Taoist priest goes to America

Ang Lee lay on the bed, his hands behind his head, his legs crossed.

He stared at the ceiling with a relaxed expression on his face, like an office worker who had just finished working overtime and was finally able to lie down on his own bed.

The air conditioner's outdoor unit hummed outside the window, while the temperature inside the room was just right. On the bedside table sat the string of wooden puppets: Old White on the far left, Doyle in the middle, and Isya on the far right.

Li An lay there reading Doyle and Isya's memories. The thin thread of spiritual energy connecting them to the puppet trembled. Li An flipped through their memories like turning the pages of a novel, stopping to look at interesting pages.

Doyle's memories are all about his time as a corrupt cop.

The very first page made Ang Lee lose his composure: Doyle was standing in a police station corridor, a young Black man was pinned against the wall, his wrists handcuffed, blood seeping from under the cuffs.

The young Black man was crying out in pain, but Doyle ignored him, pushed him into the interrogation room, and closed the door.

Ang Lee turned the page. In the interrogation room, Doyle sat across the table from a man whose face was covered in blood, whose eyes were swollen, and whose head was bowed.

Doyle had finished reading the file in his hand. He closed the file, stood up, and took a baton from the wall.

Ang Lee flipped through a dozen pages, all of which contained similar stories: beating people in interrogation rooms, extorting money from street vendors, collecting cash in gangster bars, fabricating evidence in reports, and helping a colleague destroy bullet casings and fingerprints at the scene after he shoots someone.

Li An flipped through the pages quickly until he reached the memory left behind by Doyle after his death, the so-called "last wish." This was one of the paths for upgrading the Corpse Servant, and once it was realized, it would enhance the Corpse Servant's strength.

Doyle's dying wish wasn't revenge, money, or women; he wanted to be President of the United States...

Ang Lee saw the image that kept replaying in Doyle's mind: him standing in the Oval Office of the White House, the American flag behind him, a huge oak desk in front of him. His right hand was on the Bible, his left hand raised to take the oath to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Then the scene shifts to another: Doyle is sitting in the back of a stretched Lincoln, with a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the window. He waves out the window with that politician's smile.

Furthermore, at a campaign rally, tens of thousands of people held up signs that read "President Doyle" and his campaign slogan—"Make America...safe again."

Ang Lee couldn't help but laugh.

"You?"

He said to Doyle's puppet, "You can't even be a good sheriff, and you want to be president?"

Doyle's memories continue to unfold, and he has even begun to plan his next step: to enter politics through the "skull finger" network and run for New York State legislator.

Doyle's mind raced through calculations: first, run for senator; then mayor; then governor; and finally, enter the White House.

He even calculated how much money each step would require and which people he needed to win over.

Ang Lee closed Doyle's memories.

"You were thinking about this when you died."

He shook his head and put Doyle's puppet back on the bedside table. Then he picked up Isya's, made of willow wood, with half of its face a smooth, concave surface.

Isya's memory is different.

The butler's mind was ten times more complex than Doyle's. Li An initially flipped through a dozen pages, all about the villa's daily management: food procurement, employee scheduling, bill reconciliation, and security checks.

Isya often stood outside Ischus's office door, holding a folder in his hand. Instead of going in, he stood outside and listened quietly to Ischus talking to people.

He was noting down what Isch said, what tone he used, and what the other person's attitude was. He was also analyzing where Isch had leverage over him, who he was afraid of, and who he was wary of.

Ang Lee continued flipping through the documents. He saw Isya quietly reviewing each contract while organizing files in Ishs's study.

He offered to drive and sat in the driver's seat to record every tryst between Ischius and his lover.

I saw him standing in a corner at a banquet hosted by Ischus, observing how each guest shook hands with Ischus, the distance between their conversations, and the duration of their eye contact.

Isya was gathering information; he was preparing for a certain day.

Ang Lee found the complete "blueprint" in Isya's mind.

The first step is to control Idel.

Idel is a hundred times easier to control than Ishes. He is bold but brainless, greedy and lustful. As long as you give him money, he will listen to anything.

Isya had been siphoning off a portion of Ishs's monthly allowance for Idel, transferring it to an account under his own control, which he used to provide Idel with extra pocket money. Idel had become accustomed to receiving money from him.

The second step was to sideline Ischius.

Ishers's only weakness was that he relied too much on and trusted his steward. He thought everything was under his control, but he failed to notice his own rebellious intentions.

From initially offering only assistance, to later delegating everything to Isjah, the result was that Isjah almost completely controlled everything in Ishes.

Even the underlying permissions of all his villa's surveillance systems had been tampered with by Isya. Isya had left backdoors in every piece of code, so he could shut down all surveillance without being detected if he wanted to.

Isya's third step was to seize power through a shell company.

The Ishs family has connections in both the military and political spheres, ranging from several members of the New York State Legislature to a logistics department at the Pentagon, with several layers of relationships in between, but all of them protect each other.

Isya's plan was to continue operating these relationships under the identity of Isshes, pushing Idl to the forefront while he remained in the background.

In this way, he doesn't need to replace anyone; he only needs to "manage" to control the resources of the Ischneider family to advance his own career and make a profit.

"You're the smartest person in that villa," Ang Lee couldn't help but exclaim upon seeing this.

"I've endured it for so many years, just for this."

"Unfortunately, you've met me. Your pipe dream has come true."

He continued searching through Isya's memories, going back even further. He found the day Isya first met Ishes.

On a gloomy afternoon, he was sitting in the office of a labor agency when Ishers walked in, glanced at him, and without asking him any questions, simply said, "Come with me."

Isaiah stood up and followed him through the door.

From that day on, Isya began gathering information, hoping to one day sit in his position.

When Ang Lee turned to the next page, the scene changed. Isya was standing in a basement, in front of a stainless steel operating table.

Lying on the platform was a man named Doyle, dressed in a police uniform, with his eyes closed and a white gauze pad on his chest.

Isya looked down at Doyle's chest, where a small bulge, about the size of a grain of rice, was covered by skin under the gauze.

A person in a white coat was standing next to him, holding a long, thin pair of surgical forceps, pushing the protrusion deeper under the skin.

When Ang Lee saw that page of memories, he suddenly realized something. He quickly flipped through it and found another part of Isya's memories.

The part about Isya himself involved; he was lying on that operating table, the effects of the anesthesia wearing off, his vision blurred, a gauze pad on his chest.

He heard the man in the white coat speaking to Ischus: "The signal is stable; we can track you anytime."

Ang Lee picked up the puppet of Isya, held it up to his eyes, and probed it with his spiritual energy, tracing the bones.

There was a hard metal lump the size of a grain of rice on the fifth rib of his right chest.

He picked up Doyle's puppet again, and there was another small hard lump in the same spot.

Ang Lee stared at the puppet of Isya for a few seconds, his mind racing.

If there's a tracking device that can pinpoint my location, then there must be a tracker, and I've been stuck at the hotel for so long...

Before he could figure out what to do next, he heard some soft noises coming from outside the door.

In the corridor, Chigur stood at the door of room 304, the nozzle of the high-pressure gas cylinder just removed from the keyhole.

The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, shining on his face and making it appear white.

He placed his palm on the wooden door, pointed the gun at the crack, and then pushed it hard.

The door suddenly swung open, slamming against the wall with a dull thud.

Qiguer stepped across the threshold, turned on the fluorescent light next to him with his left hand, and the blinding white light illuminated the room. Without pausing, he pointed the gun at the spot under the bed.