Chapter 31: Hooked

After listening to her ramble and vent about Tiffany Rose for a while, Vivian Hale offered a few words of comfort.

Hanging up the phone, a playful glint surfaced in Vivian’s eyes. Her fingers tapped lightly on the keyboard, and lines of code rapidly flashed across the black screen.

Within moments, she had covertly implanted a new file into Tiffany’s computer.

The file appeared to be a standard email download containing nothing more than simple learning materials, but at the very bottom lay a brief advertisement for purchasing and selling patents.

Commonly known as a ghostwriting service.

Having done all of this, Vivian turned around and contacted Pearl.

Her tone was lazy: "Pearl, we can carry out the next step of our plan and slowly reel in the net..."

...

On the other side.

Inside Cross Group, the atmosphere was considerably more desolate than before.

No matter the department, the staff had shrunk by more than half.

With the company's stock continuously falling, the moment a headhunter reached out to communicate with them, employees would immediately hand in their resignation letters.

Inside the meeting room, Adrian Cross's expression was hideously dark.

The stagnation in the air was suffocating.

His fingers tapped erratically on the table, his tone carrying an flavor of irritability that was impossible to conceal.

He cast a freezing glance at Tiffany, who sat on his left.

"All of the company's new projects have been forcefully halted, and God’s Island is currently facing a massive boycott. That new patent you mentioned—how much longer until it comes out?"

Hearing this, Tiffany’s hands slowly tightened beneath the table.

With great difficulty, she had used her performance at the summit to slightly improve her relationship with Adrian and elevate her authority within the company.

Who could have anticipated that the incident at Star Source would happen right after.

It was glaringly obvious that Adrian's patience with her was on the verge of running out.

She had also relied entirely on the promise of the patent to coax Adrian into not taking his frustrations out on her these past few days.

Yet the moment she handed down those two gaming decisions, they were heavily boycotted by the players.

This latest drop in the stock price was inextricably linked to her as well.

But she had absolutely no clue how to produce this new patent; managing to obtain that tiny bit of superficial knowledge to deal with everyone was already the extent of her capabilities. Initially, she merely wanted to enjoy everyone’s flattery, but who knew she would now be driven into a corner like a duck driven onto a perch!

Tiffany was shivering all over from anxiety, completely unable to provide an answer for a moment.

"Tiffany?"

Receiving no response for a long while, Adrian called out again, his voice dropping to a freezing tone.

Tiffany lifted her head, looking straight into the man's ice-cold eyes.

This was the signal that his patience had officially run dry.

Thrown into a sudden panic, Tiffany subconsciously grabbed her laptop and clicked around erratically on the interface.

"I..."

In the very next second, she suddenly spotted a hidden folder tucked inside one of her directories.

It looked entirely unfamiliar to her. Knitting her brows slightly, she clicked it open—

It was a bundle of the most commonplace algorithmic data.

It seemed that a course vendor had cast it into her inbox, and she had downloaded it along with her emails.

She scanned it casually and was just preparing to close it when she spotted the tiny advertisement at the very bottom.

"Patent buying and selling, data resources—whatever you need, we have it."

But before she could ponder it any further, a sharp clack echoed from the head of the conference table.

Adrian tossed his fountain pen onto the table, preparing to stand up with distinct impatience.

Tiffany could only blurt out sharply, "Ten days! Mr. Cross, give me just ten more days."

Adrian’s movements paused, his profound eyes staring fixedly at her.

Tiffany hardened her heart, stood up, and spoke up at the top of her lungs.

"I guarantee I will launch a brand-new patent to help Cross Group turn its losses into profits!"

Adrian looked down at Tiffany, leaving behind a heavily meaningful sentence: "Prepare well. This time, do not let me down again."

With that, he turned and departed.

Everyone present read the threat laced in Adrian’s words and perceived the tension in their relationship.

But no one dared to gossip, silently packing up their things to follow him out.

Inside the meeting room, Tiffany was left entirely alone.

Once more, she slowly opened her laptop, transferred that string of contact information to her phone, and clicked to add the contact.

This was her absolute last chance.

No matter the price she had to pay, she had to grip it tightly!

...

The exact millisecond the friend request was approved.

Vivian, who was sitting in her office at W.E., received a phone call from Pearl.

"Vivian, Tiffany really took the bait! She is currently inquiring how much it would cost to perfect a half-finished program within ten days!"

"Ten days?" Vivian couldn't help but counter.

It seemed that this time, Tiffany truly was driven to absolute desperation. Vivian curled her lips into a smile.

"Ask her for ten million."

"Haha, ruthless enough! Vivian, this ten million might not be much to us, but for someone like Tiffany who lacks capability and relies entirely on men, it should roughly constitute the vast majority of the money she’s obtained from Adrian during this period, right?"

Pearl quoted the price to Tiffany exactly as Vivian had instructed.

After a minute had passed.

Tiffany gritted her teeth, calculating the funds she could manipulate from the company and under her own name, before making a make-or-break counteroffer: "Eight million. After all, the material in my hands is already half-completed; it won't require too much effort on your part."

This price was virtually identical to what Vivian had anticipated.

After all, she couldn't truly drive the person to an absolute dead end just yet. Raising an eyebrow, she agreed to the price, instructed her to fill out a patent application form, and demanded a twenty percent down payment.

Then, on the third day, she dispatched a completed program and a patent application over to Tiffany. The name and information listed on it were indeed Tiffany’s.

The other side was visibly laced with disbelief.

"This fast? I'm warning you, if you dare to deceive me, the person backing me is someone you absolutely cannot afford to offend."

Receiving the message, Pearl couldn't resist rolling her eyes repeatedly.

Someone backing her that we can't afford to offend? It was nothing more than a scumbag who made his fortune by sucking a woman dry, yet she was acting as if she had a massive background.

But for the sake of the plan progressing smoothly, she could only suppress her temper and speak according to Vivian’s instructions.

"Rest assured, Dear. We are entirely professional here. Hasn't the patent already been issued? How could it possibly be fake? No matter how complex a program is, it still relies on a set of basic algorithms. We guarantee that everything provided to you can operate normally."

Only upon receiving this statement did Tiffany find peace of mind.

She remitted the final payment according to their agreement, immediately cutting off the communication.

On the computer screen, an entire set of a complete program had already manifested.

Tiffany was absolutely ecstatic, heading straight for the CEO's office.

With this set of a program, she finally had something to account to Adrian Cross.

"Adrian..."

Meanwhile, at this exact moment, Adrian was staring blankly at his chat logs with Vivian.

Without him realizing when it started, their conversations had transformed to a point where if he didn't proactively send a message, her side would remain entirely silent.

Aside from the occasional perfunctory report, there was absolutely no other communication.

Particularly with these few crises striking the company.

Given Vivian’s past temperament, she likely would have long since offered him endless warmth and concern, providing an entire suite of solutions.

Yet up until now, the woman hadn't uttered a single extra word.

Adrian felt inexplicably irritable.

His fingers tapped across the keyboard, just about to type something out.

"Adrian, I have a solution!"

Tiffany’s voice suddenly echoed, and in the next heartbeat, the office door was thrown open.

The man lifted his eyes, spotting her face flushed red with excitement.

In the past, he would have found it endearing, but now, for some reason, he only felt that Tiffany lacked composure.

But when all was said and done, the company still had to lean on her, so he maintained his patience to ask: "What's wrong? What solution?"