Chapter 1295: Nothing at All
"No matter who you are, it's not right to use someone's trust like this," Lin Sanjiu spoke just like the grand prize, sitting on the wall with her legs crossed, leisurely. She had no hurry to go down and catch the person—there was no need for that.
Thinking about how close she was to being deceived into letting the wolf into her home, she was more than happy to let the person below struggle for a while longer.
"How could you use someone else's identity like that?" Her tone was like that of an old lady admonishing her grandson, deliberately dragging out her words, making the voice hit the ears of the person 'Mr. Ito' down there. It sounded particularly out of place amidst the muffled groan from the impact with the air.
The grand prize chuckled at the side and complained, acting spoiled, "Sis, you've said enough. My hands are sore."
Lin Sanjiu lowered her head and whispered in his ear, "Your Special Item is really too useful."
The grand prize's hands still maintained the pose of holding a camera, firmly trapping 'Mr. Ito' within the frame of his fingers. He turned around and answered, "Don't be fooled by how easy I make it look. It's actually quite complicated to use. Even though the target can't escape from all directions, you still need to set the depth of field correctly... So that the target doesn't retreat all the way to disappear or suddenly pounce on you."
"Do the aperture and the lens matter as well?" Lin Sanjiu humbly asked for advice.
Seeing that these two were about to start a conversation, 'Mr. Ito' became annoyed and impatient. He suddenly stopped, stared at the two on the wall, and coldly questioned, "Aren't you planning to let me out voluntarily?"
"You can use a method if you have one," Ji Shanqing raised an eyebrow and smiled, saying, "I'm just curious..."
Lin Sanjiu turned her head, "Hmm?"
"Sis, if you were an unrelated refugee and heard our announcement just now, would you disguise yourself as Mr. Ito and pretend to be the real owner?" the grand prize asked.
After carefully thinking about it, Lin Sanjiu furrowed her brow.
"Although there's no absolute answer, the likelihood is low, right?" The grand prize was relaxed like having a casual chat, continuing, "For a refugee, there are too many unknowns. First, you don't know the relationship between the person making the announcement and Mr. Ito, which raises the question of whether there's a trap involved. That can be deadly. Secondly, you don't know who Mr. Ito is, where he is, and how can you ensure that you won't expose yourself? Most importantly, we revealed limited information just now, only saying we need to talk to him. Refugees won't see any obvious benefits in impersonating Mr. Ito. So why bother doing it?"
"So, what you mean is..."
"People who can come here are either those who have seen us interact with Mr. Ito, know about our relationship, and understand that we have no intention to harm him; or those who personally know Mr. Ito, are familiar with his behavior, and even if they can't mimic him exactly, they won't easily expose themselves. Lastly, they've observed you and have a certain understanding of your character and mindset, so they would believe that our intention to find Mr. Ito is indeed out of guilt."
Lin Sanjiu listened in a daze and then suddenly glanced at the person below the wall, standing up abruptly, saying, "You are one of the villa owners who participated in the beach barbecue last night!"
As soon as she said this, 'Mr. Ito' suddenly reacted. Although he was still trapped within the camera frame formed by the grand prize's fingers, as he flung his hand, numerous figures suddenly emerged from the ground. They grew in size to be the same as real people in the blink of an eye, and they rushed towards the wall.
Lin Sanjiu's hand suddenly spat out a long whip shadow that swept through the air like a dragon. The world was whipped into a frenzy, and the howling wind swept over all the figures. In the blink of an eye, she managed to sweep all the figures that tried to climb up the wall into the air. Her reaction speed was like that of lightning, but at this moment, she suddenly heard a painful cry from the grand prize. She urgently turned her head and found that there was nobody beside her.
"Grand prize!" Lin Sanjiu shouted hoarsely. Her gaze swept across, and she saw a dark figure jumping down from the wall, heading straight for Ji Shanqing, who had fallen into the courtyard at some point.
