tkworld Chapter 145 Puzzle Pieces!
Chapter 145 Puzzle Pieces!
Under the streetlights, the night air was slightly cool.
Jiang Bai felt a chill run down his spine as he watched his counselor suddenly freeze, staring intently at his feet, before turning to look at him in terror.
"Teacher Zhang...?"
Jiang Bai tentatively took a step forward, wanting to reach out and help the elderly man who seemed to have suddenly suffered a stroke:
"What's wrong? Are you experiencing low blood sugar?"
"Don't move!!!"
Old Zhang suddenly shouted, his voice so sharp it cracked, startling Jiang Bai so much that he froze on the spot, one foot awkwardly dangling in mid-air.
Old Zhang squatted down without caring about his image.
He brought his face close to Jiang Bai's feet.
wink.
I rubbed my eyes hard.
Blink again.
That's right.
These are the shoes.
White sneakers.
Even under the streetlights, it still shone brightly white.
Even the slightly unique way the bow was tied on the shoes was exactly the same as the way the bow was tied on Jiang Baizhi's feet that he had seen earlier at the back door of the auditorium!
Boom—!
It was as if a thunderbolt had cleaved open Old Zhang's skull.
A crazy, absurd, outrageous idea, yet perfectly logical, grew wildly in his mind like weeds:
"Jiang Bai... is that Jiang Baizhi?!"
"A man dressed as a woman?!"
"No! Impossible!"
Old Zhang subconsciously tried to shake this terrible thought out of his mind.
"Jiang Bai is a rough and tough guy! Jiang Baizhi is a delicate and beautiful woman!"
"How could this be a single person? They're even different species!"
but.
The brain is like an uncontrolled supercomputer, frantically retrieving fragments of past memories and forcibly piecing them together.
[Piece 1: The Initial Registration]
Old Zhang remembered that night.
Jiang Bai stood in front of him and said earnestly, "Teacher, I want to sign up for singing. It has to be an original song; I want to sing a song that I wrote myself."
"Is it that kind of sad love song that so-and-so sang?"
"No, it's a sweet song, the kind that's so sweet it'll make your teeth fall out."
At the time, Lao Zhang found it funny.
Looking back now... he wasn't joking!
He's serious!
He actually sang a sweet song! And he sang it in drag!
[Puzzle 2: The Bizarre Backup Dancers]
Old Zhang recalled the scene on the stage just now.
Apart from Jiang Baizhi in the center position, the backup dancers behind her were all dressed in black clothes, black pants, and black shoes!
Moreover, the movements were stiff and lacked any grace, making it seem like... a random passerby pulled from the street!
"There are no dance club friends at all! They're just shills hired to cover things up!"
"If Jiang Bai were among the backup dancers, he'd be wearing black shoes right now, not the same white shoes as the lead dancer!"
"Unless... he wasn't even among the backup dancers! He's the lead dancer himself!"
"He is Jiang Baizhi!"
【Puzzle 3: The Mysterious Itinerary】
"Jiang Bai took leave to audition in Kyoto... When he came back, he stammered and wouldn't talk about the role."
"As it turned out, his sister Jiang Baizhi got the role of Empress Zhang Yan!"
Jiang Bai asked for leave, saying it was for his future career...
"As a result, Jiang Baizhi shone brightly on 'The Voice of China'!"
The timelines... completely overlap! A perfect match!
【Puzzle 4: The Disappearing Couple】
Old Zhang felt a chill all over his body.
"Thinking back carefully... I've never seen the two siblings together before!"
"On the day of the rehearsal, I only saw my sister on stage. Afterwards, I couldn't find them. Jiang Bai explained that they had gone back to their dorm."
"Just now in the garden, my sister was talking to us, and Jiang Bai went to the toilet."
"Now Jiang Bai has appeared... but where's my sister? She's disappeared again?"
"This isn't a biological sister at all! This is clearly a transformation technique!"
As each puzzle piece was put back into place.
A seemingly absurd truth suddenly gained credibility from 10% to 50%, 80%, and so on.
Until—99%!
The logic is complete!
Anything that seems illogical becomes clear the moment you substitute the formula "Jiang Bai = Jiang Baizhi"!
Old Zhang squatted on the ground, his face ashen and his lips trembling.
He looked up at the innocent-looking, handsome male student in front of him.
But involuntarily, the image of that incredibly sweet girl on stage, wearing a short skirt and white stockings, swaying her hips and shouting "I love you," kept popping into my mind.
Two faces.......
They gradually overlapped.
"Ugh... Ah!!!"
Old Zhang felt a sudden dizziness, his blood pressure soared, and his heart couldn't withstand the enormous shock.
"Ouch!"
He exclaimed in surprise, his body swayed, and he almost fell to the ground.
"Teacher Zhang!"
Jiang Bai was startled and quickly reached out to help him:
"Are you alright? Why is your face so pale? Are you too tired?"
Old Zhang felt Jiang Bai's strong hand supporting his arm.
He suddenly shuddered.
As if electrocuted, she looked at Jiang Bai with terrified eyes, her voice trembling like a leaf in the wind:
"you........"
"Don't touch me!"
Old Zhang steadied himself by holding onto the lamppost beside him, panting heavily, staring intently at Jiang Bai with an extremely complex expression.
There was shock, fear, and confusion.
There's also a kind of breakdown where you "don't understand but are deeply shocked"!
"Jiang Bai..."
Old Zhang swallowed hard, trying to find his voice.
A 99% probability is practically 100%!
But what if?
Old Zhang's knuckles turned white, his eyes held the last glimmer of hope, and he asked in a trembling voice:
"Then... what about your sister?"
"Where's Jiang Baizhi, who was just talking to me in the garden and dancing and singing on stage?"
Where is she now?
Jiang Bai blinked, looking at Old Zhang's expression as if he was about to have a heart attack, and didn't quite understand why he was so agitated. He could only bite the bullet and point in the direction of the school gate:
"You're home."
"She said she was tired after the performance, so I told her to take a taxi back to the hotel... oh no, home."
"You're home? Really?"
"Jiang Bai, answer one more question for the teacher..."
Old Zhang's voice was a little dry, his heart sank, and his gaze, sharp as a knife, pierced straight at Jiang Bai's feet:
"you......."
"You were on stage... as a backup dancer, right? I remember all your dance partners were wearing black shoes."
"And those white shoes of yours..."
"What happened?"
"Just now on stage, only your sister was wearing white shoes."
"You two... now not only are your shoes white, but even the buckles on your shoelaces are exactly the same!"
"What? She left and gave you her shoes to wear?"
"Or... are you saying... you're your sister, Jiang Baizhi!"