the truth
"How could you possibly know the conditions for activating my superpowers? Who told you?" Ren Shanshan's mouth on her forehead opened and closed.
The illusionist seemed not to hear her words and was only focused on admiring Liu Tianyi's face in the mirror.
Maybe because she suddenly touched Ren Shanshan's hands and did not give the superpower enough time to prepare, her facial features appeared neat and weird.
In the mirror, her eyebrows and eyes were aligned vertically, and her nose and mouth were also aligned, like an abstract painting paying homage to Picasso.
"Your superpower is very interesting." She joked with Ren Shanshan, "Look, I won first place in the disguise competition, even though there were only three contestants."
"Three"
"You forgot about Wang Yue." The illusionist had admired him enough and kicked the dagger away.
Ren Shanshan didn't look like she was going to laugh, but the illusionist didn't care.
Her mouth was currently located below her cheekbone. She curiously controlled her tongue to lick the corner of her mouth, tasting the slightly sweet smell of blood and the bitter chemical reagent taste of red seal oil.
She belatedly remembered that she hadn't eaten all day, and she suddenly felt hungry.
Keeping their fingers intertwined, the illusionist pulled Ren Shanshan to sit on the ground. She really didn't want to move.
"Thank you for lending me the novel, but Liu Tianyi and Wanting are not the protagonists of Malice."
"Perhaps this is Malice for you. You are playing the only 'I' in Malice that has not been changed, the police officer who solves the case, the calm and just outsider who leads the readers to observe the murderer and the victim, and the one who looks down and solves everything at the end."
Ren Shanshan was furious at being speculated by someone she hated. Her eyes, which were set far apart, were filled with rage: "This is not Malice. It's you who killed Wanting."
The Memory Master looked at her in confusion: "Why do you think Liu Tianyi is the murderer of Wanting?"
"Liu Tianyi, a loser who didn't even dare to complain after being bullied, how could she have the guts to push Wanting down the stairs?"
"You are not the murderer," Ren Shanshan sneered.
"You little villain, you repay kindness with ingratitude! Wanting took the initiative to become a class freak like you in order to save you from being bullied. And you killed her. People like you don't deserve friends!"
"Did you look at the notebook or was it Wang Yuequan who told you?"
Ren Shanshan did not answer the question, but continued to vent her anger: "You don't have the guts to push Wanting down the stairs, but you have the guts to use the name of a birthday to morally blackmail her and force her to accompany you to please those people."
"You still have the guts to post a microblog that distorts the facts to clear yourself. Even if she committed suicide, you will always be the murderer!"
Her understanding of the matter was so comprehensive that the illusionist was a little surprised: "The letter paper in the Christmas card is in your hand. Do you know Wanting?"
"I don't know Wanting." Ren Shanshan's anger turned into cold hatred. "How I wish I knew her. I hope that when I am bullied by you, someone like Wanting can come to save me."
"It's incredible that you are still alive and you even say that you believe in ghosts."
"If there really are ghosts in the world, do you have the nerve to see Wan Ting? Do you dare to tell Wan Ting what you do in college?"
"Liu Tianyi sent a message to Wang Yue saying that she saw Wanting. You are playing tricks on me." The illusionist quickly denied this guess. "No, your superpower can only control your five senses."
The illusionist pondered for a moment and concluded: "Liu Tianyi gave the express package to Wang Yue and asked Wang Yue to wait for the deliveryman to pick it up. You are that deliveryman."
Liu Tianyi's last words were written on the back of the express delivery slip, and the word "fake person" was blacked out in the deliveryman's column on the front.
Generally speaking, this kind of paper express delivery order comes in two copies. Liu Tianyi hid the sender's stub copy in the interlayer of the package, and the delivery person had the other copy.
So Ren Shanshan is the fake delivery person, and she knows the last words on the stub.
Wang Yue said that Liu Tianyi gave her the express package 5 days ago. It seems that Liu Tianyi has been continuously threatened by the fake person for a long time, so long that she gave up struggling and even believed that the fake person could send the package to Wanting who had already died.
