See the Law of Deception

Chapter 143 The Substitute (17)

When Lu Jinzhao prepared the "lottery slips" and began the draw, the real Qin Wan did not hesitate to once again overdraw her good luck.

She hadn't lied before; she didn't want to use her luck-changing ability again because she had already used up her good fortune once, and she would inevitably have to pay the price later. But right now, she also knew that she had to draw the real Lu Jinzhao.

Then we can only rely on good luck.

This also means that she will have to repay even more misfortune before the train's journey ends.

But now that she's following Lu Jinzhao's instructions, Lu Jinzhao can't just completely ignore her afterward, can he?

Although she didn't spend much time with Lu Jinzhao, the platform, a place of life and death, was a place where one could quickly discern a person's true nature.

She believed that Lu Jinzhao was not that kind of person. Although she sensed a kind of indifference in Lu Jinzhao's eyes and at certain moments, her demeanor was gentle and calm, and surprisingly not too cold.

This gentleness and friendliness was unlike those she had seen who pretended to be friendly. She genuinely offered useful advice at crucial moments, rather than using a hypocritical facade to deceive her teammates.

Even if she has to do something that might seem terrible, she does it openly and honestly.

It's like... even if her nature is indifferent, she maintains a kind of personal order that belongs only to her.

Therefore, Qin Wan felt that as long as the misfortune wasn't too bad, Lu Jinzhao wouldn't completely abandon her.

Therefore, she chose to take a gamble.

After her luck turned around, the thing she did most often was to gamble with her good fortune.

This time she only used up five seconds of her good luck, enough for her to reach out and draw a lot.

Upon receiving the slip of paper, she opened it without hesitation. Sure enough, as she had expected, the slip of paper contained the three large characters: 【鹿今朝】 (Lu Jinzhao).

Qin Wan breathed a sigh of relief. Actually, when Lu Jinzhao proposed this method, she guessed that the person was probably real, but just to be on the safe side, the lottery still had to be carried out. Now the result is out, and it is indeed her.

However, the fake Qin Wan next to her had obviously also drawn a name.

This put Qin Wan in a state of worry. The real deer has been found today, but what should Zhou Ziming and Qin Wan do?
But Lu Jinzhao should have a solution, right?

Just as she was thinking this, she heard Zhenlu Jinzhao suddenly raise her voice and shout quickly, "Zhou Ziming, kill this fake next to me right now!"

"Qin Wan, mind your own business and don't die."

In that instant, even though Qin Wan and Zhou Ziming didn't understand why Lu Jinzhao was doing this, and their minds didn't have time to process it, their bodies had already moved instinctively.

It's not that the two of them currently have great faith in and obey Lu Jinzhao's orders, and that they would immediately carry them out as soon as she speaks. Rather, it's that Lu Jinzhao deliberately laid the groundwork and used a little trick.

She knew that Qin Wan and Zhou Ziming had already established a basic level of trust in her, and that her previous words and actions had made them understand her "correctness," while the lottery game had further reinforced this understanding.

Even so, if she only asked Zhou Ziming and Qin Wan to take action, they would still instinctively think about it, hesitate, and weigh the pros and cons.

Therefore, Lu Jinzhao deliberately sped up her speech, raised her tone, and stared directly at Zhou Ziming to reinforce her urgent emotions. In this environment, Zhou Ziming and Qin Wan would perceive her purpose faster than usual, and their stronger emotions would drive them to carry out the order without overthinking.

Her emphasis on "fake goods" and her seemingly instructive remark to Qin Wan, "Don't die," were all merely signals to release more emotions in order to temporarily manipulate them.

Lu Jinzhao achieved his goal. Zhou Ziming was not very smart to begin with, and now he was being pulled by his emotions and, without thinking twice, immediately attacked the fake person next to Lu Jinzhao.

Normally, if Lu Jinzhao asked him to use his divine power to fight the ghost, he would hesitate and try to make a deal with Lu Jinzhao. But right now, he felt an urgent feeling, as if he had to do it. Time was tight, and although he didn't know why, he just had to do it as soon as possible.

So he moved.

Qin Wan was stunned for a second, somewhat caught off guard, but under the influence of her emotions, she subconsciously turned her head to be wary of her other self.

She understood the meaning behind Lu Jinzhao's words: "Manage yourself well" is just managing another version of yourself, isn't it?

