Chapter Four: They Thought You Were Dead
The man stopped thirty meters away.
He didn't come any closer.
He wore a dark gray shirt and had an average build. He looked to be around forty, with an ordinary face—so ordinary that you could drop him into any office and no one would look twice.
But his eyes remained fixed on Chen Yaoting.
Not Old Zhou.
Not Wang Zhihao.
Him.
"You know him?" Chen Yaoting asked.
Old Zhou didn't answer.
"Is he one of the seventy-three?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
Old Zhou's lips moved once.
"Cai Mingzhe."
The name was familiar to Chen Yaoting.
He'd just seen it on the accident-association list.
One of the seventy-three.
Status: employed.
"What department?"
"Information security."
Wang Zhihao swore.
"No wonder he can access the old system."
Cai Mingzhe was still standing where he was.
His phone was in his hand.
A few seconds later, he actually called.
Chen Yaoting's phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
Old Zhou said quietly, "Don't answer."
Chen Yaoting looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because he'll try to get information out of you."
"He's already found me."
The phone kept vibrating.
In the end, Chen Yaoting answered.
"Hello."
There was no immediate response on the other end.
Two seconds passed.
"A21749?"
That was the first thing the other man said.
Chen Yaoting looked up at Cai Mingzhe in the distance.
"Who are you looking for?"
"I'm asking whether you're A21749."
"My name is Chen Yaoting."
There was a moment of silence on the phone.
Then Cai Mingzhe said, "So they really did replace him."
"What does that mean?"
"You don't know?"
"Know what?"
Cai Mingzhe gave a short laugh.
There was no happiness in it at all.
"Then this is more complicated than I thought."
"Why did you apply to kill me?"
Old Zhou immediately looked at Chen Yaoting.
He clearly hadn't expected Chen Yaoting to ask so directly.
There were several more seconds of silence on the other end.
"It wasn't you."
"The system notification had my name."
"I never applied to kill Chen Yaoting."
Chen Yaoting's hand tightened.
Old Zhou's guess had just been confirmed by the man himself.
"You applied for A21749?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because that number originally belonged to He Chenghan."
"Wasn't he dead?"
"That's why we need to know what's happening now."
"We?"
"You saw the list, right?"
Cai Mingzhe said, "The seventy-three people."
"You all knew?"
"Some people knew everything. Others only knew part of it."
"Why did all of you apply on the same day?"
"Because someone notified us."
The moment he said that, all three men fell silent.
Chen Yaoting took one step forward.
"Who notified you?"
Cai Mingzhe didn't answer.
"Who?"
"An email."
"From whom?"
"He Chenghan."
For an instant, the underground parking garage held nothing but the sound of the ventilation fans.
Wang Zhihao looked like he wanted to swear, but in the end he didn't say a word.
Chen Yaoting stared at Cai Mingzhe.
"Say that again."
"On August 20, I received an email."
"From which account?"
"He Chenghan's old company email."
"That account wasn't deactivated a long time ago?"
"Yes."
"What did it say?"
Cai Mingzhe paused for two seconds.
"It was simple."
"Tell me."
"'R17-3 will be restarted. After the system opens, submit an execution application for A21749.'"
Chen Yaoting's breathing slowly grew heavier.
"So all seventy-three of you received it?"
"I don't know if everyone did."
"You didn't ask?"
"Do you think people would chat about something like this in a group chat?"
"And you just did what it said?"
"I wasn't the only one."
"That's not a reason."
"Once you know what R17-3 is, you won't think it's strange."
Chen Yaoting seized on the sentence.
"Then tell me."
"This isn't the place."
"You're standing right in front of me."
"I only wanted to confirm what you look like."
"Why?"
"Because I've seen He Chenghan before."
Cai Mingzhe's voice suddenly dropped low.
"And you don't look like him."
Chen Yaoting froze for a moment.
The statement sounded normal on its own.
But something about it was wrong.
"No shit. I'm not him."
"That's exactly the problem."
"What problem?"
Cai Mingzhe stared at him.
"Seven years ago, someone at the company saw He Chenghan die."
"Yeah."
"There was a body, a death certificate, and a family member's signature."
