mesbooks Chapter 182 You have your clever plans, I have my countermeasures
Chapter 182 You have your clever plans, I have my countermeasures
Chapter 182 You have your clever plans, I have my countermeasures
This round of red curtain absorption will end after two minutes.
Luo Shuo took the curtain down and felt that it was incredibly smooth. Holding it in his hand felt like holding nothing at all, and he could hardly feel its presence.
I feel that I have absorbed enough of the power of my passion for acting from the curtain. After I take it back and give it to Tong Cheng, it shouldn't be long before I recover from my injuries.
However, looking at Chang Qinghuan's appearance, although he looked tired, he still seemed eager to try.
Li Jiuhe gave Luo Shuo a wink; he didn't want to deal with this "theatre fanatic" any longer.
After all, he had already gained enough acting skills.
It seems that as long as Chang Qinghuan still has the power of acting within him, he has the courage to go all in. This guy's thoughts cannot be guessed by common sense.
"Thank you, then we—"
Before Luo Shuo could finish speaking, Chang Qinghuan interrupted him.
The guy let out a long breath: "One more round, I can still manage!"
Li Jiuhe waved his hand: "Forget it, for your own life's sake, you'd better take it easy! Watching the show is fine, but risking your life is not worth it."
Chang Qinghuan's eyes darted around, it seemed he still really wanted to continue playing with Li Jiuhe, and he was already racking his brains for a solution.
"How about we change the way we pay you?" he said excitedly. "As long as you can keep answering my questions correctly, I'll reveal a secret to you instead of letting you absorb my acting power. After all, my acting power is really running low."
"
"A secret?" Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo exchanged a glance.
"What secret?"
Chang Qinghuan shook her head mysteriously: "I definitely can't tell you now, but I guarantee this secret is absolutely worth the price!"
Li Jiuhe did not answer for the time being, but instead took out the Green Lotus Boy and looked at it.
He noticed that the boy's hearty laughter had changed; now, only the right corner of his mouth was slightly upturned, and he was smiling with his lips pursed.
This suggests that the causal effect on oneself may soon lose its effect.
"Is this secret related to us?" he suddenly asked Chang Qinghuan.
Chang Qinghuan was taken aback, then nodded.
Luo Shuo was also surprised to see him nod.
"Let's begin then," Li Jiuhe said.
Chang Qinghuan immediately perked up, shouting, "The format for this question is the same as last time: your actions must match your answer to pass! Come on!"
The lights shone down instantly, and the guy stood up straight, looking very excited.
The tumor in the middle of his neck suddenly swelled up, and a large amount of black hair grew from it, like beard-like tentacles, wrapping around his neck.
He then assumed a "whipping beard" stance from Peking Opera and roared.
In the story of "Cao Cao and Yang Xiu," Yang Xiu, having deciphered the "chicken rib" military order, was executed. When Cao Cao wept for him, the strand of beard he tossed—was it regret? Or feigned?
In front of the conference room.
Just like last time, Sun Haizhou was equally surprised and uncertain, unsure whether his answer was correct, so he contacted his teacher, Mr. Lan Xi, again.
This time, after watching Li Jiuhe's imitation, Sun Haizhou turned to demonstrate it to Lan Xi on the other end of the phone. And as expected, he was a skilled person; his posture was different, and his movements were much more accurate than Li Jiuhe's imitation.
"That's it." After imitating it, Sun Haizhou said to Lan Xi, "This is the beard-choking scene from 'Cao Cao and Yang Xiu'."
Lan Xi nodded: "Indeed, but this is not the traditional version, but a newly adapted Peking Opera. It questions the true feelings and false intentions in political intrigue. It needs to expose Cao Cao's mental dilemma at that time in order to be considered a satisfactory answer."
Then Lan Xi, with his fingers forming a sword shape, used the "single-finger tremor" technique to say, "The flicking of the beard is neither regret nor pretense, but the shared sorrow of the lonely." Cao Cao alone recited, "The moon is bright and the stars are few, crows fly south," thus, when he killed a talented person, he was a ruthless hero; when he wept for a talented person, he was a lonely magpie!
Li Jiuhe only knew a little about the story of Cao Cao and Yang Xiu, and he only learned the full details after searching online just now.
