My online dating circle has millions of followers, why would she put a collar on me?

Sun Miaomiao first met Xia Anmian in an algorithm class during her freshman year.

She was late that day. When she pushed open the back door and crouched down to sneak into the classroom, the girl with a low ponytail was standing in front of the blackboard writing a series of dynamic programming recursive formulas.

The chalk twirled in her hand, and lines of code flowed smoothly down, as clear as printed text.

The more than one hundred people below were completely silent.

I was not only impressed by the knowledge, but also stunned by the aura emanating from the person on stage.

Sun Miaomiao found a corner to sit down, looked up at the blackboard, and her pupils contracted slightly.

That recursive formula.

She spent the entire night in the lab yesterday working on the logic, using three different optimization schemes to get it running. The girl on stage finished writing it in less than five minutes, and it was even neater and three lines shorter than hers.

From that day on, Sun Miaomiao became Xia Anmian's "shadow".

She discovered that Xia Anmian, like herself, was one of the very few people in the computer science department who truly "understood" code.

More importantly, Xia Anmian can attract investment.

Sun Miaomiao still finds this very amazing.

She watched as Xia Anmian walked into the dean's office with a rough, large-scale model proposal that consisted of only a few pages of PowerPoint slides.

When she came out, the dean personally saw her to the door, shook her hand and said, "I will approve special funds for this project. You will lead the team. If you need anything, just come to me."

At that time, the university's large-scale model research was still in the "concept" stage. The dean himself commented that "it sounds beautiful, but it will take at least ten years to be implemented."

As a result, less than half an hour after Xia Anmian went in, the dean's attitude changed from "not optimistic" to "fully supportive".

Sun Miaomiao later asked Xia Anmian how she did it.

Xia Anmian didn't speak, but smiled and asked, "Would you like to join?"

Although Xia Anmian did not answer her, she joined without even thinking.

It was only after joining that she learned what identity and background meant.

From then on, Sun Miaomiao called Xia Anmian "boss".

After joining, she realized just how strong Xia Anmian's technical skills were; they were comparable to those of an associate professor.

Of course, she became even more aware of just how powerful Xia Anmian's background was.

They were able to directly obtain the interface to Kyoto's transportation system.

This is Kyoto, after all!

There were important people everywhere, and the two of them could come and go as they pleased in that transportation system!

Of course, Sun Miaomiao wasn't the only one in the entire computer science department who admired her, but she was the one who followed her the most closely.

When Xia Anmian was writing code, she helped set up the environment; when Xia Anmian was giving a demonstration, she handed over the data.

When Xia Anmian said, "I have an idea," she immediately took out her notebook and wrote it down, not missing a single word.

But she also discovered a fatal flaw in Xia Anmian.

The person who is usually as calm as an AI becomes completely illogical whenever things involve a boy named Jiang Yi.

During his freshman year, a girl gave Jiang Yi a cup of milk tea and left it on his desk with a sticky note.

Xia Anmian saw the sticky note at the back door of the classroom, and her expression didn't change. But that night, Sun Miaomiao was pulled into an emergency meeting room.

"Help me look up that girl."

"What's your name? What department are you in? How many times have you spoken to Jiang Yi? Have you added each other as friends?"

Sun Miaomiao sat opposite her, holding her laptop, her fingers hovering above the keyboard, and cautiously asked:

"Boss, it's just a cup of milk tea, it can't be that serious..."

Xia Anmian looked up at her.

Sun Miaomiao still remembers that look in her eyes, and the memory still sends chills down her spine.

"Not at all," Xia Anmian said. "I just want to know her name."

Sun Miaomiao eventually investigated.

The girl was a sophomore from the next department. Her only interaction with Jiang Yi was in the same elective class, and they never even spoke.

Later, she vaguely heard that the girl had fallen and broken her leg.

Sun Miaomiao didn't know if the boss had arranged for her to do it.

But Sun Miaomiao remembered Xia Anmian's actions. The boss's calmness had its limits, and those limits were "not involving Jiang Yi".

Once that name is mentioned, she transforms from that terrifyingly rational software architect into a completely different person.

So when she saw through the backend monitoring that Xia Anmian had called the "destroy program" interface.

Her first reaction wasn't that the program actually worked, but rather, "Oh no, the boss has gone crazy again."

She practically sprang up from her workstation.

Half of the headphone cord snapped off, and the code on the screen hadn't been saved yet. She grabbed her phone and dialed Xia Anmian's number.

"Boss! Please don't press that button!"

The moment the call connected, she shouted it out, her voice so shrill that even the people at the next workstation looked up at her.

"Boss, I'm telling you, this program really can't be launched. Didn't we say it was just for fun? It hasn't undergone any security testing at all; its underlying logic is full of vulnerabilities. If something goes wrong, we'll both end up in jail!"

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, then Xia Anmian's voice came through, faint, as if separated by a layer of water.

"I know."

"You knew that, yet you still pressed it?!"

Sun Miaomiao's voice rose another half-tone, "Boss, wake up! You want to kill a person! A living person!"

"Vast."

Xia Anmian called her name, her voice still calm, but that calmness sent a chill down Sun Miaomiao's spine.

"He's one of my men."

Sun Miaomiao opened her mouth, as if to say something, but it felt like something was blocking her throat.

She has known Xia Anmian for three years.

She knew how reliable this person was when calm, and she also knew how terrifying she was when she lost control. But now, over the phone, she suddenly realized something—

The eldest sister wasn't unaware of what she was doing. She knew it from beginning to end. She just didn't care.

"Boss, listen to me..."

Sun Miaomiao ran towards the server room while holding her phone, her pace already light enough for a jog.

The emergency exit sign at the end of the corridor was lit up in green. She rushed over and pushed the door open. The motion-activated light in the stairwell turned on, casting a pale light on her sweat-drenched forehead.

"Boss, there's still a chance! Tell me what happened, and I'll help you figure it out!"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"You don't understand," Xia Anmian said.

"I understand."

"You don't understand."

"I really understand~"

Sun Miaomiao was about to cry.

o (╥﹏╥) o

Is this talented young girl, destined to lead China's development, going to be ruined today?

Before Sun Miaomiao could finish speaking, a very soft, almost inaudible sound came from the other end of the phone.

"Beep."

Sun Miaomiao suddenly stopped in her tracks.

She stood at the corner between the third and fourth floors, her hand holding her phone hanging down, as if someone had pressed the pause button on her whole being.

She heard it.

That sound was the confirmation tone for the program starting up.

She participated in the development of this system, and although she thought it was just for fun at the time, she remembers that voice.

The system emits a short, sharp electronic beep when the "Execute" button is pressed.

She even remembered her state of mind when she wrote that line of code. It was three in the morning, raining outside, and she was joking with Xia Anmian as she typed:

"If someone actually uses this system to kill someone, wouldn't we be considered accomplices?"

Xia Anmian was debugging other modules at the time and replied without looking up, "That day will never come."

There is now.

"It's over, it's over!"

"I don't want to die!"

"I'm only 21, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison!"

Sun Miaomiao's head was about to explode.

"That's right, that's right!"

"This program essentially manipulates traffic signals to deliberately cause car accidents!"

"The system needs time to run; as long as we shut down the power before then, there's still a chance to salvage the situation!"

Thinking of this, she rushed into the computer room like a madwoman.