Identity

The hospital ward corridor was deep and long. The incandescent lights overhead were perpetually lit, their glow heavy and dim, only illuminating a small patch of ground at one's feet. At a glance, the corners of the walls and floor seemed to vanish into the unlit darkness.

The lingering smell of disinfectant, coupled with the people standing in a row outside the ward with their heads bowed, created an atmosphere and a scene that were simply too miserable to behold.

When Huo Mingjun heard that Xie Guan had gotten into an accident, he flew in from B City that afternoon and rushed straight to the hospital upon landing. By the time he arrived, Xie Guan had just been wheeled out of the emergency room and into the ICU. Before Huo Mingjun had a chance to get angry, he was called into the doctor's office. This left a group of incompetent and negligent unlucky wretches behind, dejected like frost-bitten eggplants, anxiously awaiting their final judgment.

The attending physician was a middle-aged man in his forties with thick hair and a pair of rimless glasses. He spoke in a kind and pleasant manner, with an air of seeing things with perfect clarity. "The patient's injuries aren't too severe. He just needs to be observed for twenty-four hours, and if all is well, he can be transferred to a regular ward tomorrow. The family shouldn't worry too much."

Huo Mingjun remained seated, his expression unchanged, but his tense jaw relaxed slightly. Clear water finally flooded his drained rationality, flowing over his frazzled nerves. The nearly stagnant, icy aura around him dissipated like scattering clouds, and it was as if his entire person had regained a spark of life.

"The patient fell from a height and sustained two impacts to different parts of his head, but there's no skull fracture or intracranial hematoma, just a standard concussion. Additionally, there's a small crack on his left shoulder blade, a minor fracture. Since the patient's left scapula has been fractured before, we've put him in a cast to be on the safe side. But don't worry."

Huo Mingjun's brow twitched, and he asked doubtfully, "Fractured before?"

The male doctor took a stack of X-rays from his desk and said with a solemn expression, "I was just about to remind you. Although the patient's head and shoulder injuries are minor, the brain CT scan and X-rays show that he has suffered more severe injuries in the past, especially to his head. So, the family must be particularly careful and absolutely must not take this lightly."

It was as if an invisible hand had seized his heart. Huo Mingjun was suddenly overcome with a slight tremor, like an innate, vague premonition in the face of the unknown.

He felt he had lost the ability to think, passively listening to the doctor's narrative and questions. All the information was piling up in the hard drive of his memory, waiting to be processed; the CPU was so overloaded it felt like it was about to melt.

"Look here," the doctor said, holding up the brain CT scan and pointing to a certain area with a metal rod. "There's a soybean-sized blood clot in the patient's brain, near the hippocampus. It wasn't caused by the recent injury. It's very likely a remnant from a previous intracranial injury, and most of it has been absorbed, leaving only this small part. The hippocampus is the organ that governs memory. Has the patient ever experienced amnesia or forgetfulness?"

Huo Mingjun nodded and said in a hoarse voice, "He's forgotten all his memories from before he was fifteen."

The doctor asked again, "Does the patient have any impediments in his current daily life or with his memory?"

Huo Mingjun replied, "No, everything is normal."

"That makes sense," the doctor said, putting down the metal rod and calmly analyzing, "The patient isn't old. He likely suffered a severe impact to the head as a child, which caused retrograde amnesia and damaged his hippocampus. But he was still growing, so after treatment, his hippocampus could have continued to develop. That's why his current daily life and brain functions are completely normal, no different from an ordinary person's."

"Then... what caused the injury on his shoulder?"

The doctor looked with surprise at this man who appeared so calm and composed, wondering why his voice suddenly carried a tremor that could almost be called weak.

He pulled out the X-ray and spread it on his desk. "There's a small chip here on his left scapula. A small piece of bone broke off. The edges of the break are smooth and have sealed, so it's clearly an old injury as well."

Huo Mingjun stared at the image of the bone on the negative. At the edge of the shoulder blade, where it connected to the tendons, there was a small gap, as if... it had been suddenly pierced by something.

The old wound had always been buried deep in his bones and blood, never seeing the light of day, unable to heal. It was a scar forgotten by Xie Guan, and also the silent testimony left by those lost memories.

His voice was weak for only a brief moment before it gradually steadied.

"What kind of injury, in your opinion, would cause a gap like this?"

