Artifact Report

Chapter 344 Ma Minghe: Carrots and the Grinding Wheel of Domination

Who is this person?

Mai Minghe was very embarrassed and at a loss for what to do. If it weren't for the importance of the matter, she would have liked to leave immediately and come back another day.

It's said that Director Chai has another apartment; he just found a room in the mansion to sleep in. In one corner of the room was a single bed with messy bedding, meant for a short rest. No matter how she looked at it, she felt that the bed was even worse than Director Chai's.

Chai Si himself didn't feel anything was amiss. He yawned for a long time, stared blankly for a while with sleepy eyes, and then his brain finally started working: "...Ah, Mai Minghe."

His voice was hoarse, shrouded in a thick fog of sleepiness, and sounded quite different—the few times Mai Minghe had seen him before, even in his disheveled state in a hospital gown, he had never appeared like this before, disheveled, tired, relaxed, and calm, almost like a completely different person.

If you said his hair looked like a chicken coop, even chickens would protest; under that wrinkled, loose white T-shirt, he only had a pair of big shorts—wait, were they shorts or men's underwear?
Don't look at either of them.

There's simply no more private, more intimate moment than when you've just gotten out of bed. Having received an old-fashioned education, Mak Ming-ho didn't know where to look, so he just stared at the ceiling.

“I’m sorry,” she said to the ceiling, “I woke you up.”

"What's the matter? Is Han Liuyue alright?" Chai Si rubbed his face vigorously.

If it were about Han Liuyue, Mai Minghe wouldn't know either—which shows he's still not fully awake.

“She’s fine, she’s in the hospital ward,” said Sayuki, who was also there. “She woke up once last night and even ate something.”

Chai Si paused for a few seconds, then nodded: "Did she drink water?"

“I drank it,” Sayuki said, her face beaming with joy.

"How did you drink it?"

How else can we drink water? Do we need to let Chai Si sleep a little longer before we can have a normal conversation?
But Sayuki seemed unsurprised and replied, "She drank it from a cup. Nobody taught her. She saw a cup of water being brought over, so she reached out, picked it up, brought it to her lips, and gulped it all down."

Mai Minghe had never heard of such a detailed description of drinking water before.

Chai Si breathed a sigh of relief. "I understand," he said, glancing at Mai Minghe, then turning to Sha Xue, "Could you get us some coffee?"

He should have realized that what Mai Minghe wanted to say would probably have to be discussed separately.

However, despite Mai Minghe's efforts to organize her thoughts along the way, she still didn't know where to begin after Sha Xue had been gone for quite some time. When the words were about to come out, another Mai Minghe in her mind began to doubt whether all of this was too absurd.

Chai Si misunderstood. "You need money?"

“No, no,” Mak Ming-ho quickly waved his hands, “I don’t want money, I didn’t borrow it. You helped me get in touch with the mayor, and I’ve already received a lot of payment for selling the lipsticks—”

She suddenly realized that Chess had provided her with an excellent entry point.

“Let me ask you a question,” she said slowly. “What do you think the mayor looked like two months ago?”

She asked Hailuwei, Aimee, Megan at the Hunter's Bar, and restaurant staff, customers, neighbors, city government employees... and they all gave the same answer.

But Mak Ming-ho had a feeling that Chai Si's answer would be different.

Chai Si paused for a moment, then leaned back in his chair.

He still had messy hair, stubble, dark circles under his eyes, and a wrinkled T-shirt, but at this moment, "Cheese Monroe" was awake.

“A square face,” he said in a low voice, “with a dark complexion and narrow, long eyes.”

"Is it the same as now?"

Chai Si stared straight at her. "Completely different."

really.

Mai Minghe let out a long breath, but he still couldn't stop the goosebumps on his skin.

In this world, only she and Chai Si were aware of the tremendous changes that had taken place in the mayor.

“That night, when I got caught up in the gunfight in the back alley of the bar, I remember there was someone next to you—at that time, I didn’t know she was Han Liuyue—a snow-white face, a pair of small, pore-like eyes, she looked like a relative of the current mayor.”

Mai Minghe carefully chose his words and said, "Now Han Liuyue has recovered, but the mayor... has 'inherited' that Noh mask-like face."

Chai Si seemed to understand her meaning, raising a hand to indicate that she didn't need to say anything more. "That's right, I did it."

Mai Minghe took a deep breath. "Why?"

“I know he’s changed, that’s not surprising, because it was me who caused it. But why do you know that too?”

