The pinnacle of magic

"what happened?"

Since the show would continue for a while, the magician rushed into the control room without even taking off his makeup.There were trotting staff everywhere along the way, which made him feel bad.Rhett finally gave a few words to the people around him before raising his head to meet the magician's gaze.

"See for yourself." He turned his laptop screen towards the magician.

The magician looks at the message on the screen in disbelief.A blog published not long ago actually listed the answer to his mind-reading performance tonight!He thought about it carefully and found that the blog was posted 1 minute before the performance!

"how is this possible?!"

"Two possibilities." The producer said calmly, "One is that you just bought the audience to perform as mentioned above." He stopped the magician who wanted to interrupt. "You listen to me first. The second is that there is an inner ghost in us, and someone revealed your acting method in advance. The TV station has not received such specific information, so there must be something wrong with you. Now, time is running out , tell me honestly, is it one or two?"

"Of course it can't be one." The magician said angrily, "How could I use such a despicable method in magic!"

Rhett nodded: "Okay, your sentence is enough. We can sue him for defamation afterwards. Look carefully at the content of the article below. Can you find any obvious flaws?"

The magician pursed his lips and continued to read a long blog post before this.

"This bastard said that I have been using the audience and opponents to perform magic tricks!" He couldn't help baring his teeth, "'During the first scene, a rigged coin fell into the magician's hand through Jones. In his hand, this is not a coincidence. According to reliable sources, the person who gave the coin was precisely the magician's younger brother. 'Damn it! How could I have expected Jones to take the coin in Eric's hand?!"

Rhett: "Read on."

"'Then why did Jones choose the magician's younger brother from so many viewers? I think the answer is obvious, he has already been bought, and this performance is simply set up by the TV station and the magician. a hoax to fool ignorant viewers sitting in front of the TV.'”

The magician clenched his fists and took a deep breath to calm down the anger in his chest, and continued to read the next part.

"'Not to mention the poor second performance. The audience who wrote the note outside the venue was obviously bribed, otherwise the magician's fiancée would have absolutely no chance of knowing what was on the note. And in the final stage, Alice Si. The counter-challenge suddenly launched by Duis is also a pre-deliberated trick. The purpose is to further increase the ratings. Like the challenger in the previous game, she was also bought by the TV station in advance, so the magician can easily guess The content she wrote. Unfortunately, because the challenged party in the third scene had passed away not long ago, we can’t get any information for the time being. But Matthew Evans happened to commit suicide at this time. Could it be because he was Conscience? Or we can venture to speculate that he actually had the opportunity to come forward and expose something, but was permanently delayed for some special reason.' Crazy! This guy is absolutely crazy, he even suggested that I will kill and silence!"

The magician raised his fist resentfully.

"'In the next blog post I will list the answers to the mind-reading questions that the magician will perform tonight. The answers come from an audience that the TV station once tried to buy. He was unable to attend tonight's performance due to personal reasons. After knowing the black story, he decided to provide me with information for the sake of a clear conscience. He believed that the TV station was working with some low-quality performers to defraud the audience of money in a botched scam. He felt it was his duty to expose this, and I I have exactly the same idea. Magic is an ancient and fascinating art. If even the person who deceives the audience and bribes the opponent can be called the third magician in the world, then I think that this art The day of destruction is not far away. Finally, please don’t worry about the safety of the person who provided me with information. He is currently in a place that outsiders cannot reach. From the lie exposed.'”

The magician's face was livid.

Rhett: "How did you feel after reading it?"

Magician: "There are almost no flaws, except for the answer he announced about tonight. He didn't guess the third question correctly, and I temporarily changed the question."

Red: "What if you haven't changed? Is his answer correct?"

The magician nodded sullenly.

"It seems that there is indeed an insider." Reid let out a cold snort, "but we can't refute him based on this alone. He can say that this was changed by the TV station after his informant quit the show. .”

The magician frowned: "But if I really want to bribe the audience, I don't need to tell all the answers to the same person, right? Isn't it enough to tell him the answer to the question I want to answer?"

"Clifford, you still don't understand." The producer smiled wryly, "The psychology of the audience. The audience always expects more dramatic scenes. Now, in the face of these 'hard evidence', they would rather believe that they were deceived than I would think that this incident was a prank created by random speculation. The only good news at the moment is that Elaine has proposed a play-off match. If you voted just now, I can hardly guarantee that you can stay on this stage."

