My best friend Thea went missing during an undercover operation abroad. I submitted a request to the organization to go in as her backup. When I found her, she was being tortured at a reservoir, barely recognizable. But thankfully, she hadn't cracked—hadn't exposed her identity. She'd survived. Over the next few years, the two of us became mistresses to two leaders of the criminal organization. We coordinated seamlessly, working our way closer to the core. Finally, on Thea's 29th birthday, we took them all down and completed the mission! Looking at the ticket home in my hands, I broke down crying right there, unable to control myself. "Thea, this nightmare is finally over. We can go home!" I was about to take out the birthday present I'd prepared for her when Thea suddenly sighed. "Yeah, we haven't been back in so long. I wonder if that persimmon tree at home is still there." Her expression was wistful, but I stared at her in shock, my heart suddenly gripped with fear. Both our parents had been killed by drug dealers. Before we even entered the police academy, we knew we'd one day have to face these criminals head-on. Thea had pointed at that persimmon tree and made a pact with me: "Our parents' ashes are buried beneath it. It's not a persimmon tree—it's a Tree of Vengeance. If one of us ever gets compromised, we'll find a way to send out the code word 'persimmon tree.'" "It means: I've been exposed. Don't believe a single word I say." Now, when she was clearly safe, she'd just said those words right in front of me. She absolutely wasn't my Thea! So where was my real Thea? Who was this person I'd been working with undercover for years, licking blood off knife-edges, fighting with nothing but conviction and our lives on the line?
Sensing something was wrong, Thea tensed up and grabbed both my arms. "What's wrong, Hernandez?" "Has all the stress been too much? Is that old condition you recovered from flaring up again?" Seeing the genuine concern in her eyes, I relaxed slightly. My parents and Thea's parents had been colleagues. Years ago, during a mission, they were brutally murdered by drug dealers. After that, I couldn't sleep for years and developed severe mental illness. Fortunately, I still had Thea to rely on. With her help, I gradually recovered. Only Thea knew about this. And I'd already carved Thea's appearance into my mind. The person before me looked identical to my Thea—even the beauty mark by her mouth was exactly the same shape. I figured she must have been so excited about completing the mission that she'd momentarily forgotten our pact. I tested her carefully. "I'm fine. It's just when you suddenly mentioned that tree at home, I felt guilty." "During the time you were missing, someone broke into our house for revenge and set it on fire. I was too busy preparing for my undercover work and didn't notice in time. That tree burned down." Her eyes went wide. "Burned down? But our parents' ashes were buried under that tree! Hernandez, did you at least save the ashes?" The matter of the ashes was even more private. Besides Thea and me, not a single other person in the world knew about it. I finally felt completely reassured. I was about to admit I'd been testing her when Thea rubbed her reddened eyes. "I'll never get to eat the fruit from that persimmon tree again." "But Hernandez, don't feel guilty. We destroyed the drug trafficking syndicate and avenged our parents. Their spirits will only feel comforted." The next second, the words I was about to speak lodged in my throat like a stone! She'd said "persimmon tree" again! If she'd simply forgotten our pact earlier, surely she'd have remembered by now. This was a pact she herself had spoken on the day before we entered the police academy. She'd called the persimmon tree the Tree of Vengeance to remind herself never to forget the hatred of our parents' murder. No matter how hard, how difficult, how frightening—she had to stay firm in her conviction to fight the drug dealers. We'd branded the "Tree of Vengeance" into our very souls! "Yeah, Thea, they'll definitely be comforted." "We got our revenge and completed the mission. That's the best birthday present for you." I calmly stepped back from her and took out the gift I'd prepared—a snow globe with six cartoon figures inside, four adults and two children, depicting a scene from my childhood memories of our two families having dinner together. Then suddenly, I "accidentally" dropped the gift on the ground. It shattered. "Oh—" I cried out, "Sorry, Thea! I'll get you another one!" She said it was fine, told me to just get her a replacement after we got home. I insisted on staying to replace it, saying it would already be the next day by the time we landed. I needed to find her on Thea's actual birthday, whether she was dead or alive.
