The Real Awakening

A week later.

S-City’s Nanshan General Hospital.

One could hear nonstop slurping sounds coming from an otherwise tranquil ward.

It was like a person was gulping noodles, and with quite a bit of relish based on the sound.

Su Mu was sitting across from a severely injured patient who had woken from a coma less than two days ago yet was feasting with an appetite that more than doubled an average person’s. He was honestly dumbfounded, and simply sat there with a nonplussed face.

Ye Xiao was practically covered from head to toe in bandages on the sickbed, with only his head and a few fingers on his left hand exposed. And he was using those few extremely nimble fingers to hold a pair of chopsticks in a comical manner for shoveling steaming noodles into his mouth without a break.

As he gorged himself, his face showed a content expression of joy.

On that rainy night, he had suffered significant blood loss and had been barely alive by the time he had arrived at the hospital. However, just as the doctors were on the verge of declaring emergency rescue as impossible, Su Mu had given Ye Xiao 500mL of blood. As a result, this severely wounded person who had almost flatlined miraculously survived, leaving even the doctors in disbelief. 

Naturally, Ye Xiao had no idea that Su Mu had given blood. He simply had been told he’d been lucky that he had not died after falling from such a high cliff. With the happiness from having survived such a calamity, he was determined to make up for the food he hadn’t been able to enjoy during the time he had wasted unconscious; otherwise, he would be unworthy of this favour from God.

When Su Mu heard such cocky words, he seriously felt the strong urge to slam the bowl of beef noodles into Ye Xiao’s face.

Ye Xiao just kept prattling on, “Ugh, I told you over the phone that I wanted a double portion of beef and two additional stewed eggs, yet why is there one less egg and so little beef? Huh, even the noodles seem to be a bit less? Hey, hey, be honest with me, did you secretly eat some on your way here?”

Su Mu’s irritation instantly lit up. With a frosty expression, he threatened, “If you dare utter a single word more, I swear I will toss that bowl of noodles into the garbage.”

“Ahhhhh, don’t be like that, I haven’t finished eating yet! You can’t waste food!”

Ye Xiao frantically whisked the beef noodles away then cleaned all of its contents like a storm of destruction.

He burped and comfortably leaned back against the pillows. With a beaming grin, he said, “Alright, I’m done eating. Go on and continue now, what happened afterwards with No. 13’s case?”

Su Mu rolled his eyes and coldly replied, “There wasn’t any afterwards, I was done speaking. That’s everything that happened.”

Ye Xiao frowned and gloomily sulked, “Oh. In other words, the final result at the court hearing yesterday was that the charges against No. 13 couldn’t stand?”

“A psychological assessment concluded Jiang Cheng Fei had severe dissociative identity disorder, and the main personality could not take the blame of his own homicidal actions. As a result, the charges couldn’t stand and he was sent to a mental hospital.”

Ye Xiao let out a quiet sigh, his emotions somewhat complicated as he muttered, “Why do I keep feeling like there’s still some things that don’t make sense with this case?”

Su Mu looked at him and asked, “What things?”

Pensively shaking his head, Ye Xiao furrowed his brows and replied, “I can’t quite say for sure right now either. It just feels…like there’s something weird. What do you think?”

Su Mu wordlessly took a seat on the chair by the bed and crossed his long legs without speaking.

Ye Xiao carefully pondered to himself for a while, organising every aspect of the case in chronological order from beginning to end. 

He spoke aloud, “The case was like this: First, the main subject of the case, Jiang Cheng Fei, at age fourteen burned five other children from the same welfare agency to death, and was subsequently locked in juvenile prison on the suspicion of committing homicide. Then he was selected by the ESP laboratory researchers that year and brought out of the prison to the secret research institute in Zhu Sha.

“In the research institute, perhaps due to his inability to bear the tremendous pressure and fear there or due to other reasons, he ultimately split himself into five different personalities, with each of them matching the five children he had set fire to.

