"No, you can't!"
Cheng Shi's answer was razor-sharp — utterly unlike the man who'd just "saved" her.
He didn't know what the Blind One wanted to say, but from that single question he'd already guessed she hadn't used the Rembrance Needle. That made sense — before confirming whether Lao Deng was dead or alive, neither Torchbearer could afford to erase those particular mories.
But Lao Deng was dead now. Cheng Shi felt it was ti to create so distance from the Torchbearers.
The sa principle as always: Cheng Shi had never claid to be a good person. He harbored no grand ambitions of sheltering the world or saving humanity. His sole wish was to survive.
But he undeniably admired those who fought for goodness and conviction. So he helped them often — on the condition that it didn't endanger himself.
And from the Blind One's tone, she was clearly about to endanger him. So in this mont, Cheng Shi chose retreat.
After all, the new mber he'd invited to the Destined Ones wasn't Torchbearer An Mingyu — it was Destiny's Chosen An Mingyu. A Blind One who still retained those mories wasn't the person Cheng Shi wanted to recruit.
A her with intact mories had too complicated a position. She didn't belong in the Destined Ones either.
Add to that the Fun God's machinations with the faith fusion — Cheng Shi kept feeling as though He was pushing him toward becoming a Torchbearer. But he didn't want to be one. A "narrow" clown couldn't carry a "broad" fla.
Since the Fun God played the rebel among the gods, then "a crooked roof leads to a crooked foundation" — His follower being a bit rebellious among devout swindlers should be perfectly fine, right?
So Cheng Shi decisively shut down the Blind One's opening, rendering her speechless.
The Blind One was indeed silenced. Her confused, dazed face flickered with conflict and complexity. After a prolonged "stare" at Cheng Shi, her mind finally cleared — and she realized her identity probably made it inappropriate to bother him too much. But...
This had nothing to do with the Torchbearers. What she wanted to say wasn't about Lao Deng. It was about herself.
She was ready to co clean. She wanted to reveal everything. But Cheng Shi had chosen to shut the door at the exact mont she needed soone to trust the most.
'Typical of him.'
The Blind One laughed bitterly at herself. But she had to lay bare the truth regardless. This concerned not only her own path forward, but also the identity under which she'd continue walking alongside Cheng Shi.
A Fate Weaver who'd stitched her shattered destiny back together right before Destiny's eyes — perhaps he was the only person in this world she could trust. So she had to push past Cheng Shi's "defense" and keep talking. Only this ti, she changed her straightforward confession into a hook to reel him back in.
She said only four words: "Abyss Rainbow Orchid."
Cheng Shi's face transford.
With his usual caution, after rejecting soone he wouldn't have listened to another word. But the Blind One had pinpointed his curiosity exactly — dangling a lead from the Ti trial he'd never been able to let go of.
Because he still rembered: on the final return, the path back to the original world had sohow reverted on its own.
Li Wufang's death-and-resurrection had turned the originally orange globe flowers red!
The trial only cared about results. Players in the mont wouldn't waste ti dwelling on it. But for her to ntion Abyss Rainbow Orchid now, after the trial—
Cheng Shi was hooked. He couldn't control his curiosity. He released her hand, took two steady steps back, and countered: "What do you an?"
The Blind One pressed her lips together. Sothing resolute flashed in her eyes. Without a mont's hesitation, she laid it bare:
"I... am not this world's An Mingyu."
"!!!???"
Cheng Shi reeled — his brain detonated. He stared at the Blind One in disbelief. His first thought was that An Mingyu had sohow gotten matched into another round after the trial ended — another Ti trial, no less — and gotten herself swapped out.
But this absurd notion evaporated the instant he saw the Blind One's expression. Cheng Shi's face turned deadly serious. Word by word:
"Can I trust you, An Mingyu?"
The Blind One laughed — bitter, practiced:
"You can trust . At least in this 'trial,' you can trust
completely.
But after this trial, Cheng Shi...
You can still trust . You can also trust others. But I... in this place, it seems like I can only trust you."
"..."
'Oh no — she IS that An Mingyu. The one I brought out of the trial and back to reality!'
'So I brought back the wrong Blind One!?'
Cheng Shi's mind went blank. He imdiately began replaying everything from the trial. And right then, the Blind One smiled ruefully and delivered the crucial clue: "My vision... is different from yours."
"Hiss—"
Cheng Shi's scalp went numb. Eyes widening in shock: "You an... the very first hour-mark!?"
"Yes... that exact hour-mark. Before you and I even t, the Doctor and I had both already been swapped."
"The Doctor was fake too!? But I clearly... with him..."
Mid-sentence, Cheng Shi fell silent.
Because he suddenly realized: every detail the Doctor had shared with him revolved around what they'd initially observed — the red Abyss Rainbow Orchid. In other words, when the Doctor described reality, he'd never used phrases like "his original world" or "his world." They'd been discussing the initial red color — and Cheng Shi had simply assud the Doctor's original world matched his own.
And when the Doctor said "the Blind One at that ti wasn't the one he'd first t" — that wasn't wrong either. Because whether in his perception or in his plain narration, this Blind One genuinely was the one he'd seen as "the original Blind One" from the beginning!
'I fell for Truth's trick!'
'A lifelong hawk-hunter pecked in the eye by a hawk! This Truth follower was actually a master of twisting truth!'
'Worthy of Truth, indeed. Perhaps the mont he identified the Abyss Rainbow Orchid, he'd already solved the trial.'
Having figured this out, Cheng Shi felt zero satisfaction from solving the puzzle. Only boundless terror and dread!
He was thinking: if the discrepancy had already occurred at the very first hour-mark, then how could they be certain that the red orchid they'd designated as the "original marker" was actually correct?
Of course, based on today's experiences, he could confirm he'd returned to the right world. But within that trial, the thod of using orchid color to find the way ho was clearly flawed!
If the discrepancy at the first hour-mark had already altered the world, then the players — still inside the inn at the ti — had never had a chance to verify the original world's orchid color in the first place!
That was the true greatest crisis they should have faced in the trial!
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