At this very moment, similar things were unfolding all across the country.
However, the scene online was quite different.
Those programmers who had been tagged in the discussions—each with at least hundreds of thousands of followers on Weibo, and some even with millions—remained completely silent.
Some thought it might be too late at night, and perhaps those tech gurus were already asleep.
But in truth, they weren't.
Not only were they awake, but many of them had already suspected that the string of characters might be a Bitcoin public key.
After checking, they confirmed—it really was a public key.
As a result, that night, overnight flights heading to Jinling across the country became unexpectedly packed!
Yet, Old Shen's optimistic fantasy ultimately proved too idealistic.
Forget the two million people in Lin Xiao's livestream—this incident had gone viral and made it to the top of the trending searches, drawing even more attention and curiosity.
It was impossible for everyone to keep the secret to themselves and secretly fly to Jinling in the dead of night.
Someone was bound to talk.
Around 11 p.m., someone posted a comment under the trending topic:
"This string of characters doesn't look like code. It kind of resembles a Bitcoin public key address."
"A Bitcoin public key? What the hell is that?"
"Damn, now that you mention it—it does look like one!"
"Genius! I never would've made that connection without you."
"But what's the point of just having a public key?"
"Can someone explain what a Bitcoin public key is?"
"Bitcoin has public keys, private keys, and wallet addresses. Think of a public key like a bank account—it's safe to share for receiving transactions. The wallet address is what you use to actually send or receive coins. But the private key is like the password to your bank account. Does that make sense?"
"So how can we verify if it's really a public key?"
"It's easy. There are websites where you can check. If it's a public key, you can look up the wallet's transaction history—how many times it's been used, how much Bitcoin it's received, and how much is currently in it."
"That's wild!"
"Which website can we use to check?"
"Someone please check and report back!"
"If the string in the book is really a public key, that wallet might be holding millions in Bitcoin!"
"You're dreaming."
"Dreaming? Ha! I'm lowballing it when I say millions."
"Use your brain. If that wallet only held a few million, would [Qianfan] really offer one million just to buy a book that contains only the public key?"
That comment instantly enlightened everyone.
Yeah—if it was just a small amount, who would pay a million for it?
That could only mean one thing.
The Bitcoin wallet address recorded in the book likely held an enormous amount of Bitcoin.
[Qianfan] must have been a Bitcoin holder himself. The moment he saw that string of characters, he immediately recognized it as a public key.
Then he likely ran a check, and discovered—it was a real Bitcoin public key. Not only that, but he also saw the exact transaction and balance details of the account.
That's why he offered a million yuan to buy the book.
Everyone quickly put the pieces together.
"That [Qianfan] guy reacted fast."
"But I still don't get it—what can he do with just a public key? Without the private key, it's useless."
"If the public key is recorded in the book, there's a chance the private key might be there too."
"So the guy paid one million… to bet on that possibility!"
"Paying a million just for a chance… I really want to know—how much Bitcoin is in that wallet?"
"Same here!"
"Which site can we use to check?"
"Holy crap! I'm shook to my core. I just checked the address. The amount of Bitcoin in that wallet is absolutely insane!"
"Post a screenshot, dude!"
"Stop being cryptic, you bastard!"
"Damn, don't be so toxic. Fine—here's the link. Check for yourself if you're curious."
Just then, a netizen dropped a website link.
The moment it appeared, it was flooded with likes and pinned to the top of the thread.
Countless people clicked the link and started checking.
"Damn it, it's in English. Ugh!"
"Use Google Translate, you dummy."
The comment section of the now #1 trending topic suddenly went quiet for a few minutes.
Then, a few minutes later—
The netizens who had checked the site started pouring back in, and the comment section exploded with activity again.
With every refresh, hundreds—sometimes thousands—of new comments flooded the page.