Zhu Shi and Ma Zao had never personally witnessed the scene inside that nightclub.

  Although they had learned from my words and Chang'an’s account that the guests all wore head coverings to conceal their true identities, it was understandable that they wouldn’t immediately think of this critical detail.

  However, Chang'an suddenly seemed to realize something, betedly saying, “Oh, right! Everyone who enters that nightclub is very concerned about whether their true face will be exposed. Most of them wouldn’t even take off their head coverings during the ‘main event.’ Even the staff have the right to refuse if a guest asks them to remove their masks.

  “Even if a guest does take off their head covering, the club has strict rules prohibiting employees from revealing the guests' true identities. They're not even allowed to disclose this information to other staff members, or the consequences would be severe.”

  “You’ve been working there for over two months, and you're only realizing this now?” Jin Yu said, speechless.

  Chang'an let out an awkward ugh but then turned serious and asked me, “Ah Cheng, are you suspecting that Jin Yu might be the Shadow Swap Oddities you’re looking for?”

  Although Zhu Shi and I hadn’t explicitly told him our purpose for coming here, after listening to our conversations, he had clearly pieced together most of it.

  “No, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suspecting Jin Yu at all. I just want to know how she confirmed that her father is still a regur at that nightclub,” I shook my head.

  “So, you’re suspecting Jin Yu’s father?” Chang'an, unaware of Ma Zao’s uncanny bad luck, probably couldn’t understand why I would suspect him.

  Zhu Shi, on the other hand, quickly grasped my train of thought.

  “Could it be through the bathhouse facilities?” she specuted.

  “You mentioned earlier that the nightclub offers bathhouses, massages, and accommodations. Even if those guests want to hide their true identities, they wouldn’t necessarily keep their head coverings on while bathing, getting a massage, or staying overnight, right?”

  I directly asked Jin Yu, “Or were you able to recognize him just by his height and build?”

  “No, that guy’s height isn’t particurly unique, and as for his weight... He rarely comes home. Even if his weight fluctuated a little during this period, it wouldn't be enough for me to identify him.” Jin Yu shook her head.

  “As for the bathhouse, massage, and accommodation areas... It’s true that guests wouldn’t usually wear their head coverings there, but regur employees like me are strictly prohibited from entering those areas.”

  "Then how did you confirm it?" Chang'an asked in confusion.

  Jin Yu took a deep breath and then gave her answer.

  It was exactly what I had imagined.

  Honestly, I felt like this coincidence was almost terrifyingly uncanny.

  "—His hands," she said in a voice filled with deep hatred.

  "Those merciless, heartless hands that used to beat my mother and me. I would never mistake those hands.

  "No matter how well he dresses up when entering the nightclub—wearing proper clothes, pants, shoes, and even a head-covering to conceal his identity—he will always expose his hands. I recognized him among the guests by observing his hands.

  "So I'm absolutely certain that to this day, he still frequents that nightclub."

  Upon hearing her words, Zhu Shi froze for a moment, then widened her eyes. "Hands... Hands!?"

  "Zhu Shi, the severed hand from the Shadow Swap Oddities should still be with Patrol Lu, right?" I asked, already prepared.

  "Can you have him send it over? No, wait. It's been a day, and it might have started to decay... I remember he has the ability to imprint mental images onto photos. Have him send a clear picture of the severed hand instead."

  As Zhu Shi took out her phone, she said, "Don't worry. He treated the hand with a preservation method. I'll contact him right now..."

  "No need to go through all that trouble," Ma Zao interrupted, extending her right hand with the palm facing upward.

  Suddenly, a bloodied severed hand materialized out of thin air and fell into her palm.

  It was the same hand that had been cut off from the Oddities st night.

  Upon closer inspection, the severed hand appeared to have a shifting, shadowy form, flickering between light and dark—exactly like the phantom scimitar she had summoned the night before.

  "I can use the power of blessing to summon historical projections of objects I've touched in the past," she briefly expined before pcing the severed hand on the table and addressing Jin Yu.

  "Take a look—does this belong to your father?"

  Jin Yu hesitated, then stepped forward to carefully examine the severed hand.

  Within two seconds, she firmly decred, "Yes, this is it... This is that man's hand!"

  She knew our target was the Shadow Swap Oddities, and there was a possibility that she might be framing her father to manipute us into getting rid of him... I realized this and looked toward Zhu Shi.

  Zhu Shi, evidently sharing the same suspicion, had already activated "Buzhou Mountain" at some point.

  She then turned to me and said, "She’s not lying."

  Seeing this, I continued questioning Jin Yu, "What does your father look like?"

  Jin Yu took out her phone, tapped several times, and then turned the screen toward me.

