However, before playing Song Jiaru's route, the most urgent matter was dealing with this windfall.
Xu Yunzhou focused all his attention on the Bitcoin wallet before him. One thousand Bitcoins!
Calculated by current market value, this was a terrifying wealth of over one hundred million US dollars, approaching one billion RMB!
This massive sum, enough to make anyone go crazy, felt like a red-hot branding iron at this moment, emitting an extremely dangerous aura.
If handled even slightly carelessly, attracting the covetous eyes of regulatory agencies, hackers, or even desperadoes, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"I absolutely cannot sell it all off at once,"
He stared at the dizzying string of numbers on the screen and muttered calmly to himself,
"That would be tantamount to lighting a bonfire in a dark forest, equivalent to seeking my own death."
"I must break the whole into parts."
He murmured to himself, his fingers rapidly typing on the keyboard.Through multiple, cross-cutting, and complex operations at different time nodes, he carefully dispersed and transferred the 1,000 Bitcoins from the original wallet into dozens of newly generated, completely unrelated cold wallet addresses.
The amount deposited into each new address was meticulously designed, ranging from a few dozen to nearly a hundred, trying his best to simulate the normal transfer behavior patterns of different retail investors or early investors, to avoid alerting on-chain analysis.
However, even with such cautious operations, the impact on the cryptocurrency market was still not small.
Right after he completed the last transfer, looking at the real-time price of Bitcoin again, it had already dropped by nearly 2%!
Sporadic discussions had already begun to appear in forums and communities:
"Holy shit! Alert! Just monitored an ancient address from 2010 waking up! Transferred out a thousand BTC in one breath!"
"Did a Grandpa Miner manifest his spirit? Is this the rhythm of crashing the market and running away?"
"Send me the address link so I can see... Hiss! It really is an ancient divine beast! Held for fifteen years without moving an inch! I submit to this mental fortitude!"
"Holding for so long and suddenly moving, could the holder have just been released from prison after serving their sentence?"
...
Xu Yunzhou's heart tightened, knowing he had already been targeted by certain sharp eyes.
This further strengthened his determination to "let a steady stream flow far, handle it low-profile."
(TL: It signifies managing resources carefully and working in a slow, low-profile, sustainable manner to ensure long-term longevity without drawing unwanted attention.)
He couldn't use conventional large exchanges that required strict KYC authentication.
He needed a more concealed, more direct offline trading channel.
A candidate instantly surfaced in his mind—Liu Jian.
His college roommate, a fellow townsman from Jiangnan Province, whose family was in the cross-border foreign trade business. Using cryptocurrency for cross-border fund settlement was common practice for them.
He got straight to the point:
"Jian, I have about twenty BTC here that I want to sell. I wonder if your side takes them? The price can be appropriately discounted from the market rate."
Liu Jian replied quickly:
"Whoa, you struck it rich, kid? Are the goods clean?"
"Absolutely clean. Back when Bitcoin first came out, I casually mined them for fun and saved them, then forgot about them later. You can verify the source on the blockchain anytime, the addresses are public and transparent."
Liu Jian replied decisively:
"Deal. As long as we know the roots and the bottom, it's fine. Twenty BTC is just a matter of ten million or so, a small trifle. I happen to be returning to Binzhou tomorrow night. Let's set a place, we'll eat and chat in detail."
Looking at the phrase "a small trifle" on the screen, Xu Yunzhou twitched the corners of his mouth.
Indeed, in Jiangnan Province, where hidden dragons and crouching tigers reside and the private economy is highly developed, a capital flow in the tens of millions might truly just be "a small trifle" to some people.
Thinking about that marital home he was currently eager to get off his hands, which cost over three million after emptying his family's savings to buy, this ten million or so might really just be an inconspicuous little splash in the face of the true torrent of capital.
But to him, this was the first fulcrum to pry his destiny and gain freedom.
Then next...
Xu Yunzhou's gaze slowly shifted to the screen, landing on that thumbnail—[Song Jiaru].
"Now, it's time to meet you, big pop star."
