This is..." Old Nick picked up the badge and looked at it carefully.
After observing his expression for a while, Xing Ye gave up trying to understand his emotions through micro-expressions. Puppet people don't have that kind of thing.
Puppets love to lie, and they have no micro-expressions or small movements, which greatly increases the difficulty of the game, but it is not impossible to find out the real information from them.
This is when some tips are needed.
Xing Ye did not say that the city lord's private soldiers were dead, he only said that he saw them.
As expected, Old Nick asked excitedly, "Did they... those puppets you saw also go to the illegal mines?"
Xing Ye said, "Well... Uncle Nick, you should settle the account first. You know, for me, the most important thing is to pay it back. It's not easy to be in debt. We can talk about it later if there's anything else."
During the negotiation process, the more experienced and cunning the other party is, the more difficult it will be to see through their intentions. The more calm you need to be and never lose your composure. Only in this way can you gain the upper hand and force the other party to reveal their flaws.
Fortunately, the puppets are not sophisticated negotiation experts, and they do not have very sophisticated expressions, but most puppets are very simple and it is easy for loopholes to appear in their words.
The key is to distinguish whether they are telling the truth or lies, which is crucial.
Even if tone, expression, eyes, and facial muscles cannot be used as a basis for judgment, you can still use the speed of speech and the different details obtained after repeatedly asking about the same thing to judge the truth or falsity.
No matter how plausible a lie is, it will be exposed.
Old Nick was indeed getting anxious. His speech sped up, his wooden lips colliding with each other, making a "da da da" sound. "You only know how to pay your debts. As long as you tell me everything you saw and heard in the mine, you and the stickman will not pay any debts. It's all written off!"
Are you getting impatient so quickly? What an impatient puppet.
Xing Ye said calmly, "Then bring out the bill first. The stickman and I put our fingerprints on it."
"First tell me, have people with these badges entered the mine?" Old Nick said, slamming the table.
"He went in, armed, and left one man outside to guard. We watched until the end. Do you want to know? Take out the account book and write us a receipt."
Old Nick was so angry that he went back to his room to look through the account book and write a receipt. Cao Qian came over and high-fived Xing Ye.
It felt good to both force out some real feelings from Old Nick and pay off a debt.
Guan Ling watched in amazement. He imagined that if it was himself who was talking to Xing Ye, he might tell him all the embarrassing things he had done since childhood.
After Old Nick settled the accounts for Xing Ye and Cao Qian, Xing Ye said, "You know we only have three muskets, so of course we dare not get too close. But if you tell us who those people are, I might be able to find out what happened to them."
"You..." If Cao Qian hadn't snatched his weapon away, Old Nick would really have killed someone.
"Right!" Xing Ye slapped his head. "I remember now. I seemed to hear them say that they must use any means necessary to kill the people in the mine."
"They dare!" Old Nick, who was forced into a corner, finally couldn't help but roared loudly.
"Oh," Xing Ye said, understandingly. "Uncle Nick, you suspect that the person in the mine is Master Benedict, and you don't want him to die. It seems that Uncle Nick respects Master Benedict very much."
"Of course I respect him!" Old Nick said. "The entire Puppet City was created by the Master. I was his very first puppet. My initial task was simply to hand the Master tools. Later, when the Master needed an assistant, he transformed me little by little, and I became what I am today. The Master is the person I admire most."
It's true, but whether there is any other emotion besides respect needs further confirmation.
"Yes, I also admire the master the most, but I don't like him, nor am I grateful to him." Xing Ye said tentatively.
"Why?" Old Nick was very unhappy and his beard started blowing again.
After last night's experience, Xing Ye felt that the puppet with human nature might not thank Benedict.
A person cannot shed tears when he is sad, and can only show a programmed fake smile when he is happy. He knows in his heart that he is not a human being, but a toy created by someone. He has humanity, but will never become a human being. Will such a puppet thank Master Benedict?
There are also some ordinary puppets who are born inferior. When they know that they are destined to be weaker than other puppets just because of someone's whim, will they feel happy?
Xing Ye felt that most of the puppets in Puppet City must have very complicated feelings towards Benedict. They have admiration for the person who created them, but they also resent him for giving them life but not being able to treat them fairly, making them taste the ups and downs of life but unable to truly integrate into it.
He needed to confirm Old Nick's feelings towards Benedict. If Old Nick was as malicious as the city lord, then there was no need to continue.
