The three of us were quiet for at least ten minutes, surrounded by silence. During this time, the fat guy kept looking at me, but no one spoke. An Ning paused the TV, and on the black-and-white screen, a familiar face was frozen in time. Beneath the unkempt hair and dirt, it was the face I saw every day—my own face. For the first time, it felt so terrifying and strange that I didn’t even dare to look at it.

After a long while, An Ning finally spoke softly, “This is why I had to come find you.” I didn’t say anything; I didn’t know how to respond. My mind was blank, and I had no idea how to react. The fat guy opened his mouth, making some unintelligible sounds before finally saying, “Xiao Wu, is this person you?”

I shook my head, feeling waves of dizziness. My brain couldn’t think at all. I pinched my nose hard and gestured for them to stop asking me questions, needing a moment to calm down. They indeed fell silent. I took a few deep breaths, trying to settle my racing heart, and then asked An Ning, “Where did it come from?”

“According to the records, it should have been sent from Golmud in Qinghai.” I took a deep breath; it was indeed sent from the same place. Given the age of the tapes, it was the same as the two that filmed Huo Ling, so it couldn’t have been very recent. Therefore, these two tapes must be related to the two I received. It was unlikely to be two separate incidents.

But I absolutely had no memory of wearing such clothes or crawling in an ancient house; it was simply too incredible. I found it hard to believe that the person on the screen was me. For a moment, I felt this was a conspiracy.

“Is there any other clue besides this?” I asked her again. She shook her head, “The only clue is you, which is why I came to find you.”

I picked up the remote and rewound the tape, watching the process again. I gripped the remote so tightly that it made a “pop” sound. When I saw the close-up at that moment, even though I was mentally prepared, my heart still sank.

Although the black-and-white screen was blurry, the person in it was definitely me; I couldn’t be mistaken. The fat guy wanted to ask something, but An Ning stopped him. She went outside and said something to Wang Meng, who responded and soon returned with a bottle of alcohol. An Ning poured my tea and then filled a glass with alcohol for me.

I gave a grateful, bitter smile, took it, and gulped down a mouthful. The spicy taste rushed into my throat, and I immediately started coughing. The fat guy softly said to me, “Calm down a bit; don’t rush. This isn’t hard to explain. First, confirm that this person really isn’t you.”

I shook my head, “This person is definitely not me.”

“Do you have any brothers who look a lot like you?” the fat guy asked with a grin, “Could your dad have—well, you know—outside?”

I found it amusing myself; wasn’t that a plot from some martial arts novel? How could that happen in reality? I shook my head with a bitter smile and took another big gulp.

An Ning looked at me for a long time before saying, “If it’s not you, can you explain what this is all about?”

I thought to myself, “Who should I ask if you’re asking me?” My mind was already so confused that I didn’t want to answer her. The situation had completely exceeded my understanding, and I couldn’t think rationally for a moment. Most importantly, while I was at a loss, I also felt a strange sensation in my heart, but I couldn’t grasp any thread of that feeling. This drove me crazy.

The fat guy then said, “Since it’s not either of them, this person can only be someone wearing a mask that looks like you… It seems rare that someone is very satisfied with your appearance; you should feel comforted. Do you think someone might have filmed this tape to mess with you?”

I cursed under my breath. A human skin mask was indeed a good explanation, but to disguise oneself as someone else is easy, while to impersonate a specific person is quite difficult—one could say it’s almost impossible. If someone were to make a human skin mask of my face, they would have to be extremely familiar with the structure of my face and understand my various expressions. Otherwise, even if they managed to create the mask, as soon as the wearer smiled or opened their mouth, it would be exposed.

There must be something hidden in the footage of that tape. Even if someone was indeed wearing a mask that looked like me, there would still be a lot of questions: Who is this person? How did they know what I look like? What have they done using my “face”? Why are they in the video? Where was the footage taken? When was it filmed? What connection does it have with the tape featuring Huo Ling?

Things are not that simple.

I even had the illusion that perhaps this person wasn’t wearing a human skin mask, but I was the one wearing a human skin mask?

