Coming to Myself

You Mingxu returned home late that evening.

Her own home.

As she climbed the stairs, she glimpsed an inconspicuous sedan parked nearby with two motionless figures inside. They were probably staying quiet to avoid making her feel awkward. She had no intention of greeting them either.

It had been a long time since You Mingxu last lived here. Pushing the door open, she was met with the smell of accumulated dust. In her hand, she carried only a simple travel bag.

She tossed the bag on the floor, collapsed onto the sofa, and leaned back with her eyes closed for a while before getting up to clean.

The apartment was tidy and modest in size, so she quickly gave it a cursory cleanup. She glanced into Yin Feng's empty room before finally returning to the bedroom and falling onto the bed.

The curtains were half-drawn, casting a dim, gloomy light, leaving the room cold and desolate.

Suddenly, she wondered: What was Yin Feng doing now? Was he thinking of her too? Was he still in unbearable pain? How much of what happened in Guizhou had he actually remembered?

He must be fully aware of the trouble he was about to face.

What would he do? Where would he go?

Was he truly the founder of the Punisher?

Yin Feng, have you truly seen yourself clearly?

Can you still see A Xu?

——

It was a house nestled in the mountains, situated on the border between Xiangcheng and Zhuzhou. Because a mountain ahead was a tourist scenic area, this house remained hidden here, and having people living in it actually drew no attention.

The house was entirely built of wood, resembling a sturdy castle yet also feeling like a cage. A path paved with moisture-resistant wooden boards led from the entrance to a small pond. The surroundings were dense with trees and overgrown with weeds. New lotus leaves had just begun to sprout in the pond, as if someone had cupped a handful of vibrant green and presented it to the house's owner.

This house was acquired by Tuya shortly after he returned to China. At the time, he was still burdened with troubles but fantasized about someday being free of debts and living in this paradise like a wild man for the rest of his life. Later, he went to prison, followed Yin Feng, and the house was left abandoned. Unexpectedly, it came in handy today.

From midnight yesterday until today, they changed vehicles and license plates, switched countless modes of transport, paid people to divert the police's attention, and tampered with road surveillance footage... It wasn't until after noon that they finally arrived here safely.

Yin Feng had woken up during the escape and remained silent the entire time, not stopping their actions.

From noon until now, Yin Feng had been sitting in his room without coming out or uttering a single word to anyone. Chen Feng brought lunch in, but when he went to retrieve the tray afterward, he found it untouched. Chen Feng said nothing and quietly withdrew.

The early summer sun was already quite intense.

Several people sat under the shade of the trees, each lost in their thoughts.

Guan Jun had completely calmed down and was even grinning cheekily, occasionally teasing Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan, however, felt as if a massive rock were weighing on his heart and had no desire to engage, yet he couldn't resist. Before long, the two were fighting again.

Tuya smoked gloomily, his body resembling a somber mountain. At times like these, even Guan Jun didn't dare provoke him.

Chen Feng was also smoking, his shirt and trousers already crumpled and filthy. He stared into the distance beyond the water, his eyes dark and brooding.

Hearing Guan Jun and Xiao Yan bickering again, Tuya's temper flared. He threw his cigarette butt to the ground and roared, "Enough! Just because you pretend it doesn't exist doesn't mean it's gone! What are we going to do next? What about Teacher Yin?"

Everyone fell silent.Guan Jun was the first to speak coldly: "What is there to be angry about? If Teacher Yin is on the police's side, then we are on the police's side. If he is a Punisher, then we are Punishers. Killing, being killed—is it really that important?"

Chen Feng snapped, "Shut up! How could Teacher Yin possibly be a Punisher? He led us and the police to eliminate so many Punishers and almost got killed by his own brother! How could he have founded the Punisher Organization?"

Guan Jun shot back almost immediately, "Then how do you explain what you saw—him and Su Ziyi imprisoning Li Mingdi? Isn't that something he can't remember either?"

Chen Feng clutched his hair in agony, wishing he had never witnessed that scene. But even if he hadn't, would it have made any difference? Last night, Teacher Yin had already taken action against Li Mingdi and admitted it outright...

Xiao Yan, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: "What if he really is a Punisher but has simply forgotten? What if he believes he's righteous?"

Everyone fell silent.

Xiao Yan's pale face tightened as he continued, "Sometimes, when people experience intense trauma, they can forget certain things. Like me... to this day, I can't clearly remember what happened the night my parents were killed, or what I did. If Teacher Yin has simply forgotten, then Yin Chen and the others might have been forced to oppose him, and maybe... they harmed Teacher Yin without intending to kill him, just to protect his identity?"

