The house was dark and silent by 2:00 a.m.
Except for the soft click-click-click of furious typing from Lu Zeyan's private study.
Xu Yinyin sat hunched in front of three glowing monitors.
Hair messy. Eyes red. Fingers flying.
"Firewall layer 5 breached."
"Re-routing IP trace."
"Kill switch initiated."
Her lips curved into a tired, triumphant grin.
"Stupid ICE VAULT. You thought I retired."
She reached for her tea. It was cold.
She reached for her chips. Gone.
She blinked.
And blinked again.
And then… her head dropped.
Face-down on the keyboard.
Asleep.
Meanwhile… Upstairs
Lu Zeyan stirred.
He didn't know why.
Something felt… off.
He checked beside him — no Yinyin.
Silence.
Too much silence.
He slipped out of bed and padded downstairs.
What He Found
When he pushed the door open, the soft hum of electronics met him.
And there she was.
Fast asleep at his desk — her cheek smushed against the keyboard, one hand still gripping a mouse, her other curled around a cold can of Red Bull.
Three screens blinked in front of her, full of black terminal code and moving graphs.
Zeyan frowned.
"This doesn't look like cat videos."
He stepped closer, careful not to wake her.
He didn't understand all of what was on screen — but he recognized pieces. IP rerouting. Encryption trees. Data spoofing tools.
His heart skipped.
"Is she…?"
He didn't finish the thought.
Instead, he gently reached down and swept her hair out of her face.
She mumbled something in her sleep.
"…stupid firewall… I eat firewalls for breakfast…"
He almost laughed.
Instead, he bent down and carefully lifted her into his arms.
She stirred just enough to mutter, "I'm fine… I can finish the breach…"
He kissed her forehead.
"No. You're going to sleep."
Later
He tucked her into bed.
Then returned to the study and sat in her seat.
Just for a moment.
Just to… look.
The screen auto-locked before he could read anything else. Password required.
He stared at it.
Tried her birthday. His. Their wedding date.
Nothing worked.
He smiled to himself.
"What are you hiding, Mrs. Lu?"