07 The Long Blade

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Kanazawa said the murderer was truly targeting me. Vaguely, I seemed to grasp his meaning, yet it remained somewhat unclear. I looked at Kanazawa with a puzzled expression and asked him what he meant.

Kanazawa directly told me, “If we consider the murderer’s starting point when analyzing this series of cases, then the crimes must have been staged for you to see. And since they were meant for you, the murderer is likely trying to send you a message through these cases. Considering that the two victims were the doctor and nurse who delivered you, the revenge they seek must be related to your birth. Coupled with the infant swapping and killing, it becomes clear: something was tampered with when you were born!”

Something was tampered with when I was born!

Hearing Kanazawa’s words, I suddenly felt enlightened. This explained so much. In other words, the doctor and nurse who delivered me might have interfered with me at birth—exaggerating slightly, they might have even swapped me with another baby!

Although it was just a hypothesis, the possibility was quite high.

If this guess turned out to be true, then what was the purpose of Doctor Wu Ping and Nurse Cheng Xin?

I believed Wu Ping and Cheng Xin were unlikely the masterminds; there must be someone behind them.

If such a mastermind existed, they would probably kill these main culprits as well, meaning the twisted murders would continue.

One thing puzzled me: the murderer seemed to be taking revenge on me. Who could the killer be? Did I know them?

I shared my thoughts with Kanazawa. He replied, “Chen Mu, all this is speculation without concrete evidence, so many possibilities arise. If the theory holds, the murderer could be many people: your biological parents, your current father, or even the biological child of your current parents who was swapped away. Any of these are possible, so no clear conclusion can be drawn. Don’t dwell on it for now. Empty your mind and wait for the investigation to progress before discussing further.”

I nodded to Kanazawa but felt utterly devastated inside. My past was already dark, and if this strange birth history were added, it only deepened the mystery.

It felt like from the moment I was born, I had been calculated against—my birth was the beginning of a conspiracy.

After a moment of silence, Kanazawa suddenly turned and asked, “By the way, Chen Mu, do you have any memory of your mother? Do you know who she is?”

At the mention of my mother, I instinctively felt sorrow. There should be a soulful bond between a child and mother.

But I had no memory of my mother at all. I shook my head and said, “No memories. From the time I can remember, my father never let me mention my mother. Over time, the concept of a mother vanished from my world. But my father did tell me once, shortly after I was born, she went up the mountain to gather herbs and accidentally fell down. They never found her body, but I don’t know the details. My memory about this is vague.”

Kanazawa looked at me warmly, signaling me not to be sad, then said, “Since yesterday, after considering the flaws in your family background, I checked the database. Your mother is registered as Wang Fang, listed as missing. That means there was a missing person report filed at the time. I don’t know the exact circumstances since so many years have passed. This is also the difficulty of this case. You were born twenty-three years ago, and only now is this old matter being unearthed. It’s truly perplexing.”

I remained silent. Kanazawa asked if I wanted to go rest. I shook my head. Kanazawa said no matter how much time passes, we must uncover the full story and let the truth come to light.

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Then we went to Doctor Wu Ping’s house. Even though many years had passed since my birth, Kanazawa said many people keep records of their past wrongdoings as a form of rebellion. So maybe we could find something at Wu Ping’s.

Sure enough, in a safe under her bed, we found a notebook used to record such things.

Wu Ping really had the habit of documenting these matters: from the bribes she received for deliveries to how much she sold placentas for.

The pages were densely filled, showing how she profited greatly from being an obstetrician and now a director. The notebook was written backward, so to find entries from over twenty years ago, we had to flip through many pages.

When we finally reached that time period, we discovered a page had been torn out. In its place was a blank page, on which a single word was written in fresh blood: “Death.”

That vivid red character was so glaring it made my heart tremble.

Clearly, we were late. The murderer had been here before us and did not want us to uncover the truth of those years.

At that moment, my phone rang again.

I picked it up and saw a message from the voyeur: “Chen Mu, you can’t proceed to the next stage yet, so I took some things before you did. Once you understand the secret of the pig, we will move to the next stage.”

The secret of the pig? After reading the voyeur’s message, I was utterly baffled. I showed it to Kanazawa, who frowned and pondered.

Soon he said, “Chen Mu, the pig probably refers to the pig that ate infants on your family’s property. But that pig couldn’t be the same one your family had years ago. It shouldn’t be connected to those old events. What secret could it hold?”

Suddenly Kanazawa added, “Or maybe 'pig pen' doesn’t refer to the pig at all, but to the pigsty itself?”

After saying that, Kanazawa immediately took me out of Wu Ping’s house. We planned to return to my old home and thoroughly check the pigsty for hidden secrets.

Just as Kanazawa started the car, his phone rang. It was Qinghe Fang calling. After hanging up, Kanazawa told me he couldn’t accompany me to my old home.

I asked what he meant. Kanazawa explained, “Team Leader Fang just located the phone that sent you the messages—it’s at your old home. If our police show up openly, it will alert the suspect and he’ll escape.”

I nodded, understanding immediately. I said I’d go alone and if the killer was there, I’d hold him off.

Kanazawa patted my shoulder and said, “Chen Mu, you’ve grown a lot. Don’t worry, I’ll be right behind you, hidden in the shadows. At the first sign of trouble, I’ll appear.”

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I then took the car alone back to my old home. When I arrived and entered the yard, I saw no one at first. Instinctively, I headed to the pigsty to take a look.

As I neared the pigsty, I saw a figure standing there quietly. It was dusk, so I couldn’t see clearly.

The person stood silently at the pigsty gate, staring blankly at the pigs inside.

I was about to shout or back away to contact Kanazawa and tell him someone was at the pigsty gate.

But then I froze because I recognized the person—it was my father.

At that moment, my father turned and saw me. He called out “Damu” and walked toward me.

For some reason, looking at him then, I suddenly felt a bit estranged. His face was dark and gloomy, his mood clearly low.

But he was still my father, so I wasn’t afraid. I greeted him and asked why he was back and why he didn’t call me first.

He said he came back suddenly to handle an urgent matter and told me to go to my room. He said he had something important to discuss.

I went straight to my room, and he did not follow.

Once inside, I thought for a moment and sent Kanazawa a text telling him my father had returned and wanted to talk to me. Kanazawa told me to keep my phone on and put his number on speed dial; if anything happened, I could discreetly press to call him, and he would come immediately with backup.

That gave me some peace of mind. I waited in my room for a while, and soon my father came in.

As soon as he entered, he said, “Damu, after all these years, there are things you should know. Do you know how your mother died?”

I instinctively shook my head, and at that moment, my father suddenly pulled out a rusty yet extremely sharp long knife from his sleeve...