William Carter swallowed hard and immediately came up with a simple and correct explanation—ghostly entrapment. So-called ghostly entrapment refers to getting stuck in the same place at night or in the suburbs, unable to find your way out. This phenomenon does exist in reality; many people have experienced it. Later, scientists explained that because the instinctive movement of living creatures is circular, when blindfolded or unconscious, one will naturally move in a circle. Although you may think you’re walking in a straight line, you’ve actually been gradually veering off course.

If it were before, William Carter would definitely have believed these scientific explanations, maybe even memorized them to show off later. But now, if William Carter heard this set of scientific reasoning, he’d probably say something like, “If I’d listened to your nonsense, I’d have died ten times over by now!” and so on...

So he chose to trust himself and use his own method to escape. The solution he came up with was simple: tailing... oh no, it should be called following that pretty girl who had just finished shopping. If he was caught in ghostly entrapment, it was impossible that everyone on the street was also trapped. So as long as he followed someone else out of this strange loop, he’d be fine. He was quite proud of this “brilliant idea,” so he grinned foolishly and followed her, making sure to note the surrounding buildings to confirm he wasn’t passing the same place again.

Maybe someone would ask: with so many people on the street, why did William Carter choose to follow that particular girl? In fact, someone did ask him this not long after. His answer was that the girl looked very slim and delicate, so she probably wasn’t aggressive, and with his skills, he could easily subdue her if needed. If she turned out to be a ghost, he’d circle and cross, circle and cross, and send her to the Western Paradise—Amitabha. Of course, if a scientist had been present, they might have given a thorough and more reasonable analysis of William Carter’s behavior based on the theory of biological instinct...

In short, William Carter followed the girl and finally walked out of the area of ghostly entrapment. Just as he was about to turn and head toward his destination, a few burly men in sunglasses and sharp suits suddenly rushed out and surrounded him. This startled William Carter quite a bit. He wanted to run, but found every direction blocked. He stood there thinking for a long time, but couldn’t recall ever joining the mafia or doing anything that would get him silenced, so he tentatively asked, “Gentlemen... is there something I can help you with?”

The leader of the men in suits replied coldly, “You know exactly why we’re here.”

“Gentlemen, let me tell you, I’m really not an alien, you don’t need to trouble yourselves over me...”

These men in suits were clearly well-trained and ignored William Carter’s sarcasm. One of them was already cracking his knuckles, as if getting ready to beat him up.

“Playing dumb won’t help you. You’ve been following me for five or six blocks. What exactly do you want?” This time, the voice was quite pleasant—it was the girl, who had somehow appeared behind the group of suited men, now pointing at William Carter and demanding an explanation.

“Oh, so that’s what this is about. I just happened to be going the same way...” William Carter had just started to make excuses when the leader of the men leaned in close and said, enunciating each word, “We are all international professional bodyguards. We can tell the difference between following and just passing by. You’d better give a reasonable explanation, or we’ll take you to the police station.” He wasn’t bluffing—this bodyguard had practically watched the young lady grow up and cared for her like an uncle. He was absolutely meticulous at work, and William Carter’s tailing had long since caught their attention.

Under the “domineering” pressure of the other party, William Carter had no choice but to give what he thought was a reasonable explanation—of course, he thought it was reasonable because it was the truth.

“I got caught in ghostly entrapment...”

So, twenty minutes later, William Carter found himself in the interrogation room of the city police bureau. Sadly, there wasn’t even a police station nearby where he was caught; the closest was the city bureau. Normally, in his situation, at most he’d be treated as a hooligan and locked up for a few days. After all, even if they wanted to charge him with attempted something-or-other, there wasn’t much evidence. Usually, they’d just ask a few questions and throw him in the detention center. But since the people who brought him in seemed to have some influence, they asked a few more questions. And that’s when the real problem came out.

First, they asked why he was following someone. Since William Carter really couldn’t deny the fact, he could only admit to his “if she’s a female ghost, I’ll send her to the Western Paradise” reasoning, thinking that if they took him for a drunken lunatic, maybe he’d be fine. But the officer interrogating him had a policewoman beside him taking notes, who immediately muttered under her breath, “Pervert...”

That word became the fuse, and a new round of questioning began. The officer was clearly well-versed in interrogation techniques. William Carter was cuffed to the chair, and the officer paced around him, constantly asking questions from behind and then applying pressure from the front. It was textbook psychology: when someone is behind you, you always feel completely watched, which creates a psychological suggestion that lying will be exposed. Applying pressure from the front makes someone in a weak position like William Carter retreat.