Once Ren Xing got busy, it was "five plus two" and "white plus black"—working through weekends and nights without pause. He exited the highway at the provincial capital. I didn't think he intended to take me back to our city, so I suggested he drop me off at the train station so I could make my own way home. To my surprise, Ren Xing knit his brows wearily. "You’re coming with me."
"Where to?"
"The Provincial Forensic Department."
"What happened?"
"That case at your school... it’s gotten complicated."
"It was already complicated enough," I countered. "What else could have gone wrong?"
"Old Chu’s body—the skin and the flesh don't match. Their DNA is different. More than one person has been skinned."
I shivered. "Wh—what?"
"The Provincial Forensic Department obtained a DNA sample of Old Chu from the school for comparison. They confirmed the skin is his, but they don't know who the flesh inside belongs to. This means at least two people were skinned, and their remains were mixed up. One set ended up on your dormitory roof. I suspect there’s another crime scene out there waiting to be discovered."
For some reason, I felt things wouldn't be that simple. At most, this sounded like extreme depravity, something that could still be rationalized through human logic—out of billions of people, a few deviants were bound to exist; the probability was small, but not zero. However, what we had faced before wasn't just depravity. It was the unthinkable.
I had a premonition that this time would be no different.
The Provincial Forensic Department was located in the suburbs. The building was nearly a decade old and looked quite dated, with a small courtyard. When we arrived, the Provincial Captain of Criminal Investigation was crouching there, smoking. It was already three in the morning. The department was short-staffed; aside from those sent out across the province to investigate cases, only two medical examiners remained on duty. The older one was around thirty, while the younger one was an intern about my age. As the two of them worked inside, Ren Xing and I spoke with the Captain outside. I was there as a witness, and the Captain questioned me about Chun Xiao. Since they could find almost nothing from Old Chu’s remains, finding Chun Xiao was crucial to the case. As the last person known to have seen Old Chu alive, she likely held invaluable evidence.
Ren Xing said he had been searching for her, but it was no use; she seemed to have vanished into thin air. At the restaurant where Chun Xiao worked—the same place my roommate washed dishes—she wasn't close with the other employees. No useful information could be gleaned from them; they knew even less than we did. Only the owner mentioned that Chun Xiao hadn't shown up for work since the day she came looking for me. She had called in sick on the first day, but there had been total radio silence ever since.
"Sick?" the Captain asked, stubbing out his cigarette.
Ren Xing glanced at me. I summoned my courage and told the truth. "After that girl got involved with Old Chu, she contracted an STD. She came to me to borrow money. She was bleeding terribly down there."
The Captain turned to Ren Xing. "Have you checked the gynecological records at the local hospitals? Is there any record of Chun Xiao?"
"We checked. Nothing."
The Captain pondered for a moment. "An out-of-town girl with no money and no medical insurance... if she got sick, she’d usually go to a small, unlicensed clinic. Check the flyers posted on the telephone poles in your area. Check them one by one. We have to dig this person out, even if we have to overturn the whole city."
From his furrowed brow, I guessed he was worried that the other skinned victim might be Chun Xiao.
Just then, the two medical examiners pulled off their gloves and walked out. "Captain Shen, the autopsy report is out. This one was also skinned alive, but the time of death is inconsistent with Old Chu’s body."
The two examiners exchanged a look before finally gathering the courage to speak. "According to our estimates, the flesh inside... the time of death was September 25th..."
The atmosphere in the courtyard instantly turned cold. I pulled out my phone to check the calendar. September 25th was five days after Old Chu died. Old Chu’s death had been classified as a major case immediately, and his remains had been transported to the Provincial Forensic Department for an autopsy right away...
"Are you saying the flesh was swapped inside the Provincial Forensic Department?" Captain Shen’s hand trembled as he reached for another cigarette.
The medical examiner was breaking out in a cold sweat. "That’s why our initial DNA tests on the skin and flesh showed no issues; they were a perfect match. But last night, while I was writing the autopsy report, I compared the photos taken before and after. I realized the wounds on the two bodies didn't align. When Old Chu was skinned and impaled on the balcony spikes, that row of puncture wounds... their positions and the nature of the scars don't match this flesh. That’s when I re-ran the DNA and found the discrepancy." As he spoke, the examiner handed the photos to Captain Shen and Ren Xing. I didn't lean in to look.
"I already performed an internal autopsy on the original body. Is this one dissected the same way?" Captain Shen asked.
"Yes. It perfectly mimicked my technique. Someone deliberately stole the original body parts and replaced them with others."
