The night was a mesmerizing haze; neon lights intertwined and flickered, steeping the entire bar in an atmosphere of ambiguity and indulgence. At the center of the dance floor, a dazzling figure swayed with practiced ease on the high platform. Black leather pants clung to his taut waistline, and bare-chested under the lights, delicate beads of sweat glistened on his skin. Muscle lines tensed and relaxed with every movement, fluid, and wild as a leopard.

  Lin Rui, a 25-year-old private investigator and part-time Go-Go dancer, was stationed in the heart of Neon Dive, Los Angeles' hottest gay bar. Hand braced on the steel frame overhead, he moved to the deafening electronic rhythm, casting a meaningful smile toward the crowd below the platform.

  Men below cheered, waving their glasses, some throwing back their heads to whistle, others attempting to reach out, hands creeping up his thighs. Lin Rui was used to it. With a twist of his hips, he deftly dodged a restless hand, not quite shaking it off, but instead, bending down smoothly, fingertips hooking under the man's chin, gently lifting his face.

  The man panted, his gaze burning with undisguised ardor.

  Lin Rui chuckled softly, leaning closer, lips brushing against the other's ear as if by accident, carrying warm breath.

  "Be a good boy, darling."

  His voice was soft and seductive, the corners of his lips curving slightly upwards, yet his eyes held a hint of detachment.

  The man's ears instantly flushed crimson, Adam's apple bobbing, and he promptly pulled out a hundred-dollar bill, expertly tucking it into Lin Rui's leather belt at his waist.

  Easy money.

  Lin Rui gracefully accepted it, glancing up. His narrow, almond-shaped eyes glinted with a dangerous light in the neon glow.

  He reveled in this feeling-the prey thought they controlled the hunter, but in reality, they were the ones being controlled.

  He had once thought that with his intelligence, he could thrive in this city. After all, hearts and minds were easier to manipulate than dance steps. Liars always left openings, the greedy always revealed their flaws, and lovers' betrayals were often hidden in their subtle gestures.

  He had always been adept at seizing these details, even believing he could make a "smart living" as a private investigator. But what was the reality?

  -Private detectives were a dime a dozen. How many weren't just scraping by on petty cases: finding affairs, locating lost pets, digging up dirt for extortion?

  The business was bleak, and his wallet was perpetually empty.

  But what truly hammered home the ruthlessness of capitalism was that farcical loan shark incident.

  Wang Ruohan.

  Each time this name surfaced in his mind, he couldn't help but laugh. A laugh that was so bitter it ached his heart.

  "Baby, could you do me a small favor?"

  "Lin Rui, aren't you supposed to be the smartest? How could something this trivial be a problem for you? If you're worried, look into it, investigate it yourself."

  "Just a quick loan; I'll pay it back tomorrow. How could I ever screw you over?"

  The man who once held him close, calling him "baby" in a voice thick with sex appeal, had tricked him into signing a loan agreement for a staggering five figures, promising repayment the very next day.

  And then?

  The next day, Wang Ruohan was gone, vanished overnight, bag and baggage, along with the money. Phone numbers, social media, and all accounts were deleted and completely evaporated from existence.

  Leaving him alone to face the collection calls, threatening texts, debt collectors at his door, and his utterly idiotic face.

  "Lin Rui, you're a goddamn fool. Calling yourself the smartest private detective, you got played like a fiddle by some guy."

  He stared at himself in the mirror, cursing under his breath, fingers clenching until his nails dug deep crescents into his palm.

  -From that day on, he learned the reality of human hearts.

  Feelings? Fuck feelings.

  He began to learn how to wield "love" as a tool. The more devoted and sincere you appeared, the more reluctant people were to let go.

  "Capitalism? Fine by me. Then I'll turn around and exploit the wallets of you old geezers."

  Since his face and body could rake in dozens of times more profit than cracking cases, why not cash in?

  Lin Rui chuckled, swaying to the music on stage while casting a flirtatious glance toward a few regulars below.

  By the dance floor, a man in a well-tailored suit raised his glass. His gaze locked on Lin Rui's bare waist and abdomen, his eyes burning with predatory heat.

  Lin Rui sauntered off the stage, approaching with a languid gait.

  "Remember me?" The man's voice was deep and resonant.

  Lin Rui's lips curved into a slight smile. He casually propped one leg on a barstool, leaning forward, half-pressing himself into the man's space, fingers idly tracing across the back of the other's hand.

  "That's hardly a decent opening line."

  He deliberately tightened his leg muscles, adjusting his posture to let the leather pants perfectly outline the curve of his waist and hips. Blinking an eye, he murmured, "A sugar daddy of your caliber should learn more creative pick-up lines."

  The man sucked in a breath, raised his glass, and took a sip, his gaze tracing a path down Lin Rui's neck to his shoulders, Adam's apple bobbing slightly.

