Yesterday was incredibly exhausting, and Su Mo slept particularly deeply, right through to the early morning of the next day.

He opened his eyes in a daze, the sunshine outside filtering in and spilling onto his face, warm and cozy.

He wanted to stretch lazily but found his arm being hugged.

Turning his head, he saw Qi Ling holding his arm in her sleep beside him, her disheveled silver hair draped over her face, reflecting the morning glow, revealing a unique hazy beauty.

Last night’s restful sleep and the cozy morning sunlight made Su Mo feel perfectly comfortable upon waking. Seeing the cute girl leaning next to him, an inexplicable sense of happiness surged in his heart.

He finally understood why someone would wish for time to stop.

If time could stop at this moment, it wouldn’t be bad.

This childish thought made Su Mo smile, and he quietly extended his finger to lightly poke Qi Ling’s face.

Qi Ling’s eyelashes fluttered lightly, but she remained asleep and didn’t wake up.

The marshmallow-like sensation made Su Mo feel amused, and he poked at her face again.

Before he could touch her, Qi Ling suddenly opened her mouth and bit his finger: "Ah-woo."

Su Mo cried out, "Ah! It hurts, it hurts! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!"

"Hum hum." Qi Ling bit Su Mo’s finger and didn’t let go, showing a triumphant smile, "How dare you sneak attack me, you must let me poke you back~"

"Alright, alright, you poke." Su Mo leaned his face over.

"Mwah." Qi Ling leaned forward and kissed Su Mo on the lips.

The feather-like sensation made Su Mo freeze, then Qi Ling’s gentle voice sounded in his ears.

"Good morning, my love."

...

After getting up, the two prepared to return to Edge Mansion together.

This "one-day boyfriend" commission was considered over, and regardless of the process, since a contract was signed, the final settlement procedure still needed to be completed.

After getting in the car, Su Mo seemed somewhat absent-minded, hesitating to start the engine.

He hesitated for a long time before softly saying, "Xiaoqi, do we need to talk about what happened yesterday?"

"I guess I’m getting old, not quite understanding the thoughts of you young people. Yesterday we... was that part of the commission? Or... Xiaoqi?"

Su Mo noticed Qi Ling leaning against the passenger seat, silently gazing out the window, only coming back to herself after a while: "Hmm? What did you just say?"

Seeing Qi Ling seemingly preoccupied with other thoughts, Su Mo thought the conversation might not be timely, so he shook his head: "Never mind, let’s talk later."

He started the engine, heading toward the Lakefront Business District.

Along the way, the atmosphere was somewhat silent; both Su Mo and Qi Ling were lost in their own thoughts, not speaking, as the car slowly moved along the overpass.

Arriving at the street where Edge Mansion was located, Su Mo noticed something was amiss.

Why are there so many people?

Though Edge Mansion is located in the bustling core of the Lakefront Business District, and it was rush hour, a crowd was normal.

But these people were clearly not just passing by; they were gathering at the entrance of Edge Mansion, peering and observing something.

Su Mo parked by the roadside, letting Qi Ling follow him, and squeezed through the crowd.

At the front, Su Mo found that the mansion’s surroundings were cordoned off, with the Edge Mercenaries setting up a long security line, preventing anyone from approaching.

Su Mo quickly questioned a mercenary: "What happened?"

When the mercenary saw Su Mo, he visibly relaxed: "Captain, you finally came back! Hurry and go inside to see, everything’s a mess!"

Su Mo felt a tightness in his heart, leaping over the security line and rushing into the mansion.

The glass doors at the lobby entrance were shattered by something, glass shards scattered everywhere, and the Edge Mercenaries were anxiously running around inside.

In the corner sat many researchers, all looking dispirited, some pressing ice packs to their heads, while others were bandaging themselves with a doctor’s help, appearing to have sustained some injuries.

The most severely injured was the new guy, Luo Mingsheng; his white coat was covered in scorched black marks and dried brown bloodstains, as though he had been blown up.

His head and face were all bloody, sitting on the ground, dazed, while a doctor was cleaning metal shards from his wounds, applying medicine and bandaging.

Dongdong, seeing Su Mo, hurried over: "Boss, why did you come back so late? Our home was almost turned upside down!"

Su Mo pressed further: "What happened here?"

Dongdong: "Yesterday, several drones carrying bombs rushed into our lab, causing chaos below. If I hadn’t happened to return from outside and heard the commotion, it might not have been just a few people injured."

Su Mo frowned and asked: "Drones rushed into the lab? What happened to the mansion’s automatic defense system? How did the elevators open? Isn’t permission needed to enter the lab?"

Dongdong sighed: "Don’t even mention it, yesterday the lab was attacked by a virus, and the electronic systems in the entire mansion shut down."

Su Mo: "Virus... a hacker again? The firewall didn’t block it?"

Dongdong clicked his tongue: "Firewall... not even the slightest use! Future said it was breached in the blink of an eye! You should directly seek compensation from the Rick Company!"

Su Mo found Future leaning against a corner of the wall, hurriedly checking her out, relieved upon finding her unharmed, and asked: "Future, what happened yesterday?"

Future sat on the ground with her head lowered, her eyes red, her voice hoarse and choking: "Everything’s gone... The stuff we’ve been working on for months, samples and data, all destroyed!"

Su Mo quickly asked: "Backup? Wasn’t there a database backup?"

Future clutched her hair, her emotions somewhat collapsing: "Backup hard drives and our distributed cloud database were just connected with the computers, during daily backup."

"When the virus struck, the backup routes got infected too, all data vanished..."

"Are these hackers mad?! This is everyone’s hard work rushing to finish! Does destroying people’s efforts amuse them? A lot of data is irreplaceable... I... sob..."

Future spoke urgently, tears suddenly falling, covering her face as she sobbed and wiped her tears.

Seeing Future, usually so carefree, crying was heartbreaking to Su Mo.

For someone like Future, focused only on research, samples and data were probably more important than her own life, and having them destroyed was more agonizing than killing her.

Future kept wiping her tears, sniffling as she asked: "Boss, what exactly happened yesterday? Why did you send a virus file over?"

This questioning puzzled Su Mo: "I sent a virus file over? What do you mean?"

Future: "You sent the virus file to Luo Mingsheng, and later I couldn’t reach you on the phone."

Su Mo slept early yesterday, took Qi Ling straight back to Edge Mansion after waking up, and hadn’t checked his phone; pulling it out now, he found it off, though charged.

It was intentionally turned off, not due to lack of power, upon examining the chat software, Future’s words were true, he indeed sent a file to Luo Mingsheng.

Su Mo could swear he didn’t do this.

Who could have accessed his phone yesterday? Only...

"Hey..." Qi Ling’s voice eerily sounded from behind Su Mo, "You aren’t dead yet."