Fang Yuan hadn’t noticed Tan Feng’s departure.

  After hearing Gong Hai’s words, Fang Yuan made her way to Li Chunfeng’s empty seat.

  Standing by the desk, she brushed her fingers over the dried flowers. Fang Yuan had a deep impression of Li Chunfeng. During their many collaborations, particularly during recruitment interviews, his extensive knowledge clearly marked him as a technical powerhouse.

  She had heard the executives praise Li Chunfeng multiple times, saying that in three years at the company, he had grown into an expert in his field. They planned to promote him to Technical Director after the completion of the new product.

  When the incident involving Li Chunfeng occurred, Fang Yuan felt a profound regret, as if the heavens envied his talent.

  But tonight, that sudden sigh had evoked an eerily familiar feeling—it sounded exactly like Li Chunfeng’s voice.

  That was why she became so frightened, even losing her composure earlier.

  After all, she had attended the memorial service and personally saw him off at the crematorium. She watched as Li Chunfeng’s parents, holding his urn, left Haidu in sorrow.

  The more she thought about it, the more fear crept into her mind. She turned and hurried back to her office, shut down her computer, and began packing her belongings.

  “Manager, are you leaving already?” Zhou Xiaoxiao, who had just finished chatting with Gong Hai and others, entered and noticed Fang Yuan’s actions.

  “Oh, Xiaoxiao, you should leave soon too,” Fang Yuan said, having already packed up. She hurried out of the office, only pausing to give Zhou Xiaoxiao a brief instruction before exiting.

  Watching Fang Yuan’s rushed departure, Zhou Xiaoxiao sat at her desk, seemingly lost in thought.

  After a moment, she clenched her teeth, stood, grabbed her bag, and approached Fang Yuan’s workstation. She turned on the computer, retrieved a disc from her bag, and inserted it into the optical drive.

  She clicked through the popup interface with her mouse, waited about a minute, then removed the disc and shut down Fang Yuan’s computer.

  Looking up at the pitch-black night outside the window and then back at the empty office, an inexplicable unease gripped her.

  She turned off the monitor, hurriedly grabbed her bag, and rushed out of the office—so quickly she didn’t even bother to shut down her own computer.

  After walking a short distance, she turned back to switch off the office lights before leaving again.

  As she turned, she nearly collided with someone.

  “Ah!” she exclaimed, only to realize it was Lin An’an, an administrative clerk.

  “Xiaoxiao, are you leaving too?” Lin An’an patted Zhou Xiaoxiao’s shoulder and asked.

  Zhou Xiaoxiao linked her arm with Lin An’an’s. “You gave me a fright, An’an. Manager Fang said we could go. Plus, after what happened earlier, I’m a bit spooked.”

  Lin An’an nodded. “Yeah, it was pretty unsettling. Even Tan Feng, a grown man, got spooked and left early. That’s why I’m heading out too.”

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  When they arrived at the time clock, they noticed two employees from the finance department also clocking out. Fear was evident in their eyes.

  ...

  As the employees with external devices shut down and left, Li Chunfeng—now limited to view the company’s five surveillance camera feeds—could see nothing else.

  Fortunately, Zhou Xiaoxiao’s computer remained on, with the microphone and speakers active. Only the screen was off, disabling the camera.

  Zhou Xiaoxiao’s workstation was near the entrance of the HR office, so if conversations in the lobby were loud enough, Li Chunfeng could vaguely hear the voices.

  He had seen Zhou Xiaoxiao turn on Fang Yuan’s computer and insert a disc.

  Not wanting to alert her, he had not immediately checked the disc's contents. When he finally could, Zhou Xiaoxiao had already shut down the computer.

  Although he was curious about what she was doing, he was helpless with a powered-off machine.

  Just then, voices outside the entrance caught his attention.

  “Haizi, what do you think really happened tonight? Was it really a ghost?”

  “Come on, even if it was, it’s our boss. Would he hurt us? But earlier, I saw Manager Fang’s computer was accessed remotely. You all said your checked computers didn’t have that, so I’m confused.” That was undoubtedly Gong Hai’s voice.

  “From a technical standpoint, remotely accessing a computer and playing sounds through its speakers is straightforward. So tonight’s incident was likely just a prank by someone on the other end,” replied a crisp voice, probably Han Donghua, the leader of the second team.

  “Right. Did you see where the remote connection originated? Maybe we can track down the prankster,” another voice asked. Li Chunfeng couldn’t recognize it.

  Gong Hai responded, “I didn’t pay much attention at the time, but now we can go check Manager Fang’s computer.”

  “By now, the connection is probably broken. None of the computers we checked show signs of remote access,” Han Donghua said.

  “Yeah, and messing with Manager Fang’s computer without permission isn’t appropriate,” added the last voice.

  Gong Hai’s dismissive tone: “Relax. Even if the connection’s gone, there might still be traces left.”

  His voice grew clearer and louder, and footsteps could be heard—likely the group had decided to enter the HR office.

  Soon, Li Chunfeng saw Gong Hai through the camera.

  At this moment, he had bypassed the operating system’s remote access features, controlling the computer through mental signals—a method inspired by his ability to scan and read data from “star points.”

  He realized this approach left almost no trace.

  This was his exclusive method for remote intrusion and control. The only question was: how many machines he could simultaneously control.

  Unnoticed, the “Miracle.sys” file in the server’s system directory had once again increased in size.

  About a minute after Fang Yuan’s computer started, Gong Hai had just clicked through some OS windows when—

  The entire screen suddenly turned blue.

  “Sh*t! A virus!” Gong Hai yelled.

  Less than thirty seconds later, angry shouts erupted from the lobby.

  Gong Hai and the others exchanged horrified glances, a single thought flashing through their minds: This virus is spreading like wildfire!

  They immediately ran out of the HR office, rushing to check their own computers.

  Only Gong Hai remained, staring blankly at Fang Yuan’s machine. After a long pause, he simply pressed the power button to shut it down.

  ...

  At this moment, Li Chunfeng was on high alert.

  Even before Fang Yuan’s computer blue-screened, he detected abnormal activity.

  Countless data packets were being transmitted from Fang Yuan’s machine into the network, spreading to other computers—including the server he was monitoring.

  A mental scan revealed these packets carried distinct virus signatures.

  His server had recently installed new antivirus software, and he had thoroughly studied its principles.

  Using virus database detection, he confirmed almost instantly: this was a worm-type virus akin to the infamous “Panda Burning Incense,” but with the destructive power of the CIH virus.

  Clearly, the virus was designed to incapacitate every computer within Fengdu’s internal network.

  Li Chunfeng deduced that Zhou Xiaoxiao must have planted the virus via the disc she inserted into Fang Yuan’s computer.

  Her plan was likely for the virus to activate and spread the next morning when Fang Yuan powered on her computer.

  However, Gong Hai’s inadvertent action of booting Fang Yuan’s machine triggered early propagation. Now Zhou Xiaoxiao’s computer remained on and was infected, its screen frozen with a blue screen of death.

  The viral packets had already reached the network gateway, poised to strike the server Li Chunfeng was using.