Behind the theater doors: empty, dark, foreboding. No warm glow to catch the eye.
Only when Cheng Shi pushed the door open and let the outside light flood in could he make out the performance underway on stage — and the densely packed audience watching it.
In that instant, Cheng Shi's pupils trembled. He froze on the spot.
His face was ashen. He didn't dare move.
Because he could clearly see that every seat in the orderly auditorium was occupied — each chair holding a floating, severed ear.
The ears were raw and bloody, dripping dim, foul-slling black ichor. The mont Cheng Shi pushed open the door, they all contracted — then slowly rotated, turning countless cochlea toward the intruder who'd interrupted the performance.
When this beyond-imagination tableau unfolded before him, Cheng Shi's scalp went numb. Goosebumps erupted head to toe.
He silently scread at Brother Mouth — what is this!? But it wasn't his own mouth that answered. It was... the perforr on stage.
Also an ear. No different from the others in the audience — except perhaps a touch more animated than the rigid crowd below.
When it saw — no, that's too weird — when it heard Cheng Shi burst in, it smiled. It waved at him in greeting.
"You're back," it said.
Cheng Shi was terrified. He'd never imagined that after the con-artist mouth and the absurd tongue, the ears would be this horrifying.
But he responded. Of course, the one answering wasn't the brain-buzzing clown, but the clown's uncontrollable mouth.
"He wanted to co. I couldn't stop him."
Brother Mouth was clearly distancing himself from the whole affair. But the ear on stage instantly shot back:
"Having found the path forward, how could I not co show off? Rotten Ear — stuck in this theater, you were never as resourceful as ."
"..."
"..."
The tone was ninety percent Brother Mouth. The remaining ten percent matched the invisible specter roaming the fog.
So... the ear had peeked into Brother Mouth's heart and used the Fool's Lips' actual inner thoughts to respond to the Lips' spoken pretense?
Cheng Shi blinked in bewildernt. He'd been duped again.
Brother Mouth hadn't resisted eting the ear at all. He'd been dying for the day he could return to this theater and flaunt his accomplishnts.
The Lips' and the Tongue of Eating Lies' previous silence wasn't genuine reluctance — it was an act. Afraid that Cheng Shi's resolve might waver, they'd used reverse psychology to goad him all the way to San Dales!
'Fine. Just fine.'
'There will always be a seat for , the clown, on this stage!'
Cheng Shi laughed with exasperation — but that flustered grin quickly shifted into sothing radiant.
Because he realized: the Secret Peeping Ear's ability was perfectly to his taste.
Wasn't this exactly what the Fun God had used against him during his audience? If he possessed the ears, wouldn't that an he'd also gain the ability to read people's innermost secrets?
'Now that's fantastic.'
His gaze toward the ear on stage suddenly turned blazing hot. Even the sanity-corroding audience-ears below began to look... adorable.
But Cheng Shi's attention wasn't solely on the stage. He was still thinking — about Brother Mouth's so-called "path forward." What had the Lips been showing off to the ear?
This wasn't the first ti he'd encountered this thread. Back at Aph Ros' gate, inside the Ti prison in Dolgod — when he'd t Ti before the deity beca his Benefactor — Ti and Brother Mouth had a similar exchange.
Ti had asked: Did you find it?
Brother Mouth's answer: Yes, I found it.
Was that "found it" the sa as the ear's "path forward"?
What could this path be?
'It couldn't be...'
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened. He stopped that thought cold. Seeing Brother Mouth rendered speechless for once, Cheng Shi decided it was ti to give these two old acquaintances — old familiar features, rather — a graceful exit.
He nodded elegantly toward the stage, closed the door behind him, walked to the nearest row, and plucked the ear "seated" there. With a plastic smile, he placed it on the adjacent chair.
"I'm a big guy," he said. "Buddy, scoot over — squeeze in."
Then he plopped onto the moldy, rotting audience chair and, dead-serious, beca a proper theatergoer.
Every ear in the house froze. The Fool's Lips tried to say sothing, opening several tis — but no words ca.
The ear on stage clearly hadn't anticipated that the person fused with the Fool's Lips would be this... unique. But on their stage, the more unique you were, the more the spotlight favored you.
Or perhaps — this was always how it was supposed to be. A clown's mouth belonged on a clown's face.
The ear laughed. Then it bowed to the audience. "Performance concluded. Please exit in an orderly fashion. We hope to see you again."
"..."
As the words fell, so did the curtain. The ears around Cheng Shi — as if hearing the dismissal bell — snapped from their rigid stupor into frolicking life. They bounced off their seats, scattered to every corner of the theater, then gently dropped to the floor, withering and decaying.
They seed to have fallen asleep.
And only then did Cheng Shi notice the floor near the front rows: piles of rotted remains and scattered limbs heaped in drifts.
He swallowed hard. Creeped out — and embarrassed.
'Seriously? All that effort I put into my dramatic entrance was for nothing?'
'You're ssing with the clown, aren't you?'
'If the show was ending, why didn't you say so sooner?'
'What kind of show conveniently wraps up the exact second I walk in? Unless...'
'Wait!'
The so-called "show" — was it a bunch of ears gathered here, listening to the invaders' secrets broadcast through the fog?
'Huh?'
Cheng Shi blinked blankly. "Brother Mouth, what's going on?"
The Fool's Lips stayed silent. Cheng Shi sighed and turned to the ear on stage. Slightly awkward: "Ear... Bro?"
The ear laughed. It floated before the curtain, seeming to study Cheng Shi for a long ti. Then it nodded — and dissolved into a wisp of white light that settled into his palm.
"?"
'That's it?'
'Handed to
on a silver platter?'
Cheng Shi was genuinely stunned. He rubbed the Secret Peeping Ear in his hand, incredulous.
"This isn't a dream, is it?
Did I fall for Zhen Yi's trick?"
Brow tightening, he pulled out the Tongue of Eating Lies and flung it outward. The tongue materialized on a nearby seat-back, stretched lazily, and drawled:
"Ho sweet ho. Cozy — though the housekeeping's gone to hell. Pretty filthy."
Then it hopped around twice, flipped over, and fell contentedly asleep on the chair-back.
"..."
Now it all clicked.
He recalled Brother Mouth's reaction when he'd first heard "San Dales" from Dragon King:
"San Dales, huh... a distant mory."
Looking at it now — the mouth, the tongue, the ears... everything that composed the mask... could all of it have been "born" right here, in this very theater in San Dales?
"Did I guess right, Brother Mouth?"
He didn't say it aloud, but he knew Brother Mouth could hear his thoughts.
"Brother Mouth?
Brother Tongue? Brother Ear?
Co on, one of you say sothing."
"Wrong," the Tongue of Eating Lies mumbled dismissively.
But the next second, the sleepy tongue snapped upright in alarm — because the mont its word fell, the ear in Cheng Shi's palm murmured:
"No — it's right. Right here!"
Cheng Shi's eyes blazed. The smile on his lips couldn't be contained.
'What a magnificent Secret Peeping Ear. What a magnificent San Dales!'
Perhaps... he truly was closing in on their truth.
...
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