Chapter 99 The Shadow Changer 2

Everyone listened quietly to Chang'an's narration, but when Chang'an reached this point, the room fell into an even deeper silence.

"...I'm sorry, I can't understand." Zhu Shi said incredulously, "What does Jin Yu's joining the brothels her father frequents have to do with her wanting to frame him?"

The goldfish seemed to feign indifference as it said, "It's the kind of connection you're thinking of."

Chang'an, on the other hand, put it bluntly: "Goldfish wants to create the situation where her father specifically names her and spends the night with her, ultimately ruining his reputation."

Clearly, such scheming was too far ahead of Zhu Shi's moral compass. She said in confusion, "Wait, regardless of why she would do that...wouldn't her father recognize his own daughter? How could he possibly point to his own daughter while having fun in a brothel?"

"The customers at that nightclub all wore hoods, and the staff wore masks, which did create the conditions that made it impossible for them to recognize each other." I recalled the situation inside the nightclub that I had previously investigated.

"Wait, Cheng, how do you know what's going on in there?" Chang'an exclaimed in surprise.

"I've just done some research," I said. "Don't ask me anything yet, just continue."

"All right……"

Upon hearing this, he continued his narration—

After learning about the goldfish's outrageous plan, Chang'an was completely dumbfounded and hurriedly asked why the other party had such an idea.

Perhaps out of a sense of desperation, or perhaps because she saw Chang'an, whom she was meeting for the first time, as her emotional confidante, Jin Yu poured out her motives with tears streaming down her face.

The reason she would want to use such extreme means to frame her father was naturally because she harbored a strong resentment towards him.

Goldfish's father and mother were both born in the countryside. Neither of them had any noteworthy cultural or family background, yet they shared a deep bond. The father was once a strong, dark-skinned young man, while the mother was a pretty young woman with an oval face, wearing a goldfish hair clip. When the former ventured into Saltwater City with longing and ambition for the outside world, the latter disregarded everything and followed him, leaving her hometown behind.

Back then, at the end of the 20th century, Saltwater City was not as stable as it is today, and it was home to all sorts of gangs. In order to get ahead quickly, my father joined one of the big gangs when he was young. Later, with his brave and ruthless nature and a lot of luck, he accumulated considerable wealth in his youth and married his childhood sweetheart who had followed him into the city and accompanied him from poverty to wealth.

As gang forces gradually withdrew from the city stage with the changing times, he avoided being purged by the authorities by timely whitewashing and transformation. In fact, he even successfully entered the upper class of Xianshui City in his middle age through the real estate business and obtained a glamorous social status.

However, just like that wine tasting club that was all show and no substance, there was also an unknown darkness hidden beneath its glamorous exterior.

Because her father was often away for work and social engagements, Jin Yu was only close to her mother from a young age. She even made a misunderstanding in the early grades of elementary school, mistakenly believing that her father, who rarely came home, was a "kind uncle who would visit from time to time." In general, her parents' relationship was quite harmonious. However, this didn't last long. After Jin Yu graduated from elementary school, her father changed.

She didn't know what had happened, but her father became unpredictable, often flying into a rage and verbally and physically abusing her mother. His demonic demeanor terrified her, leaving her with a deep psychological scar.

These horrific days continued even after she entered university. Instead of stopping, her father's abuse intensified. Every time he came home, he would brutally beat his wife, and he didn't even spare his daughter. On one occasion, he even caused his wife severe internal injuries and fractures, requiring emergency hospital treatment and leaving her with painful aftereffects.

This incident completely ignited the fear that had been lingering in the goldfish's heart for many years, transforming it into utter hatred and anger. From the goldfish's perspective, her mother was the only family member who had been with her since childhood, while her father was merely a villain who would occasionally barge into her home, bringing pain and torment.

Logically, domestic violence reaching this point should have warranted reporting to the authorities. After this incident, Jinyu finally made up her mind to send her biological father to prison. However, through some unknown social connections, her father managed to avoid questioning and trial, and even went so far as to beat Jinyu so badly that she ended up in the hospital.

After being discharged from the hospital, the hatred in Jinyu's heart was not extinguished by her father's punishment, but instead intensified.

She began to ponder how to take revenge on her father. How could a helpless female college student like herself possibly bring that man with such a powerful social network to justice? She secretly investigated her father while racking her brains. She even considered killing him while he slept, but unfortunately, her father hadn't been staying home overnight lately, so her revenge plan had no chance of succeeding.

Until one day, she learned that her father seemed to frequent a wine tasting club, which was rumored to be a masquerade-themed nightclub that offered "special services".