In one battle, Cao Cao found himself in a dilemma: the war consumed a lot of supplies but yielded little benefit, leaving him in a predicament of "nothing to eat, but something to discard."
While eating, he saw chicken ribs in the soup and was moved, so he passed down "chicken ribs" as a password.
His subordinates were puzzled, but Yang Xiu, upon hearing the password "chicken rib," immediately guessed that Cao Cao was hesitant and predicted that he would retreat.
However, as a strategist, he directly spread the message of retreat to the army, causing "all the generals in the camp to prepare for their return," which shook the morale of the army and led to his execution by Cao Cao.
In fact, there are different interpretations of Cao Cao killing Yang Xiu online. Some say that Yang Xiu was involved in the struggle between Cao Zhi and Cao Pi for the heir apparent, while others say that he shook Cao Cao's power.
In Peking Opera, this scene was dramatized, resulting in the scene of Cao Cao flicking his beard.
This action highlights Cao Cao's state of mind at the time: was killing Yang Xiu a genuine act of remorse, or merely a pretense?
Lan Xi's answer was also ingenious, using lines from the drama and the question to highlight Cao Cao's predicament at the time.
When he kills his own talented subordinates, he is a ruthless hero. But when he grieves for the death of a talented person, he is a lonely magpie.
In Li Jiuhe's opinion, perhaps only Lan Xi, a master of opera, could analyze it so profoundly. Of course, he only understood it from the perspective of opera, not from the perspective of history.
Inside the opera screening room.
Li Jiuhe's movements were quite skillful this time, after all, the gesture of pointing the fingers together as a sword and then shaking the fingers was simpler than the previous gesture.
He then gave the answer that Mr. Lanxi had given him in advance.
Chang Qinghuan stared blankly at the scene, without making a sound.
After a moment, he clapped his hands lightly: "Good, I didn't expect the Capital Investigation Bureau to have someone so knowledgeable about drama?! Investigator Li, your sequence ability—"
"You and I are not similar sequence lines." Li Jiuhe immediately waved his hand.
"Even though you're not from our sequence, you possess such profound opera skills. Qinghuan is impressed!" Chang Qinghuan smiled, gazing at Li Jiuhe as if she were looking at herself.
He quickly shrank the huge bulge on his neck and the eerie black beard and hair, then put his clothes back on to cover his deformed body.
He then beckoned to Li Jiuhe, signaling him to come closer.
Li Jiuhe immediately stepped forward, and Chang Qinghuan leaned close to his ear and whispered, "If I hadn't met someone as compatible as you, I definitely wouldn't have revealed this secret, but you made me make an exception! Hmm, someone offered me a reward, saying that once I discovered you two, I should immediately notify him."
"Who is this person?" Li Jiuhe asked.
Chang Qinghuan shook her head: "He has a completely unfamiliar face; I've never seen him before. But he promised me that if things succeed, he would help me advance in rank, and there's even a chance to cross ranks! Uh, although I don't know what rank that is, he speaks eloquently, and the benefits he offers are very attractive, so I agreed."
"In other words, you knew all along that someone would come looking for you. Your act of driving us away was just a pretext. You were actually going to let us absorb the power of acting addiction," Li Jiuhe said.
"That's not entirely true." Chang Qinghuan shrugged. "That person didn't tell me why you came. I only found out after you arrived that you wanted my acting addiction power. If you can't answer my questions, I'll say it again: I'd rather self-destruct than give it to you."
"What specific benefits did that person give you?"
"Uh, the Divine Abyss, he said he'd give me a bit of the Divine Abyss! It's the key to leaping through the sequence ranks; just a little bit will help me succeed."
Chang Qinghuan licked her lips. "I notified him after I found out you were here, but your answers really pleased me, so I couldn't help but ask a few more questions. Who knew that after getting to know you, you completely changed my opinion, so I decided to tell you this secret. But I swear, I only notified that person, I didn't do anything else."
"How did you notify him?" Li Jiuhe asked.
"He gave me an earthenware bowl; all I had to do was turn the bowl over."
As Chang Qinghuan spoke, she took out an earthen bowl from the pocket of her bulky coat.
