Since standing around talking in the middle of the street wasn’t ideal, we decided to head to the rge restaurant across from the nightclub and get a private room to sit down and talk.

  Chang’an sat there like a criminal under the watchful eyes of Zhu Shi and me, while Ma Zao observed him with a vigint gaze.

  At first, I couldn’t figure out what exactly Ma Zao was so wary about.

  It took me a moment to realize that, unlike Zhu Shi and me, she had never met Chang’an before and had no preconceived notions about him.

  She was probably suspecting that Chang’an could be the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  Once I understood the direction of her suspicions, I gave it some thought as well.

  Not because I actually doubted Chang’an—in fact, it was precisely because I didn’t truly suspect him that I could approach the question with a retively lighthearted attitude, almost like a mental exercise: Could my good friend possibly be the Oddities?

  The conclusion was a firm no. Chang’an couldn’t be the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  The Oddities had been operating for a long time—at least three months, even excluding the victim from the fifteenth-floor incident.

  Unlike Agent Kong, who could transfer his Seeds of the Heart to puppet substitute, it was impossible for Chang’an to have hidden such a monstrous identity right under Zhu Shi’s nose.

  Besides, just by carefully observing Chang’an’s hands, it was clear that compared to the severed hand of the Oddities, his hands were visibly younger and more slender.

  Perhaps noticing this herself, Ma Zao’s expression rexed slightly.

  While the others were speaking with the restaurant receptionist, Ma Zao tugged at my sleeve and whispered, “Zhuang Cheng.”

  “What is it?” I lowered my voice.

  “There’s a lead on the Oddities,” she said seriously.

  Hearing this, I immediately focused my attention on Chang’an and the others in front of me and asked, “Where?”

  “I don’t know,” she surprisingly replied.

  I was puzzled. If she didn’t know anything, why would she cim there was a lead on the Oddities?

  However, she spoke with absolute confidence: “Based on my experience, whenever I get involved in supernatural incidents, if unexpected events occur along the way—even if they seem unreted to the case—there’s often a hidden clue within them that can bring us closer to the core of the mystery.”

  How could that be? Reality isn’t a fictional story where coincidences always fit perfectly into the plot...

  Originally, I wanted to refute her, but considering Ma Zao’s uncanny tendency to attract strange events like the protagonist of an adventure story, it was entirely possible that she frequently encountered such coincidences.

  Perhaps this time was no different.

  With this thought in mind, I took the unexpected encounter with Chang’an and Jin Yu even more seriously.

  We entered a private room in the restaurant and casually ordered a few dishes—of course, at Chang’an’s expense.

  The cold dishes and drinks were served quickly, and once the waiter left the room, we began interrogating Chang’an.

  Zhu Shi gred at him fiercely and asked, “So, what exactly is going on?”

  “Well, you see... I’m a man too, and sometimes I make mistakes…” Chang’an’s eyes darted around, clearly not intending to tell the truth.

  “I used to have fun every night at that nightclub, and suddenly being confined at home was driving me crazy. I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I went there to... you know, relieve some stress…”

  Hearing this, Jin Yu, sitting beside him, sneered, “What are you pretending for? In the past two months, every time you came in, you only requested me, and instead of doing anything, all you did was py video games and watch movies in the room. Is that what you call ‘having fun every night’?”

  “Don’t expose me like that!” Chang’an panicked.

  “Excuse me, did I mishear something?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

  “It sounds like my friend here has been frequenting such establishments without ever engaging in their intended activities. And not only that—he only ever asks for you, and even during such a critical period, he still hasn't stopped? This sounds like he’s coming to such pces purely for you, doesn't it?”

  “Critical period?” Jin Yu first frowned, then admitted, “Yes, he did come here for me. As for whether he’s interested in me romantically, I have no idea.”

  I turned to Chang’an and deliberately repeated his past words, “Didn’t you once brag to me, saying that going to nightclubs to find women establishes a pure retionship of nothing but physical needs and money, while dating female cssmates involves all kinds of emotional entanglements? And yet, you never actually established any physical retionships, did you?”

  Zhu Shi also looked at Chang’an and asked, “So… you actually never slept with any women there, at least not physically?”

  “Ahaha…” Chang’an awkwardly averted his gaze and looked at Ma Zao, seemingly trying to change the subject. “By the way, who’s this little girl?”

  Ma Zao didn’t respond. She simply sat beside me, silently sipping her co through a straw.

  Seeing how embarrassing her brother was acting, Zhu Shi turned to Jin Yu and spoke in a polite yet distant tone, “Could you please expin the whole situation to us?”

