Su Bai took a taxi home, leaving her car at the scene of the accident, awaiting specialized personnel to handle the situation.
She still lived with her family. Her mother had passed away early, so she had always lived with her father and younger brother. A couple of years ago, her brother had returned from the army and had been working for a government agency. He rarely came home except on weekends, so the household was usually just her father and herself.
When Su Bai arrived home, it was just in time for dinner. Her father, Mr. Su, was sitting alone at the large wooden dining table. The housekeeper had just placed the last dish on the table, and upon seeing her return, she smiled, nodded in greeting, and then turned back to the kitchen.
"Father," Su Bai said, setting her bag down and washing her hands before sitting down at the table.
Mr. Su nodded. "You're back. Come, eat."
Mr. Su, now over sixty-five, had some gray in his hair but didn't look particularly old. He had retired in March from his previous job, and perhaps feeling unburdened, his outlook seemed much brighter, and he appeared much more energetic than before.
Su Bai had been a late child, born when her father was nearly thirty-seven or thirty-eight, so he was very indulgent toward her. However, having worked a strict job for many years, Mr. Su adhered to a somewhat military-style management of his children. Although he spoiled them, it wasn't blind indulgence. Su Bai had always excelled academically, been obedient, and never given her parents too much trouble. She not only made it into a prestigious university through her own efforts but also landed a job in a highly regarded company. Now, her father was just hoping that she would marry off smoothly so he could finally feel at ease.
"How did you get that bump on your head?" Mr. Su noticed the injury on his daughter's forehead and asked with concern.
"Oh, it was during the drive back. I got bumped into by someone. I've already reported it to the police. It's just a minor scrape. I'll put some ointment on it later, and it'll be fine."
"How did the driver of the other car respond?" Mr. Su, of course, was concerned about his daughter, but he was insistent on handling the driver seriously.
"The police will take care of it. Besides, I'm fine. I'll just wait for the notification," Su Bai replied, not wanting to dwell on the issue too much. As for the man who hadn't even properly looked at her face, she still felt uncomfortable just thinking about him.
Seeing that his daughter didn't want to continue discussing the matter, Mr. Su didn't press further. He changed the topic and asked instead, "Has Fang Cheng been very busy recently?"
Su Bai paused for a moment as she was holding her chopsticks. "He was transferred to another department, so he probably has more work on his plate these days."
"Mm, it's good that young people are hardworking and dedicated," Mr. Su replied. "By the way, your Uncle Qin just brought me some wild mushrooms. They aren't the rarest, but Aunt Huang cooked them really well. When you talk to Fang Cheng, tell him to come over and have a meal sometime."
"Got it, Dad." Su Bai knew that her father was trying to play matchmaker. The families on both sides had been urging the couple to get married. The relationship between Su Bai and Fang Cheng had always been lukewarm, and the two families were getting anxious.
In truth, Su Bai herself also hoped for a quick marriage. It wasn't that she was desperate, but it was exhausting to have the elders constantly worrying and subtly pushing for it. To be honest, she'd rather just end this situation soon.
Marriage, after all, was a reassurance for the elders.
After dinner, Su Bai returned to her room on the second floor. The Su family home still maintained the charm of a small Western-style house from the last century. The red walls rose high, and the three-story building spanned more than three hundred square meters per floor. There was also a small private garden outside, a clear sign of the family's affluence.
Su Bai's room was on the west side of the second floor, the second-to-last room, with excellent lighting. The view outside her window was a lush little park and a small artificial lake.
After taking a shower, Su Bai took the two bottles of vitamins from her bag. As she did, she noticed a small card fall onto the floor. It was a finely printed card, black with silver edges, but strangely, it had no company name or identifying details, just a series of numbers.
For some reason, the image of that man flashed through Su Bai's mind again. In fact, she hadn't even seen his face clearly. At the time, she had been holding back her anger and was too flustered, otherwise, she should have taken a good look at the arrogant man and seen what kind of face he had.
Her heart suddenly began to race, her temples throbbed, and Su Bai had to take a deep breath. Wrapping herself in a towel, she didn't even bother to change into her pajamas. She reached for the bottle of vitamins, shaking it as if she had done this thousands of times before, and poured out some semi-transparent white pills. Without much thought, she swallowed them all in one go, hurriedly chasing them down with a few gulps of water.
Just as she set the cup down, her peripheral vision caught the reflection in the mirror opposite. The mirror just happened to show the image of a young woman with flushed cheeks, long hair clinging to her neck from being damp, and a trail of water droplets still clinging to her delicate shoulders.
The woman in the mirror was undeniably beautiful, with exquisite features and a graceful figure—nothing that other women wouldn't envy.
However, this captivating beauty quickly transformed into something more peculiar.
The woman suddenly frowned, placed her hands on her hips, and stared at her reflection in the mirror, making a mockingly smug and devious face, as if she were sneering.
In the next moment, she plopped down on the bed behind her, holding the bottle of pills. She gently shook the bottle a few times, hearing the sound of the pills rattling inside. Then, she sighed, "Eat, eat, eat. I'm going to end up killing myself with all these meds. What the hell is Su Bai trying to deceive herself about? She knows these pills won't help, but she still insists on taking them. So dumb." After saying that, she walked to the bathroom without hesitation and poured all the remaining pills into the toilet.
"Whoosh, whoosh," she pressed the flush, watching the pills swirl around in the water and disappear down the drain. Satisfied, she nodded her head.
