𝐄𝐱 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞'𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞

30. Libel & Only He Can Help

I'm so into you
I can barely breathe
And all I wanna do
Is to fall in deep
But close ain't close enough
'Til we cross the line, yeah, yeah

Aaban lowered his voice mysteriously and said, "Actually, I've always wondered whether she is even my sister..."

"How can she not be your sister?" Murad was taken aback.

Aaban proffered his hypothesis excitedly, seeing as he had managed to hook in an audience, "Have you heard of soul exchange?"

"Soul exchange?" Murad, who had never read web novels, confused the genre with the more common meaning.

"No, soul exchange is..."

"Aaban, there is a mole on your left butt cheek, right?" Tahera said over his voice.

Aaban coughed violently and swallowed the rest of his words. He was at a loss while a faint blush rose to his face...

"Sis, could you not reveal such private information so cavalierly?" Aaban groused.

Tahera replied with a smile, "Then, I request you to not reveal my extremely private soul exchange so easily as well."

Aaban found it extremely difficult to smile back.

"So, you were saying..." Murad urged but Aaban interrupted him instantly, "That's all I will say about my sister's life because I respect her privacy. I will not reveal anything even if you beg me!"

"No, I'm curious why Miss Tahera knows there's a mole on your butt."

"Dude, that's the detail you focus on‽" Aaban was speechless. To prevent a misunderstanding, he still kindly explained, "I was stung on my behind by bees when I was seven, you can picture the rest..."

"But why do the bees only target your butt?" Murad had a follow up. Aaban rolled his eyes, "How would I know? I'm going back to work!"

Tahera offered to fill in the blanks, "Oh, I do! I remember it was because Aaban..."

"Sis—!" Aaban yelped and glared threateningly at her, adding, "I will kill myself if you say another word."

Tahera blinked a few times before turning back to the computer screen, saying, "Alright, then let's all get back to work."

Murad put his foot down, "Miss Tahera, you can't tease us like that... The audience's still waiting..."

"You are the only one in the audience, the readers don't count!"

"Of course, the readers do count! Without them, who are we? We owe them that much..."

"We have to keep certain things a mystery okay? This way they'll keep coming back for more."

"I assure you, they won't be coming back if you don't finish the story..."

"You two standing there yapping, is the plot going to write itself?" Tahera leveled them an icy stare, forcing Murad and Aaban back to their respective workstation.

"When will the next phase of the plan start?" After some time, Murad raised his head and asked, he was more than ready to tear his nemesis apart.

Tahera lifted her eyes off the computer screen and with a curious smile on her face said, "One week's time."

One week? Murad flipped through his mental itinerary and realized why. One week later would be city's annual Hacker Competition.

Because of the occasion, it would also be the inspection day for the nation's most influential computer security authority.