The richest man's parents were kidnapped, and his adorable son captivated the entire family.

He had never seen such an arrogant person in all these years.

This really broadened his horizons.

The thought of all the rumors circulating in the company these past few days made him so angry he could hardly contain himself.

"Fine, very well." Her eyes were bloodshot, and she gritted her teeth. "I, Ruolan, swear that if I don't completely crush you into the mud, if I don't ruin your reputation and kick you out of the Gu family, I'll change my name!"

She quickly summoned several department heads and a few "opportunistic" key employees, and with a polite smile and concerned tone, said: "The atmosphere in the company has been a bit restless lately, with too much gossip. It's hard to achieve great things."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Assistant Xie... I heard she's been having a lot of trouble lately?" someone asked, feigning ignorance.

Ruolan smiled and said, "Young people always have to make mistakes. It's our duty as seniors to help, but it's also perfectly reasonable not to. In short, everyone should do their job well and not let her situation affect the department's reputation."

The meaning was immediately clear as soon as the words were spoken.

Privately, she met individually with several employees who had ambitions to cooperate or were already jealous of Xie Yumin, subtly promising them promotions and project resources as long as she "helped them out a little."

As a result, the passive-aggressive behavior and overt and covert harassment within the company grew increasingly intense, like smog.

But Ruolan's true wicked scheme had only just begun.

She set her sights on the cross-border merger and acquisition case that Gu Yinshen was currently focusing on most.

While Xie Yumin was painstakingly compiling the report, she had already secretly contacted the relevant document processor and, through a permission vulnerability, quietly tampered with several "subtle but fatal" data points.

Several notes indicating a single-digit high debt ratio and overestimated patent risks were replaced, and risk warnings regarding changes in local policies were quietly removed.

Once the report is submitted and the merger and acquisition are initiated, and these issues are subsequently revealed, all responsibility will fall firmly on Xie Yumin.

These are the "coffin nails" she hammered in herself.

On the other side, Xie Yumin's battlefield is one of loneliness, chaos, and lurking danger.

While working, my computer kept having problems; I couldn't open the raw data package I had just imported.

The risk assessment form became garbled just before it was saved.

Whenever critical analysis is performed, the software suddenly crashes or is forcibly terminated.

The network connection may even fail intermittently, making it impossible to complete even basic document transfers.

She immediately became alert.

A coincidence might happen once or twice, but now that it's happened so many times, it's clearly not a coincidence.

Therefore, this was not an ordinary system failure, but a premeditated and targeted "technical assassination".

She suddenly remembered the night her computer screen went black, the mysterious disappearance of the encrypted files, and the "ambiguous rumors" between Ruolan and Wang Lei, the head of the IT department.

Her eyes turned icy cold instantly, and she clenched her teeth.

He couldn't think of anyone else but Ruolan who would resort to such despicable means.

The fact that Ruolan could be punished in this way clearly indicates that there is a mole within Ruolan, who is very likely in a high position in the IT department.

So he thought about it and immediately made a decision to stop all sensitive operations on the company computers.

late at night.

She sat down at the table and turned on her computer.

For security reasons, she disconnected from the network and used an encrypted USB drive to import the company's core data, including draft notes, printed and rescanned manuscripts, and project frameworks.

She rebuilt the report in an offline environment, encrypting and backing up each step and manually verifying it. The efficiency was almost primitive, but it gave her peace of mind.

But all of this pales in comparison to the unexpected message coming from the other end of the phone.

The screen flashed, and a notification from an encrypted communication app popped up:

Aunt Zhang suddenly called.

Her heart tightened, and she immediately answered the call.

Aunt Zhang's voice trembled: "Miss Xie, something terrible has happened! Mengmeng keeps saying these past two days that there's an uncle wearing a hat staring at her in the hospital corridor... I went to check, but there was no one there. The nurses also said it seems like someone is asking about her room number..."

Xie Yumin's face turned deathly pale instantly, her body froze, and her fingertips gripped the mouse so tightly that she could barely make a sound.

"I...I locked the door from the inside, but I'm really scared..."

Xie Yumin felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, her body growing colder inch by inch, and her mind reeling.

The thing I feared most has finally happened!

Who is it? Ruolan? Gu Yinshen? Or some other force?

It was as if a corner of her world had collapsed.

She gritted her teeth, desperately suppressing her threatening sobs, her voice trembling yet calm:

"Aunt Zhang... listen to me, make sure to lock the door properly. No matter who it is, they must not answer a single word, and no door must be opened."

"Keep all the curtains drawn, and keep your phone on 24/7. I'll figure something out as soon as possible."

"We'll do it as soon as possible!"

She could no longer care about the merger report or the flashing documents on her computer; her vision was already blurred.

She couldn't break down for Mengmeng's sake. She had to find a way.

No matter what the cost.

After hanging up the phone, Aunt Zhang's words, "There's a man in a hat staring at Mengmeng," still echoed in his ears. Every second felt like he was suspended high in the air, his soul being pulled out of his heart.

Just then, the doorbell rang abruptly, piercing her nerves.

Xie Yumin jolted awake, instantly standing up from her chair, her heart pounding like a runaway horse.

Who could it be so late?

She pressed the peephole and immediately saw Gu Yinshen.

A sudden jolt ran through her chest, and her blood seemed to freeze instantly. Xie Yumin's face turned deathly pale. She didn't have time to think about why he had come, or why his arrival was so abrupt.

Her instinct was to close the door, her voice trembling with panic and resistance: "Mr. Gu, you..."

But before she could finish speaking, he shoved the door open.

The heavy door opened inwards instantly, and Xie Yumin was jolted back a step by the force of the impact.

Gu Yinshen stepped straight into her old house, which was less than 60 square meters, his eyes cold and sharp, exuding a strong sense of oppression.

He didn't exchange a single pleasantry, nor did he hesitate for a moment.

My gaze swept across the small but exceptionally clean space like a sharp blade.

He was looking for clues.

Then he saw several children's picture books open on the small coffee table next to the sofa, including titles like "Guess How Much I Love You" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"...

The colors are bright, the pages are open, and the corners are slightly curled, clearly indicating that it has been frequently read.

Gu Yinshen's gaze suddenly sharpened like a blade.

Then, following the light, he saw a drawing of a little girl made with colored crayons on the wall.

In the painting, a smiling little girl stands between the sun and a house, painted in a variety of colors.

These are nothing special; any child could draw such pictures.

But Gu Yinshen's attention was instantly drawn to the crooked signature in the lower right corner.

"Mengmeng".

He was all too familiar with that handwriting.

He had seen it countless times on medical records, the back of drawing paper, and toy labels—it was Mengmeng's unique, childlike handwriting!