The CEO is domineering, the devil Boss is addicted to pampering

Chapter 1342 Yunrui Enchanting: Kidnapped Lao Zhang’s Son

In the evening, a drizzle fell in Xiangcheng. Qi Ruixiang held Yang Xiaotang's hand as they walked home. Her belly was slightly bulging, and her steps were a little slow. He matched her rhythm, stepping in the puddles step by step, splashing tiny drops of water.

"My dad just called and told us to go home for dinner tomorrow." Yang Xiaotang's voice was filled with uncontrollable joy.

Qi Ruixiang stopped and bent down to tuck her wind-blown hair behind her ears. The warmth from his fingertips passed through her skin, bringing a reassuring strength: "Okay, I'll buy some of his favorite pickled duck."

Raindrops fell on the tips of their hair, bringing a moist tenderness...

At 5:30 p.m., the time clock in the technical department made a soft beep. Old Zhang's fingers tightened around his briefcase, the metal buckle rubbing against his palm.

The ticking of the clock at the end of the corridor seemed to be striking at his tense nerves - today's bell for the end of get off work seemed to be a full ten minutes later than usual.

He pretended to tidy up his desk, but out of the corner of his eye he was fixed on the figure outside the glass door. The light in Gu Yunxi's office was still on, and the blinds always left a crack. At this moment, a cold gaze shone through, falling on his back.

"Engineer Zhang, aren't you leaving yet?" Intern Xiao Wang, bag on his back, walked by and greeted with a smile. "I heard your son flew in specially to see you. Why don't you go back and spend some time with him?"

Lao Zhang's heart suddenly sank, but he forced a stiff smile on his face: "Let's go, let's go." After Xiao Wang's footsteps disappeared at the stairs, he grabbed his briefcase and rushed to the elevator, his leather shoes making a panicked echo on the tiles.

The elevator's down number ticked incredibly slowly. Old Zhang adjusted his tie against the metal door, only to see his pale lips in the reflection.

He had felt something was amiss during the past three days—Gu Yunxi's gaze towards him grew colder and colder, the young people in the technical department were always whispering behind his back, and even the aunt in the tea room had a strange hesitant air when she handed him coffee.

Especially late last night, he received a text message from an overseas organization: "The target has been detected, retreat quickly." He should have realized at that time that he had already become a turtle in a jar.

The elevator doors opened, and a flash of blue police lights suddenly appeared outside the lobby's glass doors. Old Zhang froze in his tracks, his briefcase clattering to the floor. The folders inside spilled out, revealing the plane tickets hidden within.

"Mr. Zhang Qiming?" A man in police uniform blocked his path, flashing his ID with a swift, clear gesture. "We've received a report that you're suspected of stealing trade secrets. Come with us."

Old Zhang stumbled back, bumping into the elevator handrail. He suddenly turned around and looked in the direction of Gu Yunxi's office. Sure enough, there was a slender figure standing in the gap between the blinds, like a silent sculpture.

"It's you... It's you who did this!" He suddenly roared, his voice filled with despair and collapse, "Gu Yunxi! When I followed Mr. Gu through life and death, you were still wearing open-crotch pants! What right did you have to..."

The sirens grew closer, drowning out his roar.

As Old Zhang was pinned to the cold back seat of the police car, he saw Gu Yunxi walk out of the building through the car window. She was wearing a black suit and carrying a brown paper bag. She was whispering to the leading officer, her profile looking particularly sharp in the red and blue light of the police lights.

The contents of the bag probably contained his transaction records with overseas accounts, as well as the eavesdropping device hidden behind the filing cabinet - it turned out that she had prepared them long ago.

The incandescent light in the interrogation room was blindingly bright. Old Zhang stared at the coffee cup on the table. The brown stain around it was like a noose, tightening ever tighter.

When Gu Yunxi pushed the door open, he suddenly laughed, his laughter hoarse as if it had been rubbed by sandpaper: "No need to interrogate me, I'll confess everything."