"There are many reasons for fractures. Broadly speaking, they can be divided into two categories: those from falling, and those from external force. The most common fractures in daily life are caused by falls and impacts. But the patient's case is precisely not one of those." The doctor pushed up his glasses. "His left shoulder is normal in shape, with no deformities. There's a burn scar on his shoulder covering the original wound, but we can basically confirm there's no surgical scar. In other words, the patient only broke off this small piece of bone. There was no comminuted fracture, and no steel pins were inserted, which is why this chip is here."

"This spot is protected by layers of muscle on both the outer and inner sides. A fall definitely wouldn't cause an injury like this. It looks more like it was pierced, a bit like when we drill a hole in the skull for a craniotomy, you understand?"

Huo Mingjun asked bluntly, "What injury is most likely to have caused this?"

"To have chipped the bone without causing a major fracture..." The doctor looked up at him, deliberated for a moment, and then mused, "In any other country, perhaps, but in our country, it's the most likely, and yet the most unlikely explanation."

The doctor didn't know Xie Guan, but he had heard from others that he was a celebrity. From a medical perspective, his guess wasn't strange, but for an ordinary person, it would be utterly shocking.

Huo Mingjun met his gaze and nodded.

The middle-aged doctor involuntarily held his breath. The office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"A gunshot wound."

After a long pause, he said in a low, solemn voice, "Although it's nearly impossible in China, besides surgical drilling, the easiest way to form this type of perforation is with a high-speed bullet."

"The scar on the patient's back is covered, but there's still a mark in the corresponding spot on his chest, which must be the scar from when the bullet was removed. The bullet entered from the back, pierced the shoulder blade, and was then removed via an incision on his chest..."

Huo Mingjun couldn't hear anything the doctor said after that.

The two words "gunshot wound" were enough to unleash an apocalyptic, world-shattering cataclysm in his heart.

"I'm truly a blind man," he thought.

In this world, it wasn't strange for someone to look like Cheng Sheng. To look like Cheng Sheng and also have amnesia could even be a coincidence. But to look like Cheng Sheng, have amnesia from a head injury, and have a gunshot wound on his shoulder—aside from Cheng Sheng, it couldn't be anyone else.

The truth had been right under his nose, just a step away. Yet he, trying to be clever, had tested him, had misunderstood him out of arrogance, and had deceived himself by telling him, you are not Cheng Sheng.

He had abandoned his intuition to believe in so-called "conclusive evidence." In a web of deceit woven from technical methods and relative identifications, he had been a blind man with sharp ears and keen eyes, mourning for ten years, day in and day out, that chance encounter which had come to an abrupt end before it could even begin to unfold.

Ten wasted years, all like a long dream. Fortunately, the heavens took pity on him. After going around in circles and taking countless detours, he had nevertheless found his Xie Guan.

Huo Mingjun walked out of the doctor's office and returned to the area outside the ICU. The wilted eggplants on the bench heard his footsteps and collectively jolted, then quickly stood up straight, holding their breath. Each one of them looked as if they wished they could bury their heads in the ground.

"Huang Cheng and Fang Hui, stay here and take care of him. Heguang, go get the car, and come with me." Huo Mingjun strode over. His expression couldn't be called good, but he didn't look as if he was about to fly into a thunderous rage either. He spoke quickly and coldly, his words like a precise, sharp scalpel in the pervasive smell of disinfectant.

Other than that, he revealed not a single trace of unusual emotion.

Ten years of heart-piercing pain and hidden wounds had tormented him, but they had also forged for him the sharpest of weapons and the most impenetrable armor.

Fang Hui was stunned, asking in disbelief, "Boss... you're not staying here with Mr. Xie?"

"Notify me the moment he wakes up," Huo Mingjun replied, ignoring her question. He said coldly, "Take good care of him. If there are any more problems, none of you need to continue working."

Fang Hui, scared into silence, nodded.

Huo Mingjun turned his head and, through the glass, gazed deeply at the unconscious Xie Guan, who was covered with monitoring equipment.

That single glance held a profound longing and love, as if it had traversed the long river of time, through partings of life and death, through immense lies and truths. It had traveled over mountains and rivers, coming from a distant past life, filled with the chill of biting winds and frosty swords, yet it landed gently and preciously beside his sleeping pillow.

"Wait for my return," he said softly in his heart.