  Dispyed on it was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man’s ID photo.

  I committed his face to memory.

  Only at this moment did I finally feel fully certain about the true identity of the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  It really was Jin Yu’s father!

  At that moment, what filled my heart was neither pride in my correct deductions nor relief that the situation was progressing smoothly.

  Instead, it was astonishment—astonishment at Ma Zao’s uncanny fate.

  What kind of coincidence and arrangement was this?

  Just as we were struggling outside the nightclub, unable to pinpoint the Oddities’s true identity, his own daughter had shown up at our doorstep.

  And when the only clue we had was the severed hand, Jin Yu just happened to possess the ability to recognize it and confirm his identity.

  In fact, if I were superstitious and blindly believed in Ma Zao's mysterious power, we wouldn’t even need these deductions and clues.

  Simply listening to Chang'an and Jin Yu's story, combined with basic elimination, would have been enough to directly guess the truth—that Jin Yu's father was the Shadow Swap Oddities!

  This fate—where events seem to revolve around her, gathering all relevant people and objects around her—goes beyond mere talent or luck.

  It can only be described as a supernatural curse.

  Someone with such a fate could never live a calm and ordinary life.

  They would be drawn into one unexpected incident after another, much like the protagonist of an adventure story.

  And they would be unable to stop until the very moment of their death.

  Even if it were considered a blessing and a gift, I had to admit that this was absolutely not a fate that someone as young as Ma Zao should bear.

  For most people who long for a peaceful and safe life, having such a fate would be like being thrown into a raging fire, with nothing but endless suffering awaiting them.

  I couldn't help but gnce at Ma Zao, but she showed no surprise at the true identity of the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  Perhaps she had known the answer from the beginning, merely waiting for us to come to terms with it.

  However, there were still some questions in my mind.

  Since Jin Yu's father was the Shadow Swap Oddities, and the nightclub owner was also aware of the truth, why did the tter allow Jin Yu to carry out the pn of framing her own father within the nightclub?

  If Jin Yu's scheme succeeded, it wouldn’t be a matter of simply apologizing to the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  The nightclub owner would likely face brutal retaliation from him.

  But those concerns were secondary for now.

  The most important task was to capture the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  I controlled the several "fireflies" scattered throughout the nightclub to search, and it didn’t take long before I found the target.

  In the nightclub's lounge area, a man in a silk bathrobe was lying on a massage chair, silently enjoying himself.

  Behind him stood a small girl, wearing a white rabbit mask and a goldfish hairpin in her hair.

  Though the man on the massage chair wore a brown ram-shaped animal mask, I was still able to "see through" his disguise by blending my mind into the environmental heat, allowing me to perceive his true face even through the mask.

  He was Jin Yu's father, and also the Shadow Swap Oddities we had been looking for.

  At this point, I no longer felt any surprise that the Shadow Swap Oddities just so happened to be in the nightclub during the daytime.

  I simply informed Zhu Shi and Ma Zao that I had found the target, and after a brief discussion, we pnned our next moves.

  After finalizing our tactics, we left the private room of the restaurant and made our way to our respective positions.

  Ma Zao also used her immobilization power on the unconscious man in the bck suit to prevent him from escaping or causing trouble during our fight.

  As for Chang'an, we had him take Jin Yu to pay the bill and wait for the outcome here.

  Once we were in position, I stood on the street opposite the nightclub, once again focusing my attention on the Shadow Swap Oddities inside.

  He seemed to have had enough of the massage chair and was now gripping the armrests, preparing to stand up.

  His posture was extremely rexed, and he completely failed to notice the "fireflies," much less realize that I was watching him through them.

  The next moment, I ignited his body with my gaze.

  This wasn’t a fme intended to kill the enemy, but rather to impnt my heat signature into his body.

  That said, I didn’t intend to make it easy for him.

  The moment the fmes appeared, the silk bathrobe and mask he was wearing turned to ash.

  His exposed, naked body screamed in agony as he tumbled to the ground, rolling around, likely a reflexive attempt to extinguish the fmes.

  His skin quickly bckened and cracked, his muscles sizzling and cooking, even his eyeballs dehydrated and carbonized.

  His vocal cords were also destroyed by the fmes, and he could no longer scream.

  Around him were several other guests wearing masks and a few female workers, all staring in shock at Jin Yu’s father, who resembled a victim of spontaneous human combustion, unable to comprehend what was happening, frozen in disbelief.

  This level of injury would be fatal for a normal person without immediate medical attention.

  But for a Oddities, it could only be considered a light wound.

  Under the gaze of all those present, Jin Yu’s father’s body began to violently swell and morph, transforming into the shape of a monster.

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