Ark Simulator: Don't I Have a Physical Body? Chapter 378
Bai Xue sighed, "... Do you know how much trouble this would cause if we were found out?"
"They won't find out." He said matter-of-factly, "I never leave a trace."
Bai Xue was silent for two seconds, then suddenly realized something. "Wait, last night... did you do it while I was asleep?"
[Um.]
"..."
Bai Xue took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
"Su Rui," she said in a low voice, "Could you tell me before doing something like this next time?"
[I'm telling you, you'll stop me.]
"..."
He's right.
Bai Xue rubbed her temples, then suddenly thought of another question, "You hacked into their system just to see why they were arguing?"
[Not entirely.] Su Rui paused, [and also checked the movements of Wenyue House's rival forces.]
Bai Xue was taken aback. "... Why are you investigating this?"
[boring.]
"..."
She stared at the murals in the corridor, remained silent for a few seconds, and then suddenly smiled.
"Su Rui," she said softly, "You're actually helping me, aren't you?"
[...]
A subtle ripple came from my Sea of Consciousness, like the awkwardness of having my thoughts exposed.
Bai Xue couldn't help but smile, "Thank you."
[... eventful.]
From then on, Bai Xue discovered that Su Rui's hacking skills were almost omnipotent.
--While she was on duty, he was able to hack into the surveillance system and issue early warnings about suspicious individuals.
--While she was training, he could access the combat data of other family guards to help her analyze their weaknesses.
Even when she accompanied Lady Wenyue to a dinner party, he could still hack into the kitchen's food preparation system to ensure that her dessert was always one piece more than everyone else's.
"Su Rui." One night, Bai Xue lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, and suddenly spoke, "Did you... often do this kind of thing before?"
[What's up?]
"It's about... hacking into the system and gathering intelligence."
[Um.]
"Why?"
[Work requirements.]
Bai Xue turned to her side, resting her head on her arm. "And now? Is it also 'work-related' now?"
[...]
A few seconds of silence Sea of Consciousness.
"[Now.]" Su Rui's voice was unusually low, "[Because of you.]"
Bai Xue's heart skipped a beat.
The next day, Bai Xue accompanied Lady Wenyue to the Chamber of Commerce headquarters.
On the way, the lady suddenly spoke, "Bai Xue."
"Yes."
"You seem to be in a good mood lately."
Bai Xue was taken aback, then lowered her head. "This subordinate has been rude."
Lady Wenyue chuckled softly, "It's alright. It's just that I rarely see you smile."
Bai Xue pursed her lips but did not answer.
[She discovered it.] Su Rui's voice echoed in her mind.
"What did I find?" Bai Xue asked herself.
[I noticed you were talking to me.]
Bai Xue: "...?!"
She almost tripped.
Lady Wenyue glanced at her sideways, smiled meaningfully, but said nothing more.
That evening, Bai Xue sat in the courtyard, gazing blankly at the night sky.
"Su Rui," she suddenly spoke, "Has Madam... really noticed?"
[Um.]
"Then what should we do?"
She won't tell anyone.
How did you know?
[Because she also has a secret.]
Bai Xue was taken aback. "What secret?"
"[In the basement of her study, there's a server that's not connected to the internet.]" Su Rui's tone was slightly playful. "[I hacked into it and took a look.]"
Bai Xue: "..."
She took a deep breath. "Su Rui."
[Um?]
"Next time... could you please not hack into your own people's systems so easily?"
[...]
A reluctant fluctuation emanated from the Sea of Consciousness.
Bai Xue smiled helplessly.
A cool night breeze blew, and starlight spilled down. She looked up at the sky and suddenly thought that having such an "omnipotent" yet childlike sniper by her side... wasn't so bad.
[My guess was a joke.] Su Rui's voice echoed in Bai Xue's mind, carrying a rare hint of ease. [Lady Wenyue was simply helping you keep your secret.]
Bai Xue knelt in the corner of the tea room, her teacup pausing slightly. Morning light filtered through the paper door, casting dappled patterns of light on the cuffs of her kimono. Lady Wenyue was talking to a visitor behind a screen, her gentle voice mingling with the aroma of tea.
"How can you be so sure?" Bai Xue asked softly as she lowered her head to sip her tea, the steam blurring the curve of her lips.
A rustling sound, like pages turning, came from Su Rui's Sea of Consciousness —this was her favorite way to think.
[Surveillance footage from three days ago.] His voice carried the precision characteristic of a sniper. [She modified the recording of your unusual throwing technique used in the training range.]
Bai Xue nearly lost her composure when the rim of the teacup hit her teeth. She quickly covered her mouth with her sleeve, pretending to have been scalded by the tea.
"You don't even have internal monitoring..."
[Backdoor program.] Su Rui's tone was as calm as if she were discussing the weather. [Incidentally, it was discovered that she personally checks all security records every Wednesday morning.]
Bai Xue's fingertips unconsciously traced the rim of the cup. Incense wafted through the tea room, and the crane pattern on the screen looked lifelike in the light. She suddenly remembered that she had indeed bumped into Lady Wenyue alone in the archives late last Wednesday night—at the time, Madam Wen Yue had just smiled and said she was looking for an old tea manual.
