Huo Yulin raised his hand and interrupted Chen Ming without letting him go on. He said in a deep voice, “Even if something might happen to me, I have to do this. Otherwise, I would never have joined the institute.”


  Chen Ming wanted to convince him otherwise. Since he knew Huo Yulin’s personality well, he eventually swallowed his words. “Please be careful in there.”


  “Uh huh,” acknowledged Huo Yulin softly. He leaned into the couch and rested his eyes without speaking.

  Chen Ming quietly left the room and went about checking on his subordinates to ensure that they were ready.

  *

  After hanging up the phone with Chen Ming, Huo Yao sat quietly for a few minutes. She turned on her computer and sent Lei Xiao a text message: [Has anything happened at the institute recently?]

  Lei Xiao happened to be looking at his phone. The moment he received Huo Yao’s text message, he promptly replied: [I haven’t heard of anything. Why are you asking this suddenly?]

  Huo Yao replied: [I was just asking.]

  Lei Xiao scratched his disheveled hair quizzically. Huo Yao was not the sort to throw random questions at people, so he continued: [Give me a minute. Let me ask around.]

  Huo Yao placed her phone on the table. She tapped on the command box and entered a string of code. Before long, a satellite map appeared on the black panel.

  She located Huo Yulin’s GPS location using his phone and expanded the map for a closer look. The place was located in a suburban industrial area. Her third older brother made no further movement.

  Huo Yao leaned into the seat backrest lazily.

  If memory served her right, this was one of the properties owned by the Huo family as listed in the family asset records.

  If she was not mistaken, Chen Ming had been just patronizing her earlier.

  Huo Yao kept looking at the computer monitor until her phone chimed. She veered her eyes and picked up her phone.

  Lei Xiao replied: [I asked around and nothing special has happened.]

  Huo Yao rubbed the edge of her phone before she quickly wrote: [Uh huh. Got it. Thanks.]

  Lei Xiao: [Anytime. Feel free to call me if you need help.]

  He treated her as a real friend and was happy to help.

  Huo Yao sent a smiley face emoticon and ended the conversation.

  Huo Yao glanced at the red dot appearing on her computer screen. She took out a few Physics test papers from her drawer without turning off the computer and started working on them.

  As time passed, she was down to the last set of test papers when the red dot on the screen finally moved.

  Huo Yao did not put down her pen. She continued writing as she raised her head and glanced at the computer screen every now and then. What did her third older brother want to do at this hour of the day?

  When it was nearly midnight 30 minutes later, the red dot stopped moving. A few minutes later, the red dot disappeared unexpectedly.

  Huo Yao narrowed her eyes. She pulled her laptop over and scrutinized the spot where the red dot had disappeared. There were intentionally no street names on the map so that no one could locate it.

  Also, it came with electromagnetic shielding and a signal jammer.

  Huo Yao contemplated for a few seconds before she quickly tapped on the keyboard.

  Before long, a dialog box indicating failure to hack popped up on her monitor.

  Huo Yao smiled. Things were starting to get intriguing.

  She promptly entered more codes into her computer.

  *

  Meanwhile, on the other end.

  “Ming, there’s a signal jammer here. I’ve tried several ways to crack it, but nothing seems to be working.” The technical staff sat in the car holding his laptop as he spoke solemnly.