The Boss Always Thinks I'm After Him - Chapter 18

Chapter 18 — Heartbeat Progress 1.8% — Please, Boss, Just…

“Okay.” Zhang Rui took the USB drive, blinking his eyes. “Am I seeing things? Why is the time here a bit off?”

He dragged the progress bar again and watched the time in the upper right corner of the screen jump instantly from 18 minutes to 20 minutes. He dragged it again, and it was still like that.

“Someone edited out the surveillance footage,” Gu Che stood up and took a photo of the timestamp in the corner of the footage with his phone. “Let’s go eat first.”

Gu Che’s lunch was prepared by the housekeeper at home, and the driver delivered it personally to the office every day. It was now placed on the desk, waiting for him to open it.

Before going to eat, Zhang Rui called for a flash delivery service to pack the USB drive and send it to Xing Lu.

He had heard the boss mention before that Xing Lu was a big shot in network security, specializing in viruses, and would surely have a way to handle this.

After Gu Che finished his meal, he started analyzing the surveillance video.

The person who edited the video probably didn’t expect that Phantom Company’s surveillance footage was automatically backed up to the cloud, keeping ten days of history. From last Wednesday until now — six days — no new recordings had overwritten it, so there was still time.

Only Gu Che and the company’s security officer knew about the backup system. Gu Che found the responsible person and quickly located the missing two minutes of footage.

The screen showed the technical team’s office, empty.

Soon after, a cleaning lady in uniform peeked in, looked around, and headed straight to Xiao Yang’s workstation. She quickly bent down and fumbled around the computer tower, then sneaked out of the office.

A few minutes later, the security officer found another missing clip and sent it over.

That morning, while everyone was in the morning meeting, the cleaning lady entered with a cloth pretending to wipe the desk but actually moved close to Xiao Yang’s workstation.

She had intended to remove the USB drive but was startled by someone suddenly appearing. Her hand trembled, and the USB drive accidentally fell under the tower.

Afraid of being discovered, the cleaning lady fled quickly.

The face on the screen was exactly one of the two ladies who had vehemently denied everything that morning — “I don’t know,” “I haven’t been there,” “It’s not me.”

Gu Che was about to call someone for questioning when his email notification chimed, showing an anonymous email.

He clicked it open and saw a clear list of the recent bank transactions of the cleaning lady, Liu Hui. Following a large deposit, Gu Che saw a familiar name.

Shi Cang — one of the newcomers who joined the technical team last week.

Gu Che pulled up the résumé of this person but couldn’t see any direct connection with Xiao Yang.

He scrolled through the email further, which also showed Shi Cang’s bank transactions. Two large deposits were linked to another person.

At the end of the email, the sender thoughtfully attached the background information of the person who transferred money to Shi Cang — a distant relative of Peng Hui.

All this information was highly private; it was impossible for an ordinary person to obtain it. So who sent this email?

Gu Che squinted his eyes, staring at the string of random characters shown as the sender, and typed a reply:

[Who are you?]

Only Xiao Yang and Zhang Rui knew about this matter. Zhang Rui didn’t even know it was the cleaning lady who did it, let alone investigated these details. Xiao Yang was even less aware.

Then who was this mysterious sender?

As expected, the email failed to send; the contact was unreachable.

Gu Che put the matter aside and rested for a while.

Near the end of lunch break, the office door was knocked. Xiao Yang came in carrying two cups of coffee.

He had checked the surveillance room first but found no one there, so he came to the office.

Xiao Yang put the black coffee on Gu Che’s desk. “Boss, you’ve worked hard. Please have some coffee.”

Gu Che reached out and took a sip, then called the secretary office: “Zhang Rui, come here.”

Seconds later, the door knocked again and Zhang Rui entered.

Gu Che set the coffee down and was about to speak when his phone buzzed nonstop with messages.

[Xing Lu: There’s nothing on the USB drive.]

[Xing Lu: I tried repairing it a bit and found some clues.]

[Xing Lu: This virus doesn’t spread via the network. The moment the computer reads the USB drive, it runs immediately, quickly formatting the hard drive, and then self-destructs after executing the command.]

[Xing Lu: If it weren’t for me, no one would have found anything.]

Gu Che typed a reply, then put down the phone and said to Xiao Yang, “Thanks to Zhang Rui noticing the time discrepancy, the culprit has been caught.”

He acted fast and issued instructions: “Notify HR to have Peng Hui, Shi Cang, and Liu Hui complete their work handovers and finish the resignation procedures by the end of today.”

“Okay.” Zhang Rui turned to leave.

“Wait,” Xiao Yang reached out and caught him, handing over a cup of coffee. “Zhang, you’ve worked hard, have some coffee.”

Zhang Rui was about to refuse, but Xiao Yang shoved the cup into his hand, forcing him to take it.

Xiao Yang turned to Gu Che and asked, “Boss, can we hold off on firing Peng Hui for now?”

