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Feng Tang Song looked at me with a cold, indifferent gaze, as if I were a living corpse, filled with pity. "Goodbye," he said, waving his hand as he opened the door to the hospital room and walked out without looking back.
"Are you really just going to walk away like this?" I said slowly, picking up the fallen chair and brushing off the dust before sitting down. Feng Tang Song turned his head back, seemingly surprised by my calm demeanor, not seeing the sadness and confusion he expected.
Feng Tang Song frowned, his hand still resting on the doorknob, unwilling to withdraw it. "What? Do you have something else to say? I told you before, without evidence, you can't do anything to me. The cameras can only capture images; they can't hear our words. I was careful to keep my back to the camera; they couldn't see my lips move."
I shook my head and gestured for him to sit down. "I know that. I'm not expecting to catch you. Please, sit down. You just told me a story; now it's my turn to tell you one. To be honest, if I were to evaluate your story, it was quite brilliant—full of twists and clever maneuvers."
Feng Tang Song shrugged and looked at me with a smirk.
I shrugged back and continued, "A personality lying in wait for over a decade, using various people's methods to commit murder while those people believed they acted on their own. Then you used us to hypnotize yourself, erasing the other high-intelligence personalities within you, leaving only yourself. Now you can have one body for each personality—what a deal."
"If I'm correct, all the money earned by the other personalities in this body has already ended up in your pocket," I said seriously, looking at Feng Tang Song's face. "It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call you a billionaire now. According to our investigation, your different personalities have earned over three hundred million in total. Before you confessed to your murders, multiple accounts had transferred money into one account—totaling three hundred and twenty million."
I noticed Feng Tang Song's expression darken immediately as he stared at me intently.
I shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Your methods are very discreet; they started over a decade ago using investment returns. Unfortunately for you, we have a hacker expert in our Special Investigation Team who is currently lying in another hospital room. You know her—Mary. Your tricks are child's play compared to her skills."
"You found my accounts!" Feng Tang Song's face darkened as he glared at me fiercely.
I smiled and replied, "I haven't reported this yet; as you've said, no one here knows what we're talking about. After you leave, with just a simple password, I could make your three hundred twenty million evaporate into thin air. Our country still has many impoverished children who need help; with that much money, we could assist countless people."
"What do you want!" Feng Tang Song clenched his hands together, his left fingers tapping incessantly on the back of his right hand: "Even with this information, you can't charge me; that money is all legally obtained. Besides, your team members are already asleep; their personalities have been destroyed and can't wake up!"
He leaned forward and whispered, "How about this: I have three hundred twenty million; I'll give you twenty million from it? The same method—investment returns! I doubt anyone but Mary could find this mysterious account. What do you think? Consider it: as a mere cop, could you earn twenty million in your lifetime?"
"I couldn't!" I shook my head seriously.
"Exactly!" Feng Tang Song exclaimed: "Twenty million! How many houses could that buy for your family? This deal is worth it. Everything is already beyond repair; think about what will happen to your team members' families. They are all asleep—who will take care of their loved ones? With this twenty million, you could support their families. I'm not trying to scare you; just think about it."
I fell silent for a long time, staring at Feng Tang Song. Sweat beads formed on his forehead as he appeared increasingly anxious. His hands were in his pockets when suddenly his phone vibrated. He couldn't hide it anymore and pulled out his phone hastily, but it slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor.
I picked up his phone and placed it in his hand, then said, "Now do you believe me?"
"I'm still saying the same thing," Feng Tang Song replied. "This deal is worth it. A wise person knows when to yield. Even if you turn me into a pauper, what good does that do you? You still can't arrest me; it's a lose-lose situation! Why not take this twenty million? It's a win-win! I’ll leave the country and go anywhere in the world! We’ll never see each other again. Isn’t that better?"
"To put it bluntly, it's still about the money, isn't it?" I looked at Feng Tang Song and said calmly, "Do you think you're a good brother or a good father? Among all those personalities, you're the most cunning and the most violent!"
I pointed at Feng Tang Song, speaking each word clearly: "Don't deny it; don't hide behind some excuse of doing it for the boy's sake! No one knows what kind of person you are better than you do! On one hand, you want to eliminate your inner personalities, but on the other hand, you use them to satisfy your own desires! You are selfish, greedy, violent, and deceitful! Take off that hypocritical mask and look at me; how much longer are you going to keep pretending?"