Ren Shanshan looked at the Memory Master suspiciously: "You even forgot this. It was you who asked me to help you deliver it."
"It's really strange. You were so stupid before and believed in the existence of fake people. But today you seem to be a different person. You can even pretend to commit suicide in a serious manner. Were you just acting the past few days? Were you also so good at acting when you were friends with Wanting?"
"Oh, that's right, you're not a friend, you're just pretending to be a friend."
A malicious pleasure crept onto Ren Shanshan's misplaced facial features. The illusionist really had nothing to say in defense of Liu Tianyi. She just said calmly: "Things are not what you think."
"What is that?"
There was no need to tell Ren Shanshan the truth, but Ren Shanshan knew too much about what the illusionist wanted to know, so she patiently asked: "Aren't you curious about why I am not affected by the Withered Dynasty?"
"What does it have to do with me?"
"You're not curious because you know the answer, and because you're not affected by the withered dynasty."
Ren Shanshan said nothing.
"You really want to know who told me the conditions for activating your superpowers."
The mouth on the forehead has an advantage, which is convenient for the illusionist to observe. She saw Ren Shanshan pursed her lips, which was a nervous body movement, indicating that Ren Shanshan had a candidate for the informer in mind.
The illusionist continued to use lies to irritate Ren Shanshan: "It seems that you have the answer. Aren't you curious about the reason for the informant?"
"Why?" Ren Shanshan was not angry. She only had hatred towards Liu Tianyi and the informer. "I want to know why I told you this even if I die."
"Because you're a fool who can't even do something as simple as scaring people." The illusionist laughed in a genuine way, "I started to suspect you in the restroom of the complex building."
In fact, I didn't doubt her. The illusionist was indeed frightened at that time, but to anger Ren Shanshan, he needed to say this:
"You think you acted well, but it was full of loopholes. The most ridiculous thing is that Liu Tianyi was ready to commit suicide, but you actually came to kill her."
The Memory Master intentionally and frequently uses the third-person Liu Tianyi instead of the first-person "I" to test whether Ren Shanshan can associate it with possession.
If she could immediately think of Liu Tianyi being possessed by another body, then Ren Shanshan might know the nun who possessed Wanting.
The illusionist has always believed that Wang Yue’s body is filled with a nun. After killing Wanting, the nun did not get what she wanted, so she came to Liu Tianyi again.
Unfortunately, Ren Shanshan did not react to this. She seemed to think that Liu Tianyi had become smarter. Or maybe she had not become smarter, but Liu Tianyi had been told things he shouldn't know by the hateful informer.
"Do you think you deserve to commit suicide!" Ren Shanshan shouted this. Her anger turned a question into an exclamation. The illusionist successfully angered her.
"It's unbelievable that you think you deserve to commit suicide. How can there be someone like you in the world?"
"I'm telling you, you only deserve to be killed by humans or ghosts. If there are ghosts in the world, Wan Ting will turn into a ghost and kill you herself."
Ren Shanshan’s intense anger could not affect the illusionist, or rather, she needed Ren Shanshan to maintain this state: “But you see, I don’t have to die. I don’t think I have to die, and your collaborator also thinks I don’t have to die. You are the one who should die.”
"I knew long ago that he was not trustworthy. He was that kind of person." Ren Shanshan's anger turned into a strange fear. "I thought of that when I got the script. I clearly left a way out."
Sure enough, the person who took the Withered Dynasty from the storage room and tore off the Daobai was Ren Shanshan. She must know more.
I have to find out from her who Teacher Li who put the safe and Wang Yue who was looking for memetic suppression are. It would be even better if I could find out the identity of Professor Shen.
"When you left a way out, didn't you think I would see it? It is precisely because of this self-righteous cleverness that you can mess up everything, and your partners will give up on you."
The memory master would not tell her the truth, nor would he tell her anything related to memetic suppression. He would only mislead her and make her think that Liu Tianyi was spared from contamination because she saw Dao Bai.
Ren Shanshan taunted: "You think the swordsman won't give up on you? You don't even have superpowers. Why did he tell you so much? I agreed to help him get things, but he didn't tell me anything. I couldn't-"
The sentence stopped abruptly. Ren Shanshan seemed to realize that something was wrong. She murmured and repeated: "You don't have super powers..."
