Mrs. Flord

"Because the Brotherhood of Extreme Desire allows no restrictions and provides support for anything that aligns with desire, the [Filth and Decay] Believer have given Morning Cheer a great deal of support, including what you see here..."

And those that are unseen.

They corrupted the younger generation of the Royal Family, causing them to lean towards trendy circus arts. Under the Royal Family 'Royal Family influence, the country's youth naturally preferred Morning Cheer to Dusk Play.

But soon, Flord realized that this kind of victory was not what she wanted, so she began to control her strength, restrain her methods, and focus on winning against Dusk Play on the 'circus level'.

She runs the troupe, discovers talents, and nurtures the next generation. With her bold and aggressive management style, Morning Cheer is thriving and developing rapidly. And then she welcomes the genius who can succeed her as the Clown, Maxford.

Maxford was the son of two of the actors who left the Dusk Play with Flord. He was immersed in the art of circus from a young age and was exceptionally talented. Flord took a liking to him and trained him to become the most capable Clown in the Morning Cheer, attracting countless audiences.

At this point, Dusk Play finally realized that he was falling behind the times and began a new transformation.

You've been there, so you naturally know more about the events at Dusk Play than I do. In short, things have come to the point where the 'battle for the Imperial City's is now underway.

Zhang Jizu's investigation was more detailed than Cheng Shi's and Zhen Xin's, but Cheng Shi's expression became extremely strange after listening to it. He wanted to interrupt him more than once to ask a question, but in the end, he listened to the whole thing before asking with a smirk:

"Hey Old Zhang, you didn't bury Flord, did you?"

Otherwise, how would they know so much?

Zhang Jizu shook his head and laughed, "This isn't what I asked. You've probably forgotten that there's another person who came to Morning Cheer with me."

As Cheng Shi Cao Cao Cao, a burly man pushed through the crowd and stood before the three. He saw the two Zhang Jizu standing very close together, still trying to distinguish them, when the real Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes, casually pointed, and pointed out Cheng Shi.

In his view, the fact that Cheng Shi and Zhen Xin came to him meant that they were ready to confront each other, and the Grand Marshal had even frankly stated that he would not disturb everyone's efforts to solve the problem. Therefore, he could finally quit this lousy job of Cheng Shi.

Cheng Shi saw Old Zhang pointing at him, he thought he had been sold out. Just as he was about to make a fuss, Hu Wei laughed and patted him on the shoulder, saying:

"Brother Cheng, you don't need to act anymore, I know it's you."

Relax, there won't be any other plans for this round. Just focus on completing your Trials and let me know if you need anything.

I ask for nothing in return, and you know what I'm thinking. Whether I can get what I want depends on how you perform, brother!

The Grand Marshal patted Cheng Shi heavily on the shoulder, making Cheng Shi's eyelids twitch.

Alright, so you two had already laid your cards on the table and were just leisurely strolling around here, huh?

Then what does my acting count as?

Pure Clown?

Cheng Shi's lips twitched violently. Seeing that his identity had been exposed, he naturally dropped his disguise and became himself again.

When Hu Wei saw Cheng Shi Shizhen appear before him, he suddenly felt a little dazed.

He gripped Cheng Shi's shoulder and muttered to himself:

"This time... it must really be Brother Cheng, right?"

Cheng Shi couldn't hold back his laughter; this was really giving his older brother PTSD.

Seeing that everyone was starting to be open and honest, "An Mingyu" naturally took off the black cloth in front of his eyes again. But when the little suit appeared in front of Hu Wei, the Grand Marshal took a half step back and took out his greatsword.

Zhen Xin, her eyes gleaming like a fox's, and tilted her head to look at Hu Wei, saying:

"Is the Grand Marshal going to put on a circus act for us?"

"Zhen Xin?"

It's not Zhen Yi!

Thank goodness.

Hu Wei's face twitched as he looked at the three swindlers in front of him, his forehead throbbing.

Fortunately, the battle-hardened Grand Marshal didn't feel embarrassed. Facing the astonished gazes of the onlookers, he laughed heartily and said:

"If it can make everyone feel good while exploring the Trials, why not take a break?"

However, I'm not skilled in this art; real acrobatics would be much more interesting if President Gong performed it."

"?"

Hearing this, Su Yida endured the blow that was not his to begin with.

What does this have to do with me?

Cheng Shi's face turned red. He always felt that the Clown had a successor, but then again, his older brother was really going all out to integrate [Deception], he didn't care about his reputation at all, he didn't know where he learned that from.