  “Sure. Since you’re his family and friends, I’ll expin everything to you properly. Then, take him away and make sure he never comes to that pce again,” Jin Yu nodded.

  Hearing this, Zhu Shi’s gaze softened slightly. She said, “Of course.”

  “Wait, wait…” Seeing that Jin Yu was about to expin everything, Chang’an hurriedly stopped her.

  His expression shifted several times before he finally let out a long sigh and said to Jin Yu, “I can’t let you say such things yourself—that would be too much… Fine, I get it. I’ll expin it myself.”

  “This matter should be reted to the time you were kidnapped and beaten by that supernatural entity, right? Don’t even think about fooling us or lying,” I said, signaling to Zhu Shi.

  She nodded in understanding, her expression subtly changing as she activated her “Bu Zhou Mountain” ability to detect lies.

  Jin Yu, however, looked a bit confused, seemingly not understanding my words.

  “I know, I’ll tell the truth…” After gathering his thoughts, Chang’an spoke, “Do you remember the rumors from university? The ones saying I used to frequent nightclubs with a group of scoundrels? Well, part of those rumors were false.”

  "You mean the part about 'frequenting nightclubs'?" I asked.

  "I mean the part about 'bringing a group of scoundrels,'" he denied first, then added, "To be precise, I was the one being brought along..."

  He began to tell us the whole story.

  Meanwhile, I kept Ma Zao's earlier advice in mind, listening carefully to his account and trying to identify any clues reted to the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  First of all, although Chang’an was my only friend in university, he wasn’t alone in his social circle.

  Despite his bad reputation, he still had other friends.

  Those friends were the ones he had made in his past as an arrogant delinquent—young men from influential families who, like the old him, had little ambition and no real responsibilities.

  Although Chang’an had since distanced himself from them, he hadn't completely severed ties.

  From an outsider's perspective, it might seem like he cked the determination to truly change himself.

  But human retionships aren't so easy to cut off cleanly.

  Even friends who never do anything worthwhile share bonds of youthful loyalty and messy, complicated emotions.

  Back when he used to get into fights, those friends often had his back, and within those moments of camaraderie, there was some genuine friendship.

  So when they occasionally extended their invitations, Chang’an found it hard to refuse outright.

  He would show up from time to time, and it was during one such gathering after a meal that someone in the group suggested going to a well-known nightclub popur among the local upper css.

  If they had suggested something like bullying others, Chang’an would have left immediately.

  But going to a nightclub? He had no objections.

  To him, a nightclub was simply a pce of consensual transactions.

  While society at rge viewed it as indecent, he personally thought it was no big deal.

  After all, he never considered himself to have any moral high ground.

  Driven by curiosity and peer pressure, he went along with the group.

  The pce they went to was the same wine club we were investigating.

  After that, he and his friends took their chosen women into separate private rooms.

  The one he chose at the time was Jin Yu.

  That was the first time the two of them met.

  Just like Chang’an, who was visiting such a nightclub for the first time, Jin Yu was also experiencing her first encounter as a special service worker.

  Her nervousness and reluctance were so evident that even a novice like Chang’an could easily notice it.

  Although he was a beginner, Chang’an wasn’t exactly an innocent virgin—he wasn’t so timid that he couldn’t make a move on a woman in a nightclub.

  However, since he had at least tried to turn over a new leaf, seeing the unconscious resistance in her expression made him lose interest.

  That being said, leaving "empty-handed" would likely make him a ughingstock among his friends.

  So he decided to at least stay in the private room for the night.

  During this time, he struck up a conversation with Jin Yu.

  Perhaps due to emotional strain, Jin Yu couldn’t help but overshare, divulging her reasons for working at the nightclub in a disorganized manner.

  Chang’an had mentally prepared himself for this.

  In his mind, it wasn’t surprising for women in such establishments to have compelling reasons—perhaps they had massive debts at home and had no choice but to sell their bodies to repay them.

  Or maybe they were simply driven by greed and vanity, willingly exploiting their youthful bodies to make money.

  In his worst-case scenario, Jin Yu might have told him that she had been bckmailed by some vilin, forcing her into this line of work.

  But that sort of thing only happened in low-budget "action films," and it was hard for him to imagine encountering such a scenario in real life.

  However, the reason Jin Yu gave far exceeded his expectations, and he was utterly shocked after hearing it.

  Jin Yu had not joined the nightclub for money, nor was she being bckmailed.

  Instead, it was because her biological father was a regur patron of this very establishment.

  She wanted to use her own body to entrap her father.

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