  "You're a... beautiful little con artist."

  "Thanks for the compliment." Lin Rui chuckled softly. In the next second, he reached out without warning, snatching a hundred-dollar bill from the man's pocket, slender fingers twirling it in the air. "But if you want to chat me up, you gotta pay the fee."

  The man's pupils constricted as if wanting to seize his wrist, but Lin Rui easily dodged him.

  "Hey, babe."

  From behind, another younger man approached with a smile, his tone laced with a hint of displeasure, seemingly jealous, "You're not gonna ditch me tonight, are you?"

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  Lin Rui turned his head, glancing at the newcomer-a blond, blue-eyed, pretty boy who had a few drinks, too many, and was slightly tipsy.

  He smiled, deepening his voice deliberately, "Oh, babe, of course not."

  After finishing speaking, he leaned in smoothly, nipping lightly at the other's chin. The tip of his tongue carried a subtle coolness as it traced the line of his jaw.

  "Don't rush, we've got all night."

  The young man's pupils dilated slightly, a flush of tipsy crimson rising on his cheeks.

  Lin Rui turned back, shrugging at the suited man. " It looks like you're losing out to this little brother tonight."

  He spoke with breezy nonchalance, then snapped his fingers at the bartender by the stage, signaling for a Whiskey Sour, then settled onto a barstool, casually stuffing the just-snagged bill into his pocket as if nothing had happened.

  The hunter-and-prey game was one he always played with more finesse than anyone else.

  But this particular game was about to meet an unexpected end.

  Three AM, and the revelry at Neon Dive finally wound down. The bar crowd dispersed in twos and threes, drunks waving haphazardly at the bar, hoarsely ordering one last drink. Servers wearily cleared tables cluttered with empty bottles and scattered bills, the air thick with the mingled scent of liquor, perfume, sweat, and post-debauchery emptiness.

  Backstage in the dressing room, Lin Rui zipped up his dark jacket, ducking his head to shake out a wrist sore from exertion. His fingertips still tingled faintly, a lingering numbness from overusing the pole.

  Stepping onto the back door steps of the bar, he shrugged his shoulders. The dancer under the neon lights vanished instantly and was replaced by a shrewd, sharp-eyed hunter.

  "Finally off work, damn it." He muttered under his breath, reaching up to crack his neck, knuckles popping with a crisp "crack, crack."

  Night wind poured into his collar, dissipating the alcoholic haze and ambiguous allure clinging to him.

  But tonight-the actual work was beginning.

  Lin Rui's current client was a wealthy Tai-tai, her husband a business tycoon, outwardly respectable, but secretly seeking thrills in places like Neon Dive. The man was a celebrated figure in finance, a philanthropist on social media, but in reality, just a serial philandering bastard.

  The Tai-Tai had noticed unusual spending patterns from her husband recently, unexplained expenses cropping up on his credit card statements. The frequent location? Neon Dive - coincidentally, also Lin Rui's workplace. But this time, the target wasn't just any ordinary fling.

  The information she provided Lin Rui was simple: this "young prey" was no ordinary lover. Her husband was unusually infatuated, even venturing out late at night frequently, his movements increasingly secretive.

  Lin Rui had initially assumed this was just another cliché: wealthy man cheats, keeps a young male lover, suspicious wife notices anomalies, then shells out cash for a private investigator to dig up dirt, gather evidence, and finally, divorce, property division, and walk away.

  But when Lin Rui actually started reviewing surveillance footage and tracking the target, he sensed something amiss-this "prey" was more than just prey.

  Any ordinary person would leave traces of life behind-at the very least, they'd buy groceries at a supermarket, swipe a credit card at a coffee shop, or even if just a full-time kept man, they'd have social media accounts, WeChat Moments, at least one blurry selfie.

  But this person had absolutely no life records.

  Lin Rui later employed several methods to investigate. He tracked the man's movements via the bar's internal surveillance, discovering that the target appeared almost exclusively during fixed time slots, each stays lasting less than two hours.

  Then he attempted to hack into credit card transaction systems, only to find the other party had no spending records whatsoever. He seemed less like a living, breathing person, and more like a... meticulously crafted "false identity."

  He'd also inquired discreetly among regular patrons, but almost no one truly "knew" this person, only that he was "very young," "very beautiful," and "a bit mysterious."

  -It was too clean, clean to the point of being unreal.

  Lin Rui deliberately tested the waters a few times in the bar. He observed the target from the shadows, but time and again, the target would subconsciously drift towards blind spots in the surveillance, and once, after a brief eye contact with the target in the dance floor, the other man subtly narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly, then vanished into the crowded throng.

  Intuition screamed at him-

  This person wasn't an ordinary "young lover" but more like someone evading surveillance.

