The Creator's Grace (GL) - Chapter 14
The cars in the straight-ahead lane were too many, and the green light was too short. After an entire green light cycle passed, Lu Siqing’s car still hadn’t made it through the intersection.
Lu Siqing held the steering wheel with one hand and looked back at Ran Jin, who was still blinking uncomfortably. The eye drops she had helped her put in had turned into faint tear stains.
“This stuff is more uncomfortable than contact lenses?” Lu Siqing asked. “Do you want me to put in a few more drops for you?”
“No need,” Ran Jin said, closing her eyes. “I just need to rest a little.”
In fact, when Lu Siqing leaned over to help her with the eye drops, Ran Jin felt the distance was a bit too close. When Lu Siqing wasn’t working, her perfume was so sweet it gave her a headache. Ran Jin had already sneezed several times, and her nose was very uncomfortable.
If it weren’t for her hangover, which made her hands a little shaky and caused her to spill eye drops all over her face, she wouldn’t have bothered Lu Siqing with such a small matter.
Lu Siqing rested her head on her hand, squinting at her. “Why did you drink? And to the point of getting drunk. Normally, you scrunch up your nose at the small amount of alcohol.”
Ran Jin just smiled without answering.
“Ugh, am I stupid for asking such a question? You came out of the Chi family home this morning. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what you were doing there last night. Chi Yu didn’t force you to drink, did she? You know she’s suspicious of you now, yet you’re completely defenseless around her. That’s not like you at all. What kind of spell did she cast on you to be so good to her?”
Ran Jin looked up. Lu Siqing thought she was about to argue, but she simply said, “The light’s green.”
Lu Siqing: “…”
A frustrated driver behind her honked loudly, instantly sparking Lu Siqing’s temper. She lifted the corner of her mouth in annoyance, muttered a curse, and hit the gas.
When they got to the building, Ran Jin said to Lu Siqing before getting out of the car, “Thank you for the ride.”
Lu Siqing put on an exaggerated smile. “You’re welcome. Serving the people.”
“I’ll treat you to dinner tonight.”
“I appreciate it,” Lu Siqing said. “My boyfriend finally came to visit, so I can’t stand him up again. Another time. It would be better for you to go back and get some sleep than anything else.”
Ran Jin nodded and pushed the car door open.
“Look at you being so perfunctory,” Lu Siqing sighed behind her. “It seems like you’ve been this way since I met you. Don’t you know how Chi Li treated you, and what the Chi family considered you? Sometimes I really think you don’t see yourself as a human being.”
Ran Jin’s movement didn’t stop. She closed the car door and started a new topic. “Hong Yiling is missing. I’ve already sent people to look for her. I know you’re not on the task force anymore and it’s not good for you to get involved, but if you hear any news of her death, please let me know.”
“Tsk.” Lu Siqing was exasperated. “If she dies, that little troublemaker will definitely come to you first. Do you really need me?”
Ran Jin knew that the “little troublemaker” Lu Siqing was talking about was Chi Yu. She didn’t have a good impression of the Chi family.
“If you hadn’t saved my life, I wouldn’t bother with any of your business.” Lu Siqing said before leaving.
No matter what Lu Siqing said, Ran Jin smiled and took it all in stride.
She knew that Lu Siqing was the only person in the world who truly cared about her and nagged her.
“Drive safe,” Ran Jin responded gently to Lu Siqing’s tirade.
Lu Siqing: “…”
There was no way to deal with her.
“You be careful too,” Lu Siqing couldn’t help but add. “I don’t know why, but you’ve decided to do this, and there’s nothing more for me to say. I’ll just tell you one thing: that little troublemaker’s methods might not be much gentler than her sister’s. You need to be aware of that.”
“Okay,” Ran Jin nodded.
Walking into the building and greeting the employees she passed, Ran Jin entered the private elevator to the eighteenth floor.
The elevator door closed. Ran Jin changed the “iris scan mode” on the digital screen to “face scan mode.”
“Scan complete. Good morning, President Ran.” The emotionless electronic voice greeted her, then began broadcasting the day’s weather.
“Today will be cloudy with a chance of light rain, with a high of nine degrees…”
The electronic screen showed a sky full of clouds simulated over a city. Ran Jin’s eyes didn’t move as her thoughts drifted back to yesterday.
She had indeed been a little careless. Chi Yu asked her to have a drink with her, and she did.
She should have stopped after the first glass; one glass wouldn’t have gotten her drunk.
But…
When Chi Yu looked at her with such sadness in her eyes, her body moved on its own.
She simply couldn’t resist any of Chi Yu’s requests, let alone a plea.
Ran Jin sighed with frustration.
She couldn’t do this next time. She had to learn how to properly refuse Chi Yu.
Suddenly, a hazy scene flashed in her mind, like a dream she had last night.
She didn’t know if it was because she was drunk or because she was drinking with Chi Yu, but it seemed she had dreamed of Chi Yu.
She dreamed that Chi Yu was very close, close enough to touch. She had caressed her neck…
As she thought of this, Ran Jin’s body tensed. She couldn’t help but raise a hand and touch her throat.
The dream was so real. She even remembered feeling very hot and her skin becoming scorching after Chi Yu touched her.
Besides that, she also dreamed that Chi Yu had helped her upstairs and led her to the bedroom door.
What happened then?
Ran Jin thought back. It seemed there was more.