The earthen bowl was smaller than an adult's palm and had long been turned upside down.
Just then, Chang Qinghuan saw Li Jiuhe suddenly take out a blue and white porcelain lotus boy from his bag.
Upon seeing the Azure Lotus Boy, Li Jiuhe's expression changed. He noticed that the boy's face had become completely calm, without a trace of a smile.
Therefore, even if the mission is reset again, the causal effect of the Azure Lotus Child is not within this scope; it has truly transcended cause and effect.
Therefore, it is not affected by the timeline defined in the mission, but naturally ends with the end of the world timeline.
But after hearing the secret revealed by Chang Qinghuan, Li Jiuhe guessed that the mastermind must have mastered more methods, so that Qinglian Tongzi's severing of karma was actually ineffective.
In other words, the mastermind had been watching closely and had already laid the groundwork in advance through their actions.
This guy's strength is terrifying, and he possesses special abilities; every step we take is under his watchful eye.
Fortunately, Tong Cheng did not use the "Nuo Mask Breath" that he had been hiding to heal his injuries, otherwise that guy would most likely have noticed in advance and then attacked him before he had exhausted the Nuo Mask Breath and his injuries had healed.
If this guy's attack ability is as strong as his strategic planning ability, even with Mu Nian's help, it would be difficult for them to take him down.
Unless Tongcheng is fully restored to its heyday.
Upon hearing Chang Qinghuan's words, Li Jiuhe hesitated for a moment before initiating the mission reset.
This time he reset completely, going straight back to the moment he arrived at the movie theater.
Instead of going with Luo Shuo and Mu Nian to absorb the acting skills of the three people in front of them, he went straight to the screening room on the fifth floor of the building.
After all, it seems that absorbing the acting addiction power of Chang Qinghuan alone is enough to heal Tong Cheng's injuries, and the help of the three acting addicts in front is dispensable.
Upon arriving here, Li Jiuhe said to the two, "The mastermind already knows our whereabouts. Contrary to our expectations, Qinglian Tongzi has not been able to sever the karmic ties between this guy and me. Not only that, he has also set up a trap here in advance."
"Huh?" Luo Shuo and Mu Nian looked surprised.
Li Jiuhe has already entered the opera screening room.
He went straight to the chair next to Chang Qinghuan, sat down, and said with his eyes on the large screen where the video was playing, "I'm here, for your passion for acting."
Chang Qinghuan immediately feigned surprise: "Who are you? Why do you want my acting power?"
Li Jiuhe smiled and said, "Don't touch that earthen bowl with your hand in your pocket yet. Let me finish."
Chang Qinghuan's expression changed, and she couldn't hold back any longer. She turned her head to look at him.
Li Jiuhe slowly said, "We have a deep grudge against the person who found you before. This matter involves the Investigation Bureau and the Sequence Families, and it's very complicated. Many high-level Sequence Users have already died. You'd better not get involved. Moreover, the divine abomination that person promised you was something he had promised to others before, but those people ended up dying tragically without even seeing a shadow of the divine abomination."
He spoke calmly and with a composed expression, striving to give Chang Qinghuan ample reason to believe him.
Chang Qinghuan's expression was indeed moved after hearing his words.
Li Jiuhe continued, "Don't worry, I think I can answer a few of your questions about opera, and I believe my answers will satisfy you. I believe we'll become good friends!"
Chang Qinghuan stared at him blankly, seemingly lost in thought.
A moment later, his right hand, which had been in his pocket, slowly emerged, holding the earthen bowl.
The small earthen bowl was still facing up, not yet flipped over. However, if Li Jiuhe had spoken a little later, he might have already flipped the bowl over.
"I feel you're a genuine person," Chang Qinghuan said. "Since you say so, I'll believe you this once. You're right, if you want to get the power of acting addiction from me, you do need to prove you have the ability first."
"Come on." Li Jiuhe nodded with a smile.
Seeing his confidence, Chang Qinghuan's attitude changed accordingly, and she nodded emphatically: "Okay, listen carefully—"
What happened next was not much different from before the mission was reset, except that Li Jiuhe did not consult Sun Haizhou and Lan Xi again.
At the same time, the order of the questions Chang Qinghuan asked changed, but the content of the questions remained the same.
