"Then Crown..." Cheng Shi hesitated.
Objectively, Crown's story was tragic. Bringing him up was tantamount to ripping open the scars on Brother Mouth and the others. Cheng Shi had no desire to hurt anyone — but unless he unraveled the Yu Xi question, he couldn't see the road ahead, let alone resolve the crisis at hand.
When the Fool's Lips heard Cheng Shi ntion that na yet again, it sighed.
"He isn't the Him you think he is."
Cheng Shi blinked, his gaze instantly darting to the ear. Seeing the Secret Peeping Ear remain still, he said with so surprise:
"You're willing to talk now? When I asked about your identity, you completely ignored . But the mont I ntion Crown, you open up?
Brother Mouth — isn't Crown... your past?"
"Not exactly. He is he, and I am I.
Crown from San Dales was, at most, one of the Benefactor's Seedling Followers — a confused do-gooder, a clown who stumbled into good fortune, but ultimately a mortal.
We, on the other hand, are His creations — the manifestation of Deceit's power. And also...
Never mind. I'm not even sure my guess is right, so I won't lead you astray.
You can think of us as Crown — but a failed Crown.
He missed the best opportunity to follow the Benefactor. By the ti he realized... it was too late."
Too late?
Hearing that word, Cheng Shi couldn't help but recall everything he and Ti had said during their standoff at Aph Ros's doorway. So Crown's failure had ultimately been pinned on Brother Mouth and the others?
And from the look of it, Brother Mouth seed to have already made peace with the past and accepted its failure?
Crown may have missed his chance to follow the Fun God directly, but his "fragnts" had unexpectedly beco the Fun God's creations. Wasn't that, in its own way, another form of following?
"Then, Brother Mouth — what do you and Brother Ear an by 'finding the right path'?
Is it ?
No — it's the act of
playing Yu Xi! Isn't it?"
As Cheng Shi spoke, a sudden flash of insight blazed through his mind. Sothing clicked. He bolted upright, studying the ear and tongue before him, brilliance flickering repeatedly in his eyes.
"I understand — I think I understand now. So that's what Yu Xi really is.
Brother Ear, you can hear my thoughts — am I right?"
The ear fell silent. In its place, the mouth answered.
"Right. Absolutely right. You're so incredibly clever."
"..."
The elation on Cheng Shi's face crumbled the instant he heard this "affirmation."
'That stupid mouth — did it do that on purpose?'
Using an ambiguously affirming statent to deceive him, thereby driving him to doubt himself?
Cheng Shi went quiet too. He silently sifted through his logic, replaying everything Mi Laozhang had relayed of Deceit's words. His conviction grew stronger that he'd touched Yu Xi's threshold — he just didn't know how to translate this undefined intuition into reality.
He raised the container again, thinking that perhaps to beco the true Yu Xi, he first needed to expand Yu Xi's influence.
Just as the thought ford, Cheng Shi noticed sothing: the Deceit container's drip rate of divinity was slightly faster than monts ago.
The difference was minuscule — easy to miss under normal circumstances — but with his mind so focused, he caught it. He didn't overthink it, simply assuming that soone, sowhere, had spread Yu Xi's na further. After this latest incident, "Yu Xi" had probably beco a bargaining chip among high-level players exchanging intelligence.
That worked in his favor. At least the groundwork he'd laid was paying off — the past had built a stairway to the future.
Seeing Cheng Shi lost in thought, the Fool's Lips hesitated for a mont, then offered so guidance.
Real guidance.
"Rember — fear is never an obstacle. It's fuel."
The tone was uncannily similar to the Clown of San Dales. It startled Cheng Shi, and suddenly, without knowing why, the image of Crown discovering the world was a lie in that underground passage flashed before him.
It was precisely that fear which had birthed the Clown's survival instinct and led him to the opportunity to approach Deceit. So Brother Mouth was right — fear was never an obstacle. It was fuel.
The words jolted Cheng Shi awake, wrenching him free from his recoiling paralysis. Reflecting on everything he'd woven from lies, his gaze grew ever brighter.
His fear wasn't entirely born from Oblivion's approach. Part of it ca from his other Benefactor — Fate. Though Deceit had repeatedly reassured him that Fate bore no malice, Cheng Shi trusted only his own instincts. He felt that the current Fate no longer saw a follower in him — only Fixed Destiny.
But Fixed Destiny had never been a grave. It was a weapon!
In this mont, Cheng Shi suddenly fed himself the very cake he'd once dangled before Big Cat. Why did the Destined Ones exist? Precisely because of so-called "Fixed Destiny."
So as long as this era hadn't reached its final act — as long as the universe's curtain call hadn't been perford — then under Fixed Destiny's script, Fate would never allow him to be obliterated by Oblivion!
No matter how Fate viewed him, no matter how Fate viewed Fixed Destiny — Cheng Shi needn't concern himself with what Fate obsessed over. All he needed was to leverage the fact that "he was Fixed Destiny."
Perhaps that was exactly what Deceit had ant by "relax"?
Having thought it through, Cheng Shi's face filled with emotion. He sighed deeply.
In this mont, the Destined Ones had finally beco truly destined — and Deceit's lie had finally solidified Fate's Fixed Destiny.
Cheng Shi quietly put away the ear and tongue, then asked with a complicated look: "If... if one day I truly beco Yu Xi, and the world knows only Yu Xi and not
— will I still be , Brother Mouth?"
The Fool's Lips pondered for a mont, then delivered the most earnest response it had ever given since fusing with Cheng Shi.
"Everyone wears a mask, but that mask is not you.
You are only playing it. Rember that — never lose yourself in the role.
And never let it beco you!"
A shiver ran through Cheng Shi's entire body, his expression deeply moved. The belief that "Brother Mouth would never set
up" suddenly began growing uncontrollably in his mind. He'd never thought a mouth full of nothing but lies could feel so reliable — because this statent simply didn't sound fake.
And yet...
The very next second, the Fool's Lips reminded him exactly why it was called the Fool's Lips.
"Why are you getting so worked up? I was just reciting the perforr's code of conduct from the Joy Theater. What were you even thinking?"
"..."
Cheng Shi froze. Monts later, his eyes went vacant as he pulled out a dozen cans of sli drink and began punishing himself in a suicidal binge.
Glug, glug, glug—
"..."
'That's what you get for running your mouth. That's what you get for lying. Give
back my feelings!'
The blazing sun still hung high, its heat still scorching. But the ice that had quietly lted from the Clown's heart had nothing to do with the temperature outside.
Who says lies can't heal others? If they couldn't, then why would the priest of Deceit be called a "Clown"?
In the end, it was because His first follower had used a sincere lie to save the people of an entire "world." That was why the Clown beca synonymous with Deceit's priest — an unsung savior.
...
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