To be honest, this time the intelligence gathering went surprisingly smoothly. Strictly speaking, it's thanks to Nemume Satori and Inaba Tsukuyo, but Duanmu Huai wasn't planning to thank them. After all, with Nemume Satori's crazy attitude, if you thanked her, she might do something even more outrageous.

Kana was quick too; early the next morning, Duanmu Huai received a message from her on the app, and they agreed on a location. Then Duanmu Huai went to meet her.

The meeting place was still the station park from the day before. By the time Duanmu Huai arrived, Kana was already there waiting and waved excitedly when she saw him.

"Hey, over here, bro!"

"Yo."

Seeing Kana, Duanmu Huai walked over and greeted her. Unlike the embarrassingly disheveled appearance from the night before, Kana was dressed quite fashionably this time, like a trendy college student—which she was.

"Shall we go? Did you pick a good spot?"

"Here! I've been wanting to go for ages!"

Duanmu Huai came to gather intelligence from Kana, so naturally, he didn't want to be stingy. They had discussed it on the app—Kana stated that the money would be 10,000 for just accompanying a meal, as that was the going rate these days, and she didn't want to break the rules. But as compensation, Duanmu Huai could treat her to a high-end restaurant. After all, many "Dads" wouldn't take Kana to very luxurious places to eat, and Duanmu Huai didn't have such concerns, so why not?

Thus, Kana picked a kaiseki restaurant she had always wanted to visit but couldn't afford, where a meal would cost a few tens of thousands. According to Kana, this was the trendiest place right now. Eating there and posting pics online would be interesting.

Compared to the enthusiastic Kana, Duanmu Huai seemed a bit uninterested regarding food. He might be somewhat insensitive to taste. In Duanmu Huai's view, unless food is inedible, everything else is pretty much the same. Plus, Japanese cuisine often prioritizes ingredients and stories over techniques, like marbled beef, matsutake mushrooms, or the supposedly legendary sushi chefs. It seemed better to talk about it than to actually eat it.

Hmm, thinking about it, Duanmu Huai had once used demon meat for hot pot and boiled fish, so ordinary mortals' gourmet didn't really impress him.

After all, demon meat is truly delicious.

Much better than marbled beef.

So no matter how much they praised the raw ingredients, Duanmu Huai was unimpressed.

After all, could your wagyu beef become an immortal? Or could your matsutake mushrooms grow legs and run? Back in the Westward Journey World, he used thousand-year-old ginseng as ginger slices to make soup.

So even kaiseki cuisine, to Duanmu Huai, was just three dishes and a soup, finished after eating. On the other hand, Kana was extremely enthusiastic, taking photos and selfies, uploading them for a while before reluctantly starting to eat and occasionally exclaiming in admiration—honestly, Duanmu Huai thought she was a bit over the top.

But at least, while indulging in the meal and checking in online, Kana didn't forget the main purpose.

"Oh, by the way, bro, what were you asking me to find out?"

"Simple, rumors, urban legends, what's circulating among you all, related to your line of work."

"Bro, why do you want to know that?"

Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, Kana couldn't help but be curious.

"I need it, just tell me."

"Alright, actually there's quite a lot... "

Kana was naturally lively, and after enjoying the long-anticipated kaiseki cuisine, she started talking about various rumors and stories among them. There were tales like a magnanimous "Fat Dad" who was very wealthy. Girls who worked with him would have happy and fulfilling lives afterward—like winning the lottery, finding ideal boyfriends, or getting into their dream schools...

To Duanmu Huai, it was like ancient Chinese ghost stories, where a kind landlord invited beggars for a good meal, which led to blessings, like the beggar revealing his true self as a cultivator and blessing the kind landlord with a child after years of infertility, a child destined to achieve great things. Wait?

This seems a bit unsettling?

A landlord invites a beggar for dinner, and the beggar blesses the landlord's wife with a child?

Tut tut tut, think deeply about it.

Then Kana shared some other rumors, mostly gossip about the lives of parents and children. After all, working dads were frequent clients; one dad might support several people, and some even brought multiple people for a big gathering, which is how they got acquainted.

Unlike clubs, where competition for clients among hostesses was fierce, akin to palace intrigues.

But for outside work, it's different; everyone hopes to expand channels and meet more dads. Compared to strangers on the internet, those introduced by close friends are somewhat more reliable, so unlike hostesses, girls in this line keep closer ties and often hear strange stories.

Duanmu Huai even learned an interesting tidbit from Kana here.

As mentioned, the ultimate goal for working dads is the same, with terms in the field referencing "adults."

For instance, if one says "adult 5," it means 50,000 at once.

Generally, girls' pricing is tied to their appearance.

