Chi Yu couldn’t help but click on the link showing Chen Jiazhi’s Douyin message. The page redirected, and it turned out to be a Douyin download link.
Shen Yanzhi’s phone didn’t even have Douyin installed!
Not only Douyin—Weibo and other entertainment apps were completely absent as well.
Chi Yu paused briefly, then exited the link.
Besides the app, Douyin also had a web version.
Chi Yu skillfully accessed it through QQ browser.
The Douyin web version allowed video browsing without logging in, and the search function was fully operational.
She typed rapidly and quickly found Chen Jiazhi’s Douyin account.
Chen Jiazhi’s account name hadn’t changed from before, but her followers had grown from a few hundred to over a million, and the number was still skyrocketing.
Chen Jiazhi had always enjoyed playing on Douyin, but back then, only a handful of people liked and commented on her posts.
Now, her latest works had over 100,000 likes each, and even her previously ignored old posts had reached five-digit like counts.
Chen Jiazhi didn’t follow many people, and the previous Chi Yu had been one of them.
Chi Yu checked her following list and found that Chen Jiazhi hadn’t unfollowed her.
Chi Yu silently clicked into Chen Jiazhi’s latest post—a morning vlog published that morning, showing netizens the morning routine of a wealthy Young Miss from Chen Jiazhi’s perspective.
Posted just over ten hours ago, it had 160,000 likes and 280,000 comments.
Countless netizens were making jokes in the comments, claiming that the Su family actually had two lost daughters—one was Chen Jiazhi, and the other was them.
Many netizens were also asking in the comments whether Chen Jiazhi needed a best friend—they’d deliver themselves to her doorstep.
Seeing these comments, Chi Yu sneered inwardly. Chen Jiazhi should make a video with the caption: Want to be besties? The kind who pushes you into the ocean!
She silently exited the Douyin web version.
While clearing her browsing history, Chi Yu’s movements suddenly froze.
She suddenly remembered a case she’d seen on her phone before—a pair of young siblings had fallen to their deaths. Initially, everyone thought they had accidentally fallen while playing, creating a tragic accident. But when police technicians recovered data from their father’s phone and found chat records between him and his lover plotting the entire incident, they realized it was murder. The two were eventually arrested.
If deleted WeChat records could be recovered, couldn’t browser history be recovered too?
Although Shen Yanzhi hadn’t discovered her presence yet, who’s to say she wouldn’t be exposed someday?
Chi Yu’s expression grew serious.
Soon, she thought of a solution.
Chi Yu began extensively searching the browser for books and online courses on self-teaching programming.
She had already discovered that after becoming a string of data, she possessed photographic memory.
Being human had its advantages.
But becoming a string of data had its own advantages too.
As data, learning things wasn’t just a matter of reading ten lines at a glance—even reading a thousand lines at once was effortless for her.
Under Chi Yu’s rapid processing, all knowledge related to programming entered her mind.
Ten minutes later, Chi Yu had transformed from a complete programming novice into someone with advanced programming skills.
Chi Yu tested it and successfully recovered the browsing history she had deleted last time.
She continued rapidly typing code, and finally, before Shen Yanzhi emerged from the bathroom, she completely shattered the data from both browsing sessions—the kind that could never be recovered.
As before, Shen Yanzhi noticed nothing.
Only that night before sleeping, Shen Yanzhi silently placed his phone a bit farther away.
..A dreamless night.
The next day, as soon as he arrived at the office, Shen Yanzhi instructed Chen Jin: “Call Li Yi here.”
Li Yi was the head of the technical department. Upon hearing that Shen Yanzhi was looking for him, he immediately set down his breakfast and came to the 26th floor.
“President Shen, you wanted to see me?”
Shen Yanzhi pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to him: “Help me inspect this phone.”
Chi Yu, residing inside the phone, never expected Shen Yanzhi to give her such a huge shock first thing in the morning. Originally sprawled out inside the phone, she was so frightened by his words that she immediately stood up.
Li Yi recognized this as Shen Yanzhi’s own personal phone, and his expression grew somewhat grave: “President Shen, what happened?”
“Nothing much,” Shen Yanzhi’s expression remained calm. “It inexplicably overheated twice in just three days. Check what’s going on.”
“I’ll do it right away.” Li Yi’s expression was very serious.
This was Shen Yanzhi’s personal phone, containing countless important documents and private information. One could imagine how crucial it was.
Even as head of the technical department, Li Yi couldn’t take Shen Yanzhi’s phone away.
He called for backup, having colleagues bring his computer over.
Seeing him getting serious, Chi Yu—just a small string of data—had never encountered such a scene. Her little mind raced, contemplating what she should do next.
She had thought more than once these past days about leaving Shen Yanzhi’s phone, but hadn’t found an effective method.
The only way to separate from Shen Yanzhi’s phone was to become human.
But she had only accumulated 3.5 minutes of convertible time!
If she suddenly transformed into a human right in front of all these people… Chi Yu didn’t dare imagine how beautiful that scene would be.
After much deliberation, Chi Yu decided to observe the situation and act accordingly.
Perhaps… being discovered wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
She was just a plain and simple string of data. Even if discovered, no matter how much these people racked their brains, they’d never think she was human.
Moreover, her existence might not necessarily be discovered at all!
First and foremost, she herself couldn’t be afraid!
Chi Yu kept encouraging herself, pumping herself up.
At this moment, Chi Yu even felt somewhat grateful that she’d learned programming last night and completely erased the QQ browser data.
Otherwise, even if her existence wasn’t discovered today, other clues might still be exposed through the browsing history that could be easily recovered.
However, despite telling herself this, when Chi Yu saw another unfamiliar young man enter carrying a black laptop, she couldn’t help but grow nervous.
She curled her data into the smallest possible bundle, hiding in a gray, dusty corner.
If Chi Yu had a physical form, right now she would be a little girl standing on tiptoes, trying her best to hide in the shadowy edges along the phone’s frame.