Chapter 685: A Very Long Plan
"Damn it…"
Earth Monkey came back to his senses and cursed. His expression seemed a mix of confusion and anger.
*Boom!*
Hearing that muffled thunderclap, Earth Monkey turned around and flung the door open. He pointed a finger at the sky and said viciously, "You won't even let me talk about that?! Just how big of a show are you planning to watch?!"
The sky rumbled lowly but produced no further thunderclap.
"If you didn't want me to tell others, why did you tell me in the first place?!"
Everyone gazed out at the sky, the dark crimson expanse completely devoid of even a single cloud.
"You madman… Are you just doing this for your own entertainment?!"
Earth Monkey pointed at the sky and cursed loudly, leaving everyone in the room stunned.
"Hang on…" Chen Junnan turned back and asked, "Old Qiao, who the hell is he yelling at up there?"
"Pointing at the sky…" Qiao Jiajin blinked. "Guess he's yelling at a bird."
Earth Monkey kept cursing for a good while, but the sky offered no response. He finally spat on the ground and stormed back inside, panting heavily with a look of extreme frustration.
"Oh, Monkey Bro, were you just on the phone?" Chen Junnan grinned.
"Fuck's sake…" Earth Monkey shook his head repeatedly. "I just can't figure out 'Azure Dragon'…"
"Who?"
Several voices chimed in with confusion.
"Who else could make that 'Thunderclap' appear?" Earth Monkey grumbled under his breath. "He really doesn't treat us like people… Has the power to judge the entire 'Land of the End,' but only uses it to scare us 'Zodiacs'… Damn it… Damn it… We…"
"Alright, alright, Monkey Bro, don't get so worked up," Chen Junnan said. "Little Lord here thinks that 'Azure Dragon' is just messing with you. If that thunderbolt had actually struck you, you'd be an African monkey by now, right?"
Earth Monkey fell silent, turned around, and sat down at a nearby table. He waved his hand dismissively. "I told you, my business has nothing to do with you. Get out of here."
He then jerked his chin toward Qi Xia's direction. "Take him with you."
"Monkey Bro, Monkey Bro." Chen Junnan stepped closer again, grinning. "Since we've come this far, why not just tell us everything you know? You made a deal with Old Qi—maybe we can, too."
Earth Monkey was about to pull a cigarette from his pocket but paused at Chen Junnan's words. He lifted his eyes to look at Chen Junnan and asked in a low voice, "Kid… tell me, how many years can a person's plan keep running smoothly?"
He sighed, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it. Everyone glanced around the gambling hall floor. They couldn't tell whether Earth Monkey really had that bad of a smoking habit or if their arrival had just made him irritable, but the messy floor was already littered with cigarette butts.
"That depends on whose plan it is," Chen Junnan answered. "Take Little Lord, for example. I only just made a plan about what happened a moment ago. After all, my life motto is 'The cart will find its way around the hill when it gets there; the boat will straighten itself out when it reaches the bridge.'"
He then turned to look at Qiao Jiajin. "Old Qiao, how long can your plan last?"
Qiao Jiajin let out a simple laugh. "What plan?"
Earth Monkey sighed helplessly at that. "Tell me—if someone's plan could keep working for decades… and it kept moving forward exactly as he intended, what would that mean?"
Chen Junnan thought for a moment. "It means whoever made that plan is pretty impressive. Take Old Qi, for instance—he's always been that kind of impressive guy."
"How could he have always been that impressive…" Earth Monkey gritted his teeth, viciously crushing the cigarette butt in his hand. "That's the problem… That's the biggest problem!"
"What?" Everyone looked confused.
Earth Monkey kept his brows furrowed, as if he had a million questions in his own mind.
"A person who wasn't all that smart before… suddenly becomes extremely intelligent. Even if I can accept that… why would a plan he made when he *wasn't* so smart run so smoothly…? Do you have any idea how enormous this plan is…?"
"I think I get it…" Chen Junnan nodded thoughtfully. "You're saying Old Qi used to be not as smart as he is now, but he still set up a grand plan… and until now, you've all been following it step by step? Is that really such a scary thing?"
"Isn't it scary enough?!" Earth Monkey's eyes suddenly went wide. "Can a normal person even do something like that? Even ordinary people planning out their next day's schedule have to constantly adjust because of all kinds of trivial crap… What if you stretch that time to a few decades? Running too smoothly is never a good thing… You people just don't get it…"
Chen Junnan thought along Earth Monkey's line of reasoning and nodded. "I really don't get it. But aren't you still just complimenting Old Qi? Isn't it because he's the one who made the plan that you've been able to live so smoothly…?"
"No!!" Earth Monkey seemed genuinely agitated. "Don't any of you have a brain?!"
He stepped forward and grabbed Chen Junnan's shoulders, his face full of terror as he whispered, "It means someone else is meddling with this plan!! Someone other than Qi Xia and us is pushing his plan forward, and that's why everything has been going so smoothly!"
Only then did everyone finally understand what Earth Monkey had been worried about all along.
"Can't you see…?" Earth Monkey pointed at the sleeping Qi Xia. "Do you know who the 'Dream Enterer' is? Do you know how the 'Zodiacs' receive that person's instructions? Even *he* has gotten involved now! It means Qi Xia's plan was exposed decades ago! He might have been used by someone all along—and so was I! All of my waiting has come to nothing!! In this game of chess, who's the one moving the pieces? Who's just a pawn?"
Seeing Earth Monkey's emotions spiraling out of control, the group sensed trouble. He looked like someone who had been terribly wronged, or perhaps… someone who had gone too long without anyone listening to what was in his heart.
"Big Monkey… take it easy." Qiao Jiajin stepped forward and patted Earth Monkey on the shoulder. There was something strange about this Earth Monkey.
Even though they had just been at odds with him in the gambling match, Qiao Jiajin couldn't help feeling that this Earth Monkey wasn't really an enemy.
"You gotta look on the bright side…" Qiao Jiajin racked his brain trying to console Earth Monkey.
"Look on the bright side…?" Earth Monkey turned to him, his face full of despair. "Qi Xia has already been taken down by the 'Dream Enterer.' All the facts are right in front of us. Tell me—how am I supposed to look on the bright side?"
"Hmm…" Qiao Jiajin thought for a moment and said, "My brain's slow, so maybe I'm just thinking too simple. But what if… the one who's been 'meddling with the plan' all along is just the smarter version of that conman himself?"
(Shameless plug: Two Cat's *Above the Immortals*—not a power fantasy, slower pacing, bigger world. If you're into that, go check it out.)