“Afterwards, Jiang Cheng Fei escaped from the lab and vanished without a trace for six years. In those six years, maybe his main personality was too weak, leading to the five sub-personalities to gradually rise in power, and the main personality could no longer control his body or actions freely.

“According to that ESP researcher, Situ Yun Fei, they discovered Jiang Cheng Fei’s disassociative personality disorder during their experiments. The unimaginable part was that while the injected ESP drug was ineffective on the main personality, it showed results in his five sub-personalities. Hence, Xu Ming, Sun Yuan, Wang Hai Tao, Li Qing, and Gu Xiao Rou possess psychometry, telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance, and precognition.

“However, these ESP superpowers weren’t stable and could not be expressed at any time. The five sub-personalities of Jiang Cheng Fei spent six entire years investigating the research institute before carrying out their revenge through serial killings. After killing Cao Guo Xuan, Jiang Zhong Ming, and Du Zi Feng, Jiang Cheng Fei slipped up and was captured.

“While in Nanshan Prison, his main personality could not be maintained for long periods of time, and the symptoms of his disassociative personality disorder would appear at random times. The one up against Officer He Zhi Dong had been Wang Hai Tao, whose ESP was psychokinesis and could control objects from a distance. It was precisely because of this special ability that led Officer He to inexplicably blind his own eye with a fountain pen. The one up against Officer Luo You Wei had been Li Qing, who possessed clairvoyance which gave him hyper vision, hyper listening, and hyper smell. So his knowledge of Luo You Wei’s fiancee having an affair wasn’t a guess, but something he truly witnessed and heard, then told Luo You Wei. This led to Luo You Wei losing rationale and committing a lovers suicide. As for the one up against Officer Kang Lei, it had been Xu Ming, whose ESP was psychometry. I experienced this myself as well, and it was indeed quite unfathomable…”

At this point, Ye Xiao heaved a long sigh. He raised his head to look at Su Mu and asked, “Everything I’ve said so far covers the results of the investigation up until this point, right?”

Su Mu silently nodded.

“Is there anything that sounds strange or contradictory?”

Rather than responding, Su Mu appeared to be thinking of something.

Ye Xiao pondered, “Say, why do you think Jiang Cheng Fei’s five sub-personalities just happen to be the five children he burned to death? Isn’t it a bit too coincidental?”

Shaking his head, Su Mu replied, “No, during his time at the children’s welfare agency, Jiang Cheng Fei was constantly bullied by those five. In his eyes, they were the stronger party. When he was harmed or emotionally triggered, he actually wished he could be just as powerful as them. As a result, he unconsciously split into five sub-personalities that were identical to them.”

“But…” 

Ye Xiao tilted his head and murmured, “But don’t you find it odd? Why would the five split personalities possess the real memories belonging to those five when they had been alive?”

Su Mu was taken aback.

“You seem to have told me before that Jiang Cheng Fei recovered his memories because of reminders from his sub-personalities. But if those five sub-personalities are truly just split from his original self, how would they know about the arson Jiang Cheng Fei had committed?”

Su Mu jumped to his feet, startling Ye Xiao.

“W-What are you doing?”

“You’ve hit the critical point.”

“Cr-critical point? What critical point?”

Ye Xiao blinked in confusion.

Su Mu muttered to himself, “We might’ve had this entire thing wrong from the very beginning.”

“What was wrong?”

“Gu Xiao Rou, Sun Yuan, Li Qing, Xu Ming, and Wang Hai Tao might not be sub-personalities from Jiang Cheng Fei’s consciousness, but rather…”

“Rather what?”

“Rather, they’re souls that have occupied his body instead.”

“S-souls? What are those?”

Ye Xiao’s eyes widened in curiosity.

Instead of explaining, Su Mu inwardly cursed to himself: Shit!

Without a backwards glance, he strode out from the ward. Ye Xiao’s shout echoed from behind him.

“Hey, where are you going? Wait for me! I want to go too!”