I don't understand why, but let's do it this way for now?
The moment the order was given, Lu Jinzhao quickly retreated, decisively put on the bell, and then manipulated the shadow puppet to run towards the direction of his other self.

Although shadow puppets have little effect on ghosts, they are not entirely harmless. Moreover, what is in front of her is not the ghost itself, but her "stand-in". She wants to see what the consequences would be if she attacked the stand-in.
The two Zhou Zimings who had already been possessed by the "god" rushed to the stand-in Lu Jinzhao. The real Zhou Ziming threw a punch straight at the face of the stand-in Lu Jinzhao, who seemed not to have realized what was happening. She could only stand there in surprise. Then, the moment Zhou Ziming's fist landed on her face, the stand-in, who should have been knocked away by the impact, stood still.

Zhou Ziming felt as if his fist had sunk into a puddle of mud. A strange and subtle force neutralized the impact. The force he felt made his hair stand on end. He instinctively knew he was no match for Lu Jinzhao, so as his blood boiled and he immediately withdrew his fist and retreated. Seeing this, Zhou Ziming also calmly withdrew his fist from Lu Jinzhao and retreated decisively.

When the fist was pulled out, everyone saw that the substitute Lu Jinzhao's face and body were completely distorted. Her front and body were dented by the two punches from the real and fake Zhou Ziming, and all her facial features were squeezed into the dent, presenting an extremely strange and bizarre appearance.

However, as the fist left, the sunken cheek slowly popped back out, and the distorted features gradually returned to normal.

The substitute Lu Jinzhao looked puzzled and kept muttering, "Why?"

"Why did you find me?"

"why?"

The "divine attack" did indeed harm it; it could no longer maintain a perfect imitation of Lu Jinzhao's appearance and revealed its ghostly side.

It is impossible to kill the demon, but when supernatural forces clash, the demon's abilities are exposed.

Zhou Ziming is still not strong enough. If its divine strike were strong enough, it might be able to make the stand disappear with a single punch.

But the flaw that the ghost revealed at this moment also gave him a glimpse.

If Da Lu Jinzhao's substitute can reveal the opponent's true form, then wouldn't his own be the same?

So, taking advantage of the fact that the "god" he had invited was still there, Zhou Ziming decisively threw a punch at himself next to him.

But at the same time, the stand-in seemed to be completely in sync with his thoughts and actually threw a punch at him!
Their fists collided in mid-air, and the next second, Zhou Ziming's expression changed instantly.

His power is being drained!
They kept disappearing from the spot where they collided!

The divine intervention is about to fail again; this won't do.

He immediately realized this and decisively withdrew his hand.

The ghost who had clearly taken his power, the fake Zhou Ziming, was now pale-faced, as if he had encountered something unexpected.

Damn fakes!

"Go!" At this moment, Lu Jinzhao issued another order.

Then, she decisively looked up at Zhou Ziming and Qin Wan and said, "Zhou Ziming, Qin Wan, come with me."

As soon as she finished speaking, the two stand-ins who had originally planned to leave with her suddenly stood still.

Meanwhile, Lu Jinzhao, whose disguise had already revealed its flaws, kept questioning why.

Although Zhou Ziming and Qin Wan, who had been clearly chosen, were curious about how Lu Jinzhao could distinguish them, it wasn't a good time to chat, so they followed closely behind Lu Jinzhao and left the dark hotel.

The three stand-ins who were recognized and abandoned did not follow closely behind. Instead, they stood silently in the dark hall, watching the three leave.

Their eyes were deep and their limbs were stiff, like three standing corpses.

"No physical attack was launched?" Lu Jinzhao thought rapidly as he walked.

This time, even the way the demon attacked was particularly baffling, but Lu Jinzhao has now summarized a few patterns. "Try not to call out names. If you call the wrong name, the Stand will take some things from the original body."

"Perhaps it's not just about the name, but a kind of identification. If someone mistakes a stand-in for the real person, then it will gradually become the real person."

"The attack is not physical; it's more idealistic, which also means it's more difficult to defend against. We successfully identified and escaped this time, but it can't end here."

The outside world was now completely dark. All the lights were off, and the sky was like a black curtain. The three little figures walked on a dark road, with only the three cell phone flashlights in their hands providing some light.

"They didn't catch up." Zhou Ziming glanced back and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Seeing that they were temporarily out of danger, Qin Wan couldn't help but ask, "How did you tell us apart?"

“It’s very simple.” Lu Jinzhao glanced at her: “From the perspective of behavioral logic.”