Having already gone through this several times, Li Jiuhe answered fluently, and even the operatic posture he struck to match the answers was much better than before.
Moreover, this time he answered all the questions in one go, without letting Luo Shuo bring over the red curtain to interrupt his conversation with Chang Qinghuan.
This made Chang Qinghuan feel even better than before, and she quickly regarded Li Jiuhe as a confidant.
Then Luo Shuo brought over the red curtain, draped it over his shoulders, and channeled his boundless passion for acting into it.
Because it absorbed enough energy, the red curtain expanded slowly and automatically without wind, and the quality of the curtain visibly became softer and more delicate.
During this time, Mu Nian did not approach them, but instead vigilantly observed the surrounding movements.
The last time the earthenware bowl was overturned, and it's unknown whether the mastermind was later lying in ambush nearby. But this time the earthenware bowl remained untouched, and the mastermind didn't receive any news at all.
After a while, the red curtain was soaked with ink, and Chang Qinghuan took it down and handed it to Luo Shuo.
Although he looked somewhat tired, he still looked at Li Jiuhe with a happy expression: "Buddy, I'm ashamed to say that I almost listened to those scoundrels and ruined you! What you said is indeed true. We hit it off immediately, so I gave you some extra acting power just now as compensation."
In fact, Chang Qinghuan would occasionally draw upon the acting passion of other low- or mid-level actors for his own use.
Although doing so will not directly increase one's sequence ability, it will deepen one's understanding of opera, which is entirely beneficial.
Once your appreciation for traditional opera deepens, you can gradually increase your sequence abilities over time, until you reach the point of advancement.
Li Jiuhe exchanged pleasantries with Chang Qinghuan for a while, though he was pretending, and he didn't actually answer those questions himself.
But I felt that Chang Qinghuan was a very good person. At least everything he did was to listen to and study opera, thereby enhancing his own abilities.
Once you find someone you instantly click with, you can immediately open your heart to them.
Moreover, for someone like him who is at the bottom of the sequence, being able to advance to a higher level is already extremely difficult, much more so than for Tong Cheng and the others.
Chang Qinghuan personally escorted Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo to the entrance of the opera screening room.
His gaze lingered on Mu Nian for a moment, and he could clearly sense that this woman was very strong, so strong that he couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.
After all, this was his territory, the territory of this avid actor, and his intuition was several times stronger here than it was outside.
After watching Li Jiuhe and the other two leave, it took Chang Qinghuan a long time to react, and then she shivered.
He muttered to himself, "Fortunately, I hit it off with Investigator Li right away, and I confessed quickly, thus avoiding getting caught up in the disputes among these high-ranking individuals."
After saying that, he turned around and went back to the screening room behind him, humming the lyrics of "The Female Imperial Envoy" that was just playing.
"I did not take the imperial examination to become famous, nor did I take it to become a high-ranking official."
As he finished speaking, his figure suddenly stopped, as if he had been frozen in place.
He stood motionless, his face flushed, and his skin quickly cracked, revealing the muscles and fascia beneath, and then large lumps.
Chang Qinghuan's whole body was trembling uncontrollably, blood was flowing from her seven orifices, and blood was seeping from her cracked skin.
Before long, he opened his mouth, his expression one of pain as if he wanted to scream, but he couldn't make a sound at all. With a bang, his bulky body, wrapped in a thick coat, exploded into pieces.
A person who was perfectly fine just a moment ago has instantly turned into a pile of mangled flesh on the ground.
Li Jiuhe, Luo Shuo, and Mu Nian arrived at the Northwest Cinema.
He took out the blue lotus boy and looked at it again. He found that the boy's expression was no longer calm, but rather worried and distressed, as if he had a heavy heart.
Li Jiuhe handed the boy to Mu Nian without saying a word, but subtly gestured with his eyes.
Mu Nian took the Green Lotus Boy, glanced at it, and without saying a word, handed it to Luo Shuo.
Luo Shuo had already closed his eyes, and with both hands he held the boy's blue-and-white porcelain body, releasing the tracking signal that he had prepared long ago.
The next second he opened his eyes: "It's locked on. This time, there's no way he can escape!"
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