Chapter 336: Straw Man

"……What exactly are you all talking about?"

Seeing the others looking at him with increasingly hostile gazes, the man felt a surge of anxiety and said tremblingly, "Mortals, wagers, the principle of fairness... what do all these mean?"

The man looked cautiously at the Gambler sitting motionless on the sofa. He only took one glance before quickly averting his eyes, his gaze filled with fear. "Could it be... that if one loses this game, they will lose their life to this demon?"

Mei Lin's mouth twitched, a strange expression appearing on her face.

Still playing dumb...

Hadn't they made themselves clear enough? The man's identity had already been exposed. Whether he was a Gridder or a Blessed One, he should have understood the situation by now, right?

Or did he think they hadn't actually seen through his facade, and that what they said was just a bluff?

... If that were the case, his acting was truly too good.

Mei Lin scrutinized the man sitting to her right. His expression was a mix of confusion and fear, and his slightly shrinking eyes held a glimmer of hope—hope that they would deny his guess and tell him this game with the demon wouldn't cost him his life...

His lips trembled slightly, turning pale from him biting down on them. From his facial expressions to the complex emotions in his eyes and his subconscious body language, everything about him was so natural, showing not a hint of performance. Even if an Oscar-winning actor were sitting here, they might not have been able to pull off such a flawless, seamless performance.

—But the facts were right there. If this man were truly the innocent mortal he appeared to be, then why, why did he possess the ability to pay a wager worth more than one copper coin?

Ning Zhe crossed his arms, his eyes playful.

To be honest, even with "Taiyi," it would be very difficult for him to perfectly act out a personality, attitude, and self-perception that didn't belong to him while stealing someone else's identity and memories. Yet, every reaction from this person was so real that Ning Zhe even began to doubt his own judgment.

Ning Zhe thought for a moment, then took out a small, withered yellow straw man, woven from wheat stalks and only the size of a palm, and placed it gently on the table.

"Is this wager enough?" he asked the Gambler.

Under the gaze of everyone present, the Gambler nodded and reached out a hand, hooking the straw man toward itself.

The Gambler accepted this wager.

"As expected," Ning Zhe nodded slightly.

This straw man was a Blessed Item that had belonged to Fan Dai Ke. When Ning Zhe stole Fan Dai Ke's identity and took on Lan Shiwen's espionage mission, he had obtained all the Blessed Items that person carried during his lifetime. This straw man was one of them.

The straw man didn't have any fancy name; it was just called a straw man, though some Gridders liked to call it a "Substitute Straw Man." If one wrote their name on it with their own blood, they would form a mysterious connection with it.

After concluding a blood pact, all physical damage suffered by the person would automatically transfer to the straw man, allowing the substitute to bear the harm—but the contract was two-way; damage suffered by the straw man would also transfer back to the Gridder who concluded the blood pact, until one of them died completely, at which point the contract would end.

Concluding a pact with a straw man provided a substitute to bear damage, but it also created a vulnerability. Once the straw man fell into the hands of others, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Therefore, Fan Dai Ke hadn't written his name on it during his lifetime. Since the blood pact could be concluded at any time, he simply carried it with him for emergencies. The Marquis hadn't expected that Lan Shiwen wouldn't give him the chance to find a substitute.

"Substitute Straw Man..." Bei Dang's eyes flickered. Both he and Mei Lin recognized the item.

The source ghost of the Substitute Straw Man was controlled by the "Flim-Misslet" family. Unlike the Soul-Calling Doll of the Dai Ke family, a small number of these Blessed Items were in circulation, and many Gridders recognized them, or at least had heard rumors of them.

"The Gambler accepted the 'Substitute Straw Man' as the wager for this round."

Mei Lin glanced deeply at the man still looking bewildered beside her, her guard rising even higher. "According to the Gambler's principle of fairness, the value of the wagers placed on the table by each player must be equal. This means this man is carrying at least one Blessed Item of equal or greater value than the 'Substitute Straw Man'!"

Or perhaps, even more extremely, he might be carrying a real ghost.

Ning Zhe silently glanced at Bei Dang and Mei Lin. These two were indeed prepared. "It seems they are both carrying more than one Blessed Item."

Ning Zhe couldn't determine exactly which Blessed Items Bei Dang and Mei Lin were carrying for the time being, and he didn't have the time to do so. He had returned to the opera house only to retrieve the Yellow Calendar from the Gambler; everything else was just an interlude.

"I designate the next person to place a coin to be you."

Ning Zhe reached out and pointed at the man across the table. The person who had just finished placing a coin could designate who would go next; that was the game rule, even if he had lost.

"Why target me like this!" the man gritted his teeth, his eyes reddening as he argued, "I don't understand what you all are suspecting, but I truly know nothing. It is absolutely not what you think. Until just now, I didn't even know you! I was just..."

The Gambler raised a pale, liver-spotted palm, cutting off his plea. The man, who still wanted to argue, immediately fell silent, and with a sense of grievance, picked up a copper coin from the table and cautiously pinched it over the wine glass.

Ning Zhe watched the man's flawless acting with interest, wondering how on earth he managed it.

He didn't dwell on this question for long. Taking advantage of the brief freedom granted by becoming a "loser," Ning Zhe left the sofa and walked to the edge of the viewing stand, pulling down the curtain to block himself from the others—as long as he didn't leave the gambling area, which was this room, the Gambler wouldn't interfere.

Under the cover of the curtain, Ning Zhe leaned against the railing and took out his notebook. While pondering the current situation, he flipped it open, habitually checking to see if Xia Yubing had left him any messages.

"Hm?"

Seeing the new content on the paper, Ning Zhe's eyes grew grave.

After reading it carefully, a moment later, a captivating smile bloomed on Feng Yushu's mature and beautiful face, like a red plum swaying in the wind, shaking off fresh snow from its branches—a breathtaking sight.

(End of Chapter)