"Jokers..."
Zhen Xin savored the na, then looked at the two clowns before her. Sothing nagged at her:
'This feels like an organization born from two clowns cracking jokes at each other. Is this... actually a real organization?'
She pressed her lips together. Instead of agreeing imdiately, she asked again:
"Everyone in the Jokers... knows the secret of that world?"
"Of course!" Cheng Shi's tone was absolute. "Everything you want to know about Them can be answered within the Jokers.
We hold far more divine secrets than ordinary players — even peak players. And those secrets are sothing the History School could never collect.
Because the Land of Hope carries only Their will — not Their secrets.
Moreover, Dragon King is also a Joker. Even with his understanding of mory, he still needs the Jokers to find answers about Them. That tells you how close we are."
Hearing this, Zhen Xin fell into thought. Mi Laozhang's eyelid leaped.
'Loads of divine secrets in the Jokers?'
'Since when?'
'I'm a so-called founding mber — how co I don't know any of this?'
Apart from "Yu Xi," he couldn't recall hearing much. And Li Jingming's actual enrollnt was still debatable. Could he really be counted?
"..."
'This lying clown — did he recruit Li Jingming the sa way?'
'Playing both sides?'
'Where does that leave ? Accomplice?'
Zhang Jizu stayed silent. When he felt Zhen Xin's suspicious gaze, he returned a mysterious smile and said nothing more.
That enigmatic smile served as tacit confirmation of Cheng Shi's claims. Zhen Xin was sold.
Or rather — she'd been sold from the start. Judging by the two people present, the Jokers' intel ca mainly from Cheng Shi. This clown who'd fused all of Void carried an absurd number of secrets. But more than the secrets themselves, what fascinated her was where they ca from.
Being the second window to information would never match controlling the primary source. As the History School's operator, Zhen Xin understood this intimately. She wanted to use the Jokers to get closer to the source — and this had been one of her reasons for the mory exchange.
Add the fact that his "orphan" past mirrored her own. Shared roads erode bias and caution.
One drenched soul had no reason to mock another in the sa rain — especially when this particular wretch had once held an umbrella for her best friend.
But sentint aside, Zhen Xin never dropped her shrewdness.
After careful deliberation, she reasoned: an organization containing two Chosen Ones plus a liar who'd fooled her suggested the others couldn't be lightweights either.
Decision made. She extended her hand and clasped the clown's firmly.
"I'm a magician, but I believe I can play a stage-singing jester convincingly enough.
So — pleasure working with you, Jokers."
"Pleasure's ours, Ms. Magician. But I must warn you — keep that pes— that trickster sister from finding out. We're a low-key outfit. Can't handle the chaos."
"Relax. She never accesses my mories."
"Let's hope so..." Cheng Shi's tone was a cocktail of emotions, clearly still scarred.
Watching this seemingly harmonious scene, Zhang Jizu's eyes narrowed to threads.
'Strange. Profoundly strange.'
He'd never imagined sharing an organization with Zhen Yi's... sister.
He'd already found the Jokers' creation absurd. Now it seed that earlier absurdity was rely the prologue to true absurdity.
And the future absurdity would surely go further still.
'Think about it — a pack of liars running together. What good could possibly co of it?'
Yet the most powerless part was: he was one of them. And as Cheng Shi's "vision" kept expanding, Zhang Jizu found himself gradually accepting the absurdity. Even... looking forward to it.
'If you don't understand more, how can you bury anything? Right?'
The ambition was grand. But Mi Laozhang didn't dare confront the changes in himself head-on. He could only bla Deceit's subtle influence on his psyche — with Cheng Shi fanning the flas throughout.
He sighed. Since Zhen Xin was now "one of them," there was no need to hide anything further. In front of both, he reached into his right pocket and produced another... docunt.
This one was much shorter. More of an addendum.
"???"
Cheng Shi and Zhen Xin both froze. But within monts, both realized what Mi Laozhang had done.
This Steady zealot had transcribed two versions before they arrived!
With outsiders present, he'd only shared the incomplete — or false — version. Only when the outsider beca an insider did he fill in the gaps.
"..." Being so thoroughly guarded, Zhen Xin stiffened — then broke into strange applause. "Every dose of caution I learn from you two reminds
how much my craft still needs work. Truly — anyone who draws close to Him stops being trustworthy.
Mi Laozhang, you've really changed."
When Zhen Xin said "Mi Laozhang" wearing Cheng Shi's face, Zhang Jizu hadn't batted an eye. But hearing the sa nickna from her real face and voice, he spent a full minute smoothing down goosebumps.
Sothing about that "mī" sound from those lips felt like it should be followed by "mī-squinty-eyes."
Zhen Yi PTSD had struck again.
Cheng Shi didn't care about their exchange. Brow furrowed, he took the note and scanned it — just a few simple lines.
The Fun God had actually left Zhang Jizu one more ssage before departing. And it was sothing neither Cheng Shi nor Zhen Xin could ever have guessed.
Because He'd said:
"By the way — that little War girl is awfully pitiful. Since she needs lifesaving so badly, next ti you see Old Bones, why not introduce her?
Old Bones has nothing better to do anyway. If I don't drum up so entertainnt for Him, I just feel... uneasy.
Mm — one must care for the elderly. Enrich their twilight years as much as possible."
...
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