The others' expressions shifted, but no one could refute his reasoning.

Tuya closed his eyes in anguish and whispered, "You all heard it clearly—he said he is the Punisher."

Chen Feng entered the room and saw Yin Feng leaning back in a rattan chair, gazing out the window. He was still wearing the same clothes from the previous night, now stained with mud, yet he seemed oblivious, his expression calm.

Chen Feng's heart ached. He set the reheated meal in front of Yin Feng and said, "Teacher Yin, you need to eat."

Yin Feng acted as though he hadn't heard, lost in thought.

Chen Feng added, "You Mingxu would worry if she knew."

Only then did Yin Feng glance at him, then at the food, and rasped, "Leave it. I'll eat later."

Chen Feng didn't know what else to say—or perhaps nothing needed to be said. He sat down beside Yin Feng, both of them staring through the square windowpane at the reflection of tree branches and water outside.

"Now that things have come to this, what do you think?" Yin Feng asked.

Chen Feng smiled faintly. "We've already discussed it. Wherever you go, we go. Whatever you are, we are. That's our view."

Yin Feng fell silent.

After a long pause, he said, "Good."

Chen Feng nearly wept, though he couldn't tell whether it was from excitement, sorrow, or loneliness.

But he didn't see the glimmer of tears that flashed in Yin Feng's deep, well-like eyes as he stared out the window.

Yin Feng suddenly laughed, pressing the back of his hand to the corner of his mouth in his usual cold and unrestrained manner. He asked softly, "Chen Feng, that day three years ago—did you really see me with Su Ziyi and Li Mingdi?"

Chen Feng lowered his gaze and said nothing.

That was as good as confirmation.

Yin Feng spoke slowly, "Can what a pair of eyes see ever be trusted as the truth?"Chen Feng's heart jolted, not understanding his meaning.

But Yin Feng offered no further explanation, abruptly changing the subject: "Actually, strictly speaking, You Yingjun wasn't my second personality. He was merely a part of my existing personality. At that time, I suffered brain injury along with psychological trauma, but the primary reason was physiological damage that caused me to lose my senses and become childlike. There are many similar cases in medicine. When my brain injury healed, I recovered completely. I can recall everything he did. Only when I'm drunk and my nervous system becomes paralyzed does that side of me resurface. If You Yingjun were truly my second personality, then I would never be able to consciously access what he did. At most, I might only glimpse some memory fragments of the second personality in my subconscious."

As Chen Feng processed his words, he suddenly understood Yin Feng's implication. Chen Feng felt nothing but shock and horror—unbelievable yet perfectly logical.

Yin Feng's face remained calm, as if submerged in a pool of cold, still water. He said, "If those things were truly done by Yin Feng, then it was him. That's the only explanation."

Chen Feng cried out involuntarily, "What should we do? How do we proceed?"

Yin Feng closed his eyes, as if finally feeling the exhaustion. Leaning back in his chair, he said hoarsely, "Go ask Guan Jun if there's any way to contact You Mingxu without going through the police."

—

These past few days, You Mingxu had been tossing and turning over the events of that night. What else had happened before she arrived at the hospital room? Otherwise, someone as composed as Yin Feng wouldn't have lost control and tried to strangle Li Mingdi.

The image of Yin Feng's final look at her—desperate and pained—kept surfacing in her mind. She wished she could sprout wings and fly to his side immediately, to see how he was doing and ask him why.

But he had disappeared with his people.

You Mingxu didn't succumb to despair; she couldn't afford to. Instead, she found ways to bring home all the cases from over the years that might possibly be related to the Punisher, carefully reviewing them in hopes of finding even the slightest clue.

Besides this, during the day she went out running and engaged in intense physical training. The two police officers assigned to watch her simply followed silently, occasionally even running up to offer her cigarettes.

At night, when she finally had nothing else to do and sat in her empty home, she felt the pervasive loneliness. She could only pick up her tablet to watch TV dramas, continuing until deep into the night when exhaustion overwhelmed her, then collapsing into sleep.

The third day of Yin Feng's disappearance.

The night was already deep, the city seemingly fallen silent, with only the oppressive darkness looming as if ready to surge through the window.

You Mingxu placed the tablet on the bed, leaning back against the headboard as she watched expressionlessly, not moving her gaze.

Suddenly, the screen went black.

She froze, inwardly cursing "misfortune never comes alone," and was about to pick up the tablet when she saw some program automatically flash on the screen, running rapidly before the screen went black again a second later.

Then, on the solemn black screen, two white characters slowly emerged: "A Xu."

You Mingxu stared at these two characters, tears suddenly welling in her eyes as sorrow surged from within.