Soft Sunshine.

Hao Ren reached back home, the first thing he did was to tell Xiao Mei to sweep any records of his car being spotted anywhere. Even the community monitoring was cleaned up. Hao Ren checked on Han Lingshi and let out a sigh of relief when he found that she was still in deep sleep state. 

He went to his room, and laid down on the bed. Suddenly, Xiao Mei said, "Boss, the Red Banner Mercenary were contacted by someone on the dark web about the progress of the task related to Miss Han." 

Hao Ren thought about it and asked, "Can you locate the person?" 

The AI replied, "The person is very clever, he used one account to send the message, and Red Banner replied in the shadow media. It is like we know he came in, but other than the message itself all the traces are removed. Boss, with your permission, give me two days, I will investigate this." 

Hao Ren nodded, and said, "Fine, take your time." 

...

The night went by quickly, Hao Ren woke up on his normal time, and found that he was not as fatigued as he thought he would be. He stood up from the bed and went to the washroom. He stank of sweat because the scene from the factory kept on playing in his mind and he was sweating like a pig. 

When he came to the bathroom he could not help but puke all that he was holding in his stomach. His hands shivered as he held onto the sink, his leg felt soft from throwing up. After a few minutes he calmed down and he washed his face. His face was still pale, he was in a bad place mentally. His mentality was effecting his body too. 

He began to question why did he do what he did. He had no answer, he could have called the police and handed them over, but why did he go to the lengths to kill someone. After all, regardless the fact that the people were professional killers, they were still humans, how could he have killed them in cold blood? 

He looked at his resemblance in the mirror and thought, could it be the system that was manipulating him? This could not be ruled out. Suddenly, the system notified, *Ding: It is detected that the host is suffering from after effects of a murder. Activating emotional comfort feature.* 

Hao Ren did not even have the time to react when he found himself standing in a white void. Before him was a black screen, and it should a few scenes he was familiar with. It was when he found about the mercenaries and alerted the secret services. 

The investigative agencies captured the mercenaries, but it was not without casualties. The system said, *Host, what you did was a successful self defense. Not only did you save your wife, but also many other people who could have been implicated.*

Hao Ren understood this, however, still believing that he killed a few people with his hands, well one of them, was still going to take some time. The white room vanished, knowing that his actions saved a few innocent people was calming enough. 

Xiao Mei said, "Boss, you need to pick up the pace, you have to get to work today." 

The young man nodded, and got in the shower. After cleaning up he came out, and found Han Lingshi sitting in the living room. She was watching the TV, the morning news was an important part of her routine. She sensed Hao Ren's approach and said, "Good Morning." 

Hao Ren looked at her and found that she was calmer than before, and he smiled as he replied her, "Good Morning, what would you like for breakfast?" 

Han Lingshi shook her head and said, "I have an appointment in an hour, so I will eat then. You can cook for yourself." 

Hao Ren shook his head and brushed up a quick egg roll for the two of them and bought it next to her. The aroma was enough to capture her nose, and Han Lingshi sighed as she said, "Give it here." 

Hao Ren smirked and served her an egg roll. He asked, "Are you feeling okay now?" 

Han Lingshi nodded and said, "I am, I swear, I have never slept so nice. This was the best sleep ever." 

Hao Ren smiled. Han Lingshi suddenly said, "Do you know those people chasing me died?" 

Hao Ren nodded, he did not show any surprise, Han Lingshi raised her brow and asked, "How did you know?" 

The young man looked around and said, "Do not tell anyone, but I killed them." 

Han Lingshi was dazed for a second before she broke out into loud laughter, "Oh, Ren, you are so funny. Hahaha, yes you killed them for me. I did not know you liked me so much. Do you want a reward?" 

Hao Ren chuckled and pointed at his cheek, "I would not mind a hug or a kiss as a reward." 

Han Lingshi blushed a little and said, "Come on, don't joke, tell me how did you know?" 

Hao Ren raised his phone and shook it before her face. Han Lingshi smacked his shoulder lightly and said, "How dare you joke to me that you killed them? I was so scared you know." 

The young man chuckled and said, "Let me get some money, they I will learn some self defense and shooting skills to help my wife." 

Han Lingshi sensed a tickle in her heart when he called her wife, but then she quizzed, "What good would that be? You think such people will come at me all the time?" 

Hao Ren shook his head and said, "It is for those who dared to compete for you. Hmph, how dare they? I will break their legs." 

Han Lingshi chuckled at his furious expression and then patted his shoulder, "There, there, hotshot. Now shall we leave for work?" 

Hao Ren nodded, and then they came downstairs. He saw two cars in his parking space and asked, "Did you call for your car?" 

Han Lingshi nodded, and said, "Yeah, I did. To avoid detection and trouble, I bought a unit in this building. This way even if I spend my time here, it would not be a problem." 

Hao Ren nodded and gave her a thumbs up. He said, "I will see you at lunch?" 

Han Lingshi nodded, and then the two of them were just standing there surrounding by silence. The young man took a deep breath and quickly pulled her in an embrace. He could sense her heart getting faster. He whispered, "I am glad you are safe." 

Han Lingshi thought he was worried about her since the last night, and placed her hands on his back too. She calmed down, because at this moment, she felt very safe. Hao Ren broke the embrace, but not before pecking her cheek. Han Lingshi was struck by lightning and by the time she recovered, Hao Ren had already driven his car out. 

She stomped the ground and said, "Hooligan." 

