18 Father

Jin Ze said that the person who looked exactly like me might also be named Chen Mu, and I immediately caught a whiff of conspiracy. It seemed Jin Ze’s earlier prediction was spot on—this was a pre-meditated event. Otherwise, how could there be two people who looked identical and shared the same name?

But why do this? What was the purpose? What was the point? And who was orchestrating all of this?

I had no way of knowing. All I knew was that my father was named Chen Youquan, and his father was Chen Tianming. My father and I could be found in the population database, yet he seemed to have vanished into thin air.

By now, Jin Ze had started the van, heading toward the home of the Chen Mu listed on the household registration page we had pried from the hands of the police officer, Fang Dajun.

Actually, choosing to go there was a huge risk, as we didn’t know who had left that registration page for us. It could have been Fang Qinghe, or the killer—perhaps the killer was Fang Qinghe himself. Then again, it was possible the officer Fang Dajun had defended this secret with his life, preventing the killer from taking it.

This was a massive gamble; we might be walking straight into a trap laid out by the killer.

But Jin Ze argued that if the killer wanted to trap us, he had plenty of opportunities and wouldn't need to go to such lengths. If he wanted us dead, he could have done it long ago. Since he hadn't, it meant that leaving us this registration page was likely an attempt to give us a clue, to make us realize something.

So, we were like men knowing there were tigers in the mountain, yet marching toward it anyway—because how could one catch tiger cubs without entering the tiger's den?

Of course, Jin Ze wasn't reckless. He gave me a pistol. At first, he intended to teach me how to use it, but once it was in my hands, I handled it like a seasoned veteran, feeling completely at ease. I suspected this was related to my past as a hitman. After all, memories can be forgotten, but some skills are instinctive. For a hitman, while knives might be preferred, a gun is always a must-have in the arsenal.

We soon arrived at the destination on the registration page. It was a mountain village, and this jurisdiction was under the control of the late officer Fang Dajun. It was impossible that his death was unrelated to this series of cases.

We climbed the mountain and found that there were very few residents. We had to walk a long stretch of mountain path to see a single household. They weren't traditional tiled houses but rather cave dwellings, though they weren't exactly primitive.

For some reason, as I entered this mountain, my head suddenly let out a hum. I felt strangely familiar with the place, as if I had been here before.

Jin Ze’s perception was sharp; he immediately asked what was wrong. I said it was nothing, just that the place felt strange.

We continued our journey. As we approached the residence listed, we played it smart. Instead of going straight there, we went to the nearest house first to scout. After confirming someone was home, Jin Ze went to knock on the door.

The door opened quickly, revealing a woman nearing sixty. When she saw Jin Ze, her dimples showed as she smiled; clearly, she had never seen such a handsome young man in her life. She enthusiastically asked what he was doing, who he was looking for, and if he needed any help, even inviting him inside.

But when she saw me, a flash of terror crossed her face, as if she had seen a ghost. She slammed the door shut with a thud, leaving Jin Ze and me standing there in a daze.

Jin Ze turned his head to look at me and said, "Chen Mu, it seems your appearance isn't very popular with rural women."

I knew he was just trying to ease the tension. I gave him a glare and retorted, "You’re just the handsome one, the friend of rural grandmothers."

Jin Ze smiled, but then his expression turned serious. "Chen Mu, that old woman seemed to recognize you. It seems the registration page didn't lie; the household of Chen Tianming really exists. But she slammed the door in terror, likely not because she was afraid of you, but because she mistook you for that other person who looks like you. Someone must have intimidated her, forbidding her from mentioning any information about him. In other words, someone truly wants to erase all traces of that Chen Mu."

I nodded. This made us feel the trip hadn't been in vain, so we quickened our pace to the final destination.

This last house was clearly the prominent one in the area. It looked wealthy, with a grand, ancient gate.

As I stood before it, my head, which had been buzzing, suddenly exploded. At that moment, I felt as if a hand were trying to tear my scalp off from inside my brain. I felt as though my brain matter had been split open, and as if cerebral fluid were leaking out, triggering memories I couldn't suppress.

"Ah, I know this place. I've been here. It’s so familiar; I have a deep impression of it," I blurted out subconsciously.

Jin Ze asked, "Chen Mu, what do you mean?"

"I know this place," I said directly. "I feel like I can remember it. It feels like my home. This feeling is incredibly strong—stronger even than the feeling I have for my home in the city."

Jin Ze pondered for a moment before saying, "Chen Mu, don't overthink it. Let's get to the bottom of this first."

He told me to stand aside while he knocked on the door. No one answered, so he used his own methods to force it open. He stood at the entrance, peering inside, then beckoned for me to follow. It was quite dark inside, with poor lighting.

I followed him in, and immediately, I smelled something strange—a mix of faint fragrance and decay.

"Chen Mu, be careful," Jin Ze whispered. "This smell... it's like corpse oil."

I froze and tightened my grip on the gun. Suddenly, a light flickered in the distance. It wasn't an electric light, but a flame, as if someone had lit a candle. There was someone else here!

Just as I felt the tension, I saw the light and goosebumps broke out all over my body. It wasn't an ordinary candle; it was a human-head lantern. Someone had cut off the top of a human skull, filled it with corpse oil, and made it into a lamp. The fire flickered within the eye sockets, looking incredibly eerie and terrifying.

As I stared in horror, another flame ignited in the distance—another human-head lantern.

When I saw what was next to that lantern, I could no longer hold it together; chills erupted from every pore of my skin. It wasn't that the object was particularly bloody, but it was so bone-chillingly horrific that it felt like my soul had been sucked out. After seeing it, I finally understood why that old woman had been so terrified of me.

I was looking at a black-and-white funeral portrait!

And the person in the photo was me!

Am I dead?

Suddenly, the words Xia Tian had said to me echoed in my mind: "Brother, you are dead. You are a dead man." I couldn't help but shiver.

Jin Ze said, "Chen Mu, don't let this affect you. The person in the photo isn't you; it must be the other Chen Mu."

I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but then a fresh wave of terror washed over me. Damn it, did Jin Ze mean that Chen Mu was already dead? Was the person I saw in the mirror at home just a ghost?

I knew that wasn't what Jin Ze meant, but I couldn't stop myself from panicking.

Just then, a video began playing next to the portrait; there was a recording device there. The footage showed a deep, dense forest—it looked exactly like this mountain. In the woods, a man was squatting—it was the pervert who had trained me to boil infants.

The pervert was clapping his hands, reaching out to welcome a small child approaching from a distance. The child ran over, looking so innocent and pure, calling out, "Daddy, Daddy!"

The pervert embraced the child, spinning him around; they looked like an intimate, loving father and son. The child was only three or four, but I recognized him instantly. Damn it, that was me as a child—or perhaps the other Chen Mu.

"Daddy, Daddy!"

The child kept calling out happily, and suddenly, I couldn't help but call out along with him: "Daddy, Daddy!"

"Chen Mu, what are you doing?" Jin Ze grabbed my shoulder, shouting in a deep voice.

I looked at him in a trance and said, "That’s my father."

Yes, at that moment, it was as if I had finally remembered. A thought suddenly emerged: this perverted man was my father!