Captain Shen cursed under his breath. "When will we know who this flesh belongs to?"
The examiner handed over another document. "We... already know. The gastric contents of the second skinless body match the dinner served in the Provincial Forensic Department’s staff canteen on September 25th. It’s one of our own. The flesh... the flesh belongs to the Security Captain of the Forensic Department."
Without a word, Captain Shen went inside to have the surveillance footage pulled up. I asked Ren Xing what was happening. Ren Xing frowned. "The Security Captain hasn't shown up for work in three days."
We first watched the footage from the night of September 25th. Only the Security Captain, Captain An, had been on duty that night. He was a former member of the Armed Police. The surveillance showed him entering the storage room for a routine inspection; he didn't emerge until about an hour later.
According to the logs, he uncharacteristically worked a day shift the following day, September 26th. He wasn't reported missing until the 27th.
And yet, the skinned flesh on the autopsy table belonged to him.
"The time of death doesn't add up," was Captain Shen’s first reaction. "You say the swapped flesh died in the early hours of September 25th. But Captain An was still on duty on the 26th."
The medical examiner stood his ground. "Estimating the time of death over such a short period is rarely wrong, especially with the gastric contents as corroborating evidence. The DNA match is also absolute. Captain An definitely died between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM on September 25th. There is no mistake."
"Then who the hell is this person in the video?!" Captain Shen looked ready to curse again.
Ren Xing, who had been staring fixedly at the recording, suddenly rewound the video, then played it forward again. He did this three times. We all realized he was comparing the footage of Captain An entering the storage room with him leaving it. The clips were short, only about ten seconds each, before Captain An vanished from the camera's range.
"What is it?" Captain Shen asked.
Ren Xing pointed at the screen, specifically at Captain An’s movements as he locked the door. "When he went in, he used his right hand to turn the key. When he came out, he used his left hand to unlock it—was Captain An usually left-handed?"
The medical examiner shook his head. "No."
Captain Shen leaned closer to the screen, staring at the eerie, upward curl of Captain An’s lips as he turned his head for a split second. "So, who exactly is this person?"
I knew.
I knew who he was.
That smile, that look in his eyes, that left hand locking the door. I knew it all. I had lived with him for two years.
It was Old Chu.
A person can change their face, but the feeling they project does not lie.
This person was Old Chu. Old Chu was a natural left-hander.
Given that I had encountered so many things that defied logic and modern science, I was already capable of making a wild yet perfectly rational guess—
A monster wearing human skin.
Thus, Old Chu’s sudden change in personality during the second half of our freshman year finally had an explanation.
At that time, the real Old Chu had already been killed by that monster. The monster had donned his skin, living and moving among us. Then, for some unknown reason, the monster had been stripped of that skin which didn't belong to it and was impaled on the iron railing. Even that hadn't killed it. And we, as humans, had treated it as a mere homicide. The police had brought the flesh and the skin to the Provincial Forensic Department. In the middle of the night, it had risen, killed the patrolling Security Captain, fabricated a substitute body, and walked away wearing Captain An’s skin.
Now, it was free.
Where would it go?
More importantly, why had it come to my side in the first place...?
This was the only logical explanation I could imagine. Occam’s Razor tells us that even if we are unwilling to face it, the truth is often the most direct path. This explanation was simpler and clearer than any conjectured human behavior. Clearly, I wasn't the only one thinking this; Ren Xing had realized it too. When we got back into the car, Ren Xing asked me succinctly, "It’s Old Chu?"
I nodded.
He slammed his hand against the steering wheel.
"What the hell are they?!"
I knew exactly how Ren Xing felt. I understood it all too well. Before, Ren Xing believed there had to be a more scientific explanation to serve as a footnote for the series of eerie events following Old Chu’s death. But now, Captain An’s death had shattered everything. Ren Xing realized that we live on a small island of intellect; we know very little of this world. Beyond this island where we reside, hidden within the vastness of our ignorance, lie countless secrets. These secrets might be utterly dark, utterly evil. When the day comes that we truly see their silhouettes, we will fall into a profound terror.
I already knew they existed. I had even encountered them at close range.
He was just like me.
We could no longer pretend none of this had happened, nor did we have enough confidence to deny or dismiss it. We had stepped off the tiny island that humanity relies on for survival. And we had no way to protect ourselves—we couldn't even clearly articulate what it was we were facing.
In the car racing toward H-City in the pre-dawn hours, we were seized by an unprecedented dread. I truly wished there was a way to rewind to a month ago; that would have been a mercy. If possible, I would never touch this macabre mystery again. I would rather remain ignorant to the very end.
***
