Chapter 266 Liar
Grand Theater.
Hanabi held up the fox mask with both hands, just like she had done countless times in practice, but now she was no longer as unfamiliar as before.
She is Hanabi, and Hanabi is her.
Everything you do is real fireworks and your true self.
Hanabi smiled at the mask, and the audience below the stage applauded loudly. She bowed skillfully and thanked the audience for coming to support her.
Backstage, after removing her makeup, Hua Huo once again turned into the youthful appearance of a student. She smiled at the darkness and said, "Chairman, what can I do for you?"
"This play is already the 9124th performance."
The man sat on the sofa in the dark, holding a transparent cup filled with swaying liquor in his right hand.
Hanabi smiled, showing a slightly surprised expression of gratitude, "It's an honor for the chairman to remember me!"
"Ah..."
He chuckled, "I'm going to die."
"..."
The smile on the Fool's face gradually faded, and then he became silent. "Is this also your deception?"
Hanabi wanted to see something in his eyes, but just like before, she could not see anything as long as the man didn't want to.
The man smiled and said, "Who knows."
He just remembered a "story" from long, long time ago.
...
...
"Little girl."
"Want to see a magic trick?"
The boy held many playing cards in his palms, which kept flashing like flowing water.
The dirty girl raised her head timidly, stretched out her hand halfway and then retracted it, "Master...you won't hit me, will you?"
Her pupils were filled with fear, and the boy noticed the dark blue whip marks on the girl's arms.
After looking up, he saw children with numb faces all around him. The guards in charge of escorting them told him that these children were orphans transported from outside the star field.
The development of Edo Star requires manpower, and where there is a need for manpower, the slave trade will naturally arise, which is now called the population market.
The development of the wilderness is always full of opportunities and miracles, and the world is never short of people pursuing their dreams.
An Ming is one of them.
"Well, you can look, but you have to pay to touch it," the leader with alloy teeth in his mouth held the latest interstellar communicator and cursed this remote planet for not even having a signal.
An Ming ignored the man and just smiled and drew out four cards. "Well, I'll give you a chance. There is only one peach blossom among these four cards."
"If you win, come with me."
"..."
The girl's dusty eyes seemed to be looking at the boy carefully for the first time. She stretched out her fingers weakly, but was still hesitant.
Somehow she knew that the four playing cards represented completely different futures.
The girl held a card with a slight tremor, and when she saw the peach blossom in the corner, she could almost hear her own heartbeat.
"Good luck."
An Ming smiled and rubbed the girl's head, "I want it."
"Oh, boss, you have a really good eye. This is the last descendant of the puppet clan, and this little orphan is the only one left," the man immediately showed a shrewd expression, calculating how many credit points he could get from selling this order.
There are no poor people coming to Edo Star at this time, and all the rich people will take advantage of them.
"Three million credits."
"can."
An Ming held the girl's hand and felt her uneasy look.
"Want to see a magic trick?"
The girl blinked her innocent eyes and stared at An Ming's face in confusion.
The red heart was pulled back into the palm of the hand as if it had magic power, and at the same time, the dealer's head was cut off, and the peach blossom in the corner was dyed a bright red.
The girl's eyes seemed to light up and she looked at An Ming without blinking.
"So handsome..." She looked at An Ming nervously and spoke for the first time: "Can I be as good as you, Master?"
"Of course, if you want to learn."
An Ming held her hand and said with a smile: "My name is An Ming, An means safety and Ming means tomorrow."
"Master An."
"Call me brother."
"Okay...Brother."
The girl only felt the warmth in his palms, and she knew that as long as she followed him, she would no longer be displaced.
An Ming took the girl back to his temporary home on Edo Star. After asking, he learned that the girl had no name and was an orphan abducted from a distant star field.
The last descendant of the puppet clan, they wear masks from birth and live their lives according to the masks.
Some are masks of wealth, some are masks of sadness.
"My mask is blank."
The girl said somewhat disappointedly that it was rumored that the doll clan would eventually become people like the masks.
No one cares what an orphan thinks, except An Ming. The girl saw serious thinking in his eyes.
"Who do you want to be?"
"Like my brother, use cards to kill the bad guys?" The girl hesitated for a moment and said honestly.
"So what do you think of me as?"
"Good guy."
This time the girl responded quickly, with unquestioning fondness in her clear eyes.
“I’m a liar.”
An Ming took out the four playing cards again and flipped them all over with ease. What appeared in front of the girl were four identical peach blossom cards.
No matter which one she chooses, the result will not change.
"elder brother..."
The girl was not as excited as expected. Instead, she looked at An Ming calmly, "Is she a lolita complex?"
An Ming: “?”
"But my brother's eyes are not like those people's."
The girl said seriously: "That must be because my brother likes me."
"Why else would you take me away? The book says this is called love at first sight."
An Ming didn't expect that girls nowadays would mature so precociously, but it makes sense. If they were not smart, they would not have been able to survive among the slave traders until now.
The girl is much smarter than she lets on.
"I'm going to use you."
"Brother, can a liar tell the truth?"
"You have to remember that the real lie is always the truth."
Lively music was coming from outside the window, and from here one could see a stage in the distance, on which something seemed to be being performed.
An Ming took out the flyer he had picked up earlier from his pocket. There was only a simple fox mask drawn on it, so it was a bit too simple to call it a flyer.
[The play Fireworks is being performed for the first time. We sincerely invite you to watch it.]
The girl's pupils were shining with peach red as bright as fireworks, as if the fireworks would never end. She just stared at An Ming quietly.
"Hanabi."
"Ok?"
"From today on, you will be called Hanabi."
"Hanabi...Hanabi, Hanabi!" The girl repeated the unfamiliar name over and over again. The blank fox mask in her arms was also dyed with a touching bright red at this moment.
An Ming stared at the fireworks.
He is a liar, that's the truth.