Cards on the Table

The President, clad in his silver mask, silently stared at Zhang Yuanqing, his gaze beneath the mask deep as an abyss. Zhang Yuanqing held his gaze without flinching. A prolonged silence settled over the room. Neither spoke. Distant clamor and car horns drifted in from outside the window from time to time as the two men stared each other down in silence. Suddenly, the President gave a light chuckle. "What makes you think I'm your uncle? Outstanding though he is." Who else but the family disgrace himself could utter something so shameless! Rolling his eyes, Zhang Yuanqing said: "Back when you arranged to meet me at Grandma's house, I grew a bit suspicious afterward. Zhang Zizhen was guarded even around members of the Xiaoyao Organization, never revealing his real-world identity. Yet you knew his wife and son like the back of your hand, and even knew where his mother-in-law lived. That makes no sense. Why would he trust you like that? But if you're his brother-in-law, it all adds up." The President countered, "Foolish. Have you forgotten the dog back in Songhai?" Zhang Yuanqing replied: "True, you could have learned Zhang Zizhen's identity through other means, just like that dog did. But what about my mother? "Chen Shu is such an obstinate, conceited woman. Would she really take my father's clone abroad just to work for you? What reason did she have to trust you unconditionally? And the Relief Society that you painstakingly built up—you were actually willing to leave it in the hands of an ordinary woman to manage. During the struggle for the Compass of Light, you emptied your entire fortune and fought tooth and nail to secure a core fragment, only to hand it over to my dad. "If there wasn't a special relationship between you two, I wouldn't believe it for a second." This time, the President didn't refute him. "Go on." "A long time ago, I was utterly baffled as to why Little Doubi was so keen on stealing your wallet. He has a treasure-seeking ability, and at first, I thought he was after cash. Back then, I had only just become a Spirit Realm walker and didn't understand how the treasure-seeking mechanism worked. Later, I realized that he couldn't care less about ordinary money—he's only sensitive to items belonging to Spirit Realm walkers. "You've exposed far more than just that. The president of the Merchant Guild is Chinese. I remember back when you were young, Uncle, you dreamed of wandering the world with a sword, so you ran away from home for several years. You never once talked about what you went through during that time. You had Mr. Bill deliver the precious Perfect Human Skin into my hands, and you wanted to groom me to become the Lord of the Sun. Aside from someone who considers me their true successor, I really couldn't imagine who else would show me such blatant favoritism. During my time in New York, even though you tried to cover it up, the personality you showed was just too much like our family disgrace—even down to your taste in clothes." Zhang Yuanqing poured out everything he had been holding in for so long in one breath. "When I was a kid, the whole family found it strange. Aunt was such a sharp woman—how could she have fallen for a family disgrace like you, and even put up with Grandma's difficult temper for your sake? It couldn't possibly be because you're a half-baked rapper." The President said displeasedly, "Don't talk about your uncle like that. I believe your uncle is an excellent rapper." "It doesn't matter what kind of rapper he is. I have another piece of ironclad proof," Zhang Yuanqing scoffed. "Once I realized you might be our family disgrace, I finally remembered why Diana looked so familiar. When Brother Bing and I staked you out on the red-light street when we were kids, I saw her! I saw with my own eyes as she welcomed you into a hair salon. Hmph, I'm going to tell Aunt." "Fine, you win. I'll stop acting," the President conceded. "Yuanzi, Diana and I are completely innocent. Back then, she was a dispatched operative from the Foreign Affairs Department sent to China to gather intelligence, just like Annie. During my travels abroad, I saved her life twice. After she came to China, she got in touch with me. It was through her that my ties with the Association of God of Beauty grew deeper and deeper, eventually leading to our alliance." With that, he took off the mask, revealing a face that was handsome yet flamboyantly roguish, fine crow's feet framing the corners of his eyes. It was none other than his uncle, the family disgrace. His uncle extended a hand toward him. Zhang Yuanqing reached out in response, and uncle and nephew bumped shoulders, reaching a mutual understanding. During his time in New York, as his interactions with the President deepened, Zhang Yuanqing had pieced together his identity. In truth, his uncle hadn't gone out of his way to hide it either, dropping hints all along—like matching clothing tastes, arranging to meet him at home that day, or indulging Little Doubi's wallet theft. These were all signals his uncle had deliberately sent. Otherwise, with the status and abilities of a Void demigod, there was no way Little Doubi could have stolen his wallet, and his manners and sartorial style could easily have been concealed without a trace. Yet because his uncle hadn't stated it outright, Zhang Yuanqing had simply played dumb. After all, back then he was still a Saint, and his uncle had kept a great deal hidden from him. Previously, keeping quiet could be justified by his low level, but now that he had become a Dominator, he was qualified to participate in high-level power plays. His uncle no longer had any reason to keep secrets from him. Thus, Zhang Yuanqing was tired of pretending and chose to lay all his cards on the table. Leaning back on the sofa, his uncle crossed his legs, plucked a goblet out of the void, and said: "You've probably guessed Palace Mistress's identity as well, haven't you?" Zhang Yuanqing rolled his eyes. "Jiang Yu'er. I've known it was her for ages." His aunt had exposed herself even earlier: Little Doubi stealing her underwear and loving to hug her calves, Palace Mistress's unreasonable favoritism toward him, along with countless coincidental details. Zhang Yuanqing had suspected Palace Mistress was his aunt back during the Little Red Riding Hood incident. But back then he had still been a greenhorn and hadn't known that the Musician profession could create flesh-and-blood clones. Seeing Palace Mistress and his aunt appear at the same time had completely fooled him. "Actually, once I guessed Aunt's identity, I suspected you even more. Aunt