Standing around chatting in the middle of a busy street with so many people wasn’t ideal, so we crossed over to the large restaurant opposite the nightclub, planning to get a private room and sit down to talk properly.

  Chang'an was flanked like a suspect between Zhu Shi and me, while Alice watched him with open wariness.

  At first I couldn’t figure out what exactly she was on guard against. It took me a moment to realize: unlike Zhu Shi and me, Alice had never met Chang'an before and had zero emotional attachment or preconceptions about him. She was probably suspecting that he might actually be the shadow swapper.

  Once I understood the direction of her suspicion, I casually entertained the possibility myself—not because I genuinely doubted him, but precisely because I didn’t. It felt almost like a mental exercise: “Could my good friend possibly be the freak?”

  The answer was a firm no. Chang'an couldn’t be the shadow swapper.

  The freak had been active for a long time. Even excluding the victims from the fifteenth-floor incident, he’d been operating as a freak for at least three months. Unlike Agent Kong, who could transfer a Heart Seed to a puppet stand-in, there was no way Chang'an could hide his freak nature right under Zhu Shi’s nose.

  Besides, a quick look at Chang'an’s hands was enough. Compared to the severed, rough male palm we’d seen from the shadow swapper, Chang'an’s hands were clearly younger, slimmer, more refined. Alice must have noticed the same thing—her gaze softened slightly.

  While the others were talking to the front desk, Alice tugged at my sleeve and whispered, “Z.”

  “What’s up?” I kept my voice low too.

  “There’s a lead on the freak,” she said gravely.

  I instantly sharpened my focus, glancing toward Chang'an and the rest ahead. “Where?”

  “I don’t know.”

  That threw me. If she didn’t know, why claim there was a lead here at all?

  But she continued with absolute conviction: “From my experience, whenever I get involved in a supernatural incident and something unexpected happens along the way—even if the unexpected thing seems unrelated—there’s a very high chance it contains a clue that can bring us closer to the heart of the matter.”

  How could that be? Reality isn’t a scripted story; coincidences aren’t choreographed that neatly…

  I almost said it out loud, but then I remembered Alice’s protagonist-like constitution—the way anomalies seem to gravitate toward her. She probably encountered these “perfect coincidences” all the time. And this was clearly one of them.

  With that in mind, I started taking this unexpected encounter with Chang'an and Goldfish far more seriously.

  We got a private room and ordered a few dishes—naturally, Chang'an was paying. Cold appetizers and drinks arrived quickly. Once the server left, the interrogation began.

  Zhu Shi glared at him. “So? What the hell is going on?”

  “Well… you know, I’m a guy. Sometimes guys make mistakes…” Chang'an’s eyes darted everywhere—clearly not planning to come clean. “I used to party hard at that place every night. Suddenly being stuck at home? I couldn’t take it anymore. I just needed to blow off some steam…”

  Goldfish, sitting beside him, gave a cold laugh. “Stop pretending. For the past two months, every time you came you specifically requested me. And after you booked me, you never did anything—you just dragged me into a room to play video games and watch movies. That’s your idea of ‘partying hard every night’?”

  “Don’t blow my cover!” Chang'an panicked.

  “Sorry, did I mishear you?” I cut in. “You’re saying my friend has been a frequent visitor to places of ill repute, yet he never actually engages in the ill-reputed activities—and he only ever requests you? That sounds an awful lot like he’s been going there specifically for you, and even during this dangerous time he hasn’t stopped.”

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  “During this dangerous time?” Goldfish frowned, then admitted, “Yeah… he really has been targeting me. Whether he’s actually into me and wants a relationship, though—I don’t know.”

  “Remember how you bragged to me last time?” I turned to Chang'an and deliberately quoted his own words back at him. “‘When you go to nightclubs for women, it’s a clean, straightforward transaction of body and money. Dating a classmate means dealing with all kinds of messy emotions.’ So how come you never actually got physical with anyone?”

  Zhu Shi stared at him. “In other words… you never actually slept with women there—at least not physically?”

  “Haha…” Chang'an awkwardly looked away, then tried to change the subject by glancing at Alice. “By the way, who’s this little sister?”

  Alice didn’t respond. She just sat quietly beside me, focused on sipping her cola through a straw.

  Seeing her brother make such a fool of himself, Zhu Shi turned politely but distantly to Goldfish. “Could you please explain the whole situation from the beginning?”

