Chang’an is missing?

  My nerves immediately tensed up.

  The person currently on the call with Zhu Shi should be someone from the Zhu family.

  To avoid another attack from the Shadow Swap Oddities, Chang’an should be under protection at the Zhu family residence.

  Yet, just as we locked onto the Shadow Swap Oddities’s location, news suddenly came that Chang’an was missing.

  How should I interpret this situation?

  Ma Zao noticed that both Zhu Shi and I looked tense and quietly asked, “Zhu Shi’s brother is?”

  “He’s the one who came looking for me on the first day you woke up at my house. His name is Zhu Chang’an.”

  I briefly expined to Ma Zao the connection between Chang’an and this incident, while troubling thoughts flooded my mind.

  Chang’an disappearing at this critical moment—could it be that he has once again been abducted by one of the Shadow Swap Oddities’s clones?

  But the Zhu family residence should have comprehensive security and defensive measures, including protective barriers.

  According to Zhu Shi’s assurances, not to mention a mere clone, even if several of the Shadow Swap Oddities’s true forms came in person, they wouldn’t be able to take Chang’an away from there.

  There’s no use dwelling on that now.

  Since Chang’an is already missing, the priority is to find him.

  I decided to wait patiently for Zhu Shi to finish the call and see what exactly had happened before pnning the next step.

  Throughout the call, Zhu Shi only responded with a grim face, occasionally replying with a brief “Mm” or “Got it.”

  After a while, the call ended. She put away her phone with a grave expression.

  “What exactly happened?” I asked immediately.

  “Did the Zhu family residence get attacked by the Shadow Swap Oddities?”

  She said with a complicated expression, “No, there were no enemy attacks, nor did anyone infiltrate my house.”

  “But you just said Chang’an is missing?” I asked.

  “Yes, my brother disappeared from home,” she sighed.

  “Along with him, his keys, phone, power bank, Bluetooth earphones, shoulder bag, and insuted water bottle also vanished. And of course, his shoes.”

  Hearing her mention these seemingly trivial items that had disappeared along with him, I quickly realized a possibility.

  “Are you saying that he wasn’t kidnapped, but left on his own?”

  Those items were things one would take when going out.

  If the Shadow Swap Oddities had abducted Chang’an, it wouldn’t have been so considerate as to take all those things along.

  “The security systems and protective barriers at my house are designed to guard against external threats. There’s hardly anything in pce to prevent internal personnel from leaving,” Zhu Shi expined.

  “Doesn’t your house have internal surveilnce?” I asked.

  “We do, but it’s our home, not a prison or a fortress. No one’s watching the internal movements of family members 24/7,” she said.

  “That makes sense...” Ma Zao agreed.

  “Even in survival bases during the apocalypse, most security measures are aimed at preventing external threats. Monitoring internal personnel comprehensively is quite difficult. There’s also the human factor—no one can stand being under constant surveilnce. Well, maybe some could, but I certainly couldn’t.”

  Zhu Shi nodded repeatedly.

  “Exactly, privacy and all that... Hm? Zhuang Cheng, why do you look a bit strange?”

  “...Because I’m really worried about Chang’an right now,” I said seriously.

  “Even if he wasn’t kidnapped, his safety is still at risk. If he’s outside and gets attacked by the Shadow Swap Oddities’s clone again...”

  Zhu Shi’s attention shifted. “Right, we must find him first…”

  “Didn’t you just say he took his phone with him?” Ma Zao, drawing from her recently acquired knowledge of modern society, suggested, “Why not just call him directly and ask where he is?”

  “My family has already called him many times, but he hasn’t picked up,” Zhu Shi thought for a moment.

  “But as long as his phone is still on, we should be able to track his location through the carrier. Let’s ask Lu Chan first and see if he has any connections…”

  Before she could finish speaking, the "Fireflies" searching inside the nightclub sent back an image that made me doubt my own eyes.

  I interrupted her. “That won’t be necessary anymore.”

  Zhu Shi was surprised. “Why not?”

  Suppressing my disbelief, I pointed across the street. “Look over there…”

  Zhu Shi and Ma Zao followed my gaze toward the opposite side of the street.

  The nightclub’s doors swung open once more, and out walked a young man dressed in designer clothes from head to toe.

  He had an air of suave confidence, with a bright, charming smile on his face.

  Beside him was a young woman wearing a bck dress, appearing to be around college age.

  She was beautiful, with fair skin and an alluring figure.

  However, she looked visibly uncomfortable, resisting his advances—her face full of reluctance as she elbowed him in the stomach.

  Yet, he shamelessly grinned, his behavior exuding the audacity of a pyboy harassing an innocent girl.

