Chapter 38: Split into Three

Looking at the photograph of the safety deposit box that Bai Ye had sent me, I felt a mixture of excitement and tension. There was a yearning anticipation of nearing the truth, yet simultaneously a lingering fear that Bai Ye might harm me.

Jinze, possessing exceptionally sharp insight, immediately asked me what was wrong and if something had happened.

Casually, I replied to him, "Ah, nothing. An old friend is chatting with me, a friend I haven't seen in a long time."

Jinze merely uttered an "oh" and asked no further questions.

Just as I was debating whether to inform Jinze of this matter or go meet Bai Ye alone, Jinze suddenly turned to me and said, "Chen Mu, what kind of friend is this old friend of yours? Is it a friend from your days as a soldier, a friend from your days as the unhinged Chen Mu during your undercover assignment, or perhaps a friend from the time when your docile persona was writing reports while undercover?"

Jinze’s single question left me utterly tongue-tied. I stammered for a moment before answering, "Ah, it's from way back, a friend from high school. When he reached out, I couldn't quite place him at first, but after exchanging a few words, the memories came back."

Jinze suddenly smiled and said to me, "Chen Mu, you really don't know how to lie. The blinking frequency of your eyes increased, your nose twitched unconsciously, and most importantly, your face blushed slightly. You are lying to me. You don't have to tell me, but I already know who it is. It was Bai Ye who contacted you, wasn't it?"

I had to admit that Jinze was truly too clever. Having my cover blown in an instant made me feel even more awkward, my face burning red with embarrassment.

However, I quickly regained my composure, scratched the back of my head, and said to Jinze, "Jinze, you really are too astute. What you said is correct, it is Bai Ye. Because of the nature of the matter he approached me with, I felt something was amiss and was afraid it would interfere with the ongoing investigation, so I temporarily withheld it from you, intending to discuss it with you after I could confirm the details."

Jinze nodded, saying that if I wished to keep it confidential, I didn't need to explain myself to him. Nevertheless, he warned me to be a bit smarter in the future, because Bai Ye messaging me via the Peeper account could not be kept hidden. The police had been monitoring that QQ account in real-time; the slightest disturbance would not escape their notice.

Once again, I offered an awkward smile before recounting the entirety of Bai Ye's approach to Jinze.

After finishing, I asked Jinze, "Wasn't that safety deposit box at the police station? When was it stolen by Bai Ye?"

Jinze quickly made a phone call. After hanging up, he told me, "Confirmed. The empty safety deposit box is still at the police station and has not been stolen."

Hearing this, I was somewhat baffled. Could Bai Ye be lying to me? Or were there two safety deposit boxes?

As I was pondering this, Jinze received another call. Upon hanging up, he immediately told me, "Word from the technical department: they have locked down the login location of the Peeper account. It is indeed somewhere around your neighborhood."

Ultimately, I decided to take a calculated risk and put myself in harm's way to go and see Bai Ye, and to go entirely alone. After all, had I brought Jinze and a large contingent of police officers, Bai Ye would likely have vanished long before we reached my home.

Jinze, however, was far from reassured. Naturally, I could not allow him to accompany me. In the end, just as before, Jinze would bring a team to stake out the surrounding area. Yet, because Bai Ye possessed a level of vigilance surpassing anyone else, Jinze had to conceal himself much more effectively this time.

With that, I set off, taking a taxi by myself. Upon arriving home, a heavy sense of melancholy washed over me. Things remained, but the people had changed; the last time I left this house, Chen Youquan had split his own head open with a cleaver. Even though the place had been thoroughly cleaned, stepping inside still involuntarily conjured images of that bloody scene in my mind, triggering a sharp, throbbing ache in my skull. Fortunately, he was not my true father. Had he truly been my father, it would have been a lifelong nightmare.

At that thought, I suddenly realized that I was nothing more than a wellspring of terror. Whoever took on the role of my 'father' met a gruesome end...

As I walked entirely through the front door into the pitch-black interior, my nerves slowly tightened, fearful that Bai Ye might suddenly leap out from some shadowed corner. Yet, regarding Bai Ye, my fear was no longer what it once was; he had already saved my life twice. If he truly wanted me dead, he had a hundred ways to make it happen.

I switched on the living room lights, but not a soul was in sight. Gathering my courage, I called out twice, "Bai Ye? Bai Ye?"

There was no response. However, at that exact moment, I was suddenly struck by an intense, pungent stench of blood, as if it were wafting out from my bedroom.

