Chapter 2
1312words
The jazz music flowing through the living room suddenly became jarring. She abruptly raised her head: "Xiao Zhi, stop playing."
The music came to an abrupt halt. The sudden silence made her hear her accelerating heartbeat more clearly.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. As the Chief Security Officer, she had seen too many security breaches and handled countless data anomalies. Now, she needed to treat her home as a system that required investigation.
Ella stood up and walked into the study, opening her professional laptop. She decided not to use the home's smart hub temporarily, but to connect directly to the router's backend. This was her professional instinct—when suspicion exists, bypass potentially contaminated systems.
After logging into the management interface, she pulled up the complete network traffic logs. Those dense data streams might be incomprehensible to ordinary people, but in her eyes, they were clear pathways.
She first filtered out all connected devices from 2 AM to 3 AM on Wednesday. Apart from her known phones, tablets, and smart devices, there were no traces of unknown device connections.
This ruled out the possibility that the neighbors connected to the wrong Wi-Fi.
Next, she began to track all the historical records of that "guest" voice print. The logs showed that this voice print first appeared at 11:34 PM on a Thursday six weeks ago, with instructions to adjust the air conditioning temperature.
Ella's heart sank. Where was David that day? She quickly flipped open the shared calendar on her phone.
"Star Harbor Project Client Dinner" — the schedule clearly showed this appointment, ending at 10 PM. Driving home from that hotel would take about until 11:30.
Coincidence? She continued checking.
The second time was on a Saturday afternoon four weeks ago, with instructions to inquire about the weather. That day David said he was going to play golf.
The third time was late Tuesday night three weeks ago, playing jazz music. David was on a business trip in a neighboring city that day.
Ella opened a data analysis software and placed David's schedule for the past two months alongside the timeline of the "guest" voice print activities. When she selected "Overlay Display," the results on the screen made her gasp.
Every voice pattern recording corresponded precisely to the moments when David was not within her line of sight.
Business trips, overtime work, weekend activities... without exception.
This was no longer a coincidence. This was a clear pattern.
Ella felt nauseous. She rushed to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Her reflection in the mirror was pale, her eyes a mixture of shock and disbelief.
But data doesn't lie. As a security expert, she understood this better than anyone.
Back in the study, she noticed another detail: this voice pattern particularly enjoyed playing jazz music, always the same playlist—"Midnight Blues." This playlist had never appeared on her own music platform.
She needed a second pair of eyes to look at this data, someone who was both technically proficient and absolutely trustworthy.
Ella didn't hesitate to dial Sophia's video call. The call was answered after just one ring, and a sharp face with black-framed glasses and a ponytail appeared on the screen.
"Hey, Ms. Security Officer, looking for me at this hour? Don't tell me you want to rant about those rookie programmers at your company again?" Sophia was eating salad, speaking in a relaxed tone.
"Sophie, I need you to look at something." Ella's voice made Sophia immediately put down her fork.
"What's wrong? You don't sound right."
Ella took a deep breath and pointed her camera at her computer screen: "This is the access log of my home's smart system. This voiceprint marked as 'guest' has appeared nine times in the past two months."
She scrolled through the timeline, trying to keep her voice steady: "I compared it with David's schedule. Every time this voice appears, he's either working overtime, on a business trip, or playing golf."
Sophia leaned closer to the screen, her professional instinct immediately kicking in: "Wait, show me the voiceprint activity time overlapped with the schedule."
Ella operated the software, and the two timelines perfectly aligned.
"Good heavens……" Sophia whistled, her expression turning serious, "This doesn't look like a random event. All login locations were at your home?"
"All in my living room." Ella's voice trembled slightly, "But the system didn't detect any unfamiliar devices connecting. All commands were issued through existing smart devices in my home."
Sophia pushed up her glasses: "There are two possibilities. One is that your system was hacked by an expert, but someone who could bypass your security measures - there aren't more than a few such people in all of Silicon Valley."
"And the second?" Ella already knew the answer.
"The second," Sophia looked directly into the camera, her tone cautious, "is that this voice was legally invited into the system. Someone gave it access permission."
These words hit Ella like a hammer blow to her heart. She remembered how David always complained about not being able to remember complex commands - could he have shared access permissions with someone else for convenience?
"I need more evidence," Ella murmured, more as if trying to convince herself.
Sophia nodded: "From a technical perspective, I suggest you maintain the status quo for now, don't alert anyone to your suspicions. Continue monitoring and collect more data. Does this voice print have any characteristics? For example, any particular songs they like to play?"
"Jazz music, always the same playlist called 'Midnight Blues.'" Ella opened the playlist details, "It looks like a private playlist, not part of any mainstream music platform's popular recommendations."
"Interesting." Sophia pondered thoughtfully, "This specific music preference might be a breakthrough. Keep observing and record all details. Do you need me to help you set up a more discreet monitoring system remotely?"
"Not for now." Ella shook her head, "If what you're saying is true, that someone was invited in, then setting up additional monitoring might be detected."
"Smart choice." Sophia nodded approvingly, "Remember, data never lies. But we need to ensure our collection methods are beyond reproach, in case we need it as evidence later."
The word "evidence" made Ella's heart clench. She wasn't ready to think that far ahead yet.
After hanging up the phone, Ella sat alone in the study. The cold light of the monitor reflected on her face, the data points resembling a web being slowly woven.
She opened a new encrypted document and began recording all her findings. Dates, times, instruction content, corresponding major schedule arrangements... When she listed all nine records, the pattern was too clear to ignore.
Next to the last record, she marked an asterisk: *Jazz preferences might serve as an identifying feature*
Her hand trembled slightly as she saved the document. When setting the password, she hesitated briefly, then entered a complex combination completely different from the one she shared with David.
In that moment, she realized that her trust in her husband had, like fragile glass, developed its first crack. And this crack, supported by the data, was growing longer and deeper.
The night was deep, but Ella felt no trace of sleepiness.
She sat in the darkness, listening to the occasional soft operational sounds from the smart devices throughout the house.
This safety fortress she built with her own hands, this home she shared with David, was now filled with unfamiliar echoes. Every slight sound made her vigilant, as if that strange female voice might sound again at any moment.
The data had already pointed to a direction, and now she needed courage to face the truth. No matter how painful that truth might be.