As she followed suit to jump down, she already understood clearly in her mind that she had been distracted by the so-called 'Mr. Ito.'
That 'Mr. Ito' was probably able to summon these humanoid shadows in different locations but had only raised them from the ground. It seemed like a tactic to divert their attention and make them lose focus. When both of their gazes were drawn to the ground, they probably didn't notice that a shadow had quietly appeared on the wall. As long as that figure remained crouched, it could quickly approach the grand prize and pull him off the wall.
Higher Consciousness rushed out like an angry torrent, heavily striking the black shadow. The shadow immediately shattered into pieces and quickly disappeared into thin air. However, Lin Sanjiu couldn't be sure whether she had truly shattered it or if its owner had escaped when they had the chance.
"Are you okay?" She quickly helped the grand prize up and looked him over, asking, "Are you injured?"
"I hit my head." The grand prize's small face swelled like a bun. He seemed like he wanted to cry but was afraid of the pain getting worse. He looked both funny and pitiful, saying, "I feel dizzy..."
Lin Sanjiu touched the bump on the back of his head, and he gasped in pain.
She really wanted to catch that 'Mr. Ito' and slam him against a rock a dozen times to vent her anger. But when she jumped onto the wall and took a look, she found that the person had indeed taken the opportunity to run away when the grand prize was knocked off the wall.
"Sis," a weak voice came from below the wall, sounding pitiful. "Can you check if there are any others nearby?"
How could there be? They must have-
Lin Sanjiu suddenly froze.
There was indeed a person sitting not far away, and he looked quite disheveled, as if he had been caught off guard by her whip. He was covered in broken branches and leaves, with his face bruised and bloodshot. But even so, his appearance was still clear enough for her to recognize him—it was Mr. Ito.
"Brave enough to stay instead of running," she sneered, but the grand prize urgently shouted from below. "Sis! Don't do anything yet, that might really be Mr. Ito!"
The person in the distance groaned, as if he had also heard them, and weakly raised a hand to signal.
"What?" Lin Sanjiu quickly pulled the grand prize up and asked, "How do you know?"
Ji Shanqing gasped for breath as he lay on the wall and replied, "Mr. Ito is someone who's overly cautious and suspicious to the point where it's unnecessary. Even if he knows that we haven't harmed him, he wouldn't come over obediently. As long as he hasn't died, he would surely observe the situation first..."
"Even if he sees someone impersonating him, he still won't come out?" Lin Sanjiu glanced at Mr. Ito, who was slowly approaching them.
"Even more so." The grand prize rubbed the back of his head, saying indifferently, "For him, having someone else do the water-fetching errand for him is a good thing."
"Then why is he coming now?"
Mr. Ito was indeed cautious, looking around in all directions with each step he took. However, it seemed that he wasn't wary of the two on the wall, as his steps and direction remained steady.
"Actually, I just thought that he might be watching from the side." The grand prize lowered his voice and said, "So that analysis I made just now was actually meant for him."
Huh?
"That one, two, three points," the grand prize reminded her.
That was meant for Mr. Ito? Lin Sanjiu was shocked at first, but after thinking about it, she suddenly understood. To an unrelated outsider, judging that they meant no harm to Mr. Ito and even daring to risk impersonating him to approach them would be much more convincing than just verbal assurances. With that endorsement, Mr. Ito would naturally dare to approach them now.
"In that case, we have that villa owner to thank," Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but laugh and greeted the approaching Mr. Ito, "Good morning."
"My morning is terrible," Mr. Ito replied with a serious face.
As Lin Sanjiu jumped down from the wall and graciously invited Mr. Ito into the courtyard, the grand prize quietly approached and asked her in a low voice, "Sis, did you think of something just now?"
At that moment, Lin Sanjiu had just opened the courtyard gate and was watching Mr. Ito slowly and suspiciously moving in. She pondered for a moment before replying, "No, I didn't," sounding a bit perplexed. "What do you mean?"
Ji Shanqing hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "No, nothing at all," he said softly.
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