Chapter 61

Jiang Zhihuo didn’t actually want to ignore Yan Mu.

After taking a shower, Jiang Zhihuo felt his anger slowly fade. He went to the door to bring in the honey and hangover medicine that Li Muhe had bought, sent Li-ge a quick ‘thanks,’ and then laid down on the bed.

He saw the apology message Yan Mu had sent.

Those words made his temper, which he thought was gone, flare up again.

What’s there to apologize for? Just fight it out!!

Things had been going so well a moment ago. They hugged and even kissed. If they had followed the mood, maybe they would have ended up together. But no, he had to ruin it. Now, all he felt was the urge to punch someone in the face.

Jiang Zhihuo was so angry that he didn’t want to reply. He decided to leave the guy hanging for another ten minutes.

As he thought about what to say, he felt his throat getting dry from drinking, so he got up to pour himself some water. Right as he was taking a drink, his phone buzzed again.

Jiang Zhihuo glanced over at it.

As expected, it was a message from Fu Xiuwang.

A few days ago, during their ‘interaction,’ Fu Xiuwang had easily added Jiang Zhihuo, the rebellious teenager who hated school, on WeChat.

Fu Xiuwang: Opportunities like this don’t come often. I hope you can give me an answer before the 26th.

Jiang Zhihuo didn’t reply right away. He opened Weibo to take a look.

Recently, his homepage had been featuring a story about a senior-year student who had run away from home. The family called the police and tried every method they could think of but still couldn’t find them. The parents, feeling desperate, posted a video online, sobbing and crying their hearts out. The video received over ten thousand shares and briefly appeared near the end of the trending list. However, in the end, social news couldn’t compete with celebrity scandals in popularity and quickly fell off.

Not getting a reply yet, Fu Xiuwang sent another message, which included the address of a Western restaurant.

Fu Xiuwang: If you’re truly feeling uncertain, come to this place at 5 PM the day after tomorrow. Let’s talk.

Jiang Zhihuo slowly finished his water, rinsed the edge of the cup, and flipped it upside down on the table.

After everything, he finally replied to Fu Xiuwang with a casual ‘Okay’ before lying down on the bed.

Fu Xiuwang’s goal was clear—whether Jiang Zhihuo came to dinner or not, that man would do everything he could to take him away.

Since that was the case, he would have to put the Yan-ge situation on hold for now and argue about it later once everything was settled.

The next day, Jiang Zhihuo didn’t go to school. He slept in until after ten, then pinched his nose to make his voice sound hoarse and weak before calling Ding Jianhui to ask for a leave of absence.

After a quick lunch, he changed his clothes, put on a mask and a hat, and grabbed a pair of glasses from the drawer before leaving.

He initially arrived near a specific clubhouse.

During his conversations with Fu Xiuwang, he mentioned this club several times.

The clubhouse looked lavish, designed in a European style that created a grand atmosphere. In front, there was a large open space that had been turned into a garden. Every tree and flower was carefully tended, and the driveway was smoothly paved. Just standing outside, you could sense the air of wealth. Ordinary people simply couldn’t afford a place like this.

The clubhouse had three floors, each serving a different purpose. The first floor was for dining, offering Thai food, Western dishes, and cuisine from around the world. The second floor was for entertainment, featuring karaoke and bars. The third floor was a hotel, so if you got tired of playing, you could go up and book a room to sleep.

Jiang Zhihuo walked around the area first before pretending to book a hotel room. He entered through the main entrance and strolled around inside.

It was lunchtime, and people were coming and going. No one paid attention to him.

After looking around, he found a nearby cafe and sat down.

Cafes next to upscale clubshouse weren’t cheap either; one cup of coffee cost as much as a full meal.

He casually ordered a cup and sat by the window.

From that spot, he could see the front gate of the clubhouse. It didn’t take long before he noticed Fu Xiuwang parking in the nearby lot and walking into the clubhouse while talking on the phone.

Jiang Zhihuo took a photo, turned his phone face down on the table, leaned back on the sofa, and picked up his coffee.