"So?"
"But three days ago, the R17-3 old system was accessed by A21749."
"Someone used his card."
"It's not that simple."
"What's not simple about it?"
"Logging into the old system requires a second verification in addition to the card."
Chen Yaoting frowned.
"What second verification?"
"Palm-vein authentication."
Old Zhou's head jerked up.
"Are you sure?"
Cai Mingzhe looked at him.
"I was one of the people who helped build the system back then."
Old Zhou's entire face went rigid.
Chen Yaoting, meanwhile, was completely lost.
"What's palm-vein authentication?"
Wang Zhihao said quietly, "It scans the blood vessels in your palm."
"Right," Cai Mingzhe said. "Unlike fingerprints, which only read the patterns on the surface, palm-vein authentication requires live blood flow to pass."
"So?"
"So simply having He Chenghan's old card wouldn't be enough to get into R17-3."
Chen Yaoting finally understood the weight of that statement.
"You're saying the person who logged in three days ago had the card and also passed He Chenghan's palm-vein authentication?"
"That's what the system records say."
Wang Zhihao immediately said, "Impossible."
Cai Mingzhe looked at him.
"I wish it were impossible too."
The first thing Chen Yaoting thought of was forgery.
"The scanner was tampered with."
"We checked."
"Someone altered the database."
"We checked that too."
"We?"
"Several people in the IT department who knew about the old system."
"And?"
Cai Mingzhe didn't answer directly.
Instead, he raised his phone.
"I have footage."
"What kind?"
"From the day of the login. It was captured by the internal cameras in R17-3."
"Didn't you say the system was frozen in 2019?"
"The cameras were part of that isolated network too."
"Show me."
Cai Mingzhe didn't move.
"Come here."
Old Zhou immediately stepped in front of Chen Yaoting.
"Don't."
"If he wanted to hurt me, today isn't a legal date anyway."
"Legal doesn't mean he can't do something illegal."
Cai Mingzhe heard him.
"If I wanted to kill him, I wouldn't be standing this far away right now."
Wang Zhihao replied, "That is not comforting at all."
Cai Mingzhe ignored him.
He only said to Chen Yaoting, "If you want the answer, come over yourself."
Chen Yaoting glanced at Old Zhou.
"Are you afraid of him?"
Old Zhou didn't deny it.
"Back in 2019, he handled all the original records for the information systems."
"So?"
"So if the data was altered back then, he was the person best able to do it."
Cai Mingzhe laughed from a distance.
"Master Zhou, that's not fair."
Old Zhou's expression darkened.
"You know how much you deleted back then."
"I deleted what the company told me to delete."
"So you're admitting it?"
"I've never denied it."
The atmosphere instantly grew even more strained.
Chen Yaoting suddenly realized something.
The seventy-three weren't a close-knit group who had planned something together.
They were more like a group of people who had all participated in the same accident but didn't trust one another at all.
Some had carried it out.
Some had witnessed it.
Some had cleaned up afterward.
Some had altered the data.
And now, because of an email sent by a dead man, all of them had been pulled back into the same matter.
"I'll go."
Chen Yaoting said it aloud.
Old Zhou grabbed him.
"Yaoting."
"I need to see it."
"You don't know what he's planning."
"Right now, I know even less about what every one of you is hiding."
That made Old Zhou let go.
Chen Yaoting walked forward.
Wang Zhihao followed.
"What are you coming for?"
"I'm worried you'll get dragged away later."
"And you're not worried you'll get dragged away with me?"
"At least two of us have a better chance of winning."
"He's in information security, not the mob."
"Information security is scarier."
The two of them stopped two or three meters from Cai Mingzhe.
Cai Mingzhe turned his phone screen toward them.
Video timestamp:
August 25, 2026, 10:41 p.m.
The image quality was terrible.
The camera showed a narrow hallway.
An old sign reading "R17 CONTROL AREA" hung on the wall.
There was a door on the right side of the frame.
A few seconds later, someone walked into view.
The person wore a dark jacket.
A hat was pulled low over their face.
Their features couldn't be seen.
The person swiped a card.
The sensor beside the door lit up.