"Damn it, I better not see that guy from this morning again. Watch me not kill him next time. It hurts so much, I'm dying. I can't let this scar remain, damn it, it's already swollen." Su Bai seemed like a completely different person as she muttered profanities she would never normally say in front of anyone. She then grabbed some ointment and applied it to the bump on her forehead.
In reality, this was Su Bai's "inner personality" state, the complete opposite of her "outer personality" from earlier that morning. The inner personality only surfaced when Su Bai was alone.
To put it simply, Su Bai was a long-term sufferer of dissociative identity disorder (DID), but she didn't even know what had triggered the creation of her alternate personality.
Over the years, Li Feng had been her psychological counselor and primary physician, seeing her for regular appointments and prescribing medications. Unfortunately, there had been no sign of a complete recovery.
Although Li Feng was the only person who knew about Su Bai's condition, he had no idea that she intentionally allowed her condition to develop. Moreover, whether through hypnosis or psychological counseling, her inner personality had never once appeared in front of him.
This was Su Bai's inner conflict: she didn't mind being treated by him, but she wasn't willing to give up her other personality. Perhaps that alternate personality was even influencing her. She sometimes thought that maybe this other personality could change her naturally indifferent nature, even if just a little.
While Su Bai's outer and inner personalities were distinct from each other, strangely, the inner personality knew about the outer personality's actions, words, and thoughts. On the other hand, Su Bai, the outer personality, had no way of knowing what her inner personality was thinking. She didn't even know what might happen next. Su Bai had always found this troubling because her inner personality might just be a ticking time bomb.
But her inner personality couldn't care less and even looked down on Su Bai, the outer personality.
For instance, this afternoon's events were still vivid in her mind. She thought the outer personality was too easy to manipulate. If it had been her, she probably would have exploded already.
Just as Su Bai was fuming with anger, her phone suddenly rang. She quickly picked it up, and the caller ID showed the number of Fang Cheng.
Su Bai's beautiful brows immediately furrowed. Whether it was her outer personality or inner personality, Su Bai had no romantic feelings for her boyfriend, her fiancé.
Of course, she did acknowledge that Fang Cheng was an exceptional man—handsome, from a good family, and with a good temperament. However, she just didn't feel anything. It always felt like their relationship was just something they were doing to fulfill the expectations of their elders.
Her outer personality had a decent impression of Fang Cheng, but her inner personality, Su Xiao Bai, couldn't care less about him. Especially after what happened this morning, Su Xiao Bai even found Fang Cheng's behavior a little suspicious, though she only suspected him because of her sixth sense as a woman.
Su Xiao Bai liked to refer to herself as Su Xiaobai, because, indeed, she was clueless at times, but she wasn't stupid when it came to these things. She curved her lips and answered Fang Cheng's call.
To be honest, under normal circumstances, she would never engage with Fang Cheng. It wasn't that Su Bai didn't allow it, but rather that Su Xiao Bai simply didn't want to deal with him.
"Is your wound still hurting today?" Although it was a caring question, coming from Fang Cheng, it felt so detached, almost as if he were discussing business.
"It's fine, just a small scratch. But you, after receiving that call this afternoon, you seemed quite busy. Must be something important, right?" Normally, Su Bai wouldn't pry into Fang Cheng's work, but Su Xiao Bai wasn't like that. She deliberately asked, fully aware there was something fishy going on, and wanted to stir his thoughts, to make him uneasy.
As expected, Fang Cheng didn't anticipate Su Bai would bring this up. There was a brief pause before he replied, "Yeah, a colleague had a little accident."
Before Fang Cheng could get suspicious, Su Xiao Bai realized she had been a bit too obvious and quickly softened her tone, "By the way, Dad said you should come over for a meal sometime. When would you be free?"
"Tomorrow night then. I'll pick you up after work," Fang Cheng didn't refuse. He knew exactly what Su Bai's father meant, but he didn't push too hard on these things and had a good sense of how to handle them.
The call didn't last long—just a few minutes. They weren't like other couples, exchanging sweet words or anything. It was just a brief notification about plans.
Su Xiao Bai tossed the phone onto the bed, changed into comfortable home clothes, and spent another two hours on the computer. After stretching lazily, she suddenly seemed to remember something and slowly headed downstairs. Turns out, she was just hungry and looking for something to eat.
She rummaged through the fridge in the kitchen, finding only some bread and milk. She frowned, muttering, "What's going on with this house? Not even a little snack." Despite the complaints, she settled for the bread, munching away. Before she could even swallow it, she heard the surprised voice of the housekeeper, Aunt Huang, from behind.
"Miss Su, what are you doing?" Aunt Huang had worked for the Su family for two years. She was around forty years old, a simple middle-aged woman who had always followed the rules. She had been given a room to stay in as she managed the house, but during her time there, she had never seen Su Bai eat a late-night snack. Aunt Huang remembered that Su Bai was strict with herself and usually didn't eat after 7 PM to maintain her figure.
So, when she happened to catch Su Bai eating in the middle of the night, it was no surprise that Aunt Huang found it strange.
Su Bai, holding half a slice of bread, felt a little embarrassed. She swallowed what was left in her mouth and smiled, "I'm just really hungry, my stomach's been bothering me. I just wanted to eat something to settle it."
Aunt Huang nodded in response but seemed a little puzzled. Su Bai didn't care much. She said good night and quickly turned to head upstairs, looking somewhat relieved.
It did feel a bit like she had been caught red-handed. If Aunt Huang had seen her, she might have been shocked. The usually gentle and quiet eldest daughter of the Su family certainly didn't look like this.