As dawn broke through the darkness, a new day began.
It was before seven in the morning, and the winter night was slowly fading. Xia Zhiyi had finished her morning exercise, changed into a sand-colored coat, and appeared at the entrance of Li Jing's office.
"You're here way too early." Li Jing, wrapped in a fluffy brown pajama and sporting dark circles under his eyes, appeared before Xia Zhiyi, complaining as he opened the door for him, "I've been so busy lately, I didn't sleep a wink last night, and you still had to come today, now I don't know when I'll get any sleep."
Xia Zhiyi followed him into the office and casually asked, "Were you on night shift last night?"
Li Jing yawned. "More or less. I needed to stay and handle some things yesterday, they were a bit tricky, and before I knew it, the whole night was gone."
As he said this, the person actually on night shift in the office sat up from one of his desks and waved, "Good morning, Li Jing. Who did you bring in?"
Li Jing replied lazily, "This is the examiner for the exam the boss mentioned earlier."
"Why?"
Upon hearing this, the man immediately sat up, got up from his seat, and walked over. When he saw Xia Zhiyi, he winked and said with a smile, "Ah, it's you, the genius boy Xia Zhiyi, right? I've heard the boss mention you before."
Xia Zhiyi somewhat surprised. His cooperation with the authorities had been kept secret until now, and not many people should know about it.
Li Jing turned to him and explained, "This is Li Changfeng, the second-in-command in our office. He's not the most technically skilled person here, but he mainly plays a coordinating role and is also our strategist."
Upon hearing this, Xia Zhiyi understood why the other party knew about her.
In matters like this, you can't bypass anyone but the advisors.
"Hello, strategist."
Li Changfeng called him a genius boy, so it's normal for Xia Zhiyi to respond with "strategist." It can be taken as a joke between the two parties, or as mutual flattery, depending on how the other party interprets it.
Li Changfeng smiled and said, "Hello, hello. Is the exam we talked about before scheduled for today?"
Xia Zhiyi nodded slightly. "I notified them in advance."
So it wasn't exactly sudden.
Li Changfeng nodded. "Yes, I understand. You have to balance your studies and work, so it's not easy for you to find the time."
He understood from the meaning behind his words that he knew Xia Zhiyi's identity as both a student and an actress.
Xia Zhiyi didn't bother to think about whether there was any other probing intent in the other person's words. Anyway, he was too lazy to think so much today, so he just took it literally.
"Hmm, is everything alright?"
Li Changfeng glanced at Li Jing, who was clearly tired, and smiled, giving him an OK sign. "No problem. How long can you stay here, a day or half a day?"
Xia Zhiyi: "If nothing unexpected happens, it will take a day. If something comes up unexpectedly, it will take half a day."
Xia Zhiyi didn't give a definitive answer here, because he himself couldn't be sure. After all, who knows what unexpected situations he might encounter in the near future? Everything depends on the circumstances.
"OK."
Then, Li Changfeng patted Li Jing on the shoulder, indicating that he could take a short rest before everyone arrived to recover, while Li Changfeng went to contact the others.
Li Jing: "Would you like to see where I work?"
Xia Zhiyi: "Okay."
Then, Li Jing led Xia Zhiyi to his "workstation," brought him a chair, and indicated that Xia Zhiyi. He then turned around and lay down on the table to doze off.
He trusted Xia Zhiyi so much because he knew that if Xia Zhiyi really wanted to, he couldn't hide any secrets from her on the computer.
Since that's the case, there's no need to take any precautions.
Precautions are useless.
Xia Zhiyi didn't disturb Li Jing's rest. She turned on the computer and checked the contents of Li Jing's computer. She noticed a program on his desktop. She knew without opening it that Li Jing had been tinkering with it on his own. She didn't know what it was for before opening it.
However, Li Jing's desktop background had a line of large red text on a black background. "[Don't touch anything on my desktop, and don't touch the power cord of the computer next to me!!!!!]"
Xia Zhiyi glanced at it and knew that the computer was used by Li Jing to run programs. She had only glanced at it casually and did not intend to touch it, but she immediately noticed several bugs.
Xia Zhiyi: "..."
It's not surprising that there are bugs. At least so far, including the time she's spent traveling to other worlds, Xia Zhiyi has never seen a program without a single bug.
Even the main characters' systems have bugs.
In one world that Xia Zhiyi had visited, the protagonist's cheat system was actually running on a bug. The way he defeated the Power of the Plot was by fixing that bug, which directly caused the protagonist to change from a mindless, overpowered protagonist to a hard-working protagonist who had to put in the effort to reap the rewards.
Well, if he could continue to climb to the top even without the control of the plot, then he should still be considered a protagonist.
Everyone is the protagonist of their own life.
Xia Zhiyi couldn't claim that his program was completely bug-free, but when he discovered bugs in other people's programs, although his current skills allowed him to ensure that fixing the bug wouldn't cause Li Jing's program to completely crash, but...
Xia Zhiyi looked away, pretending she hadn't seen it.
Xia Zhiyi: Anyway, it can run.
Li Jing had no idea that the code he had painstakingly written was almost modified by his half-mentor. When he woke up from a nap, everyone who should and shouldn't have come to the office had arrived.
Those who shouldn't have come were people who didn't believe in Xia Zhiyi's abilities and wanted to see for themselves and verify her skill level.
Xia Zhiyi maintained a smile on her face towards these people, appearing quite easy to bully. Before Li Changfeng and the others could persuade them to leave, she took the initiative and said, "Then let's go together. There's only one test today: attack me."
Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback, and then looked at each other in bewilderment.
Xia Zhiyi maintained his usual gentle expression, which always made him seem like a kind, humble, and polite young man. However, his words were incredibly arrogant. "This is today's test. You can team up or attack separately, but the deadline is today."
As she spoke, Xia Zhiyi's smile seemed to deepen, "If anyone can break through my defenses, I can grant them one request—it's fine if they just let me withdraw."
Upon hearing this, Li Changfeng's expression changed slightly, and he glanced at his silent superior.
However, the other party did not speak, seemingly indifferent to what was happening in front of him. Li Changfeng was somewhat puzzled, but as one of the insiders, he naturally could not let Xia Zhiyi treat their cooperative project so easily at this time.
Li Changfeng: " Xia Zhiyi, isn't this a bit inappropriate?"
Xia Zhiyi smiled, "It's okay, I believe in my abilities."
How arrogant!