Chapter 39: Let Me Protect You (VII)

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Chapter 39: Let Me Protect You (VII)

“I don’t want an apple. I want Panda.” Feng Juan leaned against the hospital bed, his face swollen and his speech muffled as he made his demand. Only in front of Shang Ke would he ever show such a willful side.

“Fine. I’ll get you some Panda later.” Shang Ke continued peeling the apple as he spoke. The “Panda” Feng Juan wanted was actually a type of chocolate candy with a white outer shell and dark filling. He liked snacking on a couple whenever he had nothing else to do.

Satisfied, Feng Juan accepted the apple Shang Ke had cut into small pieces and crunched away at them.

Shang Ke looked at his battered face, feeling both sorry for him and amused. After a while, he pulled out his phone.

Feng Juan immediately became wary. “What are you trying to do?”

“Take a commemorative photo.” Shang Ke opened the camera.

At once, Feng Juan covered his face with both hands. “You can’t do that!”

“What are you afraid of? Scars are a man’s medals. The more you have, the more glorious you are.” Shang Ke leaned closer with obvious bad intentions.

“Bullshit! What’s glorious about getting beaten until my face is unrecognizable?” Feng Juan kept his face covered and stubbornly refused.

“Be good and move your hands.” Shang Ke continued tempting him. “One photo comes with one complimentary kiss.”

Feng Juan froze, then parted his fingers slightly, revealing a pair of dark eyes. “Really?”

Huh? He actually wants the kiss?

“Mm.” Shang Ke nodded.

“Fine.” Feng Juan lowered his hands with an expression of great reluctance, then said coolly, “If you’re going to take them, take a few more. One kiss per photo.”

Shang Ke couldn’t help laughing. He sat down beside Feng Juan, raised his phone, and snapped a photo of their heads pressed together. Soft strands of hair brushed across Feng Juan’s face, tickling him. He turned toward Shang Ke, his eyes full of tenderness.

Shang Ke suddenly lifted his head and kissed Feng Juan on the forehead. The phone faithfully captured the moment.

With that kiss, Feng Juan felt as though even worse injuries would have been worth it.

Seeing Shang Ke put the phone away, he hurriedly said, “Aren’t you taking more? My left cheek, right cheek, nose, and mouth all deserve their own commemorative shots.”

Shang Ke stared at him speechlessly. He really couldn’t make his greed any more obvious.

At that moment, Mr. and Mrs. Ferg entered the hospital room and fussed over the two boys worriedly for quite some time.

The two immediately put on matching obedient, well-behaved expressions.

A little later, Shang Ke used buying candy as an excuse and heartlessly abandoned Feng Juan to make his escape.

The moment he stepped outside the room, the smile faded from Shang Ke’s face. Rowan was standing before him with several unfamiliar senior officers.

“Shang Ke, come to the station with us. There are some questions we need you to answer.” Rowan’s expression was serious.

Shang Ke nodded, glanced back at the hospital room, then followed the officers out.

Shang Ke knew that the moment he exposed his hacking skills, attracting police attention became inevitable. The entire rescue operation had taken less than three hours from start to finish, an astonishing level of efficiency.

Afterward, police technicians analyzed what Shang Ke had done. Not only had he breached Stellar Technologies’ servers and retrieved its records, he had also broken into the Lenna Port warehouse registry. The former was a technology company staffed by numerous highly skilled programmers, while the latter was a semi-governmental organization. Neither was something an ordinary person could infiltrate easily. Yet Shang Ke, a thirteen-year-old child, had torn through both systems in barely a dozen minutes. His technical ability already far surpassed that of an ordinary technician.

If they knew Shang Ke had also infiltrated the police surveillance network and used Jumping Bug to monitor numerous phones, they would probably be even more shocked.

“Shang, we’d like you to take a test,” Rowan told him.

“Computers?”

“Yes.” Rowan nodded. “If you pass, we’d like to formally register your abilities with the police. Considering that you’re still a minor and that your previous intrusions were carried out to save someone, we can deal with those offenses leniently.”

Being formally registered with the police meant that people who possessed unusual skills and were considered potentially dangerous had their personal information kept on record and accepted government and police oversight. So long as they did not endanger society, they might occasionally be asked to cooperate with official assignments. Naturally, the authorities would prefer it if such people eventually joined a government agency outright. The main restriction was that future overseas travel would require government approval.

