Chapter 128: Should I Go See Him? (Tenth Watch)
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Mu Qingcheng was a hacker.
A top-tier one—secretive, and the kind who never accepted commissions.
But the network she was about to infiltrate this time was on an entirely different level from anything she had encountered before.
One careless move, and the whole of No-Trace might be buried with her.
Yet at that moment, she could think of nothing else.
Her heart was filled with worry for that man, twisting her insides into a tight knot.
It hurt so badly she could hardly breathe.
After taking a deep breath, Mu Qingcheng flexed her fingers and began typing rapidly across the keyboard.
As strings of command characters shifted and combined, a disassembled webpage appeared before her.
Soon, layer after layer of firewalls fell in swift succession.
Then came the mirrored decoy zones, along with reverse Trojans hidden among them. She detected them in time and cracked them one by one.
After little more than ten minutes, Mu Qingcheng finally found the answer she was seeking in an internal email.
“Demoted...?”
Staring in stunned disbelief at the notice of demotion, Mu Qingcheng felt something called guilt seize her heart for the first time.
She knew that the two names listed there belonged to Si Qingchen’s parents.
Because of that explosion, they had been held responsible for negligence and punished with demotion.
“So that’s why he went to offer himself up for punishment?”
...
A vast warmth swept across Mu Qingcheng’s heart, carrying an indescribable bitterness that rose from her throat, rushed to the tip of her nose, and finally sank deep into her eyes.
A fierce sense of remorse followed close behind.
She thought that if she had not recklessly entered the forest that night, perhaps the chain of events that followed would never have occurred.
Drawing in a deep breath, Mu Qingcheng forced the feeling down into the depths of her heart and shut down the operating system of her laptop.
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And yet, just as she lowered her head, a tear slipped free without warning.
With a soft patter, it shattered upon the keyboard.
...
At the same time—
Knock, knock—
The gentle tapping at the door interrupted Mu Qingcheng’s troubled thoughts.
She hastily wiped away her tears, climbed out of bed, and opened the door.
“Miss Five, someone is here to see you.”
The little maid who had always attended to her stood outside.
Fortunately, the girl had her head bowed and did not notice anything unusual.
Mu Qingcheng frowned and asked in confusion, “Who is it?”
“It’s Chu Bai, Madam Chu.”
“Chu Bai?”
Mu Qingcheng froze for a moment, unable to understand why Chu Bai would suddenly come to visit.
But a woman’s innate intuition told her that this matter... probably had something to do with Si Qingchen.
“I understand. I’ll change and come downstairs.”
“Yes.”
The little maid nodded, then turned and went downstairs to report back.
Mu Qingcheng casually took a dress from the wardrobe and changed into it before hurrying downstairs.
At that moment, downstairs—
Chu Bai was still dressed in a qipao.
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The dress was a makeup-free milk-tea shade, edged with a delicate pale-green velvet trim. Its restrained design lent her an air of elegant composure.
When she saw Mu Qingcheng hurrying down with anxiety written plainly across her face, she set down the teacup in her hand with a smile and rose to greet her.
“Don’t rush. What if you fall?”
“Madam Chu, what brings you here?”
Mu Qingcheng stopped in front of her, her brows and eyes betraying an urgency she could not conceal.
Chu Bai did not tease her further. She took Mu Qingcheng by the arm and drew her aside, speaking in a low voice.
“First Young Master Si has been injured. Do you want to go see him?”
Mu Qingcheng’s eyes flew wide in disbelief.
It took several stunned seconds before she recovered. She seized Chu Bai’s arm and asked anxiously, “What happened? How did he get hurt?”
“I don’t know the exact details either, but I heard... it was because of dereliction of duty.”
“Dereliction of duty?”
“All right, I shouldn’t stay any longer. If you want to go, then go. But whatever you do, don’t tell him I was the one who told you.”
Chu Bai patted Mu Qingcheng on the shoulder and turned to leave.
By the time Mu Qingcheng came to her senses, there was already no one before her.
But the girl, frantic with worry, had no time to think. She rushed to the entrance, snatched up a key, and charged straight into the underground garage.
The moment Mu Qingcheng disappeared, Old Master Mu emerged from a corner.
Butler Ji stood beside him, watching the doorway with a worried expression.
After a while, Old Master Mu said nothing. He merely turned away in silence and returned to his room.
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