Manager Chen was seeing red. He violently yanked the door open, ready to catch whoever had just dared to laugh at him. But the employees outside were seasoned veterans; every single one of them had their hands flying across their keyboards with laser-focused intensity, not a single one leaving a shred of evidence.

The fat bastard slammed the door shut with a deafening bang. Spinning back around into the office and seeing that I still refused to obediently fork over my Git admin credentials, he ground his teeth, balled his fists, and marched toward me with a murderous expression.

I sneered and crossed my arms. “What’s this? The boss is about to throw hands and beat me right here in the office?”

Sorry, but if this fat excuse for a manager laid a single finger on me in broad daylight, I’d make sure he was hauled off to jail to rot behind bars.

Right as the tension reached a snapping point, his phone started vibrating in his pocket. Whoever was on the other end must have been a heavyweight, because after just a few muttered exchanges, Chen’s murderous expression did a complete 180. The rage vanished entirely, replaced by an uncharacteristically slick, sycophantic submissiveness.

He laced his fingers together, slowly leaned back in his chair, and adopted an oily, deeply suggestive tone. “Well… looks like I was blind before. I had no idea our little company was harboring someone of your caliber, Ms. Zhang.”

He leaned forward, dropping into a theatrical, mysterious whisper. “Imagine my surprise finding out you’re actually a legendary hacker in the underworld. The handle ‘BlackCat’ belongs to you, doesn’t it, Ms. Zhang?”

That “BlackCat” alias carried some serious weight in the cybersecurity underground. Anyone who spent time on tech forums had at least heard whispers of it, so it made sense the fat bastard had dug it up. He curled his lips into a smug, self-satisfied grin, trying to look dangerous, though his greasy face only managed to radiate pure, unadulterated creepiness.

“Who I am doesn’t pay your salary,” I replied casually, sitting back to watch what game he was trying to play. Beneath my calm exterior, however, a giant flashing question mark was going off in my head: Who just called him? And how the hell did they know my hacker identity?

“Look… what happened before was my shallow, blind-as-a-bat self looking down on female programmers,” Chen cooed, shifting gears with the agility of a pro gymnast. Just seconds ago he was ready to murder me, and now he was shamelessly offering an olive branch. “I sincerely apologize. I am formally inviting you to join our inner circle.”

I chuckled dryly, rolling my eyes in sheer disgust. “Your inner circle? Outside of this company, are you running a mercenary syndicate on the side?”

Seeing that I was supposedly “hooked” and listening, Chen flashed a triumphant grin. “Take it easy. The compensation I can offer you blows those pathetic salaries out of the water. You’ll still sit at your desk here at Shengshi, but you’ll actually be working for a much higher power.”

Playing dumb, I tilted my head. He leaned in close, dropping all pretense. “Our current CEO—this Li Shenhao guy—is talented, but way too conservative. There are so many loopholes we could exploit to siphon money and bypass severance payouts, but he refuses to listen. Certain people have had enough of him and want him ousted. My side is missing just one elite tech genius like you. Say the word and sign on, and consider this your golden ticket to the winning team.”

I egged him on, wide-eyed. “A golden ticket? What do you want me to do?”

Manager Chen lowered his voice to a pitch-black murmur. “Help me hack into CEO Li Shenhao’s personal computer. I guarantee a fifty-grand monthly salary and a permanent, high-level position starting today.”

The fat bastard started laying it on thick with the classic traitor’s manifesto: “Just look at yourself. You’ve worked your ass off for him for years, and your talent is still buried at the bottom of the food chain. Instead of suffering from blind loyalty, why not smarten up and hitch your wagon to a bigger tree?”

Oh, wow. Hearing those eloquent, philosophically treasonous talking points roll so smoothly off his tongue almost made him sound educated. But he was dead wrong. My pearls weren’t covered in dust—they were deliberately buried and hidden away by a garbage-tier manager trying to hoard them for himself!

On the outside, I feigned complete shock and worshipful awe. “Good grief, you have that kind of pull?!”

Chen puffed out his chest, looking like a peacock strutting to the heavens. “I might not, but the big boss backing me sure does!”

I slammed my hand down on the desk with a sharp thwack. “Deal! It’s a lock! I’ll hack Shenhao’s computer for you. Just make sure that fifty-grand monthly salary hits my account.”

At this point, the plot was twisting into a telenovela. This useless fat idiot was paying out of his own pocket to hire me to hack into… my own husband’s computer. Was anything more hilarious?

And just like that, under the awestruck gaze of the entire IT department, I made my glorious return to my old desk.

My old, decrepit computer had been repossessed, but Chen went all out this time, generously signing off on a top-of-the-line gaming laptop with the newest chip and maximum storage capacity. Not stopping there, the fat bastard stood right in the middle of the open-plan office and showered me with glowing praise in front of everybody: praising my unmatched efficiency, my ability to balance work and life, and declaring me the company’s irreplaceable, premier technical prodigy.

The fresh-faced rookies who had been forced to “carve sculptures out of my garbage code” just days earlier now watched Chen execute a U-turn faster than a flipping pancake, their faces turning as pale as banana leaves. I caught a glimpse of one kid nearby angrily muttering under his breath: “What a psycho. This fat bastard is straight-up schizophrenic.”

When I strolled over to the breakroom to grab some coffee, God K happened to be standing there with his own mug. The warm golden light of the late afternoon sun streamed through the glass pane, catching his slightly tousled hair and giving him an effortlessly cinematic look.

He rarely smiled at me. Waiting until no one else was within earshot, God K lowered his voice. “Fatty Chen asked you to help hack the CEO’s computer just now, didn’t he?”

I jumped, nearly spilling my coffee. “Huh? How do you know that?”

God K looked at me with dead seriousness. “He came to me with the exact same offer, but I turned him down flat. The waters run deep in this company. The only reason Chen suddenly swallowed his pride and stopped turning on you is because you haven’t touched his faction’s core interests yet. You’d better not get tangled up with these people. If you actually want to make good money, I can refer you to way better firms. I’m just worried you’ll get yourself killed staying here.”

A genuine wave of appreciation washed over me at his sincere warning, though I just offered a gentle, amused smile and shook my head. “Thanks, but I’m good. I know how to handle myself.”

Realizing I was stubborn and seemingly impervious to good advice, God K let out a heavy sigh, grabbed his coffee, and walked away in cold silence. True to form, the ultimate boss kept his distance.