Chapter 44: Enemies on Both Sides
Ke Mingye pulled out a second-hand mobile phone from the pocket of his school uniform jacket.

Last night, he asked a classmate whose family runs a mobile phone shop to help him get a second-hand mobile phone from the shop. He met the classmate in the corner of the playground this afternoon, took the phone, and paid him 5000 yuan from the 600 yuan he won from the dark web bet.

Ke Mingye held the second-hand phone without a SIM card in his hand and watched the time quietly. The ten-minute cooldown time slowly passed, and he was able to summon the trickster puppet again.

According to the length of the movie, the film will end in four minutes, and then Ke Yinzhi will disguise himself as a staff member and leave his younger brothers and sisters in the theater.

Ke Mingye picked up a second-hand mobile phone and, using the recently popular prank software, sent two text messages to Bai Qiuwu's mobile number whose source could not be traced.

——"Mr. Sun Wukong, guess, is it possible that I am right across from the Tobacco Cinema?"

——"The pasta in this western restaurant is really good, and the movie you are watching must be great too, but don't forget our tryst on the viaduct tonight. Of course, if you are free now, we can also meet first."

After sending the text message, Ke Mingye turned off the second-hand phone and put it in his pocket. At the same time, he took out the phone he was originally using, opened WeChat and sent a message to Ke Yongzhu.

"Primary school student, are you there? I forgot to bring toilet paper. Please bring me a pack of toilet paper to the toilet."

"Are you sick? You can go to the toilet without paper." Ke Yongzhu replied quickly.

"I have a stomachache. What can I do?" Ke Mingye replied while taking off his pants. "If you don't want to send it, then ask my second brother to come. Is he in the cinema? Ask him to help me send a pack of tissues quickly."

"My second brother is a fan of Hayao Miyazaki. He will be very annoyed if you are interrupted while watching a movie." Ke Yongzhu typed, "Hehe, are you sure you want me to call him?"

Ke Mingye lowered his eyes and looked at the message, confirming that his second brother was still in the cinema, so he silently pulled up his pants, thinking that pretending to poop might become an unforgettable experience for him.

He was really worried that Ke Xiaomo was hiding in the shadow of the toilet and watching him, but if that was the case, his second brother should not be called a ninja, but a voyeur.

Ke Mingye bent over and typed: "Forget it, then don't call me second brother, or he will nag me. If you really don't want to help me, just ask your eldest sister to secretly bring it to me. Oh, don't let her go into the men's bathroom, just let her throw the tissue in from outside. I'll open the door when no one is around and pick it up from the ground."

His previous message was to test whether his second brother was still in the theater, and now it was to test whether Bai Qiuwu had been distracted by the two "anonymous text messages" he sent.

Ke Yongzhu quickly replied: "Okay, my elder sister just went to the bathroom, you call her."

"When?"

Ke Mingye was confident in his heart, but to be on the safe side, he asked a question on the phone.

He knew that Bai Qiuwu was unlikely to actually go to the toilet. Instead, after receiving his message, she found an excuse to go to the Western restaurant opposite the cinema to look for the trickster doll.

Of course, Ke Mingye was not waiting for her there at all. Meeting Bai Qiuwu was planned for tonight.

"I just walked out of the theater and haven't reached the restroom yet. You call her." Ke Yongzhu typed.

"Okay." Ke Mingye replied.

He breathed a sigh of relief, opened the cubicle, leaned to the edge of the restroom, and quietly stared at the women's restroom from the area outside the surveillance camera, but he never saw Bai Qiuwu.

After confirming it, Ke Mingye returned to the toilet cubicle, closed the door, and summoned the trickster doll. This gray figure, about 1.8 meters tall, squatted on the ground and looked like a gentle dog.

"Become like me."

Ke Mingye took off his clothes, leaving only a pair of boxer briefs, while giving him orders in his mind.

The appearance and size of the trick puppet changed rapidly, and when he opened his eyes again, he looked exactly like Ke Mingye.

Ke Mingye looked at this puppet that looked exactly like himself, as if he was looking in a mirror. He suffered from the uncanny valley effect to some extent and felt a little disgusted and weird.