Upon hearing this, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and her wisdom began to work like crazy—although she couldn't make that man receive the trial he deserved, she could ruin his reputation.

Her plan was simple: she would find a way to infiltrate the nightclub, get her father to specifically request her to "spend the night," and gather enough evidence to spread online afterward. That would complete her revenge. Even if she couldn't generate public outcry, as long as those connected to her father knew, that would be enough.

Who would continue to associate with a man who had such an affair with their daughter? The father would inevitably be disgraced and his career would be ruined.

She didn't care at all about how her reputation would be affected afterward.

The drive fueled by hatred made her act immediately, and the process that followed was incredibly smooth.

The nightclub's owner was once the wife of an upper-class noblewoman who, driven to madness by revenge against her cheating husband, entered the establishment and, by a twist of fate, became its owner. Upon hearing the goldfish's story, the nightclub owner, instead of stopping her, whether out of a mischievous desire to stir up trouble or for some other reason, actually recruited the goldfish.

However, even the boss can't simply pair customers and employees together; the power to assign roles is that of a customer. The boss claimed that helping the goldfish to this extent was "the best he could do," and afterwards seemed to treat the goldfish as just an ordinary employee, never providing it with any further assistance.

If things continued to go so smoothly, the goldfish might actually succeed. However, perhaps there really is a principle of conservation of luck in this world; after a period of good fortune, bad luck is bound to follow. Or perhaps for the goldfish, successfully joining this place was bad luck, and what happened afterward was good luck. Her first customer as a worker in a brothel was Chang'an.

After learning about the goldfish's past, Chang'an felt pity for the woman and wanted to stop her from embarking on a path of self-destruction.

He began to persuade the goldfish to abandon its revenge plan.

It's not that he thinks goldfish shouldn't seek revenge, but rather that goldfish shouldn't degrade their own bodies or even ruin their future for the sake of revenge.

Unfortunately, he wasn't a good persuader, and the goldfish completely ignored his words. However, he had one trait that I'm not sure if it should be called a virtue: he was extremely stubborn. The more the goldfish tried to drive him away, the more he felt he shouldn't just leave.

So the next night, Chang'an went to that nightclub again and once again specifically asked for Jinyu.

His second attempt at persuasion also ended in failure. However, he did not give up. After the second failure, he tried a third time; after the third failure, he tried a fourth time... He persisted in this for nearly three months, each time bringing the goldfish into the private room, and then doing nothing "real business" but talking eloquently about life, the future, and ideals.

Even if he didn't go to the nightclub a few times, he would pay in advance to reserve the goldfish so that she would have to serve other customers.

When Chang'an got to this point, the goldfish suddenly spoke.

"—Guests like him who like to preach aren't actually that rare in brothels," she said. "Occasionally, there are a few middle-aged customers who are like those who want to finish an adult game with a female protagonist but insist on being a virgin. After specifying a target, they do nothing but keep the person chatting dryly, saying things like, 'If I set up a machine gun here, I can control the whole street' or something... It's incredibly boring."

Although that's what she said, perhaps Chang'an's past efforts weren't in vain, and her current attitude seems more like a cover-up for her wavering.

"So, the rumors circulating at school that you frequent brothels are because of this?" I looked at Chang'an.

Zhu Shi then looked at her brother with newfound respect: "I never imagined that you were doing this for a good cause... I've misunderstood you all this time."

"Hehe..." Chang'an smiled shyly, as if he had been caught doing a good deed.

But honestly, no matter how stubborn he is, would he really go to such lengths to persuade a stranger in a nightclub for more than two months just because he heard about her absurd past?

Based on my understanding of him, his motivation to prevent the other party from ruining her future is certainly genuine. However, as the saying goes, men have always had two great interests: one is to "force good women into prostitution," and the other is to "persuade prostitutes to reform." I find it hard not to suspect that Chang'an's emotions might be mixed with this classical sentiment of "persuading prostitutes to reform."

It's rare that Zhu Shi has changed her opinion of her brother, so I'd better not say anything more about it.

"So, what happened next? What does what just happened have to do with you being kidnapped and beaten by the strange creature?" I asked. "This matter isn't over yet, is it?"

“Yes, it’s not over yet.” As he spoke, Chang’an’s face turned extremely gloomy. “At first, I only went to that nightclub every day to persuade Jin Yu to turn over a new leaf… I mean, I went to that nightclub every day to persuade Jin Yu to give up that absurd plan. But as time went on, I discovered that the nightclub itself had an evil and darkness that could not be ignored.”

(End of this chapter)