1 PM.

The children at the handicapped nursery centre had just finished lunch and were quietly sitting in a well-behaved manner on the wooden bench to watch cartoons on TV. It would be nap time soon. 

As usual, Fang Yun was cleaning the floor and laying out bedding.

The nursery centre’s childrens took their naps on the floor for 1.5 hours every day.

Fang Yun neatly arranged the clean and soft bedding, then began to smooth out the blankets one after another.

The TV was broadcasting “Tom and Jerry”, and the grey cat chasing the brown mouse caused the children to laugh in delight. Today was a rare moment when the kids were all well-behaved, so Fang Yun’s spirits were quite high as she crouched down to smoothly even out the bedding while softly humming a trending tune.

Today seemed to be as ordinary a day as possible. But right at that moment, the cartoon was abruptly cut off. A young female reporter appeared on the TV with a press release in her hands. Facing the camera, she gravely announced, “To all viewers, we are interrupting with some urgent news. This morning at around 10:30, a mentally ill patient escaped from a sanatorium in District N. According to reports, this patient has dissociative identity disorder and has extremely violent tendencies. The patient is highly dangerous, and even used a metal rod to injure two nurses while escaping. Eyewitnesses have reported that the patient was fleeing from District N and headed towards District K with a weapon in their possession.

“We hope that all the city residents remain alert and immediately contact the police upon encountering any suspicious persons. The aforementioned patient’s detailed information is as follows: Jiang Cheng Fei, male, twenty years old. Approximately 166 centimetres tall. Pale skin, thin build, and speaks with a stammer…”

Upon hearing the name “Jiang Cheng Fei”, Fang Yun instantly froze and dropped the blanket she was holding. She stiffly turned her head to see the headshot of the young man currently displayed on the TV screen: dried, unkempt hair, a haggard face with sunken cheeks and a wan complexion, with two blank and vacant eyes that seemed to never focus…

There’s no mistake, it’s that face!

Despite the fact that six years had passed, Fang Yun instantly recognised him.

An identical name with a perfectly matched age and appearance.

Yes, Jiang Cheng Fei—that’s Jiang Cheng Fei, and the No. 13 that escaped from Zhu Sha’s laboratory that year! 

What’s going on? Why did he run away from the sanatorium? 

Could it be…Could it be that it’s like Officer Su said, that Jiang Cheng Fei wants to kill me?

Fang Yun was struck with an unprecedented sense of panic and fell into a blank daze. Only when loud wailing rang out behind her did she snap back to her senses and realise that two of the boys had started fighting.

She calmed her fretfulness and unease to pull apart the fitfully brawling boys and lectured them before arranging each of the children to lie down for their nap.

At 1:45 PM, the room was peaceful and quiet.

The children had all fallen asleep.

Fang Yun fixed the blankets that had slid off the young children, then tiptoed out.

Ever since hearing that news, she had been in a state of high anxiety, her heart racing nonstop as she jumped at every small sound.

She fearfully went to the washroom and turned on the faucet, splashing some cold water on her face. As the refreshing chilliness caressed her face, she closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. But soon after, murky scenes began to reappear in her mind. First were the cold cells in Zhu Sha’s research institution, with each of the children’s deathly terrified faces. Then were the multiple black body bags storing the corpses of the failed experiments…

Mournful cries seemed to echo through her ears…

No, no, stop! Stop! 

That past, those scenes—I don’t want to recall any of them!

Fang Yun covered her ears and forcefully shook her head, but it was useless.

The wailing did not stop, and the scenes were not shaken away.

She continuously washed her face with cold water until her hair was practically dripping wet. Panting, she slowly raised her head.

The chilling droplets of water fell from her hair and dripped onto her cheeks that had lost all colour out of fear. As she gulped for air, she blankly stared at herself in the mirror.

“Your thinking is much too naive. Some sins can never be redeemed.”

That young officer’s words rang through her head as clear as day.

