"Explanation?
"I'm the one who wants an explanation!
"The plan was to co to the diocre Person Society, sit back, and fish for intelligence. And what happened? This is how you fish for intel?
"I busted my ass writing a script and got the crowd fired up to this point, and you're telling
the target was already caught?!
"And then you turned around and attacked ?!
"Zhen Yi, have I been cursing Li Jingming so much that you got the impression I wouldn't curse you?
"Don't you think you should explain to
what the hell you're trying to do?!"
Long Jing was on the verge of exploding. It wasn't that he didn't know what kind of person Zhen Yi was, or that she was difficult to work with. But before all this, when Zhen Yi had co to him with her pitch, her words had been too enticing— enticing enough to make him abandon his prejudice against her entirely.
Zhen Yi had told Long Jing she'd obtained intelligence about a major upheaval among the gods, but her sister had stripped away a critical portion of the mory.
She only rembered that during that particular trial, the gods had descended simultaneously. She rembered encountering Cheng Shi. And after that, sothing unprecedented had occurred between [Decay] and [Prosperity].
Of course, these were technically her sister's mories, but Zhen Yi narrated them from her own perspective.
Most people knew Zhen Yi and Zhen Xin were two halves of a whole, so Long Jing had no reason to question this. If not for Zhen Xin covering for Zhen Yi, this trouble-seeking nace would have been hunted down and killed by a coalition long ago.
Her sister was a reliable fraud— at least when it ca to partnerships, she'd never let anyone down.
If a piece of intelligence was important enough for Zhen Xin to secretly erase from Zhen Yi's mind, then it truly had to be critical— critical enough that she didn't want her sister leaking it.
A ssage about the gods, hidden by Zhen Xin.
Those two qualifiers alone held an irresistible allure for Long Jing, and so he'd taken the bait.
After seven or eight etings with Zhen Yi, he'd concluded she was most likely telling the truth. So he decided to collaborate with her.
Their objective: extract Cheng Shi's complete mories of that trial from the man himself, and determine exactly why the gods had descended and what had happened between [Decay] and [Prosperity].
According to Zhen Yi's mories, Cheng Shi possessed a diocre Person Society card. Better yet, she knew he didn't know she still had one of her own.
And as it happened, Long Jing also had a diocre Person Society card. So the two of them agreed to lie in wait at this so-called gathering and extract so intel.
Indeed— they'd co specifically to extract intelligence, and their source was none other than Cheng Shi!
So the two of them had tid their arrival at the diocre Person Society, settling in to wait for their rabbit to walk into the stump— to see whether Cheng Shi would attend as Zhen Yi had predicted.
Sure enough, Cheng Shi showed up.
The mont Cheng Shi pushed open the door, he'd had no idea that countless predatory gazes from the Void path had already locked onto him.
What followed was even more bizarre.
After waiting more than ten minutes, the venue showed no signs of activity. Not a single person ca forward to explain to the assembled players what this gathering was even about.
But it was precisely this absence that sparked a bold idea in Long Jing's mind. He secretly signaled Zhen Yi to play along, then brazenly donned a mask, leapt onto center stage, and "stepped in" as the diocre Person Society's convener!
Yes— his identity as president was entirely fabricated.
An acrobat who'd rewritten the script on the fly, rushing onstage for an impromptu "save the show."
As for where the real convener was, whether they were even present, and who they actually were— not even he and Zhen Yi had figured that out.
But that didn't stop two fraudsters from running a joint con. The problem was, while conning everyone else, Long Jing discovered he'd been conned himself.
Because he'd never anticipated that the Cheng Shi he'd been watching all along was actually Zhen Yi in disguise!
This wretch had captured the real Cheng Shi and swapped places with him at so unknown point, yet she'd never told him. Instead, it looked like she was planning to hoard the intelligence for herself.
This was the real reason Long Jing was furious!
He could tolerate Zhen Yi pranking him, but he could not tolerate watching a duck that was practically in his mouth sprout cooked wings and fly into soone else's bowl for no apparent reason!
Especially when that "soone else" was the very Zhen Yi who'd been stoking the fire alongside him!
Under Long Jing's murderous glare, Cheng Shi suddenly broke into a grin.
His wounds had mostly healed. He rose from the rubble, did a playful little spin— as if showing off "her" prowess to the audience— and taunted:
"What do I want?
"Hee~
"Why even ask such a simple question? I just wanted to hit you.
"If I can beat you up for free, why wouldn't I?"
At those words, Long Jing's expression darkened further, but a flicker of excitent flashed through "Cheng Shi's" eyes.
"So why did you wreck your own setup and let him out?
"Don't tell
you've gone soft on him. I took all that lovey-dovey crap as hot air— are you telling
you two are actually a thing?"
Long Jing was so angry he'd lost all composure. He genuinely couldn't understand what Zhen Yi was doing.
Even if she wanted to monopolize the intelligence, even if she wanted an excuse to hit people, there was no reason to tear down her own stage like this and let the captured Cheng Shi escape.
He saw absolutely no benefit in it. The biggest beneficiary was, paradoxically, the Fate Weaver who'd gotten free.
And even if it was all for fun— the joke had landed squarely on Zhen Yi herself. What was the point?
Long Jing couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought, but the others weren't fools either. From these few exchanges, Hu Wei and Mo Li had already caught the scent of sothing deeper. Mo Li shook his head with an amused smile:
"So you two were also cuckoos in the nest. I thought it was strange— since when do [Deceit] followers go to the trouble of organizing a heartfelt gathering? Hah— interesting. So where's the original host?
"Did they quietly slip away after seeing you take the stage?
"Also, Long Jing, that business about [Decay]'s fall— is that real or fabricated?
"This matters a great deal to . I can offer other intelligence in exchange."
Long Jing spat viciously, abandoning any trace of the suave showman he'd been on stage. He shot a vicious glare at "Zhen Yi," then jabbed a finger at "Cheng Shi":
"Ask him!
"He's the one I ca here to question!
"That 'friend' I ntioned was Zhen Yi, sure, but it was really supposed to be him— this Fate Weaver, Cheng Shi!
"He personally lived through that trial, so whatever happened during that god-descent event, he has to know!"
The mont those words fell, every eye turned toward "Cheng Shi."
!!!
"Cheng Shi" panicked for an instant. Feigned, of course.
But everyone present caught the flash of alarm in his eyes, which only made them more eager to learn about the trial Long Jing had described.
Imnse pressure continued to bear down on "Cheng Shi," pinning him nearly in place. Even his good brother Hu Wei refrained from stepping forward to shield him this ti, his silence itself a statent of position.
Clearly, he too was very interested in this information.
"Cheng Shi's" expression grew complicated. Under the crushing pressure, it seed he had no choice but to recount what had happened during that trial. But the instant he was about to open his mouth, "Zhen Yi" beat him to it.
"Hee~
"What's the point of asking him? If you want to know, co beg .
"Poor little Cheng Shi has already been dumped by . Aww, but don't be upset— there are just too many people in this world who adore . I have to give them so of my ti, you know.
"Why are you all looking at
like that? I'm not lying this ti— I really do know what happened.
"Ha! Not only do I know what happened, I also know that this poor little Fate Weaver doesn't know anything anymore.
"Why else do you think I let him out of my pocket? It's because his mories have already been taken— by !"
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