Chen Ling felt that his brain was a pile of mush at this moment.
He looked at the sheets of paper in his hands bearing the information of "Chen Ling" and "Chen Yan", and an inexplicable sense of horror welled up in his heart... Reality and his memory were in two completely opposite states, as if someone had swapped his life.
"Impossible... The one with the heart disease is clearly A-Yan, how could it be me?" Chen Ling shook his head as he muttered to himself, "I lost my heart, my chest is empty, so how could it have A-Yan's name on it... Are you playing me?!"
Chen Ling glared furiously at Yan Xishou, seemingly ready to swallow him alive!
"I didn't... I really didn't!!" Yan Xishou trembled in fear. "That Chen Yan... Chen Yan's organs are still stored in the basement, and Chen Ling's files from that time are also there, you, you, you... You can go see for yourself!"
"Where is the key?!"
"In the second drawer on the left side of the desk..."
Chen Ling swiftly dashed to the desk and took out an antique-looking key from the drawer. Just as he was about to walk out of the study, as if thinking of something, he turned back and knocked Yan Xishou unconscious with a punch.
Chen Ling dragged Yan Xishou's entire body and hid it in a cabinet under the bookshelf. Only then did he push open the door and quickly walk toward the basement.
Chen Ling didn't know why he paid so much attention to a mix-up in names; perhaps the Stars Chamber of Commerce simply registered it wrong... But he felt that something was not quite right with him, as if... as if he was afraid of something.
With the key, Chen Ling smoothly opened the door to the basement, and a burst of cold air immediately assaulted his face.
The cold air drifted like wisps of white smoke in the warm indoors. Behind the door was a spacious and dim space, with rows of shelves neatly arranged within, looking like some kind of warehouse.
Frowning, Chen Ling walked straight in.
Most of the items stored inside were vessels used to preserve organs. The shelves were arranged by date. Most of the vessels on them were empty, likely having already been distributed. However, even so, there were some kraft paper document bags placed next to the empty vessels, seemingly recording something.
Looking around, there were at least hundreds of vessels here, meaning that at least hundreds of lives had lost their original health and organs.
Chen Ling wasn't interested in the vessels of other people at all. He directly followed the guide on the shelves to find the day his heart was dug out, which was the day he experienced the Gray Realm Convergence and awoke from the mass grave mound...
On the shelf, several vessels were placed in order. Among them, the vessel bearing the label "Chen Yan" was empty.
Chen Ling's brow furrowed tightly. He took down the kraft paper document bag placed beside it on the spot and tore it open. Inside were several photographs... In the photographs, there was a dilapidated operating room, and a youth was lying flat on the operating table, his eyes tightly shut as if he was asleep.
"A-Yan..." Chen Ling muttered to himself.
The second photograph was still of that operating table, except the youth on the table had his chest cut open. Boss Bone stood to the side holding a scalpel, fully engrossed in performing the surgery.
In the third photograph, the youth's face was completely deathly pale, and blood almost covered the entire operating table. Boss Bone had already put down the scalpel at this time and was holding a bright red heart with both hands, looking at the camera's position as if deliberately proving that this heart was taken out of the youth's body.
There was no one in the fourth photograph, only a vessel used to store a heart. A hand was placing the heart inside, while sealing the vessel, with a numbered seal affixed to the surface.
These four photographs were likely evidence used to prove the source of the heart to buyers. Upon seeing these photographs, a deep bewilderment surfaced in Chen Ling's eyes...
Text could have errors, but the scenes on the photographs would not lie. The one lying on this operating table was indeed Chen Yan, and that heart was also taken from his body... But how could this be? This was completely different from his own impression!
Chen Ling's breathing grew heavy. He immediately walked over to the vessel next to it, took down the kraft paper bag bearing [Chen Ling], and took out the photographs inside one by one.
The Chen Ling in the photographs was also on the operating table having his organs removed one by one, but only the heart was missing...
Chen Ling stood blankly in place, completely motionless like a sculpture.
"If the one who lost his heart was really A-Yan... then who am I?" Chen Ling felt his brain was about to explode. At this moment, countless afterimages he had ignored flashed through his mind.
Those were the scenes that appeared in his mind when he stumbled into the mass grave mound in that heavy snow... Those were memories belonging to Chen Yan.
He didn't know why Chen Yan's memories would appear in his mind, but in those memories, he seemed to have become Chen Yan, personally experiencing that heart-wrenching past. Yet, he couldn't recall anything about what happened after he was knocked out... The first time he regained consciousness was on the way home from the mass grave mound.
He remembered very clearly that he had struggled in the rainy night for a long time that day before remembering his own name. His name was Chen Ling.
"I am Chen Ling... I am not Chen Ling? No... impossible... I have almost all of his memories, except for a short segment of that night... If I am not Chen Ling, who else could I be?!"
"Incorrect... I am the transmigrator Chen Ling! Not the Chen Ling from here... No, that's not right either, but I clearly have already become Chen Ling..."
Chen Ling clutched his head with both hands. The confused memories surged in his mind, and he could no longer distinguish what was real and what was fake.
Chen Ling's palm rubbed against his cheek. He seemed to have thought of something and abruptly lifted his head, stumbling as he ran out of the basement... He knew how to prove who he was.
He dashed back into Yan Xishou's study, locked the door, and arrived before that large wooden wall clock in the center of the room.
The ancient and mottled pendulum swung with the frequency of time, emitting a faint, mysterious sound like the passing years. The spotless glass surface of the wall clock clearly reflected Yan Xishou's face.
Chen Ling reached his right hand to his chin and forcefully tore. A human face lightly floated to the ground...
Behind Yan Xishou's facial skin was the face of the Paper Puppet Master.
Seeing this scene, Chen Ling continued to reach for his chin and tore again.
As the Paper Puppet Master's face drifted down, another face appeared in the reflection of the wall clock. It was the face of Ah-Feng from the Stars Chamber of Commerce's dungeon... Chen Ling's brow furrowed tighter and tighter. He frantically tore at his facial skin, and one face after another that had appeared before showed up in the wall clock's reflection one by one, like stagecraft.