Love Began with the First Meeting

"This story started 27 years ago. At that time, QY Island was much less developed than it is today, but the environment was somewhat 'warm' back then. The beginning of this story harks back to that time.

My elder brother had grown up as a star in our community. He was handsome, smart, and hell, he was even very lucky, as if he was really God's favored one. He was a child that every parent and every teacher wanted, and every peer admired or envied him. Inevitably, every child around him was compared to him, especially me. I lived under his shadow, and by no means did I like it. Whenever I met people, they would always identify me as his younger brother. Because of that, I gradually became afraid of living, of life.

When I was younger, I was active in my life. But after everything that I had experienced, I became shy and quiet, as if I was trying to make myself invisible. Nobody else knew why I changed. It was only me who knew that he was the one who pushed me over the edge." "What's this?" a passer-by asked while looking at the big screen on the wall of a shopping mall with his wide open eyes. Gradually, more and more people stopped by the big screen and gathered around the man as their attention was grabbed as well. One man looked at his cellphone and all of a sudden, he screamed, "This appeared on the screen of my cellphone..."

"Oh my God! This happened to my tablet too!"

"Have a look! Hurry! A mobile advertisement for a car changes into this too..."

It was an unprecedentedly chaotic morning in QY Island. In addition, it was also foggy and hazy-mainly the result of the heavy rain that had poured all throughout the night prior. As people breathed the cold and moist air, they became even more uneasy.

The government, with the cooperation of the Security Bureau, began investigating the incident, trying to figure out the source of the hack. Unfortunately, the suspect was a master hacker and was able to clean all his traces, and was even naughty enough to put useless information in the places he knew would be investigated, just to throw the authorities off-track.

"Since I stayed at home most of the time, the computer was my only company. At first, I was only using it to kill time, but gradually I found that using it alleviated my loneliness. A computer could transform my life from being a boring one to an interesting one! You know why? Because with it, I was able to discover the secrets people wanted to conceal from everybody else, including my elder brother.

My elder brother, who had been excellent in both character and studies, fell in love with a murderer and even had a child with her..."

In the beginning, the public had been restless and confused at the sudden appearance of the report, but gradually, they were roped in by its content. People began to be curious about the story, wondering what the person was going to say at the end. This, however, left the staff of the Security Bureau deeply troubled. The sound of fingers typing on the keyboard was heard everywhere in the whole bureau, and it made everyone anxious. "What's going on?" the bureau director asked, quickly fixing his eyes on the LED screen in front of him.

His subordinate, a section chief, sighed and answered in a defeated tone, "We still haven't found anything of importance yet, Director." In a heavy voice, he continued, "I have arranged somebody to contact civil master hackers. Maybe they have some other means." Hearing that, the bureau director nodded. Looking at the long letter that occupied the screen, his eyes absorbed everything, quickly thinking of plans and ways to deal with the crime.

*

As the sun rose and showed its might on the whole of QY Island, the manor became illuminated with sunlight. It sprinkled into the glass garden house, making the roses inside it look more delicate and beautiful.

Aaron was in Ximena's bedroom, touching his forehead softly with his hand. 'Her skin isn't as cold as before,' he thought. To be sure, however, he took out a clinical thermometer to check her body temperature. Seeing that it indeed had risen again, he could not help but sigh with relief.

Tap-tap!

The sound of somebody knocking at the door came through. While it wasn't loud, it was fast enough that Aaron understood that it was an urgent manner. At this hour, Aaron was not ready for anything urgent, but he took a deep breath and asked who it was in a gentle manner, so as not to wake Ximena up. It was Ken. After Aaron let him in, he opened the door and came into the room. After taking a look at Ximena, who was still sleeping tight, he walked to Aaron and said in a low voice, "Your Highness, something happened." Hearing that, Aaron stared at Ken for a moment. His senses started tingling, and so he quickly stood up and walked out of the bedroom.

"The past of Miss Mo's biological parents has been exposed," Ken said, handing a cellphone to Aaron. "The hacker used unknown techniques to hack and post all information on all the electronic devices in QY Island."

Silently, Aaron digested the news and didn't respond quickly. His eyes were fixed on the report that Ken handed him. Everybody who knew about what had happened in the past would easily figure out that the report was about Ximena's parents. The story, however, was cut at a key point, so it still wasn't finished.

"Have you found out Hugo Mo's location?" Aaron asked straightforwardly.

"It's too difficult," Ken said, shaking his head and lowering his eyes in shame. "He uses dual virtual paths and a proxy server. It's almost impossible to determine his specific location."

Hearing Ken's answer, Aaron raised his eyes, which were colored with rage and frustration. It was not until a few moments passed that he said slowly, "Pass a message to him. Tell him that I want to talk to him."

"Yes, Your Highness!" Ken answered and then left.

Aaron remained unmoving on where he stood. He was thinking about the documents about Ximena and her family that the private detective had given Ken. There were some information about Hugo on there, the younger brother of Manson. However, the document didn't go into details. As far as Aaron could remember, it only said that he had been sent abroad to have his psychosis treated and that he had never returned to QY Island since then.

A possibility came into Aaron's mind. 'Of course, nobody noticed that he came back, ' he thought. It would be an easy job for a master hacker to let himself into their island with no one else noticing. With that, Aaron's mind ran through many different people, connections, and solutions that would end Hugo once and for all.

*

In "Only Memory", the staff were exclusively talking about the stir caused by the hacker earlier that day. Freya was reading the scrolling through the long letter on the screen of the television in the shop. Gradually, her breath became short and her face turned deathly pale. "Aunt Freya, is there anything wrong with you? Are you feeling sick?" the shop manager asked hastily when he found that Freya's face didn't look good. "Do you need me to send you to the hospital?"

Hearing the shop manager's question, Freya came to herself and looked at the shop manager with her unfocused eyes. "I, I'm fine..." she said. "Well, Ximena hasn't come in yet. I, I'm going to see if anything is wrong with her..." While saying that, she grasped her handbag in a hurry and ran towards the door of the fashion design shop. The shop manager looked very confused, not understanding what was going on.