"Oh?" Gu Yunxi sat down across from him and unfolded the documents in the brown paper bag. On top was a lawyer's letter. "But I also have a lawsuit alleging fabricated evidence and attempted framing. Do you want me to read them to you as well?"

Old Zhang's smile froze. He looked at the bright red seal of "Gu's Legal Department" on the document and suddenly realized how ridiculous his little cleverness was in front of a real hunter.

"My son was captured by an overseas organization." He lowered his head, his voice muffled, as if squeezed from his chest. "They said they'd release him if we could get the core data of the 'new type of memory material.'"

"Which part of the data?" Gu Yunxi's pen tip was hovering over the notebook, and the ink dot spread out in a small circle on the paper.

"Molecular chain stability parameters..." Lao Zhang's Adam's apple rolled. "I only copied the basic model. I didn't give them the core algorithm."

"Last Wednesday evening at 8 o'clock, you were in the computer room for forty-seven minutes." Gu Yunxi suddenly read out the time accurate to the second, and the tip of his pen dropped heavily on the paper. "What were you copying during that time?"

Lao Zhang's shoulders trembled violently. He suddenly looked up, a mad light flashing in his eyes. "Do you really think I don't know? Those parameters are completely fake! They were baits deliberately placed in the server by Gu Yunqian!"

Gu Yunxi's hand holding the pen paused, and the ink spread into a larger circle on the paper.

"He's known for a long time that there's something wrong with me." Lao Zhang lowered his voice, as if he was telling me a shocking secret. "Last month in the tea room, he deliberately talked to me about the new algorithm you developed, and even 'accidentally' dropped the encryption key on the floor. Do you think I was able to gain so much access and crack it myself?"

He suddenly laughed, his laughter tinged with despair. "Your brother pushed you to the branch office as a target, while he hid behind the scenes and played Infernal Affairs! There's still half a million dollars in the anonymous account he gave me!"

The air conditioner in the interrogation room suddenly made an unusual buzzing sound. Gu Yunxi looked at Lao Zhang, his eyes red with excitement, and listened as he recounted Gu Yunqian's "evidence" of guilt—those late-night encrypted calls, the sudden change in permissions, and even the bug in her office, which Gu Yunqian had "borrowed" from him.

The details were so specific that they sent chills down her spine.

But the scenes in her memory are rebelling - when she was ten years old and had a fever, her brother carried her on his back for three kilometers at night to find a doctor; when she graduated from university, he gave her the opportunity for further studies and took over the messy branch company himself; just last week, he said on the phone, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."

"Evidence." Gu Yunxi's voice was like ice, and every word was painful.

Old Zhang fell silent for a moment, then scoffed, "He's so cunning, how could he possibly leave any evidence? But think about it, who designed the firewall for Project Nightingale? Besides him, who else could have swapped data right under your nose?"

These words were like an ice pick, piercing Gu Yunxi's heart. She stood up suddenly, the chair legs scraping against the ground with a harsh sound: "Take him to the detention center."

As he walked out of the police station, the evening breeze and autumn rain hit his face. Gu Yunxi stood on the steps, watching the police car disappear into the night, the brown paper bag in his hand feeling as heavy as a stone.

The prosecution materials inside had not been signed yet, but Lao Zhang's words were like vines, wrapping around her spine and tightening more and more.

My phone vibrated. It was Gu Yunqian's video call. He had just finished a meeting, his tie hanging loosely around his neck, his eyes bloodshot with fatigue. "Did Lao Zhang catch you? I asked the kitchen to make some soup. Come back for some?"

Gu Yunxi looked at his familiar face, but suddenly felt incredibly strange. She wanted to ask, "Did you know this a long time ago?" or "Did you change the data?" But when the words reached her lips, she turned them into, "No, I have to work overtime tonight."

After she hung up, the rain intensified. Standing under the streetlight, she watched her shadow stretch out, like a person split in two—a sister who believed in family, and a skeptical leader at the helm.