Chapter 5

Tian Mu answered, “I’m very sorry. I believe she remembers nothing. I’ve been her therapist for over ten years and used hypnosis to guide her subconscious hundreds of times. I can assure you she doesn’t know where it is. Her parents never mentioned it before her.”

Alpha sighed.

“I know, Beta. But we spent an enormous sum building this ‘Tailuowan in 2005.’ If we come away empty-handed, our superiors won’t spare us.”

Tian Mu sighed too.

“Understood. I’ll do my best. When is the next scene, and what happens?”

Pages rustled over the radio.

“Tomorrow, Yue Kai will appear and tell her the fragment has been corrected again. Then he’ll lead her into the underground laboratory.

“The next scene takes place there. If she ever wandered into it before she was five, her subconscious will respond. Your hypnotherapy should produce results then.”

“Understood. Beta acknowledges.”

He switched off the radio, patted my shoulder, and whispered, “Be careful. Don’t spoil the performance.

“You can leave to the north. I’ll wait there.”

I gave a small nod.

After he left, another group in black entered.

They performed a simple examination, removed my shoes and socks, and infused a nutrient solution into an artery in my foot.

I remained motionless, maintaining the pretense as they handled me.

Two hours later, the bag was empty. The man beside me stood, removed the needle, replaced my socks and shoes, and left with the syringe.

Once I was sure I was alone, I opened my eyes and moved my stiff joints.

After an unknown interval, darkness finally came.

Footsteps approached. I lay down again, waiting to be taken to the east side.

Kappa and Lambda returned. They brought the motorcycle to the boundary and placed me on it.

“Alpha, Kappa and Lambda. Target in position. Time and possessions checked. Instructions?”

“Received. Good work. Shut the cylinder valve and return to base. Target will wake within five minutes. Make sure you aren’t seen.”

Five minutes?

Silently, I counted to three hundred before slowly sitting up.

I removed the helmet, casually picked out the gum, and threw it into the roadside grass.

Starting the engine, I let my long hair loose in the night wind.

As I rode into town, my lips kept lifting.

This time, I would uncover everything.

28

I stopped outside Yue Kai’s house and knocked hard.

Silence.

Wasn’t he home?

About to leave, I remembered our signal and knocked again: three long, two short.

This time, he immediately opened the door, cap on his head.

“Gu Na? What are you doing here?”

I pushed past him, marched in, and dropped onto the sofa.

“Yue Kai, the fragment’s been corrected again.”

He froze briefly. Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to steal his line.

“I don’t understand. What happened?”

Patiently, I recounted the last two days.

Testing the theory. Searching my home. His disappearance. The attack. Zhou Li’s call and death. Finding my uncle.

Apart from pretending to be unconscious and meeting Tian Mu, I described everything in detail.

Sitting on the floor, he stroked his stubble.

“As I remember it, I only took you west to test the fragment, then came home. Perhaps I was corrected too. That force erased my memories.”

Keep acting. By all means.

Inwardly, I sneered. Outwardly, I looked harmless and helped him analyze.

“So you vanished because you were corrected? But you’re an outsider, not a native.”

He fiddled with his cap’s brim.

“Perhaps I’ve been here too long and it now considers me a native… Never mind that. Have you found any new clues?”

I shook my head.

“The attacker came shortly after I entered. Would you go back with me?”

He rose, opened a cupboard, and took out a woodcutting axe.

“Let’s go. If there’s danger, I’ll protect you.”

I thanked him gratefully, my eyes fixed on the axe.

Its edge was visibly rolled.

On my first night, a black-clad attacker had smashed the window and swung an axe at me.

When I dodged, it struck the coffee table.

Those marks must have come from that blow.

Which meant both attacks had been Yue Kai.

Tian Mu hadn’t lied. Everything here was false.

The whole town was a staged performance.

Everyone was acting, trying to force me to locate what my parents had left.

29

Crossing the police tape again, I led him straight to the bedroom.

“Yue Kai, this is where it happened.”

A large hand patted my shoulder.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

He circled the room twice, then looked at the wardrobe.

“Have you checked in there? Any clues?”

I opened it and shook my head.

“No. I searched every pocket. There wasn’t—”

“Wait. Were you hurt when you hid in the wardrobe?”

I paused.

“No. I wasn’t hurt at any point.”

“Then why is there blood inside?”

He pointed.

Sure enough, blood stained the back and floor.

I suddenly understood.

When my “parents” were “murdered,” I had been inside. Blood couldn’t have splashed into it.

And when I escaped, none stained my clothes.

The wardrobe had been clean then.

So where had these marks come from?

This wasn’t a real crime scene. π had staged everything.

If two actors played the corpses, someone must also have dressed the set.

Where were those backstage workers hiding?

The blood that shouldn’t exist pointed the way.

I was sure the wardrobe contained a secret passage or underground chamber.

The entrance to Alpha’s “underground laboratory” was right here.

30

I edged Yue Kai aside, climbed in, and examined it carefully by flashlight.

At last, I found a movable board, no bigger than my palm, in one corner of the floor.

“Yue Kai! Get me a screw—”

Then I remembered the screwdriver in my waistband.

Had π planned that too?

An ominous feeling rose.

As though however I struggled, I could never escape their control.

“What is it?”

He peered in curiously.

Ignoring him, I drew the screwdriver and carefully pried up the board.

A small, finely made red handle lay beneath.

“What did you find? Some kind of mechanism?”

He barely concealed himself now. Impatience burned in his eyes.

