154: The search for the umbrella farce leads to the capture of the mole, and the conspiracy of Duoyu is exposed.

Wang Duoyu's "mole plan" was hidden quite deep—he found a man with a handlebar mustache and shifty eyes named Zhao Si, stuffed him with a 50,000-yuan bribe, and had him infiltrate Xie Hui's Shared Umbrella maintenance team to secretly break the umbrellas' GPS and snap the handles, ideally causing the Shared Umbrella project to come to a complete standstill.

Zhao Si patted his chest in assurance: "Don't worry, Brother Duoyu! I used to steal steel bars at construction sites, so I'm an expert at sabotage. I guarantee I'll turn all of Xie Hui's umbrellas into scrap metal!"

That day, Xie Hui was with Xia Zhu in the Xihong City pedestrian street checking on the deployment of the Shared Umbrella project. Just as they reached the third deployment point, they saw several elderly men surrounding an empty umbrella rack, cursing: "What kind of crappy umbrella is this! I scanned one just yesterday, and today it shows it's in a suburban creek—I can't even find it!"

Another middle-aged woman held up an umbrella with a broken handle and said angrily: "I only used it for ten minutes and the handle snapped. It almost made my grandson fall!"

Xia Zhu scrolled through the backend data, her brows furrowed: "Xie Hui, over three hundred umbrellas are showing 'abnormal location,' and more than fifty have been reported damaged. If this continues, the 25 million we invested will go down the drain!"

Xie Hui, however, didn't panic. He crouched down, picked up the broken umbrella, and touched the fracture—the cut was neat, clearly broken by hand. Looking at the GPS module inside the umbrella, the wire had been cut halfway through. He knew what was going on, but outwardly, he sighed deliberately: "Sigh, the quality is not good enough; it needs improvement! We need to hire more people to find the umbrellas!"

He pulled out his mobile phone on the spot and posted a notice on a recruitment app: "Urgent hiring: 100 'Shared Umbrella Search Specialists.' Monthly salary of 8,000, lunch included. Requirements: Must be able to run and search, know the streets and alleys of Xihong City. Find an umbrella and get an extra 50-yuan reward!"

The moment the message was sent, the phone lines were flooded. In less than an hour, one hundred search specialists were recruited, wearing uniform red vests and roaming the streets with locators to find the umbrellas.

One specialist found an umbrella in a pile of vegetables at the market and even helped a woman carry two bags of potatoes; another found an umbrella in a park tree and happened to rescue a cat stuck in the branches—the umbrella-searching scene looked just like a lively community volunteer event. Passersby couldn't help but take photos and post them to their Moments, and #TheMostAbsurdJobInXihongCity# even trended on the hot search list.

Xia Zhu looked at the scene before her, half-angry and half-amused: "This isn't searching for umbrellas; it's basically a charity event! One hundred specialists cost eight million a month, and with the rewards, that's another huge expense."

"It's money well spent!" Xie Hui handed over a cup of bubble milk tea brought out from his "inner universe"—the sugar-free kind Xia Zhu loved. "Look at the hot search; our Shared Umbrella project is popular again. Plus, finding and repairing umbrellas are reasonable expenses, so Wang Zongyao won't be able to find any faults. By the way, tell the factory to upgrade the umbrellas' GPS to military-grade and use aerospace plastic for the handles. Increase the cost of each umbrella to 500 yuan. Replace all the previous 2,000 umbrellas and add another 3,000; that'll be another two million."

Xia Zhu took the milk tea, her fingertips touching the cool cup, feeling warm inside—she had casually mentioned yesterday that she wanted milk tea because of the heat, and Xie Hui had actually remembered. She bit on the straw and smiled: "You're treating 'losing money' like an art form, but it's certainly much better than Wang Duoyu's corner-cutting tricks."

Just as the two finished dealing with the Shared Umbrella matter, Xiao Zhang, a programmer for the Metaverse Dog Walking app, called in a hurry: "CEO Xie! It's bad! The app server has crashed! Ten thousand users just held weddings for their virtual dogs simultaneously, and the System is lagging like a PowerPoint presentation. Some users are even asking for refunds!"

When Xie Hui arrived at the studio, the programmers were scratching their heads around the computers, and the screens were filled with "Virtual Dog Wedding Scene Loading Failed" error messages. Xie Hui glanced at the backend data, and instead of panicking, he slapped the table and laughed: "Holding weddings? That's a great idea! Add another 20 million to upgrade the servers, and develop a 'Virtual Dog Wedding Dress Shop.' The wedding dresses should be divided into 'Luxury Edition' and 'Supreme Edition,' with the most expensive one selling for 10,000 yuan a set. Also, create a 'Virtual Dog Wedding Room' and let users spend money to decorate it—the more absurd, the better. If you need more money, just ask!"

