The Boss Always Thinks I'm After Him - Chapter 17

Chapter 17 — Heartbeat Progress 1.7%
Boss, what should we do? Can we catch…

Xiao Yang turned his head to glance at Yu Qian, subtly shaking his head to refuse. “No, no, no, no need. Qian-ge is… honestly a bit too muscular for me. Just by looking, it’s obvious we’re not that kind of relationship.”

As he spoke, he carefully observed Yu Qian, choosing his words carefully. “Even if I really need someone to help, at least find someone who looks a little closer, otherwise if it’s exposed later, it’d be even more embarrassing…”

Suddenly sensing a chill behind him, Xiao Yang turned and met Gu Che’s gaze, forcing a fake smile and greeting, “Good morning, Boss.”

Hearing the voice, everyone else turned around as well, greeting Gu Che.

“Good morning, Boss.”
“Good morning, Boss.”
…

Gu Che nodded slightly, still with his usual unfriendly demeanor, and the atmosphere around instantly quieted down considerably.

The gate opened, Zhang Rui entered carrying a briefcase, standing quietly beside the boss.

Xiao Yang glanced at him, suddenly struck by a bright idea — Secretary Zhang seems quite suitable.

Mature and steady, considerate, just the right build, decent appearance… walking together with him wouldn’t look particularly strange. If only he could ask him for a favor.

Xiao Yang pondered this but didn’t want to trouble him, worrying it might cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so he suppressed the thought.

The elevator arrived at the 19th floor, and everyone went to their respective workstations.

Xiao Yang put down his laptop bag but vaguely felt something was off. “Why do I feel like someone’s been messing with my stuff?”

Visually nothing seemed different, but he just felt something was wrong.

Xu Mubai came over to take a look, reminding him, “Check if anything’s missing.”

Xiao Yang nodded, pressing the power button on his computer, checking his desktop and drawer thoroughly. After confirming nothing was missing, he finally relaxed a bit.

After the routine meeting ended, Xiao Yang returned to his desk but found his computer screen filled with gibberish, his face immediately darkening.

“Has someone been on my computer?” He looked seriously around the cubicle, slowly scanning everyone’s face, trying to spot any sign of abnormality.

Xiao Yang had gone out last week to attend a conference and only took his laptop with him. The desktop computer he regularly used was working fine before he shut it down last week, so it was strange that it suddenly got a virus.

Only people working on the 19th floor could have accessed his computer.

Seeing the situation was bad, Zhong Jun asked, “What’s wrong? Is your computer broken?”

“Virus,” Xiao Yang frowned, bending down to check the CPU case.

There was nothing on the case; he fiddled on the keyboard but could only force a shutdown in the end.

Suppressing his fury, Xiao Yang restarted the computer, only to find the entire hard drive had been formatted — nothing left at all. His heart pounded fiercely.

The hard drive was formatted; there was no chance to recover any files. Who could be so malicious?

Xiao Yang stormed off his desk to find the boss.

Xu Mubai had been quietly observing the whole situation. He had never seen Xiao Yang this angry before, so he knew the matter was serious. He looked down at Xiao Yang’s main unit.

Phantom’s firewall was extremely strong; ordinary people couldn’t hack into it. Since only Xiao Yang’s computer was affected, it was highly likely someone tampered with the main unit directly.

Something reflected light. Xu Mubai reached in and, feeling around left and right, found a tiny USB drive. He quickly pocketed it quietly, pretending not to know anything, and looked up toward the CEO’s office like everyone else.

Gu Che was originally discussing work arrangements with Zhang Rui when Xiao Yang suddenly knocked on the office door and pushed it open without waiting for a reply.

Seeing his furious demeanor, Gu Che immediately sensed something was wrong.

“Someone planted a virus on my computer and formatted the hard drive. All the files are gone,” Xiao Yang said, his head buzzing with anger. Suddenly recalling something, he furrowed his brow tightly. “Boss, what should we do? Can we catch the person?”

Everyone knew how important the tech staff’s computers were. Formatting someone’s computer was like destroying all their work achievements — a devastating blow.

Gu Che decided at once and stood up. “Check the surveillance.”

The three of them went to the monitoring room and pulled up surveillance footage from last Wednesday until now, watching it repeatedly.

Xiao Yang and Xu Mubai’s desks were in a corner. On the footage, except for cleaning staff, everyone else was just passing by and didn’t linger at Xiao Yang’s desk.

Gu Che immediately had Zhang Rui call the two cleaning ladies over and questioned them, but as expected, they knew nothing.

The ladies answered evasively, didn’t even know what a virus was, which infuriated Xiao Yang.

Gu Che waved his hand, and the ladies left cautiously. He tapped on the table, “Is there any way to recover the data?”

“No,” Xiao Yang looked ashen and just wanted to collapse somewhere. “I don’t even know when the virus was planted, how could I recover anything?”

