I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

"What's there to hide?" Chen Xi pointed down the mountain. "It's right there."

The direction she was pointing was the "villa" that Chen Ya had built in the village before.

It was a rather luxurious three-story villa, which looked like an ancient building and stood out conspicuously in this small mountain village.

To everyone's utter surprise, the "music archive" that Zhichi and Tianya had been talking about for so long was actually right here.

"I never expected there would actually be a private music collection..." Xu Xiangxiao murmured.

Jiang Xinhai hugged his arms tightly with both hands.

If a private music archive truly exists, then it means that another piece of evidence has been added to prove that "so close yet so far."

She is feeling conflicted right now.

She didn't want things to be so close yet so far, but she couldn't help wanting to find out the truth.

“Oh, right,” Chen Xi added, “my brother just sent me a text message saying that the owner of the private collection will be coming here soon, and asked me to keep an eye out.”

"The owner of the private collection?" The crowd was somewhat puzzled.

"Isn't your brother the owner of the private collection?" Qin Yunchu asked.

Chen Xi said, "No, my brother told me a while ago that the private music collection was originally intended as a gift for a girl, but the time was not right to give it to her yet."

"A girl? Which girl?" Jiang Xinhai keenly caught the blind spot.

“I don’t know either, he didn’t tell me,” Chen Xi said. “I think it might be that rich girl I saw back then.”

She was lost in her memories. Although she remembered the other person's appearance, she didn't know their name.

Jiang Xinhai, however, did not think so.

From the very beginning, after confirming that Chen Xi's brother was Zhichi, she began to suspect the identity of the "rich woman".

When it comes to the wealthy woman who has a good relationship with Chen Ya, there's only one who fits the bill perfectly—

Gu Yuqing.

She never thought that Gu Yuqing had any connection with the music industry.

If the goal is to woo her, there's no need to send her some obsequious gift like a private music collection that backfires.

"What else did your brother say?" Jiang Xinhai asked.

Chen Xi thought for a moment and said, "Since you're so eager to learn, why don't you go and take a look at that private music collection?"

"Is that okay?" Jiang Xinhai was pleasantly surprised.

Chen Xi nodded: "Actually, my brother handed over the management of that building to me a few days ago. I just happened to be going to check the circuits and such."

Jiang Xinhai turned to look at the crowd: "Can we go take a look?"

Undoubtedly, Xu Xiangxiao, Qin Yunchu, He Ling, and others all very much wanted to go.

Gao Xiaobo shook his head and said, "This matter is getting more and more bizarre, and I'm quite interested in taking a look."

Cui Dayou simply nodded silently and said, "Go."

Yingzi glanced at Cui Dayou's reaction, turned her head away, and said, "I have no objection."

Since his master had no objections, Yan Yunzhuo naturally dared not have any either.

So, it was unanimously approved, and everyone went together to see the legendary "music museum".

Chen Xi led them, and soon they arrived at the villa area.

The environment here is even better than you might imagine.

Nestled among lush green trees, filled with the chirping of birds, the house opens onto a mountain view, with a babbling brook nearby.

"The environment here is indeed quite nice," Yingzi commented. "It's a pity that the location is too remote, so it's not worth visiting."

Yan Yunzhuo nodded: "It's good for the villagers to come and broaden their horizons, but they'll get bored after half a day and there's nothing to do."

Chen Xi quickly led them to the so-called "music collection".

This is a building that stands alone from the villa next door. It also adopts an antique style, consistent with the villa next door, but its scale is really... very small.

The group was somewhat disappointed after seeing the place.

“This is too small,” Yingzi said dismissively. “I thought it would be like a library.”

Yan Yunzhuo said, "If this place were filled with my own works, it wouldn't need to be so big."

"But this is too small." Yingzi stepped forward and tried to push the door open, but found that the security door in front of her was a combination lock, which was tightly sealed and looked very sturdy, and she couldn't open it at all.

Yan Yunzhuo quickly said to Chen Xi beside him, "Open the door."

Chen Xi shook her head and said, "I won't open it."

Everyone looked at her with some surprise.

"Didn't you say that your brother entrusted this place to you to manage?" Yingzi asked in surprise.

“Yes, but I can’t get in,” Chen Xi said. “My brother didn’t tell me the password. He said that only the owner of the private collection knows the password.”

"So how do you manage this place?"

Chen Xi stepped onto the lawn surrounding the building and said, "There's solar power here, and the rooms have a fresh air system. I just need to check if the circuits are working properly. There's no need to clean inside at all."

Everyone was speechless.

Yan Yunzhuo was a little annoyed: "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Chen Xi shrugged: "You didn't say you wanted to go inside either."

Qin Yun Chu covered her face.

really.

Like brother, like sister.