Then they placed their right hand on the palm-vein scanner.
Three seconds later—
Green light.
The door opened.
"That's the person who logged in?"
"Yes."
"You can't see their face."
"Keep watching."
The video continued.
About four minutes later, the person walked back out of the control area.
This time, they didn't leave immediately.
Instead, they stood directly beneath the camera.
Then they slowly raised their head.
Chen Yaoting stared at the screen.
The camera's resolution was too low.
The face was broken apart by shadows.
But it was still clearly a man.
And he wasn't very old.
Cai Mingzhe paused the video.
"I enhanced the image."
He switched to another screenshot.
The resolution was slightly better.
Wang Zhihao was the first to frown.
"This guy..."
Chen Yaoting felt that something was off too.
Not because he recognized the face.
But because the man's facial structure bore certain similarities to his own.
Not the kind of resemblance shared by twins.
More like the brow ridge, the shape of the nose, and the proportions of the jaw—several features were unnervingly close.
"Who do you think he looks like?" Cai Mingzhe asked.
"Not me."
"I didn't say the whole face."
"Then what are you trying to say?"
"Look at this one."
Cai Mingzhe swiped to the next photograph.
It was a scan of an old employee ID.
The man in the photo was about twenty-seven.
Name:
He Chenghan.
Employee ID:
A21749.
It was the first time Chen Yaoting had seen He Chenghan's face.
He fell silent.
Wang Zhihao said nothing either.
Because the face looked even more like the man in the surveillance footage.
Very much like him.
But it still wasn't exactly the same.
"No way."
Wang Zhihao spoke under his breath.
"If the guy from seven years ago were alive, he'd only be thirty-four now."
Cai Mingzhe nodded.
"Right."
"So the person in the footage could actually be him?"
"The apparent age matches."
Chen Yaoting cut him off at once.
"Looking like him doesn't mean a dead man came back to life."
"I didn't say he came back to life."
"Then what are you trying to say?"
Cai Mingzhe put his phone away.
"Someone is using He Chenghan's identity."
"Including his face?"
"Including his palm veins."
"How could that be faked?"
"Normally, it would be very difficult."
"Difficult isn't impossible."
"Right."
Cai Mingzhe nodded.
"So I originally suspected someone had created a biometric duplicate."
"And then?"
"Until this morning."
He took out another email.
Sent at:
8:17 a.m.
Sender:
He Chenghan.
Subject:
"Confirmation Complete."
The body contained only one sentence.
"The current holder of A21749 is not the original holder."
Chen Yaoting finished reading and looked up.
"Current holder?"
"You."
"So whoever sent the email knows I exist."
"Yes."
"What else does he know?"
Cai Mingzhe scrolled down.
There was another section at the very bottom of the email.
"The responsibility clearance list will be completed on September 4."
"Anyone who has not been cleared will be deemed an accomplice to the accident."
Wang Zhihao frowned.
"What does 'cleared' mean?"
"I don't know."
But Chen Yaoting immediately thought of it.
September 4.
His execution date.
"So those seventy-three people thought they were applying to kill He Chenghan."
"Yes."
"But now they know the target is me."
"At least I know."
"What about the others?"
"I don't know."
"Can you withdraw the applications?"
Cai Mingzhe looked at him.
"No."
"What do you mean?"
"Once approved, the execution target cannot be changed."
"But you can choose not to carry it out, right?"
"Yes."
"Then that's enough."
"You think that's all there is to it?"
Cai Mingzhe took a sheet of paper from his pocket.
"This morning, everyone who received the email got an attachment too."
He handed the paper to Chen Yaoting.
It was a list.
Seventy-three names.
Each name had a number beside it.
Chen Yaoting quickly scanned downward.
At the top, it said:
"R17-3 Responsibility Clearance Order."
Number one.
Xu Wenshu.
Deceased.
Number two.
Lin Jianhong.
Number three.
Cai Mingzhe.
The list continued downward.
At the very bottom, number seventy-three.
Chen Yaoting.
But beside it was not his name.
It said:
A21749.
"This isn't the execution list?" Chen Yaoting asked.
