Gao Cang sighed deeply, turned his head, and said to the tape recorder next to him, "0098 has developed a new personality, calling himself Mr. F, a mystery novelist. Mr. F has surreal delusions that are very different from Hirata Shuichi's primary personality. He believes he is a spiritual entity from a higher dimension, currently possessing this body."

After Feng Bujue heard him finish, he asked what he wanted to know, "Doctor, since it's 2005 now, Hirata's case must have been closed long ago, right? How was it resolved in the end?"

Gao Cang replied, "Two intentional homicides, one of whom was a police officer. The situation was very serious. However, considering your motive and mental state, the final verdict was life imprisonment."

"Is this a mental hospital?" Feng Bujue asked.

"This is a prison for the mentally ill," Gao Cang continued. "We conduct a new evaluation of all prisoners every quarter." He paused. "Which is why we're talking now."

"How has Hirata been behaving for the past fifteen years?" Feng Bujue said.

"More normal than you are now," Gao Cang replied. "When Hirata-kun is lucid, he tells me that whenever he recalls the events of that year, he enters a black and white world. No matter how many times, he only sees memories related to ghosts and monsters. Sometimes, the Watanabe and Tachibana personalities appear, and at that time, Hirata-kun will talk to himself. I have also tried to communicate with these two personalities. The course of events they describe is consistent with the police records. I don't think these two personalities really remember what happened at the time. They just treat the course of events that the police later told Hirata as their own memories." His gaze shifted from the file to Feng Bujue's face. "What about you? Mr. F, you seem very interested in that case. Does that mean you don't know what happened either?"

"That's right, I was just about to ask. Fifteen years have passed. Since the verdict was two intentional homicides, then… Yamada's body should have been found, right?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Yamada's body wasn't found until seven years after the incident," Gao Cang replied. "I started contacting you around that time."

"How… even without finding Yamada's body, could they convict him of 'two homicides'?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Well…" Gao Cang said, "In the circumstances at the time, the case was very clear. Hirata-kun was already mentally deranged and had no relatives or friends who could stand up and speak for him. The lawyer assigned to him by the court also made a guilty plea, so… basically, whatever the prosecutor said was what happened. All the evidence pointed to one fact: killing a police officer, stealing his gun, then killing someone and going crazy."

"Absurd," Feng Bujue said. "Before ruling out all possibilities, how can you assume that that's the truth? Maybe Yamada killed Fukui, then hid the gun in Hirata's house, then strangled Sato Haruko, who was in the tenement house at the time, and disguised it as suicide, and then escaped… Then, the fact that Hirata went to work as if nothing had happened on the 27th can be explained."

Gao Cang looked at him for two seconds. "Heh… Mr. F, if you could have appeared fifteen years ago and defended yourself as Hirata Shuichi, you might have really been able to get acquitted." He picked up a document on the table. "Unfortunately, today, there are at least two points that can overturn your hypothesis. First, Yamada had no contact with Fukui, Hirata, and Sato Haruko. The police had already investigated, and they were completely unrelated, whether in terms of relatives, friends, or vested interests, so he had no motive to do these things; second, Yamada's body was found under the ruins of Hirata's old house, which was destroyed by a typhoon. The land was only sold by the government seven years later, and the body was dug up when the foundation was being laid for the building. The estimated time of death was seven years ago. Although the body had turned into bones, there were obvious signs of trauma, which was undoubtedly murder and concealment of the body."

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue was silent for a few seconds, then replied, "Okay, actually, I was just dissatisfied with the original trial process and just made up a hypothetical case that could be used as a defense."

"Hirata-kun's guilt is beyond doubt, Mr. F," Gao Cang said. "Now that I've satisfied your curiosity, why don't you cooperate with me and answer some of my ques…"

"As expected, you're not real either," Feng Bujue interrupted Gao Cang, thinking in his heart, *I finally understand a little bit what this script means.*

Gao Cang's face darkened, and he suddenly stopped talking.

"You said you started contacting Hirata not long after Yamada's body was found. I understood as soon as I heard that sentence," Feng Bujue said. "Seven years after the incident, when Hirata learned that Yamada's body had been found, he developed another personality… you."

Gao Cang said, "Heh… are you saying that I'm the same as Watanabe and Tachibana?"

