That Dream My Nightmare was his now?
Cheng Shi blinked, montarily unable to process.
The logic should check out, right? Long Jing had lent Brother Tongue to Zhen Yi, so ownership passed to her. Applying the sa logic — the Dragon King lending That Dream My Nightmare to him...
Hey — one free mirror.
Cheng Shi smiled. He knew the fake Dragon King had to have so sche behind lending the mirror. But this was That Dream My Nightmare — a fragnt of a Servant God-level creation of [mory], virtually equivalent to a Servant God relic!
Who could refuse?
Whoever could, he sure couldn't.
"How could I impose?" Cheng Shi feigned reluctance for exactly one second, then imdiately followed with: "Will you mail it, or...?"
"Co pick it up. That Dream My Nightmare is, after all, my Benefactor's creation. During the handover, I need to ensure nothing goes wrong in transit."
Go pick it up in person?
That was obviously a trap.
Cheng Shi's brow furrowed slightly. His eyes darted, and he said: "I've been a bit busy lately — can't find the ti. How about this: leave the mirror at the Joker eting ground in the Graveyard. Just pick any tombstone, dig a hole underneath, and bury it. Then tell
which tombstone.
I'll go dig it up the first chance I get. And once I use it on the Doctor..."
He stopped himself. Even if the fake Dragon King had lent it, the real one would eventually co asking for it back — and he couldn't leave any leverage.
He absolutely couldn't say the word "return." So he rely cleared his throat twice, the implication being: I'll definitely give it back.
The Li Jingming on the other end clearly caught his real aning — but still didn't seem to care. He simply laughed:
"You're as cautious as ever.
Fine. I'll place it beneath [mory]'s tombstone for you to retrieve.
If the Doctor's identity really does turn out to be compromised, rember to contact . I'm very interested in that mory."
With that, Li Jingming actually hung up first. Cheng Shi stared at the handset in his palm, suspicion swirling.
His initial guess was that the person on the call was the Dragon King's Nightmare Shadow — escaped from the mirror — aning Li Jingming had fallen for the Nightmare Shadow's trick and been swapped.
But he couldn't reconcile it — given the Dragon King's shrewdness, how could he have fallen for the mirror's trap?
And if the caller truly was the Nightmare Shadow, why wasn't it afraid of Cheng Shi obtaining the mirror and helping the real Dragon King escape?
Could the mirror itself actually be the trap?
Cheng Shi found himself uncertain about the identity on the other end.
To verify whether Li Jingming had truly been compromised, he had no choice but to contact the other Jokers and cross-reference their information.
But then again — why had so many problems cropped up among the Jokers right after the eting?
Was [Fate] making a move?
Cheng Shi called Zhang Jizu first. Mi Laozhang said the Dragon King — who usually exchanged ssages with him frequently — hadn't contacted him recently. This further corroborated the fake Dragon King theory.
Then Cheng Shi reached out to Long Jing. Long Jing knew quite a bit about the fake Dragon King situation. He also believed the Dragon King had been replaced — though he wasn't sure by whom.
The two exchanged observations. Toward the end, Long Jing made several attempts to say sothing but kept holding back.
He figured: until it was confird that Jie Shu and Mo Shu were actually targeting Cheng Shi, there was no need to bring it up to the person involved. If it turned out to be a false alarm, his reputation as the "Clown" among the Jokers would be cented for good.
So he decided to wait — at least until they approached him to infiltrate the group — before telling the Jokers about Jie Shu's plan.
After wrapping up with Long Jing, Cheng Shi held the phone and hesitated for a long ti. The last Joker was Zhen Xin. He wasn't sure whether to call — he was worried she'd notice sothing.
But without consulting this head of the History School, his own limited knowledge of That Dream My Nightmare wouldn't be enough to determine what the fake Dragon King was plotting.
After much deliberation, he called anyway. Zhen Xin's first words were:
"What happened to Ming Yu?"
That sent a jolt through Cheng Shi's heart. But he didn't panic or fall silent — he imdiately fired back: "Huh?"
He suspected Zhen Xin hadn't actually figured anything out. Given her cunning, this was likely just a probe!
Sure enough, after his seamless counter-question, her tone shifted to one of genuine puzzlent:
"After she spoke with you, she's been acting strange. Did you say sothing to her?"
That was close...
Cheng Shi tensed inwardly, keenly aware of how formidable Zhen Xin could be.
Had he hesitated for even a second, the [Deceit] Chosen One would have deduced that the other An Mingyu had run into trouble.
Cheng Shi wasn't intentionally hiding anything. He simply understood the pain of losing sothing you depended on, and wanted to find a gentler way to break it to Zhen Xin. He just hadn't found that way yet.
"She didn't tell you?
The gods had another round of power struggles. [Civilization] was thoroughly defeated, but nobody won either."
Zhen Xin imdiately surmised that this struggle likely involved matters beyond the universe. With furrowed brow, she exchanged views with Cheng Shi for a while, until he brought up the fake Dragon King situation. Zhen Xin said, sowhat uncertainly:
"The History School doesn't know much about That Dream My Nightmare. We only know it's a mirror that can swap a person with their Nightmare Shadow. As for other effects, the limited historical fragnts we have don't record any.
However, one of our vice presidents theorized that when the Nightmare Shadow is on the outside, anyone else who looks into the mirror might swap out the person previously imprisoned inside. This way, That Dream My Nightmare could acquire new mories by cycling 'hostages.'
So — if the person you spoke with really is the Dragon King's Nightmare Shadow, could it be trying to trap you inside?"
"?"
Was it helping its Benefactor search for his mories?
Not impossible!
Cheng Shi's eyes widened in sudden realization. He imdiately asked: "This vice president wouldn't happen to be Sun Miao, would it?"
Zhen Xin laughed: "No — it's a different [mory] follower. But this is still just speculation. Nobody actually knows what a Nightmare Shadow intends."
She then added: "Cheng Shi, be careful. The Jokers can't afford to lose you right now."
"?"
'What does "right now" an?'
Cheng Shi's face darkened. He couldn't shake the feeling it ant: once the Jokers had squeezed dry all your intel and connections, you'd be free to move along.
Milked to the last drop — how 'vicious' of you, Miss Zhen!
Cheng Shi pursed his lips, grunted an acknowledgnt, then got Wei Zhi's contact info before hanging up.
Since nobody understood That Dream My Nightmare, it seed he'd have to visit Dolgod first. The ordeal of facing Aph Ros's questions head-on was unavoidable.
He only hoped that after paying such a "steep" price, the road ahead would be a little smoother.
What had really gone wrong with the Doctor? Had a second personality — steeped in [Truth]'s fanaticism — germinated inside him?
And had the Dragon King truly been trapped inside the mirror? What was this Nightmare Shadow — which made zero attempt to hide its identity — actually scheming?
Trivial matters piled up until Cheng Shi's head was pounding. He lay back on the rooftop and gazed up at the sky, and there, faintly, he could make out a great gate.
The door leading to Dolgod seed to call to him from the Abyss of Desire.
"My brother — what's taking you so long?"
...
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