The custom snow globe would take time to make, so Thea took me to an arcade. She knew what I liked to do to relax, and even knew which games I was good at and which characters I preferred. She bought me ice cream, thoughtfully removing the chocolate coating just like she used to, then gathering the crumbs together and eating them all at once with her eyes closed in bliss. Aside from the "persimmon tree," I couldn't detect anything unusual about her. "Hernandez, the last time I celebrated my birthday with you was five years ago, wasn't it?" During dinner, before I could even probe, Thea brought up the past on her own. "I secretly applied for the undercover operation without telling you. When you found out, you knocked the cake over and cried and yelled at me." "Do you remember? I stayed up all night trying to comfort you." She looked at me with a smile, her eyes full of reminiscence. I remembered. We'd agreed that I would be the one to go undercover. Thea had agreed verbally, but then behind my back she'd fought for the assignment. She'd wanted to sacrifice herself to protect me. In front of me, she was always the image of a strong, optimistic, responsible big sister. But was that real Thea still there? Was she still alive? I dug my nails into my palm and went along with her words. "Of course I remember. We're police officers, but you coaxed me like I was a child." "I was so frantic I wanted to call Director Alexander and beg him to give me the mission instead. What did you do?" She laughed even harder. "I confiscated your phone and locked you in your room. By the time you got out, I was already on the plane heading abroad." I wanted to laugh along with her, but I couldn't make myself do it. Director Alexander and several colleagues knew that I'd cried and yelled at Thea on her birthday. But her locking me in the room afterward—that was something she absolutely couldn't have told anyone else. Yet she'd recounted it with perfect clarity, down to every detail. How did she know all this so clearly? In the silence, Thea suddenly stood up and called out softly: "Before, you were so focused on the mission that I could overlook you not paying attention to your appearance. But now the mission's complete and you need to think about your future. How can you still be so careless?" As she spoke, Thea pulled out a tissue and wiped away food residue from my mouth. She gently brushed a few strands of my hair behind my ear. Her reproachful tone, the gentle tickle of her fingers brushing my skin—it was all so familiar, so long-missed. It made me doubt myself again. Was I just being paranoid? Just then, the final dessert arrived at our table—persimmon cake. I'd ordered it on purpose. I stared intently at her reaction. I saw her freeze for a moment, then suddenly her eyes reddened. "My parents' favorite fruit was persimmon." "Hernandez, if that persimmon tree at home were still there, do you think in the afterlife they could eat the persimmons that fall to the ground?" The warmth I'd been feeling instantly vanished. I snapped back to clarity. She'd mentioned the persimmon tree again. She absolutely couldn't be the real Thea! I wanted to restrain her immediately, contact my colleagues who were still in the country wrapping things up, and force her to reveal her true identity! But I didn't dare. If my real Thea was still alive, I was afraid that alerting them would get her killed. I could only force out a smile and stabilize the situation first, then find a way to discover Thea's whereabouts.
