Ice skates forward, regardless of east or west.

1

The morning light pierced through the sea fog.

Gu Xidong woke up with a start on his hospital bed on the medical ship, his left knee throbbing with pain.

Memories flood back—the chase at sea, the stitching, those documents.

Ling Wuwen!

He stumbled out of the room and met Dr. Schmidt in the hallway.

Cabin 3. Fingerprint and iris dual unlocking.

Ling Wuwen lay on the intensive care unit bed, connected by numerous tubes, the ventilator beeping rhythmically. But the electrocardiogram waveform remained stable.

She is still alive.

"When will you wake up?" Gu Xidong asked in a hoarse voice.

"Unknown." The doctor adjusted the IV pump.

"Splenectomy, 2000 ml blood loss, brain damage due to hypoxia. Whether he will wake up, and how he will wake up—all are unknown."

Gu Xidong sat down, staring at the face that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Are the documents... all genuine?"

"Now that you've seen it," the doctor said without looking up, "you should know what price she paid."

The cost. Surgical records. Medication list. "Five-year survival rate less than 30%."

"Her sister... really died of illness?"

The doctor paused almost imperceptibly.

"Ling Wuwen's sister did indeed die of leukemia. There is a complete death certificate."

"But her sister..." Gu Xidong looked up, "is she Ling Wufeng's twin?"

This pause was more pronounced.

The doctor put down the tablet, walked to the porthole, and turned his back to him.

"Why do you ask that?"

"I guessed," Gu Xidong said.

"Ling Wuwen's face after plastic surgery doesn't resemble Ling Wufeng, nor does it completely resemble another person. It's like a hybrid."

He stood up, enduring the pain to steady himself: "Besides, if it were just a fabricated identity, it would be impossible to remain undetected for three years. Unless—that identity actually exists."

The doctor remained silent for a long time.

Then he turned around and took a folder from the bedside table.

"She hid it close to her body."

Gu Xidong took it. Inside was only a faded old photograph.

Two babies lay side by side, sleeping peacefully with their eyes closed. They looked exactly alike, even the birthmarks on their foreheads were in the same place.

The handwriting on the back is neat and beautiful:

「无风 & 无问，生于2003年8月7日，17时23分。永远在一起。」

2003 8 Month 7 Day.

It's Gu Xidong's birthday. It's also Ling Wufeng's birthday.

No one knew that Ling Wufeng had a twin sister.

"Ling Wufeng was born as a twin," the doctor said in a low voice. "At the time, the family was poor, and twins were considered unlucky. The midwife rigged the registration, only registering the boy. The girl was secretly sent away, and people said she was a relative's child."

"Ling Wufeng himself didn't know until three years after his 'death,' when his younger sister Ling Wuwen came to his door."

Gu Xidong stared at the photo: "And lying here is—"

"Ling Wufeng," the doctor said calmly, "but not entirely."

He lifted a corner of the blanket, revealing a shallow scar on the inside of Ling Wuwen's right arm.

"It's from a bone marrow aspiration. Three years ago, after Ling Wufeng was declared 'clinically dead,' his sister Ling Wuwen provided bone marrow stem cells and blood to maintain his vital signs. Later, all transplants—organs, skin—came from her."

Gu Xidong's mind was buzzing.

"So, inside this body..."

"There are cells from two people." The doctor put down the blanket.

"Ling Wufeng's brainstem and part of his central nervous system, Ling Wuwen's bone marrow, blood, skin, and part of his internal organs. Biologically, this is a chimera."

He paused. "In terms of consciousness... it's uncertain. During the surgery, Ling Wuwen's body was severely damaged due to frequent donations, and she died last year from complications of leukemia. But before that, she and Ling Wufeng shared this body for two years."

"Shared?"

"Personality alternation or fusion." The doctor pointed to his head.

