Chapter 57: The Secret in the Hidden Layer
Little Yellow Hair was overjoyed to hear those words, but when he turned around and saw Xu Youyou, he froze.
Xu Youyou was exceptionally beautiful—once you saw her, you wouldn’t forget her.
“I remember you. You bought my cup,” Little Yellow Hair said.
Xu Youyou smiled and nodded, responding frankly, “That cup was very pretty. It’s still displayed at my home.”
Little Yellow Hair hadn’t connected the $40 doucai cup he had sold with the recent auction house sale of a similar cup for six billion. Instead, he simply confirmed again, “Are you really willing to pay ten thousand?”
The shop owner standing beside them frowned and interjected, “Miss, this bag is badly worn. It’s not worth that much. Even if I buy it for two thousand, I can only sell it for three thousand.”
Little Yellow Hair’s eyes widened. “You’d flip it for a thousand and still try to lowball me?!”
The shop owner was unapologetic. “Business costs rent and utilities. Should I make nothing and live on air?”
Annoyed, Little Yellow Hair snatched the bag from her hands and shoved it toward Xu Youyou. “I’m not selling it to her—I’m selling it to you!”
Xu Youyou was straightforward. “Payment code.”
Seeing the deal about to go through, the shop owner hurriedly tried to intervene. “Miss, if you’re looking for an LV baguette bag, we have plenty in better condition with official authentication. And for a lower price! I can show you right now.”
Little Yellow Hair immediately became wary.
But Xu Youyou shook her head. She knew her actions needed an explanation, but since she didn’t yet know why the bag was valuable, she didn’t want to reveal too much. Casually, she said, “This bag has a unique scent I haven’t noticed in other LV bags. It just feels right to me.”
The shop owner twitched her nose but couldn’t detect any special scent. However, she didn’t want to argue with a customer over such a small matter, so she muttered, “Well, that’s certainly… a special kind of fate.”
Little Yellow Hair, afraid of losing the sale, quickly pulled up his payment code. The moment the transaction was completed, he turned and ran.
Xu Youyou handed the Hermès bag she had been carrying to her bodyguard and, making a show of loving her new purchase, slung the heavily worn LV baguette over her shoulder.
Since she had used the shop as a middleman for the deal, she figured it was only fair to give the owner a little business. Glancing at a black Chanel bag nearby, she asked, “How much is this one? I’ll take it.”
The shop owner was overjoyed and quickly wrapped it up. “Miss, this bag is 99% new, fifty-five thousand. Is that acceptable?”
Xu Youyou nodded, playing the part of someone who genuinely enjoyed shopping for secondhand bags.
However, as soon as she left the store and got into her car, she casually handed the black Chanel to Xu Fang.
“I think this bag suits your style. If you don’t like it, you can give it away,” Xu Youyou said.
Xu Fang’s eyes lit up. She recognized the signature Chanel logo on the clasp. Even though it was secondhand, it was still an expensive brand—probably worth tens of thousands if resold.
“Thank you, boss! You’re way too good to me,” Xu Fang said, thinking that Xu Youyou was much better than her deadbeat husband—wealthy, generous, and never picky about small matters.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on completing the treasure-hunting mission. Reward: Beginner-level hacking skills.]
As soon as Xu Youyou accepted the reward, she felt a flood of new knowledge fill her mind. She realized that even if this bag turned out to be worthless, the hacking skills alone had made this mission worthwhile.
Always cautious, she waited until she was back home in her master bedroom, ensuring that no one was watching before carefully inspecting the secondhand LV baguette.
Inside the bag were various random items: three paper clips, five sheets of scribbled-on scrap paper, a hotel key card, and three individually wrapped toothpicks.
The key card was from the Park Hyatt Shanghai.
Each scrap of paper had a few lines written in Japanese. Xu Youyou pulled out her phone to translate them:
“Being born human—I deeply apologize.”
“No matter which path I take, the future remains bleak.”
…
Every sentence was drenched in despair—like an emo quotes collection.
Xu Youyou couldn’t figure out what in the bag was valuable. Could it be the hotel key card?
She instinctively disliked the hotel key card, but with no other leads, she picked up the bag again and carefully examined it inside and out. She was about to give up when she suddenly felt something the size of a coin tucked deep within the lining.
Fishing it out, she discovered a black memory card.
It had a 64GB capacity and was from a well-known Japanese brand.
Xu Youyou perked up. Wasting no time, she immediately ordered a memory card reader online through a delivery service.
In less than half an hour, the reader arrived.
She plugged it into her computer and saw that the card required a password to access. She was momentarily stunned.
The fact that the memory card had been so well-hidden inside the bag was already suspicious—but now, it was encrypted too?
Just as she was wondering what to do, the hacking skills she had just learned kicked in. Swiftly, she wrote a password-cracking script.
Ten minutes later, a notification dinged. The encryption was bypassed.
The card’s contents were sparse—just a single file.
Xu Youyou opened it and found dense Japanese text. Once again, she was at a loss.
She didn’t dare hire someone to translate it, so she painstakingly used online tools, translating line by line until her eyes blurred. Eventually, she made out that the document described some kind of advanced technology—seemingly related to semiconductors.
The problem was, even if she had this technology, who could she sell it to?
Her eyes drifted back to the hotel key card.
Opening a social media app, she searched for “Park Hyatt Shanghai” and the first news result read:
“Park Hyatt Shanghai becomes a senior partner for this year’s World Semiconductor Conference.”
Xu Youyou originally hadn’t planned to visit the hotel, but now, it seemed unavoidable.
She made a call to Xie Ran. “Book me a personal assistant under the company’s name.”
She envied Lu Jingyao—his assistant, Liu, was clearly a jack-of-all-trades. She even suspected that the trouble Lu Jingyao got into in the U.S. might have had a lot to do with Liu being on leave at the time.
If she had a personal assistant, something as trivial as booking a hotel room wouldn’t even be her problem.
The assistant hadn’t been found yet, but by the next morning, Xu Youyou had already successfully checked into the Park Hyatt’s presidential suite.
Located in the Shanghai World Financial Center, the hotel’s presidential suites were on the 88th floor. Xu Youyou carried a small amount of luggage and took the elevator up, accompanied by a guest services manager.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, she was met with a strikingly familiar face.
Lu Jingyao.
He was so shocked that he hadn’t even decided on an appropriate greeting.
Fortunately, his ever-smooth assistant, Liu, stepped in to ease the moment.
“Miss Xu, you and our President Lu truly share a remarkable fate—staying at the same hotel!”