Chai Si looked at Mai Minghe and said, "That kind of 'face-reducing spore,' after it fully takes root in the human body, will eventually distort human perception, making anyone who sees it think that the spore host used to look the same, and that this appearance isn't abnormal. How did you manage to avoid it?" It seems that the spores in Han Liuyue's body hadn't fully taken root yet at that time?
Mak Ming-ho has never liked to hide things, saying, "I was tricked in the nest and became a resident."

Chai Si, who had just picked up his water glass and taken a sip, suddenly shuddered—in that instant, he seemed to want to jump up and also wanted to be wary of her, but he immediately choked and coughed, and apart from coughing very hard, he did nothing else.

"It's alright, I've recovered, I'm normal again now," Mai Minghe quickly reassured him, standing up and patting his back gently. "Let me rub it on you, to help you catch your breath..."

"No, no need, I'm fine," Chai Si said, his face flushed and tears welling in his eyes. "I'm not a child, stop."

Anyone under forty is a child, Mai Minghe thought. But she still sat up straight again.

“When I took the lipstick, the mayor was holding a press conference.” Without waiting for Chai Si’s answer, she continued, “He put on the lipstick right in front of me, and then said a lot of things to the reporters…”

Mak Ming-ho is very clear about the effects of lipstick; this is the first lipstick she has ever acquired, and she can even recite its effects from memory.

Mak Ming-ho knew that the mayor had applied lipstick before speaking.

Mak Ming-ho wholeheartedly believed that the mayor was capable of starting the welfare housing renovation project within a single day.

“…I know perfectly well that there seems to be a contradictory and huge gap between my perceptions and reality, but I still can’t help but believe him.” She whispered, “The power of illusion is truly terrifying.”

Chai Si didn't speak, he just nodded.

“There’s something I’ve been keeping from you because I was too afraid. But now I feel the time has come to tell you…” Mak Ming-ho took a deep breath. “I’m determined to sell the lipstick to the mayor because of the fabricated report.”

It took Mai Minghe a great deal of courage to be frank with Chai Si, a contestant, and to admit that she was his competitor. Now that she had made up her mind, she was prepared to face all of Chai Si's shock, doubts, and even hostility.

“That’s right,” she said, closing her eyes, “I was also recruited into the Domination Game.”

Chai looked at her and said, "...Oh."

...Isn't it too peaceful?

In the quiet room, the two stared at each other for a few seconds.

"You knew?" Mak Ming-ho nearly jumped out of his chair. "How did you know? I'm competing right after you, shouldn't I be messaging you in Domination Game? Wait, don't tell me, let me think... Is it... is it because of the lipstick?"

Chai Si looked a little embarrassed.

"You know it but you don't say anything, you just keep it bottled up inside?"

“A competitor,” Chai Si reminded her, comparing himself to her.

You recognized it quickly!

Mai Minghe sighed, crossed her arms, and thought for a moment. Most of the time, honesty is the lowest-cost way to conduct oneself in society; even now that she has become a hunter and has to hide many things, she hopes to be as open and honest as possible.

"I think your transformation of the mayor into a Noh mask is probably related to the game of governance, isn't it?"

The only carrot that could motivate contestants to work hard was the one that Mak Ming-ho could think of. "Are you also after the fake report?"

“Yes,” Chai Si finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, “The mayor received it the day he became a Noh mask. I can’t tell you the contents.”

“Alright, alright, I didn’t ask.” Mai Minghe frowned. “So, indeed, everything is becoming more and more suspicious…”

"what?"

"Just the two of us, by dominating the game, have already caused enormous changes to Blackmore City that only God knows can be reversed. So what about the others? What have they done?"

The more Mai Minghe spoke, the heavier his heart felt.

"Even if we don't know yet, we can be certain that they've done something, more or less, and the Domination Game wouldn't leave them unused. So the key question is... what exactly does the Nest want to do to the human world?"

This is her biggest worry.

She hadn't even had a chance to mention Evan—because she couldn't see his significance yet—but even just the mayor's matter had already made her suspicious of the Nest's purpose.

Chai Si remained silent for a while, and Mai Minghe could not discern his mood.

"Aren't you worried that the Lair is using the game as a pretext to manipulate us? Can we trust something like the Game of Domination?"

After a long while, Chai Si finally responded.

As if he had made up his mind, he suddenly stood up and said, "Come with me, I want to show you something."

(End of this chapter)