I touched my face, actually wanting to see if I was Wu Xie. However, when I pinched it, it hurt, so clearly my face was real, and I couldn’t help but laugh at myself.

Huo Ling’s tape, as well as the tape featuring “me,” was sent to me and A-Ning under the names Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie. Such actions must have some significance. All the bizarre thoughts suddenly enveloped me again, and the obsession I had finally shaken off regarding the truth behind my uncle’s lies suddenly resurfaced in my heart.

That night, still at the restaurant, I treated the fat guy to dinner, at the same table as noon.

I had remained silent all afternoon. A-Ning eventually couldn’t wait any longer, so she left her phone number and address, saying she would return to her hotel. She asked me to notify her if I had any thoughts, and she would come back tomorrow.

I figured that after just one night, I wouldn’t have any thoughts, so I just brushed her off with a few words. The fat guy originally planned to go back tonight, but after this incident, he was also interested and decided to stay a few more days to see how things developed. I had arranged his accommodation, and since he hadn’t eaten much at lunch, he stayed to continue eating my cheap food.

The waitress saw that the fat guy and I were back, but that woman wasn’t there. She probably really thought we had sold her, as her expression was quite strange. Normally, I would have made a joke at her expense, but I really wasn’t in the mood.

Just after A-Ning left, the fat guy asked me, “Xiao Wu, now that the woman is gone, what’s really going on? You can tell me, right?”

I smiled wryly at him and said that I truly didn’t know, and it wasn’t because An Ning was present that I was pretending to be confused. The fat guy looked at me with disbelief; in his eyes, my uncle was definitely not honest, and I was at least a little fox. The person in that videotape must be me, and I must have some unspeakable reason for not saying anything.

I really didn’t want to explain, so I casually swore an oath, which made him somewhat believe me, albeit reluctantly. At that moment, the food and drinks arrived. After taking a sip of his drink, the fat guy asked me again, “Hey, Xiao Wu, I think this matter is not simple. You’ve been silent all afternoon—what have you figured out? You can’t hide anything from me!”

I shook my head and frowned at him, saying, “Honestly, I haven’t figured out anything. How could I possibly understand this? I don’t even know where to start thinking about it. The only thing I can think of right now is who sent this tape.”

I thought for a long time that afternoon, and what concerned me was, first, based on the content of the tape, “I” knew about the camera’s existence just like Huo Ling, which clearly indicated that “I” did not resist that thing. Second, Huo Ling’s tape was obviously filmed a long time ago, probably in the 1990s. If both tapes were filmed in the same era, then the “I” in An Ning’s tape should also have lived in the 1990s. At that time, I clearly remembered I was still in middle school. Not to mention I had no memory of filming anything, even my appearance was quite different. I am a conspiracy theorist, but if my childhood were also fake, how would I explain the photos of me growing up at home? How would I explain my classmates and friends?

Now it seemed to me that the most puzzling thing was who sent this tape to An Ning and what their purpose was. Did they just want to give me a scare? That seemed unlikely.

The fat guy patted me on the back, as a form of consolation, and muttered to himself, “Could it be that little guy who impersonated you to send something to An Ning?”

I sighed, thinking that no one could know. Remembering An Ning’s explanation about the package signature, I had another question in my mind: if An Ning’s package was sent under a pseudonym, could it be that the two tapes I had were also sent under a pseudonym? Was the signature “Zhang Qi Ling” used just to ensure that the tapes could reach me? Was it not him who sent the tapes, but someone else?

After all, I felt he really had no reason to send such things. The videotape was completely out of character for him.

But if it wasn’t him, then who could it be? The content was related to the group in Xisha—could it be one of them? What was their purpose?

I asked the fat guy, “By the way, Fatty, your brain works differently from others. Help me think about this; what could be going on? Just rely on your intuition.”

“Intuition?” The fat guy scratched his head, “Aren’t you putting me in a tough spot? I usually don’t even have illusions, let alone intuition.”

I thought to myself that it was indeed a bit unreliable to ask the fat guy to think about this, since he wasn’t very familiar with the Silent Oil Bottle and didn’t know much about the Xisha situation, at least not as well as I did.