If counterparts are young and wealthy, then adult 4 or adult 3 would be acceptable for girls.

However, if it's a middle-aged uncle, adult 5 to adult 6 would be the starting point.

If it's a couch potato... they wouldn't even consider it.

Tut tut tut, poor couch potatoes.

But that's the past.

Now the "market" is drastically different. Usually, it's adult 2 or adult 3, even adult 1 to 0.5. Why? It's simple—economic downturn. Everyone is having a tough time, more girls are joining the search for dads, and with more people, the prices are naturally dropping.

After all — if you don't do it, someone else will.

This line of work has no thresholds, just like being a streamer; with a simple phone registration, you can join.

Even more absurd, now there are men in women's clothing competing with them! And they're quite popular?

It's simply incredible!

Kana sighed, realizing this line of work is getting tougher. In the past, their only competitors were young and pretty girls, but now even men are becoming their rivals...

Moreover, when it comes to clients, the ones previously looked down upon — the overweight nerds — have now become the prime targets. Because many young and wealthy clients have no spare cash, some even hope to get freebies with their looks. Girls working this job ultimately just want to earn money, not pursue romance, so they're not going to let people have freebies, and as a result, those once-popular clients are no longer favored.

Middle-aged men, on the other hand, face unemployment due to various reasons and also have family issues, making them quite troublesome.

In contrast, these overweight nerds have few other hobbies, manage to save money, and are straightforward individuals. As long as you're willing to actively engage and cater to their interests by doing some COSPLAY or similar, you can still earn quite a bit.

Some girls have even managed to succeed by relying on these overweight nerds, getting married and starting families.

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai was also speechless. Isn't this just taking advantage of honest people... but if one wishes to hit and the other wishes to get hit, then so be it.

While on this topic, Kana naturally started telling a widely circulated rumor in their line of work — the late-night Yoko.

"This is a story of my friend's friend, Ai. Ai also worked in this field and had a regular sugar daddy who was always good to her, and Ai liked him a lot. But later on, Ai found that this daddy seemed increasingly cold towards her, which puzzled Ai. While it's normal for a sugar daddy to see others, Ai always felt this daddy's behavior was getting stranger. Once, he clearly called her out for a meal, but during the meal, he seemed very absent-minded and kept calling Ai 'Yoko.' This upset Ai, but what happened next was even more terrifying... When Ai and the daddy went to a hotel, he suddenly behaved atypically, holding Ai tightly and shouting, 'You're not Yoko! Give Yoko back to me!' Ai was so frightened that she quickly broke free and hid in the bathroom. The daddy, however, started banging on the door like a madman, but later there was gradually no sound. Ai didn't dare open the door and waited until the next morning when there was no sound outside. When she opened the door, she found... that daddy had hanged himself in the hotel room!"

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai also perked up.

"So what's the deal with this Yoko?"

"Ah, it's the rumor that spread afterward, saying there's a girl in this line of work named Yoko, and all the sugar daddies who contacted her would become infatuated with her, never looking for anyone else, and might even commit suicide... So when someone's sugar daddy suddenly stops contacting them, others would say that he probably got ensnared by Yoko... That's more or less the story."

"Oh..."

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai squinted his eyes.

"This is a story from your friend's friend?"

"Ahaha, well, young man, most stories start like this, don't they... I heard it from a friend too."

"So, can you investigate this rumor carefully, see where it originated?"

"Eh?"

One has to admit, Duanmu Huai's request caught Kana by surprise.

"Investigate this rumor?"

"That's right."

While speaking, Duanmu Huai took out an envelope.

"Here's a million, enough to compensate for your losses during this period. I'd like you to help me investigate this matter."

"A, a million!?"

Hearing Duanmu Huai's words, Kana's hand, which was about to reach for the envelope, retracted as if burned.

"No, that's too much, a million is way too much... And it's just a rumor..."

"It's very important to me."

For Duanmu Huai, it was naturally very important. Although Kana's description was somewhat vague, to Duanmu Huai, the process by which the "daddy" went mad and committed suicide seemed very much like the SAN value gradually dropping to 0.

"If you think a million is too much, how about five hundred thousand? Consider it an advance payment."

"Ugh... this..."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's offer, Kana felt a bit uneasy.

"This won't involve anything dangerous, right?"

"Just hoping you can investigate the rumor, see if it's true, or where it took place. You don't need to do anything dangerous."

"If that's the case..."

Hearing this, Kana breathed a slight sigh of relief, then took the envelope and removed several bills from it.

"How about a hundred thousand first, I'll take this as a deposit, and we'll talk about the rest once I find more information."

"Please, then."

It seems that this meal wasn't enjoyed in vain after all.

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