Chapter : 17
When the programmers were fixing the system vulnerabilities, they discovered an even more fatal flaw in the backend. If exploited by a malicious hacker, the platform’s revenue and rider information could be stolen within minutes.
The traces left by that hacker looked less like a typical intrusion and more like deliberate guidance—almost as if he had intentionally led them to patch the vulnerability.
Zhou Qingluo, unusually free for once, sat by the busy street and drew on his tablet.
During this period of working as a food delivery rider, he had gained a lot of inspiration. He liked this busy, real life and wanted to record every moment of it.
Only when his phone notified him of a new delivery order did Zhou Qingluo put away his tablet, put on his helmet, and get ready to head out.
The sunflower decoration on his helmet swayed in the morning sunlight, full of energy.
He received an order: a serving of extremely spicy luosifen (snail rice noodles) to be delivered to Lakeside Park. He actually hated delivering luosifen—the smell would completely take over his delivery box, and carrying it by hand while riding was unsafe.
He was curious, though—what kind of strange person would eat extremely spicy luosifen outdoors in the scorching summer morning?
With that curiosity, Zhou Qingluo arrived at the designated lakeside location. The moment he saw the person, he almost wanted to turn around and leave.
Song Ling was sitting on a bench under a willow tree, holding a laptop. Several takeaway boxes were stacked beside him.
All the boxes were identical—same brand of luosifen.
At least twenty servings.
As expected of him.
Zhou Qingluo put on his mask, pulled down the black sun visor of his helmet, and handed over the order.
“Sir, your delivery has arrived.”
Song Ling didn’t look up, as if he hadn’t heard anything, his fingers clacking rapidly on the keyboard.
Zhou Qingluo placed the delivery down and turned to leave.
Just as he took a step, the laptop snapped shut with a click, and Song Ling’s cold voice rang out.
“Zhou Qingluo.”
Zhou Qingluo pretended not to hear and walked faster toward his electric bike.
Song Ling stood up and took a few quick steps to block his path, subtly rubbing his abdomen.
Zhou Qingluo: “……”
What an actor.
Song Ling said matter-of-factly, “Yesterday you beat me up and left me in the bathroom. Are you just going to ignore that?”
???
What does it mean to falsely accuse someone first?
This is exactly what it means!
The moment it was brought up, Zhou Qingluo got angry.
He lifted the black visor of his helmet, took off his mask, and gritted his teeth in protest.
“If you hadn’t acted like a psycho—hugging me, grabbing me, licking and biting me out of nowhere—would I have hit you?”
Song Ling looked at him in silence for two seconds, then said expressionlessly, “You don’t need to describe it in such detail.”
“……”
Zhou Qingluo was speechless.
Unexpectedly, Song Ling continued with a completely innocent face, “Zhou Qingluo, if you had kicked three centimeters lower, I wouldn’t be able to function anymore.”
After two seconds of silence, Zhou Qingluo realized that getting angry at someone like Song Ling was pointless.
This guy was a professional at turning things around on others.
He got on his electric bike, patted the empty seat behind him, tilted his head at Song Ling, and said domineeringly:
“Get on. I’ll take you to the andrology department for a checkup.”
Song Ling: “……”
“So you won’t end up accusing me later if you really can’t function.”
Song Ling’s provocation did not anger him. He stood there, expressionless, silently watching.
Zhou Qingluo chuckled, shook his head, pulled down his visor, started the bike, and was about to leave.
At that moment, Song Ling slowly spoke.
“188*****.”
Zhou Qingluo immediately eased off the throttle. The visor he had just lowered flipped back up as he turned around in disbelief.
“How do you know my phone number?”
Song Ling raised an eyebrow and casually pulled out the electric bike key.
“Give it back!” Zhou Qingluo said.
Song Ling toyed with the key and answered his previous question.
“The other day, you wrote your number on a piece of paper and handed it to me.”
As he spoke, he even mimicked Zhou Qingluo’s gesture.
Zhou Qingluo remembered how he had chased Song Ling out of the internet café that day and felt a little embarrassed.
“But I took it back!”
“I have a photographic memory.”
Zhou Qingluo lazily gave him a thumbs-up.
“I was lying. I just hacked into your backend and got your number.”
“……”
Zhou Qingluo rolled his eyes and reached out. “Give me my key. I have things to do.”
Only then did he realize how much information that sentence contained.
“Wait—you hacked our backend? Just for my phone number?”
So the reason the platform’s programmers had been busy all morning—and all the riders had been idle—was because of this ridiculous reason?
“It only took ten minutes,” Song Ling said casually. “And I accidentally found a major vulnerability in your system. I left some evidence for your useless programmers. Since you can take orders now, it looks like they fixed it.”
Zhou Qingluo could not describe what he was feeling. He stared blankly at him, thinking: as expected of a villain—his thinking really is abnormal.
Song Ling said, “If you had encountered a ruthless hacker, your deposits would’ve been transferred, rider data leaked, and your platform would’ve gone bankrupt very quickly.”
“……”
“Zhou Qingluo, don’t look at me like that. I’m an honest person.”
An honest person?
Zhou Qingluo couldn’t help laughing, silently screaming in his mind:
Wake up! You’re the kind of person who will one day destroy the global information network!
But none of that had anything to do with him. Song Ling would naturally have his “white moonlight” to save him, and the destruction of the global network wouldn’t happen. As long as he didn’t end up becoming Song Ling’s substitute, that was enough.
Zhou Qingluo clasped his hands politely and smiled.
“Then thank you, brave sir. Can you return my key now?”
“Then deliver the luosifen back to my place.”
“I’m not doing it.”
“I calculated the probability. If you take twenty deliveries, you’ll get one of mine. According to statistics and big data, you can earn up to five hundred a day.”
