Something happened.

Jin Ze told me not to be nervous and to finish watching the video. Although I was terrified inside, the events took place in my childhood, and curiosity still gnawed at me, so I naturally continued watching.

I saw the infant I had thrown into the boiling water as a child struggling desperately, his intense will to live pushing him to crawl out. My childhood self seemed frightened, attempting to turn off the stove, but just then, a pair of large hands pressed down on my small hands. Another figure appeared in the video, his back turned, so his face was invisible. Judging by his build, he seemed around thirty, so I instinctively thought of Fang Qinghe. Fang Qinghe is now about forty, and it’s been nearly two decades since my childhood. The timeline doesn’t quite match, but it's reasonable enough.

This man grabbed my small hand and, holding it, lifted the pot lid and covered the boiling water. Soon, the baby inside was scalded until his whole body turned red, then pale; his skin blistered and split open, flesh bursting, and his eyeballs bulged out.

Seeing this, my heart clenched tightly. I could empathize, feeling the infant's agony as if my own heart had been seared by boiling water. If I could, I wanted to rush into the video and strangle that man, even kill my childhood self, for I could never permit myself to commit such a monstrous act.

At this moment, Jin Ze seemed to sense my emotional turmoil and spoke softly: "Chen Mu, stay calm. Judging from the video, the child—possibly your younger self—was not fully conscious, perhaps sleepwalking or hypnotized."

I bit my tongue to steady myself and kept watching.

The infant was soon cooked beyond recognition. The man fished him out and placed him on the cutting board. He took a knife and chopped the baby's head and limbs apart. As he sliced the corpse, my childhood self asked, "Why did you kill this baby and cook him?"

The middle-aged man replied, "Because his mother broke the rules of the organization. This is her punishment. Chen Mu, remember: always obey orders, or your fate will be the same."

My childhood self nodded in terror. I froze at this, realizing I seemed lucid and able to converse, not sleepwalking. Why do I have no memory of this? Was I hypnotized, or have I suffered from dissociative identity disorder since childhood, and this was another personality?

While I pondered, the man separated the baby's head, limbs, and body, mixing them up, then told my childhood self to reassemble the body. At first, I hesitated to touch the infant's remains, but the man kept directing me in a near-hypnotic tone. Eventually, I began piecing the fragments together, and soon the body was whole.

As I finished, I seemed to find pleasure in the task, carefully peeling the ruined skin and straightening it out.

The man nodded in approval and said, "Very good. Now you can eat."

Hearing this, both my body and my childhood self in the video froze. But ultimately, that small body picked up the baby's arm and began to gnaw.

My scalp tingled in horror. Impossible—this cannot be me, I have never eaten human flesh. My stomach churned violently, and I knew I’d have no appetite for days.

The man suddenly turned his head, revealing his face—a dark, sinister visage that chilled me to the bone. Stranger still, as I saw his face, it felt as if a fissure opened in my mind, letting forgotten memories leap out.

I was certain I had seen this man before, I knew him, and for the first time I had such a vivid impression of him—but his name eluded me.

“Ah.”

My head buzzed, as if the infant’s tiny hand, which I had eaten, was clawing at my brain, trying to dig it out in vengeance.

My vision went black and my body weakened, collapsing to the floor.

Before I hit the ground, Jin Ze caught me.

He asked, "Chen Mu, what's wrong?"

Instinctively, I replied, "This man—I think I know him, but I can't remember who he is."

Jin Ze’s face darkened, and he muttered to himself, "Looks like we have to confirm that damned suspicion. The child in the video really could be your younger self."

Gradually, I recovered and kept watching.

The man in the video walked to the camera, picked it up, and slowly stepped back, filming a close-up of me eating the cooked infant.

As he filmed, my childhood self suddenly paused and asked, "Uncle, why are you filming me?"

He answered, "So you can watch it when you grow up."

With that, he aimed the lens at his own face and said, "Chen Mu, are you watching? Is it fun, exciting? Hahaha..."

The video ended, but the man’s sinister laughter lingered in my ears, making my skin crawl. Truly, he was a devil—what enmity did he bear against me to do this?

While I pondered, Jin Ze spoke: "That’s all I wanted to show you. At first, I suspected someone who looked exactly like you had been subjected to depraved training from childhood. Because this person resembled you, Chief Fang wanted to use you to infiltrate the killer's organization and help solve the case. But with time running out and the killer’s cunning, Chief Fang decided to risk everything and send you undercover. Now, it seems that’s not the case. The worst possibility is likely true—you really have dissociative identity disorder. And it started very early. Your other personality was subjected to the most insane and depraved training; someone was cultivating you as a demon, and that person might know how to switch you between personalities! The man in the video said it was for your grown-up self to watch, meaning for your normal personality to witness your depraved persona eating the infant corpse. Imagine how deranged that is! It’s almost certain you were once a murderous lunatic, like Bai Ye, but now you’ve probably killed your own depraved personality, and the person you are now is normal."

Shocked by Jin Ze’s words, I blurted out, "The one who trained me as a demon—could it be Chief Fang?"

Jin Ze shook his head. "Though the video was found by Chief Fang, I’d rather believe he simply knows more than we do, has more clues. His possession of these videos, and even the house identical to yours, is likely for solving the case. Chief Fang’s situation must be extremely conflicted; he doesn’t want your depraved personality to harm others, yet he also needs it to lure the killer and crack the case. He’s torn. The house like yours was probably used for filming, as with that previous headless video with surveillance equipment installed. We always thought you made it while sleepwalking, but it’s very likely Chief Fang hired someone similar in build to shoot it. This video likely isn’t targeting you; it’s a bait left by Chief Fang for the killer. Sometimes, Chief Fang needs to give the killer hope, to let them believe your depraved side still exists, or else they would have abandoned you or killed you long ago, rather than being so obsessed with you."

Jin Ze’s analysis made everything clear; it was incisive and thorough. Fang Qinghe truly went to great lengths for this case, and the material he possessed could potentially make me "become" the depraved person again, or at least convincingly pretend.

As I reflected, Jin Ze continued: "Of course, though my intuition tells me Chief Fang is clean, facts speak for themselves. I won’t act on emotion. If the worst happens, Chen Mu, trust me—I care only about justice. Whoever errs, even Chief Fang, must face righteous judgment."

I wanted to ask Jin Ze how my dissociative disorder would be judged, whether my normal self would also be condemned, when his phone suddenly rang. The caller ID startled me—it was Fang Qinghe.

Jin Ze remained calm, signaled me to stay silent, and answered. We were close enough that I heard their exchange.

Fang Qinghe asked, "Jin Ze, where are you? Is Chen Mu with you?"

Jin Ze replied, "Yes, after some new discoveries, I took Chen Mu out for something."

Fang Qinghe continued, "Good, come quickly to Ci’en Hospital. Fang Lin is in trouble—bring Chen Mu. Fang Lin seems to have something to say to him."

Fang Qinghe sounded grim, as if things were bad, and my heart immediately leaped. Was Fang Lin dying? She’d been under 24-hour police watch—how could something have happened?

Soon, I knew for certain: Bai Ye, that lunatic, must have begun his move...