A song from Chengdu revived a closed-down pub.

Having roughly understood Ye Xuan's purpose, Su Fan decided to play along.

So he said, "Alright, you can go now."

"what?"

Pan Wengang and the thief both thought they had misheard.

Su Fan repeated, "I said, you can go back and report now."

Pan Wengang hurriedly asked, "Brother Fan, are we just going to let him go like that?"

"Otherwise what?" Su Fan retorted.

Pan Wengang suggested, "He must be made to pay for 100 grams of gold."

Upon hearing this, the thief panicked: "I swear, I really didn't take the gold."

Su Fan said, "When you get back, give what you got to that person, and don't mention that we captured you."

"That's it?" Even the thief was a little suspicious.

Su Fan laughed and said, "Otherwise what? Should I call the police and say you really stole 100 grams of gold?"

"No, no, no, I really didn't steal it..."

"Alright, you can go now. Remember what I said: pretend we were never here, so you can get your money back."

The man turned and ran away as if he had been granted a pardon.

After running a dozen or so steps, he looked back again.

Seeing that Su Fan and Pan Wengang didn't chase after him, he ran a few more steps and then turned back.

This continued until they reached the alleyway, at which point they finally took off running.

Pan Wengang looked at the disheveled figure, scratched his head, and said with a puzzled expression, "Brother Fan, are we just letting him go like that? That's too easy on him!"

Su Fan shook his head: "He wasn't carrying anything in his hand, so calling the police won't do any good."

Pan Wengang still couldn't understand: "But he broke into the house! And why would he steal your hair if he didn't want money or jewelry? What kind of fetish is that?"

Before Su Fan could reply, Pan Wengang slapped his forehead and said, "Brother Fan, he wouldn't use your hair to perform witchcraft, would he? Like the kind where you stick voodoo dolls in someone's hair?"

"Read less novels, alright, Gangzi, and don't tell anyone about this."

"Don't worry, Brother Fan, I'm very tight-lipped."

……

Su Fan returned home and began to review the whole incident.

"We can't completely trust what the old nun says. What if we reveal the truth directly and cause a misunderstanding? This is a good opportunity to test it out."

"If what the old nun said is true, then Ye Xuan will definitely get restless. We'll see his reaction then, and we'll know whether it's true or not."

"Furthermore, if this is true, Ye Xuan will be in for a lot of trouble. This will be even more unbearable for him than if the truth were revealed directly."

……

After obtaining Su Fan's hair, Ye Xuan went directly to the hospital where he had his paternity test done a few days earlier.

The two days of waiting for the results were agonizing.

He tossed and turned all night, and had a hazy dream in which he was standing in the living room of the Ye family's old mansion, and everyone was pointing at him and saying, "You are not a member of the Ye family."

He tried to shout, but no sound came out.

He woke up with a start, finding himself covered in cold sweat, his pillow soaked.

On the third day, he went to pick up the report.

He didn't disassemble it at the hospital; instead, he went back to his car, locked the doors, closed the windows tightly, and tremblingly pulled out the report.

The results clearly state that a biological parent-child relationship exists.

Ye Xuan stared at those lines of text, his pupils suddenly dilated, and his breathing became rapid.

He slammed the report onto the steering wheel.

"Damn it, damn it..."

After venting his frustrations, Ye Xuan returned to Kyoto.

He went home, lay on his bed, and stared blankly at the ceiling for a long time.

The ringing of his phone brought him back to reality.

It was Jiang Xiangdong who called.

"Xuanzi, quickly check Weibo, the whole internet is tagging you right now."

"What do you mean?" Ye Xuan thought his identity had been revealed.

"He Xiaoxiao released a song written by Su Fan. After listening to the song, everyone is looking for you."

……

After hanging up the phone, Ye Xuan opened Weibo.

The number of notification messages on Weibo has piled up to a red "99+".

The reason is that He Xiaoxiao released the song "Colosseum" that Su Fan gave her.

The moment the song was released, the comment section exploded.

He Xiaoxiao's fans, Su Fan's fans, and even the bystanders who loved watching the drama unfold all unanimously thought of Ye Xuan.

The video of Su Fan and Ye Xuan's confrontation is still online, and the posts that exposed Ye Xuan's pseudonym haven't been completely deleted yet.

The comments section was full of people tagging him.

"@Ye Xuan, this song was written for you, right? Su Daxian's writing is as sharp as ever!"

"@Ye Xuan, stop pretending you can't see this! Come listen, every word hits home!"

"@Ye Xuan, the saying 'a toad in golden armor' is referring to you, isn't it?"

"@Ye Xuan, what are your thoughts after listening to this song? Please share your acceptance speech!"

"@Ye Xuan, don't be a coward, come out and walk around!"

……

Ye Xuan gripped his phone, his knuckles turning white.

He clicked on the link and started playing the song, almost as if possessed.

The prelude began, and to him it sounded jarring and oppressive.

Then He Xiaoxiao's voice came in.

This world where black and white are turned upside down is truly absurd.

Kind souls never have a good ending.

It's hard to believe how profit-driven this world can be.

"You could pluck a sky full of stars and still not get a single piece of candy."

……

After learning his true identity, he listened to this song, which was full of subtle satire.

He was born into the Ye family, standing at the top of the pyramid. Things that others could never reach in their entire lives, he could easily obtain.

But now that letter has shattered all his sense of superiority.

Who does he think he is?

He's just a clown who stole someone else's identity.

The countless stars he stole were merely borrowed glory that wouldn't last long.

The song continues.

Different mouths telling the same lie

Different beasts trapped in the same skin

On one hand, they did all sorts of evil deeds and were very pleased with themselves.

"Putting hands together in prayer, begging for God's forgiveness."

……

Upon hearing this, Ye Xuan suddenly recalled what the little nun had relayed to him a few days ago in Qin Province.

"What's yours will come to you; what's not yours, you can't hold onto..."

Thinking about this, he felt inexplicably irritable.

The old nun didn't have the courage to face the truth while she was alive, and even after she died, she continued to comfort herself with those words about cause and effect.

The letter she left behind, her last words, were nothing more than another robe to cover her shame.

She threw the truth at Ye Xuan, pushed the choice onto Su Fan, and hid behind the Buddhist temple, pretending that everything was over.

In fact, the old nun spent her whole life running away. She ran away her entire life, and at the end, she was still leaving a mess for future generations.

Ye Xuan hated the old nun with a vengeance.

Why should someone who spends their entire life evading cause and effect leave behind those nonchalant words before they die?

What gives her the right to say not to force it?

What right does she have to advise others to let go?

Whom did she leave to see the side of herself that she herself never dared to look at in her entire life?

Therefore, Ye Xuan hated her, even though she was his biological relative and it was she who allowed him to enjoy so many years of wealth and luxury.

But he still hated it, hated it so much it made his teeth itch.

In fact, some causes and effects were predetermined long ago.

Even if the old nun doesn't tell him the truth, his background will inevitably come to light someday for some reason.

As the saying goes, gatherings and separations are beyond human control, and gains and losses are predetermined by fate.