However, the smile on her face defined her original feelings. After a few moments, she took out her phone and said, "Find out who posted a contract on my head. I need an answer by the evening." 

Her tone was cold and she was decisive. She was not a fool to ignore such things. The only reason she did not do anything before Hao Ren was because she did not want to involve him into the world of power struggle. He was the only ray of sunshine in her world of dark clouds and cold winds. 

...

Hao Ren drove through the streets and the his car attracted a lot of attention. He looked at all this and said, "I ought to get myself a low-key car." 

Soon, he parked the car in the parking space of Rubicon Trade Center. He reached the office, and found that everyone was present there. He greeted everyone and, went to his cabin. Klaus followed him and said, "Boss, do you think we should get a receptionist?" 

Hao Ren raised his head and said, "I will arrange for that, we need a lot of people, but first we need to generate profit. Do not worry about it, how are the two applications coming?" 

Klaus nodded and said, "We will be finished by the evening." 

Hao Ren nodded, at this moment, his computer showed a text, (Boss, Mister Bourne is here to meet you.) 

Hao Ren said, "Klaus, give me a copy of the applications that you come up with, I will have my secret team handle the final touch ups. Do not worry, you guys will get your developer credit." 

Klaus waved his hand with a smile and said, "We do not care about that boss. We all just want to have fun while developing tech, also, if someone refines our ideas, it will be a good learning curve for us." 

Hao Ren nodded and then he sent Klaus away. Hao Ren waited for fifteen minutes, before he heard Jian Koji guiding someone to his office. Sure enough, the middle-aged man appeared before his glass door. Hao Ren stood up with a professional smile on his face and opened the door before inviting him inside. 

Markus Bourne said, "Mister Hao, you do not look too surprised by my arrival." 

Hao Ren shrugged his shoulder and said, "It is not all that unexpected, I was confident in my product." 

Markus Bourne smiled, and Hao Ren gestured him to sit down. The middle-aged man said, "To be honest, you have a good set up here." 

Hao Ren shook his head and replied, "Just the basic minimum." 

Markus Bourne said, "So, I came over to see, if someone was pranking me, but I did not expect your name to turn up after I verified if Thunder Technologies really existed. Turned out the demo I used was not a dream." 

Hao Ren smiled and did not say anything because, he knew that Xiao Mei must have killed the OS file as soon as Markus Bourne's curiosity reached the peak. That was why this guy was here. Hao Ren asked, "So, tell me Mister Bourne, what can I do for you?" 

Markus Bourne was hesitating, because he literally told Hao Ren that he was not convinced. Hao Ren saw the hesitation and said, "Fine, I do not wish to embarrass you, I would love to have you handle the marketing for my company. The salary and profit share is the same. Your salary will be raised in proportion to the profit. For every hundred percent of profit, you will get ten percent salary increase and the two percent bonus. The salary hike will be permanent, but only when the profit is higher. 

If the profit for this month and the next is same, the salary will be same. What do you think?" 

He thought, Bourne would go on to haggle with him but the man said, "Deal." 

Hao Ren was truly surprised, after all, the person before him was not a fresher, he was Director Marketing for a big ass company which controlled 30 percent of global market share. He did not expect his morning to be so good. 

The young man stood up and shook hands with him. He said, "Mister Bourne, how soon can you start working with us?" 

Markus Bourne smiled, "How about, we meet tomorrow morning, and sign the work agreement? I will start working right away. To be honest, I had been serving the notice period at Byte, and it ends tonight. From tomorrow, I can do what I want to do." 

Hao Ren was surprised, he did not expect this, but he did not show it on his face. It did not matter to him if Markus had been working on the notice period or was going to breach the contract. All he cared at this moment, was to put his products in the market and gather customers. 

Hao Ren suddenly looked at his computer screen and asked, "Mister Bourne, what is your opinion of Miss Lynn Carter?" 

Markus Bourne smiled and said, "I will not hide it from you, Mister Hao, she was an intern under my wing, and we became good friends. Now she has been managing the regional level trades and projects at the Golden Flakes. However, she told me a few months ago, that she wants to change the company because Golden Flakes are not moving forward with their chip production. In the past few months, they have been laying off many people, and yesterday, Lynn was asked to resign as well. So, I told her to come over, and work here." 

Hao Ren asked, "I got her resume shortly after I got off on call with you. How was she so fast to act?" 

Bourne replied, "Well, she is my girlfriend, and I was so excited about Horizon OS that I just told her and asked her to give it a try. I only hope you do not forbid office romance." 

He let out a dry chuckle to ease the situation, because Hao Ren was looking at him with a deadpan expression. The young man said, "Mister Markus, what you do at your personal time, has nothing to do with me. However, if your emotions messed up anything at work, then forgive me, I am not playing jokes here." 

Markus Bourne did not expect Hao Ren to be get so serious and replied, "Mister Hao, I promise you that nothing as such will happen." 

Hao Ren smiled and said, "Then, how I will go and meet Miss Carter. If she is suitable, then you can thank me for playing the red thread of fate." 

Markus Bourne chuckled but he nodded, and the two of them left the office. However, what Markus did not know was, that Hao Ren did not feel any emotion, but he had asked Xiao Mei to verify everything Markus had said by typing a command on his phone. Only when Xiao Mei gave a green light he agreed. 

Hao Ren was sneakily using his phone under the table. He was not the sunny guy everyone saw him to be on the surface. He knew very well how cruel the world could be and softness was only reserved for some people.