Shang Ke had anticipated this possibility long ago and sensibly agreed.

Since his abilities were already exposed, Shang Ke saw no reason to hold back. He performed exceptionally well during the test, thoroughly stunning everyone present with nothing more than a keyboard beneath his hands.

A thought suddenly occurred to Rowan. Perhaps the reason Tobin Syndicate had refused to leave the two children alone all those years ago had not been merely to silence witnesses, but because of Shang Ke’s extraordinary computer skills. If so, the mysterious person who had secretly provided the police with intelligence over the years might also have been him. But Shang Ke had only been seven back then! A seven-year-old computer expert? Rowan could hardly believe his own theory.

After the test, Shang Ke practically walked out over a floor covered in dropped jaws, escorted by Rowan.

In Shang Ke’s opinion, trading a certain amount of freedom for official police protection was worth it.

It was already evening when he returned to the hospital. The moment Feng Juan saw him, he demanded, “Where did you go? Why were you gone so long?”

“There wasn’t any Panda nearby, so I went to the neighboring city to buy some.” Shang Ke handed him a bag of candy.

“You spent seven hours buying this bag of candy?” If Feng Juan had known it would be that much trouble, he would rather never eat Panda again in his life. Shang Ke had been gone for ages, his phone had been unreachable, and Feng Juan had nearly worried himself sick.

From Feng Juan’s reaction, Shang Ke knew the Fergs had not told him what really happened. That was probably for the best. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even have been able to rest peacefully in the hospital.

“Oh, right. What’s happening with Stellar Technologies?” Feng Juan asked as he opened the candy.

“Corson has been detained for now. As for Stellar Technologies…” Shang Ke casually stole a piece of Panda from Feng Juan and popped it into his own mouth. “Don’t worry. I’ve already taken care of it.”

After Feng Juan was taken to the hospital, Shang Ke infiltrated Stellar Technologies again, planted a Trojan, and rewrote its public notice with a message: “I came. I patiently waited five minutes, but no one noticed me, so I left again—and left you a little gift. No need to thank me.” At the end, he signed it with two simple and brutally direct words—“The Hacker.”

Their servers had been infiltrated without a sound, no one had noticed anything wrong for five full minutes, and their public notice had even been rewritten. It might have been merely embarrassing for an ordinary company, but Stellar Technologies specialized in network security, and its technical strength was supposedly unquestionable. For such a company to be breached so effortlessly, with the intruder openly leaving a signature before walking away, was the equivalent of a resounding slap across the face. On top of that, both Corson and his son had now been “invited for tea” by the police, destroying their reputations and sending the company’s business into a steep decline.

So really, provoke anyone you like—just don’t piss off a programmer.

After everything that had happened, Feng Juan made a decision. “I want to register a company under Mr. Ferg’s name.”

“A technology company?” Shang Ke asked.

“Yes.” Feng Juan nodded. “Internet technology changes by the day. Time is money, and the earlier we enter the industry, the greater our advantage. If we wait until I’m an adult to start a business, we’ll probably miss too many opportunities.”

Shang Ke smiled. “I support you. I’m sure Mr. Ferg will too.”

Feng Juan smiled and took Shang Ke’s hand, fierce ambition shining in his eyes. “We’ll build it together and become the best in the technology field.”

“All right.”

Time flew, and another four years passed in the blink of an eye. Shang Ke and Feng Juan enrolled in the city’s most prestigious sixth-form college. The company they had founded was named Mr. Bruin—“Mr. Bear,” formed from a combination of their English names—and had already achieved modest success. In cybersecurity defense, it had even surpassed many of its competitors.

Besides Shang Ke’s “ahead-of-its-time” technical knowledge, Feng Juan’s talent with computers was another major reason for their success. Shang Ke was merely applying knowledge from the future to the present, while Feng Juan was using his own mind to create an entirely new future.

During those years, Shang Ke accepted several confidential government assignments. Through their cooperation, the police dismantled Tobin Syndicate years earlier than they otherwise would have. Shang Ke and Feng Juan finally no longer needed to fear the organization’s threats.

Quietly and without drawing attention, Shang Ke cleared obstacle after obstacle from Feng Juan’s path, making his life far smoother than it had been in the original timeline.

