Chapter 16

　　He suddenly looked over. 　　"What are you doing?" Steve was happy. 　　"Cassey, could you get my wife a glass of water?" 　　Cassey Yu came in and put a cup of warm water in front of Antoinette Yun and said with a big smile, "Madam, please drink water." 　　Antoinette said thank you, then picked up the cup and drank the water. 　　Cassey Yu walked to Steve Gu again. 　　"The meeting between the president and the head of the branch is about to begin. Do you want to go there now?" 　　Steve Gu frowned slightly. 　　Antoinette immediately stood up when she heard the words. 　　"I have other things to do in the afternoon, so I won't disturb you. I hope your meeting goes well!" 　　Steve's eyes instantly cooled down. 　　Cassey stood there, frightened, not knowing what to do. 　　Antoinette suddenly ran over and kissed him on the face. 　　"Remember not to be too late, I will wait for you at home." 　　After she finished speaking, she left with a smile. 　　Cassey watched this scene, not knowing what to make of it. 　　Antoinette Yun had changed so much, and so fast. What’s going on? What could have caused it? 　　On the bright side, Steve's bad mood cleared up after getting a sweet kiss from his wife. 　　Unconsciously, he touched his cheek and the corners of his lips curled up in a smile. 　　Then he realized that she was right next to him, and he immediately stopped smiling. 　　"What are you doing? Prepare for the meeting!" 　　He got up and strode out. 　　... 　　Antoinette suddenly received a call. 　　Seeing the name on the caller ID, she was stunned for several seconds. When she answered the call, a strange voice spoke. 　　"Boss, someone has challenged us, come here and have a look!" 　　Antoinette's heart sank. "I'll be there right away." 　　Inside an unremarkable building in the city center, the keyboard clacked as Haley Da speedily typed on it, her eyes fixed on the screen. 　　Haley, known to her friends as Little Raccoon, asked the very tall, big-boned woman next to her, "How about it? Is the boss coming?" 　　The woman spoke in a deep but gentle voice. "She said she will be here soon." 　　"Then that means we’ve already won." 　　No one would have thought that the headquarters of the X Alliance, a global hacker organization, would be in Pingcheng. 　　Antoinette's birth mother died young. As far as she can remember, every winter and summer vacations, she would go back to the countryside to stay with her grandfather. 　　Outsiders thought that Grandpa Ye was a regular old man, albeit a respected figure in certain circles. 　　Only Antoinette knew that Grandpa had some very special friends who had taught her all sorts of things. 　　They didn’t help her with her schoolwork. It wasn’t the regular things you learned in class, like playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. 　　She learned about computers, martial arts, firearms, economic warfare, even ancient medicine. 　　Over the years, she had soaked up all the knowledge they gave her, and read books they brought for her. She was like a sponge, constantly absorbing new things, and never stopping. 　　The door was kicked open, and Antoinette strode in. 　　"Who the hell challenged us?" 　　Everyone was taken aback. 　　Then, as if seeing a savior, the petite, dark-skinned beauty Little Black rushed towards her excitedly. "Boss, you’re finally here!" 　　"These kids are too rude.” The huge woman walked to her and gave her a cheek-to-cheek kiss. ”You must give them a good spanking!" 　　Antoinette, signaled to Haley to step aside, and sat down in front of the computer. 　　"What's the matter? Give me a run-through." 　　Haley, a bubbly pink-haired woman who had a loud voice and spoke fast, took it upon herself to explain. Indeed, everyone turned to her to do the talking since she did it very well. 　　“So, this morning, someone suddenly gave the X Alliance a challenge, asking us to attack a defense system.” 　　“If we win, we get a huuuge amount of money. If we lose, they want us to like, not be in the hardcore elite list anymore. Ho-hum, what a boring demand, didn’t even think of something creative.” 　　The X Alliance has been so provocative in the past two years that it has made a few enemies. 　　Therefore, Haley and the crew didn't take the challenge seriously. After lunch, they fooled around a bit before getting to work. 　　Unexpectedly, the defense system they needed to crack wasn’t the sort they were used to. They tried to crack it for several hours without making any progress. Only then did they realize that something was wrong and quickly called Antoinette over. 　　After Antoinette listened, her face sank. 　　She observed it carefully and found that the opponent's system was indeed different from most defense systems on the market today. There were about five or six layers of optical firewalls. The server had an operating system with various anti-reconnaissance and anti-intrusion features built-in. It seemed formidable at first glance. 　　At this point, there was no way Antoinette Yun would back out, though she knew her chances at defeating them wasn’t 100%. 　　She curled her lips. Her fingers were light as raindrops as they fell on the keyboard. 　　The whole room was quiet, only the sound of the keys clacking could be heard. The code on the screen scrolled quickly like snowflakes. 　　About ten minutes later, Antoinette typed the last code, and declared, "It's done!" 　　Sure enough, a bunch of symbols scrolled up on the screen, indicating a successful infiltration. 　　Everyone screamed in excitement. 　　"Look, look at all this beautiful code! "Haley pumped her fist in the air. "Ten minutes! All Hail the Queen!”