Chapter 1427: ...Reunion, and Farewell |
The first time Cheng Shi noticed something was wrong was when he saw the sickly old man that Old Jia bumped into outside a certain casino.
Fellow sufferers appreciating each other's company — that seemed innocent enough. Yet in that instant, he recalled the childhood story Nangong had once told him. His entire body went rigid, as though struck by lightning.
For the first time inside the memory, he left Old Jia's side and cut into the alley. There, huddled and waiting for her grandfather to return, was a tiny Nangong.
Cheng Shi recognized her at a glance. Only now — belatedly — did he realize that the uncle who had helped Nangong's father bankrupt the casino had been Old Jia.
From that moment on, the memory was no longer ordinary.
Because shortly afterward, he spotted the very same leather jacket that Li Wufang used to wear — on Old Jia.
A single jacket might not trigger much. But when Old Jia, wearing that jacket, appeared before a young, awkward Tao Yi... Cheng Shi knew none of this could be coincidence.
Especially when Old Jia turned to leave in the rain and tossed out casually:
"Go repay my son instead."
At the time, Old Jia didn't have a son. That line was a joke, at best. But... was it really just a joke?
If Cheng Shi had never entertained these thoughts, perhaps it was. But every inch of this memory now reeked of something uncanny, so he no longer believed it was a quip. The so-called "repayment" didn't seem aimed at getting anything back. And the remark didn't sound as though it was directed at Tao Yi.
But aside from Old Jia, Aunt Sun, and Tao Yi, there were barely any passersby. Who else could it have been meant for?
'Unless it was for—'
In that instant, Cheng Shi clenched his fists. Conjectures raced through his mind.
The rest of the memory unfolded as he anticipated. While drifting between cities, Old Jia also crossed paths with Li Wufang.
Crossed paths — though truthfully, Old Jia's route that day was odd.
Li Wufang's little plaza was to the east, while Old Jia had been walking north. But at the intersection, the red light malfunctioned, its countdown stuck at 99 seconds. The impatient Old Jia changed course on the spot and headed east toward the plaza instead.
He reached the newsstand, spotted little Li Wufang in the fountain pool, and listened to the stand owner recount the boy's story. Heart stirred, he casually roped in a bystander also reading the paper and staged a little performance with him.
The amusing part was that after handing over the money, Old Jia didn't give the bystander's reaction a second glance. He wasn't worried the man would simply pocket the cash and leave. It was as if all that mattered was the act of kindness — wherever the thread broke after that was no longer his concern...
But fortunately, the bystander was a very orderly sort. Handed an unexpected windfall for no reason, his only thought was to play his role well and secure the money. And so, little Li Wufang got to see the leather jacket he would never forget for the rest of his life.
That year was also Old Jia's year of retirement. He hadn't planned to leave the game. His body simply wouldn't let him continue.
In a high-stakes hand with chips piled like mountains, Old Jia — on the verge of sweeping the table — was ambushed by a spike of pain and fumbled. He was caught. And that was when the world learned that the so-called King of Gamblers was no king at all — he was a King of Cheats.
The aftermath needed no elaboration. Old Jia was cornered in the casino and beaten to within an inch of his life. It was Sun Yuying, carrying every asset under Old Jia's name, who plunged into the crowd and begged a few bosses she knew to spare him.
From that day forward, there was no longer a place for Old Jia in any casino.
"Cheat others, and others will cheat you. Those who live by fraud never end well."
Disheartened and spent, Old Jia finally recognized he had walked a wrong road. Battered and broken, he left the south and vanished without a trace.
And so, the legend of the "King of Cheats" drew to a close. The south no longer had a figure named Old Jia. But little Cheng Shi, waiting in an orphanage, was about to receive his stroke of fortune.
When Cheng Shi, trailing Old Jia, stood outside the orphanage and looked at "himself" — he was reunited with his father.
'So the old man had his eye on me long before.'
'Good taste, though.'
Cheng Shi laughed and cried at the same time. He watched the old performer once more, inside the adoption office, trick him into saying the name "Cheng Jia." He wiped the tears from his eyes and strode away.
'Enough. Time to say goodbye.'
'No matter who he is, no matter what his name is — I only know he's my father, his name is Cheng Jia, and my name is Cheng Shi.'
'Cheng from Cheng Jia. Shi from honesty.'
Cheng Shi stepped out of the realm of memory. He was now all but certain: Old Jia's memories had been tampered with. But he knew the Dragon King would never alter them. In that case, the only ones capable of meddling with memories inside the Collection Hall seemed to be Memory Himself... and Deceit?
Memory, who had always despised tampering, would never do such a thing. So, by process of elimination, it had to be Deceit.
And looking at the people Old Jia had encountered, every single one was a friend whom fate had pushed to Cheng Shi's side.
And Deceit was Fate.
Moreover, with all the keen sensitivity Cheng Shi had developed for hidden clues, he noticed that these friends had each inherited Divine Thrones whose wills were not naturally aligned with Deceit's — at least, in previous eras, those gods had not always stood on Deceit's side.
Decay, Order, Prosperity...
Was it coincidence?
Probably not. It looked more like someone's contingency plan. Could Deceit have been using this to secure more support and voting rights?
But the issue was: when Deceit was still alive, those votes hadn't aligned with Him. It was only after His departure that they...
'Wait!!!'
'These contingencies were left for me?'
Cheng Shi's eyes flew wide. If that was truly the case, then whoever was behind this had determined the ownership of certain Divine Thrones from the very beginning. Could the people sitting on those Thrones be compromised?
Cheng Shi's mind replayed every experience he'd shared with Hong Lin, Li Wufang, and Nangong — and he dismissed the suspicion.
'Even if the world has problems, at least Big Cat never will.'
She would sacrifice herself for her friends without a moment's hesitation. A person like that was incapable of betrayal.
So both the Divine Thrones and the people on them were fine. The problem lay with whoever had tampered with the memories.
As long as his vision was limited to the Universe, the only "black hand" Cheng Shi could think of was Deceit. But the moment he widened his perspective and connected it to the "truth" he feared most, an absurd yet audacious hypothesis surfaced:
The only ones who could alter memories were deities. Was it possible that this deity was... Origin?!
As the Creator, He wouldn't even need to tamper. He would only have to write "inevitability" into the blueprint at the moment of Creation, and the fate of every living being would be sealed from the start.
The thought startled even himself. Just then, he exited the memory and returned to the Collection Hall. Seeing the gravity on Cheng Shi's face, Li Jingming's expression also grew solemn.
"Did you see it? Discover anything?"
The Dragon King didn't ask about the past. Didn't ask for feelings. He asked what was discovered — which meant he, too, had spotted the anomalies in that stretch of memory.
Cheng Shi nodded. But his conjectures about Origin and the experiment were words he could not say aloud. He could only ponder them in silence.
Li Jingming didn't press further. Instead, in a tone tinged with uncertainty, he said:
"220."
Cheng Shi blinked: "What?"
"Time." Li Jingming's expression was complex — and a touch apologetic. "Sorry. I've gone through this memory many, many times and noticed a few things that struck me as unusual. Of course, it could just be me being paranoid.
But where Fixed Destiny is concerned, I don't dare take chances."
...