Chapter 78 - 77: The Completely Illogical Female Mindset

"Hey, driver. I’m new to Linlan City. Know anywhere a guy can have some fun?"

Xu Huo looked at the driver, a knowing look on his face.

The driver instantly got the hint and started chuckling sleazily.

"What kind of fun?"

"You know, *that* kind of fun..."

"Heh, well you’ve come to the right guy, kid!"

"When it comes to the spots around here, I bet even the cops don’t know as many as I do, or know them as well!"

The driver boasted, excitedly driving Xu Huo toward a certain area.

The ones who knew better than the police were the customers.

There were high-end clubs in this line of work, but the Madams there wouldn’t let their girls leave with clients, so that just left the ones in back alleys.

And the police didn’t know much about those ones, but...

The customers knew far more than the cops!

The low-end market always has more customers than the high-end clubs!

After a while, the car stopped in a small alley.

"Little brother, it’s two in the afternoon right now. Hmm, they should be open for business. If not, just knock on the doors with the chili peppers hanging on them."

The driver said with a chuckle.

"And hey, if you’re too shy to knock, just wait until tonight. They’ll come out on their own."

Xu Huo smiled but didn’t get out of the car, remaining in the back seat.

"Hold on, I have some other friends coming to join the fun," Xu Huo said with a smile.

"Whoa, you guys must be pretty tight!"

The driver chuckled.

"Coming to a place like this all together."

Xu Huo smiled without saying much more. He stayed in the back seat with no intention of getting out, and the driver didn’t rush him.

After a moment, a few figures walked up to the window and glanced at Xu Huo. Xu Huo nodded, and they headed inside.

"Whoa, your friend isn’t exactly your generation, is he?"

The driver said, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Qian Hua.

A moment later, more and more people began to pour in from all directions.

"Damn, buddy, are you guys here for some kind of company team-building event?!"

The driver was amused, his brow twitching. "So many people?!"

Xu Huo just smiled, still not saying a word.

Soon, even more people flooded in from all directions until there were several people standing at nearly every doorway in the alley.

The driver’s expression grew hesitant, and he froze for a second.

"Brother... there are so many of you?"

"Buddy, why do some of those guys have crew cuts?"

"Friend, the cops are here. Should we get going?"

"...Why are the police nodding at you?"

The driver watched as the Police Chief in uniform nodded to Xu Huo. At that moment, his world turned to ash, all color draining from his vision.

"Advisor Xu, how should we handle this one?"

The Police Chief looked at the devastated driver and asked in a low voice.

Xu Huo smiled, paying the driver no mind.

"A stern lecture should be enough. No need for a fine or impounding his car."

"Understood."

Xu Huo turned his head, his gaze falling on the police officers standing in the doorways far off. The smile on his face slowly faded.

"Make the arrests!"

At his command, all the doors were broken open.

...

...

Prostitution is a very strange profession.

Based on their willingness to assume that identity, they can be divided into three main categories.

Those who do it voluntarily for money, and those who are forced.

Of course, there is a third type: those who are naturally promiscuous.

Some women come from well-off families but still enjoy this line of work, sometimes even losing money in the process!

A Madam, however, doesn’t fall into any of these categories.

"Speak. A year and a half ago, was there a woman around here who often led away travelers who were new to Linlan City?"

In the courtyard of one of the larger houses in the alley, Xu Huo sat on a chair, looking at the people before him and speaking dispassionately.

And who was before him?

A dozen prostitutes!

They were dressed in skirts or high heels, but without exception, all of them were squatting on the ground, trembling.

At the very front was a man, his face a mask of despair. He was squatting before Xu Huo, hands clasped behind his head, staring at the ground.

"My patience is limited. Talk," Xu Huo’s voice rang out again.

At his words, the Madam in front of him broke into a fawning smile. A few of the women behind him instinctively looked up, exchanged glances, and then all turned to look at the Madam.

"Officer..."

"There’s no one like that."

The Madam said.

"No one?!" Xu Huo scoffed.

’Subconscious reflexes are the closest thing to one’s true nature.’

’Does this look like a ’no’ to you?’

"Take him to the municipal criminal investigation bureau and lock him up!"

He said coldly.

’The municipal bureau?’

’Locked up in the municipal bureau?!’

The Madam froze, panic evident on his face.

He was just an ordinary pimp, responsible for soliciting clients, providing a venue, and collecting management fees. Even if he got caught, as long as it was handled right, he wouldn’t be convicted. Usually, like the streetwalkers, he’d just pay a fine and be out in a few days.

’But now... why the municipal bureau?!’

"No, wait, Officer..."

The Madam looked at the officers escorting him and began to panic, struggling desperately.

"I remember now! I remember!"

"There was someone! There was! I’ve seen her!"

"But she wasn’t one of my girls! She really wasn’t one of mine!!!"

’Not one of his?’

Xu Huo paused and gestured with his hand. The officers understood immediately and released their grip on the man’s arms.