“Luckily, I copied the code for the smart guide glasses onto my laptop before leaving last week, planning to work on it at home over the weekend. Otherwise, I’d have gone crazy by now.”

Recently, Xiao Yang’s only project was the smart guide glasses, mostly finished and ready to wrap up next week. Fortunately, he made a backup copy — truly a lucky break in misfortune.

Zhang Rui dragged the video progress bar back and forth seriously, “We just caught an insider last month. Could it be another insider?”

“It’s not an insider,” Xiao Yang thought of someone but didn’t say the name, analyzing, “An insider wouldn’t target only me, and I don’t have any important projects right now.”

The smart guide glasses were purely for charity, not making much money, so no reason for anyone to be jealous.

His tone was confident, and Gu Che turned to him, “Do you want to say something?”

“I…” Xiao Yang hesitated, struggled, then sighed, “Forget it. I can’t accuse someone because of old grudges, can’t blame an innocent person.”

Peng Hui just joined the company, and with this incident, it was hard not to suspect him. But if Xiao Yang accused him now and it turned out not to be him, he’d look like he was falsely blaming others.

“Alright, you go back to work.” Gu Che didn’t press further and focused back on the surveillance footage.

Xiao Yang rubbed his chest, feeling suffocated.

He just returned to the 19th floor. It was lunch break, and he hadn’t done any work all morning, nor found the sneaky villain who planted the virus. His mood was awful.

Xu Mubai patted his shoulder gently, comforting, “Let’s eat first.”

One by one, others gathered around, asking eagerly,

“What happened? Your face looks terrible.”
“Any clues yet?”
“Is the computer fixable?”
…

Xiao Yang kept shaking his head, too depressed to say a word.

After leaving the company, everyone dispersed. Xu Mubai steered Xiao Yang into their usual dining spot. After sitting down, he looked around carefully to make sure no one from the company was nearby, then cautiously pulled out the USB drive from his pocket. “Here, something for you.”

He didn’t hand it directly but slipped it into Xiao Yang’s jacket pocket. “Don’t take it out. I found it under your CPU this morning.”

“What is it?” Xiao Yang reached in, felt the USB drive, and suddenly sat up straight. “You… you…”

Realizing it, he abruptly turned to Xu Mubai, excitedly opening his arms to hug him. “You’re my savior!”

Before he could embrace him, Yu Qian suddenly entered from the door. Startled, Xiao Yang quickly stopped and placed his hands on Xu Mubai’s shoulders, patting hard. “Bro, no need to thank me. Order whatever you want; it’s on me today!”

With that, he stood and dashed out like the wind, running back to the company.

Yu Qian glanced and naturally sat beside Xu Mubai. “What’s up?”

“Someone messed with him, planted a virus, and formatted his computer,” Xu Mubai sighed, taking the menu.

Yu Qian waved over the waiter, “Have you found out who did it?”

He ordered two dishes Xu Mubai liked, and Xu Mubai ordered two dishes Xiao Yang usually ate. The waiter took the order to the kitchen.

“Judging by how he looked, they probably haven’t found the culprit yet. But…” Xu Mubai recalled what Xiao Yang said last week, speculating, “Among the new employees who joined last week, one was his university nemesis.”

Yu Qian nodded silently, no further questions.

A few minutes later, Xu Mubai lightly bumped his shoulder. “Help him out, will you?”

Yu Qian understood what he meant, rubbing the back of his head, “Alright.”

Since Xu Mubai joined Phantom, he often talked about Xiao Yang, saying he was warm and kind-hearted, the first friend he made here. Besides, Xiao Yang had helped them a lot; morally and practically, they should help him out.

While they were talking, Xiao Yang had already rushed back to the monitoring room.

The monitoring room was on the 8th floor. The elevator took too long, so Xiao Yang ran up the stairs, panting heavily.

“Bo… Boss, here, here you go.” Xiao Yang pushed open the monitoring room door and handed over the USB drive, gasping for breath. “Xu Mubai found it under my CPU.”

Only now did he worry — what if the USB didn’t contain evidence? What if someone just accidentally dropped it?

Gu Che reached out to take it, but Xiao Yang hesitated. “Wait, what if it’s nothing?”

“Or what if there’s a virus on it? Plugging it in might format the computer immediately, leaving no trace.”

“You think too much.” Gu Che took the USB with two fingers and waved him off, “Go eat.”

Xiao Yang stood still, then after a few seconds, his breathing calmed. Feeling a bit guilty, he said, “Maybe you guys should eat first. This won’t be solved anytime soon anyway.”

Because of this matter, the boss and Secretary Zhang had already spent a lot of time reviewing the surveillance. Xiao Yang felt bad.

Gu Che toyed with the small USB, casually waved his hand to send Xiao Yang off.

After Xiao Yang left, Gu Che handed the USB to Zhang Rui. “Send it by courier to Xing Lu. Have him check it out.”