When Xiaoping received the divorce papers, he was sitting in his office. His secretary placed the mail on his desk and left without a word. It wasn't until he was sorting through his mail that he noticed the brown envelope. He opened it and his eyes grew dark with rage.
It was true, he thought. She was sleeping with someone else! She had met someone else and she was having his baby! Now she wanted to divorce him so that she could be with her new lover.
He slammed a fist down onto his desk with so much force that it sent everything flying off of his desk. His jaw worked. It must be Gu Hai, he thought. His mind began to work in overtime. He plotted something quickly, then picked up the phone. He would use his connections to respond to this threat.
Today, Gu Hai and Bai LuoYin were working like busy little bees again. One of their clients was coming into the office for an important meeting.
Gu Hai had recommended using a new part that had just come out of the testing phase. He thought that it would help his client achieve maximum production if it was added to the machinery. The parts were being delivered to HaiYin Technology within the hour, a rush delivery, by truck.
When the client arrived, he and Gu Hai were seated in the main meeting room. Bai LuoYin sat across the table like a devoted wife, his commitment to Gu Hai and the company obvious. The secretary offered them all drinks and left to get them.
"Thank you very much for quickly producing the parts," the client praised. "This company is truly remarkable."
Gu Hai slightly nodded his head. "The pleasure is all mine," he said. "I think that you will like the way the machine runs after we install the part. It will increase business and your profits as well."
The client smiled. He liked hearing that profit would increase. He sat up straighter in his chair and gave Gu Hai his most professional posture.
A few minutes passed by and the secretary scurried back into the room, her high heels clicking on the marble floor and her cheeks pink as if she had on too much blush. She eyed their guest nervously and motioned for Gu Hai to step outside with her finger pointed in the air. "Gu Zong, may I please have a moment?" She hoped that she didn't sound too troubled. But when she glanced at Bai LuoYin and saw his expression, she knew that she hadn't done a good job at hiding it.
Gu Hai stepped outside and listened as his secretary gave him bad news.
The two drivers that were delivering the parts to HaiYin Technology turned onto a road. They followed the route set out on their GPS correctly. They were both carrying a casual conversation when they spotted two mini vans blocking their path. The van's windows were tinted and they couldn't see who was inside. But as they approached, all the doors opened and quite a few men stepped out wearing what looked to be security guard uniforms. They made their way towards the truck and waved for the driver to roll his window down.
"What's the problem?" asked the driver after rolling down his window.
The mysterious men surrounded the truck. Because of their size, the truck drivers were a little intimidated. The passenger of the truck eyed them curiously, something about them was off, but he couldn't figure it out yet.
"We have papers to inspect the truck," said one of the bigger men, waving a piece of paper in his hand. "No one gets clearance to pass unless we do this."
"Why?" asked the driver.
Another man said, "We just have to make sure you're not smuggling drugs or anything illegal. We've had a lot of people doing this lately."
The driver frowned. He opened his door and stepped out of the vehicle. "Can I see your documents?" he asked, making his way towards the man with the paperwork.
"Open up the back of the truck," ordered a guy standing to the rear of the truck. His tone was a little too demanding and the driver frowned at him.
The man who was in the passenger seat of the truck frowned also. He started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He got out of the truck and noticed two of the other men walking towards him with grim expressions on their faces. The two truck drivers realized what was happening and tried to get back into the truck quickly.
But it was too late.
The crowd of men attacked them with great force. They punched and kicked them. The drivers tried to fight back, but there were too many of them. After a while of taking a beating, the two drivers were left on the side of the road, bloody, bruised, and in a world of pain.
The other men took control of the truck and left the scene of the crime.
The police were called and a report was filed. The commissioner personally came to talk to Gu Hai since he donated money to his department throughout the years. In fact, HaiYin Technology was a huge supporter when it came to the Beijing police department.
"You must catch these men," Gu Hai said. The tone in his voice was nothing short of commanding. He gave the police commissioner serious eyes.
"Who would do this?" Bai LuoYin half-whispered under his breath. He was deep in thought. Someone knew where the truck would be. The route that was taken was purposely crafted so that no one could rob the truck. There were many thugs in China that got a kick out of robbing business trucks for their goods. It was a smart move for the thugs, but bad news for business owners. You could get a lot of money holding up a truck and stealing its merchandise. Most of the time the thugs stole the goods and sold them on the black market.
"Whoever did this knew that the truck would be taking that route," Gu Hai said to the commissioner.
