is this really the time to be poetic like that? If you want to compliment someone, can you not use metaphors and exclamatory phrases?”
“Xu, you’re no fun. The beauty of praise lies in how vivid and pleasant it sounds. You lack both—what a pity.”
Xu Kaiqing: “…”
Ming Yu ignored the bickering and quietly handed a cup of hot tea to Jiang Fuyue. “Don’t rush—take a sip first.”
Jiang Fuyue accepted the cup, but her eyes remained fixed on the screen, unmoving.
At that moment, the progress bar had reached 13%.
…
Meanwhile, Xie Dingyuan watched the virus adapt to his escalating firewall—evolving and growing stronger. He couldn’t help but curse under his breath.
The opponent was damn cunning—
But also undeniably skilled.
He initiated an automated process to continue upgrading his firewall while turning to another computer to begin writing a counter-virus program.
You think you’re the only one who can play this game? Xie Dingyuan smirked coldly, eyes sharp.
As his firewall upgraded and the original virus continued evolving to match it, Xie Dingyuan completed his new virus on the second computer. He deployed it via remote access to infiltrate the opposing system.
This virus acted like a stealthy farmer—hobbling across a battlefield where both armies were locked in fierce combat. At a glance, he looked like a harmless refugee. But in fact, he was an undercover operative, strutting into enemy lines, waiting for the perfect moment to strike amidst the chaos.
…
Back in the Teahouse.
Jiang Fuyue didn’t detect the “farmer.” The disguise was too well done—it slipped past her firewall completely unnoticed.
By now, the progress bar had reached 60%.
Ming Yu said, “The other side’s about to collapse.”
Jiang Fuyue smiled slightly.
Five minutes later, the progress bar hit 100%—full.
The opponent’s IP address appeared on the screen.
At the same time, Xie Dingyuan’s stealth virus had also yielded results. It successfully infiltrated the opposing system and extracted their IP address.
“Linhuai?!”
In two separate locations, both parties spoke the same word at nearly the same moment—with equally stunned expressions.
Jiang Fuyue: “The person trying to breach the internal firewall is in Linhuai!”
Xie Dingyuan: “Finally found you—Master of the Purple Iris! You’re also in Linhuai?!”
But in the next second, both their expressions froze.
“D*mn it!” Jiang Fuyue quickly launched the cleanup protocol.
That’s right—she’d finally detected the stealthy “farmer.”
But cleanup takes time. She began manually conducting a broad sweep, targeting all suspicious files that might be linked to the other party’s virus. Then—
Deleted them all!
Unfortunately, it was too late.
Jiang Fuyue stared coldly at the screen, as if she could pierce through the digital web to strike her opponent.
Xu Kaiqing noticed the shift in mood. “W-what’s wrong?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Our IP address has been exposed.”
“What now?”
“We go—immediately. Once we’re out, we split up and head in different directions.”
“Isn’t that a bit extreme?”
Jiang Fuyue: “We don’t know if they’re friend or foe, or what their intentions are. To be safe, we retreat first. At the very least, we can’t let them catch us.”
“Got it.”
Zhong Hao left with Ming Yu.
Xu Kaiqing was about to take a cab with Old Peter back to the hotel when Jiang Fuyue stopped him.
“Old Xu, wait—don’t go back yet. Come with me. We’ve got something to do.”
In the end, the taxi drove off with only Old Peter inside.
Xu Kaiqing: “What is it?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Even though the opponent got our IP, we got theirs too. Don’t you want to follow the trail and see who they really are?”
Xu Kaiqing’s entire face lit up.
“Let’s go. We’re catching them now!”
…
In the Lab.
Xie Dingyuan realized his firewall had been completely dismantled by the opponent’s freakishly adaptive virus—utterly obliterated.
Still, the good news was that he’d obtained the other side’s IP.
And now—it was time to catch them himself.
I Send My Sorrowful Heart to the Bright Moon?
Heh…
You go to catch me, I go to catch you. If we bump into each other halfway—
Oh, that’s going to be fun.
