"Mr. Lin!"
"Mr. Lin…"
In just a matter of minutes, more than ten taxis pulled up along the curb.
People poured out of the cars and gathered around Lin Xiao.
In the blink of an eye, this narrow street was crowded with over a dozen people.
Lin Xiao scanned the group and quickly noticed something: though they were dressed modestly, their outfits were all high-end brands, and they each carried themselves with a quiet, unmistakable air of confidence.
Clearly, these weren't average salarymen.
And given that someone had offered a million in yesterday's livestream, there's no way they weren't aware of it.
Which meant—they had money. Serious money.
Most likely, each of them was a top figure in their respective fields.
There was also something else they all had in common.
They all knew what that string of characters meant.
Am I seriously the only one who doesn't know?
Lin Xiao felt a little frustrated.
But then, something clicked.
That huge influx of viewers in the livestream this morning—hundreds of thousands all at once…
Could they also have come for that mysterious string of characters?
Given how much attention he was getting online, there was no way these people knew, but the internet didn't.
With that thought, he immediately looked back at the livestream chat.
Someone was speaking: "Mr. Lin—"
"Don't talk," Lin Xiao cut them off, raising his hand.
He focused back on the chat.
The flood of comments made everything crystal clear in seconds.
"Boss Lin, you hit the jackpot!""1.3 billion, man!""True overnight millionaire!""That book you bought at the street stall yesterday—those characters in it are a Bitcoin public key!""Don't sell that book, whatever you do! Don't sell it!""These people are all here trying to lowball you!""Pretty sure I saw Shen Yuan from First Tech Co.""That guy on the side looks like Weibo influencer @WiseMan.""Isn't that one from Kevin Creative?""No wonder all those tech gurus on Weibo suddenly went silent. I thought they hadn't noticed—turns out they did, and they're all trying to scoop it up on the sly!""Man, these people are full of dirty tricks!"
The chat was exploding with messages.
Lin Xiao understood everything now.
He looked up at the crowd. More taxis were arriving one after another, dropping off even more people heading in his direction.
With so many gathering, curious pedestrians and shop owners nearby were starting to take notice.
Lin Xiao said calmly, "Everyone, please go back. The book is not for sale."
With that, he turned to leave.
His tone was polite—after all, bargain hunting was just human nature.
If the roles were reversed, he'd probably do the same. There was no right or wrong to it.
But the moment he turned, the crowd followed him, voices overlapping as they tried to speak.
"Mr. Lin, the book is useless to you."
"How about two million?"
"Three million!"
"I watched your livestream, Mr. Lin. You got it for cheap—you're not selling because the price isn't right, right? Why don't you name your price?"
"You've figured out what that string of characters is by now, haven't you?"
"Heh, no need to keep it a secret. I'll just say it outright—it's a Bitcoin public key."
"You probably don't know much about Bitcoin, right, Mr. Lin? I could give you a quick breakdown?"
Lin Xiao suddenly stopped and looked at the man who had just spoken. "You're right, I don't know much. Why don't you explain it?"
The man replied, "Bitcoin has public keys and private keys. What you saw yesterday—that string of characters—was a public key. With a public key, anyone can view the associated information, including transaction history and how many Bitcoins are in the account."
Lin Xiao asked, "So you've already checked this particular key's info?"
"We have," the man admitted.
"How much is in it?"
There was a brief silence.
Then someone finally answered, "Eight hundred and forty-five Bitcoins."