A Glitch in Trust
1054 Words
The next morning, Qian Ruiqing woke early.
The moment she opened her eyes, her thoughts rushed back to the night before — the discovery that JI-Media, the company she'd scanned for vulnerabilities, was a hidden subsidiary of Zhen Corp.
And worse — she’d unknowingly handed that report to someone who might use it against Zhen Yichen.
She wasn’t sure why it unsettled her.
This was a contract marriage. A temporary arrangement. She didn’t owe him loyalty.
Still, a part of her — the part that had seen the quiet care behind Grandfather Zhen’s eyes, the rare flickers of emotion in Yichen’s cold demeanor — felt uneasy.
Throwing the covers aside, she got up, showered, dressed, and packed her laptop into her backpack. Her ride was already waiting when she stepped outside the Zhen estate.
Jiang Chengyu, ever punctual, opened the backseat door for her.
“Morning, Miss Qian,” he greeted politely.
“Morning.”
Zhen Yichen was not in the car this time — something she was grateful for.
She needed the ride to clear her mind.
As the sleek black car pulled away, Ruiqing opened her phone and browsed through an anonymous hacker forum on a hidden browser, searching for any mentions of JI-Media. Most were irrelevant. But one thread caught her attention:
“Newbie-level scan on JI-Media flagged last night. Source unconfirmed. Looks like an external probe. Nothing tripped, but someone was sniffing.”
Her jaw clenched.
Someone had noticed her scan. And they were talking about it.
Which meant whoever hired her — likely connected to Z-Tech, the main rival of Zhen Corp — had let that information leak. Whether on purpose or not, it put her on the radar.
She tapped her fingers on the phone.
If she wasn’t careful, it wouldn’t take long before FrostByte would be outed. And if Zhen Yichen ever linked her to that scan…
No. I didn’t breach. I only scanned. There’s no traceable code.
Still, she had to take precautions.
Later that day, after attending her two core computer science lectures, Ruiqing met Tang Lili in the university cafeteria.
Lili dropped into the seat across from her, tray in hand. “You look like you haven't slept all night.”
“I didn’t,” Ruiqing muttered, stirring her coffee.
Lili leaned forward, lowering her voice. “That bad, huh? Is it Zhen Yichen?”
“No.” Ruiqing hesitated. “Yes. No. It's complicated.”
Tang Lili raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been married for less than a week, and you’re already using 'complicated'. That’s not a great sign.”
Ruiqing sighed. “It’s not the marriage. It's just… I got involved in something, and now I’m not sure who’s pulling the strings.”
Lili blinked. “Wait. Did you just admit you're back in the hacking game?”
Ruiqing gave her a sharp look. “Shh! Keep your voice down.”
Tang Lili’s expression shifted from teasing to serious. “Ruiqing. You promised after that mess last year you’d keep a low profile.”
“This was just a system audit. A job I got through Viper. But now I think I was used. I scanned a company without knowing it was connected to Zhen Corp.”
Lili’s brows shot up. “Wait. You mean you might’ve—”
“Helped the enemy. Accidentally, yes.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Can it be traced back to you?”
“No. Not unless someone very good is looking.”
Tang Lili’s eyes narrowed. “And if someone is?”
“Then I need to get ahead of it.”
That evening, Ruiqing returned to the Zhen residence. Grandfather Zhen was still away in Beijing, and the mansion felt quieter than usual.
As she climbed the staircase to her room, she noticed light spilling from the study down the hall. The door was slightly ajar.
She wouldn’t have stopped — until she heard her name.
“I’m keeping an eye on her activities. So far, nothing unusual.” It was Jiang Chengyu’s voice.
Then Zhen Yichen replied, calm and clipped: “Still, she’s clever. Too calm for someone thrown into this world.”
“She’s been straightforward. Focused on her classes. No drama.”
A pause.
“Good. But still monitor her network access. Especially her devices. I want to know if she tries to connect to anything outside the university servers.”
Ruiqing’s breath caught.
He’s tracking me?
She backed away quietly before she was noticed, returning to her room. Her mind raced.
He didn’t trust her.
And maybe — he had reason not to.
She dropped onto her bed and stared at her laptop. Her system was secure. Zhen Yichen’s people wouldn’t be able to crack it unless they had a backdoor she hadn’t considered.
Still, she had to be careful.
She opened a clean, burner VM and launched a trace.
Ten minutes later, she found it — a tiny, hidden ping embedded in the university’s student WiFi packets.
They’re watching outgoing connections. Not what’s inside. Just tracking location and access frequency.
It wasn’t illegal. But it was invasive.
She smirked to herself.
“If you want to spy on me, Zhen Yichen… you’ll have to do better.”
The next morning, as she stepped out of the car on campus, Jiang Chengyu turned to her.
“The Young Master asked me to remind you — there’s a dinner tomorrow night at Zhen Corp. Small board gathering. You’re expected to attend.”
She frowned. “He didn’t even ask if I was free.”
“He doesn’t usually ask,” Chengyu said with a slight smile.
She rolled her eyes. “What’s it for?”
“A quarterly review. He wants you to understand his world.”
Ruiqing crossed her arms. “And he thinks one dinner will do that?”
Chengyu paused, then added, “Maybe he just wants to know if he can trust you.”
That made her freeze.
She glanced back at the tinted car window, half-expecting to see Zhen Yichen watching.
He wasn’t.
Still, the words lingered with her all day.
Trust.
She wasn’t sure if she could give it — or if she deserved it.
Not when she'd already stepped over a line that couldn’t be unseen.
- Writer
