Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 291

An hour later, on the other side of the office.

Emmy had just wrapped up the core structure of her optimization plan and was giving everything a final check. Out of nowhere, someone tapped her on the shoulder, and a familiar, playful voice broke the silence.

“Look at you, rookie. Getting bolder every day. You even dared to mess with Mr. Nelson’s game. That takes guts!”

Emmy turned and grinned as soon as she saw who it was.

“Nico!” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Let’s just stick with Nico for now, okay? The boss still hasn’t officially accepted me as part of the team.”

Nico laughed loudly. “That’s just a matter of time. By the way, how’s your prep for the big AI competition going?”

The mention of the competition made Emmy’s face turn serious.

“It’s been a little crazy lately, but I work on it whenever I get a chance. I actually wanted to show you what I’ve got so far and see what you think.”

“Sounds good. But you owe me dinner for that. You know, the hotpot place downstairs from our old coding class? I’ve been craving it forever.”

“No problem,” Emmy said, her eyes crinkling as she smiled. “But first, can you take a look at this plan for me?”

Nico didn’t hesitate. He pulled up a chair right next to her, leaned in, and focused on her screen.

“This architecture is interesting…” He ran his fingers along his chin, pointing at something on the monitor. “But here—if a user triggers the hidden memory feature, this setup could end up with a bunch of redundant data…”

Emmy followed his thinking, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she made adjustments. Their heads were nearly touching as they whispered back and forth, completely absorbed in their work.

A few desks away, a programmer poked his head up and quietly asked his neighbor, “What’s up with Nico and that new girl? They look pretty close.”

“Who knows,” the other replied, half annoyed. “She’s good, though. One suggestion from her and suddenly the whole department’s working overtime.”

Everyone nearby who was listening nodded in agreement.

Nico, who had pretty sharp hearing, caught wind of the gossip. Without looking back, he called out, “Nobody here gets in without skills. If you don’t like it, keep your complaints to yourself. You all know this game’s a mess. If we launch it like this and something blows up, who’s taking the blame? She’s here to save our skins, alright?”

That shut everyone up pretty fast.

Truth was, after half a year of nonstop overtime, everyone was worn out and frustrated. They all complained, but deep down, everyone wished Mr. Nelson would just give them more time to fix things. Emmy’s arrival had at least bought them an extra week.

For a while, the only sounds in the office were keyboards clicking and the occasional sarcastic comment. The tension eased a little.

Then, the glass doors to the dev floor swung open.

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