Chapter 72: The Mastermind Emerges
The class monitor was stunned for a moment upon hearing those words.
“Yo, since when did Young Master Fu become a code monkey?” a boy who loved making a scene teased. “You weren’t kicked out by the Fu family again and reduced to fixing computers, were you?”
Fu Yue laughed. Without stopping his hands, he replied casually, “About being kicked out… let’s not bring that up.”
Under the bewildered gazes of the crowd, Fu Yue typed out a long string of code they couldn’t understand at all.
He wasn’t cracking it out of thin air.
The file’s encrypted communication prompted the algorithm type.
A few minutes later, Fu Yue hit the Enter key, and the password box on the screen vanished instantly.
“Holy crap! It’s open!”
“How did he do that?! That’s insane.”
The original mockery vanished, replaced by a wave of localized disbelief and praise.
The folder was unlocked. Fu Yue double-clicked the video inside.
But—
There was no heartwarming VCR as everyone expected.
There was only a very blurry video.
In the frame was a slightly thinner Jiang Ying from their second year of high school.
He was kneeling before a collapsed architectural model, his shoulders trembling silently.
His despairing face was clearly visible.
On the other side of the frame, the original Fu Yue stood with his chin tilted high, staring straight at Jiang Ying.
This sudden “physical evidence” was like a bomb that instantly ignited the entire room!
“Fu Yue!” The monitor was the first to react. “You hacked my computer! Did you put this thing in here on purpose?”
The fragile trust that had just been built vanished without a trace.
What was playing on the screen was precisely Fu Yue’s most famous “evil deed” from high school—destroying the model Jiang Ying was using for an international competition.
Afterward, Jiang Ying’s college application plans were disrupted, and his scholarship was gone.
At this moment, the way his classmates looked at him was once again like looking at a despicable, shameless, and unrepentant bastard!
Coincidentally, the fact that Fu Yue had just easily unlocked this encrypted file became the irrefutable evidence of his guilt.
Tang Yingying, Ai Ke’s friend, stood up.
“Fu Yue! The evidence is conclusive now! Stop pretending!”
“In your first year, you were a straight-A student who got top marks in every subject. Why did you suddenly turn into a bully in your second year?”
Tang Yingying’s voice grew increasingly sharp, filled with long-suppressed anger.
During dinner earlier, Tang Yingying had been glaring at Fu Yue. Zhou Fengjun had whispered in Fu Yue’s ear that Tang Yingying had a crush on Jiang Ying back in the first year.
Fu Yue finally understood her attitude.
Now, Tang Yingying acted like a judge, pointing the finger directly at Fu Yue. “You were just jealous of Jiang Ying’s talent! You were jealous that he could win an international design award that you couldn’t! That’s why you deliberately seduced him to distract him from his studies, and in the end, you led people to smash his work and force him out of the race!”
She took a step forward, aggressive. “Jiang Ying didn’t come today, yet you want to play a video from the past to humiliate him on this occasion! Fu Yue, what is your heart even made of?”
The moment the name “Jiang Ying” was mentioned, the atmosphere in the private room became somber.
Fu Yue didn’t lose his composure due to the accusation.
The moment the video played, he was certain he had been set up.
Someone had left an encrypted package with a difficulty level just right for him to crack on the spot, leading him into a trap.
It seemed this was the true “main course” of the evening.
His gaze swept across the room and landed on Tang Yingying. He calmly countered, “Your accusation sounds dramatic, but it’s full of holes.”
“First of all, I was in the science competition class, while Jiang Ying specialized in architectural design. We weren’t even in the same lane. Why would I be jealous of him?”
“You say I had a sudden change in personality. Fine, let’s say I did change and became a total bastard.
According to your logic, I was previously a perfect honor student. Why would I sacrifice my own future just to be jealous of someone I had zero competitive relationship with?”
Fu Yue looked around the room, throwing the question to everyone.
“Don’t you think today looks like a meticulously designed frame-up?”
Taking advantage of the silence, Fu Yue sat back down in front of the computer.