Yan Yunzhu complained, "We can't see inside, we can only see outside. Who knows if 'a short distance' is actually 'a world away'? Maybe they've built a 'world away' back in their hometown too. Sigh... What a waste of a trip, and this house is so small."

She walked around the music archive once and quickly returned to where she started. It was indeed not very big, only three stories high and occupying a small area, about the size of a basketball court.

Qin Yun Chu frowned and asked, "Your brother just said that the owner of the private collection will be coming soon. When did he say that? How long ago?"

Chen Xi said, "Just now? Let me see..."

She took out her phone and said, "At 9:40."

Jiang Xinhai and Qin Yunchu exchanged a glance.

"It was when I was on the phone with him!" Jiang Xinhai said, somewhat annoyed. "He knew I would find out about this place!"

Chen Xi blinked, somewhat puzzled.

Jiang Xinhai, with an expression that said, "I'm coming clean, I'm not acting anymore," said:

"Okay, actually, I suspect that this private music collection was a gift from him to me."

Chen Xi's eyes widened: "Really?"

Upon hearing this, the live stream chat exploded with excitement.

Qin Yun Chu was also a little excited: "Very likely! It is very likely that Zhi Chi has been preparing this place for many years and wants to give it to Xin Hai at a special moment."

Jiang Xinhai bit his lip.

Her mind was filled with her own words from back then: "I was the one who took the initiative to confess my feelings, so of course you should take the initiative to propose."

Chen Ya acted like he didn't care at the time, but could it be... that he actually took it to heart?

Jiang Xinhai calmed himself down and said, "Sister Chen Xi, he didn't tell me any password or any hints?"

“Yes.” Chen Xi nodded immediately and said, “He said that as long as the password is spoken, the owner of the private collection will know the password in an instant.”

"The clue to the password is, 'The melody that brought us together'."

After listening to Chen Xi's words, Jiang Xinhai first frowned, then relaxed his brows.

“That’s ‘Red Bean’,” Jiang Xinhai said. “I haven’t really gotten a good feel for the first verse of ‘Red Bean’ yet… 56212212, exactly eight digits.”

Chen Xi stared at her blankly.

Could it be that this private music collection was really a gift from her brother to Jiang Xinhai?

The live stream chat was flooded with comments:

"Wow, could this be what Zhichi is planning to use to confess her feelings to Xinhai?"

"It's so sour! I'm jealous, I hate it!"

"What exactly happened? So does this prove that the ends of the earth are within reach?"

"Nothing is certain, let's just wait and see."

……

Jiang Xinhai walked to the front of the private collection and entered the numbers he had just entered into the combination lock.

"Drip drip..."

The door lock clicked for a while, then emitted a piercing scream and flashed a red light.

The screen above the door lock displayed four large characters: "Incorrect password!"

"Huh?!" Jiang Xinhai was quite surprised, then frowned.

"Wasn't the melody that brought us together 'Red Bean'? Or 'Too Softhearted'?"

Just as Jiang Xinhai was doubting himself, Xu Xiangxiao suddenly said, "I might... know the answer."

Jiang Xinhai turned around to look at her.

Everyone looked at her.

Xu Xiangxiao slowly walked to the door.

She seemed to have something on her mind.

The expression of a little girl reappeared on her face—a mixture of nervousness, excitement, and anticipation.

Her fingers slowly moved across the keyboard, typing in a series of numbers:

"517111176765."

After the password is entered, the combination lock emits a "beep beep beep" sound.

After a flash of blue light, four words appeared on the screen:

"Password correct!"

Then, the door opened.

Chapter 154 The Essence of Showing Off

The doors to the private music archive opened in full view of everyone.

For a fleeting moment, Qin Yun Chu felt a dark and powerful force emanating from within, but then, with a soft "whoosh," the high-brightness ceiling light with numerous LED beads illuminated the entire room.

Inside the room, everything was clearly visible to everyone.

While it's described as offering a complete view, there's actually not much to see—the entire room is bare except for a touchpad display screen standing in the middle.

"Holy crap, Xu Xiangxiao actually opened it! How did she know the password?"

"What on earth happened? I'm completely confused. Wasn't this a gift from Zhichi to Jiang Xinhai?"

"Idiot! Doesn't this just mean that Zhichi and Xu Xiangxiao know each other? Zhichi is like the ends of the earth!"

"Didn't they say that something so close can never be so far? How could one person create so many songs in three years?"

……

The sheer chaos of the comments mirrored the general sentiment of the audience.

Yan Yunzhuo, in particular, had her mouth agape, unable to close it.

Yingzi wasn't as impatient as her apprentice, but she wasn't much better.

She couldn't understand what was happening, and at first she even thought it was just a prank.

After receiving the information that "Xu Xiangxiao has opened her private music collection," her first reaction was: she might have been tricked by the production team.