It was his first time entering Xie Ningwan’s lounge. Xie Ningwan was usually very busy at the company and rarely rested, so he hardly ever used it. The room was clean and tidy, with a cold style, just like his bedroom at home.
Song Yaoyao toured the lounge once around, and when he turned back, he saw Xie Ningwan changing clothes. He had already taken off his shirt.
Having stayed by Xie Ningwan’s side for so long, Song Yaoyao no longer avoided watching him change. He just stood there beside him, watching.
On the contrary, Xie Ningwan, for some reason, suddenly paused midway through undressing. As if sensing something, he glanced around with his peripheral vision.
Song Yaoyao followed his line of sight and looked aside. There was nothing.
‘?’
When he looked back, Xie Ningwan had put on a new shirt and was fastening the buttons. Song Yaoyao didn’t notice anything amiss and continued to trail behind Xie Ningwan, following him out of the lounge.
Assistant Lei had already cleaned up the mess in the office. He had placed a new cup of coffee on the desk, and Lin Guan was still waiting to the side, looking at the emerging Xie Ningwan with anxiety. He apologized again, “President Xie, I’m sorry.”
Xie Ningwan’s expression was indifferent, and he didn’t say anything. Assistant Lei smoothed things over and took him out first.
Before leaving, Lin Guan frowned and looked back once more. The floor in front of the desk was spotless, with no obstacles indeed.
But he was certain he wouldn’t have tripped for no reason.
Song Yaoyao noticed Lin Guan’s gaze but knew he couldn’t be seen, so he complacently propped his cheek on his hand and sat on the chair, watching him.
Once Lin Guan and Assistant Lei had left, Song Yaoyao turned his head back, only to find that Xie Ningwan’s gaze had also lingered for a moment on the spot Lin Guan had just looked at.
‘?’
Song Yaoyao felt that Xie Ningwan was a bit off today, always looking around randomly.
He suspiciously leaned close to Xie Ningwan’s face, very near, observing his expression.
He still couldn’t discern anything unusual, just like before.
It shouldn’t be, right? Song Yaoyao reassured himself.
This was an urban business intrigue novel. Even if Xie Ningwan was the protagonist with the Fortune of the entire book’s world, he wouldn’t have yin-yang eyes. Otherwise, the System would have told him already.
Song Yaoyao floated over as usual and sprawled on Xie Ningwan’s back, “accompanying” him as he worked.
Over the next few days, Lin Guan behaved obediently while working with Assistant Lei and didn’t show any flaws for the time being. Song Yaoyao refrained from pranks and merely stayed vigilant against him in secret.
That day, Xie Ningwan went to the conference room for a meeting. Song Yaoyao didn’t follow and lay on the office sofa, sleeping.
The office door suddenly opened. The intruder moved very lightly, making only a faint sound.
Song Yaoyao rolled over, rubbed his eyes, thinking Xie Ningwan had returned. He drowsily lifted his head to look and saw Lin Guan sneaking in on tiptoe.
Song Yaoyao instantly woke up, his eyes widening.
Lin Guan entered the office and first warily scanned the surroundings, confirming no one was there. He then closed the door behind him.
He quickly walked to Xie Ningwan’s desk, gripped the mouse on the desktop, swiftly entered the password he had obtained from the Xie Family, browsed through the file directories on the desktop, and then took out a small USB drive from his person.
The meeting had just started not long ago, so Xie Ningwan wouldn’t be back for at least an hour. The surveillance cameras at the president’s office entrance and inside the room had also been temporarily disabled by their people. Lin Guan took a deep breath, suppressing the tension in his heart, and inserted the USB drive into the device.
Song Yaoyao stood beside him, tilting his head to watch his actions, silently saying nothing.
Sweat beaded on Lin Guan’s palms. It took a few tries for the USB drive to align with the port. Then, without wasting a moment, he began transferring the files.
While waiting for the transfer, he occasionally looked up to check the door’s movement, his nerves taut.
Gurgle gurgle gurgle… A pen on the desk suddenly rolled, falling to the floor with a crisp sound.
Pa.
Though the sound wasn’t loud, in this atmosphere, it stood out sharply and startlingly, making Lin Guan jump.
He had no time to ponder why the pen had rolled off on its own. He quickly picked it up and placed it back in its original position from memory.
Soon, the important files were transferred. Lin Guan removed the USB drive, clutched it in his palm, deleted the operation traces, ensured the desktop was exactly as it had been when he entered, and then tiptoed out of the office just as quietly and swiftly as before.
Song Yaoyao also returned to the sofa, lazily yawned, ignored him, rolled over, and continued sleeping.
An hour later, Xie Ningwan returned from the meeting. The conference secretary followed beside him, reporting the key points of the meeting summary.
Song Yaoyao had slept a full nap and was full of energy. He floated over and pounced entirely onto Xie Ningwan, hugging his neck.
Xie Ningwan, utterly unaware, carried him on his back as he sat down and picked up the pen from the desk to sign the document handed over by the conference secretary.
When he started writing, he glanced at the pen tip and paused. Then, very naturally, he switched to another signing pen.
Song Yaoyao didn’t notice this small action and nestled on his shoulder, blissfully absorbing Fortune.
After the secretary left, Xie Ningwan continued working. The moment he opened the computer desktop, he sensed something was wrong.
His eyes darkened. He picked up the internal phone and notified Assistant Lei to come over.
Song Yaoyao knew he would notice. After all, he was the protagonist; how could he miss Lin Guan’s little trick?
In the original story, Xie Ningwan had noticed something off this time and rooted out Lin Guan. But he was one step late—Lin Guan had already transmitted part of the data from the USB drive to those uncles in the Xie Family who couldn’t stand Xie Ningwan.
But this time, with Song Yaoyao around, the plot wouldn’t unfold the same way—
In a secluded conference room, a middle-aged man sat at the head. Several black-clad men who looked like employees sat below him, receiving and decrypting the data Lin Guan had sent back via computer.
“Is it ready yet?” The middle-aged man waited a while and asked impatiently, unable to hold back.
“I-it’s… ready…” One employee looked at the content on the monitor, hesitated, and replied uncertainly.
The middle-aged man forcibly suppressed the flicker of excitement on his face, unaware of the hesitation in his tone, and said gravely, “Put it on the screen for me to see.”
“…” The employees exchanged glances. Finally, the one closest to the middle-aged man gritted his teeth and projected the decrypted data onto the conference room’s large screen.
Instantly, the lively and upbeat theme song blared through the entire conference room, deafening and invigorating.
The middle-aged man was stunned by the sound for a good while. He stared wide-eyed at the content on the screen, his fingers tightening on the desk.
Moments later, his chest heaved violently. He stood up in fury and kicked the table, roaring, “What the hell is this!”
The file’s content was no commercial core secret at all. Instead, someone had swapped it with the full collection of SpongeBob SquarePants. A yellow little sponge was grinning cheekily.