My words grew heavier. Feng Tang Song shook his head repeatedly and said, "I'm not that kind of person! I want to kill the other personalities; I've just used them! But I'm doing it for the boy's sake! I am the boy; the boy is me. I want to make a lot of money; I don’t want to spend my life in hunger and fear! Nothing in this world can provide security like money can!"
"Money can indeed provide security," I said seriously as I looked at Feng Tang Song and nodded. "But there are things in this world that can give far more security than money. For me, perhaps it's my crew. Even if you could give me three hundred million, what would it matter?"
Feng Tang Song became agitated and shouted, "You will never understand what the boy went through when he was small! Hunger and cold were his everyday reality! Can you even imagine such days? His stepfather wouldn’t feed him; his mother acted as if he were already dead."
As he spoke, tears streamed down Feng Tang Song's face, soaking it. The large droplets fell like pearls from a broken string. What could make a cold-blooded killer and such a scheming person weep so profoundly if not something deeply tragic?
Feng Tang Song didn’t wipe away his tears; he continued to cry as he said, "Do you know how much suffering the boy endured over those years? You can't even begin to imagine this kind of pain! His stepfather treated him like a punching bag for his own frustrations; his mother acted as if he had died. His brother brought various peers to bully him."
"In summer, he waited by the drain! When others dumped their food scraps, that was his lunch every day! There was everything in there—toothpicks, tissues, even phlegm from others—and sometimes there were maggots growing inside! But that was his only meal; he had to eat that just to avoid starving! Sometimes he had to fight with stray dogs for scraps just to eat what others discarded!"
"In winter, he had no warm room! He could only seek out those stray dogs and huddle with them because they had fur to keep warm while he did not!" Feng Tang Song's voice turned into a roar: "His hands and feet were covered in frostbite! Disgusting fluids flowed from them! His flesh was rotting! Every day he couldn't be sure he'd see tomorrow's sun! Each nightfall felt like the end of the world for him!"
Feng Tang Song trembled all over as he shouted, "And now you tell me money is useless? If you had experienced that kind of pain—if you understood what it’s like not knowing where your next meal would come from—if you knew the despair of wondering whether you'd see tomorrow's sun—you would understand!"
"If I had had money back then, how could I have fallen to such depths?" Feng Tang Song cried out. "You tell me money is useless? So what if I'm doing this for money? I have nothing now; and now you're telling me I've lost my last sense of security—what should I do? Tell me, what should I do?"
Feng Tang Song collapsed to the ground in tears; he seemed utterly broken.
I slowly walked over to him and embraced him gently. "But those days are behind you now, aren't they? That despair, that pain, that sense of loss—they're all in the past now. Why continue torturing yourself with memories of what has already passed? It's time to face reality; it's time to confront those pasts. Stop running away!"
Feng Tang Song lifted his head slowly to look at me, still trembling all over. He gritted his teeth and stared blankly at me for a while before breaking down into heart-wrenching sobs. It was truly moving; I held him tightly and patted his back. After a long time, he began to calm down somewhat but continued to sob quietly.
I tried to speak in a gentle tone, "Now, do you remember?"
Feng Tang Song took several deep breaths, looking at me seriously, his mouth twitching. After a long while, he slowly opened his mouth and said, "I am that little boy. The little boy is Feng Tang Song. Feng Tang Song is not a persona created by the little boy; I am not a fabricated persona..."
After saying this, he stared blankly at me. I nodded and replied, "All these years, you've been avoiding it. You've hidden yourself away. You forgot who you are; you can't distinguish between the false and the real. Now, do you remember everything?"
"I remember everything; I remember it all," Feng Tang Song said, still staring at me. "I remember that those personas were all created by me."
I nodded and said, "It's good that you remember."
Feng Tang Song slumped in his chair as I slowly sat on the hospital bed, taking Juan Juan's hand in mine. I then said, " Juan Juan once told me that behind the falsehood there might also be falsehood. But what is real? That must be asked of one's own heart—what is truly real: avoidance or facing it?"
"Yang Xiaojuan," I softly uttered the guiding words.
The ceiling cracked open with a massive gap, and meteors fell from the sky, enveloping us in darkness completely.
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