What happens when two individuals with identical genes share the same circulatory system? Nobody knows. All we know is that when 'he/she' wakes up, sometimes he/she exhibits Ling Wufeng's memory habits, and sometimes Ling Wuwen's.

Gu Xidong recalled the line from the video: "My sister told me to live on in her place..."

"The literal meaning." The doctor nodded. "Before he died, Ling Wuwen signed an organ donation consent form, giving everything he could to his brother whom he had never met. There was only one condition: that he live on and avenge the two of them."

Silence fell over the ward. Only the sound of the ventilator could be heard.

The truth was far more cruel than I had imagined.

The one who survived carried the burden of two lives.

2

That afternoon, Gu Xidong verified it using the medical ship's satellite network.

A check of the birth records from the Maternal and Child Health Hospital in City A in 2003 revealed that Ling Wufeng's certificate showed that his mother gave birth to a baby boy on August 7th.

However, a review of all maternity records from that day revealed no record of Ling's mother giving birth to twins.

Hacked into the archives database. Found digitized records of paper documents:

File number M-2003-0807-02, mother surnamed Ling, labor record: "At 17:23, a male infant was born; at 17:25, a female infant was born. The female infant was transferred to the intensive care unit due to 'congenital heart disease' and was later confirmed dead."

The death certificate had no doctor's signature, only a blurry stamp: "Special stamp for receiving patients from the Social Welfare Institute of City A".

Social welfare institution? Accepting them?

Check the welfare home's admission records from 2003. There was a baby girl surnamed Ling, admitted because "the family was unable to support her." However, this record was marked as "file lost" in 2005.

Access the welfare home's surveillance backup. On August 10, 2003, a middle-aged man entered carrying a baby basket containing two infants. The man stayed in the office for twenty minutes and came out carrying only one basket.

Where did the other baby go?

Fast forward to the video. That afternoon, a woman dressed as a nurse left through the back door, carrying a bundle wrapped in a blanket—about the size of a baby. She got into an unlicensed van and disappeared.

The trail went cold.

Check "Ling Wuwen". His ID card shows he was born in 1995, eight years older than Ling Wufeng—clearly a forgery. However, his educational records are complete: from elementary school to medical university majoring in rehabilitation therapy, all verifiable.

Too complete. So complete it doesn't seem real.

He hacked into the medical university's academic affairs system and accessed Ling Wuwen's student files. The girl in the entrance photo bore a striking resemblance to the person in the hospital bed, but appeared even more youthful and timid.

The photo contains fingerprint records. A comparison with Ling Wuwen's pre-operative fingerprints on his hospital bed shows a 99.7% match rate.

The same person. Or rather, the same body.

But Gu Xidong noticed a detail: on the enrollment physical examination form, Ling Wuwen's blood type was O.

Ling Wufeng's blood type, as determined from the national team's old records, is type A.

The two had different blood types. But the doctor said that Ling Wuwen had provided Ling Wufeng with bone marrow and blood…

unless--

The search term is "chimerism with inconsistent blood types." Medical literature states that in extremely rare cases, a person may have two different blood type systems: one from themselves and one from cells absorbed from their twin siblings in the womb; this is called "heterologous chimerism."

If a bone marrow transplant changes a person's blood type, the host's original blood type will gradually be replaced by the donor's blood type.

The latest blood test report from the hospital ship was retrieved.

The patient in the hospital bed has blood type O.

Unlike Ling Wufeng's original Type A.

It is the same as Ling Wuwen's type O.

Therefore, the blood flowing through this body now is Ling Wuwen's blood.

So what about the brain?

The consciousness that controls this body, devises a revenge plan, trains him, dances, and shields him from harm—

Is it Ling Wufeng, Ling Wuwen, or... a fusion of the two?

3

On the morning of the third day, Ling Wuwen woke up.

The electrocardiogram waveform was erratic, and the ventilator's rhythm was disrupted. Dr. Schmidt and Gu Xidong rushed into the ward.

Her eyelashes trembled slightly as she slowly opened her eyes.

