15 Group Photo

When I realized the head in the mirror was not my own, my hair stood on end. In that instant, my mind went completely blank, and I felt as if the sheer terror were tearing at my scalp.

Just then, the head in the mirror suddenly opened its mouth, as if it were about to devour me. I finally snapped out of my paralysis and bolted out of the bathroom. Only after I had exited did I let out a belated, piercing scream. Jin Ze rushed over immediately, and I collided right into him.

I was truly shaken. When Jin Ze steadied me and asked what was wrong, I couldn't even answer at first. After a few seconds, I managed to say, "Damn it, a ghost! There’s actually a ghost! There’s a ghost in the mirror that looks exactly like me!"

Jin Ze dismissed it as nonsense and stormed into the bathroom. He was either incredibly bold or simply too confident in his belief that such things didn't exist; after all, those who fear nothing are the bravest. Seeing him charge in, I couldn't help but follow.

Once inside, Jin Ze inspected the mirror from every angle. "Where is this ghost? Come out and play," he challenged. I gathered my courage and leaned in to look, but everything seemed perfectly normal. The terrifying phenomenon was gone.

This didn't bring me any relief; instead, it made me even more afraid. If the bizarre situation had persisted, I could have blamed it on someone playing a trick, but now that everything was normal, it felt like a genuine haunting. I told Jin Ze, "I’m telling you, I’m not lying! The mirror reflected me, then my head disappeared, and another head appeared—one that wasn't mine!"

Jin Ze looked at me and asked, "Chen Mu, could it be that your eyes were playing tricks on you? Your nerves have been frayed for days, leading to hallucinations. Perhaps you were just seeing your own reflection, or maybe you smiled subconsciously?"

"It’s impossible," I insisted. "It wasn't a hallucination. It was incredibly real. Jin Ze, you have to believe me."

Jin Ze frowned. Suddenly, as if something occurred to him, he locked his gaze back onto the mirror. After a moment, he muttered, "It does seem a bit off."

I followed his gaze and noticed that the top portion of the mirror looked slightly blurry, as if it had condensation from a shower, though it wasn't very obvious. Jin Ze immediately began to pry the large mirror off the wall. Since it was built into the wall, it took us quite an effort to remove it.

Once the mirror was out, we discovered the deception. The coating on the top part had been scraped away and reapplied. Standard mirror backing is applied via distillation, but this patch had been painted on. It wasn't fully dry yet. I didn't know what material was used, but it was effective enough that it looked like a normal mirror from the outside.

In other words, my mirror had been tampered with. The coating on the top had been scraped off to create a patch of plain glass, making it look like I had no head when I stood in front of it. It looked normal now because the coating had been sprayed back on.

But one thing made no sense: the mirror had been on the wall the whole time. I had only been out of the room for a minute; how could the coating have been reapplied in that time? And what about the strange head that looked like mine? I should have been looking at a person behind the glass, but how could someone be wedged between the mirror and the wall? Was it just a patch of skin stuck to the glass?

The more I thought about it, the more my skin crawled. My intuition told me this could only be explained by something supernatural. Jin Ze was frowning, lost in thought. Suddenly, he kicked the wall behind where the mirror had been. He was strong, and to my surprise, the wall gave way under his force.

I realized then that a normal wall wouldn't collapse so easily. There was a partition there; the wall behind the mirror in my apartment and the one in the neighboring unit had been tampered with. Someone had been hiding behind the mirror and had retreated into the next apartment!

Jin Ze drew his gun and rushed into the neighbor's unit, and I followed. We found no one; the person had clearly fled. Jin Ze ran out to pursue but couldn't catch them, so he returned.

"Chen Mu," Jin Ze said, "it seems Jiang Haodong wasn't lying to you. There really is someone who looks just like you, and he was hiding behind the mirror to scare you. This person probably lives next door, which gives him plenty of opportunities to enter your home. He’s truly insane. Now that he’s been exposed, this will be the most dangerous period; he might be entering his final killing phase. You must stay at the police station for the next few days. Do not act on your own."

I nodded, suddenly recalling the text message that person had sent me: once I discovered the secret of the pig, I would enter the next phase. He hadn't been lying; he was in control of everything, moving step by step.

What was this next phase?

As I pondered this, I felt a chill on my neck, as if something had dripped onto it. I touched it with my hand—it was sticky. I held it up to my eyes and went numb. Damn it, it was blood.

I looked up and my knees went weak. Hanging from the ceiling was a luxurious European-style chandelier, but the bulb wasn't a lightbulb at all—it was a human head. It looked freshly severed. A piece of cloth had been stuffed into the neck to stop the blood, but it was now soaked through, which was why it had dripped onto me.

It was a middle-aged woman. Her mouth seemed to be biting down on something. A ladder stood nearby, likely used by the killer to install the head. Jin Ze moved the ladder over, climbed up, and brought the head down.

When we retrieved it, we realized she was biting down on a photograph—or rather, a fragment of one. The killer must have seen this fragment when he installed the head, meaning it was left for us on purpose.

Just then, my phone buzzed. It was a message from the voyeur: "Chen Mu, don't you like dismembering and reassembling bodies? Collect the victim's remains, piece together the photo, and let's move to the next phase."

I shuddered. Damn it, it was all part of that lunatic's plan!

Despite our fury, we had to search the room. Jin Ze soon found a severed foot under the sofa, and between the toes was another photo fragment. I found an arm in the kitchen drawer; the hand was clutching another piece.

As we continued to search for the remains, I grew increasingly horrified. The killer was truly a deviant. Even Jin Ze couldn't help but remark, "If Bai Ye is a deranged killer, then this person who looks like you is a demon who slaughters without mercy. Bai Ye at least had a code; this demon is bloodthirsty and has no bottom line. He is a born executioner."

We found the remaining limbs under the bed and in the wardrobe. The monster was truly depraved; he had sliced off the old woman's breasts, placed a photo fragment on them, and then put the severed parts back.

We began to piece together the fragments. It was a group photo of two men. One of them was the pervert who had trained me in baby-boiling. But we didn't know the other man because the photo was incomplete—we were still missing one piece.

We had to search the remains again. We didn't find it at first and assumed the killer hadn't left the man's face, but Jin Ze eventually found it. It was truly twisted; the final fragment had been hidden in the woman's most private area. The killer had stuffed the photo of the man’s head inside the corpse!

When Jin Ze and I finally saw the face of the other man in the photo, we were stunned. It was a picture of Fang Qinghe and the pervert!