Sure enough, it was that despicable guy. Since they had caught him, there was no way to let him off easily.

Gu Che raised his eyes and looked at the hand that held Zhang Rui’s, and pursed his lips slightly. “Why?”

“If we just fire him like that, wouldn’t that be too easy for him?” Xiao Yang released Zhang Rui’s hand, rolled his eyes, and leaned onto Gu Che’s desk. “Tell me first, how did he plot against me?”

Zhang Rui stopped in his tracks, turned back, and looked at Gu Che curiously.

Glancing at the computer screen, Gu Che briefly summarized: “He bribed Shi Cang, who then got the cleaning lady to plug the virus-loaded USB into your computer tower.”

“This morning, when you started your computer, the virus formatted your hard drive. The cleaning lady nearly got caught removing the USB, so it dropped under the tower.”

“A two-birds-one-stone plan, truly despicable, just like him.”

Xiao Yang stood up, furious, his mind racing for ways to make Peng Hui pay.

He looked back toward the cubicle, where some eyes had been secretly watching but quickly withdrew their gaze. Xiao Yang came up with a plan. “Boss, firing him would be too cheap; I need to get this revenge.”

He lowered his voice and whispered a few words to Gu Che.

Zhang Rui only caught a few words but roughly guessed they wanted to pretend not to have caught Peng Hui, letting him get complacent before catching him red-handed next time.

“He cares about his face the most. If he’s caught in the act, he’d be furious.”

Just imagining that scene made Xiao Yang happy. Worried the boss wouldn’t agree, he clasped his hands under his chin and looked like he was pleading, “Please, Boss, just this once.”

“He messed with me like this, and I can’t just fire him without feeling satisfied.”

Gu Che looked at him, trying hard to keep a straight face but clearly unsupportive. “Aren’t you afraid he’ll cause more trouble and affect the company?”

“I don’t agree with such behavior. Since we caught him, the correct way is to fire him immediately.”

His concern was reasonable. Zhang Rui also thought the boss wouldn’t agree to this.

Xiao Yang patted his chest confidently, “Don’t worry, he just joined the company and won’t dare to make big moves. He only targeted me because he resented me. He won’t mess with others for now.”

“Luckily, I handed over all the third team’s work when I left. The backup for that work is on a USB drive, but he still destroyed the important files and materials I stored on my computer for two months. I really can’t swallow this anger.”

His voice softened, blinking his big eyes. “Please, Boss, I promise I won’t let him succeed. Just help me this once.”

Hearing his tone full of childish coaxing, Zhang Rui watched the boss’s reaction secretly.

Gu Che fell silent and looked away, thinking for a few seconds before arranging: “Zhang Rui, don’t fire Peng Hui yet. Have Ma Weiran keep a close watch on him.”

Zhang Rui’s eyes widened in shock, freezing for a moment.

Damn, the boss actually fell for it? He actually abandoned principles for Xiao Yang?

Seeing the expression in his eyes, Gu Che cleared his throat and explained, “I mean, wait until HR hires a suitable replacement before firing him.”

Zhang Rui nodded and didn’t question further, immediately going to pass the order to HR.

“Thank you, Boss!” Xiao Yang solemnly bowed to Gu Che, expressing his gratitude. “You’re truly the best boss in the world. I want to follow you forever and love—”

“Love you too,” the words were caught in Xiao Yang’s throat. He came back to himself and awkwardly smiled, “I better get back to work.”

Gu Che made a soft hum and watched him leave the office, closing the door behind him. Then he rubbed his chest and took a deep breath to calm his heartbeat.

This guy’s aggressive pursuit was just too overwhelming, confessing feelings out of the blue — it was hard to resist.

Just looking at that figure made his heart full and joyful. At this rate, surrendering wasn’t far off.

But as the company leader, he couldn’t be the one breaking the rules first. Gu Che picked up his phone and specifically called Zhang Rui to remind him not to forget the morning’s arrangements.

Zhang Rui agreed, but a strong premonition was growing in his heart.

The boss is conducting a company regulation satisfaction survey — could it be to abolish the ban on office romance? Such a big fuss, is he planning to confess?

HR worked efficiently and didn’t ask why, promptly notifying Shi Cang and Liu Hui to proceed with their resignations.

When asked, they only said it was the boss’s order.

Shi Cang understood what he had done. Upon receiving the notice, he went to find Zhong Jun to hand over his work.

He looked bitter and full of regret. It had been so hard to get into Phantom, and now he had messed it all up for a twenty-thousand bonus.

Shi Cang couldn’t figure out how he was caught despite having edited the surveillance.

Liu Hui, on the other hand, was less tactful. She caused a scene in HR, shouting that the boss fired her without reason and refused to leave. She even went up to the 19th floor crying and causing a ruckus, making the place unbearable.

Thinking back to the morning’s incident, some members of the first team cast fleeting glances at Xiao Yang.