Chapter 996 - Xu Youning Began Her Action

Mumu was so happy that he played to his heart's content and therefore became sleepy after dinner.

He leaned on Xu Youning's shoulder and said in a childish voice, "Auntie Youning, I want to sleep…"

"You haven't washed up yet," Xu Youning patted the little guy's head and coaxed him softly, "I'll bathe you first and then you can go to bed. Deal?"

Mumu pursed his lips. Obviously, he didn't agree, but he was unwilling to displease Xu Youning, so he nodded reluctantly and said, "Deal…"

Xu Youning looked at Ah Jin and said politely, "Please help me hold Mumu."

Ah Jin smiled and responded unexpectedly in a very nice way, "No problem."

Xu Youning was surprised.

Ah Jin's attitude had been a little strange lately. He seemed to loathe her but did not go all out to spite her.

Though she did not understand Ah Jin's weird behavior, Xu Youning did not keep that in mind since she considered that there was no need to offend others if they didn't offend her.

But today, Ah Jin was smiling at her.

"What's his problem?"

Xu Youning didn't think too much about it. She followed Ah Jin upstairs and gave Mumu his bath.

She didn't know how many more times she could do this, so she was particularly gentle. Mumu was sleepy and tired. He leaned against the bathtub and dozed off.

After the bath, Xu Youning sent the little guy to his room.

Mumu fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. Seeing him sleeping so peacefully and contentedly, Xu Youning felt both relieved and regretful.

She hoped that they would be lucky enough to meet again in their next lives even though they had different identities.

Because of the limited time she had, she had to leave the little guy even though she was reluctant to.

She bent down to kiss Mumu's forehead. Then, she got up and left his room.

Ah Jin happened to pass by. Xu Youning stopped him and asked, "When will Brother Cheng be back?"

"About 10 o'clock," Ah Jin answered, "Brother Cheng has something to do and won't be back so early."

Ah Jin meant that he would cover for Xu Youning if she had to do whatever she needed to do.

But Xu Youning didn't get Ah Jin's implication. She just nodded and said, "Okay, thank you."

"You're welcome."

Ah Jin went downstairs with a calm look, his expression not giving anything away.

Xu Youning sneaked into Kang Ruicheng's study room again while no one was looking. She booted up his computer and tried to forcibly find the hidden secret documents.

Kang Ruicheng had installed a program on his computer that recorded the usage of his computer, which would include Xu Youning's search records.

Once Kang Ruicheng checked the usage records, he would find that someone had accessed his documents.

However, she did not care about all these details.

Even if she didn't do anything, when the doctors invited by Kang Ruicheng arrived and found out her child was still alive, Kang Ruicheng would be suspicious of her and she would consequently fall from heaven to hell.

Although Kang Ruicheng might discover that she was searching for the evidence of his crimes, at least she could let Mu Sijue know she came back to Kang Ruicheng on purpose.

She would send the documents she found to Mu Sijue and at that time, Mu Sijue might be able to save her.

If she didn't do anything, she was on a road that led to nowhere but death.

On the contrary, if she managed to collect the evidence of Kang Ruicheng's crimes, there was still a glimmer of hope for her survival.

In that case, why shouldn't she take the latter choice?

With that in mind, Xu Youning quickened her pace as she typed in the search words on the keyboard.

Although she did not have much knowledge about the computer and Internet when she was being trained by Kang Ruicheng, she acquired her unique skills when she worked undercover for Mu Sijue who was a master-hand in computer science.

It was not until this moment that Xu Youning felt very grateful to Mu Sijue for teaching her without reservation. Otherwise, things wouldn't have gone so smoothly for her.

Xu Youning soon declassified those documents and copied all of them into her USB drive regardless of whether they were important.

The files were so large that the copying process went very slowly. Xu Youning could only stare at the progress bar with her heart almost jumping out of her chest.

Success or failure hinged on this action.

When the progress bar reached 85 percent, Xu Youning glanced at the surveillance images.

For her safety, she called up the surveillance images as soon as she came in and would glance at them from time to time.

There was nothing unusual happening. But this time, she saw Kang Ruicheng from the surveillance camera above the stairs.

Kang Ruicheng was coming upstairs!

"Didn't Ah Jin say that Kang Ruicheng would come back at 10 o'clock? Why did he come back earlier?"

Xu Youning subconsciously looked at the progress bar, which showed the task was 90% done.

The remaining 10% could not be completed before Kang Ruicheng came up. Even if it could, she would not have time to leave the study.

Once Kang Ruicheng found her hiding in the study, she would be exposed even before the doctors arrived!

While Xu Youning's brain was spinning rapidly, Kang Ruicheng had already arrived at the door of the study on the second floor.

She felt a chill run down her spine—

"Damn, can't God help me out here?"