  “Sure.” Goldfish nodded. “Since you’re his family and friends, I’ll tell you everything clearly. After this, take him away and make sure he never goes back to a place like that.”

  Zhu Shi’s expression softened slightly. “Of course.”

  “Wait, wait…” Seeing Goldfish about to spill everything, Chang'an hurriedly stopped her.

  He looked at us, his face cycling through several expressions before he let out a long sigh. Turning to Goldfish, he said, “I can’t let you be the one to say something like that out loud. It’s too… sigh. Fine. I’ll tell them myself.”

  “This has something to do with you being kidnapped and beaten by that supernatural thing not long ago, doesn’t it? Don’t even think about glossing over it or lying to us.” I gave Zhu Shi a subtle look.

  She nodded, understanding immediately. Her eyes shifted slightly—she had activated “Buzhou Mountain” to detect any falsehoods.

  Goldfish looked puzzled, clearly not following what I meant.

  “I know, I’ll tell the truth…” After gathering his thoughts, Chang'an began. “You remember the rumors back in university? The ones saying I was always hanging out at shady places with a bunch of lowlife buddies? Part of that was exaggerated.”

  “You mean the ‘hanging out at shady places’ part?” I asked.

  “No—the ‘with a bunch of lowlife buddies’ part.” He shook his head, then continued, “More accurately… I was the one being dragged along…”

  He started recounting the whole story.

  Keeping Alice’s earlier warning in mind, I listened intently, trying to pick out anything that might connect to the shadow swapper.

  First off, although I only had one friend in university—Chang'an—he wasn’t the same. Despite his bad reputation, he still had other friends.

  Those were the guys he’d run with back when he was playing the arrogant young master—fellow spoiled rich kids who didn’t do anything productive. Even though Chang'an had been drifting away from them lately, the ties hadn’t been completely severed.

  From an outsider’s perspective, it might look like he lacked the resolve to fully change. But relationships between people aren’t that clean-cut. Even with friends who never did anything respectable, there was still some youthful loyalty, tangled favors, and bonds that couldn’t be easily cut. Back when he got into fights, those same friends had jumped in to back him up. There was probably some genuine camaraderie mixed in.

  So when they occasionally sent enthusiastic invitations, Chang'an found it hard to refuse outright. He’d show up now and then just to save face. And after one of those dinners, someone in the group suggested hitting up a well-known upscale “entertainment” spot popular among the local elite.

  If they’d said they were going to bully or exploit someone, Chang'an would have walked out on the spot. But if it was just a trip to a pleasure house? He didn’t have any strong objections.

  In his mind, places like that were basically “consensual transactions.” Society might call it immoral, but he personally didn’t see the harm—especially since he’d never been particularly morally upright anyway. Curiosity, plus peer pressure, pulled him along. The destination was that very wine club.

  Once inside, everyone picked their girls and went to separate rooms. Chang'an’s pick that night was Goldfish.

  That was how the two of them first met.

  Just like Chang'an, who was visiting such a place for the first time, Goldfish was also a complete novice at this kind of “work.” Her nervousness and reluctance were written all over her face—so obvious that even a rookie like Chang'an could spot it instantly.

  Though calling himself a rookie… Chang'an wasn’t exactly an innocent virgin. He wasn’t so shy that he couldn’t make a move on a woman in a place like that. But after reforming himself somewhat, seeing her unconscious resistance killed any interest he might have had.

  Still, walking out empty-handed would probably earn him mockery from his buddies. So he decided to at least spend the whole night in the room. During that time, they started talking.

  Maybe her emotions were fraying, but Goldfish ended up oversharing. In a somewhat incoherent rush, she told him exactly why she had started working in a place like this.

  At first, Chang'an was mentally prepared. In his mind, women who ended up in the trade usually had understandable—if unfortunate—reasons: crushing family debt they had to repay with their bodies, or maybe pure materialism and vanity, treating their youth and looks as commodities to cash in.

  In his worst imaginings, maybe she’d say she’d been blackmailed into it by some scumbag holding leverage over her. But that kind of plot only existed in low-budget adult films—he couldn’t imagine running into something like that in real life.

  Yet what Goldfish actually told him shattered every expectation he had. His mind was blown.

  She hadn’t joined the establishment for money, nor had anyone blackmailed her.

  Her reason was far darker.

  Her own biological father was a regular customer at that very pleasure house.

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