Chapter 39 Isn't This Just Insane?

Bao Long immediately said, "I... my mother is in his hands, I had no choice but to obey him. He has a tight grip on me..."

Nangong Zhiwen nodded slightly.

This reason was reasonably acceptable.

Based on the information gathered from Bao Long, the image of this Dr. K that Nangong Zhiwen could piece together was indeed that of a gloomy yet immensely confident individual.

He possessed enough confidence to orchestrate such a massive scheme, manipulating everyone under his control without letting the whole operation collapse.

Nangong Zhiwen took a deep breath, looked at Bao Long, and asked, "When does this Dr. K usually come to see you?"

Bao Long shook his head and replied, "That's uncertain. He has always been elusive, and I've only met him twice. Normally, he just sends his subordinates..."

Nangong Zhiwen nodded and said in a low voice, "Alright, I'm aware of this now. Keep it quiet for the time being. The next time he or his subordinates send someone over, contact me immediately!"

"Also, have these girls put their clothes back on. No more of this business! See to it that they are all properly taken care of!"

"With lives as pitiful as theirs, you actually forced them to sell themselves? Are you even human?!"

Bao Long nodded repeatedly under the scolding, watching respectfully as Nangong Zhiwen departed.

...

Four o'clock in the afternoon.

Imperial City Fourth People's Hospital.

Nangong Zhiwen walked into the hospital room carrying a suitcase.

With a "clatter," the suitcase was popped open.

Upon seeing a suitcase completely packed with life-saving medication, Xie Baorong instantly burst into tears of overwhelming emotion.

"Brother! Brother, you are my second-chance parents!!!"

Xie Baorong dropped to his knees right in front of Nangong Zhiwen.

Nangong Zhiwen gave Xie Baorong a sidelong glance. "Cut it out, enough with the dramatics."

"I've got the medicine I promised you. This batch should be enough to keep you alive for over a dozen years."

"I'll get you more later. As long as you don't die from side effects caused by overdosing on the pills, I guarantee you can live out a natural lifespan!"

"Your life is saved, but in return, you have to cooperate with me."

Xie Baorong grabbed a sheet of pills and nodded eagerly, "No problem, absolutely no problem!"

"I will definitely testify for you! I'll prove that Ji Yun instructed me to plant a Trojan horse program in the drone!"

"Not just that!" Nangong Zhiwen spilled everything he knew to Xie Baorong in one breath, including what he had learned from Bao Long.

Hearing Nangong Zhiwen's words, Xie Baorong was scared out of his wits.

"The world of you big shots is really... full of conspiracies everywhere..." Xie Baorong lamented. "But what I understand even less is, since the Ji family's eldest son is so exceptional, why is the father so obsessed with crippling the eldest just to favor the second son?"

"Isn't that completely insane?"

"How would I know?!" Nangong Zhiwen glared at Xie Baorong. "Right now, I need to place the Ji family under surveillance and wiretap them."

"Can you design a wiretapping and surveillance device for me that will absolutely never be detected?"

Xie Baorong wore a troubled expression and said, "Brother, aren't you from National Security... You guys must have countless high-precision devices of this kind; why would you need me to make one? You overestimate me way too much..."

"Nonsense, didn't I already resign!" Nangong Zhiwen glared at Xie Baorong again. "You were even able to hack into the Juggernaut drone, can't you handle a little task like this?"

"Well... I suppose I can do it." Xie Baorong said immediately, "However, I'm afraid any wiretapping or surveillance device would never get past General Ji, right?"

"General Ji is a general, after all..."

Hearing Xie Baorong's words, Nangong Zhiwen let out a slight click of his tongue.

It was indeed a tricky problem.

Based on the information currently in Nangong Zhiwen's possession, this Ji Yun was indeed a man of empty reputation.

However, Ji Tianxing was certainly not someone who chased fame without substance.

That general's rank had been earned through hard-fought military achievements.

The probability of surveillance and wiretapping equipment slipping past Ji Tianxing's eyes was genuinely slim.

Xie Baorong quickly chimed in, "However, I do have another method."

"Another method? What do you mean?" Nangong Zhiwen looked at Xie Baorong and asked.

"Our surveillance and wiretapping devices would certainly arouse their suspicion, but they won't suspect the electronic devices already in their own home." Xie Baorong said promptly, "I can create a Trojan horse program. As long as it connects to the Ji family's network just once, it can quietly hack all internet-dependent electronic devices in their house. This Trojan doesn't take over any of their home electronics; it simply uploads the information collected by all of the Ji family's devices to our own server, allowing us to review it whenever we want."

"Can it be done?" Nangong Zhiwen's eyes lit up instantly.

Xie Baorong nodded vigorously and said, "It can be done! This Trojan program was created by a foreign hacker alliance and is open source, so it's very easy to get a hold of. But... it has to be connected to the Ji family's network at least once."

