Chapter 36 Adrian Is in Big Trouble

Chapter 36 Adrian Is in Big Trouble

When Evelyn left the computer store, the clerk was still crouched pathetically at the front entrance. The moment he saw her, he rushed over begging for mercy — not a trace of his earlier arrogance left.

"I was blind earlier, please don't hold it against me. Give me another chance, please put in a good word with the boss for me..."

Evelyn ignored him and walked around him.

But the clerk kept chasing after her, his voice shaking. "I have no degree, no connections. If Mr. Cross hadn't given me a chance, I'd never have gotten near people like them — people with real money."

He was crying and slapping himself in the face. "I forgot where I came from. I was stupid. But if I get fired and blacklisted from the whole industry, my life is over. I just took out a loan to buy a house, I have a wife and kids to support. Please, you'd be saving my life."

Evelyn stopped and looked back at the man who had done a complete 180, her expression flat. "It's not just a blacklist. Your boss is going to call the police and hold you responsible for destroying that hard drive."

Her voice was calm, but the man looked more terrified with every word. He was sweating all over, nearly passing out.

Evelyn showed no sympathy. She kept her voice even. "That hard drive is worth a lot. Whether you pay for it or go to jail — that's your problem. As for whether you sink or swim, whether your family falls apart or you end up behind bars — that's all the result of what you chose to do. What does any of that have to do with me?"

With that, she left without a second glance at the man who had gone pale as a ghost.

She had walked quite a distance before he finally broke down and screamed after her. "Have you never made a mistake in your life? Someone as cold-hearted as you — karma's going to get you!"

Evelyn's step faltered for just a moment, then she kept walking.

Karma? She let out a cold laugh inside. Wasn't being trapped in someone else's body her karma right now? And what she was going to do next was make sure the people who had gotten away with everything finally got what was coming to them.

She left the clerk behind and walked out of the upscale neighborhood, still a little unsettled by the word "karma." Then she spotted a black Maybach shooting past not far ahead, brakes screeching.

The car looked familiar. Evelyn raised an eyebrow and took a closer look. Just then, a young man in a black suit with his hair slicked back — everything about him screaming "by the book" — jumped out of the car. His forehead was covered in sweat, his briefcase barely closed, and he stumbled his way into the office building nearby.

That's when it clicked — the car belonged to Adrian.

The young man, if she remembered right, had the last name Parker. He was Adrian's assistant, always at his side, and not a low-ranking one either.

For Assistant Parker to be this frantic, had Adrian run into some serious trouble?

Evelyn's eyebrow went up, and a sly smile crossed her face. She glanced at the sign on the building — "Morgan Corporation California Branch" — and walked in, curious to see what was going on.

Inside, the California branch of Morgan Corporation was total chaos. Everyone was rushing around with documents, no time to drink water or wipe the sweat off their faces. The hallways were filled with the frantic clicking of heels.

Evelyn didn't like the noise. She frowned and followed Parker's figure through one frantic office after another until she reached the tech department.

Just to show how out of control things were — Evelyn walked all the way to the tech department door in a school uniform, and not a single person noticed her.

In the tech department, out of more than thirty computers, half were showing screens full of garbled text, and the other half had simply frozen.

The tech staff were hammering their keyboards, not daring to leave their seats, shouting across the room: "Where's the backup team?!" "James , where the hell are you? Get over here!" "Phone! Someone get the phone!"

Parker answered a call, didn't even let the other person finish, yelled "Stop making excuses and get here now!" and hung up. Then he grabbed one of the staff by the arm and asked urgently, "What's the situation?"

The guy was sweating, clearly panicked. "Same as before. The whole server is locked. All the transaction data, client records, trading operations — nothing can be opened or accessed. Right now we're thinking it's a malicious virus that got in—"

"You're thinking? The whole tech department has been at this for ten minutes and that's all you've got?!" Parker shouted, his eyes bloodshot. "Do you have any idea how much money we're losing every single minute? We're already down close to a million in the last ten minutes alone!"

The whole room went dead silent. Everyone looked like they'd seen a ghost. The only sound was the frantic tapping of keyboards — no one even seemed to be breathing.

Evelyn tilted her head and glanced at the scrolling gibberish on one of the screens. She was pretty sure she knew what she was looking at.

A fairly sophisticated virus. Nothing more.

She could fix it. But — why should she?

She'd had her fun watching the chaos. Evelyn turned to leave, but the sound of her footsteps caught someone's attention, and a staff member immediately stepped in front of her. "Who are you? How did you get in here? This is a restricted area. You're not supposed to be in here."

"The door was open, so I walked in," Evelyn said with a raised eyebrow. "Nobody stopped me. I thought this was a street market."

What kind of publicly listed company was this messy? Even a street market had more order.

The staff member turned red but didn't dare let her leave — what if she was a journalist or someone from a rival company, there to steal trade secrets?

Parker noticed the commotion and immediately recognized Evelyn. He hurried over, waved the staff member off, and greeted her with a smile. "Evelyn, are you here to see Mr. Morgan?"

"No, I came to watch the show," she said bluntly. "I've seen enough. I'm leaving."

Parker's expression went flat, but he kept his composure and forced a smile. "Of course. Let me walk you out. Would you like to wait in the conference room and have some snacks? Or I can have a driver take you home."

Before he could finish, a cry broke out across the office. "More computers just went down — there's only one left! Director, Parker, what do we do?!"

Parker's face went white. He couldn't leave at a moment like this, but Evelyn was a guest Adrian valued, and he needed to see her out. He was torn.

Evelyn could see exactly what he was thinking. She glanced over at the row of crashed computers, and her fingers started to itch.

"I can get rid of the virus for you," she said.

Parker blinked, then his face lit up. He had no idea what this high schooler could possibly do that would make Adrian take her so seriously, but right now he was desperate enough to try anything.

"That would be a huge help. Please, right this way." Parker immediately bowed slightly and led Evelyn to the one remaining working computer.

Evelyn didn't waste any time. She sat down and started typing.

The virus was genuinely tricky — even she couldn't crack it instantly. But just seconds after she sat down, the head of the tech department couldn't hold back anymore.

"Parker, have you lost your mind? You're putting your hopes in a student?"