His eyes were initially blank and unfocused. Then they turned to look at the doctor, then at Gu Xidong.

A bewildered, vulnerable look, like that of a newborn baby.

The lips moved slightly. A muffled breathing sound came from under the ventilator mask.

The doctor turned off the ventilator and removed the mask.

"Water..." she croaked.

The doctor moistened her lips with a cotton swab. She sucked greedily, letting out a satisfied whimper.

"Do you know who you are?" the doctor asked softly.

She blinked, her eyes looking even more bewildered.

"who I am?"

Gu Xidong's heart sank. Amnesia?

But the next second, his expression changed drastically.

The blankness faded, replaced by a sharp, wary look in Ling Wuwen's eyes.

She turned to look at Gu Xidong, a cold smile curving her lips.

"Gu Xidong, you've finished reading the documents, right?"

Gu Xidong nodded stiffly.

"Then you should know," she tried to sit up, but the sharp pain in her abdomen made her fall back down, "we don't have time."

"You need to rest," the doctor said, pressing her down.

"Resting?" she sneered. "Are Chen Guodong and the others resting? Are the Black Swans resting?"

She stared at west Dong, her eyes flashing with an alarming light: "They're searching the whole city for us. Satellites, port surveillance... they'll find this ship soon. We have to leave immediately."

"Your body—"

"I won't die," she interrupted. "I only had my spleen removed. The blood transfusion is stable, and the wound can heal on land."

She tried to sit up again, succeeding through astonishing willpower. Leaning against the headboard, she was breathing rapidly, her forehead beaded with cold sweat, but her eyes remained sharp.

"Gu Xidong, have you finished reading the fourth file on your phone?"

"The last video?"

"No, it's in a hidden folder. The 'Heart of the Abyss' project."

Gu Xidong was taken aback. He remembered that the folder only contained coordinates and an emergency plan.

Ling Wuwen understood: "The password is a combination of my and Ling Wufeng's birthdays. 0807 plus 1123, deduplicated—081723."

Gu Xidong entered the password.

There really is a subfolder in the hidden folder: Project_AbyssHeart

Detailed action plan:

Objective: Infiltrate the "Heart of the Abyss"—the monthly secret gathering of Black Swan core members.

Date: The 15th of this month (five days later)

Location: The high-seas gambling ship "Golden Bird"

Action: Infiltrate disguised as a waiter to obtain the list of attendees, transaction records, and the full picture of the "Final Judgment" plan.

Evacuation: Speedboat assistance.

Gu Xidong looked up: "You want me to go?"

"We," Ling Wuwen corrected, "I can't get on the ship, but you can. Doctors can forge identities, and there are disguise tools on the ship."

"And then what? After you get the evidence?"

"Then," she said slowly, "we'll have leverage to negotiate with them."

"Negotiate terms? With whom?"

"This isn't a plea for mercy." Her eyes were icy cold. "It's an exchange. Exchanging evidence for a match."

"Contest?"

"The ISU Grand Prix of Skating in China. Two months later, in Beijing. Chen Guodong is one of the chief judges, and Zhou Wentao is in the VIP box. The core members of the Black Swan team will be in the first row of the stands."

She spoke each word clearly:

"We want to finish that dance in that competition."

"Before them, before the whole world, step forward the perfect, impeccable one who makes all their schemes a joke—"

"The Black Swan".

The ward was quiet. Seagulls cried outside the window.

Gu Xidong looked at her pale face, her eyes filled with a crazed obsession, and her lips trembling slightly from blood loss.

Then he asked the question he'd been wanting to ask ever since he saw the photo:

The person I'm talking to now...

The sound was very soft.

"Is it Ling Wufeng, or Ling Wuwen?"

Her body suddenly stiffened.

His eyes flickered with confusion—that bewilderment and vulnerability resurfaced, but were forcibly suppressed.

She looked up at Gu Xidong and stared at him for a long time.