"At first, I thought it wasn't either," Cai Mingzhe said.
"Until ten minutes ago, when number one changed."
"Changed to what?"
Cai Mingzhe reopened the phone.
On the list, Xu Wenshu's name had turned gray.
Two words had appeared beside it.
"Complete."
Wang Zhihao's expression changed.
"Wasn't he already dead?"
"Yes."
"Then what does 'complete' mean?"
"I don't know."
"What about number two?"
Beside Lin Jianhong, it said:
"In progress."
Chen Yaoting immediately asked, "Where is Lin Jianhong now?"
Cai Mingzhe looked at him.
"He's unreachable."
"Since when?"
"About twenty minutes ago."
"How do you know?"
"Because he just called me."
"What did he say?"
Cai Mingzhe paused.
"He said someone was outside his door."
"Who?"
"He Chenghan."
Everyone's expression changed at once.
"Did you record it?"
"Yes."
Cai Mingzhe played the call recording.
It began with the sound of hurried breathing.
Then a man's lowered voice came through.
"Mingzhe, I see him."
Cai Mingzhe's recorded voice asked, "Who?"
"He Chenghan."
"Are you sure you got a good look?"
"Fuck, I worked with him for two years. How could I mistake him?"
"Call the police."
"No use."
"Why not?"
"The police came."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
There was silence in the recording for two seconds.
Then Lin Jianhong said something that sent a chill down Chen Yaoting's spine.
"The police said there was no one outside the door."
Then came three knocks.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Lin Jianhong's breathing grew more frantic.
"He's knocking again."
Cai Mingzhe asked, "Where do you see him from?"
"The peephole."
"Don't open the door."
"I haven't."
Three more knocks.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Then Lin Jianhong suddenly stopped speaking.
Cai Mingzhe called out several times in the recording.
"Jianhong?"
There was no answer.
More than ten seconds later, the sound of the door lock turning came through the phone.
Click.
The recording ended.
Wang Zhihao's entire face had gone white.
"And then he became unreachable?"
"Yes."
"How long has it been?"
"Twenty-three minutes."
Cai Mingzhe glanced at his watch.
"No."
He suddenly frowned.
His phone vibrated again.
The Responsibility Clearance Order refreshed.
Lin Jianhong's name changed from black to gray.
His status changed from:
"In progress"
to:
"Complete."
No one spoke in the underground parking garage.
The list automatically moved to the next entry.
Number three.
Cai Mingzhe.
The status field, which had been blank, slowly filled with three words.
"Initiated."
Cai Mingzhe stared at his own name.
For the first time, he lost the composure he'd maintained until then.
Another notification immediately appeared on his phone.
It wasn't an email.
It was from the company's access-control system.
"Old R17 access card A21749 has entered the B2 parking area."
Chen Yaoting's head snapped up.
All four of them were in B2 right now.
In the distance, where the black SUV had originally been parked, the access light above the rear emergency door suddenly changed from red to green.
Beep.
The door opened.
A person in a dark jacket stepped out of the stairwell.
A hat was pulled low over their face.
They were too far away to make out their features.
But Chen Yaoting immediately recognized the jacket.
It was identical to the one worn by the person in the surveillance footage.
All color drained from Cai Mingzhe's face.
"That's him."
The person stood in the distance.
They didn't walk toward the group.
They only slowly raised their right hand.
An old-style employee ID was clutched in it.
From several dozen meters away, of course, they couldn't read the text on the card.
But they all knew what it said.
A21749.
The next second, Chen Yaoting's own employee ID, hanging against his chest, emitted an extremely soft electronic alert.
Beep.
A notification from the company's personnel system appeared on his phone.
"Employee identification data conflict."
"Duplicate identity credentials detected."
"The system will perform identity re-verification within 30 minutes."
There were only two options below.
"Current Holder."
And—
"Original Holder."
Chen Yaoting stared at the screen.
At the same moment, the man in the distance raised his head too.
Then—
he reached up and took off his hat.
Wang Zhihao stumbled back half a step.
Cai Mingzhe froze where he stood.
Because of that face.
It was almost exactly the same as He Chenghan's face in the seven-year-old employee ID photo.