After a brief period of "chaos," the group, having revealed their identities, returned to the Trials. When the events that had occurred at Dusk Play and Lake's disappearance were mentioned, Hu Wei raised an eyebrow, turned around and left, waving for the others to follow.

The group thought Hu Wei had found the missing Lake, but unexpectedly Hu Wei led them in a roundabout way to a deserted suburb outside the Circus.

The place was deserted, a stark contrast to the bustling scene at the nearby Circus. The Grand Marshal pointed his sword forward, gesturing to a patch of soil that had clearly been renovated, and said:

"Guess what I found here?"

Cheng Shi was taken aback, thinking to himself, "Shouldn't we be wondering how you found this place?"

Seeing everyone's confusion, Hu Wei laughed heartily and cut open the newly dug soil, revealing once again a palm-sized box beneath the earth.

He used the tip of his sword to pry open the lid of the box, revealing a handful of dried ashes inside.

Just as everyone was wondering whose ashes these were, Zhang Jizu shook his head. He squatted down, picked up a handful of ashes, and carefully examined them, saying:

"There were no ashes, only embers of cloth and wood chips; it's a cenotaph."

The Grand Marshal seemed to be deep in thought when he said:

"Someone buried this thing here, it looks like they're remembering someone."

I had a guess in my mind, but I wasn't sure. I asked Brother Zhang to come so he could investigate who was buried in this 'tomb,' since it was his area of expertise.

Unfortunately, [Death] only works on the dead; tracing clues by objects still requires [Memory]. Cheng Shi blinked and immediately looked at Zhen Xin.

Based on his understanding of swindlers, he knew that once they learned that the Dragon King possessed the secret of the Clown, it would be impossible to get a piece of the past from the other party's mouth. If he didn't take the opportunity to extort a bit, he would be unworthy of the title of Clown.

Even Long Jing, who dreams of Clown every day, knows to make grand promises to the Dragon King; how much more so Zhen Xin, who knows best how to gather resources.

As expected, Zhen Xin, unable to bear Cheng Shi's questioning gaze, sighed helplessly and took out another [Memory] item from her personal space.

It was a small clump of something like grains of sand.

Who's extorting whom?

Object Remembrance: This little gadget can restore damaged items, though only as a phantom image. It's a B-rank item used to reminisce about Memory.

I've always believed that rank doesn't represent everything; it's about using it appropriately. Even a B-rank item can perform like an S-rank item.

But forget about SS; it's too far behind, there's no comparison.

As she spoke, Zhen Xin scattered all the sand in her hand, and azure [Memory] power surged forth, enveloping the ashes, and soon restored the ashes to their original form.

It consisted of a few pieces of clothing and a small wooden sign.

The clothes were ordinary, though the style was slightly flamboyant, like something an actor would often wear. But the wooden sign was anything but ordinary, because it had a line of text written on it:

The eternal Clown of the Dusk Play: Lake.

This is clearly Lake's "employee badge"!

Is this Lake's grave!?

Is he dead?

Everyone was taken aback, and they all frowned.

Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened slightly as he looked at Hu Wei and asked, "How did you find out?"

Hu Wei smiled mysteriously, "Guess who was here mourning this Clown from the Dusk Play, and I bumped into them?"

Judging from the Grand Marshal's expression, this person's identity must be very "illogical." Zhen Xin rolled her eyes and tilted her head, guessing, "It can't be Mrs. Flord, can it?"

"Even more interesting than her!" Hu Wei laughed heartily. "It's Maxford, Morning Cheer's Clown!"

"Well, not unexpected, right? I don't know if it's because we're both Clown that Maxford empathizes with Lake's plight, but when I saw him bypassing everyone's gaze, nervously passing by and casting strange glances in this direction, I knew there must be a story behind it."

"This is no longer a problem with the story."

Cheng Shi examined the illusory figure beneath his feet and said in a deep voice,

"We first need to know how Maxford knew about Lake's death?"

While Dusk Play and Golden House were still searching for people, he had already begun the memorial service.

It's hard not to suspect that Morning Cheer was behind Lake's death.

Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes slightly, and asked doubtfully, "But Mrs. Flord's wish is to win fair and square, which seems..."

"There's no conflict. She wants to win fair and square, that's true. The question is, do her subordinates think the same way?"

For example, this Maxford who secretly came to 'pay his respects'.

Before we see the Clown, we can't say whether this is a memorial service or a silent mockery.

It seems it's time to meet this prescient Clown.