Reality. A museum in so unknown province.
Zhen Xin stood before an exhibit composed of twelve scalpels arranged into a figure, her brow slightly furrowed.
Zero points.
Road to Ascension score: zero.
But interestingly, her Ladder of Ascent score was three—aning the Fun God had highly praised her performance in the last trial, yet Silence had been less than pleased.
Why?
Was the secret wrong? Where was the mistake?
Zhen Xin replayed each scene from her recent mory, reviewing them one by one. After the review, she once again highlighted the two points of doubt in her mind. One was the timing of Yu Xi's descent. The other was Zhang Jizu's concealnt—no, questioning—of Cheng Shi's identity.
The Death Chosen had clearly noticed sothing, which was why he'd ntioned such a precise ti as "the end of the fourth month." But looking back through Cheng Shi's mories, all he'd done at the end of the fourth month was participate in an utterly ordinary special trial—one that had nothing to do with Deceit whatsoever. His teammates had been completely unremarkable, and it couldn't possibly have been the mont he'd first encountered Yu Xi.
Or rather, across all of Cheng Shi's mories from the first six months of the Faith Ga, he'd never even known the na "Yu Xi." He must have encountered Yu Xi only within the last two months. So why had Zhang Jizu asked that kind of question?
Had Cheng Shi deceived him?
Interesting. If so, the composition of the Joker Society was quite telling.
Everyone appeared to treat each other with sincerity, yet each of them still harbored lies. This organization that drew ever closer to Yu Xi seed to have inherited Deceit's signature style—impossible to trust unconditionally.
But none of that particularly bothered Zhen Xin. After all, what connected her and Cheng Shi wasn't the Joker Society. It was that eerily similar yet completely opposite past they shared—and An Mingyu, who didn't belong to this world.
She was deeply curious about the world Ming Yu had gone to. Even more so about what other worlds beyond this one looked like, beyond the projections of Ti. The re thought of those cosmic layers—so disorienting that even a second of contemplation scrambled one's thoughts—held an irresistible allure for her. It was like being a child again, discovering the world outside the orphanage bit by bit alongside Ming Yu.
Speaking of Ming Yu...
Zhen Xin's brow creased slightly. After several recent exchanges, she could clearly sense that Ming Yu was hiding sothing from her. She didn't think that was inherently problematic, but she worried it might conceal risks that Ming Yu herself hadn't recognized—especially regarding... faith fusion.
When Fate drew close to Death, Zhen Xin couldn't help feeling it was an ill on.
That was precisely why she'd agreed without hesitation when Cheng Shi offered her a direction. She wanted to confirm that faith fusion wouldn't bring any harm to the individual, so she could put her mind at ease and focus outward on whatever other pressures Ming Yu might be facing.
Zhen Xin hadn't yet grown familiar with the Ming Yu from the other world, but as she'd said—regardless of which Ming Yu, she was still Ming Yu.
Managing the relationship with the new Ming Yu wasn't the hard part. The real difficulty was solving her biggest imdiate problem: she'd already made bold promises, but in truth she had no idea how to secure an audience with Chaos.
Should she simply pray to the Fun God, asking Him to send her to et Chaos?
No—that was far too direct. No entertainnt value. Zhen Xin knew her Benefactor all too well. You could blasphe His faith, but only if the blasphemy was amusing.
So Zhen Xin began to think, and before long she'd landed on a thod—an entertaining form of blasphemy.
She produced a notebook and began scribbling, and shortly afterward brought over a large number of archived records from the History School, rummaging through them. Of course, all of this was theater—just props to make the "scene" more convincing.
Once she'd finished, she let out a soft laugh and turned her gaze to the scalpel exhibit.
"A young lady doing such shaless things all the ti—that's really no good."
With that, Zhen Xin removed the third "leg" from the exhibit and repositioned it in the scalpel figurine's hand.
"Show enemies the blade, show friends the lie—this little clown has never been honest...
"But no matter. When one can't approach a trickster with lies, perhaps it's ti to try sincerity instead.
"Just like Hong Lin...
"She truly was a druid blessed by good fortune. Following her own heart, she stumbled onto the softest spot in the clown's soul.
"Indeed, falsehood is never truly false. It rely yearns to be real.
"And so does the clown."
After that little reverie, Zhen Xin closed her eyes with a smile. When she opened them again, the corners of her lips were already curled upward, her entire deanor transford—becoming... playful.
Those bright, mischievous eyes darted around, and it was as though a fountain of ideas had erupted inside that head brimming with wild fantasies.
"Hee-hee~
"Finally out! Let
see what my dear sister's been researching now."
No sooner had Zhen Yi spoken than she spotted her prized exhibit tampered with. She froze, her expression twisting into sothing bizarre. While restoring the scalpel to its original position with one hand, she dialed her sister with the other.
With practiced ease, she tapped Zhen Xin's na on the phone screen, and before the call even connected, she launched into a rciless barrage of snark:
"You've changed, Sis. No matter how desperate you are, you can't just go touching a strange man's third leg without his permission.
"Maybe you're ready for that, but I'm certainly not."
"...Zhen! Yi!" The line was still ringing, yet from Zhen Yi's own mouth ca a voice of an entirely different tone. "So now you'll admit we share a body? Then when soone... that ti..."
"Soone what?
"I don't recall anyone getting their little lons groped. Oooh, I know—a maiden's spring has finally arrived!
"Hee~
"If you really want to sink into a sea of desire with little Cheng Shi, your sweet and considerate little sister absolutely won't object. But you'll have to take all those mories with you, okay? Don't want to corrupt the children.
"I'm the child, by the way."
"Zhen Yi!" Zhen Xin's voice was now grinding through clenched teeth. "We agreed on a schedule—this is still my ti!"
"What? Bad signal—can't hear you—gotta go, bye!"
With that, Zhen Yi decisively hung up, her eyes sparkling with gleeful brilliance.
She surveyed the scattered books around her, flipped through her sister's notes, and before long found records pertaining to faith fusion in one of the notebooks.
So her sister had been listing all the options, weighing faith fusion.
Though Zhen Yi was adamant that she herself would never undergo faith fusion, she had no objection to her sister doing so. And when she saw that her sister had crossed out Chaos first as an elimination pick, a grin instantly spread across her face.
"Why not Chaos?
"Chaos is wonderful! The more chaotic, the more fun—isn't it?
"Hee~
"Sis just hasn't thought it through. Well then, let her adorable little sister lend a hand."
With that, Zhen Yi plopped down cross-legged on the floor and began her prayer.
"Cannot distinguish true from false, need not debate real from illusory.
"Co quick, Benefactor—Zhen Yi misses you!"
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