Chapter 21: "Ladies and gentlemen, the performance concludes here for tonight."

The special envoy in the audience was momentarily stunned, but perhaps being in a good mood today, he did not refuse. After rising and waving to the crowd, he smiled and strode up to the stage.

"Thank you both for your cooperation as our lucky audience members."

Chen Jiang spoke with a serious expression: "The next performance is a very simple magic trick. I actually possess a special ability—I can read minds. I will take out a brand-new, unopened deck of cards. You two will each choose a card at random, and I will be able to guess the value of your cards."

"Do you believe me?"

The young special envoy couldn't help but laugh at this, responding in kind: "I don't."

It was a simple little trick, and he had seen the clip of Chen Jiang performing it circulating online.

"Well then..."

Chen Jiang appeared somewhat flustered, rummaging through his jacket for a long moment before finally pulling out a brand-new, unopened deck of cards. He breathed a slight sigh of relief, raised the deck above his head, and fanned it out to display it to the entire audience.

He then handed it to the two for inspection.

"As you can all see."

"This is a brand-new deck."

"Unopened."

"Now, please, both of you take one card each and hand them to my special guest here. You may look at them yourselves, then show the values to the audience, but please do not let me see them."

After shuffling the deck once more, he fanned them out face-down and held them toward the Mayor of Chaoge City. The middle-aged man cooperated by drawing a card, looking at it himself, and holding it up for the audience to see—which drew a wave of cheers—before handing it to Jiang Min.

The father and daughter exchanged glances, seeing the smiles in each other's eyes. Even he, usually extremely stern, felt his gaze soften at this moment.

They savored this brief, unspoken understanding that only they could share.

"Good!"

Chen Jiang nodded, shuffled the cards again, fanned them out face-down, and held them toward the young special envoy: "You take one, too."

The young special envoy took a card from the very edge with interest, showed it to the audience as well, and then handed it to Jiang Min.

This drew another round of cheers from the crowd.

The audience gradually quieted down, eyes full of anticipation, wanting to see if Chen Jiang could truly guess the two cards.

...

The magician who was visiting Chaoge City and sitting in the audience stared intently at every move Chen Jiang made, attempting to see through the method and the principles of the trick. He couldn't tell if it was because the man's sleight of hand was too fast, or if he wasn't using any sleight of hand at all.

He couldn't discern whether Chen Jiang was using any techniques while shuffling.

But...

Based on his understanding of magicians, a magician wouldn't shuffle without a reason, just as a normal person wouldn't take off their pants without a reason.

This guy had a very interesting stage presence.

His comically exaggerated performance style made the audience chuckle from time to time, and through his physical gestures and language, he kept all eyes tightly focused on him. He didn't follow the performance style of old-fashioned magicians; he was a new-school magician.

...

"Phew..."

On stage, Chen Jiang took a deep breath, picked up two black boxes from the floor, and placed them on the table: "Next, please place your palms inside the boxes, face up and pressed flat against the bottom. I will place my hands on top of the boxes to read the cards you just chose."

"Alright."

The Mayor of Chaoge City was by now completely immersed in the warmth of the moment with his daughter. He happily slid both hands into the openings of the black box and laid them flat against the top interior. The young special envoy, not wanting to spoil the mood, did the same.

Chen Jiang closed his eyes, feigning a profound, trance-like state as he placed his hands on the black boxes. After a few seconds, he said solemnly: "I have read the cards you both chose."

"The values of the cards you selected are '11' and 'Q'."

"Is that correct?"

The two looked at each other, laughed, and shook their heads: "No, that's not it."

A wave of laughter erupted from the audience, the sound swelling into a roar.

"Wrong!"

"He guessed wrong! Hahaha!"

"Oh no, he failed!"

"Not correct?"

Chen Jiang appeared somewhat panicked. He closed his eyes again, pressing his hands firmly against the black boxes: "Wait, let me try reading your minds again. I read it wrong just now..."

At the same time—

The grid-like scanners at the top of the interior of the black boxes were rapidly collecting the palm and fingerprint data of the two. In the blink of an eye, the progress reached 100%.

This stream of data was quickly transmitted via a relay to a van parked outside the school.

Uncle Ji, sitting in the van with several subordinates, received the data and typed rapidly on his keyboard to process it, before transmitting it once more to Silent Snake, who was hiding on the roof of the Municipal Government building.

...

Hiding in a water tank on the roof of the Municipal Government building, Silent Snake felt a slight vibration from his chest. He stabilized himself with his elbow and quickly pulled a waterproof bag from his coat, which contained a 3D printer.

As the printer received the data, it quickly generated four palm molds with clear prints.

The process took only a dozen seconds.

This 3D printer was expensive and custom-made.

Silent Snake then pulled a bag of milky, viscous liquid silicone from his coat, poured it into the molds, inserted a small chip into each, closed the covers, and pulled out a flamethrower to heat them rapidly!

The silicone was pre-mixed and would solidify after just one minute of heating.

The small chips inserted inside would ensure that the resulting "silicone hand molds" possessed optical, capacitive, and biological characteristics, allowing them to precisely pass through optical and capacitive sensors.

Soon—

The silicone hand molds had completely set and hardened. Silent Snake took them out, packed his tools back into the bag, and stashed them in his coat. He then took off the headphones that had been playing symphonic music, took a few deep breaths, and stretched his limbs, ensuring his body had reached its peak state.

He tapped his four fingers with his left thumb, signaling Brother Jiang.

He indicated that he was ready, and the operation could begin at any time.

...

On the other side.

Back at Chaoge University, Chen Jiang on stage had now guessed wrong four times. The audience was growing increasingly excited, already looking forward to Chen Jiang admitting his performance was a failure.

Human beings are always like this.

They hope for the underdog to make a miraculous comeback, yet they also look forward to seeing a magician fail on stage and reveal their flaws.

People are habitually prone to hoping for those low-probability events.

The middle-aged man standing before the table moved his lips slightly, constantly signaling to Jiang Min, wanting to know if it was a performance mishap. He was already thinking of ways to help Chen Jiang save face; he didn't want his daughter to go home tonight and cry in her room because the performance failed.

However, there was no anxiety on his daughter's face; she was merely blinking playfully.

The young special envoy, on the other hand, was smiling, waiting to see how Chen Jiang would wrap this up. Having guessed wrong four times in a row, if he kept guessing—and there weren't many cards in a deck—was he really going to just keep going?

At this moment.

Chen Jiang had received the message from Silent Snake. He lifted his palms from the black boxes and looked at the two standing before the table.

He stepped back, slowly spread his arms, and laughed softly.

"When everyone's gaze chases my left hand, the truth is slowly slipping away from my right."

"When you look down and cannot find the answer, you might as well look up at the stars."

"Magic is like this, and so is life."

"Ladies and gentlemen—"

"Tonight's performance ends here."

The next moment—

The lights on the stage and in the audience seats went out instantly, and the entire venue was plunged into absolute darkness. At that very same moment, countless fireworks were launched outside the venue.

There were so many fireworks that it resembled a multi-million-dollar pyrotechnic show.

Chaoge City, originally shrouded in the night, became brilliantly illuminated as a result.

And amidst the many fireworks.

The number "7" and the letter "K" were blossoming continuously in the sky above the city.

Countless audience members stood up in the dark, their eyes filled with awe as they looked up. Their gazes pierced through the glass dome above the venue, staring at the vast number of "7s" and "Ks" mingled within the firework show beneath the starry sky.

The card values selected by the two lucky audience members on stage were precisely those two!