But I couldn't figure out when she'd started impersonating Thea. Three years ago, Thea went missing. Of the four undercover agents the organization had planted in the drug trafficking syndicate, all died except Thea. At that time, everyone thought Thea must have met with disaster too. Without hesitation, I applied to become the new undercover agent. Three months later, following the organization's arrangements, I connected with one of the leaders and made contact with the criminal organization. That's when I saw Thea. She was tied up in a water dungeon. You could tell it was her, but her body was rotting beyond recognition. The leader smiled and told me, "We probably made a mistake. The boss suspected she was a cop, but no cop could last six months with us without talking." Besides fear, I didn't dare show any other emotion. In that brief glance, our eyes met for just a moment. She was in terrible pain, but her eyes were bright and resilient. She mouthed the words: "Tree of Vengeance." In that instant, I nearly broke down in tears. She'd withstood torture we thought no one could endure. I was certain that Thea at that time was still Thea. Later she was released. One of the leaders was a pervert who liked Thea's scars and kept her by his side. The two of us exchanged information through our unspoken understanding and formulated plans. Not only did she never betray me, she saved my life several times. So the Thea during that period should have been the real Thea too, right? When exactly did she get replaced? I wracked my brain but couldn't find any leads. "Hernandez, your custom snow globe should be ready soon." "Let's book the earliest flight and go home as soon as we pick it up." The Thea before me suggested going home again, and this time I had no reason to delay. I could only make an excuse about having a stomachache, asking her to wait while I went to the bathroom alone. Then I had my colleagues send me all the communication records between Thea and me during our undercover operation. We'd pretended not to know each other. All our communications used coded symbols, exchanging information under a safe, inconspicuous tree. Now all this information had been preserved. I needed to read it word by word, looking for any trace of inconsistency in phrasing or other details to determine when Thea had been replaced. But I read through it again and again—the Thea outside was getting impatient—and I found nothing unusual. "Hernandez, if your stomach really hurts that bad, I'm going to get you medicine!" "If we delay any longer, we'll miss tonight's flight." Her urging voice came again. A chill ran through me as I suddenly realized an overlooked problem. What was the point of her impersonating Thea?
If she was an imposter who wanted to know about my past with Thea and all those details, she would have to control Thea and extract that information from her. But if she'd already controlled Thea, why would she let the entire criminal organization get taken down? And now, instead of running away, she was actively returning to the country. The security situation there would be exponentially more dangerous for her! "Hey! Do you really not need help? Don't be like Neves and pass out from dehydration in the bathroom!" She knocked on the door anxiously, sounding worried I might have an accident. I quickly called back, "Almost done." In that moment, my doubts deepened. If she was an imposter trying to fool me, knowing some things about my past would be enough. Why would she also remember something as trivial as our colleague Neves fainting in the bathroom six years ago? Even under torture, no one would ask about something like that. And besides, Thea could withstand torture. Her conviction would never allow her to bow to drug dealers! I walked out with my doubts. She immediately hugged me and checked my body. I couldn't detect even a hint of false pretense. Could it be that the long-term pressure and mental torment had caused Thea to forget the "persimmon tree" pact? I couldn't find any other explanation. This was the only possibility. "Thea, let's go to the hospital." "My stomach really hurts—" Before I could finish, Thea scooped me up in her arms. "Waiter, where's the nearest hospital?" She urgently carried me to a taxi, her eyes red as she said I'd lost weight, that five years ago when I was shot during a drug bust and she rushed me to the hospital, I'd weighed much more than now. I closed my eyes and forced the tears back, unable to say another word. I was starting to believe she really was Thea. I went to the hospital to buy time so my colleagues could take her hair for a DNA test. If she was the real Thea, we'd go home. If she was fake, we'd restrain and interrogate her immediately. Even if it meant alerting them, I had no choice. She was performing perfectly—I couldn't find a single flaw, and I had no way to discover Thea's whereabouts. I successfully obtained strands of her hair and passed them to my colleague. The 20 hours waiting for results felt like years, leaving me on edge. "Thea checks out. DNA test results are normal..." The moment I received my colleague's message, I couldn't control myself and rushed over to hug Thea tightly. "My symptoms are much better, Thea. Let's go home!" "Let's go home!" She was happy too and immediately took out her phone to book tickets. On the way to the airport, we excitedly planned where to go after returning home, deciding to visit all the places we'd wanted to go but couldn't afford before. This joy felt like going from hell to heaven in an instant. Thea being safe meant everything to me! "Oh, right—" When we reached the airport, Thea seemed to suddenly remember something. "We don't have any savings, and the bureau's bonus still needs approval. We don't really have money to travel everywhere, do we?" "Why don't we dig up the assets our parents left us first? We agreed that once we avenged them, we could use that money." My steps suddenly stopped. "What assets?" Thea smiled naturally. "What other assets could there be? Have you forgotten? The ones we buried under the Tree of Vengeance!"
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