Xiao Zhang was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "CEO Xie is brilliant! Virtual dog wedding dresses and wedding rooms will definitely make users spend money like crazy. Even if the server crashes again, we can just add more investment!"

Just as Xie Hui was busy adding "absurd features" to the app, some commotion broke out in the Shared Umbrella maintenance area—Zhao Si was squatting on the ground "repairing" an umbrella. Holding pliers, he secretly cut the GPS wire of a new umbrella when no one was looking and deliberately cracked the handle. Just as he was about to put the broken umbrella back on the rack, Xie Hui's voice came from behind him: "Master Zhao, this umbrella was fine when it was just delivered. How did it break after passing through your hands?"

Zhao Si panicked, quickly hid the pliers behind his back, and pretended to be calm: "CEO Xie, the quality of this umbrella is poor. It broke the moment I picked it up. I was just about to report it!"

Xie Hui stared at the pliers hidden behind his back, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth. He silently recited "Time Stop"—everything around them instantly froze: the fans in the maintenance area stopped in mid-air, the search specialists in the distance stood motionless holding their locators, and the panicked expression on Zhao Si's face stiffened. Xie Hui walked quickly to Zhao Si's toolbox, fished out his mobile phone, unlocked it, and saw that it was filled with chat records with Wang Duoyu: "Brother Duoyu, I broke ten umbrellas today and cut all the GPS wires!" "Tomorrow I'll go break the umbrella racks so they can't put the umbrellas back!" There was also a transfer record of 50,000 yuan with the note "Sabotage Expenses."

Xie Hui took out his own mobile phone, took pictures of all the chat records and transfer receipts, put the phone back into Zhao Si's pocket, and released the Time Stop. He patted Zhao Si on the shoulder: "Master Zhao, thank you for your hard work. A new batch of umbrellas just arrived, and the racks are a bit loose. Go fix them, right under that surveillance camera over there—don't make any mistakes."

Zhao Si, thinking Xie Hui hadn't noticed, was secretly pleased. He took his pliers and walked toward the umbrella rack under the surveillance camera—he figured he would take this opportunity to bend the rack so Xie Hui couldn't use it at all. But just as he raised his pliers, he heard a "click" sound; the security camera turned, and two security guards suddenly rushed out from the side: "Don't move! You are intentionally damaging equipment; we've caught it all on camera!"

Zhao Si was so scared that the pliers dropped from his hands to the ground. Just as he wanted to run, he was surrounded by the umbrella search specialists—the same elderly men and women from earlier were there too. The woman poked him with the broken umbrella: "So it was you who caused the trouble! My grandson almost got hurt; you owe me compensation for emotional distress!"

Xie Hui and Xia Zhu walked over and shoved the chat records on the mobile phone in front of Zhao Si: "Master Zhao, colluding with Wang Duoyu and taking a 50,000-yuan bribe—you're quite capable, aren't you?"

Zhao Si's face turned pale instantly, and with a "thump," he knelt on the ground: "CEO Xie, spare me! It was Wang Duoyu who forced me! He said if I didn't commit sabotage, he would break my legs!"

Just then, Wang Duoyu's sports car screeched to a halt by the roadside. He led Zhuang Qiang in, walking with a swagger, thinking Zhao Si had succeeded, and deliberately raised his voice to shout: "Xie Hui! I heard your Shared Umbrella project is completely broken? I told you this project wouldn't work. You'd better give up early and learn from me how to build a space theme park!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, he saw Zhao Si being pinned to the ground by security guards, and Xia Zhu was holding a mobile phone with the chat records between him and Zhao Si on the screen. Wang Duoyu's face instantly turned from red to green, and then to black. He pointed at Zhao Si and cursed: "You waste! I hired you to cause destruction, not to get caught!"

"Brother Duoyu, you were the one who said you'd give me 50,000 yuan; now you're blaming me?" Zhao Si, desperate, spilled everything about Wang Duoyu giving him the money: "You also told me to go sabotage the server for the Metaverse Dog Walking app, saying you wanted all the user data to be lost!"

The surrounding crowd heard this and immediately erupted: "So Wang Duoyu is this evil! Intentionally causing destruction!" "I'm never looking at his projects again; it's disgusting!"

Zhuang Qiang wanted to help Wang Duoyu out of the situation, but just as he took a step forward, he was hit squarely by an electric scooter driven by a nearby search specialist—the scooter was loaded with ten umbrellas that had just been found, and they all slammed into Zhuang Qiang. The umbrella handles poked him, making him grimace in pain: "Ouch! My back!" Even worse, the ribs of one of the umbrellas had snapped and snapped right onto the spot on his head that had been hit by bird droppings earlier, making tears almost come to his eyes from the pain.

