45 sos

Dog King among dogs, Dog King, dogs, Mastiff Park, Tibetan mastiffs, and Liu Snake.

After I finished speaking, I was still in a bit of a daze. It wasn’t that I’d recalled memories from my sleepwalking; rather, my words were more of a deduction. The phrase they left me before I went into a sleepwalking state—“Where is the Dog King?”—and what I said during sleepwalking—“The Dog King is among the dogs”—clearly formed a question-and-answer pattern.

It seemed they wanted to ask me, “Where is the Dog King?” Although I didn’t know what it meant, I must have known while sleepwalking, so they used a near-hypnotic method to induce my sleepwalking, and I did, indeed, respond while in that state.

Then, thinking about all the people I knew, the only one who seemed linked to the Dog King was Liu Snake. I had never met Liu Snake, but Jin Ze had told me he ran a mastiff park in the suburbs.

So, the phrase “the Dog King is among the dogs” obviously meant that Liu Snake was in the mastiff park. Last time, Jin Ze and the others had already searched the park once but failed to catch Liu Snake. If what I said during sleepwalking was true, then they must have missed some detail during their search, and Liu Snake was likely hiding among the Tibetan mastiffs!

As I was pondering this, Fang Qinghe suddenly stood up and said crisply, “Mastiff Park, let’s go!”

At the same time, Jin Ze clearly caught on as well. He immediately called to gather people, and the three of us set out for Liu Snake’s mastiff park ahead of the main force, which would follow.

On the way, I learned from Jin Ze about what happened while I was unconscious. It had been more than two hours since I’d passed out; Jin Ze, feeling uneasy, went to the detention center and discovered my condition. Actually, He Ping was on duty today, watching the surveillance at the detention center. Fang Qinghe and Jin Ze trusted He Ping completely and never suspected he would betray them. By the time Jin Ze arrived and found me unconscious, He Ping had already vanished. They had sent people out to search for him, but so far, there was no news.

In other words, He Ping really was the traitor—he did his deed and ran! I never could have guessed.

We arrived at the mastiff park quickly. Although three days had passed since the last search, the police hadn’t given up on the place. Undercover officers were still lurking all around, waiting to arrest Liu Snake if he returned. The chances of that happening were slim, but the case had drawn attention from higher-ups, and with official approval, no matter how much manpower it took, they needed to solve it quickly.

As soon as we reached the gate, two plainclothes officers approached. Recognizing Fang Qinghe and Jin Ze, they greeted them respectfully. Jin Ze asked if there had been anything unusual.

A young officer with a round face replied, “Nothing at all. We’ve had our eyes on this place the whole time—not even a fly could get in.”

At that moment, Fang Qinghe seemed to realize something and lowered his voice to ask, “Really nothing? No one’s been here?”

The young officer replied, “Honestly, no one. But a few hours ago, the dogs inside suddenly got restless, barking non-stop. It was frightening—probably because they were starving, since they hadn’t been fed in days. None of us know how to handle mastiffs, and no one dared get close, so we called in a feeder to give them food.”

As soon as the officer finished speaking, even I, an outsider, realized that if anything had happened, it must have happened right then.

Fang Qinghe immediately asked where the feeder was. The officer said he left after feeding the dogs.

Without another word, Fang Qinghe and Jin Ze dashed into the mastiff park, and I followed.

We headed straight for the kennels. There were three in total—two small ones and a large one. The small kennels housed a few precious mastiffs together, while the large kennel held a dozen ordinary Tibetan mastiffs.

We checked the two small kennels first and found nothing unusual. But when we reached the large kennel, we all froze, stunned by the scene before us. To be honest, it was terrifying.

The floor was covered in blood, and the air reeked of gore—clear evidence of a recent and brutal feast, one that didn’t seem to involve ordinary food.

Looking closer, I shuddered. Amidst the blood, there was a severed foot still wearing a white sneaker. Someone had just been devoured by the mastiffs!

Nausea rolled over me. A living person, reduced to nothing but a foot—too gruesome to bear.

But whose foot was it? Was it the feeder who’d been called in? But the officer said the feeder had left.

A bad feeling crept over me. Fang Qinghe immediately asked about surveillance in the kennel, and we rushed to the monitoring room—there were cameras inside, still running these past days.

We quickly pulled up the footage of the feeder entering with a cart of meat. He was brave—or perhaps just knew dogs well—because he actually entered the kennel himself and closed the door behind him. He stood by, watching the mastiffs eat, and none of the fierce dogs attacked him.

Suddenly, he noticed a mastiff lying some distance away, not eating, unmoving as if sick.