But he still calmly put clothes on him, ordered him to put on his pants, and fixed his hair, making him look exactly like himself when he walked out of the theater. Finally, Ke Mingye took off his shoes and asked him to put them on, while he sat on the toilet.

He took a deep breath, then ordered the trickster puppet to walk out of the cubicle, closed the cubicle door, left the toilet, turned a corner in the audience passage and walked towards the entrance of Theater No. 3.

At this moment, at the entrance of Yandai Cinema, Ke Yinzhi, wearing a staff uniform, lowered his head and wrote something in a small notebook. Then he raised his head and looked at the traffic light pole that had collapsed on the ground on the street.

"The gray weirdo threw the dice from the traffic light and exploded to his death. The ten naked men disappeared at the end of the street... I looked around but couldn't find them. It's like they disappeared from the face of the earth. It seems that the Abnormal Control Bureau will have one more strange file in the next two days."

He closed the notebook and put it in his uniform pocket, thinking, "What a coincidence that it has to be today. Should I report this to the Control Bureau first..."

"No, I'd better settle the family affairs first, so that I can work with peace of mind."

Thinking of this, Ke Yinzhi was about to turn around and walk into the cinema when he found a familiar figure passing by him, so he lowered the brim of his hat to block his gaze.

After Bai Qiuwu left, Ke Yinzhi slightly loosened the brim of his hat and raised his eyes from his hair.

"Qiu Wu?"

He squinted at Bai Qiuwu's back and thought, "Players have the ability to read identities. She may have recognized me from the theater, so she left first. Let's keep this possibility in mind and test her again when we get home. Let's solve the safety issues of the other little guys first."

Ke Yinzhi walked into the cinema, put on a human face mask skillfully at the corner, and then gently pressed the small metal instrument on his finger to his throat, and the instrument perfectly blended into his skin.

He put his fist to his lips and coughed softly, the sound he made was completely different from before.

He said hello to the ticket seller and walked into the audience passage. At the entrance of the dim passage, there were two other men in staff uniforms, each holding a helmet, waiting for him. When they saw Ke Yinzhi, they followed him silently and slowly walked towards the third theater.

At this moment, the movie "Spirited Away" being shown in Theater No. 3 has ended.

Ke Yinzhi and two "staff members" pushed open the door and walked into the theater together.

With standard business smiles on their faces, they stood at the entrance of the theater, quietly waiting for the arrival of Ke Xiaomo, Ke Mingye, Ke Yongzhu, Bai Ziling and Bai Zini.

Soon, Ke Xiaomo led a group of younger brothers and sisters to the entrance of the theater.

"Sir, the audience watching this movie in Theater 3 has been selected as the lucky audience for our cinema event. We will give you a chance to experience the 'brain imaging helmet' for free."

Ke Yinzhi spoke in a gentle and distant voice, which seemed to carry the scent of disinfectant, completely fitting the image of a staff member.

As soon as he finished speaking, before Ke Xiaomo could say anything, two of Ke Yinzhi's staff members had already come in front of a group of children, holding a brain imaging helmet that looked very intimidating and full of technology, and introduced it to them, saying that this helmet could capture their brain signals and convert them into real images.

Baizini was the first to clap her hands and say yes, her eyes shining as she said it sounded like it was very interesting.

Ke Mingye lowered his head and played with his mobile phone, saying, "Can you please stop being so busy? I want to go home and sleep."

Ke Yongzhu looked nonchalant, but in fact he was secretly glancing at the helmet, as if he really wanted to try it on his head.

Although Bai Ziling didn't react much, he would occasionally raise his red eyes from the mobile phone screen and watch the staff demonstrate how to use the helmet.

Seeing them like this, Ke Xiaomo sighed softly and asked Ke Yinzhi, "Is this thing safe? Is there any possibility of damaging the brain nerves?"

"Absolutely safe." Ke Yinzhi looked at him and responded calmly, "Sir, I promise you."

Ke Xiaomo looked at him for two seconds and said, "Okay, let's try it."

(End of this chapter)