Not long after setting out, they ran into Bailing, her face flushed as she came down between a row of seats.
He looked the Filth and Decay believer up and down a few times, apparently wanting to see how the battle had gone.
Unfortunately, Bailing had cleaned herself up well, and nothing could be discerned.
"Big shot, did you find anything?"
"I found one of your colleagues."
Bailing didn't seem surprised, but she still pretended to be shocked and covered her mouth. "Are they as skilled as me?"
"?"
Cheng Shi felt that his skin was still too thin. He decisively changed the subject. "Forget that. What did you find?"
He regretted asking the moment the words left his mouth, because Bailing hadn't searched the area at all just now.
But unexpectedly, Bailing really did seem to have found something.
She licked the corner of her mouth, the flush on her face not yet faded, and pointed at her own face with a giggle.
"Do you think I found anything?"
She was lying.
Cheng Shi smiled brightly. "To be honest, you're not very good at lying. Or rather, you can't hide what you're thinking. Just tell me—we're all in a hurry."
Bailing's expression froze, then she narrowed her eyes and smiled. "As expected of a big shot. Your powers of observation are amazing."
Mine are even better, but I can't tell you that.
Cheng Shi winked at Bailing, signaling her to keep it brief and save time.
Bailing understood. She pointed in a certain direction and said, "I found several men I ran into at the tavern. There might be a clue among them."
"?"
Cheng Shi looked toward the enormous stands and frowned.
Finding the same individual in adjacent memories was indeed a good thing. Often, the memory subject only recalled a previous scene after seeing someone they had encountered before.
This was also how players solved most Memory trials: by sorting through chains of relationships to find the next target.
Although the connection between two memory scenes might not be very deep, finding even the slightest clue was better than nothing.
Cheng Shi understood the logic. The problem was, in this vast sea of people, how had Bailing found those men so quickly?
Bailing saw the doubt in Cheng Shi's eyes. She extended one finger and tapped his forehead, then withdrew it and tapped her own ample chest.
Cheng Shi followed her "guidance" and looked over...
"Gulp."
That's huge.
Seeing that Cheng Shi was staring blankly, Bailing chuckled softly. "Big shot, you can stop pretending. My talent can materialize men's desire to possess me, allowing me to sense in detail how they covet every inch of my skin. You clearly don't feel anything for me, so why pretend to look like a lecher?"
"Uh, you have a talent like that?"
Cheng Shi saw that he had been found out, but he wasn't embarrassed. He clicked his tongue twice and looked away.
"I wasn't pretending. After all, everyone appreciates beauty."
"Are you pitying me?" Bailing blinked, her seductive expression turning innocent.
"Who would pity whom?" Cheng Shi chuckled casually. "Maybe I like men?"
Bailing burst out laughing. She stepped forward, hooked her arm around his, and said gleefully, "If you dare say it, I dare believe it. Sister Cheng, come on, let's save time."
Cheng Shi wore an expression like he was suffering from constipation as she dragged him along. He endured the rubbing of that soft mass for a while before finally tugging at his arm and struggling with a wry smile. "I was only joking."
Bailing didn't let go at all. She became even more amused. "Don't worry. Your little sister here knows how to keep her mouth shut."
"..."
With no choice, Cheng Shi changed the subject. "Why don't you guide them into breaking free from the memory yourself?"
"Your little sister can't do that. I can only guide them into flights of fancy. If I did that, what you saw wouldn't be my solo performance anymore. Everyone in the circus would have to put on a show immediately... a riding show, at that."
Cheng Shi knew she was right. If she really found the memory subject and lured him, it could indeed cause the memory to become chaotic.
Once a memory began to destabilize, the entire memory would rapidly shatter.
"So you people do value your lives quite a lot."
You people naturally meant the believers of Filth and Decay.
Bailing nodded decisively.
"Of course. Only by staying alive... can we... do more... right?"
Cheng Shi's face went dark as he automatically censored the words that couldn't be repeated.
When he followed Bailing to the several "acquaintances," he recognized them at a glance. They were indeed the burly men who had been drinking and bragging in the tavern scene.
"Do you mind telling me how you found them?"