"The two drivers are in critical condition," said Gu Hai's secretary. She walked in with a tray of tea and placed it on the long table that seated everyone in the meeting room.
"Let their families know that we will pay the hospital bills," said Gu Hai. His heart ached hearing the news.
She nodded and left the room.
Bai LuoYin met Gu Hai's eyes and said, "We will visit them after we are done here."
Gu Hai agreed. Those brave men deserved their every bit of attention. When someone was in critical condition in the hospital, it meant that they might not make it. Gu Hai silently prayed that the two men would recover.
"We will get to the bottom of this," promised the commissioner. He had observed the way that Bai LuoYin looked at Gu Hai. He knew that they were married. At first, when he had learned that Gu Hai was married to a man, he had his doubts. He wondered how that kind of relationship worked. But looking at these two men now, he saw that it was the same as when his own wife suggested things to him. They were both in the same relationship him and his wife was in, the only difference was that they were both men.
"Do you think there is a leak in the transportation department?" Bai LuoYin asked Gu Hai.
"I don't think so. Everyone is loyal here," he shook his head.
"You said the truck was carrying over three million dollars worth of merchandise, right?" asked the commissioner.
Gu Hai nodded.
The commissioner stood up, drank his tea, thanked them, and left to get started on the case. He wanted to pull his resources and do a sweep of the streets while he still had daylight.
"What's going to happen now?" asked Bai LuoYin. "The client was pretty upset."
After hearing what happened, Gu Hai's client was agitated beyond words. He had lost so much money that he stormed out of the building, the threat of hearing from his lawyer echoed throughout the halls.
"I'll handle the client," Gu Hai said, leaning back in his chair. "I'll even sweeten the deal and throw in something extra for the missing products."
"Has something like this ever happened before?"
"Never in all the years I've been in business."
"Gu Hai, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Don't worry. It will be fine. I'll handle everything."
Even though Gu Hai promised to take care of the problem, Bai LuoYin had a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Xiaoping leaned back in his chair after hanging up his cell phone. He was pleased. He had managed to steal a shipment from Gu Hai. It was worth millions, but he didn't care about the money. He wanted to do more. He wanted to hurt Gu Hai, physically. He wanted to smash his face into the cold hard ground. He wanted to see blood. Only then would he be satisfied. He thought about Ying Yue holding her stomach again and his rage grew. Was she truly pregnant or his imagination playing tricks on his mind? He shook his head as if it would shake the thought away and sat up straighter in his chair. Fujie had failed to hack into their system, he had lost that round, but this round was his.
He redialed Fujie. When the thin man answered, he sounded as if he had just been awoken from sleep.
"Attack the company again," Xiaoping said and hung up.
Bai LuoYin was talking with Chao in the third floor hallway. Bai LuoYin had bumped into him and wanted to thank him personally for protecting their business. Bai LuoYin showed his appreciation by shaking his hand firmly and slightly bowing.
"Thank you very much," Chao said, bowing his head. He was grateful for the compliment. He even thought that Bai LuoYin was very handsome. It was very rare for him to meet someone who was so handsome and that had a great personailty to match. He gave Bai LuoYin the biggest smile for being so kind to him and walked off towards his department. He reached out to open the door to his office and an alert went off on his phone. He quickly looked at it and his eyes went wide. He turned on his heels and headed for the main computer room. The hacker was trying to get through their systems again! He called Gu Hai and informed him of what was happening.
Within five minutes, they both reached the computer room at the same time.
"This hacker is starting to piss me off!" Gu Hai growled. He followed Chao up to the huge computer screen and watched as he began to type codes into the main system with his chubby fingers.
"I installed something in our system that would pinpoint his location if he acutally invaded us this time," Chao said, his eyes lighting up from the computer screen.
Gu Hai wasn't sure if he wanted the mysterious hacker to get past their defenses. It would be nice to catch the person, but actually getting through, past their security, made him wonder how good this guy or girl was and if they were able to prevent anyone from doing their worst.
Chao watched as Fujie tried to hack into their data. There was a pause for a few seconds and two alerts went off on Chao's end. He quickly typed something into his end and locked Fujie out, preventing him from coming through that specific door. Two more alerts went off and Chao pulled two files from somewhere and loaded a program that would help him do his job. Chao saw Fujie hesitate when he tried to enter through the dummy program he had set up. He knows what I've done, thought Chao. This guy wasn't so easily fooled.
