Both Ketchup and Bacon looked pumped after hearing their mother's aggressive words of challenge. Ketchup wanted to keep on chattering but Iris stopped her to allow Bacon to continue with the rest of his report.
Afterwards, Iris felt disappointed that they were unable to find any concrete evidence to prove that the Youngs were the true masterminds behind the bombing incidents in the attempt to kill her off. Not yet, at least.
If it were only Eagle who was protecting the despicable Young family, then Iris was confident that it wouldn't take this long for her side to solve everything once and for all. The presence of El Payaso, however, was a huge curveball that she hadn't expected. Although not completely impossible, it would be many times harder to dig for evidence when El Payaso was protecting the Youngs.
The last time that she battled as Fantom against the cunning old guy was just before her death. She had won, of course.
There were times that she had lost against El Payaso before but those were when she was trying new techniques that she hadn't perfected yet. In short, she basically treated El Payaso and the other old guys as her hacking sparring partners.
El Payaso wasn't very innovative but he was definitely a very tough and persistent opponent. If a hacker was impatient or had fragile ego, then he or she would never win against El Payaso. The old guy's specialty was in playing with his opponent's mentality. He excelled in using feints and dirty, deceptive tactics to one-up and eventually crumble his opponent's confidence. He also didn't shy away from using despicable methods.
Nevertheless, Iris still respected the old guy's skills as a hacker. He was definitely one of the best in the world, no doubt about it. Before Fantom came into the stage, there was already El Payaso maintaining his position as one of the top hackers in the world for years.
It wasn't only him. The other old guys were also very impressive. She learned a lot from challenging and battling them over the years. All of them were already recognized by everyone in the hacker world as some of the best in the world. She as Fantom was the youngest to join their ranks, hence why she referred to them as the old guys.
Back to the present, she once again emphasized to both her AI children to be careful and not to poke around El Payaso too much. Now that she knew that El Payaso was involved with the mysterious power backing the Youngs, she had to be extra cautious. El Payaso would definitely want such highly advanced and sophisticated AIs like Ketchup and Bacon if he ever discovered them.
Iris was looking forward to battling against El Payaso again. She couldn't wait to recover from her bed rest and regain normal mobility. She wanted to know how their current levels compared to each other. Most importantly, she wanted to use the opportunity of battling against a top-level hacker to train both Ketchup and Bacon. She was especially interested in testing the various applications of Bacon's new abilities after his unexpected evolution to become the power flood.
Next, it was Ketchup's turn to report. Hers was simpler than Bacon's but still managed to talk longer because, well, she was Ketchup, the chatterbox.
At the end of her long chatter, Ketchup finally said, "Mommy, Daddy is now on his way back to Jin Corporation to meet up with Atty. Kang Huizhong. Daddy says that Mommy shouldn't worry about the old hag Zhu Ning's case anymore. Atty. Kang is now in the process of getting her out of jail with the evidence that Bacon unearthed. Meow~"
Iris didn't look too interested. "Who's worried about that woman? Not me. If it weren't for my deal with Long Jian, I wouldn't bother helping Zhu Ning."
After chatting with her AI children, Iris decided to take nap. Her drowsiness was something that hadn't improved at all since she became pregnant. She instructed Ketchup to wake her up half an hour before her virtual lesson with Professor Kalisha Schwarz.
All the problems regarding Zhu Ning, Jin Chenggong, the Youngs, the mysterious power backing them including Eagle and especially El Payaso had to wait. Taking care of her health and that of her twin babies took priority over anything else.
Iris fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.
###
"Thank you, Robin," Long Jinjing thanked the female assassin as she climbed out of the car.
Although the way Long Jinjing viewed both Robin and Shun changed since learning that they were an assassin and a former yakuza member respectively, she still tried her best to treat them the same way like before. She was afraid of them of course, but at the same time, she couldn't forget how the two took special care of her on behalf of Lu Zihao.
At the moment, Robin drove her to Orchidia Beauty's factory. Ever since Lu Zihao revealed Shadow Winds to her, he persuaded her to limit the times that she had to drive on her own. Instead, he wanted either Shun or Robin to chauffeur her if he wasn't available himself to do so. It was for her safety, he said.
Lu Zihao went somewhere today. According to Bacon, he went to search for the accomplices in the bombing incident that injured Iris, Dom, Jin Chonglin, and hundreds of fans and other people who only happened to be at the mall that day.
Long Jinjing was worried for Lu Zihao's safety but she also wanted the accomplices to pay for their crime. She still felt complicated about discovering the true nature of Lu Zihao's work. Her moral values continued to clash against her love for him.
"Welcome, CFO Long," the factory manager greeted her by the front entrance.
"Thank you." Long Jinjing temporarily swept all thoughts of Lu Zihao and his recent shocking revelations out of her mind to focus on work.
The manager led her inside the factory. It was usually Chen Fei or sometimes Iris who performed regular inspections at the factory but both were unavailable today. Chen Fei was busy attending publicity events with Jin Chonglin while Iris was still in bed rest. Long Jinjing had to step in and do the inspection herself today.