Shivering, I gripped the handle and turned it firmly right.

Click.

The floor slid aside, and I dropped.

Before I could scream, I landed on a soft cushion.

Fortunately, I still held the flashlight.

I was in a small square chamber. A deep opening pierced one wall; several switches lined the opposite one.

One resembled the wardrobe’s red handle.

I tried turning it right.

The wardrobe floor opened overhead. Yue Kai’s face appeared.

“Wonderful! We found it! I’m coming down!”

As if I wanted him here.

I turned left. The board closed.

Another left turn produced several clicks overhead, presumably locking a safety catch.

“Gu Na! Why lock it? Open up!”

His voice came muffled through the thin boards.

Ignoring him, I found the light switch and pulled it down.

Light of a kind I hadn’t seen for a long time instantly drove away the darkness.

I entered the passage, walked several steps, and turned a corner.

A fire door stood before me.

It had no keyhole, only a green fingerprint reader.

Swallowing, I hesitantly extended my index finger.

A gentle female voice said, “Fingerprint recognized.”

Then a deep male voice:

“Gu Na, welcome to Mom and Dad’s secret base.”

The door opened. My tears fell with it.

My parents’ voices.

31

Beyond the fire door lay an entirely unfamiliar world.

A pale green seamless floor. Countless research documents. Strange laboratory equipment.

I searched for a long time but found nothing about Tian Mu’s supposed cancer treatment.

Then I understood.

This wasn’t the real Tailuowan. It was π’s exact replica.

Besides, if the documents had been lying openly here, the organization would have taken them long ago. None of this effort would be necessary.

Yesterday, Alpha told Tian Mu my subconscious would react if I had wandered into the laboratory before age five.

Yet I felt no familiarity at all. Everything was utterly strange.

Circling the laboratory, I gradually focused on the equipment.

White labels identified each piece.

Ultracentrifuge. Temperature-controlled incubator. Electron microscope. PCR machine. Electrophoresis apparatus.

Only the computer looked familiar.

I connected the power and switched it on.

“Please enter password.”

It ran Windows 98 and supported passwords of no more than fourteen characters.

I tried my parents’ birthdays and my own, then several other combinations.

All failed.

While fiddling with the mouse’s rolling ball, I had an idea.

The lottery.

The Double Color Ball ticket my “uncle” gave me had exactly fourteen digits.

I searched my pockets urgently.

It was gone.

Of course. In Yue Kai’s theory, my uncle giving me the ticket had been corrected away.

I couldn’t help laughing.

These people were meticulous.

Fortunately, after my uncle’s endless urging, I knew the numbers by heart.

Perhaps making me study the ticket was meant to help me solve my parents’ computer password.

Then the computer contained only clues, not the thing they wanted.

Thinking it through, I typed.

Red: 01, 03, 06, 07, 08, 09. Blue: 04.

I entered 01030607080904 and pressed Enter.

Correct.

Impatiently, I moved the mouse and searched the drive.

An MP3 soon caught my attention.

[Our beloved daughter Gu Na—please listen.]

32

“Gu Na, when you hear this recording, we will no longer be alive.

“Today is your first birthday. We recorded this for the person you’ll become.”

Dad’s voice filled the laboratory.

“Only our fingerprints and yours can open this lab.

“I gave your uncle the computer password in the form of a lottery ticket and told him to return it when you grew up.

“Nana, how old are you now? Have you become a strong, independent young woman?

“Today we held your first-birthday object-choosing ceremony. You waved your little hands and immediately grabbed the tangram.

“You’re always curious about the world, wanting to grasp everything interesting.

“I wish so much I could watch you grow up and witness every wonderful moment of your life.”

His voice choked. Tears streamed from my eyes.

The tangram.

As far back as I could remember, Dad often played it with me, assembling all kinds of shapes.

After a silence, Mom’s voice continued.

“Nana, there are things we didn’t want you to know.

“But now you’re grown, able to tell right from wrong.

“We once worked at an institute overseas. We developed a… treatment capable of curing cancer completely.”

Perhaps the storage disk was old. Her voice sounded a little stiff.

“Unfortunately, it brought neither wealth nor fame, only endless threats.

“At first, we meant to destroy it. But it was the work we had poured our hearts into.

“So we decided to leave the choice to you.

“In the laboratory’s northeast corner is a secret door. Behind it is a safe.

“This is… the last inheritance we can leave you. We hope you use it well.”

The recording ended abruptly.

Wiping my tears, I closed the file and headed northeast.

I soon noticed a faint outline on the wall.

I tried pushing. To my surprise, the concealed door opened at once.

An old safe sat quietly in the recess.

Its door had a six-digit electronic lock.

Beside it lay a black object.

A stun gun.

A heavy crash sounded in the distance.

Soon, the laboratory fire door opened again.

A familiar figure entered, threatening me with his woodcutting axe.

“Gu Na, open that safe.

“Or I’ll kill you.”

33

Murder filled his eyes.

I knew he wasn’t joking.

“Yue Kai, don’t! I don’t know the password!”

He shrugged.

“No. You do.”

He advanced little by little, the axe’s edge gleaming as though it might fall on my neck at any moment.

The password.

What was it?

Could it be the lottery numbers?

I hurriedly turned, pressed Unlock at the keypad’s lower right, and entered 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9.

The ticket’s six red numbers. I couldn’t think of anything else connected to a password.

A cold electronic voice spoke.

“Incorrect password. Two attempts remaining.”