Under Cheng Shi's prodding, Zhang Jizu added a small formation to the door's seal — one extra, utterly aningless "audience seat."
Then Cheng Shi led him into the marketplace crowd.
Mi Laozhang was sharp. Before the other three arrived, he too spotted the problematic young man at the foot of the stairs. But what puzzled him was that Cheng Shi apparently had no plan to abduct the NPC — the clown was actually waiting for three other "clowns" to clear the path.
"Aren't you worried they'll snatch the key figure and use him to track you down — or take what you want directly?
Cheng Shi, I found the right person, but the other 'Cheng Shi' is equally flawless.
Most importantly, this Zhen-family disguise you're wearing is too perfect. Aside from the real Zhen player, the other three haven't spotted a crack. Aren't you afraid they'll help the other 'you' find the Secret Peeping Ear?"
"I have a rough guess why Dragon King ca. He probably wanted the Secret Peeping Ear as an entry ticket to the Jokers.
As for Long Jing — heh, let him bounce. Not worth worrying about. Acrobats do love hopping around.
But Zhen Xin... I'm sure she's Zhen Xin. If it were Zhen Yi, I wouldn't have been the only one who arrived ahead of everyone else.
Though her state is curious. She rigidly follows 'performance protocol' — a completely different beast from her chaos-mongering sister.
Still, the Zhen family is absurdly overpowered. Two personalities but two sets of talents? That's blatant cheating."
The mont the words left his mouth, Zhang Jizu hit him with a "listen to yourself — aren't you a dual personality too?" look of withering contempt.
"Indeed, such people could be called cheaters. Pity that Order never did punish cheaters."
"?"
'Mi Laozhang — are you taking a shot at her, or at ?'
Cheng Shi side-eyed Zhang Jizu, certain there was a subtext.
Zhang Jizu smiled and moved on. "I assud you'd impersonate that NPC — like you did with Pro To."
Cheng Shi waved it off. "Seem real when fake. Seem fake when real. If I don't give them a genuine NPC, how will they believe the lead hasn't been tampered with?
Patience. A vanishing act on an empty stage earns no applause.
Only when you fool the audience right before their eyes do you earn genuine cheers."
Cheng Shi had reason to be confident. The Secret Peeping Ear was already in hand. He was here solely to probe the secrets about Brother Mouth's origins hidden in San Dales.
But Mi Laozhang didn't know that. He assud Cheng Shi had spent three hours planting an elaborate trap, waiting for the other three clowns to walk in.
Speaking of Pro To — now that their identities were clear, Cheng Shi was curious: when exactly had Mi Laozhang confird the escaped person was him?
Before the hint, or after?
He asked. Zhang Jizu squinted and glanced over.
"Before Pro To appeared, I could only confirm the Cheng Shi in front of
definitely wasn't you — but I didn't know where you were. After Pro To showed up, I figured it was probably you."
Cheng Shi's lip twitched. "So that's why you held the dagger to my neck — giving yourself a chance to verify?"
"No. I just thought it was inefficient of you to leave without saying hello, so I wanted to stab you. You were the one who lost patience and tapped Morse code into my arm with your fingertips to tell
you were the real Cheng Shi.
Cheng Shi — I know Morse code. I know you tapped profanity.
But I must warn you: the fake Cheng Shi was watching your every move. That behavior was not steady."
Cheng Shi's face went completely dark. Dripping sarcasm:
"I'm not steady?
If I'd stayed quiet any longer, you'd have offed
for real.
How do I know your current smugness isn't covering for the fact that you didn't actually see through
at the ti?"
Zhang Jizu shot him another withering glance — the kind reserved for watching a baboon throw a tantrum.
"Finding the real you might have been tricky. But spotting the other Cheng Shi's flaws wasn't hard.
You've never once spoken that lord's divine na aloud. So the mont 'he' said 'Death,' he couldn't be you.
And that wasn't his only slip.
His performance was excellent — even nailed your Fate personality's talents. But he was an actor, not a director. He could demand perfection of himself but couldn't control every extra sharing the stage.
