Chapter 752: Who Is the Clown?

Who is the clown?

Finally back!

The moment Cheng Shi's foot stepped onto the roof of the rest area, he flung himself down onto the ground without a care for his image.

Wrecked.

Whether it was the observation and deduction during the trial, or the handling and sophistry before the audience, both left him utterly exhausted in body and mind.

At this moment, he only wanted to lie here and think about nothing, to empty himself for a bit, to let that constantly taut heart-string loosen slightly, to catch a breath.

But the wish was nice; relaxing was not going to happen. Though Cheng Shi lay on the ground doing nothing, his mind kept firing off questions nonstop.

He was "interrogating" Brother Mouth, asking it its true identity.

Whether before 【Time】 or before 【Folly】, Brother Mouth's performance... was terrifying, but this precisely proved Brother Mouth's identity was no ordinary one — very no ordinary one.

If it really was, as the Dragon King said, merely a 【Fraud】 creation that had become sentient, then how would these two deities "take seriously" a creation born from a divine-grade being?

When They conversed with — or trash-talked at — Brother Mouth, it didn't look like They were looking down at something; it looked like They were looking across at something.

So Cheng Shi grew ever more curious. From the moment he left the Void he had been relentlessly bombarding Fool's-Lips with questions, trying to pry some clue out of its mouth. But Brother Mouth, who had been so unyielding before, had now gone silent — no matter how Cheng Shi asked, it simply refused to speak.

With no choice, Cheng Shi had to toss Brother Tongue out for some fresh air, and to fish for clues on the side.

Looking at the tongue on the ground, doing nothing, contentedly spinning in circles, Cheng Shi's eyes rolled and he goaded:

"Brother Tongue, logically speaking, you're in charge of eating lies, and Brother Mouth is in charge of telling lies. By that math, it produces and you eat — you're its customer. The customer is god; your status should be above it. So why does it look like you're its little brother instead?"

Tongue-of-Lies flipped over on the ground, idly slapping its tip: "You want to know?"

Cheng Shi froze. Just as he was about to nod, he instinctively braced himself and asked warily: "What condition?"

"Hungry. Bring me something to eat."

"......"

Bro, what's the difference between that condition and just slapping me across the face?

So I have to take the slap and even say a couple of lines to play along with you?

Cheng Shi had wanted to politely refuse, but his curiosity was heart too heavy, so he asked one more: "Are you serious?"

"I can't speak falsehood, because falsehood would make me eat myself. So if you want the answer, cook first."

"......" What a cook!

Cheng Shi took two deep breaths, peeked over at the opposite rooftop, saw that Xie Yang still hadn't shown himself, and only after much hesitation spoke a falsehood: "I don't want to know Fool's-Lips's identity."

The instant the words fell, with a "slap," Cheng Shi's left cheek was adorned with a vivid crimson "rouge mark."

Tongue-of-Lies finished eating, flipped over contentedly, and lazily lay on the ground saying: "I did it voluntarily."

"?"

Cheng Shi touched his own face, dumb as a wooden chicken.

"Wait, that's it?

I took a slap just to hear you say you willingly play Brother Mouth's little brother?"

"What else? That's the question you asked, I answered, and I didn't lie. Isn't that right?"

"Then why did you do it voluntarily?"

"Burp — not hungry today, let's talk another day." Saying so, Tongue-of-Lies flipped over, wiggled twice, and went still.

"I......"

Cheng Shi panicked. He grabbed Tongue-of-Lies, gave it a hard couple of squeezes, and in a fit of pique hurled it off the roof.

But just as the tongue was about to fly past the rooftop, he reappeared at the roof's edge with a dark face and a snap of his fingers, caught the tongue, and resentfully stuffed the tongue that had slapped him into his personal space.

And right then, the backstabber arrived: "·Tch — nice little circus act."

"???"

Not Brother Mouth, did you catch 【Folly】?

I didn't close 【Folly】, and you went and closed it for me, did you?

Fine, fine, fine. Cheng Shi laughed through his anger. He plopped down on the edge of the roof, pulled out a dozen-plus cans of slime drink, and sneered:

"Today's a life-betting round. Either I disgust you to death, or I burst myself. We'll see whether you talk first, or I die first."

Saying so, Cheng Shi nimbly downed two bottles.

Now it was Fool's-Lips's turn to be speechless. It could see that if it didn't cough up some information today, this clown of a host really would burst and vomit all over this rooftop. Of course, given Cheng Shi's steadiness, death was absolutely out of the question — but the thought of these slime drinks having to pass through itself going down and then through itself coming back up......

Fool's-Lips agonized for a moment, and chose to temporarily back down.

"·What do you want to know?"