Yes, some debts can never be repaid.

Fang Yun shut her eyes in pain and warm tears slowly trickled down.

Suddenly, she heard a clangsimilar to struck metal.

Fang Yun’s eyes snapped open and she couldn’t help but shout in alarm.

At some point, another face had appeared in the mirror!

A thin, ashen male face.

Jiang Cheng Fei!

Fang Yun sucked in a sharp breath and spun around in shock.

An emaciated, stick-like youth quietly stood there with a metal rod in his grip..

“N-N-No. 13…You’re No. 13?”

She took a step back so that she was right up against the sink, her eyes wide in astonishment.

The youth smiled at her. “What a surprise, I didn’t think you’d actually remember me.”

Fang Yun shrank backwards, her gaze fearfully locked onto the metal rod as she shakily asked, “W-What do you want?”

“What do I want?”

The youth grinned as he raised the metal rod and swung it down where Fang Yun’s head was.

With a sharp cry, Fang Yun dodged, and the mirror above the sink instantly shattered all over the floor.

“I want to let you have a taste of fear.”

He lifted his arm again, but before the metal rod could come back down, Fang Yun grabbed the chance to flee, charging out of the washroom in a single breath. She did not dare to look back and only focused on running forwards. An indistinct metallic clanging sounded from behind her.

One end of the metal rod was in the youth’s hand, while the other dragged against the floor, sliding across the old marble tiles with an ear-piercing screech. The man did not walk quickly; his gaze stayed firmly locked onto the woman’s back like a viper’s. 

Fang Yun ignored everything else and just focused on racing straight ahead through the silent and gloomy corridor. She had no idea how many stairs she had gone up or for how long she had been running for before she abruptly realised: She had gone the wrong way! She should have fled downstairs rather than upstairs! 

But it was all too late. She had already raced from the second floor to the roof on the eighth floor in a single breath.

What do I do, what do I do, what do I do…

With the strong urge to cry, Fang Yun hugged herself as she faced the vacant roof with no place for her to hide and she slowly retreated to the edge of the wire netting.

Thud!

The door to the roof was smashed open by a metal rod, and the youth slowly strode out with a confident and victorious grin.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, No. 13, I’m sorry…”

Fang Yun’s tears streamed down her face as she backed away.

She trembled as she sobbed, “I apologise to you for…what happened six years ago…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…We were in the wrong…I beg you to please let me go…”

The young man scoffed. “Back then, I seemed to have bitterly pleaded this way to you guys as well, but did you ever let me go?”

Fang Yun was shamefully unable to respond as tears continued falling down.

The youth lowered his head and lifted the metal rod once more.

Fang Yun’s legs went weak and she miserably fell to the ground. In that moment of life or death, as the rod began to descend, it just barely missed her head and heavily smashed onto her shoulder.

An intense pain attacked her, and she let out an anguished wail before fainting.

The youth coldly looked at the unconscious woman and brandished the metal rod, aiming it above her head to land a fatal blow.

“Freeze!”

A low shout abruptly rang out behind him.

He spun around to see a young officer currently pointing a gun at him.

While facing the black barrel, the youth shuddered and then immediately blanked out, a vacant expression overtaking his features. After spacing out for a moment, he glanced down at the metal rod in his own hands and the bloodstains on it, then shouted in horror. His grip loosened, and the rod was immediately dropped.

“W-W-What’s going on h-h-here? W-What did I-I do?”

The youth stared at the young, gun-wielding police officer in shock and fear before stumbling backwards. With his head cradled in his hands, he fell to his knees with a pained look on his face.

Su Mu merely watched on with a frosty gaze, the gun in his hand not moving an inch.

“Are you finished with your act yet?”

He took a step forwards, his eyes boring straight through the youth as he slowly called, “Gu Xiao Rou.”

“W-W-What are you s-saying?”

The youth stared at him in confusion.

Su Mu snorted and replied, “Cut the act, I know that you’re actually Gu Xiao Rou.”