"Brother Qiang, your luck is really terrible. Did you forget to check the almanac before leaving the house?" Xie Hui couldn't help but laugh, "But it's no wonder—following Wang Duoyu, you never have a good day."

Wang Duoyu was shaking with rage, pointing at Xie Hui and saying: "You set a trap on purpose! You knew all along that Zhao Si was sent by me!"

"So what if I knew?" Xie Hui raised an eyebrow, "I'm spending money openly and honestly, while you're playing dirty tricks. Now that you've been caught red-handed, you still have the nerve to talk? By the way, I've already sent the evidence of your incitement to sabotage to Mr. Wang Zongyao. Do you think if he finds out you're violating the rules by causing destruction, he'll disqualify you from the challenge?"

Upon hearing "Wang Zongyao," Wang Duoyu's face instantly drained of color—the Second Uncle was the person he feared most. If the Second Uncle found out he was playing dirty, let alone inheriting the estate, he would even have to cough up the previous one billion. He lost all his arrogance and dragged Zhuang Qiang away: "Xie Hui! You just wait! This isn't over!"

Watching their disheveled figures, the people around them laughed their heads off, and the woman shouted: "CEO Wang, remember to compensate my grandson for his emotional distress!"

Xia Zhu walked to Xie Hui's side, her eyes full of admiration: "You are so witty; you actually discovered something was wrong with Zhao Si early on and set a trap to catch him."

"Actually, I was just guessing." Xie Hui smiled and ruffled her hair, "I felt something was off about one of the maintenance workers yesterday, and today, when I saw him snapping the umbrella, I was certain. By the way, let's go check on the Metaverse Dog Walking app. Xiao Zhang said the server upgrade is complete and the virtual dog wedding feature is live. It must be very lively."

When the two arrived at the AI fortune-telling studio, the programmers were cheering around the computers—the virtual dog wedding feature had just gone live, and over a thousand users had already held weddings for their virtual dogs. Some users bought "diamond rings" for their virtual dogs, and some even hired virtual priests; the scene was both hilarious and lively. Xiao Zhang pointed at the screen and said: "CEO Xie, a user just held a 'Royal Wedding' for their virtual dog, spending 100,000 yuan to buy a virtual venue and even hiring a virtual band. Now the whole platform is watching!"

Xie Hui looked at the two virtual dogs on the screen wearing wedding dresses and tuxedos and couldn't help but laugh: "Not bad, not bad. Add another 10 million to develop a 'Virtual Dog Parenting Feature,' allowing virtual dogs to have puppies and even send them to school—the more absurd, the better!"

Xia Zhu was flipping through the ledger on the side and said with a smile: "We spent over 50 million in just one day today—8 million for search specialists, 2 million for umbrella improvements, 20 million for server upgrades, 10 million for the virtual dog feature, and 1 million for security during the mole capture. Adding in previous expenses, we've spent nearly 500 million in total."

"Only 500 million? It's still early." Xie Hui took out his mobile phone and scrolled to a Moments post Wang Duoyu had just made—a photo of him and Big Smart with the caption: "The final trump card, absolutely going to beat Xie Hui!"

"Looks like he hasn't given up yet." Xie Hui put away his phone and said to Xia Zhu, "But it doesn't matter; whatever tricks he pulls, we can handle them. Tomorrow, let's go check on the stray animal shelter. The veterinarian we hired said a batch of stray kittens arrived. We can spend some money on cat litter and cat food, and while we're at it, add a 'Pet Grooming Area' to the shelter. That's another reasonable expense."

Xia Zhu nodded, actively helping Xie Hui organize the documents in his hands, and whispered: "With you here, I'm not worried at all. No matter what tricks Wang Duoyu plays, we will definitely win."

The sunset shone through the studio window, falling on the two of them, and Xia Zhu's hair shimmered with a pale golden light. Xie Hui looked at her profile as she earnestly organized the documents and suddenly felt particularly at peace. This money-spending war in Xihong City not only allowed him to experience unprecedented fun but also brought him to meet such a wonderful person. He secretly decided that after completing the bet, he would definitely take Xia Zhu to more interesting worlds and let her see different scenery.

Meanwhile, Wang Duoyu was drinking away his sorrows in a bar with Big Smart. Big Smart patted his chest and said: "Brother Duoyu, I have a cousin who works at a bank who can help us get a loan. Let's start a 'Xihong City Underground Casino'; we'll definitely be able to spend money quickly and beat Xie Hui!"

Wang Duoyu's eyes lit up, and he slammed his glass down: "Good! Let's do the casino! I don't believe I can't beat Xie Hui!" He didn't know that Xie Hui had long since heard their conversation through "Time Stop" and was waiting for him to jump into the pit—the moment the illegal casino opened, Wang Zongyao would immediately disqualify him from the challenge, and by then, he wouldn't even have a chance to turn things around.