Cheng Shi got such a jolt he nearly fell off the roof. He hurriedly swept the drink bottles aside, sat steady on the roof's edge, and asked in disbelief: "Who exactly are you?"

"·Fool's-Lips."

?

Cheng Shi's brow furrowed. He thought: if this sentence was a lie, did that mean Brother Mouth admitted it had an identity?

"Your original name?"

"·Fool's-Lips."

"...... Brother Mouth, if you're going to be like this, I can only keep going!"

"·...... I'm not lying. From the moment I was born, I've been called Fool's-Lips."

Born?

"Are you really a creation of the God of Entertainment? I mean, a creation like 【Truth's Rite】 or 【Mirror-of-Delusion】!"

"·No."

"Then are you of a higher grade than those creations?" Cheng Shi was shocked — after all, 【Time】's and 【Folly】's attitudes couldn't be faked.

"·Lower."

"Even lower? Impossible!" Cheng Shi laughed in exasperation, feeling Mouth Bro was messing with him again. "Would a person talk to an ant? How could the gods possibly have the leisure to chat with an ordinary creation? Mouth Bro, tell me the truth—don't make me beg you."

"·You beg..."

"Please, please tell me the truth." Cheng Shi wore a sincere face, casually picking up a can of viscous drink.

"·... I can speak, but I don't have a station."

"Heh, you tell me if I believe that or not." Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched; he squeezed the drink can. "Then let me ask a different question—if I find all your brothers and sisters, then the complete you, would you have a station?"

"·No."

Cheng Shi curled his lip and said helplessly, "So you guys are just a bunch of talking facial features, nothing else useful, right?"

"·That's not what I mean."

"Hmm?" Cheng Shi perked up. "Then what do you mean?"

"·I'm just me. I have no brothers or sisters."

"......" Cheng Shi's expression froze on his face, but soon he whipped out the Tongue of Food Lies with a slap, pointed at the tongue on the ground, and said in a strange, sarcastic tone, "If you've got the guts, Mouth Bro, say that again."

"·I have no brothers or sisters."

"!!!"

No way—you really said it?

Cheng Shi was dumbfounded. He looked at Tongue Bro, saw that the other didn't care at all, and said in shock, "Tongue Bro, aren't you angry? The big brother you acknowledged doesn't acknowledge you!"

The Tongue of Food Lies hopped twice and said nonchalantly:

"I acknowledge him as big brother, and he doesn't acknowledge me as a brother—where's the conflict?

I call him big brother, he calls me tongue—isn't that pretty good?"

Pretty good?

Good, good, good—I get it now. You guys are using a clown to amuse yourselves, right!

Cheng Shi was so angry he forgot how to breathe. He exhaled heavily a few times, switched strategies, and started taking the warm-and-fuzzy route.

"No matter what, I always feel that brothers and sisters together count as a family.

I no longer have a 'home,' but Mouth Bro, Tongue Bro, you still do. What's more, I can help you find those brothers and sisters scattered outside again. So as long as you still long for a 'home,' long for reunion, then I'm willing to give it my all to protect this beautiful thing!"

"·Pfft—you think you're a Torchbearer?"

Cheng Shi faltered, but soon said solemnly, "For your reunion, I can be!"

"·But I don't want to reunite."

"I don't want to either!"

The tongue and the mouth spoke at the same time, dousing Cheng Shi's enthusiasm completely. But Cheng Shi still caught something off, because he felt these two "don't want to reunite" were utterly sincere—truly as if they didn't want to see those other parts.

Why?

They don't get along with each other?

But aren't the tongue and the mouth on decent terms?

Could it be that even one set of facial features has its own little cliques?

Cheng Shi was baffled. He thought for a moment, then tentatively asked:

"Who don't you want to reunite with? There must be someone you do want to see, right?

I don't know what the other parts are called or where they are, but I know there's an Ear of Prying Secrets currently at Sandlace in the Tower of Rational Substance.

Do you want to see it?"

Hearing that name, Tongue Bro twitched all over and went silent, and Mouth Bro fell completely silent.

Seeing this, Cheng Shi's brow rose, and he finally smiled.

Oh-ho, they don't get along with the ear!

Not getting along is great.

The "enemy" of an "enemy" is one's own friend. Looking at it this way, this trip to Sandlace needs to be sped up!

Just as Cheng Shi was scheming darkly about how to unite with the ear to break the Mouth Bro-Tongue Bro alliance, a shrill phone ring suddenly went off.

He paused slightly, ran into the warehouse to pick up the phone, and then heard an unexpected voice from the other end.

"Cheng Shi?"

Cheng Shi's pupils shrank; he nearly threw the phone in his hand.

It was actually her!