Flabbergasted, the young man shook his head and stammered, “I-I don’t understand you. What are you s-saying…”

“You don’t understand? Then fine, let me tell you.” Su Mu coldly stated, “In reality, there was no other perpetrator from beginning to end of this case except for you.”

The youth bit his lip and mumbled, “I-I know y-you guys said I have split p-personality disorder.”

“That’s just an act you’re putting on!”

Su Mu raised his voice to demand, “What split personality, what Jiang Cheng Fei, what Wang Hai Tao, Xu Ming, Li Qing, Sun Yuan? None of those people exist.”

The young man blinked and asked, “W-What do you mean? I don’t get it.”

“Gu Xiao Rou, things are already at this point yet you still plan on continuing this farce?” Su Mu stared at him and continued, “As early as six years ago, that night when Jiang Cheng Fei escaped from Zhu Sha’s laboratory, you had already wiped out the main personality and the other four sub-personalities to take sole possession of the main body. In other words, although your appearance is that of Jiang Cheng Feng, your soul is really that of Gu Xiao Rou.”

The youth’s gaze burned into Su Mu’s. After a long period of silence, the face gradually shifted from one of blank innocence to malicious callousness.

“He, hehe, hehehe…”

The youth’s shoulders shook as he quietly laughed.

A wind blew past, whistling through their ears to accompany the laughter that began to swell. The more he laughed, the louder his voice became and the more unrestrained his grin grew. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back to feel the breeze and face the horizon far above…

Indeed, six years ago, on that night of the full moon when they had fled from Zhu Sha’s laboratory, she had also laughed heartily like this. She had stood alone, feet bare and upright on the sandy shore while the sea breeze whizzed past. There had only been an inky expanse of ocean before her and the dim, chilling moonlight above. And below her had been the corpses of five boys…

While it would’ve been impossible to see the blood seeping through the sand in the fuzzy night surroundings, the moist air had been permeated with a heavy stench that never dissipated…

They had died, they had all died—they had all been killed by me.

This might have been a conclusion that no one had anticipated.

However, she had gained freedom ever since that day.

She had finally been able to occupy a body alone without fighting with other personalities.

Afterwards, she had been able to easily use this body to carry out her revenge, murdering Cao Guo Xuan’s family of three, murdering Jiang Zhong Ming. However, she had not expected to accidentally slip up while killing Du Zi Feng, resulting in getting arrested and locked in prison.

While being bound by a straitjacket and shackles on her feet, in addition to the instability of the ESP abilities she had gained from the other four personalities, she had not been able to break free. Thus, she had secretly been brewing up a plan to—act like she had dissociative personality disorder.

The course of events had progressed just as she had anticipated. Jiang Cheng Fei’s assessment had concluded that due to having mental issues, he could not be sentenced and could only be shut inside a sanatorium. As long as she wasn’t within Nanshan Prison–the impenetrable fortress–she could figure out how to escape and kill Situ Yun Fei. Then her revenge would be complete, and she could happily continue having a free and unfettered life…

Everything should have been seamless. Yet why—why is there somehow a little cop in front of me right now? And how was he able to instantly break through my secret?

After a long time, the youth gradually ceased his laughter. Staring at Su Mu, he shrugged and candidly confessed, “Yes, that’s right. I’m Gu Xiao Rou. How did you know?”

Su Mu kept his gun raised as he replied, “Because the main personality that you pretended to be had a severe stammer. It might have been for the sake of winning sympathy, to make others believe Jiang Cheng Fei was innocent. But in reality, per our investigation, Jiang Cheng Fei did not have a stammer. It was also this point that made me suspect Jiang Cheng Fei might have already died, and that the current main personality was really an act by a sub-personality.

“At the time, I wasn’t certain which personality was pretending to be Jiang Cheng Fei. However, I later discovered that in the six years since escaping from Zhu Sha’s laboratory, you had resided in an abandoned home on Huarong Street in District L. And that abandoned home had once been Gu Xiao Rou’s residence.”

