18: Chapter 18 is just ten minutes away! The Yandere Heiress's Hunting Game

Lin Yan stepped out of the elevator on the second basement level and hurried across the dim underground garage.

His leather shoes clicked against the epoxy floor coating, creating hollow echoes.

He walked to his black Audi, pulled open the door, and slid into the driver's seat.

He slammed the door shut behind him, sealing out the stale air of the garage.

He tossed his briefcase onto the passenger seat and slumped into his own seat.

Gasping for air, he fumbled with trembling hands for the car keys in his pocket.

Just as he inserted the key into the ignition and prepared to start the engine,

his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the floor-to-ceiling glass wall of the lobby on the first floor through the windshield.

It was a flash of an all-too-familiar moon-white qipao hem.

It stopped in front of the VIP service counter, following the rhythm of high heels clicking against marble.

In that second, Lin Yan's pupils dilated to their maximum.

His vision completely lost focus.

His heart pounded wildly in his chest, vibrating so hard that even his ribs ached.

He immediately let go of the car keys and slid down along the seat.

He curled his body completely into the cramped space beneath the steering wheel.

Cold sweat poured from his forehead, running down his cheeks and into his eyes.

It brought a burning sting, but he didn't even have the courage to lift his hand to wipe it away.

She was here.

Su Wanqing had actually tracked him to this location at this exact moment.

If Liu Jianguo had hesitated for even three more minutes back in the second-floor VIP room,

or if that technical supervisor had been just a little slower with the procedure,

he would have run right into this woman in the first-floor lobby.

In the first-floor lobby.

Su Wanqing pushed the stamped document through the glass window.

Her smile was gentle and poised.

"Hello, I am a VIP client of Ruifeng Financial. I made an appointment for this afternoon at 3:00 PM to retrieve the physical transaction records from four years ago for the account under Chen Ming ending in 8864."

The young female teller behind the counter took the document, glanced at it, and tapped quickly on her computer keyboard.

Then, her brows furrowed tightly.

"Miss Su, please wait a moment. The system indicates that the access rights for the underlying data of this account have been locked. I need to consult with our business supervisor."

The teller stood up, took the document, and hurried toward the internal office behind the counter.

Su Wanqing stood where she was, her hands folded in front of her.

Her fingertips gently rubbed against the metal clasp of her Hermès bag.

The tear mole at the corner of her eye glinted under the overhead lights.

Two minutes later, the teller walked out, following a middle-aged female supervisor dressed in a professional suit.

The supervisor held the document and offered Su Wanqing an apologetic smile through the glass window.

There was a fine sheen of nervous sweat on her forehead.

"Miss Su, I am truly sorry. The batch of non-real-name transaction data from four years ago that you requested was completely wiped from the system just ten minutes ago."

Su Wanqing's fingers, which were rubbing the metal clasp, paused, and she looked up.

Her gaze crossed the glass window, locking directly into the supervisor's eyes.

"Wiped? What does that mean?"

The supervisor wiped the sweat from her forehead and hurriedly opened the memo in her hand.

Her tone was filled with unconcealable tension.

"It is like this: the head office just issued an enterprise-level privacy data de-identification directive."

"To comply with a major financing project's compliance review, all expired non-real-name transaction records in the underground server room have undergone irreversible physical overwriting."

The supervisor pushed the voided document back through the slot in the window.

"Now, this batch of data has completely turned into garbled text. Even if our branch president personally authorized it, it could not be restored."

Su Wanqing lowered her head, looking at the document lying quietly in the slot.

The cold air from the lobby's air conditioning blew against her skirt.

She didn't fly into a rage like an ordinary customer, nor did she question the bank's irregular operations.

She simply reached out slowly and picked up the document with her index and middle fingers.

The corners of her mouth slowly curled upward, pulling into an exceptionally eerie arc.

"Ten minutes ago."

Su Wanqing murmured these words.

A low chuckle escaped her throat.

The laughter sounded particularly abrupt in the noisy bank lobby.

"What a quick move."

She folded the document, placed it back into her handbag, and turned to walk toward the bank entrance.

She was now completely certain that Lin Yan was definitely in this bank.

It was even possible he was watching her from some corner.

That accomplice with top-tier hacking skills had discovered the existence of the underlying physical backup.

Lin Yan immediately utilized his public relations resources at Shenghai Group to forcibly destroy all the evidence just ten minutes before she arrived to retrieve the records.

This ruthless and decisive method of cutting off a tail to survive.

This psychological gaming ability that pushed timing to the absolute limit.

Aside from the King of Chatting L, who had toyed with the Jianghai City rich second-generation circle in the palm of his hand back in the day, there was absolutely no one else.

Su Wanqing walked out of the bank entrance, the dazzling sunlight making her squint slightly.

She walked to her Panamera, opened the door, and looked back at the towering bank building.

The excitement in her eyes was almost spilling over.

Lin Yan, the more you desperately try to cover up, the more it proves you have a guilty conscience.

You think destroying one record will let you get rid of me completely? This is just a warmup.

The real hunting game has only just begun.

In the underground garage.

Lin Yan curled up under the cramped driver's seat for a full half-hour, until his legs were completely numb.

Only then did he dare to hold onto the steering wheel and slowly sit up.

He poked his head out, looked through the windshield toward the first-floor lobby, and confirmed that the plain-colored figure had completely disappeared.

Only then did he tremble as he turned the car key.

The roar of the engine echoed in the garage.

The old backup phone placed on the passenger seat began to vibrate violently.

Lin Yan put on his Bluetooth headset and pressed the answer button.

Old K's hoarse voice immediately came through.

"Old Lin, I monitored from the perimeter that the underlying data of the Jianghai City Branch has been overwritten. Did you get away?"

Lin Yan gripped the steering wheel tightly, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

Cold sweat dripped from his chin onto his collar.

"I obtained the access rights and destroyed the data, but Su Wanqing arrived at the counter just ten minutes later. I almost ran into her."

On the other end, Old K gasped, and the sound of keyboard typing stopped immediately.

"This woman is a complete lunatic. Her aggression is too high right now. Old Lin, make sure you don't have any contact with her recently. Find an excuse to hide for a few days."

Lin Yan stepped on the gas, and the black Audi drove out of the underground garage, merging into the congested traffic of Jianghai City.

"I can't hide."

Lin Yan looked at his own pale, exhausted face in the rearview mirror, his voice terrifyingly hoarse.

"She has completely locked onto me. As long as I remain in Jianghai City, she will always find a way to force me to appear."