He walked over to the mastiff. As he approached, I realized something was wrong.

At that moment, the “mastiff” abruptly stood up.

What was horrifying was that, in the same instant, a person burst out from inside the mastiff’s body!

Yes, a living person emerged from the mastiff’s skin, pouncing on the feeder.

I instantly understood—this was no mastiff, but a man disguised in a mastiff’s skin, pretending to be part of the pack!

The man threw the feeder to the ground and strangled him. The feeder struggled only a little before going limp. The man undressed the corpse and put on the feeder’s clothes.

Once dressed, he whistled sharply, and the fierce mastiffs lunged forward at his command. They swarmed the feeder’s corpse, tearing it apart. I watched as a mastiff bit into the feeder’s skull, spraying gray matter everywhere…

Seeing this, I suddenly understood the true meaning of “the Dog King is among the dogs.”

It was Liu Snake!

When the police raided the mastiff park, Liu Snake hadn’t escaped. He’d been trapped inside.

But he was clever. He put on a mastiff skin he’d prepared for emergencies and hid among the dogs. He was so adept at communicating with the mastiffs that he blended in perfectly, undetected.

It wasn’t until the feeder arrived that he pulled off his disappearing act—shedding the mastiff skin, putting on the feeder’s clothes, and walking out. Since it was night and the feeder wore a hat, and the officers weren’t familiar with him, Liu Snake walked right out under their noses!

Only now did I fully grasp the real meaning of “the Dog King is among the dogs.”

Yes, Liu Snake was the Dog King—and the Dog King was truly among the dogs!

I never imagined that my sleepwalking self would reveal such a world-shaking secret.

But how did I know it? Even in a sleepwalking state, unless I’d actually experienced this or been to the mastiff park, I couldn’t have known.

Panic crept up on me. Fang Qinghe and Jin Ze seemed to realize something too, turning to stare at me.

I didn’t know what to say. Jin Ze, analyzing the situation, spoke up: “If we go by our previous deduction—that Chen Mu’s split personality is the mastermind behind these cases—then the split Chen Mu would have the most information. With Chen Mu caught, his accomplices couldn’t continue the plan, so they needed clues from him. That’s why they led Chen Mu into a sleepwalking state, prompting him to reveal ‘the Dog King is among the dogs.’”

Jin Ze’s logic was sound, but I didn’t want to admit it. I quickly retorted, “No, that’s not it. You all said the killer wanted Liu Snake dead, but this actually helped him escape! And how could I possibly know Liu Snake was hiding among the mastiffs?”

Jin Ze replied, “If your split personality really is that psychopath, then learning Liu Snake’s whereabouts would be easy. As for why they helped Liu Snake escape instead of killing him, maybe it’s because the mastiffs are loyal to him, and your accomplices couldn’t act here. With the police guarding the place, they chose to let Liu Snake go, intending to hunt him down later. I think Liu Snake is in grave danger now. Judging by his actions, he’s a formidable opponent. I expect a deadly game of hunter and hunted between him and the psychopath.”

Hearing this, I couldn’t help feeling a strange anticipation. Two monsters fighting—one must die. But honestly, I hoped both would perish. That would make things easier for me.

But I didn’t know how to explain things to Jin Ze, since he didn’t know about the secret agreement between me and Fang Qinghe.

Then, Fang Qinghe suddenly spoke to Jin Ze: “Jin Ze, your judgment is one-sided. There’s actually a greater possibility—the killer already knew Liu Snake was hiding here. Creating a scenario where only Chen Mu could find him makes it appear as if only Chen Mu’s intervention could do it, convincing us that Chen Mu is a dissociative, and guiding Chen Mu’s thinking. The reason Chen Mu knew Liu Snake was in the kennel may be because, during a previous sleepwalking episode, the killer implanted the information.”

As soon as Fang Qinghe finished, Jin Ze said, “Suggestive crime?”

He glanced at me, then at Fang Qinghe. Jin Ze really was sharp; he had clearly picked up on some tacit understanding between me and Fang Qinghe.

He nodded and said, “I understand. I’ll do my best to protect Chen Mu in the upcoming investigation.”

No sooner had he finished than Jin Ze seemed to think of something. He suddenly said, “He Ping—regardless of whether he’s a traitor, we need to go back immediately. He must have left us some clue—we may have missed something.”

We returned quickly to the detention center’s monitoring room. There was a bed, where He Ping slept, but after searching for a long time, we found nothing unusual.

Suddenly, Fang Qinghe sat down at the coffee table. He lowered his head, peered at the glass, and then suddenly breathed onto it.

To my astonishment, as his breath fogged the glass, a few words appeared: 1907, SOS.