  Or worse-

  He was also surveilling others.

  Just as Lin Rui prepared to delve deeper, he discovered a detail that sent a chill down his spine.

  He had always thought of himself as the hunter, investigating the truth about the prey. But just last night, as was his habit, he reviewed the surveillance footage near his apartment building, only to discover a familiar figure in a dimly lit alleyway on the corner-

  That "young prey."

  Standing under the pale yellow glow of a streetlamp, head tilted, glancing up towards his window, then slowly, a faint smile spreading across his lips.

  As if greeting him.

  Lin Rui remembered clearly, he had never exposed his identity, never had direct contact with the target. All tracking and investigation had been conducted remotely.

  Yet this person... knew who he was?

  This was the most dangerous signal-hunters stalked by their prey rarely met good ends.

  This morning, the Tai-tai had informed Lin Rui that her husband would rendezvous with that "young prey" again tonight, and even told Lin Rui the precise location, hoping he would photograph this sordid transaction.

  The night wind was biting; neon reflections stretched distorted across the slick asphalt of Los Angeles streets, the air permeated with the dampness unique to post-rain, mingled with a faint whiff of motor oil and decaying mold. Lin Rui tightened his jacket, proceeding silently down the dimly lit alley, soles occasionally crunching over broken glass and discarded cigarette butts, the faint, brittle sounds swallowed by the oppressive quiet.

  But as he arrived at the designated location, a primal sense of alarm halted his steps.

  -Too quiet.

  Lin Rui narrowed his eyes slightly. This wasn't ordinary quiet; it was deathly silence, as if all sound had been devoured. His ears strained to catch any hint of wind, traffic noise, or even the subtle rustling of rats scavenging in trash cans-all vanished.

  He had stepped into a zone stripped of "sound."

  Instinct screamed at him that this wasn't usual quietude but a manufactured silence.

  His heart began to race uncontrollably, he held his breath, hand stealthily slipping into his jacket pocket, gripping the foldable knife he always carried.

  Patta-

  A drop of icy liquid landed on his shoe.

  Lin Rui froze, slowly tilting his head upwards.

  On the ceiling, a figure hung upside down.

  It was a corpse, headless.

  Clothes tattered, muscles slack, deathly grotesque, the blood from its chest had not fully congealed, dripping down drop by drop along the ceiling seams, like some eerie countdown.

  And the most unsettling part was-the corpse wasn't suspended by rope, not even a trace of any fixture; it just "floated" there, as if "nailed" to the ceiling by some invisible force.

  "Shit." Lin Rui instantly held his breath.

  This wasn't ordinary murder; this wasn't even something human hands could accomplish.

  He took a step back, right hand whipping the foldable knife from his pocket. But at that moment, an incredibly faint rustling sound brushed past his ears from behind.

  -Like darkness, itself was subtly writhing.

  "You shouldn't have come."

  The voice was low, chilling, like something slithering out of a damp cave, laced with a hint of deliberately suppressed pleasure.

  Lin Rui barely had time to think, instinctively rolling aside to evade, but in the end, he was a split second too slow-

  Behind him, an invisible force slammed heavily into the back of his head!

  Boom!

  The world instantly spun, heavens and earth overturned before his eyes. He crashed heavily onto the concrete floor, a roaring din erupting in his mind, a violent numbness surging through his limbs.

  -Wrong. This wasn't a typical blunt force attack but a kind of unknown, invasive sensation.

  It felt like something had burrowed into his body, tearing at his consciousness, dragging his soul down into deeper and deeper depths.

  Thoughts fractured in an instant. Lin Rui's vision began to warp, and in the blurring world, he vaguely saw a dark figure standing before him.

  No facial features, no discernible form, only a pair of icy, cold eyes, watching him with keen interest.

  He heard that voice again, low and slow as if appreciating an elegant slaughter.

  "Such a pity to be this good-looking."

  The next second, utter darkness devoured him.

  Lin Rui had no idea how long he'd been unconscious.

  He only felt himself adrift in some frigid waters, body immobile, silence all around.

  Indistinctly, voices echoed in his ears-

  "...Will he wake up?"

  "Rest assured, this body... won't die."

  The voices sounded distant and muffled, as if transmitted from beyond another world or like some lingering echo from the depths of his mind.

  Lin Rui's consciousness began to be dragged by some force. He felt himself being "squeezed out" of his original body, as if an invisible thread was tethering his soul, traversing endless darkness, plummeting towards some unknown destination.

  The space around him tore open, and in the final image, he vaguely glimpsed-

  A primeval bamboo forest, verdant green mist swirling through the grove, the air thick with the damp scent of wood.

  And unfamiliar whispers echoed in his mind.

  "...Please, live on for me."

  When he opened his eyes once more, the world had irrevocably changed.