The youth blinked, then smiled and asked, “And?”

“And…”

Su Mu paused before continuing, “If my guess is correct, you five actually are not personalities that had split off from Jiang Cheng Fei during his time in Zhu Sha’s laboratory. Rather, you are all existences more similar to souls. That night when Jiang Cheng Fei burned everyone to death, all of you overtook his body in the form of spirits due to intense emotions of condemnation and rage. That is why you were able to preserve your individual past memories.”

The young man peered at him in intrigue, then grinned with an unusual expression. “My brilliant and godly Great Detective Su, you truly do know too much. But that’s fine; as long as you die, no one will know this secret. Even if I kill you, I won’t be sentenced and will at most only be locked back up in an asylum.”

A strange, dry chuckle came from the youth’s throat as he motionlessly kept his eyes on Su Mu.

Su Mu likewise did not move from his position as he stared back.

The next second, a stupefying scene manifested.

Su Mu’s gun-holding hand slowly turned so that the barrel was aimed at his own temple!

However, his face remained composed as he looked at the youth, seemingly having anticipated this would occur. He coolly stated, “Psychokinesis. Is this the move you used to deal with Officer He Zhi Dong?”

The young man laughed in reply. “Yes. I don’t need to dirty my own hands to kill anyone. Right now, all I need to do is blink, and you’ll be pressing the trigger to send the bullet through your own head. How about it, scared now?”

Su Mu flatly answered, “How do you want me to answer? Do you want me to say I’m very scared?”

“Tch, talking back even when you’re on death’s door!”

The youth flashed a sinister grin before lifting a hand to mimic a gun. Then he mockingly sang, “Good-bye, brilliant and godly Officer Su.”

As he spoke, he curled his second finger as though pressing a trigger, his mouth accompanying with a sound effect.

“Bang—”

The heaven-shattering bang of a gunshot suddenly exploded.

The youth sharply froze, then blankly looked down. To his shock, his chest now had a hole blown through it, with crimson blood gushing out.

W-What’s going on…What’s going on here…

Right then, a clear and bright male voice rang out from behind.

“Dead Fish Eyes, you really are something. What incredible foresight—her ESP abilities really can only control one person.” 

The youth whirled around to see a young man wrapped in bandages currently holding a crutch under one arm while the other arm was raised to point a gun at him. And the mouth of the gun was still emitting traces of white smoke.

“Oh, long time no see. I regret to inform you that I’m still alive.”

Ye Xiao beamed at the youth. 

The latter’s eyes widened as though he’d seen a ghost. He muttered, “You…how are you possibly…still alive…I clearly envisioned that…you had already—”

Before he could finish speaking, another gunshot rang out.

This time, the bullet directly passed through his head, and a bloody cavity opened up at the forehead. 

The youth’s eyes shot open even further and he opened his mouth, but he could no longer utter a sound. After freezing in place for a few seconds, he rigidly fell backwards with a thud.

Ye Xiao stared at Su Mu in astonishment. “Y-You killed Gu Xiao Rou?”

Su Mu indifferently glanced at the corpse as he replied, “No, it’s Jiang Cheng Fei’s body that died.”

“Huh? What does that mean?” Ye Xiao wore a puzzled expression.

Su Mu answered, “Not everything in this world can be killed.”

With this, he turned and left.

Baffled, Ye Xiao remained rooted in place. By the time he snapped out of his stupor, he belatedly shouted, “Hey, Dead Fish Eyes, stop right there! You should at least clean up this mess!”

Su Mu’s frosty voice echoed from the stairwell. 

“I’ll leave dealing with the scene’s aftermath to you. Don’t forget to give Headquarters a call to collect the body.”

“Oi! Isn’t there something wrong here? I’m injured right now!” 

Ye Xiao angrily argued back, but Su Mu had already gone into the distance…