On the way here, we ran into a scavenger scout who, in his panic, bumped into 'you.'
I later examined the scavenger. He was old and feeble, barely any strength. So I concluded that the collision was an illusion.
That stumble was the fake Cheng Shi's last-ditch effort to avoid 'clipping through.'
He didn't use dice to swap positions — he used an illusion to mask his body and jumped down manually. He just hadn't reached the 'stage' in ti and showed a brief crack when reacting to the unexpected.
That was when I suspected that Cheng Shi was being impersonated by the Zhen family."
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow, acknowledging Zhang "Steady"'s terrifying eye for detail. But then suspicion crept across his face.
"Sharp brain. But Mi Laozhang — you didn't secretly fuse Truth behind my back, did you?"
Zhang Jizu's face darkened. "I've already fused Deceit. How could I also fuse Truth?"
'Who said he fused...'
Cheng Shi blinked, instantly went "oh," and clamped his mouth shut.
But that single-syllable "oh" made Zhang Jizu's eyes narrow. A massive question mark blood in his mind.
'Could there be... a third faith in this ga?'
Cheng Shi said nothing more. Zhang Jizu followed his silence. They played San Dales NPCs, tailing the other "selves" when they arrived, witnessing San Dales' past scene by scene.
When they saw Crown sobbing helplessly on his makeshift market stage, Cheng Shi's face tightened. "The mont is coming."
He'd connected every thread — past and present — and finally deduced how that theater had ended up carpeted with torn bodies.
Sure enough, the residents soon stord Crown's Joy Theater to denounce the clown. And at the very front, the person who kicked down the door first — was Cheng Shi himself!
He charged in first. Mi Laozhang followed, creating a brief commotion at the entrance to buy ti for Cheng Shi to find his target.
When Cheng Shi located Crown on stage, the two liars — right under the noses of a furious mob and before the three teammates could follow — pulled off a brazen switcheroo. A live-swap, perford in broad daylight.
Cheng Shi took Crown's place on stage, becoming the clown. The real Crown was spirited away by Mi Laozhang. The rhythm mirrored Dolgod, where Cheng Shi had entrusted Turadin to Mi Laozhang — once again making the Death Chosen the trial's linchpin.
The reason for abducting Crown: they were theorizing that Crown was Yu Xi's predecessor. That was what Cheng Shi told Mi Laozhang, at least. For himself, he leaned more toward Crown being the "original body" of Brother Mouth and the others.
Throughout the Return of the Past sequence, Cheng Shi had repeatedly asked Brother Mouth about Crown's true identity. No answer ever ca.
Not from the Lips. Not from the Tongue. Not from the Ears. Total silence.
Which only hardened his suspicion. So before the final curtain, he wanted to pull one last move.
Honestly — he and the other "himself" had arrived at the sa idea.
Zhen Xin's Cheng Shi wanted to resurrect Crown and test whether it was possible to collect all mask fragnts painlessly. The real Cheng Shi wanted exactly the sa thing.
If Brother Mouth and the others were born from Crown's fragntation, then saving Crown inside the Return of the Past might complete all the fragnts at once!
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. So he'd pulled Mi Laozhang into this grand heist: Mi Laozhang took the real Crown; Cheng Shi took the clown's place and died amid San Dales' historical fury.
He didn't even ask Mi Laozhang for a revival contingency. This suprely clever clown had already calculated that sobody would revive him.
That sobody was the person impersonating him who refused to break character: Zhen Xin.
So ultimately, this performance's finale was woven from countless liars' lies, threaded together by a single clown.
Cheng Shi simply stood on higher ground, pointing the other swindlers in a direction — then waited quietly for the last act.
And now the last act had arrived. The "Cheng Shi" who'd been fooled throughout the entire story had, at the final mont, personally resurrected the real Cheng Shi.
What ending could be more fitting for this absurd theater?
And when facing Zhen Xin directly, his curiosity was finally answered. She hadn't been adhering to any "performance protocol" — she'd simply fooled herself too.
"Have you always been like this?" The clown's expression was strange.
"Like what?"
"I an — have you always been fooling yourself like this?"
...
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