Shi Nian understood this feeling.
It's like a gun, first loaded with a series of blank cartridges in the magazine, and finally a real bullet. So the person hiding in the mist is the one holding the gun, pointing the muzzle at Dad's forehead.
Sitting under the barrel, each time the person pulls the trigger, even though they're blanks, Dad still feels the fear of death. And when the series of blanks finally runs out, when Dad's nerves are numbed from the tension, the person suddenly pulls the trigger, firing the real bullet…
By then, Dad has actually lost the sharpness of his thoughts, making him unable to resist.
