The events that happened that day inevitably made it to the trending list.
At a glance, the top ten trends were almost entirely dominated by Lin Xiao.
#Lin Boss Finds a Bargain Second-hand Car, Uncovers Murder and Body Disposal Video##Lin Boss Buys a Bag at the Night Market, Accidentally Captures a Murderer##Lin Boss Suddenly Goes Offline, Suspected of Harassing Female Cop##Jinling Police Respond: Thanking Lin Boss for Helping Solve a Murder Case##10 Yuan Old Book with Mysterious Characters, Rich Man Offers One Million to Buy It#
"Damn, it's all Lin Boss everywhere."
"Power, this is power!"
"Terrifying!"
"Even though I didn't pick up a bargain today, it was still incredibly exciting."
"Not pick up a bargain? Just the bounty alone, he made 1.2 million!"
"Apparently, when the murderer was caught, they were being pinned down on the bed by the leader of a pyramid scheme."
"That use of the word 'pinned down' is really something."
"What do these characters in the book mean? Are they really worth a million?"
"Could it be a script?"
"A script? Lin Boss is worth that much to create hype? He could easily make a fortune just by visiting an antique market."
"Until we figure out what secret these characters are hiding, I swear I won't be able to sleep!"
"Waiting for an expert to explain!"
"@Programmer experts online!"
"@Lin Hai."
"@Yi Ben Zheng."
A group of viewers were frantically tagging programmers on Weibo under the trending posts.
...
In Beijing, in a high-end apartment in the third ring road.
In a study, a young man around thirty years old was wearing headphones, playing games. His phone on the desk suddenly vibrated non-stop.
He glanced at it, saw the call, and was a bit annoyed, but he still took off his headphones.
"What is it? Speak."
"Old Shen, can you help me check what this string of characters means?"
"Characters? Are you bored? I'm playing a game!"
"Hehe, you're the only programmer expert around, no one else understands this."
The mention of this made Old Shen's mood much better: "Send it over, I'll take a look."
"I've sent it. Don't hang up."
Old Shen opened WeChat and saw the string of characters sent by the man. After just one glance, he immediately felt it was familiar and asked, "Who sent you these characters?"
"Don't worry about that, just tell me what they are."
"Bullshit, if you don't tell me who sent it, how can I judge? You want me to guess just because you sent me a random string of characters? I'm not a god!"
Old Shen, now transformed into a grumpy older brother, began online bantering.
"True," the man said simply, explaining the situation briefly.
Old Shen asked, "Are you sure this is from a codebook?"
"Sure."
"Interesting."
"So, what is this character about?"
"At first, I thought it just looked familiar, but since you said it's from a codebook, I'm about seventy to eighty percent sure."
"Come on, tell me!"
"This string of characters is probably the Bitcoin public key."
"Bitcoin? Are you sure?"
"About seventy to eighty percent sure," Old Shen said. "It's easy to confirm, just wait a moment."
With that, he hung up the phone.
He closed the game, opened his browser, and logged into Blockchain.info.
Then he entered the string of characters, and instantly, the page redirected, showing an English interface on the screen.
Ten seconds later, Old Shen gasped and couldn't help but blurt out, "Holy shit!"
He immediately dialed his friend's number: "Where's the book?"
"What book?"
"The one with the string of characters!"
"It's with Lin Boss."
"Who's Lin Boss?"
"A streamer who picks up bargains, super cool…"
A few minutes later, after hearing his friend's introduction, Old Shen said, "Can you contact this Lin Boss?"
"Old Shen, what are you doing?"
"This book has to be bought from him!"
"You might want to forget it."
"Why?"
"Someone offered a million in the live stream, and he didn't sell it. He also figured out that the buyer was after this string of characters."
"He figured it out? So what? If no one tells him what this string of characters means, he won't know!"
"You're dumb. He has over two million fans watching his live stream. You won't say it, but someone else will."
"Hehehe," Old Shen laughed mysteriously. "Don't worry, anyone who knows the meaning of this string of characters absolutely won't say it! Well, I can't say 'absolutely,' but I can say, ninety-nine percent of people won't say it!"
"Why?"
"Because this is Bitcoin's public key!"
"Public key... what's that?"
"Forget it, I can't explain it to you. Hurry up, let's meet at the airport. By the way, get Haizi and the others."
"Why are we going to the airport?"
"Going to Jinling!"
"Ah?"
"We need to find Lin Boss and figure out how to buy the book! The sooner, the better, we need to get it before someone else does! We need to buy it before he realizes this is Bitcoin's public key!"
"But he didn't sell it for a million!"
"That's because the money wasn't enough. If he won't sell it for a million, we'll offer two million, three million, until he agrees!"
"Does this string of characters really worth that much?"
"Not sure."
"Not sure…" The man was almost ready to explode.
"You were so confident earlier, and now you're telling me you're not sure?"
"Are you kidding me?"
Old Shen said, "But I estimate there's a seventy to eighty percent chance it's worth it! If we can't get it ourselves, we'll call Haizi and the others to join us. The more people we have, the easier it will be. Even if we're wrong, we'll only lose a few hundred thousand. But if we're right, hehehe, we've hit the jackpot and made a fortune!"