When Xu Youning was frantically thinking about the countermeasures, a figure suddenly appeared on the surveillance camera. She looked carefully and found it was Ah Jin.

She heard Ah Jin stopping Kang Ruicheng outside the door—

"Brother Cheng, you're finally back!" Ah Jin said in a surprised voice. But no one knew if it was real or fake.

Kang Ruicheng turned to ask, "What's the matter?"

"A very important matter," Ah Jin looked excited, "Auston is here! Maybe he changed his mind and chose to work with us."

Kang Ruicheng really wanted to cooperate with Auston. But every time he or Xu Youning negotiated with him, something unforeseen would always happen.

"Was Auston coming here with good news this time?"

Kang Ruicheng immediately turned around and said, "Let's go and meet Auston."

"Okay!"

Ah Jin looked happy. Before he went downstairs, he glanced at the camera above the door of the study.

Xu Youning had already broken out in a cold sweat. She kept staring at the monitor and in her anxiety almost raked the desk with her fingers.

When Ah Jin looked up, she met his eyes through the camera.

Suddenly, instead of fear, Xu Youning had a strange feeling—

It seemed that Ah Jin knew she was in the study and he came to help her.

"But, wasn't Ah Jin Kang Ruicheng's subordinate? Why would he help her?"

It should be a coincidence.

Xu Youning forced herself to forget about Ah Jin's strange look. She looked at the progress bar and found the documents were fully copied.

She quickly pulled out the USB drive and put it in her pocket, then returned to her room as quickly as she could.

Mumu was still sleeping. Xu Youning turned on the computer and, rather than copying the documents from the USB drive, deleted the footage that recorded her going in and out of the study from the surveillance camera and filled the gap with a blank segment.

In this way, no one would know that she had entered Kang Ruicheng's study unless someone checked the surveillance videos very carefully.

After dealing with the surveillance records, Xu Youning breathed a sigh of relief. She then took out the USB drive from her pocket and plugged it into the computer to read the documents.

Some of the information would be very useful for Lu Boyan and Mu Sijue.

But she couldn't send them out now.

The network was closely monitored by Kang Ruicheng. Anything sent out would be filtered by a program. Any abnormal documents would be intercepted and Kang Ruicheng would receive the alarm.

The email that Xu Youning sent to Mu Sijue would definitely be intercepted. Once Kang Ruicheng saw the recipient, he would know it was sent by her even without making a guess.

If so, she would be done for.

Therefore, she would not break the program and send the email if it was not urgent.

As soon as Xu Youning pulled the USB drive out and turned off the computer, there was a knock on the door.

She took a deep breath and calmly opened the door as if nothing had happened. Sure enough, it was Kang Ruicheng outside the door.

Xu Youning pretended to be confused, asking, "You just came back?"

"Yes," There was no obvious emotion in Kang Ruicheng's voice, "Auston came just now."

Xu Youning was stunned and looked surprised. "Will he cooperate with us?" she asked.

"He came here to apologize," Kang Ruicheng's voice sank, becoming sullen, "He's still adamant about cooperating with Mu Sijue."

The surprised look on Xu Youning's face gradually disappeared. After a long while, she forced a smile and said, "It doesn't matter. We'll have another opportunity in the future."

"Let's not talk about this," Kang Ruicheng looked into the room, "Where's Mumu?"

Xu Youning stepped aside and motioned for Kang Ruicheng to look inside. "He played so happily today. He was tired and went to bed early."

Kang Ruicheng grabbed Xu Youning's hands and looked at Xu Youning affectionately. "A Ning, even if Auston can't be our partner, I am still very happy today because you can get better," he said.

Xu Youning nodded and hugged Kang Ruicheng gently, replying, "I will."

"Go to bed early," Kang Ruicheng released Xu Youning and kept looking affectionately at her, "A Ning, I'm afraid I can't control myself when you get close to me."

Xu Youning pretended to be angry. She glared at Kang Ruicheng, closed the door, and returned to the room.

No one noticed that the moment she turned around, Xu Youning's face suddenly fell and she was confused.

In her contact with Auston, she was aware of the natural arrogance of this man.

This time, Auston took the initiative to select his partner. Such a proud person did not need to apologize to Kang Ruicheng because he was free to choose his partner.

It was just too weird that he came all the way here just to apologize.

The weirdest part was the time he arrived.

"How could it be so coincidental? When Kang Ruicheng was about to find her, Ah Jin rushed up to tell him Auston was here so Kang Ruicheng had to go downstairs to meet Auston, which gave her enough time to leave the study and cover her tracks."

"Were all of these coincidences or meticulous arrangements?"

Thinking of the word "coincidence", Xu Youning couldn't help laughing at herself—

If these were all carefully arranged…

"Then who did it for her?"

She was out on a limb when she left Mu Sijue this time. Who would arrange everything to pull her out of danger?

"They should be coincidences, right?"