used teleportation items more than once, and reusable teleportation items at that. The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter and the President of the Merchant Guild had zero overlap, but Jiang Yu'er and the family disgrace are brother and sister. Little Doubi was also proof that exposed both of you—how could a little infant spirit naturally align with the treasure-seeking skill of the Void profession?" Zhang Yuanqing held forth smoothly. His uncle immediately dropped a rap verse: "Foolish Yuan-child, don't look down on that wild child, He's a gift from your great uncle, born mild!" He's been single-rhyming for half his life; when did he learn how to double-rhyme? Mocking his uncle's rhymes in his mind, Zhang Yuanqing asked: "Wasn't he a gift from Aunt?" "You could say that too. The child died in a difficult birth. Yu'er noticed his spiritual energy was abundant and well-suited to becoming a spirit servant. Unwilling to let him disperse like that, she begged me to endow him with special traits, then brought him home as a congratulatory gift for you becoming a Night Wanderer." Damn it, you two were playing me from the very start! Zhang Yuanqing grumbled internally, then asked: "Does Grandma know Aunt's true background?" "Of course she does. Yu'er wasn't cut out of her own belly—how could she not know? But when Zhang Zizhen fostered her with your grandma back then, he only said she was a friend's orphan whose parents died in a car accident and had no surviving relatives. Neither your grandfather nor grandmother were Spirit Realm walkers, so he never brought up the Chu family," his uncle replied. "No wonder. No wonder Grandma kept forcing Aunt to go on blind dates—she knew Aunt wasn't twenty-five, but a twenty-seven-year-old woman." Realization dawned on Zhang Yuanqing. Palace Mistress's age hadn't matched his aunt's, something that had puzzled Zhang Yuanqing in the past. Looking back now, to cover up her identity, his aunt's age had been lowered on paper. But Grandma knew her real age, which was why she was so desperate to marry her off. Not having had a boyfriend at twenty-seven was quite mind-boggling, even in a metropolis like Songhai. Furthermore, back when the Xiahou family came to Songhai to seek revenge against Palace Mistress, they had used their connections in the Public Security Bureau to investigate household registries of age-eligible women across Songhai. They hadn't found Palace Mistress. In hindsight, it made total sense that they came up empty. Grandfather was a former public security captain—altering a household registry would have been child's play for him. "Actually, your mother originally intended to raise Yu'er as a child bride. She brainwashed her every day, saying that if she had a son, she'd marry her to him, so they'd be one true family. Yu'er ate it right up because her family had been torn apart from childhood, and she craved familial affection." His uncle clicked his tongue. "But your father died young, forcing her to flee abroad, leaving Yu'er at your grandma's house. Your grandma raised her for over twenty years, coming to see her as her own daughter. How could a daughter get romantically involved with her grandson? The very thought felt utterly revolting to her, so she was especially on guard. Whenever Yu'er got close to you, she'd blow her top." Suddenly, I understand why Chen Shu irrationally hates Sister Guan Ya! Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself. At the same time, he realized why Grandma had beamed with joy upon learning he had a girlfriend, even encouraging them to move in together. "Chen Shu took Zhang Zizhen's clone abroad back then, right? Uncle, do you know where the clones of Chu Shang and Master Wuhen are?" Zhang Yuanqing asked expectantly. Back then, the Xiaoyao quartet had entered the trial with a resolve to die, hoping to unravel the secrets of the Spirit Realm. They had all left clones behind in the real world so that in the event of death, the Chu family could use the Mother Goddess's Womb to resurrect them. Now, aside from Zhang Zizhen's clone, which Chen Shu had taken abroad, the clones of Chu Shang and Master Wuhen were nowhere to be found. The former had died twenty years ago, and the latter had perished this year. "I don't know; I wasn't very familiar with them," his uncle said irritably, before shifting the topic. "But your dad definitely knows. As long as your dad is resurrected, Chu Shang and Master Wuhen can be revived as well. But the Mother Goddess's Womb is with the Soldier Master sect. Resurrecting your dad is next to impossible." "Can't we just find Demon Eye?" Zhang Yuanqing said, taking it for granted. His uncle gave a slight shake of his head. "Zhang Zizhen was a peak Dominator. The instant he's resurrected in the Northwest, Asura would sense it immediately. You succeeded in resurrecting last time because you were like an ant in Asura's eyes. When you sleep, do you care if an ant crawls past you?" Though it bruised his ego a bit, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't dispute it. "Then we can only bide our time for another opportunity. Maybe we can get Heavenly King Demon Eye to steal the Mother Goddess's Womb. We'll discuss that later. By the way, is Cousin a Spirit Realm walker?" He asked this question full of anticipation. "He's your grandfather's successor, not mine." His uncle shrugged. "Yuanjun is just an unpromising mortal." "You're a demigod, yet your only child isn't even a Spirit Realm walker?" Disappointment crept into Zhang Yuanqing's voice as he eyed his uncle sideways. "Does a demigod have to sire a Spirit Realm walker? The Taiyi Sect Master has countless offspring, and fewer than a tenth are Spirit Realm walkers. And the demigods of the Spirit Realm clans have acted as breeding studs for a hundred years—how many Spirit Realm walkers did they manage to produce?" Taking a sip of red wine, his uncle scoffed: "Besides, just because Yuanjun isn't one now doesn't mean he won't become one in a few years. Didn't you only get your character card this year, and that was after I went to great pains to snatch it from the Demon Lord for you?" Zhang Yuanqing's heart stirred. "Speaking of the Demon Lord, Uncle, I was just about to tell you: the Demon Lord appeared in the killing trial. To be precise, it was his lingering obsession. It was he who used my body to summon the sun, shatter Taiyin's concealment, and restore Morality Points." "What?!" His uncle sprang straight up from the sofa, his expression losing its composure like never before. "Impossible! There's no way the Demon Lord could have any obsession left behind!"