The Madam felt a wave of relief as if he’d just escaped death, but he had no time to savor the feeling. He looked at Xu Huo, his face a mask of panic.

"There’s a woman, over by the station hotel. I’ve got a rival over there."

"The thing I remember most about her is that she was a silent fool!"

"A silent fool?" Xu Huo’s eyebrow twitched.

"That’s right, a silent fool. She never spoke, just shambled around in a daze, like a walking corpse with no soul, no emotion at all. Like she was mentally deficient."

"She was pretty good-looking, but she always had a lot of bruises on her..."

The Madam couldn’t afford to hold back now. His street-smart slickness, honed by years of scraping by at the bottom, made him realize these weren’t ordinary cops. He’d better tell them everything he knew, or the consequences could be worse than he could imagine.

"Continue."

Xu Huo remained expressionless, listening.

The Madam breathed an internal sigh of relief and quickly continued:

"That operation is different from mine. They work with the club people, forcing decent women into prostitution, or buying pretty girls on the cheap from human traffickers and imprisoning them as money-making tools."

"I don’t do that, Officer. I’m just a middleman. I only handle soliciting, I don’t..."

"Talk about their operation," Xu Huo cut in, his brow furrowing.

"Right, right. The time I remember that woman most clearly was one day when she was out soliciting customers. She saw an advertisement, and it was like she suddenly woke up and wanted to escape..."

The Madam nodded eagerly and continued.

"She laid out her own escape plan, but unfortunately, a few of the other women who’d also been forced into prostitution found out and chose to report her..."

"The next time I saw her, she was covered in bruises, and there was a man with her. Looked like he was her man..."

Hearing this, the surrounding police officers frowned.

"You mean..."

"This woman tried to escape, but when the other women who had also been forced or trafficked into prostitution found out, instead of helping her or escaping with her, they..."

"...snitched on her?!"

The Madam nodded gravely.

"Yes. The story made big waves in our circles. Officer, if you go find a few other old... uh, middlemen like me, they’ll all know about it!"

Qian Hua started to ask another question, but Xu Huo stopped him with a wave of his hand.

"Arrest the people from that operation. And pull up this woman’s file."

Xu Huo paused for a moment.

"Pull up everything you can find!"

...

...

All animals in this world deceive and plot against each other, especially humans.

And among them, the female psyche is the most bizarre.

This doesn’t refer to the petty tempers of ordinary women, but rather to their thought patterns and mental states in extreme situations.

In his past life, a real case once occurred.

The victim was a woman from a Western Country. She was abducted by human traffickers on her way home from work and then forced into prostitution.

Her daily routine consisted of being raped and beaten, forced to serve clients for thirteen hours a day, without keeping any of the money for herself.

She wasn’t the only one there; others in the same situation were also forced into prostitution and subjected to inhuman torture.

Under these circumstances, the victim began to think of escaping.

She devised a detailed plan and mapped out her escape route.

In the end...

...she was reported and betrayed by the other female victims who were suffering alongside her.

That’s right. They didn’t escape with her.

They reported her!

And the reason?

The reason was that the victim was better looking and more favored by clients. She endured more abuse than her betrayers, which made them feel resentful. So, when faced with the temptation of escape, they not only refused to run with her but actually reported her instead.

That’s right. They were even jealous of her suffering!

They were jealous that she suffered more, was raped more than them, and so they reported her.

It was as simple as that...

Does it make sense? Not in the slightest!

If there weren’t real-life cases like this, anyone who told such a story would be laughed at for their lack of intelligence!

And it wasn’t just the one betrayer. According to the rescued victim’s account, almost all the women showed signs similar to Stockholm syndrome, gradually growing to "love" the work they were forced to do.

During that time, these women even began to compete with one another, seeing themselves as genuinely promiscuous prostitutes rather than victims of force.

It’s an absurd mindset. It can’t be fully explained by Stockholm syndrome, yet no other psychological effect can account for it either.

’And as for the current case...’

"That woman was just like that."

"Her name is ’Zhang Cui,’ but that doesn’t seem to be her real name. For now, we’ll call her Zhang Cui. She’s twenty-seven, fairly good-looking, but her skin is extremely dry, and she often has bruises on her body."

"She was forced into prostitution and was always accompanied by a man. Because her price was cheap, many travelers just arriving in the city were happy to ’order’ her once."

"And those people who left with her, without exception, all vanished..."

Li Jianye fought to stay alert, picking up a compiled list and reporting his findings to the group.

"If nothing unexpected comes up... they are most likely the victims whose bodies were found in the well."

"Mmm, the preliminary judgment is that one of the killer’s motives was money."

Nothing of value was found on the deceased’s bodies, which could only be the result of them being thoroughly searched.

’In other words, the killer’s motive...’

’...was money?!’

Everyone frowned as the other half of the information subconsciously surfaced in their minds.

"If the killer murdered for money, then..."

"...why were the bodies mutilated?"

"Where did the flesh from the buttocks and legs go?!"