Chapter 0221

“Mimi… I miss you so much… Will you come back, please?”

The only response Hans got was the dark, empty living room and the harsh wind howling outside.

The next morning, Miranda woke up early. She washed up and made breakfast. After tidying up, she got ready to head to the lab.

As she was closing the door, she noticed a paper bag hanging from the doorknob. Inside was a tube of anti-allergy nasal ointment, the brand she usually used.

She glanced around, wondering who had left it there. Her gaze then fell on the door across from hers.

She looked at the ointment, then examined the paper bag closely. Just as she was about to knock and ask Paul if he had left it, the door suddenly swung open from the inside.

Paul stepped out. His expression was stern, and he stopped in his tracks when he saw her.

Noticing his tense expression, Miranda asked, “What’s going on?”

Paul replied seriously, “Let’s get to the lab first. We can talk on the way.”

“Alright.” Miranda also sensed the gravity of the situation and momentarily forgot about the ointment.

On their way, Paul received a call. Whatever was said on the other end made his expression change, and his tone grew heavier.

“Alright, I got it. We’re on the way, and we’ll be there soon.”

After hanging up, Paul spoke before Miranda could ask anything, “The lab computers suddenly malfunctioned, and all this week’s experiment data got wiped out. It hasn’t been restored yet, but the worst-case scenario is probably—”

He paused, then continued, “All of the data could be lost, and we’ll have to redo everything.”

Miranda frowned. “Doesn’t the lab data have backups?”

“It happened too quickly—the computer screen just went black. When we restarted, we found that most of the backups were wiped too. Less than 30% of the data remained.”

To prevent data leaks and maintain computer performance, the lab routinely cleared its data each month. Last Monday, at the end of the month, they had just done another round of clearing.

Normally, the computers shouldn’t have issues, and for safety, all data was even backed up twice. But… accidents still happened.

Was it really just an accident?

Paul thought it was too early to say.

By 8:00 am, everyone had arrived at the lab, including Raul and Miranda. Along with them were technicians tasked with fixing the computers. They had signed confidentiality agreements specifically for working with Bedford College’s lab.

When the computer issues first occurred, Silas immediately called for assistance, and the tech team responded promptly. However, half an hour passed, and there was still no progress.

Paul asked, “What’s going on?”

Silas replied, “I just got the call from Lizzy. She said she came in, turned on the computer to start entering data, and suddenly, the screen went black. When she rebooted, all the data was gone, and most of the backups were missing too.

“The technicians have already checked; apart from the data loss, there are no other issues. They’re currently trying to recover the lost backup data.”

Sandy frowned at this.

Elizabeth had always been in charge of handling the main data and reviewing all the experiment reports from the entire team. Mistakes were rare, and this sudden issue could mean everyone’s hard work for the past two weeks might go down the drain.

Sandy glanced up and saw Elizabeth pacing anxiously, clearly distressed by the situation.

Bryan, who was not familiar with computers, watched for a while and couldn’t help but ask repeatedly, “Sir, will we be able to recover the data from our computers?”