"So..." Bai Xue's eyelashes trembled slightly in the reflection of the tea, "She knew all along?"
[At least two months.]
Volume 15, Chapter 815: I'm Still Better
This moment caused Bai Xue's breath to catch in her throat—it was the very day Su Rui first took over her body during the crisis. Memories flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern: the Madam's sudden increase in dessert portions, the meeting specially arranged in a high-rise building, even the newly gifted modified light armor...
"Those wrist guards!" Bai Xue suddenly gripped her teacup tightly. The cushioning layer on the inside of the specially made wrist guards perfectly concealed the unusual wrist force she exerted when using shuriken.
[Um.]
The crisp sound of a teaspoon hitting a porcelain plate startled Bai Xue from her thoughts. Lady Wenyue had ended her conversation sometime earlier and was leaning against the window, tending to a white camellia. Sunlight filtered through the petals, casting pale pink shadows on her fingertips.
"Xue'er," the lady suddenly spoke, her fingertips tracing the dew-kissed petals, "You said..."
Bai Xue immediately straightened her back, only to see the lady suddenly cover her lips with her folding fan and chuckle, "Secrets are like nectar."
The folding fan unfolded with a "whoosh," revealing newly inscribed words on the back. "Not asking about the flowering season."
[Lungmen proverb.] Su Rui explained aptly, [meaning that those who truly understand flowers don't question the timing of their blooming.]
Bai Xue's pupils dilated slightly. The aroma of the tea suddenly intensified. Watching Lady Wenyue gently stir the honey pot with a teaspoon, she suddenly understood the extra desserts, the late-night archives, and the crane poised to take flight on the screen at this moment—
It was all unspoken tenderness.
"Madam," Bai Xue said, bowing slightly, a drop of tea splashing onto the tatami mat, spreading into a dark dot, "Today's tea..."
"I added acacia honey." The lady closed her folding fan and gently tapped the top of her head. "The one someone said was too sweet last time."
A "crack" sounded in her Sea of Consciousness — Su Rui accidentally crushed the virtual data tablet. Bai Xue bit the soft flesh inside her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud, but she bit too hard and tasted the rust.
[... fool.]
Su Rui's voice came through, muffled yet carrying a hint of warmth. Suddenly, a few petals were blown off the camellias outside the window by the wind, fluttering and drifting through the air between the two of them.
Watching Lady Wenyue's retreating figure as she walked into the inner room, Bai Xue suddenly felt that this morning was exceptionally bright. The secret was no longer a heavy burden, but had become the soft clinking of a teaspoon against a porcelain cup, the flowing light and shadow on the screen, the scrambled data stream in her Sea of Consciousness when a sniper was enraged—
They were all coated with the sweet fragrance of acacia honey.
The morning sunlight streamed through the paper door, and Bai Xue knelt in a corner of the tea room, carefully wiping the blade of a shuriken. The metal gleamed coldly in the morning light, and her movements were gentle and focused, as if she were handling a precious work of art.
[The angle is off.]
Su Rui's voice suddenly rang in her mind.
Bai Xue's wrist paused slightly, then she adjusted the direction of her wiping. "Like this?"
[Um.]
She gently curved the corners of her lips into a smile and continued with her work. The tea room was quiet, with only the faint sound of fabric rubbing against metal.
"Su Rui," Bai Xue suddenly spoke after a while, "Did you used to... take this seriously when cleaning your gun?"
[More serious than you.]
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "How about we have a competition to see who can clean it better?"
[childish.]
Bai Xue laughed, lightly tapping the blade with her fingertip. "You don't dare?"
A subtle ripple came from her Sea of Consciousness, like a large feline that had been provoked. The next second, her right hand was suddenly taken over— Su Rui controlled her fingers and polished the shuriken again with an almost obsessive standard. The blade was polished so hard that it could almost reflect a person's image, and even the slightest scratch was dealt with meticulously.
"... Cheating." Bai Xue muttered softly, but couldn't hide the astonishment in her eyes.
[Admitting defeat?]
"No way." She regained control, deliberately rubbing the blade with her sleeve. "I haven't even started yet."
In the afternoon training field, Bai Xue was practicing throwing shuriken. Three giant shuriken drew silver arcs in the air and embedded themselves deeply into the wooden target in the distance.
[The force is sufficient, but the rotation angle can be adjusted further.] Su Rui commented.
Bai Xue wiped the sweat from her brow and walked over to retrieve the weapon. "How do I adjust it?"
[Lower your wrist two more degrees.]
She tried to do it, and the moment the shuriken left her hand, she indeed felt its trajectory was smoother.
"Impressive," Bai Xue exclaimed sincerely. "You even know about shuriken?"
[Basic Mechanics]
"And this?" She suddenly turned around, and the shuriken flew out at an extremely tricky angle, bouncing three times on the wall before precisely severing the wind chime rope hanging under the eaves.
The wind chimes tinkled as they fell to the ground, their sound particularly crisp in the quiet training field.