"Uncle Nick, don't you have even a shred of hatred towards the Master?" Xing Ye asked, "Every time I look at my own body, I can't help but feel hatred."
"The Master is only a creator. He can't be completely fair. The puppets endowed with humanity have to learn to live on their own!" Old Nick argued excitedly with Xing Ye. "Humans are also born unequal. Do we still hate God? I saw with my own eyes how Master Benedict painstakingly created one puppet after another. He carefully placed each core into the puppet, looking at each puppet with eyes full of love. Individual puppets do have differences, but that is affected by the technology of the time. Master Benedict created countless puppets in different eras of his life, and he treated each one as his own child!"
Good, Old Nick means well to Benedict, so the conversation can continue.
Xing Ye said: "But there are still puppets who want to kill Master Benedict, those who are armed are like this."
"What do they know? They don't even know who they're looking for!" Old Nick said. "Only a few people know that Master Benedict is still alive, and his whereabouts are a mystery. I spent years investigating before I found an illegal mine outside the city, and I think Benedict might be there. The people you saw are just the city lord's private soldiers. The city lord has been corrupted by human nature and is obsessed with becoming the sole ruler of Puppet City. He doesn't want anyone to dominate him, so he's looking for someone to assassinate the master. Tell me, what happened to the master?"
Xing Ye said solemnly, "Uncle Nick, can you swear? Swear that you will never tell a lie about Master Benedict. If you lie, you will forever forget the years you spent with the Master. As long as you swear, I will tell you everything I saw in the mine. To be honest, I really did find something very important."
After the conversation, Xing Ye felt that Old Nick could be trusted and that he could get key clues from him, but he needed a guarantee.
Only by swearing on the most important thing would Old Nick dare not lie casually.
Old Nick hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to swear. He was truly concerned about Benedict's safety and wanted to know what the important matter Xing Ye was talking about was.
After he swore an oath with his core as Xing Ye said, he became quite depressed. It seemed that just saying "forget it" was a kind of harm to Old Nick's spirit.
Seeing him like this, Xing Ye said, "Don't worry, Master, you're fine. Those private soldiers have all been killed. The mine contains countless high-purity ores and robots that far surpass our Puppet City's technology. Those robots are made entirely of metal and are weapon-like. They have no humanity and simply follow orders. They are very powerful and killed all the puppets sent by the city lord by severing their cores. However, they will not attack the puppets outside the mine. The puppet guarding the door escaped."
"Master... why did he create inhuman puppets? Has he changed? He clearly said that he would give every puppet a soul..." Old Nick said dejectedly, as if he couldn't believe that Benedict regarded the puppets as tools.
"I think it has something to do with what I saw," Xing Ye said. "At the deepest part of the mine, we saw a young heart in a glass container. It wasn't an adult heart; it hadn't grown yet. If its owner was still alive, he would have been only about ten years old."
After his brother's death, Xing Ye also studied a lot of information about the heart and gained a general understanding of the changes in the size of the heart during growth.
So when he saw the heart on the projector, he never equated it with Benedict. It was impossible for an elderly master to have the heart of a ten-year-old.
"Ten years old..." Old Nick sat in the chair, trying hard to recall, "Is he the master's son?"
Son? Old Nick really had a key clue. Xing Ye asked, "Can you tell me about the master's son?"
Old Nick nodded and said, "In fact, many people in Puppet City know about this. Master Benedict originally built Puppet City for his son.
The master's son was sickly since childhood and could not play with other children. The master, who was a craftsman, studied puppets for his son and helped him make the first puppet that could move independently and play with him.
He treated the puppets as his son's friends, and each puppet was carefully made. The master's son also liked the puppets very much.
However, his son's illness became increasingly serious, and he passed away at the age of ten. After being depressed for more than a year, Master Benedict spent all his family wealth, bought the land of Puppet City, and began to make puppets continuously.
He wanted to build a city for his deceased son where he could move around freely and play, and he wanted to make the city full of childlike fun.
"You mean, the master made his son into a puppet as well?"
Old Nick shook his head. "No, I never saw the puppet of the master's son. The master wanted to build the puppet city first and then let his son live there. But when he gave the puppets human nature, the master was disappointed. He said that his innocent and kind son could not survive in such a city.
The Master wanted to transform Puppet City, but he tried many methods but failed. During this period, I stayed with the Master until one day, when he told me that he was going to find a way to purify Puppet City and asked me to stay here temporarily to repair everyone's body. After that, he left.
From then on, I never saw the master again."