"According to medical records from Fushen Pingyuan's psychiatrist, he had previously suffered from a mild case of dissociative identity disorder. Childhood memory triggers could be the underlying cause, and familial migraines, along with life stress, further amplified the impact of his condition."

The doctor sighed and said, "Generally speaking, the personalities inside a person with multiple personality disorder are independent and autonomous, existing as a complete self. At any given time, only one core personality can control the body. Under psychological stress, they might suddenly switch to a completely different identity, completely forgetting their previous self—which is to say, they switch to another personality. And when they switch back to the original core personality, the core personality is utterly unaware of what happened during the period of the second personality.

"The psychological state of Fushen Pingyuan is very special and complex. Since his childhood, he kept generating subsidiary personalities, using these sub-personalities to help him avoid childhood memories and release stress. The self-dissipation rate of these subsidiary personalities is extremely fast; often, before they can grow and become independent personalities, they are destroyed by Fushen Pingyuan's own subconscious, turning into a mass of fragmented memories full of fantasy that don't fit with reality. Therefore, Fushen Pingyuan is unable to recall many things from his childhood; those memories for him are vague and chaotic."

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "The injection you administered to my arm earlier was intended to excavate those blurred memories, right?"

The doctor nodded. "After arresting Fushen Pingyuan, the police found him in a state of mental disorientation, unable to undergo interrogation. We speculated that the perpetrator of the family annihilation was either Fushen Pingyuan himself or one of his personalities. With time being of the essence, we followed the advice of his psychiatrist and administered an experimental drug from a pharmaceutical company to Fushen Pingyuan. It was not only to awaken a sufficiently lucid personality capable of undergoing interrogation but also to dig up Fushen Pingyuan's childhood memories to uncover the logic behind his criminal acts and to rescue the hidden Weimen Ziyuan."

Li Ang thought for a moment, then spread his hands and said, "Then why not directly bring over Fushen Pingyuan's psychiatrist? His intervention would likely be much more effective."

The doctor's expression changed slightly. After exchanging a glance with the police chief, he hesitated for a moment before answering helplessly, "Fushen Pingyuan's psychiatrist, named Weimen Youren, works at a sanatorium in Wakayama City. He is also the husband of Weimen Xingzi, Fushen Pingyuan's son-in-law. At the time of the incident, Fushen Pingyuan had asked Weimen Xingzi to bring her husband and daughter to visit, but Weimen Youren had already left the house, so Weimen Xingzi only took her daughter to visit her father's home."

Li Ang sighed. Weimen Youren just lost his wife at his father-in-law's hands, he thought. Asking him to help with the interrogation now would indeed be inappropriate. "Alright," he said aloud, then continued, "Fine, I'm willing to cooperate with you. Even though I'm a newly emerged personality, I still consider myself two sides of the same coin as Fushen Pingyuan. His granddaughter is my granddaughter. Of course, I have to save her."

"Phew, that's great." The psychologist breathed a sigh of relief and continued to ask, "So, Chuan Sang, what did you see in your memories before?"

"Some scenes that could rival ghost stories."

Li Ang briefly described the severed-head rice cake man, the eerie choir, and the two ghost stories from the courage test. "These should be the childhood memories of Fushen Pingyuan, right? What are their prototypes?"

The doctor replied, "Fushen Dahe was a rather famous folklorist with a prestigious reputation abroad, revered by the hometown elders and worshipped by Fushen Pingyuan.

"In March of Showa 52, he returned to his hometown to research local folk tales. During this process, he seemed to suffer from familial migraines and exhibited symptoms of schizophrenia, publicly cursing the villagers to hell.

"In the end, on the evening of the 26th, he committed seppuku in the old house belonging to Fushen Pingyuan's grandfather.

"Two months later, Fushen Jieyi, the eight-year-old sister of Fushen Pingyuan, mysteriously disappeared in the countryside. The local police and villagers collaborated and searched extensively for over ten days, but she was not found.

"The villagers claimed Fushen Jieyi encountered 'kamikakushi,' or was hidden away by spirits or monsters.

"Fushen Xiulai, a cousin of Fushen Pingyuan, couldn't withstand the successive mental shocks and went insane. After staying in the countryside for a while, he was sent to the Wakayama City sanatorium—the place where Weimen Youren once worked—for treatment."

"Hmm... In that case, the severed-head rice cake man in the first memory must be the insane Fushen Xiulai," Li Ang mused. "And the little girl wearing a Bai Wugou, escorted by the choir, must be the mysteriously missing Fushen Jieyi. Fushen Pingyuan couldn't accept these events, so he twisted his own memories, painting them with a layer of intense, magical horror."

Li Ang muttered, "The courage test that happened in high school must have actually occurred.

"By that time, Fushen Pingyuan was nearing adulthood, and he had gone over past memories numerous times.

"Despite not wanting to recall them, his brain still offered a suitable explanation:

"His sister disappeared because he opened 'the box with the body part in it,'

"And Xiu Lai went mad after seeing the twisted white figure in the rice field.

"This sort of explanation would allow Fushen Pingyuan to shift from being a direct experiencer of the facts to a storyteller of ghost tales, a bystander. This would, in turn, relieve his mental pressure.

"Of course, this explanation is far-fetched.

"And as a high school student, he naturally couldn't believe in the increasingly certain memories, treating them merely as ghost stories."

Li Ang looked up at the psychologist. "I'd like to see Fushen Pingyuan's diary. The police must have it by now. Let me see it."

The police chief glanced at the doctor, who nodded in approval, then took out the diary with a kraft paper cover from a thick file folder and handed it to Li Ang.

Li Ang took the diary and checked it. After confirming it was the original one, he turned to the page where Xing Hechou had left off and continued to read.

In fact, just before Xing Hechou was about to be transported into the first memory, I had quickly flipped through many pages and seen a considerable amount of its content. My asking the psychologist these questions was merely to test if he was lying.

"August 1, 1986: Received the university admission notice from Tokyo Metropolis. Dad was very happy. He drank a lot, talked about many things, and by the end, seemed to be drunk. He said he hoped I could go to school in Tokyo Metropolis and live there for a lifetime, and not be as foolish as my uncle, who returned to the village on his own. I've decided to start keeping a diary again, from eighteen until I'm eighty years old. The diary might not have enough pages for that, so I won't use a full page for each day anymore."

Li Ang read through the diary quickly, asked the police chief for some paper and a pen, and noted down some important dates from the diary.

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