Chapter 13: Chi Yu Teaches Himself Programming

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Chi Yu could not resist clicking the link displaying Chen Jiazhi’s TikTok information. To her surprise, the page redirected to a TikTok download link.

Shen Yanzhi’s phone did not even have TikTok installed!

Not only TikTok, but also Weibo and every other entertainment app were nowhere to be found.

Chi Yu paused for a moment before exiting the link.

Besides the app, TikTok also had a web version.

With practiced ease, Chi Yu accessed it through the Penguin Browser.

TikTok’s web version allowed users to browse videos without logging in, and its search function was fully available.

She typed rapidly and soon found Chen Jiazhi’s TikTok account.

Chen Jiazhi had not changed her account. It was still the same one as before, except that her followers had grown from a few hundred to over a million—and the number was still climbing rapidly.

Chen Jiazhi had always enjoyed using TikTok. Back then, however, only a handful of people had liked or commented on her posts.

Now, not only had the several videos she had posted most recently each received over a hundred thousand likes, even the old posts that no one had paid attention to had accumulated tens of thousands of likes.

Chen Jiazhi did not follow many people mutually, and Chi Yu had once been one of them.

Chi Yu scrolled through her following list and discovered that Chen Jiazhi had not unfollowed her.

Silently, Chi Yu clicked on Chen Jiazhi’s latest video. It was a morning-routine vlog posted that very morning, showing netizens what it was like for a wealthy heiress to wake up, all from Chen Jiazhi’s perspective.

In just over ten hours, it had received 160,000 likes and 280,000 comments.

Countless netizens were joking around in the comment section, claiming that the Su family’s heiress who had once been lost outside the family was actually one of two people: Chen Jiazhi, and themselves.

Many others asked in the comments whether Chen Jiazhi needed any best friends. They would deliver themselves straight to her door.

Seeing those comments, Chi Yu sneered inwardly. Chen Jiazhi should make a video with the caption: “Looking for a best friend? The kind who pushes you into the sea!”

She silently exited TikTok’s web version.

While clearing the browsing history, Chi Yu suddenly froze.

She remembered a case she had once read about online. A young brother and sister had fallen from a building and died. At first, everyone assumed that the two children had accidentally fallen from a height while playing, resulting in a tragic accident. It was not until police technicians recovered data from their father’s phone and found the complete record of his conspiracy with his lover that they learned the truth: it had been murder. In the end, both conspirators were arrested.

Deleted WeChat messages could be recovered. Could browser history be recovered as well?

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Although Shen Yanzhi had not yet discovered her existence, there was no guarantee that she would not give herself away someday.

Chi Yu’s expression grew solemn.

She soon thought of a solution.

Chi Yu began searching the browser extensively for books and online courses on self-taught programming.

She had discovered long ago that after becoming a string of data, she had gained the ability to remember everything she saw.

There had been advantages to being human.

There were advantages to becoming data, too.

After turning into a string of data, learning was effortless for her. Reading ten lines at a glance was nothing; even a thousand lines presented no difficulty.

As Chi Yu’s thoughts raced, all the programming knowledge she found poured into her mind.

Ten minutes later, she had gone from a complete novice who knew nothing about programming to possessing an advanced level of programming ability.

Chi Yu gave it a try and successfully restored the browsing history she had deleted the last time.

She continued entering code at lightning speed. Finally, before Shen Yanzhi emerged from the bathroom, she completely destroyed the browsing data from both occasions—so thoroughly that it could never be recovered.

As before, Shen Yanzhi noticed nothing unusual.

That night, however, when he went to sleep, he silently placed his phone a little farther away.

He slept without dreaming.

The next day, as soon as Shen Yanzhi arrived at the company, he instructed Chen Jin, “Call Li Yi here.”

Li Yi was the head of the Technology Department. The moment he heard that Shen Yanzhi wanted to see him, he immediately put down his breakfast and went to the twenty-sixth floor.

“President Shen, you wanted to see me?”

Shen Yanzhi took the phone from his pocket and handed it to him. “Check this phone for me.”

Chi Yu, who lived inside the phone, had never imagined that Shen Yanzhi would give her such a tremendous fright first thing in the morning. She had been sprawled out inside the phone, arms and legs akimbo, but at his words, she jumped to her feet in alarm.

Li Yi recognized it as Shen Yanzhi’s personal phone, and his expression turned grave.

“President Shen, what happened?”

“Nothing.” Shen Yanzhi’s expression remained calm. “It has inexplicably overheated twice in the past three days. Find out what’s going on.”

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“I’ll get on it right away.” Li Yi looked extremely serious.

This was Shen Yanzhi’s personal phone, containing countless important documents and private details. Its importance was self-evident.

Even as head of the Technology Department, Li Yi could not take Shen Yanzhi’s phone away.

He called for reinforcements and had his colleagues bring over their computers.

Seeing that he was genuinely preparing for a full-scale investigation, Chi Yu—a tiny string of data who had never witnessed such a scene—set her mind racing as she considered what to do next.

Over the past few days, she had tried more than once to escape from Shen Yanzhi’s phone, but she had never found an effective way.

The only way for her to separate herself from the phone was to become human.

But at present, she had accumulated only three and a half minutes of exchangeable time!

If she suddenly transformed before all these people…

Chi Yu did not dare imagine how spectacular that scene would be.

After turning the matter over in her mind, Chi Yu decided to observe the situation and act according to circumstances.

Perhaps… being discovered would not necessarily be a bad thing.

She was merely an unremarkable string of data. Even if she were discovered, these people could rack their brains forever and never imagine that she was actually a person.

Besides, her existence might not be discovered at all!

First of all, she absolutely could not be afraid herself!

Chi Yu kept reassuring herself and summoning her courage.

At that moment, she was even somewhat glad that she had learned programming the night before and completely erased all the Penguin Browser’s data.

Otherwise, even if they failed to discover her existence today, the easily recovered browsing history might still expose other flaws.

That was what she told herself, at least. Yet when Chi Yu saw another unfamiliar young man enter carrying a black laptop, she still could not help feeling nervous.

She did her best to compress her data into a tiny little ball and hide in a dim, dusty corner.

If Chi Yu had a physical form, she would probably have looked like a little girl standing on tiptoe, desperately trying to hide in the shadows along the phone’s frame.

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