"No, you're on a higher level than them. In my opinion… Hirata's mental world should have four layers in total," Feng Bujue said unhurriedly. "In November 1990, Hirata Shuichi went mad after committing two murders and witnessing his wife's suicide. From that time on, his thoughts were imprisoned in the deepest layer most of the time, a terrifying and chaotic world."

"A month later, the investigation of the case became clearer, Hirata underwent repeated interrogations, and obtained certain information in court, so he developed two new personalities—Doctor Watanabe and Inspector Tachibana. These two personalities can bring him out of the distorted memories of black and white chaos, bring him to the second layer of the world, give him some breathing time, and help and urge him to deny those memories about ghosts and monsters, and try to restore the true memories."

Feng Bujue licked his dry lips. "Psychologists at most hypnotize prisoners for questioning, and wouldn't go so far as to film recordings. I should have known that the space where Watanabe and Tachibana are located is also a mental world… that's a deeper layer of the subconscious than you are, between rational thought and distorted memories." He stared into Gao Cang's eyes, "And you, or rather, this cell where we are at this moment, is the third layer."

Gao Cang said, "Then what do I represent?"

"Also memories," Feng Bujue said. "You represent the normal, credible memories in Hirata's mind for the past eight years…" He leaned back in his chair, raised his head, and wanted to habitually touch the bridge of his nose, but realized that his hands were still cuffed, so he continued, "Time has diluted some things. After seven years of psychiatric treatment, and the other two personalities helping him relieve stress, coupled with learning the exact news and location of Yamada's death in prison, Hirata came to this third layer."

"In this layer, he can talk to you, calmly and objectively analyze some things, accept and recognize the status quo. If Hirata can stay with you all the time, and no longer return to the deeper two layers, even if he can't recover those memories, at least he can recover into a normal person." Feng Bujue's gaze shifted to the mini tape recorder. "The tape recorder contains his conversation with you… or rather, the memories he has sorted out on his own, so I say that these memories are normal and credible, and he doesn't want them to be confused with others. But the existence of the tape recorder also precisely shows that Hirata's time here is limited."

A look of helplessness appeared on Gao Cang's face. "Mr. F, what you said is basically correct, but I regret to tell you that there are only three layers here." He sighed, "My place is the layer closest to the real world." He glanced around. "The tape recorder… and the documents on the table are all Hirata's memories. And this room is roughly a projection of Hirata's cell in reality, but the real cell doesn't have tables, chairs, or lamps."

"Only three layers?" Feng Bujue said. "How could that be…" He looked suspicious, thinking: *Hirata's memory of the motive has been restored, his memory of killing Fukui has been restored and distorted, and although his memory of witnessing Sato Haruko hanging herself is also distorted, it has also been restored. These should have gradually emerged before and after his arrest, but why does he have no impression of killing Yamada? Even seven years later, after learning about the relevant circumstances of Yamada's death, this personality of Gao Cang only revealed limited information and knew nothing about the process of the murder…*

"Impossible, if there is no previous layer, it means that Yamada's death has nothing to do with Hirata," Feng Bujue said decisively. "That memory doesn't exist in his brain at all, so it can't be found in any layer."

Gao Cang shook his head. "But the facts all point to…"

"Give me a mirror," Feng Bujue interrupted.

"What are you going to do?" Gao Cang asked.

"I want to leave here," Feng Bujue replied.

"At most, you will return to the real world, and when you get to reality, it means that Hirata will return to me, or fall into the deeper two layers," Gao Cang seemed to be advising him.

"I'm not going above," Feng Bujue said, "I'm going next door."

"Next door? What do you mean?" Gao Cang asked.

"You won't understand," Feng Bujue finally put on some airs of a high-dimensional life form, "Just give me the mirror."

In the blink of an eye, Doctor Gao Cang disappeared, leaving only Feng Bujue alone in the room, and on the table in front of him, a small framed mirror appeared. Behind the frame was a plastic bracket that supported it, standing facing diagonally upward.

Feng Bujue dragged the chair forward a few times, coming to an angle where he could look at the mirror at close range. He saw that the man in the mirror was not himself. It was a man who looked to be in his forties, with a stubble beard and a pale face.

"Hirata Shuichi, we've finally met," Feng Bujue said to the face in the mirror. He had seen Hirata's resume in the initial black and white world. There were photos on it. Although the face in front of him was more than ten years older, he still recognized it.