"Then what should we do next?" The magician gritted his teeth unwillingly.

"I have already sent experts to follow up and search for this 'lie revealer', but the situation is not optimistic. The experts think that this is an old hand, and it will take a lot of time to track it down, and it is very likely that he will not be found at all." The producer frowned, " Now we can only use the following performances to dilute this incident, but the audience also has reason to believe that Elaine is also one of us, and she raised the extra match itself as an emergency response for the TV station. If there is a general suspect The scope is fine, whether it is the perpetrator or the insider, can you think of any possibilities?"

"It's 'Secret Revealer'." Shi Rui walked into the control room with a terribly gloomy expression. "He has the motivation and ability to do something like this, but I suspect there is someone else behind him."

Rhett raised his eyebrows: "Secret revealer?"

"It's really like his acting style, and if I remember correctly, he also has good network skills." The magician nodded, and briefly told the producer about the grievances between himself and the secret revealer.

"Very good. Even if it's not him, we have to use him to divert attention." The producer sneered, "At least, he has a bad criminal record, and you have never had any serious negative news." He turned his head and ordered Phila: "Go and check this person's profile, let the Internet experts confirm that he is the person who posted the blog, and even if he can't confirm it, give me an ambiguous proof. I want to wait until the end of the show that Clifford is waiting for." Spread all the bad things about this person's past on the Internet, only in this way can we keep the votes tonight."

Phila: "Yes, sir."

"But that's not enough." The producer looked at the magician and asked, "Are you sure you can beat Elaine later?"

The magician was silent for a few seconds, then raised his chin: "Of course."

"Very good, everyone is moving! From now on until we announce the past of the kid who revealed the secret, I want all the voices on the Internet to slander Clifford!" The producer smiled at the magician He smiled, and his cold facial lines made this smile closer to a sneer, "The audience is a very interesting creature. When they encounter 'people who have suffered great wrongs', they tend to immediately overflow with sympathy. This matter will be handed over for the time being." Let me handle it, you go to prepare for the show first. I can bear my show to end in a close challenge, but it will never end because of being put on by someone like today! No one in the world can count on Rhett. Sarah Man without paying the price!"

"I'm going to the lounge." The magician nodded and walked out of the control room with Shi Rui.

The aura around the magician was a little low, making Shi Rui want to hold his hand tightly.However, the sharpness in the ice-blue eyes was still there, and he felt that the magician might not need comfort or encouragement at this moment.

"Shall I pour you a cup of tea?"

"Wait first." The magician grabbed Shi Rui's wrist, "Sit with me on the sofa for a while?"

Shi Rui nodded.

"Do you want to know how I changed the coin in Jones' hand?" the magician asked directly after sitting down.After that performance, Shi Rui said that he couldn't guess the technique he used.

"Do not want to."

Shi Rui's decisive answer made the magician slightly taken aback. "Why?"

"That's your secret to win me a wish, and I want you to keep it forever." Shi Rui smiled, staring into the magician's eyes and said, "And how could I believe the content on that blog? My beloved Clifford is always confident and proud. He can think about a magic trick for days and nights without sleep, but he will never do such simple and despicable things as buying audiences or opponents. There is a Chinese saying called " Measure the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain', only a person like Jiemi would think of such a sinister method."

The magician stared at Shi Rui in a daze, and whispered: "You just said you love..."

"No, I'm not going to repeat it again." Although the tone was serious, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.

"It's okay. I have a good memory!" The magician smiled and pointed to his temple. "Rui, since when did you fall in love with me?"

Seeing that the gloomy aura on the magician had completely dissipated, Shi Rui couldn't help but feel relieved.He shook his head: "I will not answer any questions that try to tempt me to repeat what I just said."

"Why?" A disappointed expression appeared on the magician's face.

"I only speak when you need to hear. Do you still need to hear now?"

"Okay..." The magician shrugged, "Honey, you really confuse me. Although I really want to say that it was unnecessary just now, because no matter how the secret revealer plans to plot against me, I will not let him succeed. .But if that's the case, I won't have the chance to hear you talk about the time just now. Well... Anyway, we have to find something to pass the hour first."

"What are you going to do?" Shi Rui smiled and looked at his lover.

"It's only been an hour..." The magician thought for a while, "Why don't you teach me how to play cards? How does ShowHand work?"

"You want to bet with me?"

"No, no bet is not gambling. I just want to know how to guess the cards my opponent wants. Can you teach me in an hour?"

"of course."