In the days that followed, Ayu frequently contacted Chen Feng, and they would occasionally arrange to visit art exhibitions or private art collections together. Each time they met, Ayu carefully maintained her persona, trying her best to make Chen Feng believe that she was simply a wealthy heiress who loved art investment.

Meanwhile, Lin Yu was secretly investigating Chen Feng's preferences and daily schedule, trying to find a way to break through so that A Yu could get closer to her goal more quickly.

On one occasion, Ayu learned that Chen Feng had been trying to acquire a posthumous work by a niche painter. The painting was extremely rare and was held by a mysterious collector. Ayu felt this was a golden opportunity, so she used all her connections to inquire about the painting's whereabouts.

Persistence pays off. After some twists and turns, Ayu finally found the collector and persuaded him to part with the painting and transfer it to her.

When Ayu appeared before Chen Feng with the painting, Chen Feng's eyes were filled with surprise and delight. "Miss Ayu, you are so thoughtful. I have been searching for this painting for a long time. I never expected that you would actually find it."

Ayu smiled and said, "Mr. Chen, you are so passionate about art. I thought if I could help you find this painting, it would fulfill one of your wishes. As long as you like it, that's all that matters."

This action greatly increased Chen Feng's goodwill towards A Yu and deepened his trust in her. He began to share some of his work-related matters with her, but he still did not mention the encrypted hard drive at all.

As the situation gradually improved, Lin Yu became increasingly vigilant. "Ayu, although Chen Feng has lowered his guard against us now, we can't let our guard down. He must have hidden that hard drive very well. We need to find a way to explore his office or residence and see if we can find any clues."

Ayu nodded in agreement, "Yes, but it's quite difficult. We need to find a suitable opportunity."

The opportunity soon arrived. Chen Feng invited Ayu to an internal business dinner hosted by his company, saying it would allow her to experience their company culture and business. Ayu readily agreed and even brought Lin Yu along.

During the banquet, the guests were all immersed in the joyful atmosphere. While Chen Feng was being toasted and chatted with by others, Ayu secretly gave Lin Yu a wink. The two then excused themselves to go to the restroom and left the banquet hall, heading towards Chen Feng's office.

Chen Feng's office was on a high floor of the company. They carefully avoided the patrolling security guards and arrived at the office door. Lin Yu used his lock-picking skills to quickly open the door, and the two slipped inside and began searching.

The office was decorated in a simple yet elegant style, with bookshelves filled with various books and documents, and the desks looking neat and tidy. Ayu and Lin Yu split up, searching for places where the hard drive might be hidden.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door. Ayu and Lin Yu were startled, exchanged a glance, and quickly hid. The door was pushed open, and Chen Feng's assistant entered. He seemed to be picking up a document, rummaged through the bookshelf for a while, and then left with the document.

Ayu and Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief and continued their search. Finally, in a hidden drawer under the desk, Lin Yu found a safe. He tried to open it and found that it required a password.

"It seems the hard drive is very likely in here, but we won't be able to guess the password anytime soon," Lin Yu said in a low voice, frowning.

Ayu looked at the safe with great anxiety. "What should we do? We can't stay here too long. If Chen Feng finds out we're missing, he'll definitely become suspicious."

Just when they were at their wits' end, Lin Yu suddenly remembered that during his investigation of Chen Feng, he had learned that Chen Feng had a habit of using his own birthday as an important password. Lin Yu quickly calculated Chen Feng's birthday in his mind, then tried entering the password. With a "beep," the safe actually opened.

Inside was a small hard drive. Lin Yu picked it up, his heart leaping with joy. "Found it! Let's hurry!"

The two carefully locked the safe, tidied up the office, and then returned to the banquet hall as if nothing had happened. After the banquet, they hurriedly left Chen Feng's company with the hard drive and returned to their residence.

"We finally got it, but the hard drive is encrypted. How do we open it?" Ayu looked at the hard drive in her hand, both excited and worried.

While fiddling with the hard drive, Lin Yu said, "I know a computer expert. Let's see if we can ask him to help us crack it. But before that, we need to hide the hard drive, just in case."

However, to their surprise, the very next day after they received the hard drive, the head of the mysterious force suddenly showed up at their door, his face terribly grim.

"How dare you! You actually went behind our backs to retrieve the hard drive! Do you realize how much you've disrupted our plans?" the person in charge roared angrily.

Ayu said with a wronged expression, "We finally found a chance to get it, and you didn't say before that we couldn't go get it ourselves."

The person in charge snorted coldly, "You don't understand the ins and outs of this at all. Chen Feng must have already realized that the hard drive is missing. He will strengthen his defenses and may even change his original plan, which will greatly hinder our subsequent actions."

Lin Yu frowned and said, "So what do we do now? We also want to get the hard drive as soon as possible so that we can move the whole thing forward."

The person in charge glared at them. "Right now, we can only see how important the contents of the hard drive really are. We need to find someone to crack it as soon as possible. If the information inside isn't useful, you'll have to find a way to get close to Chen Feng again and obtain more crucial intelligence."

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