Immediately following that, I noticed a small pool of blood seeping out from beneath the crack of the bedroom door. Panic seized me. Was this Bai Ye's blood, or had Bai Ye killed someone else?

Steeling myself, I walked over and reached out to push the door open, but my push met with resistance, as though someone was standing behind the door blocking my entry.

Stubbornness flared within me. Summoning every ounce of strength I had, I threw my entire weight forward and slammed into the door.

Yet this time, my charge met with completely empty space. There was no one behind the door at all. The door swung wide open under my impact, and I tripped, tumbling unceremoniously to the floor in a rather undignified heap.

Just as I clambered back up, before I even had a chance to switch on the bedroom light, a single drop of liquid fell squarely onto the tip of my nose. Taking a gentle sniff, I recognized the thick, acrid reek of fresh blood.

My heart skipped a violent beat. A dark premonition arose within me: a mangled, bloody corpse must be clinging to the ceiling of my room.

Subconsciously, I jerked my head up to look. But the moment I raised my chin, my vision was abruptly blocked by a pair of warm hands covering my eyes.

The temperature of those hands left a deep impression on me; I had been covered by them before. They had to belong to Bai Ye.

Sure enough, Bai Ye's soft voice soon chimed in right beside my ear, "Chen Mu, do you really want to see?"

I had no idea what game Bai Ye was playing, but my heart remained suspended in my throat. I wondered if the sight was going to be something unimaginably horrific, something I shouldn't be looking at.

Yet, true to form, Bai Ye's words only provoked my defiance, and instinctively, the word "yes" slipped past my lips.

Abruptly, Bai Ye removed his hands from my eyes. Guided by the ambient light spilling in from the hallway, I cast my gaze upward toward the ceiling.

To my surprise, I spotted only a small smear of blood on the ceiling; there was no corpse to be found, rendering the sight far from terrifying.

However, the moment I instinctively lowered my head and looked straight ahead, a violent shudder wracked my frame, my scalp instantly went numb, and every hair on my body stood on end in sheer horror.

Standing right before me was a person—a woman whose age was impossible to determine. Her entire face was a wash of crimson, caked in fresh blood, her hair matted and soaked red, clumped together. Even more horrifying was her mouth. The corners of her lips appeared to have been slit, tearing all the way back to her earlobes, yet completely stitched shut with thick black thread running continuously from one ear to the other across her mouth. Her eyes filled me with an even deeper terror; whether from shock or some other trauma, her eyeballs bulged out hideously, nearly protruding entirely from their sockets, staring unblinkingly straight at me. Bathed in the faint, shadowy light filtering from the outside, she looked utterly eerie and ghostly.

Just as I contemplated turning and fleeing in blind panic, I noticed her eyes twitching—she was not dead; her body was still trembling faintly.

Before I could process the sight, she collapsed to the floor. Only then did I see Bai Ye standing right in front of me; he had been supporting her weight just moments before.

Forcing myself to remain calm and suppress the panic threatening to overwhelm me, I asked Bai Ye, "Who—who is she?"

Bai Ye did not answer my question. Instead, he simply said, "Find the secret hidden within her first, and then I will answer your questions."

Knowing how deeply self-absorbed Bai Ye was, I refrained from pressing further, nor did I mention the safety deposit box. Swallowing hard, I crouched down beside the woman, steeling myself to discover whatever secret she carried.

She was completely naked. Because her face was covered in blood, guessing her age was difficult, but judging by her physique and breasts, she was no longer a young girl; she had to be at least in her thirties.

Her body was curled inward, continuing to shiver. Before long, I noticed a cut slicing across her abdomen, similarly sewn shut with black thread.

"Rip it open."

Bai Ye's voice was cold and detached. Fear paralyzed me for a second, but I had no choice. Picking up a pair of tweezers lying nearby, I steeled my nerves and began unraveling the black thread sealing her belly.

Once the bloody incision was pulled open, I used the tweezers to hold the wound apart and glanced into her abdominal cavity. Instantly, something caught my eye that felt terribly wrong—an organ seemed to be missing from inside her cavity, as though it had been excised.

My knowledge of biology was passable; realization dawned upon me almost immediately. Her uterus had been surgically removed!

I immediately told Bai Ye, "Her secret is that she has no uterus. Her uterus has been cut out."

Bai Ye merely replied, "You've only guessed half of it."

A sudden chill ran down my spine as a realization struck me. Without hesitation, I reached down and untied the black thread stitched across her mouth.

The moment the thread gave way, three blood-drenched objects spilled violently from her mouth.

Three fragments of a uterus. The woman's uterus had been sliced into three distinct pieces.

What did this signify?