Retired for A Hundred Years: Re-Employment for the Apocalypse Bigshot!-Chapter 239: Puppet

Ji Ning’s eyebrows furrowed tightly.

Li Wenxin looked at Ji Ning with a hint of malice in his eyes, "They believe the Commander will definitely return. To welcome her back, they ordered my father and two uncles before their deaths to establish the Ji Family Army, waiting for the Commander’s return!"

Ji Ning: ...

It’s something they would do.

Ji Ning felt moved but also a bit helpless.

"The founding principle of the Ji Family Army was to inherit the Commander’s will, to promote her thoughts and spirit. However, people’s hearts are changeable. Deep ties fade with the lure of benefits. The Ji Family Army fractured internally, its spirit and thoughts no longer unified. Some even used the Commander’s return to carry out a plan to control the entire Ji Family Army..."

As Li Wenxin spoke up to this point, his gaze toward Ji Ning was already tinged with anger.

Yet Ji Ning’s expression returned to calm, and he uttered four words indifferently: "Li Daitao Jiang." (Replacing someone under false pretenses)

Li Wenxin was stunned for a moment, then continued, "That’s right, these people found a group of younger girls, cultivating them from an early age with the Commander’s beliefs and stories, letting them gradually become assimilated into the Commander these people crafted, believing themselves to be the Commander, becoming their puppets."

Ji Ning’s gaze showed a hint of regret, "Unfortunately, a fake is always a fake."

"Exactly, because they’re fake, these puppets meet tragic ends, almost none reaching adulthood. The only one who reached adulthood was assassinated. You’re the only puppet in recent years to have succeeded and appeared before me!"

Li Wenxin looked at her coldly, his gaze nearly brimming with killing intent.

But Ji Ning’s expression remained calm, and she replied, "How do you know that I’m the puppet they cultivated? Perhaps I’m the real one?"

"The real one?" Li Wenxin inspected her up and down, sneering, "This time their cultivation method has truly succeeded!"

Ji Ning: ...

"Your memory contains no impurities, allowing you to survive this long, even safely appearing before me as a Detective for the Security Bureau," Li Wenxin spoke directly to Ji Ning, dropping all pretenses.

Ji Ning found it somewhat amusing, a hint of a smile surfacing on her face as she looked Li Wenxin straight in the eyes, "Should I thank you for this?"

"Your abilities aren’t weak and you’re a multi-system superpower user. Since appearing in our sights, you haven’t done anything particularly outrageous, so I’d like to recruit you."

Ji Ning slightly nodded, "To become your weapon against the Ji Family Army?"

"No!" The aura around Li Wenxin became a bit more peaceful, and he poured himself another cup of tea.

Ji Ning raised an eyebrow.

"After all, the Ji Family Army is the culmination and unfulfilled dream of my grandfather. I don’t want it truly destroyed by those people. Perhaps those who created you also had a bit of sincerity back then." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Consolidate all the global forces of the Ji Family Army."

Ji Ning took a sip of tea.

"Oh," she said flatly.

Li Wenxin quietly waited for her to express her stance, but besides that "oh," she did not respond further.

He couldn’t decipher what Ji Ning was thinking at the moment, so he added, "You can take your time to consider my suggestion."

"Aren’t you worried that my backers might also come out to recruit me?"

"I believe that someone who truly inherits the Commander’s will carries a sense of righteousness, and would never forsake the safety of the Hua Continent for personal gain."

Ji Ning chuckled inwardly.

But her face remained extremely calm.

Later, Li Wenxin took Ji Ning to a restaurant for hot pot, treating her as though she was a youngster he admired.

Ji Ning did not refuse, eating until she was eighty-percent full at Li Wenxin’s home, then was driven back to the residence arranged for her by the Beijing Security Bureau.

Lin Yuanyang glanced at the clock on the wall, surprised at why she returned so late.

Just as he was about to inquire, Ji Ning gestured for silence.

He watched as Ji Ning cautiously walked over to the television and pointed to a black box behind it.

Lin Yuanyang immediately understood her meaning, his expression turning cold. He quickly approached, fiddling with the black box for a moment before removing it.

He then fetched his toolbox, promptly dismantling the black box to reveal a listening device inside.

Ji Ning instructed him to render it ineffective without hindering its operations.

Lin Yuanyang directly removed the chip inside, altering its program.

"Sister Ning, it’s done."

Seeing Lin Yuanyang speak without reservation, Ji Ning said directly, "Help me find out the identities of all individuals named Ji Ning across the Hua Continent over the past 100 years."

Lin Yuanyang’s face showed surprise, and Ji Ning briefly recounted what Li Wenxin had told her.

Lin Yuanyang was shocked into silence for a long while, taking quite some time to regain his voice, "Then... Sister Ning is..."

"I’m not a puppet," Ji Ning said, looking directly into Lin Yuanyang’s eyes.

Lin Yuanyang jolted, forcibly suppressing his shock, and nodded seriously, "Understood. I’ll investigate right away, ensuring no one discovers anything!"

Sister Ning entrusted him with such an important secret, a testament to her absolute trust in him, and he must not betray that trust.

Ji Ning nodded slightly, then reclined on the sofa, closing her eyes and pressing her fingers to her forehead.

The room fell silent, save for the clacking of Lin Yuanyang’s keyboard.

Li Wenxin was certain she was a puppet, not fearing her recruitment or control by her backers, which went beyond some grandiose notion of righteousness.

Because he too was involved in the puppet program, possibly even one of the masterminds.

But what he hadn’t anticipated was that she wasn’t truly a puppet, but the real person who had traversed time and space to be here.

If the puppet plan succeeded, it could indeed unite the forces of the Ji Family Army, possibly even gather the strength of all who were fervently devoted to her.

Seeing Bai Xiaotang and Ye Tong’s admiration for her was a testament to this power.

But, as Li Wenxin said, training puppets is prone to mishaps, as people have their own thoughts and attempting to replace another will eventually reveal flaws, creating instability.

Therefore, for the plan to proceed smoothly, the backers likely reached an agreement, temporarily setting aside differences to cultivate the perfect puppet together.

To replace someone, the most perfect method is to become that person.

From birth, faithfully replicating ’her’ life, making the puppet’s memories ’real’, much like the ancient film ’The Truman Show,’ allowing puppets to grow from cognition along ’her’ growth journey.

And these backers would not surface before the puppet’s debut, nor interact with the puppet.

Only once the puppet appeared before the world would they leverage their skills to recruit the puppet and have her subdue the Ji Family Army and all her admirers.

However, this breed of puppet carries immense risks, as the puppet, believing herself to be the true Commander, might very well develop her own power, not serving their interests.

That’s why Li Wenxin, once confirming she was a puppet, told her her memories had been altered, and she wasn’t the true Commander.

This was to make her cautious, keeping her from using the Ji Family Army against him even after gaining their control.

Such a cunning plan!

As Ji Ning reflected upon this, a trace of hostility arose, startling Lin Yuanyang, who glanced up at her repeatedly.