Joanna held her chin in both hands like she was a flower, then said cutely. "You get to receive the heartfelt gratitude and adoration from this beautiful flower!"
"Nope, I need you to show more sincerity than that!"
Vernom waved her away, obviously disinterested. He casually lay down onto the couch and said while leisurely shaking his leg." The price for my service usually starts at 100 million dollars. You obviously want me to do it for free. No way."
Joanna was pissed off.
The guy had such a punchable face right now.
However, she needed his help, she could only put on her best fake smile and asked, "Okay, tell me, what do you want?"
Vernom suddenly became interested. He sat upright and said seriously. "You know, I'm going to be thirty in another year or two. My family is worried about my personal life, so…"
"I refuse!"
Before he had even finished speaking. Joanna had made a cross with her hands, her expression filled with unwillingness. "I'm off limit. I've already sealed away my heart. The only thing I care about now is my career. It's fine if you want to be friends with me, but husband and wife? Absolutely impossible!"
There was a playful glint in Vernom's eyes as his thin lips curled into an evil smile. He said, "You're out of your mind. Yes, I find
you rather pleasant, but not to the point where I want to marry you. I don't believe in marriage."
"Ahem. Is that so?"
Joanna's face was a little red.
How embarrassing. Since when did she become a narcissist like Ace Moran? Did she think everyone was interested in her?
She had really made a fool of herself this time.
"So what do you want me to do?"
Joanna pretended like nothing happened and asked Vernom again.
"My grandfather is pressuring me hard. He'll be celebrating his 80th birthday soon, and he said I must bring home a girlfriend then. I've been thinking about it – you're the only woman in my social circle, so…"
"You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?"
Joanna thought hard about it, then patted her chest and said. "Leave it to me. I have lots of burner accounts but none has ever been exposed, and that's all thanks to my superb acting skills."
"It's a deal!"
The two high–fived and happily agreed to the cooperation.
Vernom sat down in front of the computer and casually typed a string of codes. Not long after that, he miraculously cracked the hospital's cloud storage system and successfully stole the missing surveillance footage.
The entire process took less than ten minutes!
Joanna, who was looking from the back, was stunned. She gave him a thumbs up and said, "That's amazing, Vernom. You've become so skilled over the past few years. You actually cracked this S+++level encryption technology in less than ten minutes. Looks like the International Hacker Competition this year is yours to lose."
"But of course!"
Vernom leaned back on the chair and looked up at Joanna. His face, which had striking facial features, was perfect.
For an instant, seeing this unruly handsome face, Joanna's heart skipped a beat.
Vernom was different from Ace. He was not as cold and aloof as Ace was. He seemed to be friendly, but he actually kept a safe distance from everyone and was full of mystery.
This kind of man was like a gust of wind. No one could see through it, let alone grab hold of it!
After that, Vernom's words almost made Joanna cough up blood.
"Because this encryption was made by yours truly. Your ex–husband contacted me and asked me to reinforce the system security overnight!"
Vernom's lips curled into a playful smile. "I'm just cracking my own encryption. Of course it was fast!"
"What did you say?"
Joanna's face suddenly stiffened.
That meant Ace knew that Nancy was framed, but instead of letting Nancy go, he destroyed the evidence that could prove Nancy's innocence! That's so ruthless of him!
Fortunately, there was still justice in this world. She had now got her hands on the full surveillance footage.
To ensure that nothing went wrong, Joanna asked Vernom, "Will he know that you cracked the encryption?"
"If you want him to know, he'll know. If you don't want him to know, he won't know."
"You definitely can't let him know!"
Joanna emphasized.
She was looking forward to what expression Ace and Alice would show when they saw the full surveillance footage in the trial three days from now.
"You two are really something. Your ex–husband gave me 40 million dollars to reinforce the hospital's cloud storage system to prevent you from breaking in, and now you use your charm to break in anyway. Come to think of it. I'm the biggest winner of this whole thing because I get paid by both parties!"
Vernom's expression became even more smug.
Interesting, how interesting!
Initially, he only wanted to look on as a "bystander", but now he suddenly felt like "joining the game"…
After Vernom left, Joanna was left alone once more in the huge villa.
Like she had done for many nights, she stood at the window, gazing out at the moon.
The moon tonight was round and bright, hanging like a luminous pearl in the dark night sky.
'The bright moon sends a message of love…'
For some reason, Joanna suddenly recalled the stranger she chatted with the other night.
His profile picture was also a moon.
The only message he sent her was also a picture of a moon.
Joanna subconsciously took out her phone, clicked on the picture of the moon, and zoomed in to take a closer look.
Based on the angle, the picture should have been taken through the french window of a certain office.
Perhaps the guy was a salaryman that had to work overtime until late at night, getting his value squeezed dry by his capitalist
company?
Joanna smiled, casually took a picture of the moon and sent it to him.
It's weird. Although she had not chatted with the guy much, and most of the time it was just her complaining about her problems, she had a feeling that the guy was definitely reading attentively no matter what she typed.
Even if he did not offer any word of comfort, he could definitely understand her feeling.
This made her feel warm inside…
After a few minutes, she received a WeChat notification on her phone.
"Can't sleep?"
Two simple words. She could not help but feel like the person on the other end should be a calm, quiet and reliable man.
"Yeah, lots of stuff going on."
"For example?"
"For example, there's a very annoying man who's always messing with my mood. For example, my only relative in this world. was framed and imprisoned. For example, I want to leave this place, but I can't. Everything's going terribly!"
Joanna typed this message with a gloomy face, pouring out her grievances.
The guy must be so annoyed with her constant complaining by now.
So she quickly sent another message. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't treat you as an emotional trash can, but I haven't had anyone to
talk to for a long time. Talking about it makes me feel better. You can just ignore what I said."
The guy remained silent for a while before sending out a few concise words. "Why do you want to leave?"
"For personal reasons."
She was currently pregnant with twins and it would show soon. She must leave the City to give birth to the babies in secret.
Before leaving, however, she needed to lay out the necessary plans for her business empire as soon as possible so that her babies and her could live without any worries in the future, free of anyone's control.
Joanna did not tell the guy what her "personal reasons" were. The guy was also very polite and did not ask.
After a long time, he finally replied.
"It's late. Go to bed. Maybe when you wake up tomorrow, your problems will no longer be problems."
"I hope so."
Joanna exhaled. She felt much better.
In this fast–moving world, was there a warmer thing than someone urging you to go to bed?
The stranger's concern gave her strength in this lonely night.
She believed that everything would gradually get better.
Joanna put away her phone and fell asleep peacefully.
The next day, she woke up early, washed herself a bit, took the USB flash drive containing the surveillance footage, and headed out to meet Zack to discuss tomorrow's trial.
But the moment she opened the door, she bumped into Nancy head–on!
"Nancy, is it… really you?"
Joanna rubbed her eyes. Her first thought was that she's still not fully awake yet and she's seeing things.
"Of course it's me, Miss Joan."
Nancy held Joanna's hand excitedly and said, "You're amazing, Miss Joan. You told me you're gonna get me out, but I didn't expect you to be able to do it so quickly. If your parents in heaven knew that you're this capable, they would be so very pleased!"
"But…"
Joanna was even more confused now.
She was trying to get Nancy out, but she had not made a move yet!
"Miss Joan, what did you do? The prison guard said a scared–looking Alice withdrew her charges early this morning. and that's why I was released!"
Nancy asked curiously.