The bitterness touched his tongue, but the flavor was rich. After one sip, he felt sharply awake.

That recent runaway case wasn’t as straightforward as it appeared at first.

Usually, their actions, like rebelling and running away from home, were not truly their own. Instead, it was more likely that someone had encouraged or manipulated them.

Even before this incident, a few people had already gone missing. However, the company at the time suppressed the matter and never made it public.

The people who went missing were some trainees from an entertainment company. They had only begun their careers and were all very young, around eighteen or nineteen years old.

At first glance, they didn’t seem to share much in common. However, if you looked a bit closer, you would see a pattern. They were all dropouts from small towns or lower-tier cities who had come to the big city to chase their dreams. Out of the six, five had ended up in conflict with their families.

Additionally, these people, almost as if by coincidence, had all come into contact with Fu Xiuwang in one way or another.

Should someone dare to establish a connection, there would undoubtedly be a link between these two disappearance cases.

Given the state of technology today, it is nearly impossible for a person to vanish without leaving a trace. Everyone uses mobile payments now, so if someone paid with cash, it would definitely stand out. Plus, surveillance cameras are everywhere. A person cannot simply disappear; they would undoubtedly leave behind some traces.

Once you ruled out mass suicide, there was only one possibility that made sense.

—Human trafficking.

Only a deliberate trafficking operation could make someone disappear completely.

The people involved in these two cases were all good-looking and young—both male and female, with some being omegas and others betas. Other than their attractiveness, they didn’t really have anything else in common.

So one could assume that this wasn’t the type of trafficking where victims were sold off to remote villages. It was more likely that the traffickers were hiding them somewhere in the city for a completely different purpose.

However, the whole situation was too well hidden. Suspicion had been around for some time, but no proof had surfaced. The only person even slightly connected to it was Fu Xiuwang.

But Fu Xiuwang used to be a paparazzo, so his counter-surveillance instincts were sharper than those of some criminals. He had been called in for questioning several times about the missing trainees yet never made a mistake. In the end, they had no choice but to let him go.

Li Hao eventually took on the case.

Officer Li was known for never leaving a case unsolved, especially in the last four or five years. His efficiency was extraordinary, and he always managed to gather important information. In only a few years, he received three first-class merits, one second-class, and two third-class. He kept getting promoted, became a public face for law enforcement, and gained nationwide recognition. From there, his political career went smoothly.

The greeter guided Fu Xiuwang inside and quickly disappeared from sight. There was no reason to stay any longer. Jiang Zhihuo put his mask and glasses back on, prepared to leave. At that moment, he overheard two servers conversing during their break.

The two of them leaned in close, each wearing one earbud and watching a video together. One of the girls got particularly excited and tapped her toes in disbelief. “Ahhh, oh my god, Yun Xiaoxu is so hot! What kind of little milk dog¹[T/N: 小奶狗 (xiao nai gou) literally means ‘little milk dog,’ slang for a cute, gentle, soft boy type who looks pure and sweet.] is this?!”

Yun Xiaoxu?

Jiang Zhihuo raised an eyebrow when he heard the name.

Could it be the one he knew?

So he leaned behind the girls and asked, “Did you just mention Yun Xiaoxu?”

“Eh?” The girl took off her earphones. Despite the fact that it was break time, the girl still experienced some embarrassment when a customer caught her fangirling.

“Tell me about it,” Jiang Zhihuo asked.

This person had a nice voice too, and with those thick eyebrows and big eyes, he was probably attractive under the mask as well.

The girl held up her phone and said, “We’re watching a variety show. It’s a talent competition called Pick U 101. The official trailer just came out, and they’ll air two episodes next Friday and Saturday.”

“Can I take a look?” Jiang Zhihuo asked.

“Sure.” She was happy to share. “We’ll just watch it again.”

She rewound the video to the beginning. The trailer was only two minutes long. It seemed there were seven or eight similar clips, each featuring all 101 contestants.