The facial features of Ren Shanshan became even more distorted and terrifying. She stared at the illusionist and said, "You cheated me!"
"Why would I need to trick you?" The Memory Master said calmly, "They have all given up on you. You are like a fish on a chopping board now."
"You are really lying to me." Ren Shanshan's face turned pale, but she calmed down. "How do you know the conditions for activating my superpowers?"
Unable to continue deceiving Ren Shanshan, the illusionist decided to change the way of asking questions: "I can tell you, but you have to answer my questions. It's fair to exchange answers for answers."
"That's not fair at all. I let you know so much, you answer my question first."
There was nothing that he couldn't answer, and the illusionist didn't want the conversation to reach a deadlock.
Although I can’t tell Ren Shanshan the whole story, I can reveal a little about her: “You told me, it was right outside the dormitory door.”
"I told you what"
"I accidentally stepped on you and knocked you down. At that time, I held your left hand with both of my hands, trying to pull you up from the ground. You subconsciously stretched out your right hand to help, but immediately retracted your hand, as if you were afraid of something."
"Is that why you think you are the protagonist of a mystery novel?" Ren Shanshan was unwilling to believe it.
"Not entirely. I first came to the conclusion that the pseudo-human was fake and that you were playing tricks. I used the result to infer that you had relevant superpowers, and then found the conditions for activating your superpowers based on the details.
"You are wearing a rare half-sleeved sweatshirt to protect your palms. It can be inferred that the activation condition is related to the hands."
"Even if your sleeves wrap your palms tightly, you are still reluctant to touch my hands at the same time. It can be inferred that the ability will only take effect when both hands touch at the same time."
Ren Shanshan believed it this time, and she had a new question: "How did you suddenly realize that the fake person was fake? You were so scared of the fake person that you wanted to die."
"Answer my question first. The Swordsman is the current Wang Yue, right? Why can he appear as Wang Yue? Who else is your partner besides the Swordsman?"
The swordsman sounds like he has nothing to do with the nun, but five years have passed, and it's normal for a super-powered criminal to change his code name.
"These are two questions." Ren Shanshan said unhappily, "Let me answer which one?"
"Let me answer the first question first. Why can the swordsman appear as Wang Yue?"
"The swordsman is Wang Yue, and Wang Yue is the swordsman."
"Then why do you call her Swordsman instead of Wang Yue?"
"You asked another question, and I refuse to answer it." Ren Shanshan said coldly.
The Memory Master sneered: "I asked this question because your answer is useless. Do you think this is nonsense literature?"
"I can also answer you this way. How I discovered that the pseudo-man was fake is a long story, but it's a long story. This is the situation."
Ren Shanshan sat in the water and looked at the illusionist indifferently. Their fingers were intertwined, connected in a very intimate posture, but they were suspicious, hostile and even hated each other.
"You don't know that, do you?" the illusionist asked suddenly. This was not to anger Ren Shanshan, because she was asking and answering her own question.
"You just don't know. You don't even know how I know the fake person is fake, how can you know the identity of the swordsman?"
Ren Shanshan still didn't say anything, and the illusionist continued to reason on his own.
"Swordsman never treated you as an equal partner from the beginning to the end."
"He asked you to pretend to be a fake person to scare Liu Tianyi, and asked you to give the Withered Dynasty to the drama club, but he didn't tell you his purpose. Did he also promise to kill Liu Tianyi?"
There was a slight sound of water in the toilet, and it seemed that Ren Shanshan's legs moved.
"He doesn't even tell you about the dangers of the withered dynasty. He just tells you to get a copy of the script, read it, and send it to the drama club."
"I'm afraid he's not sure whether the short-term amnesiac in the safe is effective, so you need to take the risk."
"Do you know why we have to read the script? Sending the script directly can save the step of injecting the medicine. The swordsman can do it himself. There is no need for you to do it for him."
Ren Shanshan's fingers clenched the back of the illusionist's hand.
