Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

At the border.

At this time, Giant Crocodile was keeping a map inside a wooden house, watching his subordinates leave.

The phone on the side lit up and he picked it up.

Clearly seeing the dialog box floating on the lock screen, his casual and distracted manner suddenly became serious. Without talking nonsense to He Chen, he took a screenshot and dialed her phone.

“What trouble did my Big Brother meet with?” Giant Crocodile asked in a deep voice. His exotic features and eyebrows were stiff, and his expression was solemn.

If He Chen had to contact him, it probably wasn’t a small matter.

He was prepared to send a truckload of men to help out. His Big Brother was a hacker and was surely incredibly frail.

“It’s not really considered trouble.” Carrying a camera, He Chen greeted some people and walked towards the car. “Lone Wolf has taken a fancy to your private library.”

While counting his manpower, Giant Crocodile was rendered speechless.

After a while, his thick eyebrows knitted together. “Are you sure?”

“Certain. Lone Wolf needs an antique.” He Chen sat down and gestured for the driver to set off.

On the other end, Giant Crocodile leaned back in his chair for a long time before saying, “How’s this repaying my Big Brother?”

How could his life be comparable to an antique?

“Other than this, what else can you do to repay Lone Wolf?” He Chen mercilessly sneered.

Giant Crocodile was speechless.

He Chen put the camera beside her. “I’ll give you Lone Wolf’s contact number, you can contact your Big Brother personally.”

**

In Ting Lan, Qin Ran was eating downstairs.

“Ran Ran, shall I pick you up on Sunday?” Cheng Wenru took a glass of wine and chuckled at her.

While eating, Qin Ran looked up at this. “Anything.”

Cheng Wenru took a sip of wine and raised an eyebrow at Cheng Juan.

He ignored her.

Halfway through her meal, Qin Ran’s phone placed next to her bowl rang. It was an overseas phone number without a name.

She glanced at it and paused.

“Miss Qin.” Cheng Mu reminded her from two seats away. “Your phone.”

“I’m answering a call.” She took her phone and calmly went upstairs.

When the phone was about to hang up, she closed the door and picked up.

Immediately, a male voice said in ineloquent Chinese, “Lone Wolf?”

Since she was terribly familiar with Chang Ning and the others, Qin Ran didn’t bother turning on the voice changer and just leaned against the door. “Giant Crocodile?”

Her voice was clear and slow and sounded evidently cold, just like the tone she used to speak online…

But he was stunned that it was a female voice.

“Beep, beep…”

On the other end of the phone, Giant Crocodile hung up with a “pop,” stood there for two minutes and called He Chen for confirmation.

Still in the car, He Chen leaned back and chuckled. “You’re done, how dare you hang up on your Big Brother’s call…”

Giant Crocodile’s face cracked a little, and after a long while, he directly opened the special software and sent Lone Wolf a video call.

She seemed to be waiting for him and picked up within two seconds.

The person on the other end of the video put the phone on the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. In the video, the girl had clear eyes, dark hair draping over her white furnishing clothes, and jade-like beautiful skin.

She looked 10 years younger than him!

She was even younger a few years ago!

As 129’s senior, Giant Crocodile naturally followed other people to expose several top-notch hackers, but none of them matched up to Lone Wolf.

With this face, if it weren’t for He Chen’s reminder, he wouldn’t dare recognize her even if she stood in front of him!

“Wait a moment.” After a long while, he finally reacted, and calmly took his phone out. “I’ll go to my private library.”

Outside the wooden house was a brightly lit forest, where several strangely-shaped houses were built. Overhead, the sound of helicopters could even be heard.

This was the border, an area unaffected by the country’s forces.

Within a few minutes, Giant Crocodile walked to the black iron gate outside.

The young man guarding the door stood upright. “Boss, are you going to the warehouse today?”

Giant Crocodile lightly nodded and scanned the iris verification. The young man led him, walking several floors down the staircase to the private library.

He turned on the lights and aimed the camera at the private collections.

Through the lenses, Qin Ran saw Giant Crocodile’s private library.

On the outermost area was a glass cabinet, with ancient bronzes, swords, armors, and historical weapons from abroad placed inside.

In the middle were various jade jewelry decorations.