Cheng Shi looked at Bailing with some curiosity. What he really wanted to know was what her talent actually did, but his instincts told him that even if he asked, Bailing wouldn't answer.
Bailing smiled at Cheng Shi and replied, "Everyone has different preferences. Some people like waists, some like legs, and some like..."
Got it.
"What do you like?" Bailing licked her moist red lips.
Me?
I like being alive.
Cheng Shi ignored her and began quietly approaching the targets, casting Hypnosis on each of them.
However, after questioning them one by one, more than a dozen people turned out not to be the final answer.
Both their expressions darkened.
"These people were indeed within the servant's field of vision. Since none of them are the answer, did the servant recall the previous scene after seeing some object?"
If an object was involved, it would be far too difficult to find.
For the same reason—the venue was simply too large.
"Let's notify the others first and narrow down the search area."
Cheng Shi sighed helplessly, then spent some more time calling Fang Shiqing and the others back.
She and Xu Lu had been responsible for the area around the VIP seats, but their direction had been wrong from the beginning, so they naturally found no clues.
A'ming, however, stammered that there seemed to be special service workers in the stands conducting some unspeakable and filthy transactions with the audience.
Everyone merely treated it as something amusing to hear and quickly ignored it.
They had encountered such things far too often and were already accustomed to them.
Compared with the chaos around the VIP seats, the stands where the poor commoners sat were far more orderly.
After their first exchange of information, Fang Shiqing furrowed her brows and said, "Keep looking. The memory subject must be in the ordinary stands. The performance onstage hasn't gone wrong at all, which means he's been watching it the whole time. Pay attention to the audience members who are watching the performance intently. We'll split up and meet again in an hour."
"Mm, all right."
"Whatever the big shot says goes."
"No objections."
Everyone quickly split up, and Cheng Shi once again began weaving through the stands alone.
He frowned. Instead of going to the area assigned to him, he moved between the rows of seats with his head lowered, as if searching for a particular target.
He was looking for the "dwarf-assembled orc girl."
Fang Shiqing's summary had reminded him that if someone had never come into contact with the "dwarf-assembled orc girl," Cheng Shi couldn't possibly have seen the dwarves beneath the beast hide getting dressed.
Therefore, the memory subject of this scene must have interacted with the "dwarf-assembled orc girl," and might even have known that she wasn't actually "one" "person."
Who would interact with someone while knowing full well that they weren't a normal special service worker?
Cheng Shi swore that, with his ordinary person's brain, he truly couldn't think of anyone.
But not being able to think of someone didn't mean he couldn't find them.
So he began searching for traces of the Orc girl.
People were constantly coming and going throughout the circus, and there was no real Order. This was especially true in the ordinary stands, where various shouts rose and fell, making them no different from the tavern.
As a result, his movements didn't attract much attention.
Before long, Cheng Shi found his target—the "dwarf Orc girl."
At that moment, "she" was writhing coquettishly in an audience member's arms.
In the literal sense.
Cheng Shi stared in astonishment. He really wanted to observe up close what they were doing, but he quickly spotted a familiar face around the Orc girl, one that delighted him.
Yorke.
The duke's coachman mentioned by the drinkers—the ruthless man who had suddenly struck it rich and then slept with the Orc girl.
Cheng Shi's lips curled up. He felt that his guess had been right.
"As expected, I found him."
Yorke was wearing a straw hat, which covered his eyes. Beneath the brim, his gaze kept shifting between two targets.
One was the stage, and the other was the Orc girl's location to the front right.
Actually, he wasn't the only one. The surrounding audience members were also intentionally or unintentionally sneaking glances in that direction. But since the Orc girl's movements were restrained and the noise wasn't loud, it hadn't caused much of a commotion.
The other audience members were all watching the Orc girl's chest, waist, legs, and buttocks. Yorke alone kept glancing at "her" face, the deep affection in his eyes practically drawing silk threads.
"..."
Brother, can you tell me how you fell for these five 'lion-dance' dwarves?
Cheng Shi watched him for a long while. The more he wondered, the greater his confusion became. In the end, he couldn't hold back. Disguising himself as an ordinary audience member, he quietly approached Yorke and sighed deliberately.
"Why are only female Orcs providing services? You should be a little more open-minded about gender."
Before you continue