The Secret on the USB Drive

Lin Xiuwen's home was in the city's luxury district. It was a huge detached villa with a swimming pool in the yard.

Clearly, Lin Xiuwen came from a wealthy family.

Zhang Shuai was a little astonished. Apart from seeing places like this on TV, this was his first time encountering such a mansion in real life. His pitifully small social circle had never brought him into contact with people of this level of wealth.

Lin Xiuwen's mother, Zhou Wei, happened to be home. She was a mature woman around forty, with a figure she had kept in excellent shape and quite attractive features. Her eyes and brows bore some resemblance to Lin Xiuwen's. When she saw Lin Xiuwen had brought two friends home, Zhou Wei first greeted Sun Xiaoya with a smile. "Xiaoya, you're here?"

Sun Xiaoya replied sweetly, "Auntie, you look better and better lately. You seem so much younger."

Zhou Wei beamed. "Is that so? My friends say I've been looking much better, too. It's all thanks to practicing Big Dipper Long Fist. It really is amazing. You're on summer break now, so you can practice more, too. By the way, Xiuwen, who's this young man?"

Lin Xiuwen said, "This is our good friend, Zhang Shuai. He's learning to drive at the same driving school as us."

Zhou Wei turned her gaze to Zhang Shuai and praised him. "You look like a bright, energetic young man."

Zhang Shuai greeted her politely. "Hello, Auntie!"

Zhou Wei nodded, then turned to her daughter. "Xiuwen, how did your second driving test go?"

"Mom! Of course I'll pass. You promised you'd buy me a car once I got my license, so you have to keep your word."

"Of course. When have I ever lied to you? As soon as you get your license, I'll take you to look at cars. But you're still in school, so don't buy anything too nice. You can only choose a car that costs less than five hundred thousand."

"Fine, as long as it's a car. I'm not picky. Mom, I'll take Xiaoya and Zhang Shuai upstairs first."

After chatting with her mother for a few more moments, Lin Xiuwen took Zhang Shuai and Sun Xiaoya to her room on the villa's second floor.

Lin Xiuwen's room was spacious, and a high-spec computer sat on the desk.

Lin Xiuwen sat in her computer chair and said to Zhang Shuai, "Hand me the USB drive, handsome. I'll help you remove the password."

Zhang Shuai took out the USB drive. As he handed it to Lin Xiuwen, he made sure to emphasize, "You only need to unlock it. Don't open or look at anything on the drive."

Lin Xiuwen shot him an exasperated look. "All right. I'm not interested in what's on your USB drive. You don't have to keep repeating yourself."

Zhang Shuai gave an awkward chuckle. After Lin Xiuwen took the drive, he watched as she didn't rush to plug it into the computer. Instead, she first unplugged the computer's network cable, then inserted the drive and began typing away at the keyboard.

More than ten minutes later, Lin Xiuwen pulled out the USB drive and handed it back to Zhang Shuai. "All right, the password's been removed. You can access it now."

Zhang Shuai hurriedly thanked her. "Thanks, Xiuwen. I'll treat you to a meal sometime."

Lin Xiuwen quickly replied, "Didn't you already treat me yesterday? It was a small favor. You don't have to be so formal."

Sun Xiaoya, who was standing nearby, sounded displeased when she heard this. "Handsome, we agreed yesterday that I was paying. What was the point of secretly picking up the bill? No, we're going out to eat again today to celebrate passing our second driving test. I absolutely have to pay this time."

Zhang Shuai smiled wryly. "Xiaoya, didn't we already eat yesterday? We don't need to go again today, do we?"

Sun Xiaoya replied firmly, "No way. You insisted on paying yesterday, so we have to go again today. The food at Louzhonglou Restaurant is delicious, and there are still plenty of dishes we haven't tried. We'll go again tonight. I'm paying this time, and none of you are allowed to fight me for the bill!"

Seeing how determined Sun Xiaoya was, Zhang Shuai knew she wouldn't let it go if they didn't go tonight. He could only say helplessly, "All right, what time tonight? I'll be there."

"Seven. Let's meet outside Louzhonglou Restaurant at seven. Don't be late!"

Lin Xiuwen said, "Sure, but since we're eating at Louzhonglou Restaurant tonight, why don't you have lunch at my place? I'll ask the cook to make something tasty..."

Zhang Shuai's head started to ache. Were all college girls this hospitable? Before his body had mutated, he would have been delighted. But eating was now a complete waste of time and food for him. All he needed was to recharge; he didn't need to eat at all. Besides, Zhang Shuai could think of nothing but getting home to find out what secrets the USB drive held. He really wasn't in the mood for a meal.

"There's no need for lunch. I have something to take care of at home, so we can just meet at Louzhonglou Restaurant tonight."

Since Zhang Shuai said he had things to do at home, Lin Xiuwen didn't insist on keeping him for lunch.

Zhang Shuai apologized to Lin Xiuwen and Sun Xiaoya, then left the Lin Family early. He hailed a taxi and returned to his rented apartment.

As soon as he got home, Zhang Shuai took out the USB drive and plugged it into his computer.

Sure enough, he was able to open the drive's folder this time. There were two folders, both named in Japanese. Zhang Shuai couldn't understand their names.

He opened the first folder. It contained pictures and written explanations, but the text was all in Japanese. Japan had once been a vassal state of the Dragon Kingdom, so Japanese writing often included Chinese characters.

Zhang Shuai could recognize a few Chinese characters, but when they were mixed in with Japanese, he couldn't make sense of them at all.

The pictures, however, left him deeply shocked.

The first picture showed a corpse in a crystal coffin. It was a naked male corpse. Strangely, the man had long, jet-black hair and a dignified appearance, with a square face and large earlobes. His body looked lifelike.

Unfortunately, Zhang Shuai couldn't understand the explanation beneath the picture, so he had no idea who the person in the coffin really was.

But as Zhang Shuai looked at the strange man's body in the photograph, he suddenly remembered something strange that had happened when he was twelve.

Back then, he and Wang Qiang had been playing in the mountains when they saw a silver spaceship floating in the sky above them. Just as they thought they were seeing an alien ship, a gust of wind blew, and a mysterious force sent Zhang Shuai flying straight up into the sky.

After that, Zhang Shuai found himself inside the spaceship.

The alien spaceship was strange. It didn't have any of the advanced electronic equipment seen in science-fiction movies. It looked more like a dragon boat floating through space.

Then Zhang Shuai saw two aliens wearing golden robes. In truth, the two didn't look like aliens at all. They looked no different from people of the Dragon Kingdom, with yellow skin and black eyes. The only difference was that both aliens had long hair tied up with hairpins. Rather than aliens, Zhang Shuai thought they looked more like people from ancient times in the Dragon Kingdom.