  Zhu Shi seemed to take several seconds to finally recognize the young man's face, then stammered in shock, “He… he… he, he, he…”

  The young man who walked out of the nightclub was none other than my friend, Chang’an.

  Forget Zhu Shi—even I had no idea what to say.

  What the hell was this? While we were anxiously worrying about his whereabouts and safety, he shamelessly strolled out of such a sleazy pce with a beautiful woman in tow!

  At this moment, I could somewhat understand how parents feel when they search frantically for their child, only to discover that the kid had spent the entire night gaming at an internet cafe.

  Zhu Shi and I exchanged a gnce, both wearing dark expressions, and then we silently crossed the street, closing in on Chang’an from behind.

  Chang’an didn’t notice us immediately.

  Instead, he spoke to the woman beside him with an undisguised smile, “See? I told you I could get you out. Next, let’s grab a meal across the street and discuss what to do next.”

  “I’ve already told you, don’t meddle in my business. I’m not going with you,” the woman replied, her tone filled with reluctance.

  “Go back now. If you stop here, it’s not too te. Don’t ever come looking for someone like me again—getting involved with me won’t do you any good.”

  Chang’an chuckled pyfully, “Come on, don’t be so cold. After all, we’ve shared so many nights together. You should at least…”

  Before Chang’an could continue speaking, veins were already popping on Zhu Shi’s forehead. She sneered and spoke first, “Looks like you’re quite the regur at that nightclub!”

  “Of course, I’ve been going there since at least two months ago…” Chang’an reflexively replied, but then, as if struck by lightning, his entire body froze in pce. “There…”

  “There doing what? Go on, keep talking. We’re listening,” I added.

  “I’m sure you have plenty of exciting stories to brag about. Why don’t you share them with us?”

  Hearing my voice as well, Chang’an stiffened even further, practically turning to stone.

  The woman beside him seized the opportunity to break free from his arm and turned around to look at us with a mix of surprise and uncertainty.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “I’m Chang’an’s friend, and this is his sister, Zhu Shi,” I replied while carefully observing her.

  She had just come out of a nightclub known to harbor the Shadow Swap Oddities, and she was with Chang’an—who was under threat from it.

  Could she possibly be the Shadow Swap Oddities?

  Probably not.

  I recalled the severed hand we obtained st night; it was a rough, masculine hand.

  In contrast, the woman before us had slender, fair hands—completely different from that coarse, male hand.

  Unfortunately, using hand comparisons could only rule out a few suspects.

  There were many men in that nightclub with simir hand shapes, and some were soaking in the bathhouse, their hands reddened by the water.

  I had no way of identifying the Shadow Swap Oddities among them.

  Zhu Shi also seemed to have her doubts about the woman. She probably used Bu Zhou Mountain to check, then shook her head at me, indicating no threat detected.

  I asked the woman, “May I ask who you are?”

  “You can call me ‘Jin Yu.’ I work at that wine-tasting club… sort of an employee,” she said vaguely.

  But the implication was clear—her job there likely involved providing certain special services.

  Meanwhile, Chang’an, as if forcing himself to face the reality he didn’t want to confront, stiffly turned his head bit by bit until he finally looked at us.

  “H-Hey there…” he said awkwardly with a forced smile.

  “Nice weather today, huh? What brings you here…?”

  “Cut the nonsense,” Zhu Shi said mercilessly.

  “First, expin to us why you ran away from home. Do you have any idea how worried we were about you? Running away is bad enough—no, it’s not something we can just let slide—but the fact that you ran away only to end up in that kind of pce? Have you forgotten that your personal safety is still under threat?”

  Ma Zao had now joined us.

  After hearing Zhu Shi’s interrogation, she pondered for a moment and then applied her newly acquired social knowledge, saying, “Maybe the immense pressure of survival made him seek comfort in a warm embrace…”

  Hearing this, Zhu Shi suddenly seemed to realize something, and her gaze toward Chang’an grew even more contemptuous.

  “No! It’s not like that!” Chang’an said, clearly flustered.

  Watching him struggle under our questioning, I couldn’t help but think back to my own predicament st night.

  Oddly enough, I felt both sympathy and immense satisfaction at the same time.

  Who knew that another person’s misfortune could be so sweet?

  Chang’an, you truly are my best friend.

  “You weren’t out chasing women, were you?” I asked directly.

  “No, I wasn’t… I mean, yes, I was out chasing women!” he stammered, contradicting himself.

  His reaction was confusing, so I decided to turn to the woman beside him—the one who called herself Jin Yu.

  Jin Yu turned to Chang’an and said,

  “You might as well just tell them the truth. If you don’t, I will.”

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