"I'll tell you the truth. After you read the script and know the King of Kings, you will become the anchor of the King of Kings in the world. The Withered Dynasty can only be spread by you if you read it."
"This is the truth that the Swordsman would never tell you, but you are quite perceptive. You realized that you were in danger and no longer trusted the Swordsman, so you hid the monologue under the shelf and used it as a way out. How did you know that the monologue was useful?"
"It's one of the tasks given to you by the Swordsman. If he wants to achieve his goal, he must be free from contamination."
"That part of the dialogue is useless to those who have seen, listened to, or seen Withered Dynasty, but it is useful to those who have not seen it. It is like a vaccination. The swordsman asked you to show him this part separately so that he can gain immunity."
"What did you say?" Ren Shanshan opened her eyes wide. "This is only effective for people who haven't watched Withered Dynasty."
"Yes, it seems that the swordsman has deceived you again on this point."
Ren Shanshan was not convinced: "How do I know if you are lying to me?"
"When you asked this question, you already knew that I didn't lie to you. It was the Swordsman who lied to you."
"You don't think I believe everything the swordsman says, do you?" Ren Shanshan asked sarcastically, "I deduced everything about you and Wanting through the notebook and Wang Yue's description."
"So Wang Yue is not the swordsman. Wang Yue is Wang Yue, a junior high school classmate of Liu Tianyi and Zhao Wanting. How can the swordsman use Wang Yue's identity? Does he have relevant superpowers?"
"Why should I tell you?" Ren Shanshan asked back.
"It's not that you don't tell me, it's that you don't know." The Memory Master sighed.
"You think you are a detective who solves the case, an outsider who looks down on everything. In fact, you are just a sword in the hands of a swordsman, a sword that kills people and spreads the withered dynasty."
"Swordsman, did you agree to kill me? But you see, I am alive and well now." The Memory Master looked at Ren Shanshan with pity. "To be honest, you are a bit gullible. First you were deceived by Swordsman, and then you were deceived by me."
"No, you guessed wrong." Ren Shanshan smiled strangely, "The swordsman wanted to help me kill you, but I refused. I want to kill you myself."
"Why are you...oh, forget it."
"The swordsman didn't mean to help you kill me. He saw that I was going to commit suicide and didn't want you to cause trouble."
Ren Shanshan said stubbornly: "No, killing you is very important to me."
The illusionist didn't want to say another word to Ren Shanshan. She loosened their clasped fingers and lay down on the ground, splashing water.
The cold water covered her ears and wet her cheeks, and she closed her eyes.
"I want to make a cause of death report. The cause of death is homicide."
"Liu Tianyi was killed by Ren Shanshan during her suicide attempt."
"Report completed."
The cold water splashing on her face and the aching and hungry body all left the memory master. She appeared on the playground of Danjiang Normal University and saw Liu Tianyi and Ren Shanshan standing side by side watching the street dance club recruiting new members.
They were wearing green military training uniforms and had obviously just started school. Their relationship didn't seem as bad as it was later, and they were huddled together, chatting and laughing in low voices.
People surrounded a male college student and watched him perform a difficult street dance. The male student supported himself on the ground with his hands and performed a Thomas spin.
He didn't use the right strength when changing hands, and fell heavily to the ground, with his wrist making a crisp cracking sound.
Ren Shanshan's short scream and Liu Tianyi's faint chuckle sounded at the same time.
Liu Tianyi looked at Ren Shanshan with surprise and nostalgia, like a falcon aiming at its prey. Ren Shanshan looked back at the falcon at a loss, like a frightened prey.
A small piece of macaron-colored paper was blown into the memory artist's hands by the crisp autumn breeze. She recognized it as the cover paper that Liu Tianyi had given to Ren Shanshan to wrap the book.
The next second, macaron colors consisting of blue, pink, green and yellow spread out before her eyes.
She saw countless gorgeous patterns changing rapidly, arranged and combined in incredible ways, like the misty nebulae in the universe. Those patterns spun, flew, and piled together, as if inviting her to merge into the vortex composed of geometry.
The Memory Master stepped into this kaleidoscopic world without looking back.
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