Another alert and Chao had to work faster. When Fujie tried to get through multiple doors, Chao had to fight from breaking into sweats. He didn't want Gu Hai to see him nervous.
"What is the hacker doing now?" asked Gu Hai impatiently. He was eager to catch this person. They had put up the best security system money could buy and this person still got through!
"Oh, no," Chao said. He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but it had slipped out of his mouth too quickly.
"What?" Gu Hai asked, his eyes wide now.
In the sales department, every computer screen went blank. It was as if their computers had all lost power.
"What's happening?" asked a woman at her desk. She frowned and looked under her desk to see if the plug had come out of the wall socket.
Another woman yelped, "I lost all of my data! I didn't even get a chance to save my work!" She felt like crying. It would take her an entire hour to do over the project.
A woman stood up from her chair and looked over at her co-workers computer screens with a lost look upon her face. She was so confused. What was happening?
After a short while, the computers came back on.
Chao typed the fastest he had ever typed in his entire life. With great speed, he fixed what Fujie had done. He pulled another program from his file and sent it to the person attacking them. It traveled through his computer, out of the building, from his location to the hacker's own computer. Chao was hoping that the hacker was typing fast enough to slip up.
Fujie was laughing the entire time. His fingers worked as if he were a machine. He laughed out loud when he had shut down the computers in the building. It was a tiny victory, but still, it pleased him and he found it comical that the other guy was keeping up with him. Suddenly, something popped up on his screen. He instantly lifted his fingers off of the keyboard.
"You sly fox," he said and chuckled. "I'm not falling for that." He deleted the pop-up that Chao had tried to sneak onto his screen. If he had clicked it, it would have revealed his location and activated the camera on his device. They would have seen what he looked like. He would have no longer been unknown to them. This was something he couldn't afford to happen. He turned off his computer.
"Shit," Chao muttered and looked disappointed.
"What?" Gu Hai asked.
"I tried to trick him into giving up his location but he didn't fall for it."
"Shit," repeated Gu Hai.
"I'm putting back up our defenses, but it looks like I'll have to stay here to keep an eye on things."
Gu Hai signed heavily. "Do what you have to," he said and left the room.
Bai LuoYin was on his way to the computer room when Gu Hai ran into him. They spoke on their way to the sales floor. They would have to inform the women about what had just happened.
On the sales floor, Gu Hai reassured everyone and even promised to pay them over-time if they were backed up on their work because of the problem.
Back in his office, Gu Hai dropped down into his chair with a worried look.
Bai LuoYin watched as his lover went back to work. Even though he hid it well, Bai LuoYin knew that he was worried a bit. This was something that was not normal to the company. Having someone hack into your place of business was serious. He began to worry if it was a money thing. Would the person responsible ask for money in order to stop being so pesky? There was so way this person was doing all this for fun.
"Do you want something to eat?" Gu Hai asked, still looking at his computer screen.
"I'm not hungry," Bai LuoYin said. How could he eat at a time like this? He gave Gu Hai soft eyes and a light smile. Even after all this, Gu Hai was thinking about him.
Bai LuoYin thought about how stressful it must be for Gu Hai. They were supposed to be going on vacation soon. How could they go knowing that the company might be in trouble? Gu Hai always was taking care of everyone else. It made Bai LuoYin question if he was taking care of his husband, taking care of his stress, well being, and doing all that he was supposed to be doing. Tonight, he would make dinner. Tonight, he would take care of his husband, pay more attention to him and give him anything and everything that he asked for.
Gu Hai kept typing on his computer and let out a longer than usual sigh.
It made Bai LuoYin wonder if he knew that he had done that. Bai LuoYin sat down across from him and pretended to read documents in his hands. Every now and again he looked up at him. He watched as that flawless face worked. He watched as his husband kept going, working, making money to provide for his growing family, even though deep down inside he was stressing. It made Bai LuoYin's heart swell with pride and admiration. He had married the most rarest of men, a one of a kind, the brightest star in the sky. He suddenly had the urge to get on his hands and knees and crawl under Gu Hai's desk, unbuckle his pants, and reward him for being the strongest man in the world.
Gu Hai spoke then and broke his thoughts. "Don't think about it," he said, "just do it."
Bai LuoYin almost fell out of his chair! How did he know?! This man truly had secret powers!
Gu Hai smiled as he kept typing, his eyes never left the computer screen, but he was right. He always could sense when Bai LuoYin was checking him out.