Every boy in the trailer had on makeup and wore identical outfits. They looked so similar that Jiang Zhihuo nearly couldn’t tell them apart—until Yun Xiaoxu’s face popped up on the screen.

It really was him.

Jiang Zhihuo watched the entire video, waved to the girls, and said, “Thanks! He’s really handsome. Let’s watch together next Friday.”

“Mhm, mhm, mhm, mhm!!” The two girls nodded like crazy.

Jiang Zhihuo walked out of the cafe.

It was Christmas today. The streets were filled with holiday decorations. Several shops had staff wearing Santa costumes, handing out flyers, looking cheerful and lively.

Most students were in class at that time, which meant the streets weren’t too crowded.

Jiang Zhihuo strolled back slowly.

Many people exchanged gifts on Christmas. In fact, he had prepared a gift for Yan-ge too. It wasn’t anything expensive, but he thought Yan-ge would probably like it. However, with how things had gone today, there was no chance to give it to him. Maybe after their next argument, he would find some random excuse to hand it over.

Once he got home, Jiang Zhihuo opened his laptop and sorted all the recordings, videos, and photos he had collected during this time into a single document.

He listened to the recordings one by one, clipping out the useful parts.

Whenever Fu Xiuwang talked to him, his words were loaded with manipulative intent.

He specifically aimed for teenagers who disliked school, were rebellious, had difficult relationships with their parents, and happened to be good-looking.

Boys and girls who were eighteen or nineteen might be considered legal adults, but they were still naive and mentally immature, easy to lure or deceive. And that was precisely the kind of weakness Fu Xiuwang took advantage of.

He pretended to be a talent agent, enticing his victims with promises of resources to help them break into the entertainment industry. He offered them the lure of wealth and fame, things that most rebellious teenagers couldn’t tell apart from reality. Then he would say things like, “Many A-list celebrities today don’t even have college degrees. They still earn tens of millions or even billions a year. Isn’t that better than working hard in school or at a regular job? Don’t have your parents’ support? No problem—just run away from home. Once you make it big, you can go back and show them what you’ve achieved.”

Typically, once he said things like that, the victims would bite.

Jiang Zhihuo had recorded all these conversations.

Jiang Zhihuo observed Fu Xiuwang for four months, while Fu Xiuwang also kept a close watch on Jiang Zhihuo. In fact, he had even hired a private detective to dig into Jiang Zhihuo’s background.

It proved what he suspected, and a child was still just a child. Even if he could put on a cold face in a bar, in school, he was simply an underachiever—a slacker with a sense of justice but no real skills. He was the easiest type to fool.

Fu Xiuwang had even looked into his family background.

No mother, only a father who was in prison. Currently, he was completely alone. Even if he went missing, no one would bother to search for him.

A pretty-faced slacker was definitely the perfect kind of target to deceive.

December 26th, Saturday, 5:00 PM.

Jiang Zhihuo arrived at the Western restaurant that Fu Xiuwang had reserved, just as they had agreed.

Fu Xiuwang talked to him about goals and said, “Trust me. With your looks, I can clear a smooth path for you. You don’t need to worry about your father or think about anything else. Leave it all to me.”

Jiang Zhihuo was still conflicted.

After all, the entertainment industry wasn’t a place he ever intended to get into. But the offers from Fu Xiuwang were simply too tempting to resist.

He frowned and thought for a long time. Under Fu Xiuwang’s eager gaze, he finally made up his mind and nodded firmly. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”

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The author has something to say:

Don’t worry, there won’t be any actual entertainment industry plotlines—only a brief mention~

Happy Little New Year²[T/N: 小年 (Little New Year) is a traditional Chinese festival usually celebrated a few days before the Lunar New Year, marking the start of the New Year preparations.] to everyone!

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  [T/N: 小奶狗 (xiao nai gou) literally means ‘little milk dog,’ slang for a cute, gentle, soft boy type who looks pure and sweet.]
• 2
  [T/N: 小年 (Little New Year) is a traditional Chinese festival usually celebrated a few days before the Lunar New Year, marking the start of the New Year preparations.]