[Current Female Lead: Song Jiaru]
[Time Anchor: July 9, 2012]
[Location: Chengzhou No. 7 High School, Classroom of Senior Year Class (7)]
[Birth Year: 1994, Current Age: 18, Height: 172cm, Weight: 50kg, Current Education: High School Graduate]
[Appearance: 92/100 (Exceptional bone structure, picturesque brows and eyes, skin white as fresh snow; the kind of stunning existence that can be locked onto at a glance in a crowd)]
[Figure: 74/100 (Natural supermodel skeleton, slender neck, delicate limbs, but overly thin and lacking curves, like an unbloomed flower bud)]
[Knowledge: 32/100 (Relying on a final sprint to barely pass the key university cutoff line, admitted to an unpopular major at an ordinary first-tier university within the province)]
[Temperament: 38/100 (Long-term social anxiety has led to a habitual hunched back and rounded shoulders, her eyes always dodge subconsciously, lacking a sense of security, but possesses a fragile and detached literary vibe when alone)]
[Influence: 5/100 (Only known within a small scope due to the title of 'No. 7 High School Belle,' she personally extremely rejects this title)]
[Comprehensive Charm Value: 46.2/100 (An unpolished jade deeply hidden within a stubborn stone, urgently awaiting a master's carving!)]
[Hidden Talent: Voice of Nature (Unactivated)]
[Currently Available Wealth: 60,000 Yuan (All the college entrance exam 'rewards' given by her mother plus living expenses for the next few months)]
"The time anchor is locked in the summer of 2012..."
Xu Yunzhou carefully browsed the brand-new attribute panel, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the desk, his brain calculating rapidly,
"This time point is less than a year away from Lin Ruoxuan completing her summit on NASDAQ... Perhaps, I can guide the Song Jiaru on this timeline to contact, or even find Lin Ruoxuan, who should still be in her active period at this time? If I can ask her face-to-face, I'll know what happened later..."
A plan to use the new character to explore the old mystery gradually took shape in his mind.
...
The footage gradually cut in.
Chengzhou No. 7 High School, the corridor of the senior year teaching building was somewhat empty; most students had already filled out their college application forms and left.
In the last seat by the window in Senior Year Class (6), Song Jiaru was sitting alone.
She curled her body slightly, trying hard to reduce her presence, her slender fingers pinching the edge of the college application form.
Right at this moment, a small commotion came from the classroom door.
A tall, long-legged, handsome boy wearing a basketball uniform, amidst the jeering of several buddies, walked in carrying a large bouquet of bright red roses, somewhat nervous yet pretending to be suave.
He was the prominent figure of No. 7 High School, captain of the school basketball team, the campus hunk secretly loved by countless girls, Zhou Zhe.
His target was clear, walking straight toward that girl by the window who was so quiet she seemed non-existent.
The sound of footsteps was exceptionally clear in the quiet classroom. Song Jiaru's body visibly stiffened, her head burying even lower, almost shrinking under the desk.
"Song... Classmate Song Jiaru."
Zhou Zhe stopped in front of her desk and knelt on one knee. He handed that overly showy bouquet of roses forward, attracting the gazes of the few remaining students in the classroom and the classmates passing by outside the window.
"I... I've liked you for three years! Since the first time I saw you in freshman year, I... I liked you."
He took a deep breath, like reciting lines he had practiced countless times,
"Before, I was afraid of affecting your studies, so I never dared to say it. Now... now the college entrance exam is over, can we... can we date?"
"Wow—!"
"Zhou Zhe really confessed!"
"Campus hunk and campus belle, so romantic!"
Outside the window and at the door, quite a few classmates watching the excitement instantly gathered. Whispers and jeers surged in like waves.
Countless gazes instantly focused on Song Jiaru like spotlights.
She felt as if she had been stripped naked and thrown into the middle of a square, with nowhere to hide.
Her cheeks first turned pale, then flushed bright red due to extreme embarrassment. Her breathing became rapid and difficult.
Those beautiful eyes rapidly filled with tears, written with helplessness and fear.
"No... don't... don't look at me..."
She let out a whimpering sound like a small animal, her voice as thin as a mosquito, carrying a crying tone.
Zhou Zhe still tried to say something more:
"Jiaru, I..."
"Waaa—!!!"
Song Jiaru finally broke down. She abruptly stood up, the chair legs rubbing against the floor emitting a harsh sound.
Like a frightened rabbit, she didn't even dare to look at Zhou Zhe or the surrounding people. Covering her face, she rushed out of the classroom sobbing uncontrollably, fleeing in panic.
Holding the fresh flowers, Zhou Zhe froze in place, the expression on his face turning from expectation to awkwardness and embarrassment.
Inside and outside the classroom, after a brief silence, the discussions grew even louder.
"Holy shit... isn't that going too far?"
"Scared to tears? Is the campus belle this cowardly?"
"Zhou Zhe is too miserable, getting rejected in front of so many people..."
In front of the screen, Xu Yunzhou watched this scene and helplessly rubbed the center of his brows.
"The future Queen of Pop used to have social anxiety? This game is starting to ramp up the difficulty."