Speaking of Silent Oil Bottle, how well did I really know this person? I took a sip of my drink while pondering.

The overall impression I have of the character “Men You Ping” is that he doesn’t seem like a person at all; he feels more like a simple symbol. In my mind, aside from the few times he saved me, it seems that every other time I saw him, he was just sleeping. I don’t even have the slightest clue to infer his personality.

For an ordinary person, one can usually gauge their character from their tone of voice or some small gestures, but he speaks so little and has no small actions at all. He is simply someone who doesn’t do anything unnecessary; whenever he does move, something must be happening. This is why, several times, when his expression changed, everyone started sweating.

After thinking for a moment, I said to the chubby guy, “Then let’s not rely on intuition. Just tell me how you feel about this situation. Is there anything that seems off? Even just a little would help.”

The chubby guy sighed and said to me, “Damn it, you’re really embarrassing us proletarians. I don’t feel anything, but there is indeed something that seems off. When you were talking before, I noticed a detail. I don’t know if you caught it.”

“What detail?” I asked him.

“You said that the tape the guy sent you has two cassettes, right? One has that woman combing her hair, and the other one is blank, with nothing on it.”

I nodded; that was indeed the case.

The chubby guy continued, “This is just wrong. If it’s blank, why send it to you? Doesn’t that make no sense? Why not just send the first tape directly? Why bother to send two?”

I sighed. I had considered this issue before, but because the whole situation was so bizarre, I didn’t have the energy to think about these little illogical details. At the time, I felt that the other party must have some ulterior motive; I just didn’t know what it was.

The chubby guy shook his head and said, “That’s not right. If you think about it this way, it becomes too convoluted. We live in the real world; this isn’t a mystery novel. There shouldn’t be such nonsensical things happening. I think we might be overcomplicating things. Maybe the reason the other party sent this tape is quite simple.”

My mind was a bit resistant to thinking; I didn’t want to go there, so I let him share his thoughts.

He said, “It’s not really a thought; I just feel that your way of thinking about the problem is off. It seems to confuse people. Let’s think directly: the other party sent you two tapes, one with content and one without. This means one of the tapes could have been left out entirely, yet they still sent it. Right?”

I nodded, and he continued, “Isn’t that the case? This is quite normal in this situation because the person sending the tapes feels incomprehensible to us, so we subjectively believe that everything they do must have deep meaning. But damn it, if we don’t think that way, and suppose the person sending the tapes is just an ordinary guy, do you think an ordinary person would act like that in this situation? I doubt it. If I were sending you tapes, why would I bother to send a blank one? Doesn’t that seem strange? I feel like there’s definitely something more to this. Think about it again; does it make sense?”

I nodded. The Fatty always surprises people, and indeed, I hadn’t thought about this issue so deeply. I leaned back in my chair, contemplating his words and falling into deep thought.

In what situation would an ordinary person send something over in this way? A tape with content and a tape without content—what’s the purpose of this combination?

“Don’t complicate the problem,” I reminded myself, trying to think intuitively. I considered the times I had borrowed tapes before—under what circumstances would I do something like this?

As I thought, I suddenly recalled some past events. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that there had indeed been a time when I had done something similar.

The Fatty, who was eating Dongpo pork, noticed my expression and asked, “What’s up? Thought of something?”

I tilted my head, gesturing for him to be quiet as I savored the thoughts that had just come to me. As I pondered, memories from the past started to surface. I pondered for a moment and suddenly realized what was going on. I jumped up and said to the Fatty, “Damn, it’s so simple! Stop eating! We need to go back right now!” With that, I rushed out.

The Fatty, halfway through his pork, nearly spat it out and yelled, “Not eating anymore? I didn’t even eat lunch! Is this how you treat your guests?”

I was eager to go back and verify my thoughts, so I turned to him and said, “Finish eating, then come over.”

The Fatty spun around in place, feeling helpless, and had no choice but to follow me. As we left, he shouted to the waiter, “Don’t clear this table! I’ll be back to finish eating. If you lose even a green onion, I’ll come back and take down your sign!” With that, he followed me out the door.