As Feng Juan matured, he also reached the age when romance naturally became a topic around him. Tall, handsome, and exceptionally capable, he was practically the school’s resident heartthrob.

Shang Ke had grown increasingly outstanding as well. He lacked Feng Juan’s overpowering presence, but his refined, scholarly air possessed a charm all its own.

Yet despite all the attention they received, neither of the two “brothers” had ever dated a girl, leaving everyone baffled. Some students even started betting on whether anyone would ever manage to win over one of them.

Recently, Feng Juan had been troubled because Shang Ke insisted that they start sleeping in separate rooms.

Now that they were older, adolescent impulses were becoming increasingly difficult for Feng Juan to ignore. Several times, he had nearly acted on feelings he was still trying desperately to suppress. Keke had probably noticed how restless he had become, which was why he wanted separate rooms.

Feng Juan was decisive about almost everything else, yet he had never dared openly confess his feelings for Keke. Shang Ke did not reject ordinary familial closeness, but what Feng Juan wanted in his heart was something entirely different.

He was genuinely afraid that one day he might lose control and do something that hurt Keke. Yet the harder he suppressed those feelings, the more difficult they became to resist.

Feng Juan pulled the car up outside the school and looked up to find Shang Ke speaking with a mature woman around twenty-six or twenty-seven. A gentle smile rested on his face, his soft short hair shifting slightly as he spoke. His straight posture, long legs, and distinguished bearing made him look dazzling.

Yet at that moment, he was dazzling because he was smiling at a woman.

Feng Juan’s gaze darkened. He opened the car door and strode toward them.

“Keke, time to go home.” Feng Juan stopped beside Shang Ke and coolly sized up the blonde woman in front of him. Too curvy, too glamorous. Definitely not Keke’s type!

Keke should like someone with sharper features, a stronger build, a piercing gaze, and an imposing presence! (Feng Juan: That’s right. I mean me.)

The blonde woman grew uncomfortable beneath Feng Juan’s stare. After exchanging a few polite words, she left.

“Who was she?” Feng Juan asked once they were in the car.

“A friend.”

“What friend do you have that I don’t know?” With how closely I keep track of things, how could someone possibly slip through the net?

“We met online.” She was actually a technician from a government department, and the two of them frequently exchanged ideas online.

“Online?” Feng Juan’s expression darkened. After recognizing his feelings for Shang Ke, he had repeatedly challenged him in hacking contests, only to lose every time. In the end, he had been forced to sign a mutual nonaggression pact regarding each other’s online privacy.

After that, Feng Juan knew nothing about Shang Ke’s online activities unless Shang Ke chose to tell him himself.

“Tonight, I’m invading you,” Feng Juan suddenly said.

Anyone unaware of their private joke would certainly misunderstand that sentence, but Shang Ke was already used to it. Whenever Feng Juan wanted to challenge him to another hacking contest, he liked to use the suggestive word “invade.”

Shang Ke did not realize that this time, Feng Juan’s meaning was not entirely about computers.

“My hands have been cramping lately. Next time.” Shang Ke genuinely didn’t want to compete with him anymore. Feng Juan was improving at a frightening pace, and Shang Ke was barely managing to stay ahead. To preserve what little advantage he had left, he could only avoid the challenge.

“If you don’t want me invading you, then sleep in the same room with me,” Feng Juan countered.

“No!” Shang Ke refused without even thinking.

“Why?”

He still had the nerve to ask why?! Someone’s adolescent energy was already creating more than enough laundry for Shang Ke to deal with!

Although Shang Ke had already accepted the possibility that he might eventually return Feng Juan’s feelings, he intended to wait until Feng Juan was an adult before considering anything further. Besides, the idea of a romantic relationship between two men was still something he needed time to adjust to.

Feng Juan apparently still believed Shang Ke had no idea how he felt. At this point, however, his intentions were becoming painfully obvious.

The two of them were already balancing dangerously on the edge of restraint. If they continued sharing a bed, something was bound to go wrong within half a year.

Shang Ke intended to preserve his self-control until Feng Juan was actually an adult!

Feng Juan had no idea how much consideration Shang Ke was putting into this. At this rate, all he could do was keep enduring and turn himself into a literal “Ninja Turtle.”

Sigh…

The two sighed inwardly at the exact same time.

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