That’s right…
Chi Yu had re-buttoned the button on her shirt that had come undone at some point.
No.
Ran Jin’s heart tightened.
It wasn’t a dream; it had really happened.
Ding. The elevator arrived on the eighteenth floor, and the doors opened.
“Good morning, President Ran!”
Passing employees greeted her.
“Good morning,” Ran Jin replied, adjusting her expression and putting on a professional smile.
A young man from the planning department, Xiao Yang, greeted Ran Jin and then looked at her ears with curiosity. “President Ran, is it very cold outside?”
Ran Jin was a little puzzled. “It’s not bad.”
“Your ears are all red from the wind.”
Ran Jin: “…It is quite cold.”
After Chi Li’s funeral, the Chi Corporation began to vigorously pursue the rights to the lunar region energy mining project.
Chi Yu used her sister’s credentials to log into the Chi Corporation’s internal system and reviewed the entire process of the lunar orbit bidding.
Ran Jin had purchased the rights to three lunar orbits, which clearly meant victory was within her grasp.
There had been another company, Yidai Technology, in the running, but after losing the lunar orbit bid, Yidai Technology had already filed for bankruptcy protection.
Ran Jin’s vision was sharp, and her moves were precise and steady. The entire Chi Corporation had successfully transitioned from the instability following Chi Li’s death to its current stability under her leadership.
The board was well-appeased, and employees were grateful that she had single-handedly saved the Chi Corporation and prevented them from losing their jobs.
She was on the verge of announcing that she had secured the lunar region energy mining project, and capital from all over the industry, having caught wind of this, was already flocking to her.
She was very popular online as well, with her own fan community.
Chi Yu had visited her fan community and remembered that a few years ago, she had been the female lead in a major Hollywood IP series. Her beautiful face and surprisingly good acting had made a splash worldwide, giving her a foothold in the entertainment industry and earning her public favor.
She really is a good actress.
Chi Yu scanned all the videos related to her.
In the videos, she was humble and polite, young and accomplished, with a compelling aura that was impossible to ignore.
Taking back the Chi Corporation from her would not be an easy task.
Chi Yu took stock of the company shares Ran Jin had and the businesses affiliated with her over the years. She could see that Ran Jin had started planning for a long time to reach her current, unshakeable position.
In the energy industry, no one was her opponent.
To take her down, she would need to cut off the vast network of roots that Ran Jin had personally cultivated.
Others couldn’t do it, but Chi Yu could.
And she was the only one who could.
The best way to get her out of the Chi Corporation was to make her fail spectacularly on the lunar orbit, but without causing significant harm to the company itself.
Blocking the lunar orbit was the best strategy.
Blocking the Chi Corporation’s lunar orbit was impossible for others, but for Chi Yu, it was her specialty, something she had studied for years.
Starting last year, Chi Yu had been interning at FPIU, a leading company that had been focused on lunar orbits for years.
Although Chi Yu was an intern in name, two months ago, her orbital model achieved a breakthrough in accuracy in the simulator, attracting significant attention from the entire lunar orbit community.
She was now the most promising rising star in the lunar orbit field. Her internship would end in a month, and she would officially become a member of the company.
She was well aware of how to block a lunar orbit.
By using the Chi Corporation chairman’s authority, she could request an audit of the flight path’s accuracy, which could extend the review time for up to three months.
During these three months, no spacecraft could use that flight path.
Chi Yu could also take advantage of the situation during the audit period.
If she published her new, more precise lunar orbit data during the audit, the benchmark values would be revised, and she could then request another three-month audit.
Six months would be enough to bankrupt Ran Jin, and Chi Yu could also use this opportunity to win the support of the board and minimize the company’s losses.
But…
Chi Yu tried to log into the lunar orbit project system with her sister’s account and found that her sister’s account no longer had the necessary permissions and couldn’t access it.
Ran Jin must have been prepared. All the permissions were likely under her own account.
Chi Yu summarized the current situation.
Ran Jin had invested a huge amount of money in the lunar orbit. If Chi Yu could block the lunar orbit, she would have a chance to drive Ran Jin out of the Chi Corporation and make her return everything that didn’t belong to her.
Now, the only way to block the lunar orbit was to hack Ran Jin’s account.
Chi Yu asked Qi Tong to try and hack into the lunar orbit project system to steal her account.
But it wasn’t successful.
“I can’t do it. It’s too difficult,” Qi Tong said. “The Chi Corporation’s firewall is amazing. It’s unbreakable. And let me tell you a horror story: even if you get the password for Ran Jin’s account, you can’t use her permissions to block the lunar orbit.”
Chi Yu sat on the sofa, resting her head in her hand as she looked at Qi Tong, waiting for her to continue.
“Besides her password, there’s another layer of encryption that needs her iris to unlock.”
“Iris… Stealing Ran Jin’s iris isn’t impossible. I know of an instrument that can do it,” Chi Yu said, pointing to her own eye. “The instrument is similar to a contact lens. You put it in your eye, make eye contact with the person you want to steal from for about ten seconds, and it can completely copy their iris.”
“Hmm…” Qi Tong said. “Do you want to steal Ran Jin’s iris? Do you think she’ll make eye contact with you for ten seconds?”
Chi Yu thought for a moment and said, “Possibly. I’ll figure out a way. You keep trying to hack her password for me.”
Qi Tong: “Okay.”