Then he slowly shook his head.

"It doesn't matter anymore."

His voice was hoarse and tired.

"The life of the brother and the life of the sister are now both contained in this body."

"We share memories, we share pain, we share every day of these three years."

"Sharing his hatred," she glanced at Gu Xidong, then looked away, "Sharing your..."

She didn't finish speaking. But Gu Xidong understood.

Those complex, contradictory, and undefinable emotions—

The ruthlessness during training, the focus during acupuncture, the protection on the ice rink, the kiss in the dark, the decisiveness when shielding someone from a knife...

That wasn't just one person's feeling.

It is the entanglement of two souls.

"So," Gu Xidong took a deep breath, "what should I call you?"

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her gaze was as calm as a deep pool.

Call me Wuwen.

"Ling Wuwen is dead. Ling Wufeng is also dead."

"Those who are alive now are the ones who need to finish their final dance."

She stretched out her hand—a pale, thin hand covered in needle marks from the IV drip.

"Gu Xidong, are you still willing to dance with me?"

Gu Xidong looked at the scars, needle marks, and bluish veins on his hands from blood loss.

Then he reached out and grasped it.

His hands were cold. His palms were hot.

"Um."

One word. More weighty than any vow.

4

Two days later, the medical ship docked at a secret pier on an unnamed island.

Gu Xidong had already changed into a waiter's black uniform and completed his disguise—his skin tone was two shades darker, he wore dark brown contact lenses, a small mustache, and frameless glasses.

His demeanor has completely changed, like that of a young person who has just graduated and is eager to make a name for himself.

Identity: Chen Zhe, 23 years old, a Singaporean of Chinese descent, employed by the Golden Bird cruise ship for three months. His background information has been entered into the cruise ship's system.

"70% of the staff on the gambling ship are Asian, so it's normal for them to have mixed accents," the doctor said. "The key is not to show any weakness. You're just an ordinary waiter who wants to earn more tips."

Gu Xidong nodded and looked towards the dock.

Three hundred meters away in the deep water, the white cruise ship "Golden Bird" was brightly lit, like a floating palace.

The bottom three floors are for regular casino entertainment, while the top three floors are the "Heart of the Abyss" gathering place, which is not open to the public.

He needs to infiltrate the ranks, gather evidence, and come back alive.

"This." Ling Wuwen's voice came from behind.

She was in a wheelchair, being pushed by a nurse. Her face was still pale, but her eyes had regained their sharpness. She handed her a bow tie.

"Miniature cameras and recording devices, with an eight-hour battery life, automatically upload to the cloud. If detected, they will self-destruct without leaving a trace."

Gu Xidong took it and put it on.

"And this too." She handed over a watch.

"GPS location, emergency SOS button. Press three times if something happens, and we'll try to get help—but don't get your hopes up too high. If we're exposed..."

She didn't finish her sentence. But Gu Xidong understood: exposure meant death, or being fed to the fish.

I will be careful.

Ling Wuwen stared at him for a long time.

Then suddenly she reached out and grabbed his wrist.

My hands were cold, but I was holding them tightly.

"Gu Xidong," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly, "if...if we can't get the evidence, then give up. Come back alive."

Gu Xidong was taken aback.

This is not something Ling Wuwen would say. It is not something the person who would disregard everything for revenge would say.

Is this something Ling Wufeng would say?

Or is it Ling Wuwen?

Or is it that merged personality?

he does not know.

But he gripped her hand tightly in return.

"Wait for me to come back."

Then he turned and walked towards the dock, towards the brightly lit gambling ship, towards the abyss where the truth was hidden.

Ling Wuwen watched his figure disappear into the night from his wheelchair.

The sea breeze ruffled the stray hairs on her forehead.

She raised her hand and pressed it to her chest.

There are two heartbeats there.

One is an older brother.

One is a younger sister.

And now, they are all jumping very fast for the same person.

soon.