He withstood the immense pressure of the crowd and forcibly began a second technical operation.
He wasn’t going to prove the video was fake; he was going to prove—“Someone is framing me!”
His fingers flew across the keyboard again.
This time, he wasn’t analyzing the file itself, but the network logs and connection records of this laptop.
The monitor ran over. “What—what are you trying to do now?”
Fu Yue didn’t look up, coldly spitting out two words: “Shut up.”
Before long, a node representing an abnormal connection clearly pointed to another IP address within the hotel.
Fu Yue stood up.
He displayed the contents of the laptop clearly on the projection screen.
“Want to know who sent this ‘gift’?” Fu Yue’s eyes held a cold, sharp edge.
“It’s very simple.”
He pointed at the room number on the screen. “Right next door, Private Room 208.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the monitor was the first to move.
He skirted the table, pulled open the door, and rushed out.
Ai Ke, Tang Yingying, and the others were stunned for a second before they reacted and followed.
Fu Yue calmly followed at the back.
A large group of people stormed into Room 208. The door was unlocked and pushed open.
However, the room was empty.
On the table was only a glass with dregs of wine and an empty plate.
It seemed someone had been here not long ago, but they were long gone.
“They escaped.”
While everyone was disappointed, Fu Yue’s gaze was drawn to something in the gap of the guest sofa.
He walked over and leaned down to pick it up.
It was a very small teddy bear plushie, about the size of a keychain charm, which had been carelessly abandoned there.
Fu Yue squeezed the plastic-stuffed bear and felt something inside.
He looked at the base of the doll and saw a rectangular insert.
Found it!
Fu Yue pressed the base.
A USB drive popped out from inside.
Fu Yue’s heart skipped a beat.
“Monitor,” he said, wanting to borrow the monitor’s computer again to analyze the drive.
With a snap, the entire restaurant was plunged into darkness.
“A blackout?” Panic and commotion instantly erupted inside and outside the room.
In the midst of the chaos, a hand firmly gripped Fu Yue’s wrist.
“Come with me.”
It was Shen Junnian’s voice.
Before Fu Yue could answer, Shen Junnian was already pulling him along. Using the light from his phone’s flashlight, they quickly moved through the hotel corridor and left through the fire exit.
Fu Yue instinctively gripped that small USB drive tightly in his palm.
On the way back, Fu Yue sat in the passenger seat.
He opened his hand and looked at the cold USB drive.
“I was the one who pulled the circuit breaker just now,” Shen Junnian said calmly, eyes fixed ahead.
Inside the car, there was only the low hum of the engine and the streaking lights outside the window.
Shen Junnian gripped the steering wheel. “I didn’t want to see you being surrounded and judged by so many people.”
Fu Yue turned to look at him.
His “crazy childhood friend” certainly lived up to his reputation.
Fu Yue put the USB drive away and leaned against the back of his seat, letting out a soft sigh. “I didn’t expect today to be so full of twists and turns.”
“That only proves that the matter with Jiang Ying isn’t simple,” Shen Junnian said solemnly. “You just arrived at the school and showed intent to investigate, and someone immediately ‘sent’ you a big gift. Someone is clearly watching you.”
Fu Yue nodded; he suspected the same.
Shen Junnian’s voice held a note of warning: “Stop looking for Jiang Ying. It’s too dangerous.”
Fu Yue looked out the window. He didn’t refuse, but he didn’t agree either.
Once he got home, the first thing Fu Yue did was close all the curtains.
He inserted the USB drive into a brand-new, offline computer.
A few hours later, he discovered two shocking facts:
One folder contained detailed information regarding the Fu Group’s internal servers.
Another folder contained traces of an intrusion into Ji Linyue’s racing club system! This included the command code used to tamper with the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) and the remote override logs.
Fu Yue had heard from Chen Bai that Ji Linyue had investigated that matter but found nothing.
Now, this was a clue.
As for the final folder, the content was even more terrifying.
Recommended Reads