Further in were manuscripts, calligraphies, porcelain, and inkstone decorations of various colors.

Anything here would drive those who knew a valuable good outside insane.

It was a pity Qin Ran didn’t understand their value.

Stopping in the innermost area, Giant Crocodile showed Qin Ran everything. His real voice sounded much colder than online as he said, “Big… the antique calligraphy and paintings are all here. Tell me whichever one you like.”

Hearing this, the young man who had led the way finally noticed the phone in Giant Crocodile’s hands.

He seemed to be on a video call with someone…

He even let someone pick one of his private collections?

The young man was secretly shocked. Who on earth was this big boss to let him display his own collection?

These paintings had all been preserved in good states by the glass cabinet. Not knowing much about them, Qin Ran casually glanced past them and pointed to the painting in the middle. “That one.”

Her voice was young and girly.

The young man lowered his head and thought this voice didn’t sound like the mysterious female war reporter and sounded much younger.

He was thinking of this when Giant Crocodile hung up.

After a long while, he finally heard his own big boss’s voice. “Tell someone to bring out the painting.”

“Yes, sir!”

He took out his phone to carry out the order, falling into a daze as he glanced at the painting his big boss pointed out…

In Ting Lan, Qin Ran hung up and returned to dinner.

Cheng Juan and the others had finished eating and were waiting for her.

Cheng Wenru picked up her wine glass and casually asked, “Who was it?”

“My friend,” Qin Ran thought for a while and replied, “I told him to send me something.”

Cheng Wenru had only asked casually and didn’t dig further to find out who this friend was. Instead, she discussed the Cheng family’s event.

**

The next day, Qin Ran went to the laboratory as usual.

She studied her thesis until 2 pm and always came on the dot.

On the other hand, Scholar Liao and the others were truly research madmen and were present whenever she arrived in the laboratory.

As usual, Qin Ran sat with her computer in the corner and wrote her thesis.

Liao Gaoang hadn’t seen her since yesterday afternoon and looked up after finishing his phase experiment to see Qin Ran sitting at the outermost area, flipping through a book.

“Tell her to come in,” he pushed his glasses and lightly said to Zuo Qiurong.

Stunned, Zuo Qiurong stared at him, then turned to look at Qin Ran. She pursed her lips and went outside.

She lightly knocked on Qin Ran’s table and said, “Scholar Liao asked you to go in.”

Then, she turned and went back inside.

While typing her thesis, Qin Ran also paused. Scholar Liao never allowed her to step into the innermost experiment area, this was indeed a strange request.

Turning off her computer, she stood up, slowly buttoned the protective clothing, and headed inside.

Helping Scholar Liao in the innermost experimental area, Brother Ye saw her and mouthed, “Congratulations.”

Scholar Liao only asked Qin Ran to help out with a few things.

Qin Ran spent the remaining time watching his experiment. As a special researcher, his experimental data was complicated, and ordinary people couldn’t catch up with his rhythm. Qin Ran, on the other hand, learned much while observing him on the sidelines.

Despite having much fewer hands-on opportunities than Zuo Qiurong and Brother Ye, her learning rate left them in disbelief.

In the afternoon break, Brother Ye and Qin Ran went to the changing room together.

“Scholar Liao usually takes at least a month to warm up to a stranger,” said Brother Ye in a lowered voice. “You’ve only been here a week.”

Changing into her coat, Qin Ran just silently smiled, her eyebrows clear and relaxed.

She always spent her afternoon break reading books in the library.

In the innermost area.

Zuo Qiurong and Brother Ye were inside. Holding a piece of experimental equipment, Zuo Qiurong turned to Scholar Liao and asked in a forcefully casual voice, “Scholar Liao, is our junior coming in next time?”

Walking over to his computer with a light expression, Scholar Liao nodded and said, “Aren’t you and Brother Ye preparing for a domestic competition?”

Upon hearing this explanation, Zuo Qiurong’s expression changed.

Thankfully, Scholar Liao had only mentioned this and didn’t explain further. Zuo Qiurong walked out with a sigh of relief.

But inside, Scholar Liao opened a document and suddenly thought of something.

He pulled open a drawer and took out Qin Ran’s document which he had kept.