"The logic of ghosts must be that they want us to die."

No matter how well you disguise yourself as a human, this underlying logic will not change; it's the code etched into the instincts of a ghost.

"Therefore, they cannot make any actions or words that resemble prompts."

"At first, Qin Wan, you called out the name of the stand-in Zhou Ziming without knowing it."

“But Zhou Ziming reacted strongly. He sensed something and immediately reprimanded you.”

“But he called your name at that time too. I observed your reaction, and neither you nor the other you reacted.”

“None of Qin Wan showed the same panic as Zhou Ziming, not even in their eyes.”

This means that Qin Wan is alright.

A logical relationship was established between Zhou Ziming and Qin Wan, and it was a logical relationship that was easy to distinguish as true or false.

The real Qin Wan called out the substitute's name, and the substitute took something from Zhou Ziming. Zhou Ziming panicked and scolded Qin Wan. Although he called Qin Wan's name, he called it correctly, so Qin Wan was fine.

"But back then, I gave a different explanation, right? Why did you believe me?" Zhou Ziming was still puzzled, but despite asking this question, he was also happy that Lu Jinzhao believed him. This had nothing to do with anything else; it was just a positive emotion arising from being trusted by his teammate.

"Because his explanation was completely useless."

It's all just a charade.

The logical relationship generated is essentially zero.

This is a better way to conceal who is the ghost and who is the real Zhou Zimo.

"After you finished speaking, I was about 80% sure which of you was telling the truth."

"And then?" Zhou Ziming asked with great interest.

"What then?" This time, it was Lu Jinzhao's turn to be a little confused.

"So how can you be sure that we are definitely ours?"

“I’m not sure,” Lu Jinzhao said matter-of-factly.

"what?"

"How can something like this be 100% certain?"

"So you took a gamble in the end?!" Zhou Ziming was shocked.

"Having an 80% chance of success wouldn't really be considered gambling, would it?" Lu Jinzhao said. "But if I had to say, I'd say it's a little bit."

An 80% chance of success was enough for her; it wasn't too risky.

After all, this is a platform, and she's facing ghosts. Where does she get a 100% chance of winning?

"What if we make a mistake?" Qin Wan asked with some worry.

"Actually, I could tell the difference between the real and fake the moment I called your names, right?" It just required Qin Wan and Zhou Ziming to pay the price.

They will inevitably react strangely because they mispronounced the name.

Upon hearing Lu Jinzhao say this, Qin Wan and Zhou Ziming both felt a sinking feeling in their hearts.

Yeah, if Lu Jinzhao had made a mistake back then, wouldn't their parts have been taken away by the stand-ins again?
Too risky.

"You didn't actually have to tell us that," Qin Wan said slowly after a moment's pause.

“There’s nothing I can’t say.” Lu Jinzhao remained rational: “It’s a fact, but it’s also something that didn’t happen. If you want to blame me for this, that’s your problem.”

She won't care.

"Okay, so what should we do now?"

After all this trouble, there was still half an hour before the train arrived.

In the final half hour, none of the three thought they would get through it safely.

"My bad luck is coming back soon," Qin Wan said hesitantly.

Initially, while on the train, she didn't intend to tell her teammates exactly when her misfortune would strike.

After all, at that time, she was nothing but a burden.

But perhaps influenced by Lu Jinzhao, she chose to be honest at this moment.

She had expected to encounter hesitation, conflict, or even rejection from her teammates. She even considered using moral blackmail or a bargaining chip to get them to protect her.

Unexpectedly, Lu Jinzhao's response was: "Misfortune has its uses, right?"

"Is misfortune always a bad thing? Not necessarily."

"Anyway, this time, whether it's good luck or bad luck, it's actually quite useful."

Eh?
Is that what happened?

Wow, that's amazing! In any situation, she can rationally categorize which parts are usable?

[Strengthen signal]

When humans consciously take action towards another person, they are actually sending a signal, hoping that the other person can understand the signal and react accordingly.

"Strengthening the signal" means, in a specific environment, making the opponent perceive the signal of "one's purpose" more strongly, so the range of actions will be expanded and the outpouring of emotions will be more intense.

. . .

Sometimes, when the evil personality Yunlili is playing Tile, she will use an enhanced signal to drain her friends' blood, even if it makes no sense at all. Her friends will still send it to me without realizing it, and then be a beat late in the morning to realize what's going on and question me.