428: Chapter 425 Narrator

[Narrator]

In the silent corners of this city, there is an iron gate that rarely receives attention.

Behind the gate is the North City Detention Center. A place an ordinary person might not set foot in once in their lifetime, yet it is where certain stories begin.

And today, two visitors dressed in trench coats have brought to it a gray-and-white hue, reminiscent of an old movie.

—

The person in charge of the detention center was surnamed Zhou, Director Zhou. A middle-aged man with thinning hair and a slight potbelly. He stood before the screens in the monitoring room, watching the two people in trench coats walk in, his expression somewhat complex.

Shen Mingyuan had already shown his credentials. Director Zhou didn't ask much and pulled up the surveillance footage directly.

"This is the segment." He pointed at the screen. "See for yourselves."

On the screen was the detention center corridor from that night.

The black-and-white surveillance footage matched the old movie filter unexpectedly well. Shen Mingyuan had a pipe in his mouth, and Ye Ouyang stood beside him. A coin flipped over his fingers; it didn't bounce, just spun quietly in circles.

[Narrator]

Look, that figure wearing a Smiley Face Mask.

He's wearing a police uniform, walking down the detention center corridor with a composed pace, as if he belonged there all along. No one stops him; no one spares him a second glance. He just walks into the frame like that and disappears from it just the same.

How did he appear?

And who did he replace?

Look closely—no one is missing from the detention center. No one was transferred, no one was knocked unconscious, and not a single familiar face has disappeared.

He is... simply, an extra person.

A person who shouldn't exist, wearing clothes that should belong to someone else, swaggering toward his target right under everyone's noses.

So, why did no one notice this?

Is it because that smiley face was too natural? Or is it because... we are always habitually ignoring things that seem like they 'should be this way'?

In the footage, the Smiley-faced Man walked into the detention cell area.

A few seconds later, a familiar face appeared on the screen—the Crew-cut Man who later became a Dinosaur Person was clutching the bars and shouting something toward the corridor. The Smiley-faced Man walked up to him and pulled out that dark green reagent from his coat.

They already knew what happened after that.

Shen Mingyuan took the pipe from his mouth and lightly tapped the edge of the screen.

"Interesting."

Ye Ouyang's coin stopped spinning.

This was—the first riddle that truly needed to be solved.

Shen Mingyuan stared at the frozen frame on the screen, pipe in his mouth, unlit.

"Have you checked the surveillance?" he asked, his gaze never leaving the figure in the Smiley Face Mask. "If no one was replaced, then did anyone lose their clothes? Is there any video of someone else entering this place?"

Director Zhou stood by, silent for a moment.

"No." He shook his head. "At least we didn't find anything. I can show you all of this surveillance footage, but we really didn't see how he snuck in, nor did we find any footage of someone losing their clothes."

Shen Mingyuan took down his pipe and lightly tapped his palm.

"Can't find it?"

He turned around and looked at Ye Ouyang.

"Let's go, let's take a look over at the cells."

—

The detention cell area had already been cordoned off.

The wall smashed by the Dinosaur Person was being repaired. Bricks and cement were piled to one side, and several workers were cleaning the scene. Dark traces remained on the floor—bloodstains, already dried and blackened, seeping into the gaps between the floor tiles.

Shen Mingyuan stood at the cell door, the tip of his umbrella poking the ground, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings.

"Is there anything I can't discover?"

Ye Ouyang stood beside him, the coin flipping over his fingers; it didn't bounce, just spun quietly.

"He definitely wasn't wearing the mask before he came in," Shen Mingyuan said as if talking to himself. "Walking in wearing a mask would be too conspicuous. But without a mask, it's easy to be noticed. Yet no one noticed anyone new or anyone looking different..."

He was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly turned around to look at Director Zhou, who was following behind.

"Director Zhou, I need a favor."

Director Zhou was startled. "What favor?"

"Go ask the people in the detention center," Shen Mingyuan said. "Ask if anyone acted strangely that day—for example, someone who just left and then immediately came back."

He paused, his pipe hovering near his mouth for a moment.

"I suspect someone was replaced. Wearing something like... a Human Skin Mask."

[Narrator]

Night shrouded the city. Streetlights cast dim yellow circles of light on the streets, with occasional late-returning pedestrians hurrying past. The iron gate of the North City Detention Center stood silent in the darkness, like a stoic stone statue.

And within this silence, the truth was being peeled away inch by inch.

—

Director Zhou was very efficient. Before long, he returned with someone.

"Him." Director Zhou pointed at the young policeman in uniform behind him. "He says he remembers something."

The young policeman scratched his head, seemingly trying hard to recall.

"That day... there was indeed a colleague who said he was going out to buy food. Not long after he left, he came right back. I asked him what was up, and he said he hadn't brought his phone."

He paused, his brow furrowing.

"Then... I don't think I saw him go out again. By the time I saw him again, he had already come back with the food."

He looked up at Shen Mingyuan.

"Could it be him?"

Shen Mingyuan had the pipe in his mouth and didn't speak. He turned his head and exchanged a glance with Ye Ouyang.

Ye Ouyang's coin stopped at his fingertips.

"Information gap." Shen Mingyuan took down his pipe and lightly tapped the tabletop. "Check the surveillance. From that time period."

—

[Narrator]

Look, the time in the footage begins to fold.

The real policeman pushes open the door, walks into the night to buy his dinner.

A few seconds later, another figure walks in through the same door. Same uniform, same hat, same walking posture. The colleague at the door looks up—it's 'him,' the one who just went out, probably forgot something.

"Why are you back already?"

"Didn't bring my phone."

"Oh."

No one asks another question.

That figure crosses the corridor and pushes open the restroom door. The door closes behind him.

A few minutes later, the door opens again.

The person who walks out has his brim pulled lower, and something extra on his face—a Smiley Face Mask.

That exaggerated smiley face, with the corners of the mouth curving almost to the ears, looks like a frozen white mask in the black-and-white surveillance footage.

He walks down the corridor with a composed pace, not looking back. He walks toward the detention cell area, toward the Crew-cut Man who later became a Dinosaur Person.

They have already witnessed the events that followed at the scene.

—

Shen Mingyuan took the pipe from his mouth and lightly tapped his palm.

"Check the outside surveillance," he said. "Let's see how he got in."

The footage cut to the street outside the detention center.

In the night, the halos of the streetlights dyed everything a dim yellow—in the surveillance, it was varying shades of gray.

[Narrator]

Time continues to rewind.

In the earlier night, a figure appears at the street corner. His face—is the face that later walked into the detention center, the face of the 'colleague buying food.'

He walks along the base of the wall, avoiding the brightest spots of the streetlights. He walks to a corner without surveillance and stops.

Then he just stands there, waiting.

Motionless, like a sculpture.

After an unknown amount of time, the detention center door opens. The real policeman walks out, stretches, and heads toward the snack shop across the street.

He's gone.

A few seconds later, the figure in the corner moves.

He walks out, crosses the street, and pushes open the detention center door.

On his face, he still wears that 'someone else's face.'

—

Ye Ouyang tossed the coin up and caught it.

"So he was waiting at the door from the start, wearing a Human Skin Mask," he said. "Waiting for that person to go out for food, then he just went right in. From beginning to end, no one saw his real face."

Shen Mingyuan had the pipe in his mouth and nodded.

"That's the trick."