After falling to the ground, I used all my strength to roll around, trying to alleviate the pain in my forehead and nose. I rolled a few times but suddenly realized that those areas didn’t hurt much; instead, it was my butt that throbbed painfully from hitting the floor.

I loosened my grip and looked at the girl with confusion. She looked at me as if I were a useless person and said, “Is this all it takes to scare you? Uncle, this guy must be the real deal.”

“Not necessarily,” Zhang Longban replied. “The Wu family’s tradition is to play dumb while eating the tiger. They all seem friendly with everyone, but you can never guess what they’re really calculating in their hearts.”

Listening to their conversation, I felt a bit embarrassed about my pathetic state lying on the ground. I stood up and said, “I really am Wu Xie. I don’t know what my predecessors were like, but I admit I’m a useless piece of junk. I don’t know why Mr. Zhang Longban brought me here.”

Zhang Longban looked surprised upon hearing this, and I felt much more at ease. It seemed these people were not as emotionally stunted as the “Dumb Oil Bottle.” The Zhang family members weren’t all blockheads.

“How do you know my name?” he asked.

I felt a surge of satisfaction. To regain my dignity after being played by that nasty woman, I decided to act as if I was fully aware of everything. So I said, “I know a lot more than you think. Don’t assume I don’t know about your activities here.”

However, Zhang Longban no longer seemed surprised, and the lama beside him began to speak: “What are you all doing?”

Zhang Longban exchanged glances with the others, and both of us were dragged out of the lama’s room. I looked back and saw Zhang Longban sitting across from the lama, seemingly preparing to explain, just as the door closed behind us.

I was taken to the area where they conducted their activities in the lama temple. During this process, both of us were handcuffed.

I thought to myself: What will happen next? According to what that girl said, they indeed had doubts about our authenticity. Now that both of us were caught, how would they verify us? Surely they wouldn’t resort to blood tests, right?

I wondered if my old man had already been tied up and locked in their room. Or maybe they’d set up a quiz show, having interviewed many of my friends beforehand to collect questions, and then host an intellectual showdown in the room. The first question might be something like, “What gift did your mother give you when you were five?”

Damn it, how would I remember what my mom gave me when I was five!

I felt a bit anxious and my mind was racing with wild thoughts, but I wasn’t afraid. I still had a feeling that these people wouldn’t harm me; I would indeed suffer a bit, though.

They dragged us into the dining hall where they ate and shut all the doors and windows. I saw Zhang Longban rushing over, and all the Hong Kong people gathered here.

We were forced down and tied to chairs, and at that moment, the guy beside me finally regained some composure.

He groaned a few times, cursed at me, but the sharp pain immediately made him furrow his brows again. He looked at me and said, “You idiot! Look at the mess you’ve caused!”

“It’s none of my business. First, your misfortune makes me happy; second, they set a trap to catch both of us. I walked into the trap myself, and so did you. What right do you have to talk about me?”
“If it weren’t for you being here, would I have fallen into the trap?”
“Why the hell are you trying to imitate me? If you hadn’t imitated me, none of this would have happened.”
“Who the hell is imitating you? Who’s imitating you, you bastard—ah!”
He was cursing halfway when a sound cut through the air, and he fell to the ground along with his chair.
I turned to look, and Miss Zhang was approaching with my slingshot, looking fierce. She said, “Are you done? If you keep arguing, I’ll hit you somewhere else.”
“Why do you only hit me and not him?” the man on the ground cursed.
“You two look the same; how can anyone tell you apart?”
“You’re biased!”
I secretly laughed, and Miss Zhang looked amused too. She walked over and patted my face casually, saying, “Don’t say I’ve never covered for you. I’ll smoke you a cigarette, and in return, you owe me a favor. If you keep arguing, I’ll spread the love evenly.”
“Don’t get too close to them,” someone said from behind, “these two aren’t easy to deal with.”
Zhang Longban walked over. He looked like he held a high position, and a few people stepped back and stopped talking. He took a chair and sat down in front of us, saying, “I’ve seen your faces; one of you is definitely wearing a mask, and the one with the mask has been wearing it for over twenty years, so the mask and the face have completely merged. One of you must have undergone surgery to alter your facial structure to better fit the mask. Furthermore, one of you must have had leg surgery to adjust your height.
“The implementers, to eliminate all surgical traces, completed the surgery long before the plan was executed. I believe this was definitely around twenty years ago. This means the surgery was done twenty years ago. Right now, we don’t have professional equipment and cannot determine surgical traces through touch. So, theoretically, if we don’t test the DNA and don’t go through professional verification, you are almost the same person.
“We have very important information to tell Mr. Wu Xie. However, after we started our search, we found that two Wu Xies were active in the world. One disappeared after Motuo, while the other has been appearing all over the country. We are lying in wait in Motuo to find the missing Wu Xie while deciding to use Motuo as our base and concentrate on the other one here. Once both appear, we hope to identify the real Wu Xie through comparison.”
“How could anyone know what I looked like twenty years ago?” I asked.
“You were already seven years old at that time, which allows for a reasonable estimation of what you would look like in the future, about eighty percent,” Zhang Longban said. “Alright, I only need fifteen minutes to distinguish between you two, but you will have to endure some hardship. I can tell you clearly that we will definitely eliminate the fake one, so you must do your utmost to prove that you are the real one.”
“Wait a minute,” the guy beside me spoke up, “what do you have to distinguish between true and false? You don’t understand anything.”

“Many people tell us that Wu Xie is a very weak person. But we believe that many things can be disguised for a long time. Therefore, strength and weakness, wisdom and foolishness cannot help me distinguish the truth. We knew long ago that Wu Sanxing from the Wu family could appear in two places thousands of kilometers apart at the same time. How could I possibly know what was going on between you two?”

“You think too much,” I said. “Weakness and foolishness are real; I’m just an idiot. Why do you need to set traps for yourself?”

“Because I can’t rely on these to determine who is real and who is fake, that’s why I need to put the two of you together,” Zhang Long interrupted. “You’ll understand my method once you hear it. Don’t be afraid; if it’s true, then it will definitely be fine.” After saying that, he exchanged glances with us.

Suddenly, Miss Zhang beside him pulled out a square wooden box from her bag and placed it in front of us. As soon as I looked at what was inside the box, I nearly wet my pants.