"This... requires physical access."

"What do you mean by... physical access?" Nangong Zhiwen asked with a frown.

"It means physically plugging a device into their network cable, router, or optical modem. It only takes a few seconds for the Trojan program to back up the data," Xie Baorong explained hastily.

Nangong Zhiwen clicked his tongue slightly and said in a low voice, "That sounds a bit difficult. We'll have to figure out a way..."

"Also..." Xie Baorong added, "If we want long-term surveillance and wiretapping, we'll need an enormous cloud server to store all this data so we can access it at any time."

"Just tell me how much money it will cost." Nangong Zhiwen couldn't understand Xie Baorong's technical jargon and decided to cut straight to the chase about the cost.

"If we rent one, it will cost at least... tens of thousands of yuan a year," Xie Baorong said.

Nangong Zhiwen took a deep breath, nodded, and said, "Alright, I'll figure out the money. Roughly how long will it take you to finish this program?"

Xie Baorong replied immediately, "The Trojan program is only a few megabytes; it downloads in a few seconds. Inputting it into a device takes just a few minutes. Setting up the server... will probably take two or three days."

Nangong Zhiwen nodded slightly. "Good, I'll go figure out a way right now! Pack your things, check out of the hospital tomorrow, and I'll take you to a place where you can focus entirely on this project!"

"Alright! No problem! Just leave it to me!" Xie Baorong agreed instantly.

...

Early the next morning.

After leading Xie Baorong out of the hospital, Nangong Zhiwen hailed a taxi and headed toward the suburbs.

More than an hour later, the car stopped at an abandoned villa district.

The dozen or so villas here had long been deserted, surrounded by overgrown weeds. It seemed that due to the long period of abandonment, nature had reclaimed the entire area.

The driver poked his head out of the car window, looked at the dense bushes all around, and sighed, "Goodness, this place is really hard to find!"

Nangong Zhiwen chuckled, paid the fare, and led Xie Baorong out of the car.

"Let's go." Nangong Zhiwen pointed toward one of the villas.

Xie Baorong looked at the tall bushes surrounding them and swallowed hard. "There aren't snakes in there, are they..."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Nangong Zhiwen gave Xie Baorong an impatient shove forward.

Once inside the villa, Xie Baorong was surprised to find that it was a completely different world inside.

Though it looked dilapidated from the outside, the interior was decorated quite cleanly. Xie Baorong turned his head in astonishment, looking first outside the house and then inside. These were practically two completely isolated worlds.

Nangong Zhiwen closed the front door and said in a low voice, "The refrigerator is stocked with plenty of ingredients. Can you cook?"

"I can cook a little," Xie Baorong nodded and said.

"That's fine, you won't starve then." Nangong Zhiwen nodded slightly. "I certainly can't cook. For the next period of time, we'll be living here. It's far from the city, and no one would ever imagine that someone is living in an abandoned villa like this."

"Once that Trojan program is successfully planted in the Ji family's network, both you and I will have to review massive amounts of content every day to preserve useful information. All of this will serve as evidence. I will also be out looking for other evidence. When the evidence is nearly accumulated and Ji Ling and the others emerge from the dark mist of the Eastern Theater, your mission will be complete."

Xie Baorong nodded without hesitation, "No problem, I'll do whatever you say!"

"Mhm." Nangong Zhiwen nodded slightly and added, "Oh right, there's one more thing. The boss of your previous company—I've already taken care of him for you."

Xie Baorong was startled, staring at Nangong Zhiwen as he asked, "You, you didn't kill him, did you?!"

Rolling his eyes, Nangong Zhiwen looked at Xie Baorong and asked, "Do I look like a bloodthirsty person to you?"

Xie Baorong shook his head, swallowed nervously, and said, "Doesn't look like it... Um, is the server set up?"

Nangong Zhiwen nodded immediately, leading Xie Baorong into the study. The study had already been converted into a server room; the small room was crowded with seven or eight computers and various pieces of equipment.

"I had some friends put this together. Take a look and see if it's enough."

Xie Baorong sat down in front of one of the computers, fiddled with it for a moment, and nodded. "It's more than enough! The cloud storage capacity of this server can hold roughly over a year's worth of data from the Ji family."

Nangong Zhiwen nodded slightly. "The Ji family is huge, so I was worried it wouldn't be enough. Besides, we won't need to store that much anyway; they can only chat about so much. Once we find the critical information, our surveillance mission will practically be over."

Xie Baorong immediately looked at Nangong Zhiwen and asked, "So, have you figured out a way to physically access the Ji family's network?"

Nangong Zhiwen shook his head with a troubled expression, let out a long sigh, and said, "Not yet..."

"I have an idea," Xie Baorong turned his head and said to Nangong Zhiwen.

Nangong Zhiwen was slightly stunned. "Let's hear it."